May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this morning as we meditate in his word. Let
us turn to the Gospel of John, chapter 14, and we'll read verse
6. Gospel of John, chapter 14, and
reading verse 6. Jesus saith unto him, I am the
way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the father,
but by me. Sometimes it's quite good just
to try and picture the scene that the word of God gives to
us. And especially you younger ones
today to remember that these words were spoken by Jesus when
Jesus was with just his disciples. And by this time, Judas Iscariot
was not with them. He'd introduced the Lord's Supper
on what we know as the Passover night. And having done that,
he now addressed his disciples with this wonderful sermon, really,
which runs really from chapter 13, 14, 15 and 16. And to try and picture that here
the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking to his disciples to encourage
them because it was only going to be a few hours after this
that he was first of all to go into the Garden of Gethsemane
and then to be taken from them when he was arrested by all the
soldiers and then eventually after a few more hours of course
would be crucified. So these words were very near
to the end of the life of the Lord Jesus on this earth. And the first few verses in this
chapter encourages them to not be troubled, not their heart
be troubled. And he tells them that he's going
to prepare a place for them in glory, which is a wonderful,
wonderful truth. And then he says, and whither
I go, ye know, and the way ye know. And then Thomas, who as
you probably know was one of the disciples, asks a question
to Jesus. And the question was, Lord, we
know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? So that's the introduction to
this sixth verse. And Jesus then is responding
to Thomas. And it may be perhaps the Lord
responds to you and me, because we may perhaps be asking a very
similar question. Like Thomas, Lord, we know not
whether thy ghost And how can we know the way? And of course,
the way the Lord was speaking to them about was the way that
took them through life and brought them at last safe home into heaven. And all of us here and any listening
to us need to know the way that the Lord Jesus Christ does lead
his people. And so It was a question by Thomas,
and may it be a question perhaps by us, and may we hear the gracious
answer which came from the Lord Jesus, a very clear answer. And he told them, I am. That
means I am himself, the great and the almighty God, I am. The way. That means we want to
know the way, the way to go on our journey through life, and
the way that will lead us safely to heaven. What is that way? We are to look to Jesus. Because here we have this clear
statement, I am the way. So Jesus, therefore, is the way. And it's a blessing today if
you and I do really look to Jesus and desire to see what way the
Lord Jesus has taken and the way the Lord Jesus directs us
in for you and me today. Because in this life, there are
two ways. And all of us will walk in one
of those two ways. One way is a narrow way, which
leads to heaven at last. The other is a broad way, which
leads to hell. There are no other ways. and
you and I must walk in one of those ways. It's a very stark
reality, isn't it? And we shouldn't therefore just
ignore such an issue, because there are so many today who are
not concerned about the way that they're walking in. The result
is, therefore, They are in reality walking in that broad way with
all the world. They're all surging down this
broad way with no care really about their eternal state. No concern really as to where
they will spend eternity. What a blessing it is for us
today if each one of us concerned as to where we will spend eternity
and again to realize that our life is so short and eternity
is forever there's such a vast difference and yet people today
boys and girls concentrate only on the things that of this world. Only concentrate on what they're
going to do in this world. Only concentrate what people
will think of them in this world. And yet the reality is their
life on this world will very quickly cease. It's very short. Very short. Do, I urge you, do
consider the vast difference between the
shortness of our life and eternity. And hopefully by the Spirit of
God that will influence to really consider and desire to know whether
we are in the right way, the narrow way, and understand therefore
this great statement when Jesus says, I am the way. And that means that you and I
need to be a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord
Jesus Christ has gone before us. He's marked out the way,
the narrow way. And if you read the New Testament,
perhaps just read really the Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John and there we have itemized very clearly the life of the
Lord Jesus Christ when he was on this earth and the things
that he said and the things that he did and what is very very
clear is this Jesus came into this world to do the will of
his Father. So, if we have this gracious
and blessed and wonderful example before us today, is it our concern
to therefore to do the will of God the Father? Well, the Lord
Jesus Christ had a very difficult life to walk. And if you read
through the Gospels, you will find how many oppositions he
faced, how many difficulties. He didn't have a large house. He didn't have a small house.
