The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, September 4th, 1994, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. As those of us who were here in the Sunday school hour were reminded, God delights to disclose himself and his ways to those who cry out to him for knowledge lift up their voices for understanding as well as those who are prepared to search for it as for hidden treasure. Let us then together cry to God that he would, by the Word and the Spirit, teach us in the inner man, teach us with life-transforming power and grace as we come to the ministry of the Word of God. Let us pray. Our Father, we are mindful of your word through the prophet Jeremiah, in which you pronounced a curse upon any man who trusts in man and who makes flesh his arm. And we therefore would turn away from all confidence in any notion that there is any ability in any one of us rightly to understand or to receive your word without the present and powerful aid of the Holy Spirit. And we thank you that in acknowledging our need, we have the promise of our Lord Jesus that if we who are evil know how to give good gifts unto our children, how much more will you, our Heavenly Father, give the Holy Spirit to those who ask you. We come asking them that the Spirit would attend the ministry of the Word, the one who attempts to minister that Word, and those who receive it. Come, O breath of God, in might and felt power upon us, we plead through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. In one of the richest sections of the Word of God with respect to the work of the Christian ministry, the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 wrote, for we must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he hath done Whether it be good or bad, knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men. 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 in that great day, He does not mean that we shall only appear before God in judgment, But in the words of Philip Hughes, to be made manifest means not just to appear, but to be laid bare, stripped of every outward facade of respectability, and openly revealed in the full and true reality of one's character. No wonder Paul said, knowing the fear of the Lord, We persuade men. And it is within this apostolic perspective that we've been engaged throughout these summer months in a series of sermons entitled, Are You For Real? And it has been my open, unashamed intention in this series of sermons to persuade each one of you to bring your professed attachment to Christ, your professed possession of eternal life in Christ to the objective standard of the Word of God. and, in a real sense, to have a day of personal judgment before the great day of universal judgment. And in bringing the Word of God to bear upon this most crucial question, am I for real? We have spent a number of weeks focusing our attention upon the words of our Lord Jesus as recorded in Matthew 7, verses 13 and 14. In his excellent commentary on the Gospels, David Brown, regarding these words as I regard them, as the beginning of our Lord's conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, writes as follows, Multitudes would never face this, but it must be faced, else the consequences will be fatal. This would divide all within the sound of these truths articulated by our Lord into two classes. The many who will follow the path of ease and self-indulgence end where it might. and the few who bent on eternal safety above everything else take the only way that leads to it at whatever cost. And surely he has captured the essence of the gracious, regal invitation of Christ to enter into the kingdom found in these words, 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 compressed, restricted, difficult the way that leads unto life, and few are they that find it. In seeking to understand our Lord's description of those who are for real, we have underscored the fact that there are three inseparable and irreversible realities in these words of Christ. Our Lord has placed before us a narrow gate A restricted way and their issuance in the consummate blessings of eternal life. A gate and a way and life. Jesus Christ Himself, who came from heaven to secure the salvation of a people whom He would eventually take to heaven with Himself, has said, there is no way to heaven if we miss the gate, if we avoid the way. These things are both inseparable and irreversible. Further, we have established that the gate, characterized by its narrowness, is used by our Lord as a figure for a sound biblical conversion, a conversion which involves the renunciation of our own righteousness, of our own will, of our sins, and of the world. We then began to consider the way, the way which has as its distinguishing trait its restrictedness, its compressed or pressured nature, the exact opposite of the broad way that issues in destruction. Now in an attempt to focus our minds upon the specific aspects of the restricted way, I've highlighted a fundamental principle which both undergirds and determines the specifics of the way. And that principle is this, the restricted way, called in the older versions the straightened way, which we have seen from a study of the word flebo means pressured, restricted. That this restricted way is nothing more and nothing less than an extension into every area of one's life throughout the entire duration of one's life of the basic issues of life confronted and resolved at the narrow gate. We must grasp that principle if we are accurately to understand the nature of that way which leads unto life. It is nothing more and nothing less than an extension into every area of one's life throughout the entire duration of one's life, of the issues of life confronted and resolved at a narrow gate. In Pauline language, Colossians 2.6, as