Turn back in your Bibles, if
you will, with me to John chapter 14. Both of these words that we're
looking at in John 14 about the truth and life, let's read the
verse first, isn't it? I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No man cometh
unto the Father but by me. To have one is to have all. In
fact the truth and the life are in a sense descriptions of the
way. It's the way of truth and it's
the way of righteousness and it's life. And obviously when
he's talking about life here, he's not talking about just physical
life. The life here is the life of
the children of God. Christ is our life. Christ is our life. He's talking about spiritual
life, and he's talking about life with him and life with God.
And in the garden we lost spiritual life. We lost the way to God. We lost the truth. We lost the
truth of who we are. We lost the truth of who God
is. We lost the truth of how people
come to God. And we lost the way. And as we looked at last week,
the Lord barred that way with those two seraphim outside the
garden, the cherubims outside the garden, I beg your pardon.
And there's no way in. There's no way in by man and
man's activities and man's works. There is a life, there is a life
that is absolutely essential. And I want us to remember, no
man cometh to the Father, but by me. No man comes. No man comes without the Lord
Jesus Christ being the way to come. No man comes without the
Lord Jesus Christ being the truth of coming. And no man comes without
the life of God in them, drawing them to the Lord Jesus Christ. No man comes. As I began this service, I was
talking about a presumptuous faith. We pray the Lord would continue
to cause us to be a witness to the truth of who he is, that
we would simply declare the glory of this glorious gospel. The
gospel is a person. We would declare that glory and
we would wait and we would trust that the Lord will do exactly
as he's promised. As Ben prayed, his word doesn't
come down to this earth without having achieved its purpose.
and so many people think they have life. I want us to be mindful
of the circumstances here, this particular night in Jerusalem
nearly 2,000 years ago. While the Lord was saying these
words to the 11 apostles, he was saying them, as it were,
to his church. He, for the first time, had gathered,
in a sense, a picture of what it is for his elect. There are
many other pictures throughout the scriptures, but Judas is
gone. And what was happening? There was light and life and
truth and the way in the midst of those people. And just nearby
in Jerusalem were a group of people who thought they had the
truth of who God is, and they had it from the scriptures. They
thought that they had the life of God because of all the things
that they had done. They thought that they were on
the way to God. In fact, I will say in particular
about them being in a way, that's what the word Pharisee means.
It means separated ones. Not only were they separated
from the world, but they had separated themselves from the
religion of the Jews in the most part. There are only about 8,000
Pharisees, they were the separated ones. They were so near to heaven
that in their very minds they thought that they were already
there. They are a picture of false religion, aren't they?
They had gathered to plot the murder of the Lord Jesus Christ
by deceit and by deception And as they were doing so, they were
preparing their messages for their Sabbath services to prove
how righteous and how religious they are. They had a life. The religious world has a life
in its religion. Will that religion stand in the
presence of the light? That's what we're looking at
now. In Him was life and this life was the light of men. I've probably told you the story. I was on a plane from San Francisco
to Philadelphia some years ago and there was a girl, a young
lady, she was a married lady, young, young, but she was next
to me and her husband was a street evangelist on the streets of
New York. And I don't know whether she
saw it. I don't think I had a Bible. Anyway, she saw that I had something
there and she immediately started talking, to talk about Christianity. She began the conversation saying,
I just love Jesus. I said, well, let's talk about
it. Why don't we just read about him? And she had the good sense
after we were just reading, I don't know whether we were reading
John's Gospel or something, we were just reading some scriptures describing
the Lord Jesus Christ, and she had, and it was wonderful for
me, she said, I don't know him at all. I don't know. I don't know if
I'm his child. And I thought, this is wonderful.
