Good evening. Let's begin our
evening service by singing 258, standing. 258, he hideth my soul. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord, a wonderful Savior to me. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock where rivers of pleasure I see. He hideth my soul in the
cleft of the rock that shadows the dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of his love and covers me there with his hand, and covers me
there with his hand. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord, He taketh my burden away. He holdeth me up and I shall
not be moved, He giveth me strength as my day. He hideth my soul
in the cleft of the rock that shadows the dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of his love and covers me there with his hand, and covers me
there with his hand. With numberless blessings each
moment He crowns, And filled with His fullness divine, I sing
in my rapture, O glory to God, For such a Redeemer as mine. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life
in the depths of his love and covers me there with his hand. And covers me there with his
hand. When clothed in his brightness
transported I rise To meet him in clouds of the sky His perfect
salvation, his wonderful love I'll shout with the millions
on high He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock that shadows
a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of his love and covers me there with his hand. And covers me there with his
hand. I'd like to read Psalm 145, Psalm
145. David's Psalm of Praise. I will
extol thee, my God, O King, and I will bless thy name forever
and ever. Every day will I bless thee, and I will praise thy name
forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly
to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation
shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty
acts. I will speak of the glorious honor of thy majesty and of thy
wondrous works. And men shall speak of the might
of thy terrible acts, and I will declare thy greatness. They shall
abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall
sing of thy righteousness. The Lord is gracious and full
of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy. The Lord
is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works.
All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord, and thy saints shall
bless thee. that shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom,
and talk of thy power, to make known to the sons of men his
mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom. Thy kingdom
is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout
all generations. The Lord upholdeth all that fall,
and raiseth up all those that be bowed down. The eyes of all
wait upon thee, and thou givest them their meat in due season.
that openest thine hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing.
The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his
works. The Lord is nigh unto all them
that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. He will
fulfill the desire of them that fear Him. He also will hear their
cry and will save them. The Lord preserveth all them
that love Him, but all the wicked will He destroy. My mouth shall
speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless His holy
name forever and ever. Our merciful and heavenly Father,
we thank you, Father, for assembling us again this evening, where
we have this great blessing, where we can come together to
worship your great and holy name, and to once again hear of that
finished work that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished for his people.
that the Lord Jesus Christ has saved us from our sins, saved
us from the darkness of religion and from the dominion of sin,
and has given us a newness of light, a quickening in our hearts,
a new nature that loves thee, the living God. Father, we thank
you for this full, free, and complete salvation where there
is nothing left for us to do. And Father, will you remember
us in mercy this evening. Pour out your grace and mercy
upon us. Remember Brother Eric again,
Lord, as he stands before us. Pour out your spirit upon him
and upon us. And Lord, bless his message.
and that we may be fed in our souls, that we may have our rest
in our souls increased, and that our eyes may once again be turned
to the Lord Jesus Christ, our only hope, our only help. Father,
remember us, this local assembly. We do not know the future, but
Lord, all things are perfectly in your hands. And Father, if
it would please you, will you call out your sheep from this
local area here, Lord, you know perfectly what must be done.
And will you yet use this assembly, Lord, to the salvation of your
sheep, those lost sheep, and for the comfort and the feeding
of your sheep. Father, remember our loved ones.
You know perfectly, Lord, what they stand in need of. And Lord,
if you were to speak to them, then we know that they would
hear you, hear your voice, and receive a hunger and a thirst
after you. Father, remember those of us
that gather together. You know all the situations perfectly,
some that are struggling, some that have recent surgeries. Lord,
will you remember them and give them health again, comfort them.
