All right, brethren, let's go
back now to John 14. Let's look at our text one more
time. John 14. Now the Lord is going
to the cross and He said, verse 4, Whether I go, you know, and
the way you know. Whether I go, you know, and the
way you know. And Thomas said to Him, Lord,
we know not whether Thou goest. How can we know the way? Jesus
said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man
cometh unto the Father but by me. And we're looking at this
subject of Christ being the way. Christ is the way. No man cometh
to the Father but by me, he said. We saw that he is God's way. ordained way. We need Christ
because we fell in sin and we have a sin nature and God's holy. And God ordained, before the
world was made, He ordained Christ to be the way. We saw that He's
the only way. He's the one and only way. He
said, no man cometh to the Father but by me. And then the third
thing we saw is Christ is the new and living way. He entered
in by His own flesh, with His own blood, and He entered into
God's presence in heaven in the holiest of holies, and He's our
High Priest over the house of God. He consecrated the way for
His people by putting away our sin, by bringing in everlasting
righteousness for us, by making us to be reconciled to God. And
so we have boldness to enter the holiest of holies by a new
and living way which he hath consecrated up for us through
the veil that is to slay his flesh. We have a high priest
over the house of God, so we can draw near. Our bodies have
been washed, our hearts have been purified, and we can come
to God through faith in Christ through the intercession of our
great high priest. Now, the fourth thing I want
to show you, and I want you to turn to Isaiah 35. Turn to Isaiah
chapter 35. The Lord Jesus is the holy way. He is the holy way. Isaiah 35,
and in verse 5, he says here, he's talking about what he will
do in this gospel day, and he said, the eyes of the blind shall
be open. That's us by nature, blind in
sin. By his spirit, the eyes of the
blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap
as a heart, and the tongue of the dumb sing. For in the wilderness
shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched
ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water.
In the habitation of dragons where each lay shall be grass
with reeds and rushes. That's all a shadow, a picture
of when the Lord regenerates us and gives us faith in Christ. Now, verse eight, and a high
way, a high way shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called
the way of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over
it, but it shall be for those, the wayfaring men, though fools,
shall not err therein. Now, chosen sinners that have
been redeemed by Christ, have been called by Christ, are made
holy. They're made holy by the Lord. Made holy by the Lord. We are
sanctified into the way. were set apart into Christ the
way. We're made clean, made pure,
and we're translated into the way by the Lord. The way is Christ,
and we're sanctified, separated, into Christ, made holy by Christ. Now, God the Father sanctified
us, he separated us into this way, into Christ the way by divine
election, when he chose us in Christ. He separated us from
all other people on the face of this earth in that he chose
us in Christ. And then we saw in Hebrews 10,
when our Lord Jesus Christ came and laid down His life, all those
the Father had sanctified in Him, He perfected forever by
His one offering. He went to the cross and He perfected
us forever before God. When you behold Christ, He was holy, perfectly holy without
sin, and he perfectly fulfilled the righteousness of the law
for his people. And in Christ we were perfected. We did what
Christ did with a perfectly holy heart, fulfilling the law of
perfect righteousness, and died to sin. And that's how God sees
us as our representative head, Christ Jesus. He's our holiness
and our righteousness. Now how we enter into this, how
are we going to be in this way? How do you and I come experimentally
to be in the way, in Christ? It's by the Spirit of God regenerating
us. And when he regenerates us, he
creates a new holy man within us. That's the real you who are
born of God. The real child of God who's born
of God is entirely the creation of our Lord Jesus. It is that
new man created within you by the Spirit. And Christ is that
highway. He is that holy way. into which
we've been translated and separated into. Now, he says here, the
unclean shall not pass over this way. The unclean shall not pass
over this way. We don't make ourselves clean,
holy. We don't make ourselves holy
in order to enter into Christ the way. That's not how you enter Christ the way
of holiness. We only enter the holy way when
the Spirit of God has created a new holy man within us. He's
created a new spirit born of the irresistible power of God
the Holy Spirit. And Ephesians 4 tells us that
this new man, after God, after God in God's image is created
in righteousness and through holiness. That is what I just
declared. It's the righteousness of Christ
who fulfilled the law for us and it's the holiness of Christ.
