Alright brethren, let's turn
to John chapter 14. We'll ask the Lord's blessing on the
message before we begin. Father, we thank you for your
mercies. We thank you that you continue to keep your people
and bless us. Keep us looking to Christ. Lord,
we ask you to meet with us here this morning If we don't have
Your presence and Your power, all is for nothing. Lord, make
the Word speak to our heart. Make us hear and believe and
obey You by this gospel that goes forth in power. Thank You,
Lord, for each brother and sister here. And pray, Father, You'd
be pleased today to call out one of Your lost sheep. Thank
You, Father, for this day. Thank You for this time. Thank
You for the Gospel. Thank You for our blessed Redeemer.
It's in His precious name we pray. Amen. Now, John 14, our
Lord had been comforting His disciples, and He told them to
let not their heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in Me. He gave that promise of the dwelling
places that He's prepared for His people. And then He makes
this statement in verse 4. He says, and whether I go where
I'm going, you know, in the way you know. After the cross, He
was going to the cross, and after the cross, He would ascend to
the Father. He would go to the Father. And the only way you
and I come to the Father is through faith in Christ. So we know He
had told them the way. They knew the way. He said, the
way you know, He told them. But Thomas and the others didn't
understand. They didn't understand our Lord. He had told them He was going
to the cross, that He would suffer, that He would be buried, that
He would rise again, that He would ascend to the Father, but
they just didn't understand Him, and they didn't believe Him.
Verse five, Thomas said to him, he said, where I go you know
and the way you know. John 14, five, Thomas said to
him, Lord, we know not whether thou goest. How can we know the
way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Thomas asked, he said, Lord,
how can we know the way? How can we know the way? And
the Lord answered, I am the way. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. Our subject is the way, the way. I was going to have another message
prepared for next hour, but I think I'm gonna preach both messages
today from this passage. rather than trying to rush. I
want to go slow, look up some scriptures. So our subject is
the way. Now in order to go from one place
to another, we need a way. We need a path. We need a road
to go from one place to another. And in order to come to God the
Father, we need to come God's way. We can only come God's way. If we're going to find acceptance
with God, if we're going to be received into heaven, we can
only come the way God has provided, God's way. Christ declares, I
am the way. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. He is the I am, he's the great
I am, he is the Son of God, and he is the way. He is the way. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. That's clear, isn't it? That's
clear, that's a plain statement. He is the way. No man comes to
the Father but by Him. Now why must Christ be the way?
Why must Christ be the way? Why has God given His Son to
be the way? Because we sinned in Adam. And
sin and death passed upon us. We became guilty in Adam and
we were conceived in sin. And we came forth from our mother's
womb sinners. And that's what we will be in
our sin nature till we die. Till we die. And God's holy. God is holy. Now these two things,
they can't have communion. God's holy and we're sinners.
God cannot have communion with a sinner. He can't receive a
sinner. He's holy. He's holy. It has
to be perfect to be accepted of God. We have to be made the
righteousness of God. We have to be made the holiness
of God. We have to have no sin or God cannot receive us. That's
why Christ is the way. He's going to manifest all God's
holy character in the salvation of His people in His Son. So
He's the way. Before sin entered, Adam had
communion with God. Before sin entered, he was upright
and he had communion with God. He had direct access to God.
But when sin entered, He lost that access to God. Sin blocked
the way. Sin barricaded the way. And God
put a flaming sword at the entrance to the garden to keep the way
so that there was no way. That's signifying there's no
way to come to God but by His way, by Christ. By Christ. Isaiah 59-2 says, Your iniquities
have separated between you and your God, and your sins have
hid His face from you that He will not hear. So our sin and
God's holiness is the reason Christ is the way. God's holy,
we're sinners. So we have to come God's way,
and Christ is the way. Now, I want to look at some ways
Christ is the way. Christ is the way. First of all,
the Lord Jesus Christ is the ordained way. He's the appointed
way, appointed way, appointed by the Father from before the
world was made. Before God created anything,
there was an eternal counsel in eternity. There was no earth,
no heaven, nothing made, and God had an eternal counsel. an
eternal counsel. And it was in this counsel that
He first manifest His sovereign grace. He chose His Son to be
the way. He chose His Son to be the way.
You know Proverbs 8.23, it's speaking of wisdom. Wisdom is personified and that
wisdom is Christ. That's what 1 Corinthians 1 tells
us. He is the wisdom of God. Christ is the wisdom of God.
And wisdom speaks. Christ speaks and he says in
Proverbs 8.23, I was set up from everlasting. From the beginning
or ever the earth was. God ordained him to be the way.