He didn't have any house that was his own. He didn't have a
great wardrobe of clothes that he could select. He didn't have
a great variety of food to eat. And how did he spend his nights? Well, we're told they were spent
praying to his father. So what a wonderful example we
have. And this was none less than the
Son of God. God himself. And that's how Jesus
walked on this earth. And that's how Jesus lived on
this earth. He never said a wrong word. He never swore. He never cursed. He never told any lies. He was
always very honest and very truthful. in all that he did and in all
that he thought. He lived a perfect life and he
is indeed the way and he is the great and glorious example for
you and me today. So may we pray that we may be
like Jesus May that be a real prayer, not just mere words,
but a real prayer that you want to be like Jesus. You want to be a true follower
of Jesus. And you want, therefore, one
day to come safe home to heaven, to be with Jesus forever and
ever. This is the wonderful pattern
that the Bible gives to us. And it's a great blessing and
mercy for every one of us here today that we are able to read
the Bible. And we have the Bible in our
own language. Just stop for a moment and realize
there are millions and billions in the world who never read the
Bible. Many do not have it in their
own language anyway. So we are greatly blessed. So we all have Bibles, and especially
you younger ones, do read the Bible. And when you read it,
try and understand it. You may say, well, it's very
difficult. Some parts are difficult, but not all parts are difficult.
and try and read it and then pray that you might have an understanding
of it. You don't want to just read it
and then forget what you read. You want to read it and you want
God the Spirit to teach you so that you understand it. You understand
what Jesus says about the way that leads to eternal life. And also what Jesus directs us
to be aware of, the wrong way, the evil way that leads to destruction. Now, the Christian walk, the
Christian path is never easy. And it's never easy, and you
may wonder why it's never easy. Because we have a great enemy. And that great enemy is the devil. Who way back fought with the
heavenly angels. He was at one time an angel. But he wanted to be in charge.
He didn't want to obey God. And there was a great battle
in heaven. But he was defeated. And now today, he tries to get
everyone onto his side. Everyone to listen to him and
everyone to obey him. And what he will do is to try
and stop you in walking this way. I am the way, says Jesus. The devil will say, That's not
the way. You don't want to walk that way.
That's too difficult. That's too narrow. You won't
enjoy that way. You'll find it's a very hard
way. Don't go it. I'll show you a
much better way, a much easier way. And of course, what does
the devil do? He shows us his plan. And his plan is to At last, end
us in hell. That's his plan. Therefore, he
never wants us to listen to what Jesus says. He never wants us
to follow the pattern that Jesus has given us. He wants us to
ignore that. He wants us to doubt it. He wants
us to consider it and disobey it. So let us remember then that
we have this great enemy, the devil. And also to remember the
devil worries us. Day by day, the devil would never
give up. this side of the time of your
death. He will always try and persuade
you that what the Bible says is not true, and you can ignore
it, and you can enjoy yourself, and everything will be all right.