When Christ enters in in spirit, he is the holiness of the new
man. He's how you have a new man that is holy. within you,
it's by Christ. And when he does this, God makes
us meet. He makes us fit to be partakers
of the inheritance with the saints in light by this work. He makes
us holy and in Christ this holy way. And Christ Jesus is our
holiness. Now go to Colossians 1. I want
you to see that This is how that we're brought into this way,
and this is how we're made holy, is entirely of the Lord. Colossians
1.12, he says, giving thanks unto the
Father which hath made us meet fit to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in life. That is, fit to enter into glory. Like that thief on the cross
that day, the Lord said, you will be with me today in paradise.
How could he enter into God's holy presence? Because Christ
had made him holy. He was born of God. He was a,
there was a new holy man. His flesh was going back to the
dust and it was going to perish. But that new spirit, holy, would
enter in. He was meet to enter in right
then because Christ was his holiness. Now God would raise his body
and he would enter in with a perfect holy body. but he was fit to
enter in. Look, who hath delivered us from
the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom
of his dear son, in whom we have redemption through his blood,
even the forgiveness of sins. And this is true, just like he
translated us from the power of darkness into his kingdom,
He translated us from the power of darkness into Christ the way
of holiness, into Christ the way. And so, for the first time,
we can believe on the Lord. We couldn't before. Our sin nature
dominated us. It was enmity against God, and
we couldn't believe Him. Now He's given you faith to believe
Him, and you can believe Him. Now you hate your sin. Now you
see your sin, and you realize sin's the enemy. Sin's the enemy. It doesn't make you want to wink
at sin. play around with sin. You hate sin. You do hate sin. And you began running this race,
going in this highway, in this way of holiness, looking to Christ,
looking to Christ. And there's something so significant
about that because this is how the heart is kept pure is through
faith in Christ, through looking to Christ. And He, communing
with our heart, keeps your heart clean. He keeps you believing
Him and able to follow Him and able to walk after Him. And we're
running that race looking to Him because He's the author and
finisher of our faith. Now, what happens when sins beset
us? What happens when sin would turn
us out of the way? He's the way. That's what sin's
doing. Every time that we're tempted
to sin or we do sin, whether it's thought, word, or deed,
what is that doing? That is turning us out of Christ's
way. That's turning us out of Christ's
way. We're departing from Him who
is our holiness, from that holy way. And our Lord tells us, when
he quickens you and he gives you a new heart, he teaches you
that he's made you new. And so don't fashion yourself
after your former lusts, but he says, but because I'm holy,
be ye holy. In all manner of conduct, be
ye holy. And that's the heart he gives
you. That's what you really want to do. And you endeavor to do
it. You strive to walk after holiness. You really do. But when you are
beset by your sin, when that happens, they shall not overcome
us. You know, when we look at times
in the scriptures where God's saints sinned, and we looked
at David, and we went down a state of year in enemy land, and just
the different sins we see. Lot going down into Sodom, and
vexed, constantly by the inhabitants of Sodom. That's not to say,
well, it's okay to sin. David sinned, so we'll just sin.
That's not what we're saying. We look at that because it's through seeing how
God dealt with his saints in the past. that He deals with
us in our heart. It's through hearing how His
grace continued to save His people when they were beset by their
sin that God quickens you in your heart, purges your conscience,
cleans that defiled conscience, and keeps you looking to Christ
and going after Christ. That's why we preach Christ as
all in the gospel, because it's through this word that he's gonna
wash us by the spirit of God. And so when our sins beset us,
they won't overcome us because God gives more grace. This thing
is all of grace from beginning to end, and he keeps giving more
grace. He keeps granting his child repentance. When we've sinned, and you know
this, when you've sinned and the Lord quickens you and renews you and
brings you to see him and remember what he's done for you. And that's
what makes you sin. sinful to you. And when He makes
you see that He has put your sin away, that you will not die,
that you haven't fallen out of His favor, that He's going to
keep you, and that Christ really is your righteousness, and that's
when you discover, that's when you enter into this thing that
Christ really is your holiness too. because it's Christ keeping
your heart pure. It's Christ keeping you looking
to him. You know, whenever he talked
about the chastening of the Lord in Hebrews 12, the reason the
Lord chastens us, there's one reason, there's one reason. We're
in the way. We're in the way of holiness.
