John chapter 14. I want to deal mainly with verse
6. I am. As I said, that is the most important
statement. I am. I am the way, the truth, and the life. You know, the Scriptures tell
us in Proverbs 16 and Proverbs 14, there is a way, there is
a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are
the ways of death. Since the fall of Adam, Man has
tried to devise his own way back to God, his own way of salvation. We have many examples of it in
the Word of God. And all of these ways fall into
the one category, works. They all fall into one category,
works. There's Cain and Abel. came,
brought the fruit, the works of His hands before God as a
way of acceptance. And God rejected him. Abel brought the way God gave
him. Sacrifice. Blood. Some come by the way of ceremonies.
They love ceremonies. They think the more ceremonies
we have, the more God is impressed and it's the way to God. No,
it isn't. It's not. and some ancestry. We be Abraham's
seed. He said, You are of your father
the devil. And the list goes on, on and on and on. But all
of man's ways leads to death. It leads to death. It's the broad way. In the Scriptures
it's called the broad way. Many travel that broad way. You
can take a lot of stuff on the broad way You can't take anything
on that narrow way. Straight's the gate, narrow's
the way. You can't take anything on it, not anything of yours.
But the broad way, you can take anything you want. Anything will
do. Our Lord taught us that man is
estranged from God through sin. Man lost the knowledge of God
and he is now in spiritual darkness. He lost the favor of God and
now he's guilty. He lost the image of God and
now he's corrupt. He lost the life of God and now
he's dead in trespasses and sins. This is how every man, every
woman is born into this world. Dead in trespasses and sins. And man cannot come to God on
his own. Can't do it. Cain tried it. They tried to even build a tower.
They tried to build a tower to heaven. Can you imagine how low
Your thoughts must be, if you think you can build a tower that
reaches where God's at, just maybe above the clouds, we can't come to God except through
a mediator. And I thank God, who's rich in
mercy, that He has devised a way back to Himself. Now if you're
interested, if you and I are interested, He gives us this
in this short verse. It's amazing what can be given
in a verse when wisdom gives it. It doesn't have to be long,
and it's always simple. God has devised a way back to
Himself, and that way is a person. That way is Jesus Christ. Jesus
Christ is God's way back to Himself. Now, first of all, he says, I
am the way. Jesus Christ is the way to God. He is Jacob's ladder between
heaven and earth. Remember Jacob had that dream
and there was this ladder that reached into heaven and it was
set upon earth and the angels went up and down that ladder?
That ladder is Christ. He's the way from earth to heaven,
and He's the way from heaven to earth. For God to deal with
us in any way, any way in mercy and grace. Now, Christ being
the way, Him saying, I am the way, it's more than Him showing
us, coming into this world and showing us the way. It's more than that. He's saying that He is the way,
He is His teachings. Aristotle is not His teachings.
Anybody could teach what Aristotle taught. But Jesus Christ is saying He
is the teaching, He's the lesson. That's why He said, Take my yoke
upon you and learn of Me. Learn of Me, because He's the
way. He's the way. He's more than
just showing us the way, He is the way. Now, way is getting
from one point to another point. It's from where I am to where
I want to go. That's what the way is for. And
Thomas said here, he said, Lord, how can we know the way? And
what they were wanting to do is go with Him, be where He was
going to be, because He said, I'm going to go away. And so
what they're wanting to know is how can we go to be with you?
And what he's going to teach us here is that he's going to
be with the Father, and you know the way to the Father, and you
can't find it on GPS. There's no GPS going to take
you to the Father. There's no ceremony that's going
to take you to the Father. There's no ceremony that's going
to accomplish that. The only way to the Father is
this man, Jesus Christ. That's what he's saying. And
it's simple, but it's profound. Because he is the embodiment
of the way to God. A way is getting from where we
are to where we want to be. Where are we? Well, naturally,
we are spiritually dead, lost, and on this earth. That's where
we are naturally. Where do we want to go? Well,
you know, unless God saves you, everybody wants to go to heaven.
I don't know anybody who doesn't want to go to heaven. That's
like an eternal vacation. You don't have to work. You don't
have to get up in the morning and go to work. That's exactly
the way the human race sees heaven. They see paradise as the beach.
They see it as just a vacation that never ends, you don't have
to go to work. I was at a funeral years ago, and the preacher was
talking about how much this man liked to play golf, and he said
he's up there in heaven playing golf and fishing with the Lord
Jesus. No, he's not. If that's his idea
of heaven, if that's his idea of salvation, nah, he ain't there. He's not there. If golf and fishing and whatever
else is what you really want to do, you need to go find something
else. You need to go find your religion
that supports that, because this one doesn't. But if you want to go to be with
the Father, here's the way. Here's the way. If you want to
go and be with God for eternity, here's the way. God has made
a way for us. God has done that for sinners.