you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Now with this principle in hand, we've considered the first two specific aspects of this compressed way. If entering the narrow gate involves the repudiation of our own righteousness as the ground of our acceptance with God, then the restricted way is comprised of living in the faith, that Christ crucified, risen, and interceding, that this Christ alone is the ongoing ground of our acceptance before God. What is resolved at the gate now extends into every area of life for the duration of life. So in the language of John, the possessor of eternal life continually eats of Christ's flesh and drinks of his blood. In simple, non-metaphorical language, Galatians 2.20, he lives in the faith of the Christ who loved him and gave himself for him. And then we saw the second aspect of the narrow way is this. If entering the narrow gate involves the renunciation of self-will and self-serving as the governing principle of life, Then the restricted way is comprised of living in a pattern of choosing to deny ourselves in order to please Christ and to serve others. Now today, in both the morning and evening communion meditation, we throw the spotlight of the Word of God upon the third specific aspect of the compressed way which alone leads to life. And in doing this, I will follow the basic outline which I used last Lord's Day. We'll consider first a description of the third major aspect of the compressed, the restricted, the difficult way, a demonstration of the biblical basis of that description, and then an explanation of why this aspect contributes to the restricted nature of the way. Description, demonstration, explanation. First of all then, a description of the third major aspect of the restricted way. Now remember the basic principle that connects the gate with the way. As we unfolded the nature of getting through the narrow gate, I trust those who were here will remember that we said the third major factor involved in getting through the narrow gate was this. There had to be a renouncing from the heart of the mastery and the practice of sin as the pattern of our lives. a renouncing from the heart of the mastery and the practice of sin as a pattern of life. Well, if that is indeed an essential element reckoned with at the narrow gate, then what makes the way a restricted and pressured way is simply this. It is living in the reality of freedom from the dominion of sin and in the practice of the constant mortification of remaining sin. Let me give it to you again. It is living in the reality of freedom from the dominion of sin and in the practice of the constant mortification of remaining sin. Or to state the same thing in a positive way, If we have repudiated from the heart the mastery and practice of sin at the gate, the narrow, the restricted, the pressured way is living on the dominion of righteousness and becoming increasingly conformed to the image of Christ. That's just the positive side of the former statement. Living in the reality of freedom from the dominion of sin and in the practice of constant mortification of remaining sin is the negative way of expressing it. To state essentially the same thing in positive terms is to state it is living under the dominion of righteousness and becoming increasingly conformed to the image of Christ. or to state the same thing in the most simple and succinct manner, the restricted way is the way of gospel holiness. Now, dear people, I've tried to state it negatively. I've tried to state it positively. I've tried to state it simply and succinctly. I cannot do your thinking for you. But I'm prepared to assert that this conception of this third aspect of the narrow way captures the teaching of our Lord Jesus, both in the Sermon on the Mount, in his general teaching, and in the entire teaching of the Word of God, particularly the unfolding of the truth of God in the remainder of the New Testament. And so that brings us to a demonstration of the biblical basis for this description. Now, here again, As I'm demonstrating, I'm addressing you to text and asking you to think with me through the text. But remember, this is not a skull exercise. If there is no way to life, But through the gate and upon the way, this is a matter of your soul's eternal salvation? To ask, am I for real? Am I on that restricted way? Is my life a living expression of this principle? Sin no longer has dominion over me. I am engaging in the constant mortification of my remaining sin. Or the positive statement, I am under the gracious rule of righteousness. And by the grace of God, I am being increasingly conformed to the image of Christ. Or in the most succinct statement, I am by the grace of God, unmistakably in the way of gospel holiness. Dear people, this is life. This is death. While we've prayed and while we've been reminded that we must gird up the loins of our minds and with the greatest diligence apply ourselves to the acquisition of knowledge, remember, this is not knowledge for knowledge's sake. You're not sitting there to make judgments about the preacher's homiletics or his outline. You and I are before the Word of God with the question, am I for real? Or will the great day of unveiling show me to be but a mere professing Christian who was a stranger to the power of the grace of God? Well then, we come to a demonstration of the biblical basis for this description, and I want to lay out that demonstration under two major categories. First, from the specific teaching of our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount, and then secondly, and more briefly, from the general teaching of the remainder of the New Testament. So in setting out a demonstration of the biblical basis for this description, we consider, first of all, the specific teaching of our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount. As