For Jesus' sake alone, amen. Let's sing 23. 23. Come we that
love the Lord. Come we that love the Lord, and
let our joys be known. Join in a song with sweet accord,
and thus surround the throne. Let those refuse to sing who
never knew our God. But children of the heavenly
King may speak their joys abroad. The hill of Zion yields the thousand
sacred sweets before we reach the heavenly fields or walk the
golden streets and let our songs abound Let every tear be dry. We're marching through Emmanuel's
ground to fairer worlds on high. Good evening. Last week, we were continuing
our study in the seven I am's that our Lord spoke, which are
recorded for us in the gospel of John. And I like to continue
that study tonight, and I expect that we should be able to complete
it. Now, remember that when our Lord
says, I am, in the sense that he speaks having all authority
and all power given to him. He's speaking to us as the God-man
mediator. And when we hear him speak these
words to us by his spirit, when they come to us with power, they
are a comfort. to us. They're a joy and a rejoicing
because we see that in what our Lord is saying, these words concern
our salvation. The words that Christ speaks
to you are very personal words and have everything to do with
you and your salvation. The sheep of Christ are precious
to Him, and He has taken it upon Himself to obtain eternal redemption
for you, to obtain your eternal life, to give you an expected
end, to give you joy and peace and comfort in the Lord. And so these words are wonderful
to hear because they describe for us what Christ, the Christ
of God, the God-man mediator, God manifests in the flesh what
he has done for you. And we see how that our God has
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. And that's what's being declared
to us. You know, an example of what our God has done for us
was recorded by Paul in the epistle to the Corinthians, in 1 Corinthians
1.30, where he says, but of him, of our God, are ye in Christ. Our God has put you, his people,
whom he loves, whom he chose into the hands of Christ and
in Christ Jesus, that is in his body. We are members of Christ's
body, and He has made Christ unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. And that's just a taste of all
the beauties, all the adornment that our God has blessed us with
in His Son Jesus Christ. These words, when we're looking
at these I Ams, you'll see, you'll notice these things concern you,
and they concern your salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. They're
not simply attributes that Christ is speaking to glorify the attributes
of God in a general sense. These things concern you personally. He's speaking to you as the Savior,
as the giver of your life. And so, here then, you that believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ, you that are needy sinners, you that
have no life of yourselves, but have life of the Lord Jesus Christ,
He's speaking to you as His bride, whom He loves, whom He gave Himself
for, for whom He shed His blood to put away your sins. to obtain
forgiveness for you, for your sins, and to give you eternal
life in Him. And so every one of these seven
I Am's, they're describing the salvation which Christ has accomplished
for His elect chosen seed. Now let's just recap these, since
this is the final one, the capstone message, if you will. Let's quickly
run through what we've seen and what we'll see tonight. First,
we've seen four so far, and first, we saw that Christ is our complete
satisfaction, that we are completely satisfied in the Lord Jesus Christ. When he said, I am the bread
of life, he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that
believeth on me shall never thirst. He's revealing to us what He's
revealed in us that in Christ we are satisfied. We're satisfied. We want for no other righteousness.
We need no other salvation. Christ is all. Second, we see
that our Lord Jesus Christ is the one who makes known to us
this salvation and this life which our God has given to us
in Him. 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. That's John 8, 12. The first
one was John 6, 36. And then we come to John 10.
And in verse 9, we see that Christ is our access to the Father. He's our access unto the Father.
He said, I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved. He will be reconciled unto holy
God and shall go in and out and find pasture. And then in verse
11, John 10, 11, we see that Christ is the one who delivers
us. out of the jaws of death, out
of eternal death, Christ is the one who delivers us. He says,
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. Now, tonight we'll be looking
at the last of these three I Am's. And in the fifth one, we'll see
that Christ is our resurrection from spiritual death. He gives
us spiritual life, raising us by His glory and His power unto
spiritual life. He says in John chapter 11, verse
25, I am the resurrection and the
life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And then we see in John 14 verse
6 that Christ is all our salvation. He says, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. And then John 15 verse 1 and
also in verse 5, but we'll look at verse 1. Our Lord says, I
am the true vine, the true vine, and my father is the husbandman.
