And I don't know about you, but the
times when I am blessed before the preaching, blessed with the
song service, with the songs I can enter into, the songs from
the heart, scripture reading, there are generally times when
Lord exceptionally blesses me in preaching. I don't know. Is it that way with you? I enjoyed
that, so I hope that's a good sign. That operatory. When I want to stand up and sing
what she's playing, I'm getting a blessing. And I came that close. I didn't want to take away from
that the beautiful way in which she played it. All right, John
14. John, Chapter 14, is our text. We have been looking at this
one verse, verse six, and this is the last of three messages
on John 14, six, let's read that one verse again. The Lord Jesus Christ saith unto
Thomas, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. Christ said, I am the way. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. No one will get to God except
by Christ. Period. No one will get to God except
Christ be their substitute, except Christ be their righteousness,
their holiness. And it's also by him calling
them. He has to personally call them,
like a shepherd calls his sheep, and he has to keep them all the
days of their life. No one comes to God but by Christ
being the way. Christ is the truth. No man cometh
unto the Father but by him. No one will get to God except
Christ reveal himself. the truth. Christ revealed himself. Who is the true? The true and
living God. The true Savior. The true gospel. No one gets to God except by
Christ revealing the truth of himself to their heart. The gospel. Christ is the life. He said, I am the life. No man
cometh unto the Father but by me. No one will enter into the
life of God, the eternal life, the spiritual life. No one will enter into the life
of God except Christ gives them that
life. He said, I am the life. So this third thing is what I
want us to look at this morning. Christ says, I am the life. And if you're taking notes, there
are three points. Number one, Christ is natural
life. Christ is natural life. Number
two, Christ is spiritual life. He is spiritual life. And number
three is a question, do you have life? All right, number one, Christ
is natural life. Turn to the first chapter of
John's gospel, John chapter one. You probably knew where I was
going. John chapter one. Christ is natural life. He is natural life, the life
that we live on this planet. is due to him. Read it. John 1, verses 1 through 4. In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. Who is this Word? Look at verse
14. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. We beheld his glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father. He's talking about Jesus
Christ. He's the Word. Christ is the
Word. And the reason he uses Word is
meaning he's the one who reveals, or he's the spoken, the revealed,
God is Spirit. And no one would know God who
is Spirit except Christ be made flesh, let Christ speak. All
right? Read on. The same word was in
the beginning with God. All things were made by Him. Who? The Word. Christ. Jesus Christ is the Creator. All things were made by Him.
Without Him was not anything that was made. In Him, verse
4, look at it. In Him was life, and the life
was the light of men. Listen to this in Colossians
1. Christ is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn of every creature, for by him, Christ, were all
things created. Jesus Christ is the creator of
life. If one does not know Jesus Christ
as creator, they've got the wrong Christ. He is the life. Over in Acts
17, where Paul said, In him we live and move and have our being.
Who's he talking about? Christ. Christ is the source
of life. He is the God in whose hands
our breath is and all our way, isn't it? Oh, yes. Didn't Christ say, He
has given me authority over all flesh? The God in whose hands our breath
is, whose hands are we? God's only had one set of hands,
and it's not ours. God whose Spirit has only dwelled
in one body. Who is it? Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. He's the creator.
He's the source of life. Christ is the sustainer of life.
Christ is the sustainer of life. He's the provider. Scripture
says every good and perfect gift comes from above. Doesn't it? A man can receive nothing except
it be given him from above. Well, who's above? Well, Colossians
3 says, Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth. He's Joseph. He's our Joseph,
our elder brother. We don't see Pharaoh. We see
Joseph. And Joseph is the one who's in
charge of all the storehouses. Whoever gets something gets it
from him. Christ. He is in charge of all the things.
All gifts come from him. Christ is not only the sustainer
of life, Christ is the terminator of life. Christ is the terminator
of life. Do you remember in one place
where Christ said concerning the Pharisees, He said, let them
alone? Or in another place He said concerning
a tree, cut it down. In Deuteronomy 32, he says, I
kill, I make alive. I, the Lord, do all these things.