In fact, in any case, there's no hell, so you needn't worry
about that. See, that's what the devil tells
us. And that is not the right way. That is the broad way. But there is a way. And as I've
said, you and I will walk either in that way or in the narrow
way. Well, may you and I be moved
by the Holy Spirit to come and be found walking then in the
way that Jesus sets before us. And realise this wonderful statement,
I am the way. Jesus never leads in a wrong
way. Jesus never makes any mistakes
in your and my life in the way he leads us. It's always the
right way. And if you remember, you may
not remember but I'll tell you, when David wrote the Psalms,
and there's much teaching in the Psalms, but in the 107th
Psalm, He speaks to the children of Israel and David was concerned
that Israel might remember what God had done for them years ago. And he tells us this in the 107th
Psalm. He led them forth, that's God,
he led them forth by the right way. that they might go to a
city of habitation. That means the eternal home of
glory. Yes, they had a difficult time,
and if you think of the children of Israel, the problems they
had, the difficulties they had, and how often they disobeyed
God. But they didn't all come back
and come into what we term the heavenly Canaan, the place of
Canaan, which was the other side of Jordan where God was leading
them. Many died in the wilderness,
many because they disobeyed God. We must recognize, we must not
disobey God, even if it is not an easy path. Israel never had
an easy path. It was in a wilderness. They
had food supplied to them and water. It wasn't fancy, very
simple food, only water, no fancy drinks, just simple, but it kept
them alive. And my friends today, the day
in which we live. Let's just reverse that and speak
of it in a spiritual sense. God gives us simple spiritual
food, and it's referred to as the bread of life. And he gives
us simple drink, and it's referred to as the water of life. So, we shouldn't expect great
and wonderful and varied blessings. But we should seek that God will
feed us with that food which is good for us and give us that
drink, that spiritual drink to drink the water of life, which
will then be that which will sustain us in our journey. our journey of life as we, by
the grace of God, follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, Jesus
said in answer to that question from Thomas, we know not whither
thou goest and how can we know the way? And it's always good
to be very honest in our thoughts and in our prayers. You see,
you may not want, you may not like to admit that you're very
ignorant in the things of God. You may not know hardly anything,
and you may be ashamed that you don't know very much. The great
blessing is that you can go and tell Jesus, because He understands. And He knows all about us, each
one of us. And we can pray to Him earnestly
that although we are so ignorant and that we've been so foolish. And you may say, why have I been
foolish? Well, you may have sat and listened to many sermons. On the other hand, you may not
have listened to many sermons. You may have just sat in chapel,
pretending perhaps to listen, but in actual fact, you haven't
listened. You wasted, wasted many hours
when your soul could have been benefited. And you may be very
embarrassed to confess that. But you can come and tell Jesus,
and say how wrong you've been, and how foolish you've been,
and how silly you've been, and how sinful you've been, and plead
the Lord will forgive you of all the wasted hours in your
life, and pray that he will then now lead you in this good and
right way and be found a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because this way is a wonderfully
good way. Yes, as I've said, it may not
be an easy way. I can perhaps say, well, it won't
be an easy way, but what you will know is this, it has a good
end. And that's what we need. And
again, let me just come back to the vast difference between
the length of our life and eternity, and therefore not to be concerned
about enjoying ourselves in this life, in natural things, but
look forward to that which the Apostle Peter speaks of, an inheritance,
incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved
in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God, through
grace, under salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
Well, what a mercy it is then, if you have something to look
forward to. Everyone who dies without the
knowledge of Christ has nothing to look forward to, but to endure
endless pain and sorrow and sadness in hell. But to those who are
found in this right way, following the Lord Jesus Christ and realizing
he is the way and to walk in that way, the end will be good,
because as we read together in the previous verses, the Lord
Jesus says, I go and prepare a place for you, a place in glory,
a place in heaven. Oh, what a mercy then to have
such a very glorious and wonderful savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who doesn't treat us as we deserve to be treated. Again, it is good
to look into our lives and see how we've treated God. How have you treated God? Have
you ignored what he said? Have you disobeyed what he said? Have you said, I'm not going
to obey the truths in the Bible? I'm going to enjoy myself. You
see, many people in the world today take that view and they
realise, and you may hear people say, I'm going to live my life
to the full. I'm going to enjoy my life on
this earth, not realising that there is an eternity. a life which never ends in hell
before them. It's a very, very solemn consideration,
isn't it? And that's why we should be very
thankful that we have such a statement as this. And the words of the
Lord Jesus in this sermon he spoke to his disciples in the
upper room are very, very wonderful. And it's very good if you just
read them. They're not very long. You can
go home and you can read them. And you can read from chapter
13 to chapter 16. Not very long, is it? And then
you can just press on also and read chapter 17. And you may
say, why do you think that? Because chapter 17 is very special. Because there we have a record,
an account of Jesus Remember, the son of God praying to his
father. Wonderful prayer. And it's wonderful
to realize that Jesus tells us he's praying for all of his people. And what a blessing that is to
have the evidence, therefore, that Jesus is indeed praying
for us. Well, it would be a great blessing
to know that Jesus is praying for us. And again, it's good
sometimes to just try and think of that. To think, here we have
Jesus, who is God, Right? Jesus is God. The God, the great
God, comprises three persons, but those three persons are one.
