What is the Straightened Way? Part 2

Introduction: The Kingdom's Call to Enter the Narrow Way

0:02 The following message was delivered on Sunday evening, August 7th, 1994, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Let us again turn to the text that has been the basis and framework of our meditation now for several Lord's Days, Matthew chapter 7, verses 13 and 14. Our Lord Jesus, having set forth the major features of the subjects of his kingdom, the righteous principles by which the subjects of the kingdom will live in his grace and strength, the religious perspectives of the true subjects of his kingdom ever concerned with the Father's eye as they pray, give their alms, and fast, not with the eyes of men, he demonstrates, that the sons and daughters of his kingdom, though living in a world where they need food and clothing and drink, do not have their hearts set upon these things, for after all those things do the Gentiles seek. But they seek first his kingdom, and in the way of responsible endeavor, in dependence upon God with the priority of the kingdom before them, they demonstrate the Father's care for his own. As they seek,

1:30 they seek first the kingdom of God, and all other things are added unto them. Having then demonstrated that the subjects of his kingdom do not usurp the place of God in judging others, are far more concerned with their own sins than the sins of others, are a people who in humility take the posture of dependence, and they ask that they might receive and seek that they might find. The Lord is with you. He is not content that his hearers only know these leading principles concerning his kingdom.

2:07 He is passionately desirous that they actually enter that kingdom. And that passionate desire finds expression in the royal but gracious command of verse 13 of Matthew 7, Enter in by the narrow gate. For wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straightened, compressed, restricted is the way that leads unto life, and few are they that find it.

Recap: The Identity and Distinguishing Characteristic of the Straightened Way

2:51 For eight successive Lord's days, I have been confronting you morning and evening with the question, Are you for real?

3:05 And in seeking to set before you the biblical materials by which you may be enabled to undertake accurate self-examination on this most important of all issues, we have been considering together for several Lord's days the passage just read in your hearing. According to these, words of our Lord, if we are for real, we have by his grace come through what he calls the narrow gate, and we are presently found walking upon the restricted, the pressured, or the compressed way which alone lead to life. We are consciously rejecting any religious profession, or soul, or any so-called experience that could fit the description of a wide gate and of a broad way, for according to our Lord, these lead to destruction. And having spent several Lord's days examining what is involved in entering the narrow gate, we began this morning to consider what comprises the narrow, or the compressed,

4:31 the straightened way. And I sought to accomplish but two things this morning. First, to give the identity of the way, and what I did in seeking to give the identity of the way is to set forth this principle that the way described by our Lord as the compressed, the straightened, the pressured, the restricted way is nothing more or less than the extension into all areas of our lives for the full duration of our lives of the fundamental principles that were confronted and resolved at the narrow gate. And then having sought to give the identity of the way, we focused our attention, upon the distinguishing characteristic of the way, which our Lord Jesus says is the straightened, or the compressed way, and I sought to do that first of all linguistically, giving you a study of the significance of the verb phlevo and the noun phlipsis, and we saw from the study of the scriptures themselves and the use of the word phlebo, the use of the word phlebo, the use of the word phlebo, and the use of the word phlebo,

5:59 these words by the Holy Ghost that our Lord says that the distinguishing characteristic of that way upon which all those who come through the gate now enter and upon which they walk is its restricted, its compressed nature. It is no other element of that way that is highlighted so forcefully by our Lord. And then after considering the distinguishing characteristic of the way linguistically, we then looked at it contextually, that is in the light of the Sermon on the Mount, we saw that indeed in the language of Dr. Sinclair Ferguson, the Sermon on the Mount is a description of kingdom living in a wicked age. And to live by the principles of the kingdom in the strength of Christ, out of love to Christ, to the glory of Christ is still to live a restricted and compressed way. Now tonight, in what will be our briefer communion meditation,