We're in Christ. And when we are beset and turn
out of the way, the reason He chastens His child is one reason,
to turn you back into the way and keep you partaking, Scripture
says, keep you partaking of His holiness. of his holiness and
that's when you realize when you're so weak and you see your
sin and you're so cast down and he may let you go through a very
long season of a trial to where He's showing you He's your strength. He is the one who's sustaining
you. Just as He's the one who forgave you and put away your
sin by His blood, it's His blood also through the gospel and through
Him quickening you in your heart that keeps your heart purified
to see your sin and to to walk after Him, and to repent, and
to keep going after Him. This is all of our Lord, brethren. And as He continues to pardon
you, as He forgiveth us ongoing of our sin, and He keeps you
despite our faults, He keeps us by that, knowing Christ really
is our sanctifier, and He is our sanctification. Everything
that's coming to pass in this world is under his direct rule,
under his direct control. And our Lord, as our reigning
prophet, priest, and king, has no problem turning his child
back to him and keeping us walking after him. And you see by that,
he's the one who perfected you on the cross, he's the one by
whose spirit you were sanctified, translated out of the power of
darkness into this holy way, and he's the one that keeps you
partaking of his holiness. And that's, sanctification becomes Not anything
like what you might have been taught by men who made it all
hinge upon you. It becomes really and truly to
you, you realize this is all of the Lord. It is of the Lord.
And it has to be, or I would get some glory, you would get
some glory. It has to be all of Him. He's the one who separates
us, sanctifies us out into Him, and He is that sanctification.
He is that holiness that we need to enter into God's presence.
It's Him dwelling in your heart. You know, we saw this in the
Old Covenant. When that cloud, the Shekinah
glory, when it entered that tabernacle, that tabernacle was sanctified.
It was holy. You know, whenever the Lord appeared
to Moses in the burning bush, He said, put your shoes off your
feet. This is holy ground. What made it holy? Christ's presence. And wherever His presence is,
that's the holiness. That's what makes you holy. It's
Him. And so He keeps you separated
unto Him. And just like He did in the first hour, you know,
when He first regenerated you and gave you faith, created this
new heart in you, You know, you were so careful, you were so
diligent, you wanted to walk after Christ, you wanted to honor
Christ. Do you remember that? When you first gave your faith
and you really had this notion, we were like the apostles, we
had this notion we weren't going to sin anymore. We were going
to follow Him and there wasn't going to be any sin. And soon
you found out that wasn't going to be the case. But when he works
this work again, though, it makes you all over, all anew, diligent
to want to guard yourself and to follow him and to really honor
him in what you do. And the more powerful the chastening
and the more powerful he works grace, the more that's the case. The more that's the case. And
this is, you know, you don't excuse sin, and sin's not, there's
no excuse for sin, period. But this is, Why the Lord has
left us in these bodies of sin, this is why He would even permit
His child to fall, is because by Him keeping you and by Him
sustaining you, this is all part of how He's growing you in the
grace of Christ and in the knowledge of Christ. This is how He's making
you see that He's your holiness and you're entirely, entirely,
entirely dependent upon Him. Now, here's the next thing. So
he's our holiness. Now, the way of holiness. Now,
the Lord Jesus, because this is all true, he's the safe and
secure and joyful way. He's the safe way, the secure
way, the joyful way. Look here back at Isaiah 35 again,
and look at verse nine. Isaiah 35, 9. He says, no lion
shall be there, not in this holy way, not in this highway we're
traveling. No lion shall be there, nor any
ravenous beast shall go up thereon. It shall not be found there,
but the redeemed shall walk there. and the ransomed of the Lord
shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy
upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. No lion, no ravenous
beast can harm us in the way. In Christ this way of holiness.
