Welcome to Reign of Grace. This program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And now for today's program. Welcome to our program today. I'm glad you could join us. Today I'm going to begin preaching through a part of the Sermon on the Mount. It's in Matthew chapter 7. And I want to mainly focus on verses 13 and 14. But I want to give you some background on this sermon. The title of the message is, The Right Way to God. Or I might rephrase it, say, The Only Right Way to God. Because that's really what I want to focus on. In Matthew 7, verse 13, where it says that, Enter ye in at the straight gate, And you might notice there the word straight doesn't mean straight like in geometry, the line. The straight there is like a passage in a narrow opening like ships would go through. They go through this straight. It was a narrow passage. And so what he says is this, verse 13, enter ye in at the straight gate. And what is he talking about? He's talking about salvation. It's talking about eternal glory with God. If we're going to enter in, it's at the straight gate. And he says, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction. Now there's a wider gate and it leads to destruction. It doesn't lead to salvation. It does not lead to God. but it leads to destruction, condemnation, to hell. And he says, and many there be which go in there at. That's the majority. You know, people argue sometimes about, will there be more in heaven than in hell? And I think the Bible, I believe, I know the Bible's very clear about that. He tells you right here. He said, look at verse 14. He says, because straight is the gate, all right, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Now I could go to other scriptures to talk to you about that, but here's the thing about it. Don't be concerned with how many are gonna be in heaven, or how many are gonna be in hell. That's not your business. That's God's business. Your business is to seek to enter in at the straight gate, the narrow way, the only right way to God. And of course, as I preach in every message where I have opportunity to talk to people, to preach and to teach the scriptures, the only right way to God is the Lord Jesus Christ. and it's all found in the glory of his person now listen to this now it's not just saying christ or i believe in jesus or anything like that or jesus is the way well he is the way but the way to god the only right way to god is wrapped up in the glorious person of christ who he is And the Bible's clear on that, that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Savior, the Redeemer, the Lord of glory, the one mediator between God and men, that He is both God and man in one person. He's the Word, which was with God in the beginning and was God. The second person of the Trinity, the Holy Trinity, the Son of God who in His very nature as Deity is co-equal with the Father and the Spirit in every attribute of Deity. One God subsisting in three persons and that Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. John 1.14 and that the flesh that is talking about there is the human body of Christ. The humanity, the sinless humanity And that's important. When you talk about salvation, the only way to God, the only right way to God is Jesus Christ. You better be talking about He who is God manifest in the flesh, who is perfect in both natures, deity and humanity. He was no sinner. He was never made a sinner. Jesus Christ, the righteous. He did no wrong. He knew no sin, the Scripture says. So it is Jesus Christ in the glory of His person. And that's all through the Scriptures. Even in the first literal proclamation of the Gospel, which is found beginning in Genesis 3.15, the Savior of sinners is called the woman's seed, her seed. said he's gonna put enmity, God's gonna put enmity between the serpent's seed, that's the devil, those who follow Christ, those who are on the wide road to destruction, the wide way. And the seed of woman, and that's Christ and his people. Christ, who's the representative, who is the surety, the substitute, and the redeemer of his people. So you understand that. A great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. That's Christ. And the Bible says that His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. And then it goes on in Matthew 1.23 to tell us that His name shall be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. So when you talk about the right way to God, the only right way to be saved, to be accepted, to be eternally glorified and live forever with God in paradise in the new heavens and the new earth, you're talking about the person of Jesus Christ as God manifest in the flesh. And then secondly, if you're talking about the only right way to God, you have to be speaking of the way of Christ work His person and His work. That's why Paul said, we preach Christ crucified. and His crucifixion unto death was the capstone of all the work that He did in His obedience unto death to put away the sins of His people given to Him by God before the foundation of the world. By His death on the cross, He made satisfaction to the justice of God and brought forth a righteousness an everlasting righteousness, the righteousness of God, by which God justifies His people. To be justified is to be forgiven of all our sins on a just ground and to be declared righteous in God's sight, not by our works, but by the work of Christ. He is Jesus Christ the righteous. That's what the cross means. The cross does not mean that God felt sorry for us. It doesn't mean that God just sent his son to be a token of his love. The cross represents the love of God to his people. It does. Here in his love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. The cross is the love of God which provided the only right way to God, Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead, a way of righteousness, a way of justice, a way of mercy, a way of grace. And what Christ accomplished on the cross sealed the salvation of every sinner for whom he died was buried in a rose again. So that's the only right way to God. That's what I wanna get down to this, but let me just give you some general thoughts on the Sermon on the Mount. It begins back in Matthew chapter five, where he