For sinners. So how can an earthbound, dead,
lost sinner come to the Father? Well, first there's got to be
a new birth. There's got to be a new birth. There's got to be
a life given, spiritual life given. And then our Lord gives
the answer to us. He teaches us who've been born
of God. He teaches us. And the answer is this, I am. I am. I am that I am. God. God Himself in human flesh is
the way back to Himself. He's the way back to Himself
in the complexity of His person. God in all that He is. God who can satisfy justice.
And a man who can redeem. A near kinsman. A near kinsman. Who can bleed and die. Here is
the way. This is the way. Jesus Christ
is the way in every way. In every way. From banishment
to acceptance, He's the way. It says in Ephesians 1, that
He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. From sin to righteousness,
He is the way. Righteousness does not come by
me quitting some bad habits and then start doing some things
that are good. Righteousness does not come that way. Righteousness
is a nature. Righteousness is what you are.
You're righteous. You know, you gotta be righteous
to do righteous. You have to be. And He's the way from sin
to righteousness, from guilt to justification, from darkness
to light, from earth to paradise. That's what He said to that thief.
Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise. He didn't say, Today
shall you be in paradise with Me. See, you're not going to
be there apart from Me, because I'm the way to it. I'm the way. Jesus Christ is the only way.
His blood is the only way of atonement. His righteousness
is the only righteousness. The Scripture says, There is
no other name given among men whereby we must be saved. That
name Jesus Christ, there's no other name given. under heaven,
but one name, one name, out of all the billions of people that
lived on this earth. Not Moses. The Jews took so much
pride in Moses. Moses, He gave us the Law. Well,
the Scripture says grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. It
didn't just give it to us, it came to us. Grace and truth came
to us in the person of Jesus Christ. He's the only Mediator
between God and men. Mary is not a Mediator. No saint's
a Mediator. The Pope's not a Mediator. There's
no Mediator. Man, if I could shout that across
this world. There is no one between God and a sinner but Jesus Christ. If that sinner's going to be
saved, there's no one. And we dare not come to the Father
any other way. It is Christ all the way. I heard Henry tell this story.
I know I'm not going to remember it verbatim, but he was telling
about a man named William Jay, and he wanted to go to London.
So he hitched a ride with this guy. You know, back then it was
horse and buggy. He hitches a ride with this man.
And on this way, he was making some conversation. He said, He
said, who lives over there? He said, I don't know. And so
he drives a little lot further, and it's like, who owns that
over there? And he's like, I don't know. And they drive a little
further, and he keeps asking his questions. And finally, William
Jay got exasperated. And he said, well, what do you
know? I know the way to London. That's what I know. You know,
I don't know how to fix the furnace down here when it goes out. There's
a lot of things I don't know. I know the way to God, Jesus
Christ. That's what I know. Jesus Christ
is the way to God. He is the very embodiment of
His own teaching. He's the way. Let me read you
a story. I copied it off here before coming out. This guy gives
this story, he says, there's a beautiful story told of Agassiz. When he was a boy, this is a
true story, when he was a boy, his family lived on the edge
of a lake in Switzerland. And one day the father was on
the other side of the lake and Louis and his younger little
brother set out on the ice to join him. Well, the mother watched
the boys from her window and they got along well till they
came to a wide crack in the ice. The taller boy leaped over easily,
but the other one hesitated. The shorter one, little one,
he hesitated. The little fellow will fall in,
the mother said, and drown. But as she watched a moment,
she saw Lewis, the older boy, get down on the ice, lay himself
across the crack, his hands on one side and his feet on the
other, and make a bridge of his body. Then the little fellow
climbed over on him in safety to the other side. He walked
across him on the other side. And both boys ran on to find
their father. Our Lord laid down His life. We walk into glory on Calvary. He laid Himself down. He's the
bridge between here, between earth and heaven. He said, I
lay my life down. I lay my life down. I am the
way. And then secondly, I am the truth. This is far more than just telling
the truth. And He did do that. He told us
and gave us many truths. But you know, all those truths
are bound up into the truth. There's only one truth. You know,
there's many commandments in the law, right? But how many
laws are there? There's one law. To offend in
one point of the law, you've broke the whole law. Because
there's only one law. It's God's law. And Christ is
the truth. There are many truths that we
learn, there are many doctrines that we learn, but there's only
one truth, and Christ is it. He's the embodiment of all truth. He's the embodiment of it. He
is truly God and truly man. The whole Godhead, the Scripture
says, dwells in Him bodily. The whole Godhead. He said to
Philip, He that has seen Me has seen the Father. We're one. To see one is to see
the other. There's no difference. When he spoke, he spoke nothing
but the truth. The truth. And there can be no way of coming
to the Father without the truth. You can't come to the Father
by a lie. You can't come... You know, Christ
said, I'm the door. He that enters in has to come
by Me. You can't come except by Christ, the way, and by Christ,
the truth. You have to have the truth. You
can't come to God in a lie. You've got to know the truth.