we've had opportunity on several occasions to go through the Sermon on the Mount, we have seen that it sets before us, among other things, both the peculiar identity of the true sons and daughters of the kingdom of grace, and the patterns of activity which characterize the true subjects of the kingdom. Their identity and their activity. Now with Matthew 5, 6, and 7 open before us, and I would urge you to have that portion of the Word of God open upon your lap, consider with me that this description of the way is indeed an accurate distillation of the teaching of our Lord Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, first of all with respect to the identity of the people of God, and then secondly with respect to their activity. When their identity as to character and influence is described, does that description fit our definition of those who are in the restricted way? Does it accord with the words, they live in the reality of freedom from the dominion of sin and in the practice of the constant mortification of sin? Does their identity here in the Sermon on the Mount fit this description? They live under the dominion of righteousness and they are increasingly conformed to the image of Christ. Does their identity as described by the Lord Jesus fit that most succinct description of this aspect? They are in the way of gospel holiness. Well, let's seek to answer it from the text. Note first in their fundamental character traits, for that is what we are given in the Beatitudes. 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. When His grace has been operative to bring them into the kingdom, when they have experienced the new birth, those subjects of the kingdom all look like the portrait of the Beatitudes. In some, one of the features may be more dominant than in others. In some, some of the features may be more pronounced and more fully developed. And while there are individual differences in every individual portrait, nonetheless, these character traits identify every single son or daughter who is in the kingdom of grace for real. And within that description will you notice how many of them pertain to this third aspect of the narrow way. They have to do with the dominion of sin or the reign of righteousness. They have to deal with the mortification of sin or conformity to the image of God as revealed in Christ. They have to do with gospel holiness. Look at the opening words in verse 3, blessed are the poor in spirit. Not blessed are those who at one point in their lives felt a twinge of conscience and a little dose of conviction 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. And among the words in the Greek language that can be used for being poor, this is a word that underscores someone who's poor to the point of beggary. Someone who is poverty stricken. And our Lord describes all the subjects of this kingdom as those who carry with them a fundamental disposition of poverty of spirit. For the more they know their God, the more they know that which they reckoned with at the gate, that they are nothing, have nothing, and can do nothing but sin apart from the grace of God. They are nothing and have nothing to commend themselves to God. And the more they grow in grace, and the more they know the full extent of their duties, and the fact that God's law touches the deepest springs of heart and motive and desire, They see themselves more and more as plagued with these remnants of sin. And there is a growing awareness of that which they reckon with at the gate. I am nothing. I have nothing. I can do nothing to commend myself to God. And they don't leave that disposition at the gate. It is carried with them. And it is their companion until they cross that river. and enter into the presence of God and of the Lamb. Second beatitude. Blessed are they, notice, not who mourned at one time in their lives when conscience was active, when the fear of hell and judgment was focused in the conscience, and they were aware that they deserved to die under the wrath and curse of God, and they shed a few tears and made a few resolutions and made a decision, and now they've left all mourning behind them. No, no, blessed are they that mourn. It is an abiding state of the soul. Happy are the 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. 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 came to heal man in all of his brokenness in sin, blessed are they that mourn. What do they mourn about? They mourn about the things that grow out of their poverty of spirit. They not only mourned at the gate for godly sorrow works, repentance not to be repented of. There is in all true repentance for sin, in genuine conversion, true spirit wrought internal grief for sin, for you sorrowed with a godly sorrow unto repentance. And there is no true repentance but that godly sorrow leads unto it and is an integral part of it. But Jesus said, they continue to mourn. Why? Because now when they sin, they sin with eyes that are 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 as offensive to a gracious and a pardoning Savior like Peter. Whatever tears they may have wept prior to coming through the gate, It was when his Lord Jesus, standing in the place of being judged, looked upon Peter who had fallen into the sin of cowardice and denial, it says, when he looked upon him, Peter wept. I've sinned against the one who is voluntarily going to the place of shame and execution to nakedness and to the very judgment of God. Blessed are they who mourn in describing the third dimension or aspect of the narrow way as the way in which the true people of God manifest deliverance from the dominion of sin and a constant mortification of remaining sin. They show that they are under the reign of righteousness, and they are increasingly being conformed to the image of Christ. They're in the way of gospel holiness. Do you see that that man-made description fits the witness of Jesus' description of the fundamental character traits of all the subjects of his kingdom? But don't stop there. Go on to verse 6. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst, notice, not after self-fulfillment, self-actualization, self-expression, self-aggrandizement, self-this or self-that. All the subjects of this kingdom are marked as those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. 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 this kingdom, regardless of what they may or may not know in the physical realm of hunger and thirst, they know what spiritual hunger pangs are, and what spiritual thirst is, and it is all terminated upon righteousness. And in the context of the Sermon on the Mount, that hunger and thirst which are focused upon righteousness refers not primarily to the righteousness imputed to us when we throw the weight of our sin-guilty, hell-deserving souls upon Christ in the death grip of faith, and we are reckoned righteous in the court of heaven, But it is speaking of that righteousness which is imparted by the Holy Spirit in the way of gospel holiness, in the way of the use of the means that God has given. A righteousness measured by the standard of the length and breadth and depth and penetrating demands of the law of God. A righteousness measured by such words as verse 48 of chapter 5, you shall be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. And Jesus describes all the subjects of his kingdom, dear people, may God somehow Break through the shell of your inability to feel the weight of this. Every one of these subjects has hunger, pangs, and thirsts for more righteousness. They've never reached a place where they say, well, I'm respectable enough now to make a credible profession before the elders of Trinity Baptist Church and have no one object, and once I'm in, I can coast. No. No. No, for within the heart of the true son or daughter of the kingdom, a heart that now knows what it is to have the Spirit with the Word, be a constant internal interrogator and investigator, showing all of the cobwebs in the corner of the room called motives, and all of the vermin that crawl in the dark crevices called fantasies, and ambitions, and unspoken attitudes of envy and jealousy and bitterness. And therefore the mark of the true child of God is that seeing the standard of holiness before Him, knowing that He has been marked out for nothing less than total conformity to the image of Christ in body and in spirit, in glorification, He hungers and he thirsts for as much of that righteousness as God can give a redeemed sinner this side of heaven. Now, Jesus said only such people are blessed. I didn't say it. He said it. He said, but pastor, if 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. That's why he said, after urging people to enter the narrow gate, and telling them that that gate would lead to a flebilized, a restricted, a pressured way, to warn them that there would always be a convenient alternative, a wide gate and a broad way. all kinds of elbow room for smugness, self-contentment, reaching a level of respectability, and being irritated when preachers go after your conscience to say maybe you're not as holy as you ought to be, and as holy as the grace of God can make you. finding things to nitpick with, when in reality the issue is there's no hunger, no thirst for righteousness. And if there is none as a pattern of life, I am not speaking of arrested growth in temporary periods of backsliding and spiritual dryness. Alas, alas, I know too well those realities. But as a pattern of life, The only subjects of the kingdom according to the king himself are those who are poor in spirit, who mourn, who hunger and thirst. That's not all. Look at verse eight. Blessed are the pure in heart. They shall see God. They alone shall see God with delight in what the old writers called the beatific vision. The language of John, we shall be like him, we shall see him as he is. Who will see him in a way that will be the consummate glory and delight of their souls? Only the pure in heart. Though I do not have the time to demonstrate from the Old Testament usage of this terminology, and the New Testament usage, it's used all the way in the pastoral epistles, call on them, call on the Lord with them who call upon him out of a pure heart. It does not refer so much to internal moral cleansing like we'd say to our kids, hey, hey, hey, wait a minute, go back and wash your hands again, they're not clean, you only washed the palms, you didn't wash the backs of your hands. More than once I came to the table, Show your hands." I'd turn them this way, and then my dad would say, turn them over. He'd say, you haven't washed your hands. You only washed half of them. Go back to the bathroom again. Well, it's not speaking of cleanliness and purity in that sense, but rather purity in the sense of singleness, an undivided heart. It's speaking of single-eyed devotion. And Jesus said, blessed are the pure in heart, those who no longer have a divided heart. They've settled at the gate. No, no. I will not seek to be under sin's dominion and the dominion of righteousness. I will not seek to walk in the way of knowingly indulging sin while constantly running for forgiveness if my conscience pressures me too much and I become miserable. No, they have a heart that by the regenerating work of the Spirit has been made a pure heart, that is a heart that is under the reign of righteousness, has repudiated the Dominion of sin, a heart committed to continual mortification of remaining sin, a heart committed to increasing conformity to Christ, a heart committed to gospel holiness, 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 have been persecuted, not for boorishness sake, You walk in the office the first day, and while you're supposed to be at your desk going over the morning mail, you're passing out a tract to everyone and badgering people in the men's room or the ladies' room and leaving gospel tracts on the back of the toilets. You're making a nuisance of yourself. To be persecuted for that is not what Jesus is talking about. He's talking about people committed to righteousness, that is, the standard of holiness required by God and His law, under the motivation of gratitude for the grace revealed in His gospel. Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom only belongs to those in whom the king has so set up his reign of righteousness that given enough time that reign of righteousness becomes manifest to all who are in contact with this man or woman and sooner or later there will be opposition for righteousness sake. This is but an anticipation of the words of the apostle in 2 Timothy, and all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. There may be all kinds of manifestations of it, but the person who knows no suffering for righteousness' sake, who says he's on the way and been on the way for some time, not talking about the man now who just got through the gate, who barely, like Christian's pilgrim, has gotten over the wonder of that tremendous load rolling off his back and down into an open tomb, You've been in the way long enough for the patterns of your life to be known by others. And it's interesting, this is the only beatitude that our Lord amplifies. And he says, blessed are you when men shall reproach you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you. And why did they pick on the prophets? Because the prophets were God's eye and God's mouth in the midst of Israel. And when the false prophets were telling people external rites and rituals are enough, your connection with Abraham by blood is enough, the prophets were saying it is not enough. God wants your heart. Circumcise your heart and not your foreskin. 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 religious beliefs, 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's all right 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 manifests that Almighty God is no nearsighted, indulgent, celestial grandpop with his hands folded over his big belly in his rocking chair, smiling indulgently upon his little bratty grandchildren. And your life begins to manifest that in the language of one of the old Puritans when he was asked, why do you live such a precise life? He said, because I serve a precise God. I serve a precise 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 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 unconverted children when they sit under the Word and are indifferent, and you as a true Christian committed to righteousness. You were prepared when in exercise of your godly headship in that home, you gave a directive that was legitimate and right and righteous, but you know when you gave it, your spirit was tinged with an element of carnal anger. And before you dare to read the Bible and pray and be priest in your home, you gather your family and say, kids, honey, when I gave that directive a few minutes ago, it was right in its substance. But my spirit was tinged with sinful 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, Thoughts of desire for her body have been kindled in your breast. No one knows but you in God Do you deal with it before the eye of God Do you then make it evident when others can make light of those things you have no fellowship you'll suffer for righteousness sake You'll suffer when in those hot patches and everybody can go on off to the beach. And you know for you, I can't go and see all that bare flesh and have my prayers answered that I'll have a pure mind. So I'm willing to stay at home and sweat rather than go to the beach and be cool with a bloodied conscience. That's what we're talking about, folks. You say, Pastor, that's fanatical. If that's fanatical, my friend, you've got a controversy with Jesus. Because he said, whoso looks with an intent to lust hath committed adultery, and then he goes on to anticipate the excuse, but I can't help it, my eye looks. He says, if your eye offends, pluck it out. What's he mean? If the time at the beach or at the pool is the occasion of offense, don't go to the beach, don't go to the pool. If you say, I'll be hot, hell will be a lot hotter. I'll be uncomfortable, hell will be a lot more uncomfortable. And Jesus said, it's amputate or burn in hell. Better to enter into life maimed than having two hands to go into hell. Jesus said it. I didn't. Don't go out and say, well, Pastor Martin's made the way too difficult. These are the words of the Son of God. And when He describes His people, He describes a people in whom the dominion of sin has been broken, and who are in a course of seeking to mortify their sins. He describes them in this composite picture as a people who've embraced the reign of righteousness and are hungering and thirsting for more of that righteousness. He describes them as a people who, having given their hearts in full allegiance to Him, are determined to maintain purity of heart, singleness of heart. And when the affection of husband, wife, father, mother, brother, sister, when the interest and demands of home and work and a thousand other things would divide the heart, At that point, the true son or daughter of the kingdom says, no, no man can serve two masters who either love the one and hate the other. There is no neutral clinging to two masters with a divided heart. At the gate, my heart was won by Christ. And in the power and grace of the Spirit, I pledged it to Christ. I will not go a whoring with a divided heart after any other even though it may be God's gift of a husband, wife, or children, or