Going back to John chapter 14, John 14, the title of the message, The
Way, The Truth, and The Life. We have in every one of these
statements the gospel. Actually, we have in all these
statements all we need, the way to God, the truth of God, and
the life of God. We have them. Now, our Lord so
wisely instructed his disciples before going to the cross. As
I told you there in chapter 13 through 16, he's got them to
himself. and he's instructing them. This
is one person's called it the inner sanctuary and he's teaching
them and in teaching them he's teaching us. And our Lord led
them by what he said to them to ask questions that they needed
to learn and you and I need to learn. I realized in reading
this week I realized that every situation our Lord orchestrated
in order to teach and instruct. He's talking about going away.
He knows their ignorance. He knows my ignorance. He knows. And He knows what situations
to bring me into in order for me to ask those searching questions
so that he may instruct me and he may instruct you. And that's
just so evident to me in reading the Gospels, especially, how
he brought, you know, he didn't just, it wasn't just, it didn't
just happen that 5,000 people were following him. He said,
well, you know, they're hungry. I think we ought to feed them. He did
that and caused them being God to follow him that he might that
he might preach and teach about the true bread from heaven that
we saw this morning the manna true manna from heaven and all
that came out of him feeding five thousand and he orchestrated
that in order to give us that message that lesson and here
we have another lesson this morning you see he told them he's going
away that he was going to his father, to his father's house. He's going to prepare a place
for, he said, for you. As I said, he's not going to
prepare a place and see who shows up. It's a prepared place for
a prepared people whom he's chosen. It's not accidental or incidental.
It's on purpose. And so when he told them that,
it confused them. It made sorrow fill their hearts.
And they said, one of them said to him, we don't know the way
to the Father's house. Well, he knew that. And he knew
that they were looking for an earthly kingdom, not a spiritual
kingdom. And he uses this to instruct
them. We don't know the way to the
Father's house as if there was an earthly address to the Father's
house or a particular road that led to the Father's house. And
this is where He's going to reveal Himself to them and to us this
morning afresh. I am the way to the Father. I'm the truth. You can't know
anything about the Father except by me, and I'm the life, I am
eternal life, I am it, I'm it. So would you
know the way to the Father? Not go to heaven, but to the
Father. Well, our Lord tells us here
in verse six, Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth
and the life no man cometh unto the father but by me I'm the
way it is written in Proverbs 16 25 there is a way that seemeth
right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways you see
there's a way that seems right but the end thereof are the ways
of death you know death has many ways Life has one way. Life has one way. Death has many
ways. But life has one way. You know,
the bunch of religious people at the end of the world, they're
gonna stand before the Lord and they're gonna say, we've preached
in thy name, we've cast out devils in thy name, we've done many
mighty works in thy name. This is their way. It's the way
they've chosen. But it's not God's way. Because
the Lord says to them, depart from me, I never knew you. You went your own way. I didn't
give you that way to go. I didn't tell you to go that way. If you
go the way, another way, then what the Lord has given, you're
going the wrong way. That's the wrong way. Works is
the wrong way. They thought they were on the
right way. Why do you think so many people in hell, the scripture
describes them as weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth? You know why?
They're mad. They thought they was on the
right way and they was on the wrong way. I told you this story once before. I was preaching in Madisonville,
Kentucky for Maurice Montgomery. And then late at night, I mean,
it's coming back late night, get up early and go to work the
next morning. And somehow I took a wrong exit, and I didn't remember
doing it at all. And I drove for an hour or so. I drove for a while, and then
there was a sign that said, Bollingering. That's totally opposite of where
I was going. I was so mad. I'm telling you, I was mad all
the way home. Every time I came to an exit, I thought, I could
have been past that an hour ago. Every time I came to something,
I said, I could have been past that an hour ago. And when I
got home, I thought, I could have been home an hour and a
half ago. I was mad. I thought I was going the right
way, but I was going the wrong way. And hell's full of people
thinking they're going the right way, and they're going the wrong
way. We've done many mighty works.
We preached in your name. That's what I'm doing. I'm preaching
in the name of Christ. But I don't rely on that in any
way, shape, or form for acceptance with God. Christ is my acceptance
with God. He's our acceptance with God.
Not our works, not what we're doing. You see, Adam left the
way. In the Garden of Eden, Adam left
the way, and his children have been trying to work their way
back ever since. They built the Tower of Babel
to heaven. Why? They're trying to work their
way to heaven. Trying to reach God by their
own works. It doesn't work. Works don't work with human beings. Men try everything in the world.
You know, Cain and Abel. God didn't tell Cain to bring
the fruit of the ground. Cain sat under the same message
and gospel Abel sat under. Abel heard, Abel believed, Cain
didn't, and he brought the fruit of the ground, the cursed ground.