So these are the seven I am's. So remember that these words,
they concern you. Christ is speaking to you, his
sheep. It concerns your salvation. These are not just random sayings
that prove that he is God, they concern you and your salvation. So here's the fifth one in John
11, John 11 verse 25. Jesus said unto Martha, I am
the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. When we're born, We are born
spiritually dead. We're not good people in the
sight of God. We're not little angels. We're
not little precious do-gooders in the sight of God. We come
forth in rebellion, conceived in iniquity. We are sinners,
and we are dead in trespasses and sins, and we need to be raised
from the dead. We need eternal salvation. We don't have the Spirit of God. We need the Spirit of God. We must be born again. Otherwise,
we will never hear God. We'll never see Christ. We'll never see our need of Christ,
and we'll never see our need of a complete salvation. We'll
continue thinking there's something that we can do to earn God's
favor, to turn things around, to make amends for the sins which
we've committed and do and all that we are, which God hates. Christ is that resurrection power. We don't raise ourselves. Christ
is that resurrection power. He is life itself, and he gives
life to his people, raising us up by the life and the power
of himself, of our Lord. He says, I am the resurrection
and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. When Christ the Savior came,
he died the death of his people. He paid the penalty that we owed
to God. He paid that debt that we should
go free from that penalty. He delivered us. He paid the
price with his own blood. and by himself, he gives us life
and delivers us from the wrath of God which is coming upon the
inhabitants of the earth. Christ has delivered us. When
Christ died, we his people died with him. You can turn there
if you like. I'm going to read Romans 6. Romans
6, verse 6. There the Spirit tells us that
our old man is crucified with Christ,
that the body of sin might be destroyed. All the workings of
sin in us, Christ destroyed them. destroyed its power, destroyed
any power that it held over us, that henceforth we should not
serve sin. So that sin in us is destroyed. It has no power, no authority
over us any longer. The second death, which is coming
upon the children of disobedience and the children of wrath, that
second death has no power over you and me. It doesn't control
us. It has nothing to do with what we do anymore. Our inheritance
is no longer in Adam, in that body of death. Our inheritance
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. We stand in Christ our Savior. Christ is our head. Because believers
are dead. We're dead to the law of sin
and death. We're dead to it. It has no power
over us any longer. And their life is hid with Christ
in God. Let's turn over to Colossians.
Let's go to Colossians 3. Colossians 3. I want to show you something
here in regards to our death and our resurrection by Christ. When Christ died and we died
in Him, our sins were forgiven. And He put them away, then and
there, on the cross. And it remains, therefore, after
Christ's work, it remains, therefore, for chosen, redeemed sinners
to receive this life, which has been obtained by our Savior and
for us. It's according to promise. And
that's because it pleases God to save all them for whom Christ
died. None of his sheep is lost. And he gave his life for the
sheep, and none of his sheep are lost. Not then, nor shall
they ever be lost. So it remains for us to receive
that light. There's coming a day, a day of
grace, when your God will come to you with power and he shall
speak the word, and you will hear the voice of the Son of
God, and you that are dead in trespasses and sins shall live. You shall live. That's the promise
of God. That's the power of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so when salvation is wrought
in us, it comes by that same resurrection power which raised
Jesus Christ from the dead. That same power that we stand
in awe of and wonder that God and God alone can raise a man
from the dead. And Christ is the first man and
only man to die and never die again. He was the first one to
die and be raised again, never to die again. And so we see therefore
in Colossians 3, Colossians 3 verse 1, Paul continues on with that
thought and says, If ye then be risen with Christ, if you
are raised from the dead and you have been given life from
the Son, that eternal life, he says, seek those things which
are above. where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. Set your affection on things
above, not on things on the earth. This flesh is only set on the
things of the earth. This flesh is fleshly. It's carnal. It thinks of fleshly things,
of earthly things. It's dust. It's returning to
the dust. But there's a new man, there's
that new life which is created in us of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that man looks to Christ
and walks by faith in Christ according to the life which he
has in the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul tells us, you're dead,
and your life is hid with Christ in God. That old man, that old
connection to Adam, that standing in Adam, that's dead. That's
over. That sin has no more authority
or power over us. Our life is with Christ. It's
hid in Christ with God. And verse 4, when Christ, who
is our life. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." That
last verse caught my eye, where Paul says, Christ is our life. We have life of the Lord Jesus
Christ. By His resurrection power, we
live. And He raises up His people from
spiritual death, so that we live spiritually in Him. Ye are born
again, so that you see the kingdom of God, you see Christ, you hear
His voice, you see your need of God's grace, you see your
need of God's salvation, a complete salvation, and the sufficiency
of God is given to you freely by His grace in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He gives you that life and makes
you thankful and rejoicing in what He has done for you. And
so now we walk by faith, looking to our Savior, trusting Him,
believing Him, resting in Him. We're comforted by Him. We're
taught by Him. We're kept by Him. and we're His people, and rejoice
in what He's done for us, walking by faith. This is the promise
of eternal life, which He's given to us in Christ. Now, because
of what Christ has done, we're taught in the scripture that
it's a very short-sighted thing for us to look to something we've
done in Christ. walking in Isle, giving our lives
to Christ, saying a sinner's prayer and accepting Jesus Christ
as our Lord and Savior. There's a lot that men do in
religion in thinking that this is salvation. And it's a very
short-sighted thing for us to think that because we here the
doctrines of grace, and the doctrine of Christ, and the hope that
we have in those doctrines, and to think, well, now I've taken
care of those things. I believe according to what these
men teach me from the pulpits, and now I have life in Christ. And then to become very careless
about our lives, and careless about our sin, and just to pursue
the life that this flesh loves to pursue. Because this flesh
is fleshly. It's dead. And that's all it
knows and all it wants. And it's a short-sighted thing
for us to think, well, I've given assent to these doctrines now. And I believe that Christ is
sovereign and that he gives life and that he died for my sins.