Spiritual Discipline 1: Living in Constant Faith in Christ's Righteousness

7:17 I want to begin to take up with you the specific spiritual disciplines that we must engage in while we are on the way. Having identified the way, considered the distinguishing character, or the distinguishing characteristic of the way, we begin now a study on the specific spiritual disciplines engaged in, on, on this restricted, this compressed, this straightened way. Now as we do, remember the principle. The way is but the extension into all areas of life for the duration of our lives of the issues faced and resolved at the narrow gate. And in our study of what is this narrow gate, I trust those who were here will remember that the first thing we said that we must deal with at the narrow gate is this whole question, on what grounds can I, a hell-deserving sinner, find acceptance with God? And it is at the narrow gate that everyone who comes through that gate

8:42 renounces all righteousness of his own, as the ground of his acceptance with God. He looks out of himself totally to another for acceptance with God. That's why the first beatitude says, Blessed are the poor in spirit. Those who know they have nothing can do nothing to commend themselves to God.

9:13 They must have a righteousness imparted. They must be a pious person by one's heart, but the most pious of the pious will take the bribe among themselves not only from one, but game. What do you do not need to do? As we have read in Luke 13, to you give them the right kind of lifemacc något so that they may have love in peace, the unrighteous love of their Lord.

9:43 God directs revelation as human cups, that I must renounce, repudiate all confidence in any righteousness of my own as the ground of my acceptance before God? What is the first characteristic of the narrow way? Well, it is this. It is living in the constant faith that Christ crucified, risen, and interceding for me is the only ground of my acceptance with God all along the way.

10:21 I do not reckon with a ground of acceptance with God at the gate that gradually changes as I walk along the way. For the person who has just come through the gate out of a life of the most gross, vile sins and is not a Christian, is conscious that if I'm going to have acceptance with God, surely it must be on the basis of the righteousness of another. That person, should he live a hundred years, become the most mature, Christ-like, blameless Christian on the face of the earth, at the end of that hundred years, would have a disposition exactly the same as he had at the gate. With respect to the question, on what ground am I accepted as righteous before God? In fact, were he truly to live a hundred years and grow in grace and grow in knowledge, he would have almost an infinitely deeper conviction that the only ground of his acceptance before God must be in the righteousness of God. The righteousness of another.

11:45 For one of the marks of true growth in grace is growth in accurate self-knowledge. And when we come through the gate, though we may have some knowledge of the sins of our deeds and the sins of our thoughts, and a minimal knowledge of the sins of our hearts, what gross self-ignorance accompanies us through the gate. And along the way, as we get to the gate, as we get to know the character of our God more accurately, as we penetrate more deeply into the perfections of our Savior, as we are taken into the horrible labyrinth of the inner workings of our human hearts, we know far more of what sin is. And therefore we will more and more desire to go out of ourselves and into the righteousness of another as the only ground of our acceptance before God.

Demonstration from John 6: Continual Eating and Drinking of Christ by Faith

12:50 Now that's the principle stated. And let me first of all demonstrate it from three pivotal texts. And the first one is John chapter 6. John chapter 6, verses 52 to 55.

13:10 This compressed, this narrow, this way that we, as we have coined this morning, this phleboized way, which alone leads unto life, is such because in it all who are found upon that way confess without reservation they have no righteousness but that which is in the doing and the dying of another. In John chapter 6, as many of you know, our Lord has given what is called the discourse, on the bread of life. And he says that he is that bread that came down from heaven to give life to the world. And in the midst of that discourse, as so often happens in John's account, he is debating and discussing with the Jews the issues over which they differ. And in this setting we read in verse 52 of John 6, the Jews therefore strove one with another saying, How can this man, give us his flesh to eat? He had just said that the true bread that I give is my flesh for the life of the world. And they said, How in the world can he give us his flesh to eat?

14:31 So the Jews are having a little caucus. What in the world is he talking about? Jesus therefore said unto them, aware of their thoughts and the discussion of their little caucus, Verily, verily, Amen, Amen, truly, truly, I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have not life in yourselves. He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day, for my flesh is neat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. Now our Lord Jesus here in these verses clearly teaches that no one has eternal life who does not eat his flesh and drink his blood. Do you see that in the passage? Whatever it means to eat his flesh and drink his blood if you don't eat the flesh of Christ and drink the blood of Christ you do not possess eternal life.