And this, you think about him being wisdom, and then think
about what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2, 7. We speak the wisdom of
God. We preach Christ him crucified,
the wisdom of God. We speak the wisdom of God in
a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the
world unto our glory. That's hidden wisdom, it's Christ,
ordained before the world was made. He said, I was set up from
everlasting. Look at 1 Peter, 1 Peter 1, where
Peter's here telling us that we're not redeemed by corruptible
things, but by the precious blood of Christ. And look what he says
in verse 20, 1 Peter 1.20, who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world. but was manifest in these last
times for you who by Him do believe in God." You know, the Hebrew
writer said that Christ didn't glorify Himself to be made a
high priest. He didn't take that honor upon
Himself to be a high priest. And likewise, He didn't thrust
Himself into this position of being the way. But what does
the scripture say? He who said to him, you are my
son, today I've gotten you. He made him the way. He ordained
him to be the way. God the Father did. He ordained
him to be the way for a specific people. He chose a people by
His grace. Christ is going to be the way
of salvation. He's got to be the way of salvation
for somebody. And He was the way from eternity.
That means God chose somebody from eternity. And He chose a
people by His grace. Those for whom Christ became
the surety. Christ said, I'll pay everything
they owe. I will provide everything that's
required for them. I will bring them to you, holy,
spotless, without blame. I will do this work. He became
surety for His people. before the world was made. He
entered covenant to redeem us and to reveal Himself to us.
God set everything in order. He put it all in order. Ordered
in all things in sheer by putting it in Christ's hands before He
ever made the first grain of sand. according as He hath chosen
us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love. And because He chose
us in Christ, that's how God has always viewed His people. Even before we fell, He viewed
us in Christ, holy and without blame before Him in love. and
He always will see His people that way. So the first thing
is, our Lord Jesus is the ordained way. He's the appointed way,
appointed of God. Now, seeing that God the Father
chose His Son to be the way, therefore the Lord Jesus is the
one and only way. He's the one and only way. You
see the definite article, Christ said, I am the way. He then said,
no man cometh to the Father but by me. There are not many ways
to God. There are not many ways to God.
There's only one way to come to the Father, and that's Christ. Now sinners, since the fall,
have sought out many inventions. You think about, think about
what it is, what it's called that we do in our mind. It's
called the imagination. Think about what that word is.
It's an image creator. That word has image in it. It's
an imagination. We're creating images in our
polluted, corrupt mind. And we create and imagine idle
gods and idle ways to come to God. There's a way that seems
right to man, but they all end in death. They all end in death
because the reason they end in death is no matter what religion
it is and no matter what denomination in the Christian religion, if
it's some other religion or even if it goes under the heading
of Christianity, no matter the denomination under that heading,
Those who coming another way are all the same. They're all
coming by the works and merit of the sinner. There's something
involved in every religion in this world that's false that
involves the sinner having to do something to make himself
accepted of God. There's only two religions, the
God of Cain and that of Abel. There's only two. Only two. Man's way is the way of Cain.
Cain came with the fruit of the cursed ground. And anytime we're
trying by our will or by our works or by some imagined merit
in us to be accepted of God, We're coming with the dead fruit
of our cursed flesh, this cursed ground, this dust, that's what
we're coming with, and God will not receive it. It comes short
of the glory of God, and so it will end in death. It will always
end in death. But Christ has been the one way
from the beginning and every sinner God's ever saved has been
saved by this one way. He's the one and only way. Adam
and Eve are the first ones. Who was it that came to Adam
and Eve? Who came after they sinned and fell and they tried
to cover themselves with their fig leaves and they hid in the
trees? Who came to them? There's only one mediator between
God and men. Christ Jesus. This was the pre-incarnate
Lord Jesus that came to them, the Son of God, the triune God
in Christ came to them and called them out of the trees and brought
them to confess their sin. And he provided an innocent lamb
to die in their stead, picturing the justice of God poured out
on Christ in the place of his people. And not only did he provide
that lamb to satisfy justice in type and picture, he also
took the coats of those skins and covered them, picturing Christ's
righteousness imputed to those that he brings to believe on
him. So the next we see is Abel. Abel came with the blood of a
lamb and he was saved this one and only way, Christ the way. All the prophets throughout the
scriptures all spoke of Christ the way. They all were declaring
Christ as the only way. All the apostles were all saved
this one way by Christ. And every sinner that's ever
been saved from the beginning right up to the very last one
God saves will have all been saved this one and only way.
No man cometh to the Father but by me, Christ said, but by me. There's only one cure for sin.
Only one. Christ is that cure. There's
only one righteousness God will accept. Christ is that righteousness. There's only one way we can be
just with God. That's by Christ fulfilling the
law on behalf of His people. There's only one faith, and that
one faith is given of God and lays hold upon this one object,
this one way, Christ Jesus the Lord. There's this one gospel
we set forth, and that one gospel's declaring what Christ says here. He is the way, I am the way. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. So he's the appointed way, ordained
of God, and he's the only way, the one and only way. Now thirdly,
our Lord Jesus Christ is the new and living way. He's the
new and living way. Now He's, like we saw, He's been
the same way from eternity, but in our comprehension and from
our point of view, He makes us see He's the new and living way.