Who's that? Jesus Christ. He's the one that decides who
lives. He's the one that decides who dies. He says, let them alone. Let them live. Or if he and his
sovereign power says, kill them, they die. That's who Jesus Christ
is. He has the keys of hell and death
inside. He's natural life. See what I'm
saying? We owe our very existence right
now to Jesus Christ. The breath you're breathing right
now, Jesus Christ gave the command, let him breathe. My breath. And the moment he says, I'm taking
back what's mine, you die. We owe our faculties everything
we are, everything we know, everything we can do. Let not the wise man
glory in his wisdom. If you've got a brain, Jesus
Christ gave it to you. Let not the mighty man glory
in his strength. You strong, you able, you physically
able, you are because Jesus Christ said so. Let not the beautiful
woman glory in her beauty. You've got a little outward beauty.
It's because Jesus Christ made you so. Don't glory in any of
it. Glory in Him, the Scripture says. Give Him all the glory. So Christ is natural life. Secondly,
Jesus Christ is spiritual life. Christ said, I am the life, the
life. Whatever life it is, He is it.
The life, natural life. the spiritual life. Just like
I said a while ago, Christ is the creator of life. In the beginning, the Word created
all things. In the beginning, Jesus Christ
said, Let there be light. In the beginning, Jesus Christ
said, Breathe into that man he formed life. Gave life. He's the source of it. He breathed
his life into it. All right? But man died, didn't
he? Man died spiritually. In Adam
all die. All men and women are dead in
trespasses and sin. Isn't that what the Scripture
said? And you know it so by experience. And no one's going to live spiritually. No one's going to be regenerated
unless Christ does it. Christ created all natural life
and all spiritual life. Christ said this, He said, As
the Father hath life in himself to quicken whomsoever he will,
so even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. Right? Nobody is
going to be saved. No one is saved because they
let Jesus Christ do anything. No sir. Everybody that says that
is not. Everybody that says that is not. Everybody that says that is not. Why? Got the wrong Christ. Because
that's a lie. That's not the truth. That's
a lie. Tell you the truth, Christ said, I am the life. No man cometh unto the Father. And he said no man can come unto
the Father except the Father which hath sent me do what? Draw
him. He doesn't say except they let
me. I am the light. Anybody that
confesses or says anything about making a decision or accepting
Jesus or letting Him, letting Him, letting Him has the wrong
Jesus Christ and are unsaved and are getting their sins. That
too strong? It just goes with what Christ
said. I am the light. Spiritual light. We're all dead. And the reason
the Lord raised Lazarus from the dead is to illustrate the
gospel. That's exactly why. Lazarus was
a believer. Lazarus was going to go be with
the Lord. Right? Why would the Lord bring
back Lazarus from the grave to dwell back on this miserable
earth? To show us the gospel. Right? to show us the gospel. Didn't Christ say, This is not
unto death, but for the glory of God? And we use it all the time because
there's no better illustration than Lazarus. What did the Lord
ask Lazarus to do? Nothing. What did Lazarus do? Snark. Did Lazarus take the first step?
If he could do that, he could take the rest. Well, who did
what? Christ did it all. What was Lazarus? He's dead. What was Christ? He's alive. How's Lazarus going to live?
If Christ, who is alive, comes and says, Mary! But not until
then. Now, that's the gospel. I am the life. What could be plainer? What could
be plainer? Oh, it's plain to them that understand.
Proverbs 8 says it's plain to all them that understand. Plain
to Lazarus. You ask Lazarus, Lazarus, how did you live? Oh,
life's in Christ. I was dead. I lived because he
said live. Well, you came out of the grave,
didn't you? Not until he called me. Right? Well, you called on him,
didn't you? Not until he called me first.
Well, you chose him, didn't you? Not until he chose me. How's
that? What could be plainer? And so it is with all who Christ
comes to and gives life, without exception, across the board,
they shall all be taught of God. Well, they taught that Christ
is the life. He's the way, the truth, and
the life. No man, no man's going to get
to God except by Christ. Doing it all. Doing it all. Look over to Ephesians 4 very
quickly. Ephesians 4. We love these verses. We've read them over and over
and over. But oh, this is life. These are
words of life. This is the story of your birth.
This is the story of your life. Look at Ephesians 4, verse 18. This was us. This was us. Verse 18, we had the understanding
darkened. Nearly everyone of us in here
at one time, when we heard what I just said, what we just heard
preached, when we heard that, we said, I don't believe that.