15:51 Verse 53 Verily, verily, one of these magisterial sayings Christ underscoring his own truthfulness by this double Verily, verily, Amen, Amen, I say to you, except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have not life in yourselves. And the form of the verb that he uses here an aorist subjunctive for you Greek students he is saying unless you eat my flesh drink my blood you do not have life you have not come through the narrow gate which leads unto eternal life. But then he goes on to say in verse 54 he that eats a present participle he that is continually eating continually eating and he uses a different word from the previous word the previous word for eating phago which means to eat up or to devour now he says using a different word trogo and it means to nibble to chew to munch and there is a beautiful yet subtle nuance if we do not have a once for all definitive feast upon his flesh and drink once for all definitively his blood

17:18 we do not have eternal life furthermore if we do not go on continually snacking nibbling chewing upon his flesh and another present participle and continually drink my blood it is only he who nibbles snacks chews upon my flesh and drinks my blood who has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day for my flesh is true meat and my blood is true drink now you have it in the words of Jesus if you don't eat in a definitive way and continue to chew and nibble and snack upon and munch upon his flesh you will not be raised up in the last day unto life and blessedness if you do not drink in a definitive way leading to a continual drinking of his blood you are not a Christian that's what Jesus said I didn't say it he said it now the question is how does one eat of his flesh and drink of his blood do we do it in any

18:48 physical kind of way of course not this was forbidden by Jewish law and there would be nothing of any virtue in the drinking of the actual blood or a cannibalistic participation of Christ's flesh but in this very chapter our Lord has told us what lies behind this eating and this drinking look at verse 27 of the very same chapter work not for the food that perishes but for the food which abides unto eternal life which the Son of Man shall give you for him the Father even God hath sealed they therefore said unto him what must we do that we may work the works of God Jesus answered and said unto them this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he has sent he says to do the work of God you must believe upon him verse 40 this is the will of the Father that everyone that beholds the Son and believes on him should have eternal life and I will raise him up at the last hour at the last day now look at the parallel terminology

20:15 everyone who believes should have eternal life I shall raise him at the last day look at verse 54 he that eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life I will raise him up at the last day now you are forced to this conclusion either there are two ways of salvation two ways to have eternal life and be raised at the last day one is to believe upon Christ initially and continually the other is somewhere or another actually to masticate and swallow his flesh and his blood now we know there is only one way of salvation as surely there is but one savior there is but one way of salvation and that one way of salvation is the way of faith and the scriptures teach from Genesis to Revelation that the manner in which the sinner in his need receives the savior in the plenitude of his grace is by the self-despairing grasp of the hand of faith that goes out of itself to another to take the provision which God has made in Jesus Christ and so the use of the terms eating my flesh drinking my blood are correct figures of what true

21:44 saving faith is for both in eating and drinking we do something that has a common denominator when I eat the food that is objective to me by a process of chewing mastication swallowing becomes a part of my very being when I drink the water that is objective to me is an entity in itself now becomes a part of me and in using the terminology eating my flesh drinking my blood our Lord is illustrating the nature of saving faith saving faith is not the sinner looking to the cross looking to a savior whose perfect life and whose substitutionary death has provided a perfect righteousness answering to all the demands of the righteous God in heaven and saying I'm a sinner that's a perfect righteousness that's perfectly suited to my need I believe all of that no it is actually appropriating him it is eating of his flesh it is drinking of his blood it is taking Christ in the perfection of his salvation to be my very own and what is important