job, or home, or whatever it may be. That's their fundamental character traits. But then notice in their radical distinction from the rest of the world, Jesus also describes the identity of his people, and this is as far as we'll get this morning. And as I've said right along, I'm far more concerned to preach these things in than simply run through an outline. Here in the Sermon on the Mount, as he identifies his people, he first of all identifies them in their fundamental character traits. And I trust I've persuaded your judgment that in that description of their fundamental character traits, there is indeed material from which to construct the statement. The third aspect of the compressed way is that it is living. In the reality of freedom from sin's dominion and in the constant mortification of remaining sin, it is the compressed way of living under the reign of righteousness and seeking greater conformity to Christ. It is the way of gospel holiness. But he describes their identity not only in their fundamental character traits, but in verses 13 to 16, he gives their radical distinction from the rest of the world. He underlines their radical distinction. In their identity, they are radically distinct from the rest of the world. He says, not you ought to be. You may in periods of revival sometimes be, but he says of all the true subjects of his kingdom, you are. You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt is lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. It says in their identity now, not so much individually, but corporately, the nature of his people, the identity of his people is they are salt. And the primary function of salt in that culture was that of checking putrefaction. Had no Kenmores, and had no Kelvinators, and had no Amana refrigerators and freezers. And salt was used as a preservative. And He says, you, my people, are that. Your radically different lifestyle of righteousness under the dominion of righteousness and in the way of righteousness is like grains of salt sprinkled on a piece of meat that otherwise we'll find under the Mediterranean heat and sun, the bacteria multiplying until it becomes rancid and inedible. And our Lord says, that's what my people are. They do not conform to the putrefaction of the world around them. They act as a check to that putrefaction simply by being what they are. You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world, indicating the world is held in horrible, thick darkness, like the darkness of that night in Egypt. He says to his own, you are light, from you goes forth a radiance that both points the way of blessedness of the true child of God that exposes the darkness and the sin. Remember John 3, this is the condemnation that light is coming to the world. referring to the coming of Christ. And men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. He that does truth comes to the light. He that does evil will not come to the light lest his deeds should be manifest. This is our Lord's description of the identity of His people. They are salt and they are light. Why? Because coming through the gate, The issue of the dominion and practice of sin was settled. And now, upon the narrow way, out of gospel motives, in the strength and power of the Spirit, guided by the Word, assisted by all the means ordained of Christ, what are they doing? They are making manifest that sin's dominion has been broken. They are committed to a relentless warfare of putting to death their remaining sins as they crop out and as they manifest themselves in their hearts and in their lives. They make it manifest that they've embraced the reign of righteousness and they've accepted Christ as their standard and the perfection of the Father revealed in Christ is their goal. He that says he abides in Him ought to walk even as He walked. That's the pattern of their lives. and therefore they become salt. When they walk into the room and everyone's been defying over the latest dirty joke, 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 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, I had not seen the vast majority of the classmates who graduated with me until I went to my 25th reunion. Graduated in 1952, so with a little arithmetic you can figure out when it was. 62, 72, 77. And it was the most amazing thing. My wife and I showed up at the so-called cocktail hour. And obviously, we weren't going there for cocktails, but to try to mingle with the people while we sipped our Coke. And there'd be groups of my former classmates standing around, holding their various mixed drinks and laughing and guffawing. And the moment I stepped into the circle, they got silent. They got fidgety. They got nervous. I wasn't dressed like a freak. I'd bought an almost brand new suit for the occasion. I'd had my hair cut, had a new tie. I think I looked rather smart for someone entering middle age. But suddenly they got all nervous. My wife had a lovely dress on, corsage. What was the issue? Light was penetrating their darkness. And when they started to ask their questions, it was very interesting, they said, oh, Al, how are you? I haven't seen you in all these 25 years. Are you still, I said, am I still the religious fanatic that you remember? Alas, the answer's yes. And by the grace of God, I've served the Christ who laid hold of me in that high school in whom I tried to set before you, and he's been a gracious master. He's given me this dear woman to be my wife, and I went on to tell whoever would listen to me what my God in Christ had done for me in grace. Oh, you could see the minute someone associated with light came into the group, they got all nervous. I ask you high school kids, I've been emphasizing this in this whole series, there's no double standard. You who attend this high school on the hill, you attend the high