The first is the Father, the second is the Son, and the third
is the Holy Spirit. And those three are one. And Jesus is the second person. And it was Jesus in his great
love for his church and the Father because his great love for the
church and the Holy Spirit for his great love to the church
that therefore ordained the unworthy sinners like you and me should
receive the blessing of Almighty God and by His favour, one day,
be found with him forever. Forever. Forever. It's an amazing truth, isn't
it? You try and think of forever.
You try and think how long that is. Just try and think it out. Well, you can't really imagine
it. It's just beyond our minds. But
nonetheless, it's good just to try and think how long forever
is, and then to compare it with our life of, say, 100 years. It's just the Bible gives us
a wonderful description of it. He says, it's just like a vapour. A vapour. You know, you would
have seen, you young people, you would have seen a kettle
or a saucepan boiling with water and you'll see the steam come
up and it comes up and you can see it and then it disappears.
It's gone. And it's just like our life.
It's there for a very brief time. and then it's gone. You see it
no more on this earth. But our soul lives forever. And the way the Lord sets before
us is that one day this world will be burnt up. One day this
world will cease to exist in the form it is now. Yes, it'll
be burnt up. All that men have thought great
and wonderful and valuable would be of no value at all. It'll
all be burnt up. Well, what a mercy, then, if
the Lord God Almighty has come to you and me, and we have, by
his favour, set our hearts upon things above, spiritual blessings. Our soul never dies. Our body
will be resurrected and our body will be united to our spirits
on that great day of the resurrection when all of us must stand before
that judgment seat of Christ. No one who's ever lived will
be exempt. We should all stand before the
judgment seat of Christ to be judged for the deeds done in
the flesh. But on that great day, what a
mercy it will be if the Lord Jesus, who is the judge, will
know that you and I were blessed with this truth and believe that
Jesus Christ was the way and is the way You and I have followed
the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, says Jesus unto Thomas,
and he may say to us today, each one of us, I am the way. And then he goes on. The three
points here, as you know, the first is I am the way. The second
is he is the truth. I am the truth. And the third
thing is, and yours is also the life. Now, we live in a world
where there are many lies today. You may have told lies, I may
have told lies. And therefore we know that we're
not pure. Yeah, we haven't been truthful
to our parents, perhaps to our school teachers, perhaps to our
friends, perhaps to our brothers and sisters. We haven't been
truthful. So we know, therefore, that we
haven't been true, but we know the Lord Jesus Christ is only
truth. There's no untruth in him. That's why it's a great blessing
for you and me to be able to believe the Bible, which is the
Word of God. And from Genesis, the very first
words, to the end of Revelation, every single word is true. You don't have to doubt that
which God has written. And you must not look at it and
think, well, I don't think I believe that. It's not a question what
you think. The question, the reality is
that what the Bible says is true. And therefore, it is the word
of Jesus. And you and I, must not disobey
it. We must not think it's irrelevant
to our lives. But we must recognize this great
truth that Jesus speaks to Thomas when he spoke to all his disciples,
but in answer to the question of Thomas, he comes and tells
him, I am the truth. That's wonderful, isn't it? Because
when you come to Jesus in prayer and when you come and ask him,
to show you the right way. When you come to him and ask
him that he will bless your soul, when you come to him perhaps
and ask for many things in this world, you can be sure that he
will not mislead you. You can be sure that he will
not tell you the wrong way, because he is truth. Now, the devil will
tell you the wrong way. He wants to deceive you. And
therefore, if you come and wonder what is the right way, what is
the wrong way? Well, usually the right way is
the difficult way. And the wrong way is the easy
way. So if you're desiring to know
the right way in your natural life and in your spiritual life,
don't just make an assumption, that's the way I want to go.