23:13 for our purposes is to see that Jesus tells us that that appropriating act of faith is not something that is done once for all at the gate yes there is an initial eating and drinking but he says except you go on nibbling and feeding upon my flesh and go on drinking of my blood you do not have eternal life nor will you be raised up in the last day so what are the characteristic activities of those upon the way the first and fundamental one is all who are truly on the way are continually living in the faith of Christ crucified buried and risen and interceding as the only ground of their acceptance with God they do not begin at the gate by taking the posture of a publican and along the way as they begin to live a righteous life in the power of the spirit begin to be more and more conformed to Christ by degrees come to the place where now it is no longer Christ crucified

24:41 alone but Christ only Christ Christ alone alone Christ Christ who have but one song unto him that loved us and loosed us from his own sin our sins in his own precious blood to him be glory forever and forever that's the only song they have that's

Demonstration from Philippians 3: Paul's Ongoing Renunciation of Self-Righteousness

25:49 the only song that they have that's the first pivotal text second pivotal text philippians 3 3 to 9 and having established the principle from this first text we can move more quickly remember the setting paul is warning the philippians about these judaizers those who came and said look christ is all right he's necessary for salvation but christ is not enough you need the rabbi's knife you need kosher food and you need jewish ceremonies and rituals to be a complete christian christ enough to get you almost through the gate but if you really want to be clean through the gate and full-blown a full-blown traveler on the way what you need is circumcision and binding yourself over to the law of moses in all of its details and paul warns them of these that he calls dogs philippians 3 2 he calls them evil workers he beware says beware of the evil workers beware of the concision the knife wielders we are the true circumcision who worship by the spirit of god

27:06 glory in christ jesus and put no confidence in the flesh present tense and then he talks about all the areas in which he might if people are going to put any confidence in what they are or what they've done he says i've got a lot more to rest on than anyone else that i know of and then he gives all of the brownie points that he would naturally have circumcised the eighth day of the stock of israel hebrew of the hebrews etc but what does he say he says i've got a lot more to rest on that as well as i could say on my last few verses here face to face and i've broken reading i've broken reading how did he do with all of this how be it what things were game to me verse seven these i've counted lost for christ now notice and not only did i do that in the past look at the present tense shift now yay verily and i count right now not i have counted when i got through the game and said what i call am by nature and grieving and religious zeal and practice is of no I standing before God? I've counted all but loss. But he says, look, this is where I am now. He says, right here and now, right here and now, for the present, all things to be lost. For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I've suffered

28:27 the loss of all things, and count them that refuse to what end, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, even that which is of the law, even as a renewed man, with the law of God written upon his heart, and the Holy Spirit giving him power with an evangelical motive to obey that law, not perfectly, but purposefully and evangelically. He says, I right now want a righteousness that has nothing to do with my law keeping. Even as a Christian. But he says, that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. He said, the posture to which God brought me in those three days from the Damascus road until the coming of Ananias and his laying his hands upon me, the things God showed me about the tattered rags of what I thought was a beautiful robe of happiness. And I was brought to the place where I yearned that God ripped the moth-eaten, stinking, rotten garment off me, and in nakedness I stood before the God who made me, and he clothed me in the righteousness of his Son.

29:57 And now as a mature Christian, having served this God with a new heart, and with a passionate love to Christ, And having done many righteous things, he said, I write now. I write, verse 8, count Christ and Christ alone. Paul, you've preached hundreds of sermons. Paul, you've prayed dozens and hundreds of hours of passionate prayers.

30:33 You've wept a bucket of tears over your sins, Paul. But who can reach into the combination of my sermons, my prayers, and my preaching? And out of that stuff, construct one thread that is worthy to go into the perfect robe of the righteousness of Christ.

30:57 In the best of my prayers, there is the defilement of the heart out of which they come. In the best of my sermons, there is the pollution of the heart and mind through which the sermon comes. In the best of my endeavors, every thread that could be made, every thread from that stuff is stained and polluted. The robe with which God dressed me, comprised solely of the threads woven upon the loom of the perfect life and the substitutionary death of Jesus, that robe is the only robe in which I want to be found through all of time. And even when I stand in the presence of my God. Do you see the principle, dear people? To get through the gate is utterly to renounce all righteousness of our own as the ground of our acceptance before God.

