Entering By the Narrow Gate, Part 3

The Urgency of Self-Examination and the Reality of Self-Deception

0:02 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, July 17th, 1994, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:15 I've been waiting for one or two to recognize that I'm before you to preach the word. Frankly, I don't know what interest you would have in looking around the auditorium, having just sung a song like the one we've sung. But, dear people, if I seem burdened in these days, it's when I see things like that that I realize some of you are still playing games with your souls.

0:41 Singing a song like the one we just sang. A servant of God stands to preach the word, and literally, I didn't make that up. These eyes see it, and I'm not scolding. My heart is burdened that some of you really are playing with your souls.

1:07 The words of the Lord Jesus come to you and to me, sobering in their searching nature. What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?

1:29 What shall it profit you? What shall it profit me? Were we to gain the whole world and yet lose our never-dying souls? And of all the ways to lose one's soul, perhaps none is so tragic as that of losing one's soul through self-deception.

1:54 To drop into hell thinking one was going to awake in heaven when he breathes his last.

2:06 In an earnest and concentrated effort to help you avoid this tragedy of all tragedies, this tragedy of all tragedies, this is the fifth successive Lord's Day in which I've been seeking to set before you portions of the word of God that will help you to answer, by the objective, changeless standard of Scripture, this question, Are you for real? Are you for real? So, is your professed relationship to Jesus Christ a real and a saving? Or is it a hypocritical, formalistic, self-deceived relationship, a mere shell and a sham, without life and without substance? In the first of those two messages, I set before you four fundamental reasons as to why such a period of self-examination was necessary, and I have had no reason to retract any of those four lines of biblical concern. They have only been underscored and intensified in the subsequent weeks.

Review of Previous Messages: Marks of True Believers

3:29 The next two messages we considered our Lord's description of those who are for real as he sets the description of such before us under the imagery of his true sheep. And we examined...

3:45 John 10 verses 26 to 28 in which he describes the distinguishing trait of his sheep and the manifest identifying actions of his sheep. Then we went on to consider the following Lord's Day in the morning, Romans 8, 5 to 9, a passage in which those who are for real are described as having been transported in their moral and ethical and spiritual life from the realm of the flesh into the realm of the spirit. They no longer mind the things of the flesh, but they mind the things of the spirit as the fundamental and basic orbit of spiritual and moral experience. Then we considered in the evening, Philippians 3, 3, in which those who are for real, here called the circumcision, the true people of God, have these three characteristics. They worship by the spirit of God, they boast in Christ Jesus, and they put no confidence in the flesh. Now last Lord's Day we began to examine another passage in our endeavor to understand the significance of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Introduction to the Narrow Gate and Restricted Way (Matthew 7:13-14)

5:09 But to answer the question, are you for real? And with Matthew 7, 13 and 14 open before us, a passage to which I direct your attention again this morning, we said that if we are for real, it is because by the operations of God's grace we have entered through the narrow gate and we are walking upon the restored, restricted way. For in this passage, our Lord Jesus makes it abundantly clear that none will enter life at the end of this life unless they come to it by means of the restricted way which can only be entered by the narrow gate. Enter in by the narrow gate. Enter in by the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way.

6:10 Broad is the way that leads to destruction and many are they that enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate and straightened or restricted the way that leads unto life and few are they that find it. In the initial message, we simply concentrated on who spoke these words and the setting in which they were originated. And I sought to derive from those two introductory concerns that we dare not cast these words of our Lord Jesus aside as being sub-gospel and somehow not being consistent with the full-orbed message of salvation by grace for he who speaks is the king of grace. He who speaks came from heaven to significance. He who speaks came from heaven to significance. He who speaks came from heaven to significance.

Three Basic Observations on the Narrow Gate and Way

7:16 Yet this very one said, Enter the narrow gate. Apart from the gate and the way to which it leads, none will enter into life. Then last Lord's Day evening, we looked at three very basic observations about this text and due to a technical problem, that message was not recorded. And so I will just simply give the headings for the sake of those following this in a series on tape.

7:49 We noticed in these verses the inescapable necessity of the gate and the way if we're to enter heaven. Jesus knows no entering into life which bypasses either the gate or the way. Then we noted secondly the absolute inseparability and irreversible order of the gate and the way. There is no mix and matching. It's a narrow gate and it leads to a compressed way which alone lead to life.

8:20 And we cannot have a narrow gate and then a broad easy way that leads to life. Nor can we profess to have come through a narrow gate and not be upon the compressed way. There is an inseparability. There is an inseparable relationship between these two.