We've got four or five hours of flying to do. And at least
now we can be honest with each other. We can get rid of the
rubbish and we can actually talk. And we just spent most of the
next five hours talking about the Lord Jesus Christ just out
of just reading scriptures and describing. And she was so excited
when we landed in New York that she messaged her husband. She
said, you've got to come down to the The place where the bags
come out. You've got to come down and you've
got to meet this fellow. And I don't know what had transpired
in that time while we were waiting. But he arrived and he was just
so angry with me. He was so angry with me. And
it's just extraordinary, isn't it, you know, that life, what
seems exciting and what seems encouraging can be sort of snapped
away. And I pray the Lord has mercy
on that lady and on her husband. But I suspect, like most religious
people, They are very fine with Jesus
and are very fine with the life and very fine and happy with
the way until their righteousness is challenged. And if they're
attaining any righteousness by the things that they do, and
the Bible strips it away from them, and then they become offended. People say, I believe in Jesus,
and then you talk to them and you hear about the Jesus, the
Jesus they're talking about is a Jesus who's pleased with my
works and my wisdom and my worth, and a Jesus that must accept
me because I'm doing all of these things. They have an accepting
Jesus and they have a comfortable Jesus who doesn't interfere with
my life very much or too much. They have a tolerant Jesus who
winks at sin and they can call sin just a little slip-up. People
have an inclusive Jesus. You can come to this Jesus any
way you want. He'll accept any other path. They manufacture in the dark
forest their imaginations a malleable Jesus where He's shaped into
any shape that they're wanting. They have a Jesus who's all-loving
and they have a Jesus who's all-forgiving and they have a Jesus who's not
judging. And then they say to me, well,
it's not a salvation issue, is it? Which means that how much
of error and how much of a lie can I believe and still get in? They have a Jesus who's who has
no justice and no holiness. They have a Jesus whose cross
is just a show of Him wanting to show how much He loves people
in this world and how He wants them to be martyrs like Him.
They have a God who is not judging. How can a loving God do the things
that He says in the Bible? There is a life. There is a life that is part
of the way into the presence of God. And no man, no man comes,
no man comes to the Father but by me. He is the life. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
life itself. He brings his people into his
very presence. I want us to spend a little bit
of time just looking at what it is for him to be the life
in John's Gospel and then I want us to just look at one of the
really glorious stories of what it is to have that spiritual
life because God's people are caused by God to be calling upon
him. So in John chapter 1 verse 4
he says, in him was life. So where is the life? The life's
not in you, the life's in him. And that life, the life that's
in him is the light of men. It's the only light in this world
as to who God is, the only light in this world as to who you are. This life, this life in John
chapter four, verse 14, he says, whosoever drinketh of the water
that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I
shall give him, his life is a gift. It's a gift of him. shall give
him, shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting
life. He says in John 5, verse 24,
truly, truly, amen, amen. I say unto you, he that heareth
my word, The sheep hear the voice of the
shepherd. He that heareth my word, all
of them. and believeth on him, faith comes
by hearing. And it's a glorious way of faith
coming, isn't it? Because we're completely passive
in hearing, and God does all the work. He that heareth my
word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life,
and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death to life. us to hear in such a way that
we believe on Him. People believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and then people believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I went
to Sydney a couple of weeks ago, and there's this really amazing
looking plane outside the window, and you could believe in the
fact that that plane might get to India. When you get on the plane, you're
completely entrusting all... I was entrusting all of my life
into the hands of a guy I didn't know. Two guys or three guys
sitting up in the front, I didn't have a clue. I didn't know the
mechanics. In some sense, our faith is not
blind faith, but it is a faith that hears on. To believe is to put all
of your eggs in one basket. All of the hope of all of my
life before God is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Everlasting life. You have everlasting life. The Father has life in himself,
so he's given the Son to have life in himself. He says to the
Pharisees and to this religious world, you search the scriptures
because in them you think you have eternal life. Your thinking
is not good enough in these matters. We must just hear what he says. And he says, you search the scriptures,
for in them you think that you have eternal life, but they are
they which testify of me, and you will not come to me that
you might have life. How do we come? We come drawn
by the Father. And he says in John 6, 27, labor
not for the meat which perisheth, but labour in a sense, for that
meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall
give you. For the bread of God is he which
cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. He that cometh to me, you come
and you keep on coming, shall never hunger. He that believeth
on me shall never thirst. He says in John 640, this is
the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the
sun and believeth on him, may have everlasting life, and I
will raise him up at the last day in my Father's house. It's seeing the Lord Jesus Christ.
