What is the Straightened Way? Part 4

The point: Bring your professed attachment to Christ to the objective standard of the Word of God and have a day of personal judgment before the great day of universal judgment.

Martin quotes Philip Hughes to clarify that 'made manifest' at judgment means not just appearing, but being 'laid bare, stripped of every outward facade of respectability,' emphasizing the full disclosure of one's true character.

No masks will be worn in the day of judgment. No masks will be worn in the day of judgment. According to the words just read in your hearing, every single one of us, without exception, will be accurately discovered and fully disclosed for what we really are, not for what men may think us to be, or what we have sought to project we are, but we shall be known for what God knows us to be. When the Spirit of God says in the passage read in your hearing that we shall all be made manifest, manifest in that great day, he does not mean that we shall only appear before God in judgment, but in the words...

3:16 - 4:42 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The Beatitudes are not a map showing us how to attain life. They are a portrait of all who have attained life in union with Christ and in the virtue of His saving grace.

Martin contrasts the true 'poor in spirit' with those who merely felt a 'twinge of conscience' and now feel 'happy and fulfilled,' having left the issue of sin behind, to highlight the abiding nature of spiritual poverty.

Not blessed are those who at one point in their lives felt a twinge of conscience and a little dose of conviction of their sin. Think of God. of sin and got enough relief for their consciences by making the decision that they now feel happy and fulfilled and have gotten on with their lives and the issue of sin and poverty of spirit no more enter their minds. Christ has done it all. He's taken care of the whole mess. Now they're happy, happy, happy all the time seeking fulfillment in Christ. No. Blessed are those who as an abiding character trait can be described as poor in spirit.

24:52 - 25:37 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The Beatitudes are presented as a portrait of all who have attained life in Christ. Martin expounds 'poor in spirit' and 'they that mourn' as abiding character traits…

Martin contrasts Jesus' teaching on 'blessed are they that mourn' with modern charismatic leaders like Tilton and evangelicals who fear bruising self-image, to underscore the counter-cultural nature of godly sorrow.

mourners. Happy and blessed for the sad. It is one of the character traits of those who are on the restricted way that leads to life that they are continual mourners. They are not only mourners, but the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. But Jesus ought to know what his people look like. And he knows better than Tilton and his ilk among modern charismatic leaders. And he knows better than modern evangelicals who would tell us that we must be very, very fearful of anything that will bruise our fragile self-image. Jesus said, he who ca...

27:49 - 29:00 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The Beatitudes are presented as a portrait of all who have attained life in Christ. Martin expounds 'poor in spirit' and 'they that mourn' as abiding character traits…

The story of Peter weeping bitterly after denying Christ is used to illustrate true, post-conversion grief over sin, seeing it as an offense against a gracious Savior.

open to the horrible nature of sin. Where once they thought light of sin, and where at the gate perhaps the primary thought with respect to sin was that it was that horrible, thing that would take them to hell and to judgment. Now when they sin, they see their sin as a tragic violation of the goodness and mercy of God in Christ. They see it as that which is offensive to the one who loved them and gave himself for them. They see their sin as that which is not only against the law and wrath provoking in and of itself, though, it will never bring judicial wrath upon their heads, but they see it a...

29:49 - 31:04 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You say, but pastor, that's true. Then there's an awful lot of people who think they're saved that aren't. That's the point. That's the point. And Jesus knew it.

Martin uses the physical experience of hunger and thirst to convey the intense, spiritual longing for righteousness that characterizes true believers, noting that few have known real physical hunger.

Hunger and thirst. The text loses some of its pressure because few of us, if any, have known real hunger. Occasionally some of us have known real thirst. But here Jesus describes all of the subjects of his kingdom regardless of what they may or may not know in the history of the world.

32:49 - 33:12 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The inevitability of persecution 'for righteousness' sake' is presented as a clear sign of living under the dominion of righteousness. Martin illustrates how a life committed to…

Martin distinguishes genuine persecution for righteousness from suffering due to 'boorishness,' such as badgering colleagues with tracts, to clarify what kind of persecution Jesus refers to.