Demonstration from Galatians 2 and Romans 8: Unwavering Confidence in Christ Alone

32:01 To be found upon the restricted, the compressed way is to be found maintaining that disposition so that neither my accomplishments by the grace of God in evangelical duties and obedience nor my accomplishments by the grace of God in evangelical duties and obedience nor my failings shake me in confidence that I have a righteousness in Christ that is perfect and answers to all of the demands of God's holy law. I will neither be budged from it by my evangelical righteousness nor will I be bullied from it by my sins. For my little children, John says, these things I write unto you that you may not sin but, if any man's sin, we have an advocate with the Father. At the point of my sin, I have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. And why don't we go immediately? Because the Pharisee in us doesn't die quickly.

33:15 The Roman Catholic in us doesn't die quickly. Oh no, we wouldn't do traditional Roman Catholic penance. But we feel our penances stay away. We feel our penances stay away from the throne of grace for a day or two.

33:26 Then I can come. My friend, if any man's sin, we have. At the point of my sin, I have an advocate. Jesus Christ, the righteous one.

33:41 You see, the Apostle Paul never, never, never shifted the focus of his confidence from Christ to anything else. And one final text even more quickly, Galatians chapter 2. In this epistle, you remember, Paul says, I remember Paul with white-hot pen. I like to think of his feathered quill probably melting after every paragraph and having to pick up a new one.

34:11 As he deals with this horrible perversion of the gospel by the Judaizers. And in chapter 2 of the book of Galatians, the Apostle says, verse 17, But if while we sought to be justified in Christ, we ourselves were found sinners, is God a minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build up the things which I destroyed, I prove myself a transgressor.

34:42 For I, through the law, died to the law, that I might live unto God. He's been establishing the great principle, articulated in verse 16, knowing that a man is justified by the works, that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ. Even we believed in Christ, that we might be justified by faith in Christ, not by the works of the law. He's established that, and he says, if you want to go and reverse all of that, you're just turning everything on its head.

35:12 And then he speaks of his own spiritual experience. I, through the law, died to the law, that I might live unto God. I have been crucified with Christ. In the person of my representative, God put me to death.

35:27 And it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I, Paul, as a new man in Christ, in union with the Son of God, experiencing the virtue and the power of His death as my death, His resurrection to life as my resurrection to life, that life I now live in the flesh, I live in faith. And now notice what the peculiar focus of that faith is. The faith which is in the Son of God, not as creator, though He was, sustainer, though He is, He upholds all things by the word of His power, but which is in the Son of God, peculiarly focused in what capacity? Who loved me and gave Himself up for me. In other words, His faith in the Son of God, though it would take in the full range of all that is revealed about the Lord Jesus, had a peculiar fixation, a peculiar focal point. And the life of faith that He lived had as its focal point not the Son of God in some vague, nebulous way, but the Son of God in terms of the reality

36:53 of what He did to provide a righteousness not His own. The Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me. Now we could add to this Romans chapter 8, 34 and following, Who is He that condemneth? Paul says, I am prepared to face the whole moral universe and defy anyone to bring condemnation upon me for any sin whatsoever.

37:22 The very man who wrote Romans 7. The good that I would, I do not. The evil that I would not, that I do. Fully acknowledge He wasn't perfect.

37:30 Yet He says, I defy the whole moral universe to find one person who can justly condemn me. Who is He that condemneth? And where is that confidence found? He says, it is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for me.

37:50 He said, that's the grounds of my confidence. The negative side of justification, there is no condemnation. There is total approbation, total acceptance. I am accepted in the Beloved One.

Why the Straightened Way Requires This Disposition: Battling Pride and Self-Righteousness

38:06 Oh dear people, I beg of you, I plead with you, to pray that God would cause this lesson to be inwrought in the very texture of your soul, that upon the narrow road that leads unto life, the most fundamental spiritual discipline is that of maintaining the posture that I look in faith to Christ and Christ alone as the ground of my acceptance before God. And I close with this question, why should this disposition be part of that restricted, compressed and pressured way? You would think that would be part of a broad way. No, it's part of the restricted way because by nature, we are all self-righteous Pharisees at heart and the remnants of the Pharisee in us do not die easily or quickly. Do you hear that? We're all self-righteous Pharisees by nature.