How do we see him? Millions saw him. Millions saw
the miracles. We see him. clearly this morning here in
this little fellowship than the Pharisees did 2,000 years ago. We see him through the eyes of
faith. We see him through the new creation
that he's given us. He says, I am the living bread
which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread I will give is
my flesh. to him himself. And he says in
John 6.53, I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the Son
of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. That which sustains the child
of God's existence is the very flesh and blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the life. That's what sustains this life
that we're talking about. One of my favourite verses in
the Scriptures is that the Spirit gives life. To see that this life is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. The flesh profiteth nothing. Oh, if the Lord would give us
the grace to take hold of that. The flesh profiteth nothing.
The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are
life. They're spiritual words that
he speaks to the spirit of his people. And Peter, at the end of John
chapter six, the Lord says, you can all go. Thousands have gone,
thousands more will go. He said, you can go as well.
And Peter turns to him and says, Lord, to whom shall we go? He
didn't say, to what shall I go? He says, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. John 8, 12, he says, I am the
light of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. He'll have
the light of life. The Good Shepherd, John Chapter
10, gives his life for the sheep. He doesn't give his life for
the goats. He doesn't give his life in the hope that people
will say he gives his life for the sheep. It means he gives
his life in the very place of the sheep as a substitute for
the sheep. And as we saw in Galatians Chapter 2, he actually bore those
sheep in his own body and bore all of their sins and bore the
infinite wrath of God and the curse of God's law upon them.
down my life, says the Lord Jesus Christ, John 10.50. I lay down
my life for the sheep. And that's why the Father loves
him. The Father loves him because I lay down my life that I may
take it again. He says at the tomb of Lazarus,
he says, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. If the Lord would
allow us to enter into what that amazing verse means, we would
be rejoicing Believe in me, though you are dead, believe in me.
He warns this religious world and he warns us, he says, who
that loveth his life shall lose it. And he that hateth his life in
this world shall keep it unto life eternal. May God cause us to see what
it is to know what our lives are in this world. The command
of God is life everlasting. I want to have this life. I desperately want for you to
have this life. I want you to not be part of the no man. shall
come to the Father, but by me. I want to be the ones that come
by him. I want to be the ones that keep
coming by him. He says, this is the greater love that
has no man than this, that he laid down his life for his friends. It's his love, isn't it? His
life. It's evidence of his love for him. He speaks in his high
priestly prayer as the great sovereign king, prophet, priest,
and king. He says, thou hast given him
power over all flesh. Don't you love that, John 17
too? He has power over all flesh. Is there any man or anything
in this world that moves apart from the sovereign will of the
Lord Jesus Christ? He's got power over all flesh.
that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given
him, and this is life eternal, this is that life that he is,
isn't he? The way, I am the way, I am the
truth, and I am the life. This is life eternal, this is
life eternal, says our Saviour, that they might know thee, the
only true God. To know him is to be in relationship
with him. It's more than just knowing about
him, it's being in a loving relationship with him. The only true God and
Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. No man comes to the Father but
by me, both with him and in him. We just go back to those verses
we read. How do you come? You have to
come to knowing Him. You come by believing, and you
keep on believing. You come by having light shed
from God. God shines the light of who He
is in our hearts. You come by receiving a gift. It's a gift. So you can't earn it by your
good works and you can't lose it by your bad works. All of
God's grace is in the Lord Jesus Christ and all of God's grace
is saving and all of God's grace is eternal grace and all of God's
grace is saving grace and keeping grace. It's receiving a gift,
it's having the water of life in you, it's hearing It's coming to Him. It's eating
that bread. It's drinking that blood. It's
having the very life of God in you. It's seeing the Son, not
as the world sees Him. Seeing Him as the glorious, resurrected,
reigning Saviour. Seeing Him declaring it is finished. Seeing Him with those wounds
that He still bears. See Him coming again. It's seeing
the Son. It's believing His words. It's following Him. It's hating this life of flesh. I hate the unbelief that lives
in me. I hate the sin that so easily
entangles me again and again. in the very presence of God Almighty. And this world just entangles
me, and this flesh entangles me. It is knowing God and coming
to Him. It is knowing God and being known
of Him. No man comes. I want to be one
that comes. I want to be one that comes and
follows on the way. One of my favorite The characters
in the scriptures is Blind Bartimaeus and the Lord Jesus Christ is
on his way to the cross of Calvary. It's just probably only a week
before the crucifixion and he comes to Jericho. Jericho is
a cursed city. And there was Blind Bartimaeus.