A heart so committed that when there are sins as dear as right hands and precious as right eyes, they are prepared to do whatever they must do to dispense with the sin rather than dispense with Christ and with eternal life. That's how they're described later on in this very chapter. They are pure in heart. And furthermore, they're described in verse 10 as those, whose life under the dominion of righteousness and in increasing conformity to Christ is so patent and evident to a world that loves sin and loves darkness that the world does to them what they did to their king. Blessed are they that ...

40:26 - 41:37 Read in full sermon

The point: Husbands and fathers, examine your conscience: Do you live in such a way that you confess your sinful anger to your family, even when your directive was right?

Martin quotes an old Puritan who, when asked why he lived such a precise life, replied, 'because I serve a precise God,' illustrating the motivation for gospel holiness.

God calls them through the prophets Gentile dogs and he says their offerings are like the offering of swine's flesh. You see the prophet was a constant irritant reminding people up to their neck in religious things and religiously. This belief that unless their hearts were right and a right heart was manifested in a right life they had no true and saving religion. And when you so live in this world particularly in our society where it is alright to have a tinge of religion and even a tinge of Christ and a tinge of the gospel when you live in this society in such a way that your lifestyle manif...

44:13 - 45:34 Read in full sermon

The point: Husbands and fathers, examine your conscience: Do you live in such a way that you confess your sinful anger to your family, even when your directive was right?

Martin provides an example of a father confessing sinful anger to his family, even when the directive was right, to illustrate the tenderness to sin and commitment to righteousness that marks a true Christian.

God I live before the eye of this God when your life with all of its failures and no little part of your righteousness will be that all the men and the women in the office and in the shop and in the classroom and in the school halls can curse and tell their dirty jokes and lie and cheat and never twitch an eye all you need do is be a little bit selfish in the lunch line and your spirit is convicted and you're you're you're apologizing to the very guy who just let out a string of oaths without shame and your tenderness to sin you see is a rebuke your willingness to confess your sin to your own ...

45:34 - 46:58 Read in full sermon

The point: Husbands and fathers, examine your conscience: Do you live in such a way that you confess your sinful anger to your family, even when your directive was right?

Martin uses the example of avoiding the beach to prevent lustful thoughts, linking it to Jesus' teaching on plucking out an offending eye, to illustrate radical self-denial in pursuit of purity.

anger I've asked God's forgiveness will you forgive me do you live that way husbands fathers come on now let your conscience work do you live that way not do you hope and intend to live that way do you regard such people as over scrupulous do you live that way you're driving down the road you take the second look at the woman jogger and it's registered that she's put together well and from that initial registry of desire for her body have been kids but you in the end you're not going to be able to do that you're not going to be able to do that for the eye of God do you then make it evident whe...

46:58 - 48:25 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin expounds on believers as 'salt of the earth' and 'light of the world' (Matthew 5:13-16), emphasizing their radical distinction from the world. He illustrates how their…

The function of salt in ancient culture (checking putrefaction in meat) is used to explain how believers, through their righteous lifestyle, act as a check to the moral decay of the world.

And the primary function of salt in that culture was that of checking putrefaction. Had no Kenmores and had no Kelvinators and had no amanofrigerators and freezers. And salt was used as a preservative. And he says, you my people are that.

53:48 - 54:09 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin expounds on believers as 'salt of the earth' and 'light of the world' (Matthew 5:13-16), emphasizing their radical distinction from the world. He illustrates how their…

Martin recounts his experience at his 25th high school reunion, where his presence caused former classmates to become silent and nervous, illustrating how a true believer's life acts as 'light' exposing darkness.

Suddenly, everything becomes silent. I shall never forget. It's vivid in my mind to this day. God having saved me as a senior in high school and having given me a measure of boldness that was not not native to me to witness to many of my classmates in a high school of 1500 where I was quite well known because of athletics and some other things.

57:06 - 57:30 Read in full sermon