8:37 And there is an irreversible order. No man can live the life of the restricted way if he's a stranger to the experiences of the narrow gate. And all who enter the narrow gate are furnished with what is essential to walk upon the restricted way. And if that order is reversed, it produces confusion.

9:03 It can produce... It can produce cynicism.

9:05 It can produce the attitude, I tried it and it doesn't work. Well, the problem is that when a man seeks to live the life of the restricted way without the motives and the dynamics and the spiritual realities which are encountered at the gate, he is doomed to fail.

9:26 Conversely, there are those who can talk in glorious terms about what they experience at the gate. They can speak. They can speak very articulately about their conviction of sin. About the revelation of Christ crucified to their hearts.

9:42 About repentance and about faith and justification. All is well if you only listen to their mouths. But the problem is, there's precious little evidence they're walking on a restricted way. Their way is a broad, easy way in which they have added to basic gospel truth and abuse of the doctrine of Christian liberty.

10:04 And abuse of the doctrine of their liberties in Christ. And they are not living a restricted, self-denying, cross-bearing life.

10:17 No, we must see in the passage the absolute inseparability and the irreversible order of the gate and the way. And then we noted, thirdly, the relative rarity of those who find the narrow gate and walk upon the restricted way. Few. Few.

10:35 Few are they that find it. Not few absolutely, for Revelation 7-9 says, the redeemed are a great multitude whom no man can number. But in any given situation, at any given point in human history, amongst any given group of religious people, few, few are they that find the narrow gate and the restricted way. Now today, we will focus our attention, on the narrow gate.

Three Vital Principles for Understanding the Narrow Gate

11:06 Both this morning and again this evening. And as we do, please listen very carefully to these three very vital principles that I want to state before we focus upon just one aspect of the gate.

11:24 First, in describing the narrow gate, I'll be using the general witness of Scripture with respect to the doctrine of conversion.

11:37 When we come to a passage like this, in which our Lord uses a figure of speech, and there is nothing in the passage itself to give precision to how that figure of speech should be interpreted in its details, it is then that we must come to a fresh commitment to the principle that the meaning of Scripture is Scripture. That is, the Bible is its own self-interpretation. Interpreting revelation from God. What the writers, the older writers, would call the analogy of faith, that is, the overarching teaching of Scripture on any given issue must regulate our handling of a particular passage which may not be crystal clear in itself. And while I will be making constant reference to the Sermon on the Mount as the context, within which we must understand the words enter the narrow gate, and to describe the nature of the restricted way, I am not limiting myself to the Sermon on the Mount, but seeking to describe the narrow gate in the light of the full revelation that is given to us in our Bibles, culminating in the book of the Revelation.

13:03 Secondly, in describing the various aspects of the gate, what it means to enter it, I will not insist that one must know precisely when he entered the gate.

13:22 I will not insist that a man, a woman, a boy or girl must know the precise time when he entered the gate. And the reason I will not insist upon it is because the Bible does not. The issue is not when did I enter, but have I entered. For some, their entrance is sudden and dramatic, and they could no more forget the very date than they could forget their own name.

13:55 For others, their entrance has been at times a very indistinct, gradual, convoluted work of God in their hearts. At times they could not sort out what God was doing, if he were doing anything at all. But this much they know when they look at the gate, and when they look at the witness of Scripture concerning what happens to someone who has entered the narrow gate, they can say in the light of the word of God, there is no question I have come through that gate. And I trust none of you will be troubled if you don't have a date to ascribe to your entrance through the gate.

14:39 The stripping and the unpacking in some cases is sudden and dramatic. In others, it is gradual. The issue is Jesus has entered the gate. And whether you come through dramatically and suddenly or by a process is irrelevant.

14:58 The issue is how and are you upon the way. And then the third thing I want to say, and trust you will continually keep this before you in your study, in describing the narrow gate, and what it means to enter it, I'm not suggesting that the terms I use and the order in which I describe these things must have been the conscious terms with which you were having dealings with God and having those dealings in the order in which I preach them. I've got to preach using some terms. And I've got to preach with a one, two, a three, and a four.

15:41 But please, please, please do not assume that I am saying that if these particular words were not the words with which God brought by the Spirit saving truth home to your heart, that I and the Word of God are questioning the validity of your professed conversion. No. The concepts of Scripture must be expressed not only in the words of Scripture, but human words attempting to explain the Scriptures. That's the task of a preacher.

16:15 Otherwise, we would just hang together texts in a kind of mosaic and just quote text after text after text after text and send you home. But please do not assume that I am saying that unless this terminology was at the level of your consciousness, it's not the terminology, but the realities signified by the terminology that is important. Though I have had to make a choice as to what order I will lay out these matters, I claim no inspiration for that order. I do believe pastoral wisdom and the counsel of wiser men whom I've read has determined that order, but that's a matter of judgment.