No lion, no ravenous beast. The devil goes about as a roaring
lion seeking whom he may devour. And our Lord may permit him to
sift you. He did that to Job. He did that
to Peter. He did it to David. He's done
it. We've seen it throughout the
scripture. He may permit the devil to sift you, but the devil
is not going to harm you. He can't. Christ won't permit
it. He will not permit it. What do you mean? Something may
happen to your body. Something may happen to us outwardly
that causes us trouble, causes us, you know, some sorrow, what
have you. But that's not doing any damage
to that new man Christ has created. It's not doing any harm to the
real you. It's in fact Edifying you because the Lord's teaching
you He is your he is your righteousness and your refuge and your protection
and your security We have our great shepherd who's leading
us and guiding us and protecting us And so it says there the ransomed
of the Lord or the redeemed of the Lord those he's purchased
they walk there That's so important The scripture says that the believer
doesn't make haste. We're not wildly alarmed. Yes, we, in our flesh, we get
anxious and we get afraid and those things, but the Lord, by
His Spirit, by Him being this one who enters in in spirit and
points you to Him, He calms you. So you walk. You don't make haste. You're not terrified. You walk. You walk there. There's
a calm that he gives in the heart. So he's the way. He's the safe
way. He's the secure way. He purchased
his people with his precious blood. Here's the security. He purchased us with his blood,
we're his possession, and it cost him too dearly to let you
be separated out from him and be lost back into the world.
His glory is connected with our salvation. His glory is in the
salvation of His people. He's showing who He is and the
glory of how He's the wisdom and the righteousness and the
holiness and the redemption of His people, how He's all in and
all to His people. His glory is connected with our
salvation. He's not going to let any to
pluck you out of His hand. God wrote the names of every
chosen child in the Lamb's Book of Life before this world was
ever made. And He's not going to let anybody
draw you away from Christ and perish in perdition. He's going
to keep you believing to the saving of the soul. He who begins
a good work in you will perform it till the day of Jesus Christ.
Our Lord Jesus Christ entered into a covenant promise with
the Father. And here's what He promised the
Father. He promised that He was going to present each one the
Father gave Him faultless in the presence of His glory. And
our Lord Jesus Christ promised the Father that. Do you think
He's going to make good on that promise? In order to do that,
in order to make good on that promise, He's got to keep you
and bring you to Him. And that's what He's going to
do. He's going to stand before the Father one day with all those
the Father gave to Him in eternity. They're going to be redeemed.
They're going to be faultless. They're going to be robed in His righteousness.
They're going to be complete in His perfection. And He's going
to stand there before the Father, and He's going to say, These
are those that Thou has given me, and of those You gave me,
I lost none. That's how safe and secure this
way is. It's in Christ. Now, due to our
sin and our unbelief, We may become wounded, but not spiritually,
not in the inner man. He's the great physician. The balm of Gilead, he will pour
in and he will strengthen his people in spirit. He's forgiven
all our sins and he's going to heal all our diseases. We just
read it, when He sends you through the deep water and He sends you
through the fiery trial, it's not to consume you, it's to consume
our dross and to refine the gold, and that's what He's going to
accomplish. We're kept by the power of God through faith unto
salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Why do you
say this? Why do you tell sinners this?
And why not just give them a bunch of A, B, C, and D things to do? Because this is, it's the message
of Christ and what he's doing and what he's working that is
the message he blesses to the hearts of his people and keeps
us looking to him and keeps us strengthened in heart to want
to walk after him and to honor him in all our conduct. Is that not so? Isn't it the
message of the gospel that he blesses to strengthen you and
make you make you say, I don't want to sit against him. I want
to follow him. I want to know more of him. And
it's this safety and security that He's promised to His people.