That old covenant pictured the way, but it was dead, if you
will. It wasn't a living way. That
old covenant was not a living way. Christ is the new and living
way. Our Lord Jesus, when He took
flesh, became a man, John said, behold the Lamb of God. He's
the Lamb of God. And when He went to the garden,
He's going to the garden like they would bring that spotless
lamb. And he's presenting himself to the Father. That's his holy
obedience, to submit to the Father's will. And he went there and he
submitted to the Father's will. Adam disobeyed God in the garden
and plunged us into sin. Christ obeyed the Father in the
garden. He went there and submitted to
the Father to do what He promised to do. And God our Father laid
on Him the iniquity of all His people. He hath made Him sin
who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. And you know what happened to
the lamb, once the sins were ceremonially and type and picture
put on the lamb, the lamb was slain. And our Lord Jesus Christ,
in obedience to the Father, went to the cross. He went to the
cross, and there God poured out the justice of God on our Redeemer
in the room instead of His people. He poured out wrath on Him, wrath
that we would have deserved. You look to that cross, And you see hell on that cross. Because hell is going to be God
taking the restraints off of men. And so they can gnash on
you with their teeth. They can do whatever comes into
their heart. Whatever they want to do. And that's what the devil
and his seed did to our Lord Jesus on the cross. And it's
God removing His presence, God removing the glory of His presence.
And Christ endured that alone, crying out, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? that justice that His people
would have had to bore. And then when He accomplished
this, you remember when He said it's finished, what happened?
That veil ramped from the top all the way to the bottom. That
thick veil ramped from the top to the bottom. The top to the
bottom. And our Lord Jesus Christ, 40
years later, He ascended to the Father. And when you see Him
ascending to the Father, Here's how it was pictured. That
high priest going by himself with the blood of a lamb into
that holy place in that tabernacle. That's what our Lord Jesus Christ
was doing. Turn over with me to Hebrews 9. He's the new and the living way.
Hebrews 9 verse 12. Well, let's read verse 11. Christ,
being come a high priest of good things to come by a greater and
more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, as to say, not
of that old covenant building, neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by His own blood, He entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Look over
at Hebrews 10 and look at verse 12. Hebrews 10 verse 12, this
man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat
down on the right hand of God from henceforth expecting till
his enemies be made his footstool, for by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. And when the Spirit of God bears
witness in the heart he's made and writes this gospel, this
good news on our hearts, and he teaches us that Christ has
remitted our sins, and where remission of sins is, there's
no more offering for sin. Here's the good news that He
teaches us in verse 19, Hebrews 10, 19. Having therefore, brethren,
boldness to enter into the holiest. What? In the Old Covenant, no
child of Israel could enter that holiest of holies. But now, God
says you can enter. How? by the blood of Jesus, by
a new and living way. He's that way. And he consecrated
this way for us through the veil, and he's not talking about that
fabric cloth that hung in the tabernacle, he's talking about
his flesh. He consecrated for us through
the veil, that is to say, his flesh. He's the new way, he's
the living way. He is a man the God-man who laid
down his life for his people and through his flesh, through
his blood, he made this new way into God's presence by satisfying
justice, by making us righteous, by reconciling us to God. And so having a high priest over
the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. That's when,
when the Lord has worked this work in our heart and made us
see what Christ accomplished and made us see the new and living
way, that's when old things pass away and all things become new.
Those old vain imaginations with all our idols we had of how God
saves and what we'd always been told and the lies that we we
latched on to that gave us some glory in this thing. All those
old imaginations, all those old ways pass away. Our Lord Jesus said, Behold,
I make all things new. Now we see the new and living
way. Now we behold Christ, the new
and living way, and we enter, we enter by His blood alone through
our high priest, through our high priest. So the Lord Jesus
is the ordained way, the Lord Jesus is the one and only way
to the Father, and the Lord Jesus is the new and living way to
the Father. This is how God's people come to the Father. The
only way we can come to God is by Christ. He said, I am the
way. I am the way, no man cometh to
the Father but by me. But by me. I want to stop right
here and I want to come back in the second hour and we'll
pick up right here and look at the rest of this. So we'll just have a little longer
break this morning. Let's go to the Lord. Our Father, we thank you for
this word. We pray you bless it to our hearts. We pray that
you would give us grace to really trust Christ is our way, our
acceptance, the one in whom you're pleased with, that you will receive
us in Him, in Him alone. Lord, we do pray that Your Word
will go forth wherever it's preached this morning in power and that
You will cause all Your people to rejoice and be strengthened
in faith and comforted by Your grace in Christ. And we pray, Lord, wherever the
gospel goes forth today, that you would be pleased to make
it speak into the heart of one of your children and bring them
to Christ, translate them into this way, even if it's for the
first time, we pray that. And Lord, keep us, we ask you,
keep us in the way. We depend upon you. We are so
easily beset and so easily distracted and so easily complicate things. Hey, keep us looking at Christ
only. Keep us following Him. Thank you again, Lord, for this
day. Thank you for all the blessings we have in Christ. Thank you
for forgiving us of our sins, Lord. In Christ's name we pray.
Amen.