16:55 So please keep those three things in mind. In describing the narrow gate, we'll be looking at the general witness of Scripture concerning what constitutes a true, genuine work of converting grace. In describing the narrow gate, we are not concerned about whether you know the time that you have entered. And in describing the narrow gate and what it means to enter, I am not binding you to my terminology or to my order.

The Narrowness of the Gate: Renouncing Self-Righteousness

17:27 Well then, what's it mean to enter the narrow gate? What does it mean in the language of Luke 13, 24 to agonize to enter the narrow gate? What is there about the gate that makes it so narrow? As we saw last week, it's not the largeness of God's heart to sinners.

17:49 It is not the freeness of His offers of life and salvation in Jesus Christ. What then makes the gate so narrow? What makes it so difficult that we must, in the language of Jesus, agonize to enter? Why is it that so few find it?

18:10 Well, reason number one, and this is all we'll take up in the remainder of our time this morning, it's narrow because you must renounce from your heart all confidence in what you are or are not, in what you have or have done or hope to do, as the ground of your acceptance with God. And that's why the gate is narrow. Because everyone who gets through it must be brought this internal stripping work of the Spirit in which he renounces from confidence in what you are,

19:07 what you have or have not done or ever hoped to do as the ground of your acceptance with God. Or to state it differently and expressed under the imagery of a garment with which we can clothe ourselves in order to find favor with God, let me state it this way. At the narrow gate you must throw away upon the loom efforts and be prepared to have your moral nakedness covered by a garment manufactured exclusively of the perfect life and substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ.

20:01 And that's why the gate is narrow. For you see at that gate we cannot come through with four layers of clothes made up of what we are and what we are not, what we've done and what we have not done or what we hope to do or be, but we must be stripped utterly naked down to the last thread. If you try to get through that gate with but one one inch thread on your shoulder, a thread of something you have done or not done or a pinch of thread on the sole of your feet, you won't go through the gate.

20:53 You must be brought to the place where we renounce but in the dreams of our being, renounce from our acceptance before Almighty God.

Reason 1: God Declares No Self-Righteousness

21:35 This is true for three very simple reasons. Number one, because God emphatically declares that not one of us has any righteousness of his own with which to commend himself to God. The scriptures emphatically declare that not one of us has any righteousness of his own with which to commend himself to God. This is taught in both the Old and the New Testaments. For example, Romans 3 verses 9 and 10. Words could not be more all inclusive than are these words of the Apostle. What then are we better than they? No, in no wise, for we before laid to the charge both of Jews and Greeks that they are all under him.

22:31 As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one.

22:41 All had been proving, taking in one category of humanity after another, that sin is a universal malady. And in his summary statements he says we have before laid to the charge of Jew and Greek they are all, which means none righteous, no, not one. There is not a one of us who has anything in himself to commend himself to God.

23:16 There is a favorable acceptance before God, not a one of us. How did we get that way? Long before we came out of our mother's wounds. Long before some so-called age of accountability.

23:34 For in chapter 5 in verse 19, the Apostle tells us exactly how we got that way. Chapter 5 in verse 19 of the same epistle, as through the one man's disobedience the many were made or constituted sinners. Even so, through the obedience of the one shall the many be made or constituted righteous. Through the one man's disobedience the many were constituted sinners.

24:07 And the one man here is the one man, Adam. And we are told in unmistakable language that in our first father, Adam, God dealt with the entire human race. And when Adam fell, we fell in him and with him in his first transgression and came under condemnation. And to that we have added what we were from the moment of our conception and that is sinners who had nothing to commend ourselves to God.

24:42 For as David said in Psalm 51.6, behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother leave me. I was a sinner before I had any life outside my mother's womb, let alone some so-called age of accountability. Some age of moral consciousness.

25:05 Where do we get this terminology? David said,

25:13 that's reality. And your subsequent history in mind proves it. They go astray from the womb. The psalmist says, speaking lies, so that nothing that we are or are not, nothing we have done or hope can be the ground, our acceptance before God, because there is an unrighteous no not one.

25:43 And that state of unrighteousness goes back to our first father, Adam. We're part of a race that fell in our first father and then when each one of us was conceived in our own life history, what was conceived was a sinner from conception. A sinner in nature, in disposition. A sinner in its ugliness and vileness, abhorrent in his holiness and in his burning righteousness.