It doesn't make you presume upon His sovereignty. It doesn't make
you presume upon this security. It makes you hug up closer to
Him. It makes you want to draw nearer
and walk nearer to Him. It makes you, it gives you the
strength in the inner man to mortify the deeds of your flesh
and put off the sins of your flesh. Now, Because Christ is this safe
and secure way, He's the joyful way. This way of holiness is
the joyful way. He says there in verse 10, Isaiah
35, 10. And the ransom of the Lord shall
return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon
their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Do you remember what
Moses said? He said, blessed are you, O Israel.
Happy are you, O Israel. Who is like to you, O people
saved by the Lord? He's the shield of your help.
He's the sword of your excellency. That's who Christ is. You know,
the pursuits of an unregenerate world. They're running after
everything in this world for wealth and for honor and for
applause and just get everything they can of this world, but there's
no inward peace. There is no calm. There's no
settled ease with an unregenerate sinner, not in his conscience. There's no hope of immortality
one day with our Lord. There's always this nagging of
past sins. There's always this nagging of
the present sins that give them no rest, and there's always that
future that causes anguish that they don't want to look to, looking
to the judgment of God, the fiery judgment of God. Men don't want
to think about that. But there's no peace, there's
no safety, there's no security, so there's no joy. There's no
joy. But Zion's pilgrims, you who
are just pilgrims in this world who have been translated into
Christ the way, you have some joy. You have some joy. Because you know all your past
sins have been put away. You know your present sins have
been put away. All sins in the future have been
put away. You're just before God. God declares you're righteous. God, righteous God, holy God
declaring that you and I are righteous? What an amazing declaration. Why is that? It's all in Christ. It's all because of Christ. And
that'll never change. That'll never change. And you're
not looking for a fearful looking forward to judgment. You have
hope of immortality. You have hope of being with Christ.
And here's the blessing of it. If it was dependent on something
you did, There would always be something that would tear down
every bit of hope you got. There would always be something
that would be making you say, oh, I got to do better today. I got to make up for that that
I messed up yesterday. And it's just a constant treadmill
and no security. And that's what Christ came to
free His people from, the devil's bondage of making you fear death. and making you try to constantly
make up for your sin by something you do. But you don't have that
when the Lord has purged your conscience. You know you accepted
in the Beloved. And this is the blessing, this
is the joy for His people. We sing in the ways of the Lord,
for great is the glory of the Lord. And when you see Christ
laying down His life on our behalf, and now you see Him reigning,
ruling, working everything for the good of His people, that's
what makes us bless the Lord at all times and sing His praises
continually in our mouth. We praise Him because why? He
brought us up out of the horrible pit and out of the miry clay
and He set our feet upon a rock and He established our goings
in this way. And He's going to keep them established.
He's going to keep you established in the way, walking in Him, following
after Him. Yes, we're going to sorrow. Yes,
we're going to have times where we sigh and we sorrow. But isn't
the joy, doesn't the joy of knowing Christ, doesn't it exceed the
sorrow that you have in this world? I know that there's always
going to be this juxtaposition between our sighing and our sorrow
over our sin and our rejoicing over Christ our righteousness.
But there's so much more joy, there's so much more to be rejoicing
than there is to be sorrowful over. So much more. But we don't
sorrow, even when we do sigh in sorrow, we don't as those
that have no hope. You know, the Lord brings you
into some trying situations. Do you find yourself saying this?
Do you find yourself saying, I believe the Lord. He said he
works all things together for the good of those that he loves.