And Christ is that truth. No one ever spoke the truth as
Jesus Christ did. He spoke many things that was
never spoken before. He said, As I hear, I speak. As I hear, I speak. Jesus Christ
is the truth in the highest sense of that word. He's the revelation
of truth. He is the revelation of truth. He's the saving truth. He's the truth that sets men
free. You shall know the truth and
the truth shall set you free. A lie doesn't set anybody free.
God's never saved anyone under a lie. God has never saved anyone
under a twisted gospel. When God saves a sinner, that
sinner is going to come and hear the truth. And they're going
to believe the truth. And when they believe the truth,
they're believing Jesus Christ. When you believe the truth, you're
believing what He says. You're believing the truth. And
because He's the truth, He's the true and faithful witness.
He knows what He's talking about. You can see that over in Revelation
3.14 and John 18.38. He said He came to bear witness to the
truth. Not to believe Him is to call
the truth the liar." Boy, when you read the Word of God,
you're reading the truth, aren't you? You're reading Him. This is His. You know, I don't
look at this as reading just words. I'm reading Him. Now Christ being the truth shows
how important it is to Learn of Him, isn't it? Well, we need to go on to other
things. Well, whatever other things we may learn, we learn
through the truth. It shows how important it is to
study Him. You know how many people study
the Scriptures, the scribes? Think about this, the scribes
read the Scriptures constantly. They read them out loud and they
even tried to give the interpretation of them. They read them and read
them and read them, but they never knew what they were talking about.
They never knew the Lord. You search the Scriptures, He
said. You do search the Scriptures. And in them you think you have
eternal life. You think you have eternal life. You look over at
this page, you say, well, okay, I've done that. I do that. But you don't know the truth.
You don't know Him. whom the Scriptures are written
about and by. Only in Christ the truth can
we know the truth about God, Christ, and men. You know, you
never really, you never face the truth until you face it when you are confronted with
Jesus Christ. That's when you face the truth. And everything
you thought about God, you just toss it out the window. Everything
you thought about yourself, you just toss it in a garbage can.
Everything you thought about Jesus Christ, you toss it in
a garbage can. And you just sit down and learn at His feet. Learn
from the truth. Don't just learn things that
are true. And we do. Doctrine. We learn true doctrine. But we learn from the truth. There's a difference. There's
a difference in just an academic learning and learning from the,
learning, listen, learning the teacher, not learning just from
the teacher, but learning the teacher. When you really connect
with the teacher. I think everyone who looks back
on their school days and they say, so-and-so was my favorite
teacher, you can bet that's the one they connected with. That's
the one that connected with. We learned the teacher and not
just the teaching. If you want to know the truth,
then I suggest you go to the fountain of truth and drink large. Go to the fountain of truth.
And then last of all, I am the life. I'm the life. He is life itself. I don't know how to put that
into words, but He is life itself. He gives us life. He's the author
of it. He gives physical life. You go
over to the Gospel of John, He lighteth every man that cometh
into the world. He said, I am the life. He's the life and the
light that lighteth every man that comes into the world. He
gives physical life to everybody. He gives life to everything that's
on this earth. Everything lives because He gives it life. And
then He gives us spiritual life. He gives us the life of God,
and that's eternal life. That's eternal life. Look over in 1 John chapter 1.
1 John 1. Listen to what John says
here. In 1 John 1 verse 1, That which
was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have
seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands
have handled, of the Word of life. For the life was manifesting. He didn't say that this person,
named Jesus Christ was manifested. Though He was. They looked upon
Him, they saw Him. But John is going beyond that.
He said, the life was manifested. And we've seen it. We've seen
life. We have seen life. and bear witness and show unto
you that eternal life, that eternal life which was with the Father
and was manifested to us, that eternal life, that one they are
looking at, the disciples here, that one they are looking at
is life, is life. He gives us life because He is
life. And He's the sustainer of it,
both physical and spiritual. He keeps us alive. He gives us
spiritual life and He's the life of our life. He's the life of
spiritual life. He's it. Do you have spiritual
life? It's because you have Jesus Christ.
That's why. It says in John 5.26, For as
the Father hath life in Himself, So hath He given to the Son to
have life in Himself. He is life itself. Now, closing,
for a sinner to come to God, that sinner must have all three. You cannot have just one of these
or two of these. You've got to have the way to
God. You've got to have the truth of God. You've got to have the
life of God in order to come to the Father. And we have all
of that in the Lord Jesus Christ. Someone wrote this. I thought
this was good. Without the way, there is no
going. Without the truth, there is no
knowing. Without the life, there is no
living. Jesus Christ said, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. Now you tell me how important
it is to know the Lord Jesus Christ. No man comes to the Father
but by me. All right.