26:15 So that the prophet Isaiah,

26:19 seeing what man looks like in and of himself apart from the righteousness of another, declares in chapter 64, and verse 6, that we are all become as one that is unclean and all our righteousnesses the best things we do. He didn't say all our sins. All our iniquities are as a polluted garment. But he says all our righteousnesses, the best things we do are as a polluted garment. Not our iniquities. Not our obviously wayward ways and words. The things we do and say that have the semblance of righteousness.

27:25 They are as a filthy rag in the sight of God.

27:30 You see that's why the gates narrow. Because man in trying to be like God fell under the spell of the very sin that made the devil the devil which is pride. And for a man to stand before a gate that says strip down because well strip down what? Just the rough outer clothing obviously sinful deeds that these. Strip further.

28:01 You mean down to just the underwear of some of the prayers that didn't quite have enough heart in them and some of the psalms and hymns that I sang in a half-hearted distracted way and the sermons I listened to when my mind roamed from Dan to Beersheba to the gazebo and back again. God says no. Strip yet. Strip further and take your moments when you have felt the most nearness to God and the most passion in prayer and the most holy. Take your righteousnesses and depart from union with my son and depart from the virtue of his perfect life and his death for sinners. Your righteousnesses are as a polluted garment. Strip them off. It's a narrow gate. Get through

28:53 that gate. I will clothe you with the righteousness that has a fabric that has been constructed on a loom of my own. That loom is the perfect obedience of my son to my law and that loom is the one on which I've constructed a righteousness not only of his perfect obedience but that obedience unto death even the death of the cross when he who knew no sin was made sin on behalf of his people when he came under the curse and if you come through that gate to be clothed in a manner that I will accept you, you'll be clothed with a garment that doesn't have a quarter of an inch of a thread that came off the loom of anything you are or anything you are not, anything you've done or ever hoped to do. It'll be a garment that I have constructed completely on my own and it is yours by pure grace. Oh God is that so that you get one hundred percent of the credit for my salvation there's no boasting there's no strutting God says that's right I have devised a scheme of salvation in which I will reserve to myself one hundred percent of the glory but you say

30:19 what about all of my this and all of my that? God says pile it all up like a pile of menstruous cloths. That's the language of Isaiah 64 and every Jew would have understood it when Isaiah preached it. Are you ready to look as God looks upon them? That's why the gate's narrow. Oh yes many people willing to make a general admission. I'm a sinner. Strip down that there's not a thread left on the shoulder of what I am or am not what I've done or hoped to do or haven't done and to say nothing in my hands I bring.

Reason 2: God Rejects All Who Trust in Self-Made Righteousness

31:07 Nothing on my shoulder nothing on the sole of my foot. Naked naked naked I flee oh God clothe me with that robe of righteousness constructed solely in your son or I perish. That's why it's a narrow gate because standing in that robe of righteousness in the language of 1 Corinthians 1 Christ made unto us righteousness then he that glories can glory only in the Lord as his righteousness you ask why is it true that we must renounce from the heart all confidence in what we are or are not what we have or have not done or ever hoped to do is the ground of our acceptance reason number one because God emphatically declares that not one of us has any righteousness of his own with which to commend himself to God reason number two because God repeatedly describes his rejection of all who trust in a supposed righteousness of their own making because God repeatedly describes his rejection of all who trust in a supposed righteousness of their own making

32:34 and I want you to look at two passages with me the first one Romans chapter 10 Romans chapter 10 Paul begins the chapter with opening his heart and telling us his burden for his fellow Jews brethren my heart's desire and supplication to God for them is for them that they may be saved he's speaking of his fellow Israelites and he regards them as lost under the wrath of God dead in trespasses and sins he's praying that they may be saved he has no silly notion that they're going to be saved because they got Abraham's physical blood in their veins that they're God's quote special people because they have a Hebrew name he didn't evangelize Jews by telling them well you're sort of special you see and that's why you ought to embrace Jesus as your Messiah as some Jewish evangelism does today no he told the Jews you're lost as the devil like the Goyim like all the unclean Gentiles you're unclean and you're lost and you're lost this is even greater because you had greater privilege if you've rejected he says I have a burden that they may be saved verse 2 for I bear them witness they have a zeal for God why

34:02 does he want to see them saved because they've thrown over all semblance of religion and adherence to the Old Testament and to the ways and law of God he said no they have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge and then he explains what he means for being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God here he likens the righteousness of God is that which calls for submission it's a strong word the word used here for subjection submission means to range yourself under in a posture of obedience to another and here he says there is a righteousness of God and God calls men in the gospel to submit themselves to that righteousness in the language of our text in Matthew it's an entering through the narrow gate it means rejection renouncing from the heart all righteousness supposed righteousness of one's own prepared to say that all of my association with the law of Moses and the sacrifices and all the Levitical