And then to go on living life howsoever we please in the flesh. And Paul tells us, he reminds
us, he says, you're not your own, you're bought with a price. He said that in 1 Corinthians
6 at the end of verse 19 and the beginning of verse 20. You're
not your own, you're bought with a price. And so to think otherwise,
to think that how we live, because we're not under sin and our sin
is put away and we are forgiven of God, the flesh is very subtle
and very wicked and very tricky and will do justify itself to
do what it would do. But Peter says that such in one
who would do that is blind. He says they're blind and they
cannot see afar off and have forgotten that he was purged
from his old sins. 2 Peter 1.9, from his old sins. And that sticks out to me. A
person who looks at Christ and says I'm forgiven for my old
sins and that's all they see is their old sins is short-sighted
because the Lord shows us that we're sinners every day even
now especially now we see as we grow in the Lord Jesus Christ
we see that Things I didn't even think of before when I first
heard the gospel. We see that sin is everything
that I am by nature. It's all that I am. I am dead
in trespasses and sins in this flesh. And this flesh is corrupt,
it's vile, it's wicked. And so, the child of God, when
they are raised from the dead in Christ, we see our need of
Christ every day. Every day. And as often as the
Lord shows us our sin, and He doesn't show it all to us because
we couldn't handle it, but as He shows us our sin, we are reminded
of our need of Christ. Our need of His blood, of His
grace. of His keeping us, of keeping
our hearts and turning us away from the things of this world,
and shows us our need of that refreshing grace which is poured
out upon the people of God. Lord, keep me. Keep me ever looking
to Christ. Keep me growing in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Let me not become complacent
and indifferent and careless to my sin, because That sin is
put away. I have no part of that. I'm not
worried about that, but I want to know my Savior. I want to
hear His voice. I want to serve my Savior. I want to serve my brethren and
to love my brethren. because my God has saved me and
put away that death and delivered me from that death. And I'm not
my own. I am bought with the price, and
I want to know the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that resurrection
life which Christ gives to us works in us and gives us a hope
in Him and a desire to walk by faith in Him and to know that
promise that we shall not walk in darkness. And so, when He
gives life, His people live. They live. And they hear Him. And we'll grow in grace and knowledge
of our Savior. We'll learn of Him. You know,
you think of the disciples. The disciples were His people. And you think of them, and you
think, you know, there were some good days, real good days of
rejoicing, right? When they went out two by two,
they were given power. They were given authority. They
cast out devils and they had healed the sick and they came
back and they were, they were. laughing with joy. They were
so amazed at the power of God and what they were able to do
in the name of Christ. And so there was good days and
there was also some dark days and some troublesome days. There
was a time when Christ constrained his disciples to get into the
ship without him. And that sea became dark and
stormy and contrary to them. and they feared for their lives.
They were afraid and felt as though Christ wasn't with them. And then they had even darker
days, even lower days, when Christ was arrested before them. They
were afraid and they didn't know what was going on so that they
forsook their Lord and they were scattered and ran from Him and
hid themselves. wouldn't publicly own his name. And yet, they were still his
disciples. They were being grown. They were
being proved by the Lord that they are his people. And all
through that, the Lord conformed them to the image of his son,
Jesus Christ. We see it even in our children,
right? From the time they're born, from
the time they're conceived, even, and the time that they're born,
they're growing up. They're growing up, even though
there's days when they're good and days when they're bad, days
when they're in trouble, days when you're really proud of them.