school in Pompton Plains or Pequonic or wherever else it may be, does any group of guys feel a little edgy and nervous when you walk in the locker room or do you blend right in? Do any gals feel nervous when you come into their circle when they're talking about their weekend parties? Is there anything about you that is salt, that checks the putrefaction, that is light, that exposes? If not, you better ask whether or not you're for real. Because Jesus said, all who are his true people, not those who seem to be, but have lost their savor, apostates, sham Christians, those who have no abiding reality, who seem to get through the gate, but are not upon the way. Fit for nothing, Jesus says. In another context, not even fit for the dunghill, only fit to be used underfoot as part of grit under your feet to make a path a little safer in slippery weather. That's the description Christ gives of his people. They haven't even gotten to their activity. God willing, we'll take that up tonight in their prayers and in their pattern of life. I'd urge you to read chapter six in particular. but I would rest my case simply upon the data I've laid before you. If Jesus Christ is to be trusted to know enough about what his grace will produce in all of his people, then you better take seriously that if you're for real and you're really on the way that leads to life, then one of the surefire evidences of that is this, that you are living in such a way in the grace and power of God, that it's manifest in your life. Sin's dominion has been broken, and remaining sin is being mortified. Your reigning death blows upon it in every way of God's appointment. If you are truly on the compressed way that leads to life, It is evident to state it positively that you're living under the reign of righteousness and you like it. And you're seeking to be more and more conformed to the image of Christ. You are in the way of gospel holiness. I close with asking this question of you sitting here this morning under the word that you have heard. Are you for real? You profess to believe in Christ. You profess to be joined to Christ. My question is this, if you're for real, then it should be evident that you're on the compressed, the difficult, the pressured way which leads to life. And one indispensable aspect of that way is living a life of gospel And if you're not living such a life, my friend, don't start trying to live it. You need to get through the gate. You need to be converted. You need to cry to the God of heaven to give you a new heart, to give you eyes to behold his glory in the face of Christ. give you eyes to see what your sin deserves and where your sin will take you. If God is pleased to answer that cry for mercy, then you'll come through the gate, renouncing all righteousness of your own and throwing your sinful, hell-deserving soul upon the mercy of God in Christ alone. You will at that gate renounce self-will and self-serving as the pattern of your life. You will renounce the mastery and the practice of sin as the pattern of life. And you'll kiss the world goodbye and say, from henceforth, Christ and his people will be my companions. If you have not seen yourself in this description given by the Son of God of the identity of His people, then hear His gracious words, enter in by the gate, get into the gate, then you will find yourself upon the way which leads unto life. But even now, with struggles going on in some of you, you say, but I've been told it wasn't that difficult. All I need to do is admit I'm a sinner, believe Christ died on the cross, and all is well. That's the wide gate of mere nominal Christianity. That's the broad way of empty formalism. But remember where it leads to. Jesus said it leads to. outer darkness to weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. May God grant you will give yourself no rest until you know you've been through the narrow gate. Jesus said, if getting through it involves what from your standpoint is nothing short of mental and spiritual agony, he commands in Luke 13, 24, agonize to enter in by the gate. That's the word of Christ. It's not some Puritan doctrine of conversion. It's Jesus' doctrine of conversion. And his death is applied only to those who are brought through that narrow gate by his power in the way of his appointment. And if you've sat here this morning, open to the searchlight of the Word, and have had to say, oh God, if I were to deny that sin's dominion has been broken, that I am seeking to mortify my remaining sin, If I were to deny that I love the reign of righteousness and I want to be more like Christ, if I were to deny that I know something of poverty of spirit and mourning and hungering and thirsting for righteousness and being persecuted for righteousness sake, if I were to deny that in some little way God's made me in the company of his people light and salt, I would deny the glory that is due to God for his work of grace in me, then child of God, rejoice. Thank God for what he's done and pray, oh Lord Jesus, may I be nerved with renewed measures of determination to press on in that one restricted, pressured way, which alone leads unto life. Our Father, how we thank you again for your holy word. We thank you for our Lord Jesus, the great prophet of his church. For that word which you have spoken concerning him, that you would raise up a prophet like unto Moses, and that to him we should hearken in all things, and that the soul that would not hearken unto him should be cut off from among the people. Oh, that we may hear the words of Jesus that we have meditated upon this morning. May they be saving words, assuring words, encouraging words, life-begetting words. Oh God, use your word according to your own purpose to the end that you will be glorified, we ask through the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.