The Narrow Way

And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left. Isaiah 30:21

It is an infinite mercy for the church of God that the religion of Jesus Christ is not a religion of uncertainties. The way to heaven is not built upon 'possibilities'. All has been designed by infinite wisdom, infinite mercy, and infinite love; and what has been thus designed will be executed by infinite power. We indeed are ever fluctuating, as restless as the sea, as fickle as the wind, as changeable as the weather. But God changes not; He is "the same yesterday, and today, and forever" (Heb. 13:8); "the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17). O what an inestimable mercy, so far as we are the children of God, that though we change, He changes not!

And His promises are as unchangeable as Himself. He is a God who cannot lie. "All the promises of God in Him" (Christ Jesus) "are yes and in Him Amen unto the glory of God by us" (2 Cor. 1: 20). One of these promises—as firm as the everlasting hills, as stable as the throne of the Almighty itself—is in the words before us, a promise blessedly adapted to our changeable and fickle minds: And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left.

Two things seem prominent in the words before us, which we may thus simply characterize: first, man's weakness and waywardness;and secondly, God's heavenly and infallible teaching.Man's weakness and waywardness we find pointed out by the expression, "When you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left;" implying that there is in the people of God a continual proneness to turn aside to the one hand or to the other. And God's heavenly and infallible teaching is pointed out in the words– Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it."

I. Man's weakness and waywardness. God knows what is in the heart of man. It is said of the Lord Jesus Christ, He "needed not that any should testify of man; for He knew what was in man" (John 2:25). We read too, "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight; but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do" (Heb. 4:12). Thus, the Lord foresaw and foreknew all our weakness and all our waywardness. He knew, and that perfectly, that left to ourselves, we could do nothing but sin; and short of His divine teaching, we could do nothing but err.

But let us, as the Lord may enable, enter a little more closely and deeply into man's weakness and waywardness as here set forth; for I am sure that a true knowledge and just appreciation of the malady is indispensable to a true knowledge and just appreciation of the remedy. If we are so ignorant of our own hearts as not to know that there is that in us which continually turns us aside "to the right hand" or "to the left," we may prize, or seem to prize, such a promise as this, but it will be only with our lips. There will be no inward value set upon such a promise in our hearts, unless we are acquainted, deeply acquainted with our own waywardness, backslidings, and continual departings in heart, in lip, and in life from the living God.

"When you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left." What do these words imply? To my mind they imply this: that the way in which God would have us to walk is perfectly straight, without a single crook (bend or turn), or the slightest deviation from a right line. But when we, poor, fallen, feeble, ignorant, guilty, sinful wretches; when we would make some endeavors and feeble attempts, like a child learning to walk, in the straight and narrow path, we turn aside from the right line. And this turning aside is sometimes "to the right hand," and sometimes "to the left."

I cannot, I shall not attempt to define accurately what the blessed Spirit meant by "the right hand," in contradistinction "to the left." There may be a particular mystical meaning in it which my weak mind cannot enter into. I shall, therefore, merely lay before you what I know and feel on the matter as distinct from any mere fanciful or mystical interpretation.

"The right hand" is opposed "to the left." By the words, therefore, we have two extremes marked out as distinct from a narrow straight line. If you look at professors generally, and if you look at what far more deeply and nearly concerns you, the movements of your own heart, you will find there is a perpetual deviation to the one side or the other; and you will observe that these deviations are, generally speaking, contrary and opposed to each other. Let me instance this in a few examples.

1. Sometimes there is a turning aside to self-righteousness. Pharisaism is bound up in our hearts. It is born with us, grows with our growth, and strengthens with our strength. There is, therefore, in our minds an inward propensity to self-righteousness, in some men's minds certainly more so than in others; but the same propensity exists, in a greater or less degree, in every man to self-righteousness, pharisaism, a leaning upon something to be done by the creature in contradistinction to the finished work of Jehovah Jesus.