That's the way I'm sure is the right way. You need to see whether
the way that you think is the right way is the truth, and whether
the word of God agrees with it, whether the word of God justifies
it, whether the word of God directs you in that way. What a blessing
it is then to have a right conscience, to desire to do that which is
right and God honoring and realize here we have what Jesus says,
I am the way and I am the truth. And then he says also a great
and wonderful statement. He is the life. Remember, you
and I have a natural body and we have a spirit, a soul. And you and I are born with a
natural life. And we are born with a soul,
which spiritually although alive, is spiritually dead to the things
of God. And you and I need, therefore,
the life of God given to us. The life of God given to us,
so that we then have real desires, heavenly desires, that we may
know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour. and that we may
have the evidence that we are journeying in the right way. And that we have the evidence
that Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us in glory. Now, all those blessings come
if the Holy Spirit gives us this wonderful blessing of life, spiritual
life. And that spiritual life brings
to us spiritual sight and spiritual hearing, so that you are able
to come and to say with that person that was listed in the
Bible, who was blind, he said this, Once I was blind, but now
I see. Now all of us are born spiritually
blind. But what a blessing if you and
I now have spiritual eyes so that you understand the truth
of God. And if that is so, it's because
God has granted you that great and wonderful blessing of eternal
life, so that you are indeed born again of the Spirit of God. If you see these things which
you never understood before, and yet the light of heaven has
shone into your heart. One thing I know, whereas I was
blind, but now I see. spiritual eyes, and then you
hear the Word of God. In the Revelation, in chapters
2 and 3, there's some wonderful words that were given to the
Apostle John when he was on the Isle of Patmos, and he was told
to write these messages to the seven churches. And he wrote
them to the seven churches. And as he wrote them, after every
small segment that he wrote to each individual church, these
words were written, he that hath an ear to hear Let him hear. Now, the devil doesn't want you
to hear anything spiritually. He wants you only to hear his
words. And his words tell you to do
evil, tell you to do sinful things, tell you you'll enjoy it, and
that's the way to go. But the Spirit tells you to do
right things. The Spirit directs you in a right
way. And this is that which Jesus
speaks here. I am the life. What a blessing, therefore, if
today you can look into your heart and examine it and see
whether the Holy Spirit has shown you that you do possess this
new life, this spiritual life. When Jesus was again on the earth,
there was a man called Nicodemus, and he came to Jesus and he asked
him questions. And in actual fact, if you read,
and this is in the third chapter of John, and the early verses,
if you read that, you will find that Jesus did not answer the
question that he asked Jesus. But he did tell him this, he
must be born again. And perhaps sometimes you may
ask Jesus some questions and he may not answer them, but he
may say to you, you must be born again. And that's so true, every
one of us. must be born again spiritually
and have that life of God within us. So Jesus says here, I am
the life, the life. What a wonderful blessing. If
today you may be able to discern that there's been a change in
your life, So that you do know, you do have a spiritual life. And if you don't have, pray to
God that you may have. Because all of us must have this
spiritual life before we die. All of us. None exempt. Otherwise we will not go. to
glory at last. We will not go to heaven. We
will end up in that terrible place of hell for eternity. Well, what a blessing it is that
Jesus has given us such gracious instructions in the Bible. And what a mercy it is that we
have this very simple account as Jesus spoke But his disciples
in that upper room, they were there, a group together. And
you know, they weren't sleeping, were they? They were listening. These were the words of life. This is what they wanted to hear,
this is what they needed to hear. Because when Jesus was taken
from them, which wouldn't be very long, they would remember
these great words and these great truths. And so here this morning,
may we perhaps find ourselves like Thomas and ask in this question,
we know not whither thou gaiest and how can we know the way? Hear the word of Jesus. I am
the way, the truth and the life. And bless God for those words
and understand them. Proven to be true in our own
spiritual life. Amen.