talks about what we call the Beatitudes. This is where Christ started. Now Christ had preached the gospel. already to the crowd, to his disciples, and he begins talking about, blessed are the poor in spirit, theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. All these beatitudes, a pronouncement of blessings. I've heard, I read a translation, you know, this blessedness is the blessing of salvation by the grace of God through the person and work of Christ. That's the blessedness. It's not just having things go well for us here on this earth. And there's one translation, I think it's pretty popular out there, who translates the word blessed as lucky. Lucky, it has nothing to do with luck. We're not fatalist. We're not throwing the dice here. The blessedness is the gift of God to his people. Some translations translate it happy, and that's okay if you put it in the proper perspective. Those who are blessed of God are not always happy about things on earth. We sorrow. Jeremiah the prophet, you know, they call him the weeping prophet, but he was happy in the Lord, blessed in the Lord. One of the Beatitudes says this, verse nine or verse 10, it says, blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Now you're not happy when you're persecuted, I hope you're not, but you are happy in the Lord, blessed of God. You can be cursed of men, but be happy and blessed of God. Paul wrote about that in Galatians 6 and verse 14. He said, God forbid that I should glory or boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me. And what that means is that Paul looked upon the unbelieving world, those who are without Christ as being cursed. And so he says, by whom the world is cursed unto me, and I unto the world. The world looks at me as being cursed. They call what Paul preached heresy. False religionists did. And he said, well, after the way they call heresy, that's how I worship the Lord. So understand that now. Christ told his disciples in John 16, he said, in the world you shall have tribulation, trouble, but be of good cheer. because I've overcome the world. That's the blessedness seed. Another of the Beatitudes says this in verse six, it said, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Now, do you hunger and thirst after righteousness? Well, do you know what righteousness is? Now, when we go and we talk about the only right way to God, we could say it this way, the only righteous way to God. Now, this hunger and this thirst for righteousness is something that we do not by nature, as we are naturally born into this world, fallen in Adam, dead in trespasses and sins, totally depraved. This hunger and thirst after righteousness is something we don't have by nature. This is a hunger and a thirst that must be given us by God, through Christ, and by the power of the Spirit in the preaching of the gospel. And the reason is, is because by nature we don't even know what righteousness is. Most people in this world would consider righteousness to be human beings seeking to be good, seeking to be sincere, generous, charitable, self-sacrificing. But here's the point, all of those things Though there are things that we should all strive for, but all those things fall short of the one way of righteousness to God, the righteousness of Christ. And Christ spoke of that over here in Matthew 5, when he's talking about in the Sermon on the Mount. Look at Matthew 5 in verse 20. He says, for I say unto you that except your righteousness, shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. You can't enter the one way of salvation unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. But now let me caution you on that. I think a lot of preachers go wrong when they talk about the Pharisees and the scribes because they represent them as being mean and unkind. Listen, I'm sure there were some of the Pharisees and some of the Sadducees and some of the scribes who were mean and unkind, being self-righteous, being self-aggrandizing, all of that. But they're just like religionists today. You'll find all kinds of different ones. Nicodemus, for example, he was a Pharisee. He was a member of the Sanhedrin, the court. But he, in the eyes of men, he was a humble person. He came to Christ by night. which shows that he was ashamed of coming to him. And he said, master, he said, we know you're a prophet sent from God. Nobody could do the things that you do if they weren't sent from God. But Nicodemus didn't know Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, as the one way of righteousness to God. So you had all kinds of them. But here's the point. In this context, the Pharisees were the religious teachers who led the people, taught the people to seek righteousness by their works. And my friend, neither you nor I, nor any other human being, no matter who they are in history or in the future, neither you nor I can attain righteousness by our works. Bible says, by deeds of law shall no flesh be justified. There's none righteous, no not one. So Christ said, unless your righteousness exceed theirs. And then beginning in Matthew chapter five, verse 21, he began to show the reality of the law to show this, the law of God, whether you're talking about the law of Moses or any law, the law of God, brings us to to face the perfection of righteousness that none of us can attain by our works. The best of us, the worst of us, and everybody in between. There is no salvation with God and there's no right way to God except we have a perfect righteousness. And that's what the one way of salvation, the one way to God has to do with. Back in Matthew chapter three, when Christ appeared on the scene to begin his public ministry, John the Baptist was out there baptizing with the baptism of repentance, pointing sinners, not to himself, not to themselves, but pointing them to the one who was to come, the Messiah, to be forgiven of their sins and to be declared righteous in God's sight. And then Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, appeared on the scene, and it says in Matthew 3 and verse 13, then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. And verse 14 says, but John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me. John recognized this Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah, the