That's what he brought. And then the Jews, they said,
Abraham's our father. They were counting on being this
children of Abraham as being in the covenant. And Paul said,
not all Israel are Israel. Ceremonies, you name it. You
name it, man will claim it. Who is it? There's a preacher
that says, name it and claim it. Go ahead, name it and claim
it. It doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean a thing. Christ
is the only way. He says that so plainly to them.
I am the way. And he says that, and that is
a statement that means I am the way the truth and the life exclusively
not one of the ways exclusively I'm the way in Adam we lost the
way to God we lost the truth of God we lost the life of God
in Adam we lost that and only in Christ is that restored don't
he's the one who restores it to us Adam we lost the life of God
now every son of Adam is born spiritually dead We don't listen we don't become
sinners at a certain age Do we we're born sinners? We don't
become sinners at a certain age You know, I do believe those
who die in infancy are with the Lord but not because they're
innocent But because Christ's blood put away sin. Because they're
born with the same sinful nature I am. I have. I was born with. We lost our life in Adam. We're
spiritually dead in Adam. We lost our innocence in Adam.
We lost our innocence in Adam. Now the Scripture says there's
none good, no, not one. That's what the Word of God says.
Well, I know somebody that's good. Well, evidently God must
have missed him. Because God said there's none
good. No, not one. God's standard of good and our
standard of good is poles apart. God's standard of good is perfection.
Our standard of good is if it works. If it works, it's good
enough. That's the difference. And since
the fall, it just seems right to man to work his way back into
God's favor. Don't we have that attitude?
When we do something wrong, we think, well, I'm sorry, let me
make up for that. You can't make up for God. You
and I can't make up for breaking God's law. We can't do it. The Lord Jesus Christ, who's
the only one who honored the law, who magnified the law and
made it honorable. We've dishonored it. He says, I am the way, that's
a definite article. There's no other way. Jesus Christ
is the way to the Father. He's Jacob's ladder that we looked
at a few weeks ago. You remember those angels descended
and ascended, going up and down that ladder? That's Christ. He's
the way to the Father. He's the way. Christ is the way
as Mediator. Nobody, listen, nobody on this
earth, no human being on this earth, Moses, you name it, Moses,
Abraham, none could ever deal with God as absolute God. There
had to be a Mediator and Jesus Christ is that Mediator. He was
their Mediator and He's ours. There's gotta be a go-between.
He's the go-between. First Timothy 2.5, For there
is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. He's always been the Mediator.
If God dealt with us as absolute God, we'd all be in hell. But
God provided a Mediator, and Christ is that one. And then
Christ is the way as a high priest over the house of God. In the
Old Testament, there's some things that are very clear. Number one,
if you're going to come before God, there better be a sacrifice,
there better be blood, and there better be a high priest representing
you. You don't come in there by yourself.
The high priest represented the children of God. When the high
priest went in and put the blood of atonement, when he went under
the veil and he put the blood of atonement there on the altar,
what was on his breastplate? The names of the children of
Israel, the 12 tribes of the children of Israel, he represented
them. Egypt was not written on there.
The Philistine nation was not written on his breast. It was
the 12 tribes of Israel. That's who he represented. We
have a high priest in Jesus Christ. We have a high priest who intercedes
for us. We have one who stands for us. Hebrews 9 11 but Christ being
come a high priest of good things to come by a greater and more
perfect tabernacle not made with hands that is to say not of this
building talking about his body his tabernacle Hebrews 10 21
and having a high priest over the house of God we have a high
priest we have the blood We have the sacrifice. We have all that
God requires. In this one person, Jesus Christ,
who said, I'm the way. I'm the way. He's the way as
the only sacrifice for sin. The blood of bulls and goats
could not, did not, put away sin. The blood of an animal cannot
put away the sin of my soul. It can't do that. That would
be easy, wouldn't it? I'd just say, well, just go,
you know, you go out, kill somebody, and you say, well, just get a
sheet and bring it over here, and we'll kill it. You know,
and I'm clear, no, you're not. The same nature that committed
the offense has to be the same nature that satisfies justice.
An animal can't do that. It doesn't have my nature. Jesus
Christ was born of a woman, made of a woman, born under the law
as a man, as a man who knew no sin. And that's the only man
who could satisfy God's law on my behalf for my sins. That's
the only one. He's the only sacrifice, listen
here in Hebrews 10.14, For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified, set apart by God. God set you
apart before the world began, and the Lord Jesus Christ perfected
you. He's going to present you, all who believe, all whom He
saves, He's going to present them before God, it says, without
spot or blemish. Only He can do that. Hebrews
9.26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation
of the world, but now, once in the end of the world, hath he
appeared to put away sin, my sin, by the sacrifice of himself. His sacrifice is the way. His
priesthood is the way. His mediatorial headship is the
way. And He's the way of acceptance.