But there is an extreme on "the left hand" into which we are just as prone to run—an antinomian licentiousness. Sometimes we think too highly of works, and lean upon them, as though actually there were some merit in them, on "the right hand"; and then, on "the left hand," we indulge in our minds—I do not say in outward action—but slip away in our thoughts into antinomian licentiousness, as though it did not matter whether there were any works at all; as though the fruits of the Spirit in the outward life were of no consequence; as though so long as we had experience in our souls, it did not signify what works attended it. Now, there is a turning "to the left," just as much as pharisaism and self-righteousness is a turning "to the right."

2. Again. There is in many professors, and to go no farther, within ourselves (for before our eyes let the mirror be held up; we have work enough to look at home), there is a tendency to turn aside after dead assurance, carnal ease, a resting upon the doctrines of God's Word without a vital experience of their life and power. In this snare how many hundreds are caught! O what a blight it is over the church of the living God! I have long marked, and do still mark and grieve over the effects of this dead, empty, notional carnal assurance, sweeping as it were over the land; and I see in it the death of all good. It so hardens the conscience; it makes sin so little cared for and thought of; it is such a barrier against everything tender, humble, broken and contrite; that I say again, wherever it comes it seems to be the death of all good. Yet we find it, I doubt not, in our hearts; a leaning to carnal security, a resting upon doctrines, a getting into an easy state, when the Lord is pleased to leave us unchastened, unafflicted.

But then there is a "left hand" in the matter, which is to be in that state where there is a resting in doubts and fears; where there are no deliverances, no bright prospects, no cheering words, no heavenly glimpses, no divine testimonies, nor any desires after them. Now this is a turning "to the left hand," as much as dead assurance is a turning "to the right."

3. Again. There is a turning aside "to the right hand" in making too much of God's precepts, as though nothing else were worth attending to. There are ministers who deal them out from the pulpit week after week, as though obeying the precepts and keeping the precepts were the all in all of religion; while the work of the Spirit on the soul, His inward teachings and enlightenings, are thought little or nothing of. Precept! precept! precept! Sunday after Sunday, as though keeping God's precepts were the sure way to glory.

But again, there is a turning aside "to the left"; a neglect of the precepts, a despising of them, a saying, "What have we to do with the precepts? It is all legality and self-righteousness. Let us have experience. Away with the precepts! we care nothing for them." Now this is just as much a turning aside "to the left hand" as making too much of the precepts is a turning aside "to the right."

4. But, further, there is a turning aside "to the right hand" by an undue setting up of ordinances, as though there were something in prayer, baptism, and the Lord's Supper apart from what God makes them to be; and as if the sum and substance of all true religion were "to walk in the ordinances of the Lord's house blameless."

But there is also a turning aside "to the left" in despising the ordinances, in pouring contempt upon baptism and the Lord's Supper, neglecting prayer and the preaching of the Word, and counting these divine appointments legal.

5. Again. An observing and reproving of the faults of the children of God and an overlooking of their good qualities, having the eye continually fixed on their defects and infirmities; this is a turning aside on "the right hand."

But then, on the other hand, to make light of sin, justify transgression, and consider it immaterial how the child of God acts or walks, is a turning aside "to the left."

Time would scarcely suffice to run through the various extremes into which we thus are from time to time continually driven. Left to itself, our nature can never do anything but sin. We may say, perhaps, and think ourselves very sincere in saying it, "I will never turn aside 'to the right' hand; I will never turn aside 'to the left'; I will keep the straight and narrow path." But how this shows our ignorance of self! If left to ourselves, without God's heavenly teaching in our soul, I am well convinced we can do nothing but sin and go astray. It is, therefore, an unspeakable mercy that God has recorded this special promise in the Word of life: Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left.

II. This leads me to enter upon the second part of our subject, to show God's heavenly and infallible teachingwhich preserves the soul, or brings it back when it turns aside "to the right hand" or "to the left."