35:29 rituals attending all of the feasts and keeping all of the kosher laws all of this is nothing to gain me acceptance with the living God you see God clearly describes his rejection of those who trust in the supposed righteousness of their own making they are lost and in Luke chapter eighteen the Lord Jesus gives us a graphic picture of just such a person who thought he had standing before God based on what he was what he was not what he did and what he didn't do that's why i used that language in the main heading of the sermon this morning here in Luke chapter eighteen notice how it begins verse nine he spoke with us all in the presence of the Lord verse nine he spoke with us all in the presence of the Lord he spoke with us all in the presence of the Lord he spoke with us all in the presence of the Lord this parable unto certain who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. You see, their confidence that they had a righteousness that commended them to God was rooted in themselves. What they were, what they were not, what they did, what they did not. And they said all others did not. That is, they looked down upon others who did not do what they did or who did what

36:51 they did not do. Who were what they were not or who were not what they were. And then he gives us a clear example of such a person. Two men went up into the temple to pray. The one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. And the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. I call it his self-terminating salvation. Soliloquy of self-righteousness. He prayed thus with himself. He wasn't praying to God.

37:21 It was a self-terminating soliloquy of self-righteousness. And what's involved in it? Look at it. God, I thank thee, I am not. Righteousness based on what I'm not. Isn't that what he says?

37:40 I thank thee, he's giving credit to God, that I am not. As the rest of men. I don't do what the rest of men do. Extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. And he begins to tell God what he does do. I fast twice in the week. God never required that. God required one annual fast per year. He went far beyond what God required. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I get. I give tithes of all that I get. Here is a man who is really convinced that what he is and what he is not, what he does and what he doesn't do, and what he's going to do in the future, gives him a fabric of a righteousness with which he can clothe himself and come strutting into the presence of God, and even tell God to look upon his beautiful garment. See the threads, God? I wove this one in, I wove that one in. And you see how ugly that one would look?

38:43 I don't put that in. See here's my, you see that? Preening himself. I don't put that in.

38:46 Preening himself. With his own garment of righteousness, manufactured on the loom of his own fallen humanity, and he dares to strut into the presence of God with that rag on. And he thinks it's a beautiful garment. Now the Lord describes the antithesis of that.

39:09 But the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much his eyes to heaven, let alone his head. He didn't even lift his eyes. But smote upon his breast. Something was going on in his heart. And the closest he could get to his heart was to smite upon the skin and the bone and the flesh over the area where his heart was. He smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful. Be propitiated. Turn away your wrath from me. Be propitious to me. Not a sinner.

39:48 But the sinner. Be propitious to me, the sinner. Oh God, my plea is directed to you, that you would do something that would meet me in what I am. And what I am is the sinner. Not the sinner, comma, but who happened to have a bad background and blah, blah, blah. The sinner who, no, no. He just says the sinner. In other words, he stands utterly stripped. He's making it. He says, God, there's a naked sinner who has nothing with which to take even a thread to cover one square millimeter of his spiritual body. The sinner. God, be propitious to me.

40:37 God, will you not be moved to extend mercy and turn away your wrath to me, the sinner? Now look at verse 14. I say unto you, this man went down. He went down to his house justified. This man went down to his house having entered the narrow gate with his feet set upon the narrow way. This man went down to his house justified rather than the other four. Now look at the principle. Everyone that exalts himself shall be humbled, but he that humbles himself shall be exalted. Now in the context, what does that mean? Everyone that exalts himself shall be humbled, but he that exalts be humbled. Everyone who thinks that he can gain acceptance before God based on what he is or is not, what he does or he does not, or hopes to do, such a one who thinks to gain acceptance before God, on the basis of that, will be humbled. He'll either be humbled by a self-disclosure through the law and the gospel now that will drive him out of his refuge of lies, or he'll be humbled in the day of judgment when the fabric with which

41:57 he thought he could appear before God vaporizes and stands naked in his sins to hear a holy God say, depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting life. But in the context, he that humbles himself, what is the humbling of himself? What is the exalting in the context? It's clear. It's the publican owning the reality.

42:24 What he was, he was a sinner who had nothing to commend himself to God. And what was being exalted, being exalted was going down to his house justified. Having the righteousness of another credited to his account. Having an acceptance with God on the basis not of what he was or was not, what he did or did not, or hoped to do, but on the basis of God's mercy.