39:19 And the remnants of what we are as Pharisees does not die quickly or easily even though we've come through the gate having repudiated, self-righteousness as the ground of our acceptance with God, our remaining sin will constantly seek to drag us back into the spirit of a Pharisee. Remaining sin hates a garment with no threads but those woven on the loom of the life and death and resurrection and intercession of Jesus. Because you see, we're all proud by nature. And if my only ongoing, ongoing confidence for standing before God is in the righteousness of another, then all of my praise and all of my glory goes to another. And you see, there's no room for boasting. There's no room for strutting. And even when I've been unable to do what God tells me to do and I've done it out of a motive of love to Him, we say as Jesus said, when we have done all, we are yet unprofitable servants.

40:29 And the devil hates a humble man or woman. And there is nothing so humbling than the knowledge that in my holiest moments my standing before God rests upon nothing in me but solely upon that which is in Christ. And the second reason is because we're all proud devils by nature and the remnants of creature pride do not die easily or slowly. The scripture says, let him that glorieth glory in the Lord.

40:59 It's amazing to me that while there were little living apostles, there were so many pressures put forward upon the young churches. Had people that got through the gates renouncing their own righteousness, where did the devil focus his attack at Galatia? For the churches of Galatia, he tried to say, what you have in Christ needs the additive of the rabbi's knife and of the kosher food market and of special Jewish feast days. Christ was all right to get you just inside the gate, but if you want to be fully through and on the way, so Paul had to say, O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?

41:42 Who has spooked you? Before whose eyes Christ was placarded as crucified among you? And in Colossae, along came the Gnostics saying Christ was not enough. You needed angels and other intermediaries.

42:02 Christ was not enough. And he had to say in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells. You are complete in him. And in the letter to the Hebrews, here they had heard of Christ and his perfect and final priesthood, his final sacrifice, his ever-present intercession.

42:23 And what were they doing? Turning away from all of that and going back to the temple and to visible, tangible, touchable, smellable sacrifices and incense and priests with their beautiful robes. Dear people, that's the realism of my Bible. While apostles were still alive, people on the narrow way found it was a narrow way to stay in that posture where we say Christ and Christ is the ground.

42:53 There will be the Judaizers that will pull me one direction. And there will be the Gnostics to pull me in another. And there will be the traditionalists to pull me in another. And we need by the grace of God to say no.

The Lord's Supper as a Means of Grace for the Narrow Way

43:09 On Christ, the solid rock, I stand all other ground is but sinking sand. Now do you see why? And I think I see more clearly than ever before of all the things the Lord could have instituted to remember all of the glorious facets of his work for his people. Why did he take some leftover Passover wine and leftover Passover bread and institute but one sustaining physical, tangible, corporeal ordinance, baptism the initiatory, but one that we are to repeat that focuses on what issue? His body given, his blood shed. That's to help keep us in the way. The narrow way in which we confess each time we come to that table Christ himself, Christ alone, is my hope.

44:14 And in that posture may we come with joy, gratitude, and renewed determination that we shall indeed by the grace of God remain in that narrow way. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for your holy word. Thank you for that narrow way.

44:41 Thank you for the instruction of the Spirit of God in the scriptures. We pray that we may be a people who not only renounce all righteousness coming through the gate, but oh Lord, may we ever, ever abominate even the slightest thread of any righteousness of our own when we contemplate our standing before you. We would with the apostle be found in Christ, not having a righteousness of our own, but that which is in him and from him and of him and received by faith alone. Oh, may we afresh eat of his flesh by faith, drink of his blood by faith, and thereby have our life in him nourished and prepared for that day when it will come to its glorious consummation in another place. Meet us now as we come to the table. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.