And then there's days when they're sick and have a high fever or
they break a bone. And some of us can even think
back on our childhood and can recall near-death experiences. really close calls and through
it our Lord preserved us and we continue to grow and we look
back and we say I can't believe that I made it this far and yet
we grow and that's how the Lord grows his people who have life
you're not always going to see what you think you should see
but the Lord is teaching and he's kept you faithful as he
which has called you and who has begun a good work in you
to complete it. He's going to bring it to the
end. He's given you an expected end in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's promised His word that all who believe Him, all who trust
in Him, shall never perish. And He's given that to you. Otherwise,
we wouldn't believe in Him, and we wouldn't trust in Him, and
we wouldn't hope in Him, and we wouldn't see our need of Him
continually. So we see that our Lord, we see His grace and mercy to
grow us and to keep us. Now, the sixth thing, which our
Lord speaks here, he says this when he was in private with his
disciples. Before he went to the cross,
he was in private with his disciples, and he asserts to them that he
is all their salvation. All their salvation. And he says
in verse 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh
unto the Father but by me. Now, we know in religion, we
have friends in religion, and perhaps we were this way for
a long time in religion, where man seems content to see Christ
as a component of salvation. They see him as a religious figure.
They see him as a good example, or perhaps a prophet. For many,
he's just a good luck charm that they wear around their neck to
some degree. But Christ is telling His people,
He reveals to His disciples that He is the way to the Father. He doesn't show us the way, He
is that way, so that we who know Christ know the way, because
Christ Himself is the way to the Father. Christ is the way
from the Father by whom we receive all spiritual blessings and Christ
is the way that we have to the Father. It's only by the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's our acceptance and He's
our righteousness. Then Christ said that He is the
truth. In other words, when we read
this Word, when we read the Bible, which the Spirit has given to
us, to His people, to read, we're reading of the Lord Jesus Christ.
All this Word speaks of Christ. It's turning our eyes and our
hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ. When we don't have the Spirit,
we're just reading Just words on a page. We're just reading
Bible stories and moral stories and good religious things. That's
all that man sees. But when he gives us life and
we have his spirit, we begin to see that this speaks of Christ. And when we don't see it ourselves,
we know it is speaking of Christ. We trust that this is teaching
me of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the truth. And we rejoice
as we see and hear how these things speak of our Savior. They're all testifying to Him
who is the life, to Him whom we need, that He is our salvation. When Christ was speaking to His
disciples after His resurrection, He says in Luke 24, verse 44
and 45, He said, these are the words. which I spake unto you while
I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which
were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the
Psalms concerning me." And then it says he opened their understanding
that they might understand the Scriptures. When Christ is the
way, when you are no longer just coming to a set of doctrines
to do a religious thing. When you come to Christ, and
you need Christ, and you see that Christ is my salvation,
Christ is my life, He is everything. When you come to Christ, then
you understand this Word is speaking of Him. It speaks of Him, it
glorifies Him, and He is my hope. And this is the hope I have,
is in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. For example, he's that truth
which was spoken, he's that promise which was spoken of by our God
in the garden when he promised man that he would send a son
who would be the seed of woman, and that seed would crush the
head of the serpent, destroying our enemy, destroying our accuser,
destroying the power which he had over the children of God. And so Christ comes, and through
that word, he announces his coming. In Isaiah 61 verse 1, when he
said, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me, he's anointed
me to preach good tidings unto the meek. I'm here, Christ says,
I've come just as my father promised, just as he spoke of me in the
garden, the word of God, I'm here and I am your life and your
salvation. He's revealing to you that he's
come and he's done everything necessary for your salvation. And then he says that he is the
life. He is the life. He has life in
himself and he is the life and he gives life to whomsoever he
will give it. He says in John 5, why don't
you turn there to John 5. John 5, 25 and 26. He says, verily, verily, truly,
truly, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is when the
dead, those who are spiritually dead sinners, shall hear the
voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in
himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself."
He is life. He has life in himself and he
gives life. Only God gives life. Only God gives life. And Christ
gives life to whomsoever he wills. Christ is Almighty God. So that he says, turn over to
John 10. John 10 verse 27 and 28. He says, My sheep hear My voice,
and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of My hand. You that love Christ love Him
because you have the life of God in you. He has given you
life and that's why you love Him. That's why you desire Him.
That's why you hunger and thirst for Him and are satisfied with
Christ and Christ alone. And so in Christ Jesus it's impossible
It's impossible that you should come short of obtaining that
life which our God has promised to you. And nothing, nothing
can disannul that promise which God has made to you in the Lord
Jesus Christ. You that have Christ have life. Turn over to Galatians 4. Galatians
4, and let's look at verse 4, 4 through 6. We saw this recently on Sunday,
last Sunday. This is another verse, I don't
believe that we were there. We'll get to it, we'll start
in verse four and work our way down to verse six. But when the
fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made
of a woman, made under the law. It had nothing to do with you
or me. This was all God's will to save you, purpose to save
his people. To redeem them that were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because
ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father. That is the life of Christ, to
give you His Spirit, the Spirit of Adoption, whereby you call
upon the Savior, you call upon your God, you seek Him in spirit
and in truth. because Christ is the way, the
truth, and the life. So that now you call upon him
by the power of the Spirit which is given to you because he has
given you life in himself. That's the promise that God gives
to his children in Abraham who believe like him. Now, this brings
us to the seventh and final time here in John where Christ says,
I am. It's there in Well, so far we've
seen where Christ said, I am the resurrection and the life.