42:56 A mercy that would be soon manifested in the bloodletting of his own dear son, who in that very city of Jerusalem, or outside its city walls, would lay down his life, the just for the unjust. You see, he was stripped naked. Stood morally naked and said, oh God, be propitious to me, the sinner. That was his only plea.

Reason 3: God Demonstrates the Only Acceptable Righteousness in the Gospel

43:29 And he went down to his house justified. So why am I bold to say that the gate is narrow? Because at that gate we must renounce from the heart, renounce from the heart all that we are or are not, all that we've done or have not done or hoped to do as the ground of our acceptance with God, not only because God emphatically declares none of us has a righteousness. But because God repeatedly describes his rejection of all who trust in a supposed righteousness of their own making. Romans 10, Luke 18. But thirdly and finally, this is true because God clearly demonstrates in the gospel the only righteousness which is acceptable to him. Because God clearly demonstrates in the gospel that he has a righteousness which is acceptable to him.

44:30 And finally, this is true because God clearly demonstrates in the gospel the only righteousness which is acceptable to him. And here we go to the opening verses of Romans, our pivotal text I've taken from Romans because that's its great theme. The righteousness with which sinful men and women and boys and girls can find acceptance with God. Romans 1, 16 and 17. I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God. I am not ashamed of the same quáter. Now I want to focus in this matter only one more chapter because it's inevitable that the scriptures discovered in bondage with God. And it gives me confidence to feel a sense of forgiveness. This chapter is intended to entail her to crawl a third up, the next generation of Hebrews and to humble their heads tocol zum girrwin.

45:21 Google. After this passage she feels a sense of peace with her. Such understanding, she says as she says in that voice. You seek repentance and to your heart's contentment, who voices speak to give you to your Lord and your spirit and your business.

45:31 But where does that come from. Matthew 17. That's God's righteousness. It's the righteousness which the righteousness of God requires that he require.

45:42 It is that righteousness which is a reflection of the very character of a holy God. It is that standard of perfect obedience to his holy law. That law which touches the springs of motive and thought and desire. That law which requires perfect, perpetual, undiminished love to God with all the heart, mind, soul and strength.

46:10 And love to one's neighbor as oneself.

46:15 And before that holy law every one of us stands condemned. But what has the gospel done? The gospel has in the mercy and kindness of God. Demonstrated that there is.

46:30 There is a righteousness that is acceptable to God. Because it is one that is wrought by God. In the person and work of his own dear son. And how clearly and beautifully that is stated in such short compass.

46:49 In the text we looked at earlier in chapter 5 and verse 19. As surely as to the one man Adam and his disobedience. The many were constituted. Look at the last part of Romans 5.

47:03 Even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be constituted righteous. Through the obedience of the one Jesus Christ shall the many, all of his people, all who come to the narrow gate and say I have no righteousness of my own. I am not going to try to get through the gate. With even so much as.

47:30 A thread of a righteousness. That is in any way made upon the loom of my own performance.

47:39 I stand naked. Ready to be clothed with the righteousness of another.

47:47 Exclusively. By the obedience of the one shall the many be constituted righteous. That is there is a righteousness in that one man the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is identified very clearly in verse 21.

48:05 As sin reigned in death even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1.30. But of him are you in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.

48:31 That is why. I have been bold to assert that the gate is narrow. Because at that gate there must be a renouncing from the heart of all that we have done or not done. All that we are or are not or ever hope to be or not to be as the ground of our acceptance with God.

48:55 And I have been bold to make such a statement because God emphatically declares. We have no righteousness. Of our own to commend us to God. There is none righteous.

49:06 No not one. Because God repeatedly describes his rejection of all who trust in a supposed righteousness of their own. Being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own. They have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

49:21 This man did not go down to his house justified. The Pharisee rather the publican did. But because God clearly demonstrates in the gospel the only righteousness. Which is acceptable.

49:33 To him it is the righteousness wrought by the one man Christ Jesus the son who in our human condition with a true human soul and body joined to his humanity and the mystery of the God man perfectly kept the law so that the father could say this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Well if I could somehow be hidden in the folds of Christ rose. The father says. Because of him I am well pleased.

50:05 Then in him he is well pleased with me. And that is the glory of the gospel. That God takes the sinner in all of his moral putrefaction and nakedness. And clothes him in the very righteousness wrought by the life and death of the Lord Jesus Christ.

How Christ's Righteousness Becomes Ours: Justification by Faith

50:26 And how does that righteousness become ours? Our final text Romans 4, 4 and 5. This is how it becomes ours.

50:39 Now to him that works the reward is not reckoned as of grace but of debt. You don't stand at the gate and work and present wages in order to be conferred with this righteousness. But to him that works not but believes on him who justifies the ungodly. His faith is reckoned for righteousness.