"And your ears shall hear a word behind you." God does all things by His word. It was by His word, in the first instance, that He created all things. He had but to say, "Let there be light," and there was light. It is by His word that God is pleased to beget souls into spiritual life: "Of His own will He begat us with the word of truth" (James 1:18). It is by His word He is pleased, from time to time, to speak conviction to the soul; and it is by His word He is pleased to bring peace and consolation to the heart.

Now, referring to this power of God's word, the text declares: Your ears shall hear a WORD behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it." But God has various ways of speaking to the soul "when we turn to the right hand, and when we turn to the left."

1. Sometimes God speaks by His providence. God's providences have a voice in them where there is an ear to hear; but if there is no ear to hear, they are unmarked. Those to whom the promise is made have ears to hear; for the text declares, "Your ears shall hear a word behind you." God often, then, speaks in His providence. For instance, if we have turned aside "to the right hand," or "to the left," and our conscience begins to reproach us for getting out of the path, when God's providential hand in any measure goes out against us, it has a voice from the Lord reproving, rebuking, and sharply correcting us for having turned aside. When our conscience is made and kept alive and tender in God's fear, and begins to bleed under a sense of imputed guilt, God's providence will speak very loudly; and if we see the hand of God going out against us in providence, it will cut very deep. The voice within will re-echo the voice without, and conscience will so fall beneath the stroke of God in providence, that we shall see His chastening hand in circumstances where otherwise we should not have seen it at all.

2. But especially does God speak by the word of His grace in the court of conscience. It is not what God speaks in the Scriptures; for unless He applies it, what He speaks there is for the most part unnoticed by us. Nor is it what God may speak from the pulpit, because unless our ears are opened by the blessed Spirit, and our conscience made alive and tender in His fear, the most heart-searching ministry may leave us untouched. But it is what God speaks from the Scripture in the court of conscience; for what He speaks there, that we must hear; that will ever be deeply attended to, because it comes into our conscience as from the mouth of God Himself.

3. Sometimes the Lord speaks in rebukes and reproofs. For instance, we may be fallen into a state of carnal ease; we may be imbued, as I have known children of God to be, with the spirit of dead assurance, and be resting upon doctrines more than upon the manifestations of God's mercy to the soul. When we are in a smooth path, and all things are prosperous and easy, this dead assurance does very well. But when sickness and death begin to stare us in the face, when convictions of our sins begin powerfully to work, and when the Lord is pleased in a more special manner to deal with the conscience, what becomes of all this dead assurance? It fails us at the very moment when we need it most. We feel that it cannot take us safe into eternity, cannot give us peace with God, cannot remove the guilt of sin, cannot bring the smile of divine love into the soul; it is useless, absolutely useless, at the very time we need it most. This is the rebuke of God in our conscience to bring us out of, and bring us off, this dead assurance into which our souls may have been secretly slipping. We begin to fall down as guilty sinners at the footstool of mercy, and beg of God to pardon our sins, and speak a word of peace to our poor guilty conscience. Here is the "word behind" us, when we have turned aside from the right way, to bring us, once more into the straight and narrow path which leads to eternal life.

Or say, we may have got, as I have described, into a dark and gloomy state of despondency and dejection, eaten up with doubts and fears, and well-near swallowed up in the depths of despair. All our past experience seems swept out of sight; not a single token remains, and we are full of everything that sinks the mind in gloom and fear. Now when the Lord is pleased to speak a word of promise to the soul, and His voice begins to sound once more in the heart, "This is the way--not your poor, guilty, miserable self, but Jesus is the way, His blood, His righteousness, and His love;" when our hearts begin to receive these glad tidings, and the blessed Spirit seals them home with divine unction, savor and power, there is a turning out of this "left hand" path in which our poor souls have been groping, and coming once more into the King's highway, the way of holiness, the way of atoning blood and justifying righteousness.

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