So I'm just eager to see how he's gonna work this out. I know
it's going to be good. I know it's going to be for my
good. I'm going to say it's been good for me that I've been afflicted,
that I might learn my statute. I just want to see. I'm just
waiting. I want to see how he's going to work it out. That's
the hope we have. We know he's going to work it
out for good, for his people. And so you wait on him and you
rejoice in him. Now, here's the last thing. All
of this being true, because all of this is so, that we've seen,
he's the ordained way. He's the only way. He's the new
and living way. It's by His righteousness, by
His holiness entering into the holy place for us. He is the
safe and secure and the joyful way. All of this being true,
all of this being true, the holy way, that means He's the narrow
way. He's the narrow way. Go with
me to Matthew 7, Matthew chapter 7. This is our Lord speaking, and
here's what He said, Matthew 7, verse 13. Matthew 7, verse
13. He said, Enter ye in at the straight
gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth
to destruction. and many there be which go in
thereat. Because straight is the gate,
and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there
be that find it. Christ is the narrow way. He is the narrow way. He's the
straight gate which leads unto life, which few find. Sinners in their natural state
have no desire for this narrow way. They have no desire, much
less, they have no desire to come to God, much less in God's
way. And even a natural-born sinner
that seeks a way, he's not seeking God's way, he's seeking that
way that seems right to him, and it's the ways of man, and
ends in death. But here's the blessing of God's
grace. When he has shown you what a
blessing it is that it's just a remnant. Few be there be that
find this narrow way. And the Lord's revealed him to
you. The Lord's made you know him and put you in the way in
Christ. And when he makes you see this
and see how undeserving you are, how you didn't merit this, how
you demerited it a thousand times since he called you. This is
what it does for you. This is what His grace does to
you. It doesn't make you look down on those that are out of
the way. It doesn't. It makes you want to have compassion
on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way. So we say to those that are out
of the way, we say to them what Moses said to his father-in-law.
You remember this? In Numbers 10, 29, Moses said
to his father-in-law, we're journeying to the place of which the Lord
has said, I will give it you. That's what Moses told him. We're
going to the promised land. And that's what we can say to
sinners who are out of the way. We're going to the promised land. We're in the way. Come with us. Come with us and we will do you
good. For the Lord has spoken good
concerning Israel. Come with us. That's our message. Christ says, enter ye in at the
straight gate, for wide is the gate, broad is the way that leads
to destruction, but straight is the gate and narrow is the
way which leads to life and few there be that find it. Wouldn't
it be that He would speak in power
and call somebody to enter into the way. That's what we want
to see. It's what we pray for. It's what
we hope for. How narrow is the way? How narrow is the way? He says it's narrow and it's
straight. How narrow is it? How narrow is it? Christ said,
I am the way. It's as narrow as Christ. You
can't bring anything else. Nothing else can, He is the way. He's the way. No man comes to
the Father but by Him. So enter this way, believing
on the Lord Jesus. Believe on Him. And when God's
made us receive Christ through faith, He said, as we receive
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. rooted and built up
in Him, established in the faith as you've been taught, abounding
therein with thanksgiving. He's saying walk by faith, trust
Christ, believe Christ, rooted and grounded and established
in faith in Christ. And brethren, as Christ looked
to the joy that was set before Him, that's how He endured the
cross. We've got some crosses to endure.
This way is going to have some hills and valleys, some curves. We're going to stumble. We're
going to have some sorrow and some sighing. But how did Christ
endure the cross? He looked to the joy that was
set before Him. And He tells us, now you run
this race looking to our Lord Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. He's the joy set before us. He's
the joy set before us. Run this race looking to Him.
He's everything we need. He's everything we need. His
righteousness covers our heart like a breastplate. The sword
of the Spirit, the Word of God is how He's going to slay our
old man and renew our new man. His gospel is going to shot our
feet with the gospel so that we can keep running after Him,
directing us, teaching us to follow Him. Everything's of Him. Everything we need is of Him.
to look to Him and follow Him. And there's just a few more miles,
just a few more miles to go. You know, when you're on a long
trip and you just got a little ways to go, you start looking
for the end and you start thinking, oh, we're almost there. We're
almost there. We just got a few more miles
to go, a few more hills, a few more valleys to go through. And
this is what he says. He said, the ransom of the Lord
shall return. and come to Zion with songs and
everlasting joy upon their heads, and they shall attain joy and
gladness, and sorrowing and sighing shall flee away. That's His promise. That's His promise. Believe Him
and follow Him. Trust Him. All right, brethren. Brother Greg, you come lead us
in our closing hymn.