51:04 At the point of going out of ourselves into the righteousness of another. We are in ourselves ungodly. Now we'll not remain ungodly. We'll become godly.

51:18 But we don't become godly before we believe unto righteousness. The text is clear. God justifies the ungodly. The sinner standing at the gate is conscious of only that.

51:33 That which the publican reflects in his prayer. What was he conscious of? He wouldn't lift up his eyes so much as to heaven. He was conscious of his undoneness.

51:44 Conscious of his uncleanness. Conscious of his unfitness to be in the presence of God. And he says Lord God be propitious to me. The sinner turn away your wrath from me.

51:57 In mercy receive me on the basis of the work. Of another. And at the point of coming as an ungodly sinner. And believing upon the mercy of God.

52:11 God justifies the ungodly. He doesn't say now you go off and sit for ten days. And come up with a list of holy resolves. And what you're prepared and determined.

52:23 No, no, no. We are stripped at the gate. Standing in our naked ungodliness.

52:31 Uncleanness and vileness. And we cast ourselves upon the mercy of God. In Jesus Christ. Now do you see why the opening words of the Sermon on the Mount are what they are?

The First Beatitude: Blessed are the Poor in Spirit

52:46 What's the first beatitude?

52:50 Blessed are the poor in spirit. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. What is it to be poor in spirit? It's to be stripped.

53:05 It's to come to the place where from behind. I acknowledge I am nothing. I have nothing. I can do nothing.

53:13 To commend myself to God. If he deals with me in terms of what I am. And what I've done. If he's God and he's holy and he's righteous.

53:23 He must damn me. And glorify his justice. And so do.

53:29 I'm prepared to say oh God. If I'm forgiven. If I am pardoned. If I am accepted.

53:36 If I'm credited with a righteousness. That will answer to the demands of your holy character. You oh God. Must impart that righteousness.

53:46 You must give it. I'm a spiritual pauper and a beggar. Blessed are the poor in spirit. You see.

53:54 Not blessed are those who learn the language of total depravity and can parrot it. And are as proud as a peacock because they can. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Poor in spirit.

54:07 Constricted down here. Where only you and God can go.

54:11 God stripped you. Down here. Where only you and God can go. While you may say with a spirit of humility.

54:20 Oh God I thank you. For parents that disciplined me. And restrained me. And put rules and regulations that kept me.

54:28 In common grace. For many sins that otherwise would have. Crippled me and chained me. And scarred me for life.

54:37 When you stand next to someone. Who didn't have those restraints. Or having them through them all over. And is the very essence of a lawless.

54:45 Lecherous. Debauched. Foul. Wretched.

54:50 Stinking. Rotten. Lawless sinner. You don't look at them like this.

54:56 In your heart. In your heart. Not your head. Not your ear.

55:01 In your heart.

55:06 That is not been for restraining common grace. And then eventually your special grace. I would have out. Done him a hundred times.

55:17 Some of you really don't believe that. That's why you can see. Sinners. Who's debauchery uses from every poor.

55:26 And you say. Shit. And that disgusting. Rather than saying.

55:31 Oh. But. In the grace. Blessed to the poor in spirit.

55:43 Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Take them through the narrow gate. They have taken seriously. What Jesus teaches.

55:51 In the Sermon on the Mount. That God's law. Does not merely touch our deeds. But our dispositions.

55:57 Not merely our acts. But our looks. And our attitudes. When we stand before the searching light.

56:04 Of that very sermon. We have to say. Oh God. All and full of sin I am.

The Call to Renounce and Embrace Christ Alone

56:11 Our full of truth. We're prepared to enter through a narrow gate. A gate at which. We are prepared to renounce.

56:23 From the heart. What we are. And what we are not. What we've done.

56:29 And what we've not done. Or ever hoped to do. As the ground. Of our acceptance.

56:36 With God. We're ready to say. As Paul did in Philippians 3. What things were gained to me.

56:41 And in the context. It was what he was by birth. What he had become by training. By religious influence.

56:48 He says. The things that were gained to me. I count loss for Christ. Yea.

56:53 I count all things. But loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For whom I've suffered the loss of all things. And count them that refuse that I may gain Christ.

57:05 And be found in him. Not having my own righteousness. He said. I'm willing to be stripped naked.

57:17 All the clothes made me so attractive. I now resist as a pile of garbage. And I might stand stripped and naked. And be clothed in the righteousness of the light.

57:34 That's what he said. And that's what you've got to say. Not just with your lips. Because you've been well catechized.