one whom he was the forerunner. And he said, how can I baptize you? You need to be baptized. I need to be baptized of you. And what he's showing here, Christ didn't need the baptism of repentance like we do. Now, water baptism doesn't save you now, it's a confession. But Christ did not have to confess his own personal sins and his need of a righteousness that he couldn't produce, because he was sent to produce one. And he says that, he says in verse 15 of Matthew 3, Jesus answering said unto him, suffer it to be so now, For thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness." And then John suffered him or baptized him. The baptism of Christ was a testimony in picture of him dying and going down into the earth and coming up as he came up out of the water in order to produce the only way of righteousness to God. The only way that a sinner could be saved is by Christ, His blood, His righteousness. And that's the straight and the narrow way, and few be there that find it. You know, even in most what people commonly call Christianity, preachers and people still believe and preach that salvation in some way, at some stage, in some degree, is conditioned on the sinner. And they put it like this. They say, well, God loves you and Christ died for you, but that does you no good unless you add your faith or make your decision, all of that. And that's not what the gospel says. That's not what the Bible says. God's people will come to faith in Christ. But that faith is the gift of God given to those for whom he lived and died and was buried and arose again. And that faith is the gift of God. It's not in us by nature. The Bible says in John 6, 44, that God says, no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him and I'll raise him up again at the last day. And it also says that all for whom Christ died shall be saved. They shall be saved. His death and barren resurrection was the seal that would bring them on this right and narrow way. And the Sermon on the Mount relates that. Here's another thing. And this is common to all false religion. They make salvation conditioned on sinners in some way, to some degree, in some form at some time. and they measure righteousness on a sliding scale. You see, if God gives you a hunger and thirst for righteousness, He's also going to show you through the preaching of the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit that the only way that a sinner can be made righteous in God's sight and be forgiven of all their sins is by Christ's righteousness. given to them by His grace, imputed, charged, accounted to them. And your hunger and your thirst for righteousness will not be filled, will not be satisfied until you find it in Jesus Christ, the Lord, our righteousness. Now that's a given. That's the only way of salvation. That's the only way of righteousness. It's the only way of forgiveness. That's what the gospel says. Paul wrote it in Romans 1, 16. He said, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and the Greek also, or the Gentile. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just, the justified shall live by faith. And what is it to live by faith? Well, it's to live our lives looking to, resting in, holding to, pleading the merits of Christ, glorious person, and finished work of salvation, of righteousness, by the grace of God. That's what it is to live by faith, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And that's all who believe in Christ and rest in Him and plead His righteousness, which the Bible calls the imputed righteousness of Christ. That's why Paul wrote in Romans 4, 6, when he described the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works. Well, where is righteousness if it's not by my word? It's in Christ. It's in the merits of His obedience unto death to put away my sins and to put forth, bring forth a perfect righteousness. You see, Christ is perfect. And that's what I need. Anything I do, even as a sinner saved by grace, falls short of the perfection of righteousness that can only be found in Christ. Now that's what the Bible means in Romans 3.23 when it says, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That means we've missed the mark, and even the best of us. Understand that. The Bible says, I think it's Psalm 50 or 51, I'm not sure, but you can check me on this, but it says, man at his best state is altogether vanity. The best man on earth, not Christ, who is the God man now, but the best human being, son of Adam on earth, still falls short of the perfection of righteousness that can only be found in the person and work of Christ. You see that? And that's the straight gate and the narrow way, the narrow way which leadeth unto life. Sin demands death. Righteousness demands life, and righteousness can only be found in Christ. Romans 5, 21, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. You see that? Now, any other way, I don't care how good it sounds, or how good it looks to people, or how sincere they are, How diligent, I don't care what it is, any other way is the broad way that leads to destruction. And many there be which go in therein. Few will find the one way to God, the only way to God. And understand that it's a way of salvation. We could say it this way, it's the way of the cross. There's an old hymn that people sing, the way of the cross leads home. Well, what is the way of the cross? It's the way of salvation by the blood, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, imputed to me. And all those to whom God has imputed or charged or accounted that righteousness, they will be given the gift of faith. Seek the Lord, seek to enter in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate that leads to destruction, broad is the way, but narrow, narrow, the straight gate, straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leads unto life. and few there be that find it. Lord, let me be one of those few. I'm not talking about elitism or pride or anything like that. Oh, if God shows it to you, you'll be humbled by His grace. I hope you'll join us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, Write us at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening today and may the Lord be with you.