And then he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And
now he says in John 15, verse 1, I am the true vine, and my
father is the husbandman. Here, Christ is describing our
union, and he's describing our vital union to him, that he is,
that we live by him. Apart from Christ, we have no
life. Apart from us, Christ isn't the
God-man mediator. We are vitally connected to our
Savior, and we're one with him so that he is all our life. And
he says in verse five, John 15, five, I am the vine. Ye are the branches, he that
abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much
fruit. For without me he can do nothing. It's just like we see in our
yards, in the garden, or out in the field somewhere, when
the branch is separated from the vine. It's dead. It's severed from life. It has
no life in itself. Christ is the vine. We are the
branch. And except ye be in the Lord
Jesus Christ, you have no life in you. And ye that are in Christ,
who believe Him, who hope in Him, it's because you have life
by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, in closing, let me say this,
that there's a theme which is in all seven of these I Am's. I'm going to review them. I'm
just going to read some of the key parts and I think you'll
hear it and you'll see it. And then I'll make sure you do
because I'll say it right at the end. He says in John 635,
he said, I am the bread of life. Then in John 8, 12 he said, I
am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Now this one's a little harder
to see at first when he said, I am the door. By me, if any
man enter in, he shall be saved and shall go in and out and find
pasture. But in the next verse, which
we didn't read in John 10, 10, he says, the thief cometh not
but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that
they might have life and have it more abundantly. Then, well, in that we see that
Christ isn't come to take life. He's come to give life. Christ has come to give life. And then he says in John 10,
11, I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep, that the sheep would have life. He gave
his life that we would have life. Then he says, I am the resurrection
and the life. and the life. Then he says in
John 14 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And then he says, I am the true
vine. So that abiding in Christ, we
live and bear fruit and have life and fellowship with our
God. So the theme is life. In all seven of these sayings,
our Savior is saying, I am the life of my people. If you would have life, if you
would know God, you must come to Him in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ is life. He is the life of His people.
And you that believe Him have life. Because He is life and
He is all. And so that's what our Savior
is saying in each of these seven sayings. I'm life. I'm life. Look to me. If you would live,
Look to me, and you that look, it's because you live by His
grace and glory and power. Amen. All right, brethren, close us
in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, that we see Jesus, who is God, manifest in the flesh. come to deliver us from death
and to give us life in Himself. Lord, we see how You reveal to
us over and over and over again that You are life. Lord, we don't
come to a set of doctrines, we don't come to a specific church,
we don't come to all these things which man trusts in. which His
intellect gives Him or helps Him with. Lord, it's a spiritual
work which is done only by You. Lord, You are life. We come to the Lord Jesus Christ,
and it's only by Him that we live. Lord, turn us from dead
things, turn us from the things of the flesh, and turn us to
the Lord Jesus Christ. You promised to give Your people
life in Yourself, to give them Your Spirit, whereby we cry,
Abba Father, that Spirit of Adoption. Lord, teach us and keep us. Grow us, Lord, in grace and in
faith, in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
because He is everything. everything and you've provided
everything in Him and we thank you Lord for this. We pray this
in Christ's name, Amen. Our closing hymn is going to
be Blessed Assurance, 255. Blessed Assurance. Oh, what a foretaste of glory
divine, heir of salvation, purchase of God. Born of His Spirit, washed
in His blood. This is my story, this is my
song. Praising my Savior all the day
long. This is my story, this is my
song. Praising my Savior all the day
long. Perfect submission, perfect delight. Visions of rapture now burst
on my sight. Angels descending bring from
above echoes of mercy, whispers of love. This is my story. This is my song. ? Praising my
Savior all the day long ? ? This is my story, this is my song
? ? Praising my Savior all the day long ? ? Perfect submission,
all is at rest ? ? I in my Savior am happy and blessed ? Watching
and waiting, looking above, filled with His goodness, lost in His
love. This is my story, this is my
song, praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story,
this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. Thank you.