57:42 And heard sound preaching. But because the spirit of God. By the word. Has brought you there.

57:48 In your heart of hearts. I close with the words of a preacher. Who preached these things over 300 years ago. And he died before he saw his 35th birthday.

58:00 Burned out from the very passion of his soul. In preaching to his people. He wrote saying. Before conversion.

58:09 Man seeks to cover himself with his own fig leaves. I wrote in my notes. Adam and Eve were the first shop foreman. In union number one.

58:22 Of fig leaf makers. Going to make our own covering. For our own shame. Before conversion.

58:28 Man seeks to cover himself with his own fig leaves. Make himself. Whole with his own duties. He's apt to trust in himself.

58:36 Set up his own righteousness. And to reckon his counters for gold. And not to submit to the righteousness of God. But conversion changes his mind.

58:47 Now he counts his own righteousness as filthy rags. He cast it off. As a man would a verminous tatters of a nasty beggar. He's brought to poverty of spirit.

59:00 Complains. And condemns himself. And all his inventory is poor. Miserable.

59:07 Wretched. Blind. And naked. The language of Revelation chapter three.

59:15 He sees a world of iniquity in his holy things. And calls his once idolized righteousness. But filth and loss. And would not for a thousand worlds appear before God in it.

59:29 He now begins to set a high price. Upon Christ's righteousness. He sees the need of Christ in every duty. To justify his person.

59:40 To sanctify his performances. He cannot live without him. He cannot pray without him. Christ must go with him.

59:47 For he dare not come into the presence of God. And he leans upon Christ. And so bows himself in the house of his God. The imagery you remember of Naaman.

59:58 Who was servant to his master. And he said his master leans upon me. When he goes into the house. It is God he says.

60:04 So the sinner leans upon Christ. And all of his approaches to God are in that way. Listen to the same man speaking further on. Settle it in your heart.

60:18 You must look out of yourself. And away from your own doings for help. You're lost if you hope to escape. Drowning on any other plank.

60:27 But Jesus Christ. You must unlearn yourself. Renounce your own wisdom. Your own righteousness.

60:34 Your own strength. And throw yourself wholly upon Christ. While men trust in themselves. And establish their own righteousness.

60:43 And have confidence in the flesh. They will not come savingly to Christ. You must know your gain to be lost. Your strength to be weakness.

60:52 Your righteousness rags and rottenness. Before there will be an effectual closure between Christ and your soul. One of the old Puritans said. The damning mistake men make on the one hand is.

61:07 They say no. No. I must first of all. Gather up a great bundle of resolutions.

61:15 And holy determinations. I must have something to bring to Christ. Or I must gather up a certain measure. Of a felt sense of mourning.

61:26 And grief. And shame. And unworthiness. My friend no.

61:31 That's just trying to make something. To bring to the gate. And present to Christ. It's a narrow gate.

61:40 And the only thing that gets through. Is a naked sinner. Or you'll never get through. But blessed be God.

61:55 No one came as a naked sinner. And in faith looked to God for the righteousness of another. In the person and work of Christ. But that he was clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

62:09 And accepted. In the beloved. From henceforth to give all the praise. To the one who loved him.

62:20 And died for him. That's why the gate's narrow. We want to have a little thread that we can look on. And say oh look at my prayer.

62:30 You'll be damned for the thread on your shoulder. It's Christ. Only Christ. All of Christ.

62:42 For your sin. Only your sin. And always. Your sin.

62:48 And the damnation of it. Enter. Eden. Enter.

62:56 The narrow gate. Renounce from the heart. As the ground of your acceptance with God. Anything you are or are not.

63:07 Anything you've done or not done. Or ever hoped to do. And throw yourself upon the mercy of God in Christ. You say that's so simple.

63:18 Yes. You'd like it to be a little more complicated. Wouldn't you? And you'd say well my mind was keen enough.

63:24 To grasp it. You'd like to do something. Because then you could look over your shoulder. And stroke yourself for what you did.

63:30 No, no. God's determined in the scheme of salvation in Christ. That all of the laurels should be laid at the feet of Christ. If you live home amongst a bunch of people.

63:43 Who only want to brag about Christ. Then come through that gate. Because the land is all the glory of a man in this land. Let us pray.

64:05 Our Father. We pray that you would take these basic vital truths of your word. And seal them to our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit. And even this day.

64:21 Bring some through that narrow gate. Where they renounce from the heart. All hope of acceptance. Based on anything they are.

64:36 Or ever hope to be in themselves. And find their resting place in Christ. And Christ alone. We ask in his worthy name.

64:50 Amen.