And where was Blind Bartimaeus? In Mark chapter 10, you can read
the story in verse 46, he sat by the highway. He sat by the
highway, but what was he doing? He sat by the highway and he
was begging. I began by saying that God's
children are mercy beggars. We keep pleading with the Lord,
make me one of those that comes. And when he heard that it was
Jesus of Nazareth, what did he do? Oh brothers and sisters,
I've been doing it. I do it for you. I pray that
you do it for me. I pray that you do it for yourself.
I pray you do it for those you love. He began to cry out, saying,
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. Have mercy on me. And he was told to keep quiet.
You're just disturbing the peace. You're a nuisance. And as he
was told to hold his peace, he cried out the more a great deal,
saying, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. What a simple prayer.
Lord Jesus Christ, just have mercy. Be merciful to me. Be
merciful to us. And Jesus stood still. God Almighty in human flesh stopped. I love that. God stopped to hear
the cry of someone who called out for him. As we began, I want
us to be people who come by the way and come by the truth and
come by the life and come to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is
a man who came. Jesus stood still. I want him to stop and stand
still and hear our cries. And he commanded him to be called. I just love that. You come when
God commands you to come. And they called the blind man,
saying unto him, Be of good comfort, he calleth thee. And he casting
away his garment, And in India where you saw the
beggars all the time, they had a cloak and they had it on the
ground and it had all of their money and other things in and
had all of their collections all of the time and they were
continually sort of fiddling with it. So I imagine if it was
like India, he actually threw away that and all the gatherings
that he had with it. And he came, he rose and he came
to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, what wilt thou that I should do unto thee? And the blind man
said unto him, Lord, that I might receive thy sight. He saw the Lord Jesus Christ,
didn't he? What a glorious sight that must
have been. And Jesus said unto him, go thy way, thy faith has made thee
whole. Your faith has saved you. And
immediately he received his sight. And he followed Jesus in the
way. How do you get in the way? Just
like Blind Bartimaeus. Thank God there is a way. Thank
God there is a Saviour who comes. of needy sinners. Thank God there
is a Saviour who stops. Thank God there is a Saviour
who commands to come. And with His command is the power. He commands us to believe and
He gives us the grace to hear and to follow. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, Thank and
praise you for who you are. We pray that the glory of who
you are as revealed in your dear and precious son would be magnified
and esteemed and that we might be among those. The Lord Jesus
Christ said that when he is lifted up, he will draw men to him. Father, draw us again and again
and again. Draw us such that we hear him
say to us, don't let your hearts be troubled. You believe in me. Believe in my Father. Oh, our
Father, we pray that you would just grant us the simple childlike
faith. to have an utter and complete
reliance on the perfect and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That His righteousness would be all of our righteousness before
you. His life would be all of our
life before you. His truth would be all of our
truth before you. And that we would be found in
Him and taken into your very presence. in the person of your
dear and precious Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Make us heavenly
Father, like blind biomass, to cry out and ignore what the world
says and keep crying until we find ourselves in your arms,
both here and for eternity. We pray these things for the
glory of your Son and in his name we thank you that we can
come into your presence.