It's written in Ephesians 1 6. To the praise of the glory of
His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved, He
made us accepted. Jesus Christ is not put into
my hands to accept or reject. I rejected Him from birth. I
rejected Him in Adam. God has put us in His hands. He says God has made us accepted
in Him, the Beloved. He's the way of acceptance. He's
the way of forgiveness, it says in Ephesians 1-7, in whom we
have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of His grace. You got any sins? My soul, I
got a lot of He's the way of forgiveness.
God's not gonna forgive you any other way. You know, God doesn't
forgive me of my sin just because I ask you to. You know what the
scripture says? You know what it says. You're
forgiven for Christ's sake. That's what it says. You're forgiven
for Christ's sake. Christ died for my sins, and
God forgives me of my sins for the sake of his son, in the honor
of his son. And then His blood's the way
of atonement, Romans 5 11. And not only so, but we also
enjoy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have
now received the atonement. Atonement. His blood is the blood
of atonement. It's through His blood that I
am made one with God, at one with God. Atonement, at one.
with God. His way, He is the way from sin
to righteousness. You know that you and I produce
zero righteousness. Zero righteousness. It's not His work and my work. Romans 5 17 for if by one man's
offense death reign by one much more they which receive abundance
of grace and the gift of righteousness his righteousness shall reign
in life by one Jesus Christ our Lord is the way he's the
way from death to life he's the way from death to life John 11,
26, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
Believest thou this? You'll never die. You believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, you're never going to die. You're not
going to die. I told you that this morning.
We're going to bury this body. As I said to you this morning,
some of you weren't here, but I said, I've buried a lot of
bodies here, but I've never buried a believer. They're all of glory. They're all in heaven. They're
not out there in the graveyard. They're not in the graveyard,
they're in glory. I buried the body, and that body was going
back to the dust. And he's away from earth to heaven.
And Jesus said unto him in Luke 23, 43, Verily, verily, I say
unto thee, that thief on the cross, today shalt thou be with
me in paradise. He's away from this old earth,
this old world of sin and God-hating world to paradise. And he's the
way all the way. All the way. And he said, I'm
the truth. He's the embodiment of truth.
The whole Godhead dwells in him. He didn't just tell us the truth.
He's the embodiment of truth. Nothing but truth came out of
his mouth. When he spoke, truth came out. He's the truth and nothing but
the truth. He said this, if it were not so, I would have told
you. If it weren't the truth, I'd have told you. Not to believe on him is to call
truth a liar. He's the true God. verse John
5 20 and we know that the Son of God has come and have given
us an understanding that we may know him that is true and we
are in him that is true even in his son Jesus Christ this
is the true God and eternal life Jesus Christ is the true God
and eternal life there's no coming to God apart from the truth he's
the way to the Father but there's no coming to the Father apart
from truth you're not gonna come by a lie That's why Paul said
to let him be cursed who preaches another gospel there in Galatians
chapter 1. Because you're not going to be
saved by a lie. God does not save by a lie. God does not save
in a false religion and then you come and learn the truth
or educate into it. No, it doesn't happen. He doesn't
save you under a false religion. He saves you when you hear the
truth. The gospel. He didn't save under Armenianism
or any other kind of ism. It's when you come to hear the
gospel of God's glory concerning Jesus Christ. That's when God
saved you. That's when he saved you. And he says, I am the life. He
is life itself. He's the author of life, most
physical and spiritual life comes from life. Life comes from life. HE IS ETERNAL LIFE IN THE FLESH! 1 John 1, 2 For the life was manifested,
eternal life was manifested, and we ve seen it, we ve seen
life, and bear witness to show unto you that eternal life, we
preach unto you eternal life in the name of Jesus Christ,
which was with the Father and was manifested unto us in the
flesh. Eternal life is not something
we have. It's someone we have. There's
a difference. It's not something we have. Everybody's
going to live forever. Everybody's going to live for
eternity, either with the Lord or in hell, one or the other.
There's no purgatory. It's going to be one place or
the other. It's not something we have. It's
a person that we have. I have eternal life it's because
I have life I have life the Son of God God first John 5 11 and this is the
record that God has given to us eternal life and this life
is eternal life is in his son see I can give you something
and not be that something I gave you Jesus Christ cannot give
me life and not be that life. He is the life He gives me. 1 John 5, 12, He that hath the
Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. Someone wrote this. Without the
way, there's no going. Without the truth, there's no
knowing. And without the life, there's
no living. That's good, isn't it? Remember
that. Without the way, there's no going.
There's no going to the Father. Without the truth, there's no
knowing the Father. Without the life, there's no
living. There's no life, the life of God. I'm going to leave it at that. We'll pick up in verse 7. He
said, if you'd known me, you'd have known my father also. If you only knew me, you'd know
him too. To know one is to know the others.
To know Jesus Christ is to know God. It's to know God. It's to know the way to God.
It's to know the truth of God. And it's to know the life of
God. All right.