Didn't we? Nearly everyone in here, I don't
believe that. That's not the way, isn't it? Understanding
darkened. Read on. being alienated from
the life of God through the ignorance that is in them—ignorant of who
God is. Do you remember when Christ said
to those Pharisees, He said, You do err, not knowing the Scriptures. Do you remember that? When Christ
said, You do err, not knowing the Scriptures. They could quote
it. What do you mean they didn't
know? They could quote it. That's all they did was read the Bible,
and Christ said, You don't know the Scriptures. Why did He say that? They didn't
see Christ in them. He is the Word made flesh, made
manifest. What's the Bible? It's not what,
it's who. He said, you search the scriptures. You do. You read your Bible from
cover to cover once every year. And in them you think you have
life. Reading the Bible is not life.
I am the life. They are they which testify of
me. See that? But Christ went on
to say to those same Pharisees, He said, You do e'er not know
in the Scriptures nor the power of God. Remember that? Nor the power of God. You think
God's just like you are. You think Jesus is just a man,
don't you? You don't know the power of God.
You don't know the true God. You don't know God who is God.
And you're not going to know until God reveals it. Isn't that right? That's what
it says here. The life of God, verse 18, through
the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their
heart, read on, this is wonderful, alienated, past feeling, given
themselves over unto lasciviousness, work all uncleanness with greediness,
But you have not so learned Christ, if so be that you've heard him,
been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. The truth. Look over chapter two. Oh, I
love this chapter. Ephesians 2. Don't you love Ephesians
2? I love it. This describes us,
though. Look at verse 12. Ephesians 2. Look at it. Verse 12. At the
time you were without Christ, oh, you had religion. You'd accepted Jesus. And quit
this and quit that and been baptized and joined the church and living
a victorious life. Oh, yeah, you had that. But you
were without Christ. Right? That describe anybody
in here? describes most everybody in here. It describes everybody in here,
unless you have Christ now, without Christ being aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise.
Stranger. What's covenant? You don't know? Is it strange to you? Read on. Having no hope without, if you
don't know something about the covenant, you have no hope and
you're without God in this world. I'm talking about the covenant
of grace, there's only one. Read on, but now. Verse 13, but now. Like verse four, salvation's
in these two words, but God. But now, in Christ Jesus, you
who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Made nigh, now, in Christ. Brought
to God by Christ. Bought by Christ. Brought by
Christ. Taught by Christ. But now, but
God, but Christ. And you, I like that. It starts
out, this chapter starts out, and you, who were dead, verse
4, but God whose life quickened you with Christ. By the blood of Christ. Born
again. Born again. Born again. By the blood of Christ. Did you
ever wonder why blood and water came out of Christ's side at
the cross? Scripture says that blood and
water poured out of his side at the cross. Now, that doesn't
happen when someone dies. There's no outpouring of water. When does water come gushing
out of a person? It only comes out one time. That's
when a woman gives birth to a child. Well, it says when Christ was
hanging on that cross and had died, a soldier came by with
a spear and pierced him, and it specifically said, out came
blood and water. And water. Well, blood to justify. See, we're born again, not of
our own blood, but by the blood of Christ. Born of God. Betraying God, these three are
one. They're in this thing together.
They gave birth to a people. We're sired by God. He's the
Father. Given birth to by Christ. By His travailing in death for
us. And the Holy Spirit raises us. He raises us. Blood to justify. Pay for our sins. Sin had to
be paid for. Christ had shed His blood. Water
to sanctify. The Word has to come, doesn't
it? has to purify, has to cleanse,
has to wash us. When a child is born, it's born
in blood. It lives by blood. The life of
the flesh is in the blood. If that child doesn't have blood
in it, it doesn't have life in it, right? And it has the blood
of the father and the mother. It has an essence of both, doesn't
it? They do a DNA, they know who
the father is, right? It's impossible for a child to
be the child of a man whose substance is not in him. Same way with
spiritual birth. Not born of flesh and blood,
but by the blood of Christ. And that blood courses through
the veins of his people. It's in them, his blood, by faith. And water to justify. When that
child is born, when Hannah was first born, I took her personally
and dipped her in a basin of water and washed the filth from
her. And she opened her eyes and opened her ears. And I covered
her and wrapped her in a blanket. Water. And now to this day, she
still drinks water. She must have it. Her life cannot
go on without it. She lives by water. It's called
the water of life. You love water, don't you, Hannah?
You drink it with nearly everything. And so it is, the child of God
is born by the word of God, by the blood of Christ justified,
born by the water of the word of God, of Christ. And they must
have it to live, they must have it to wash them, they must have
it to grow thereby, they must have it to live by. Blood and
water. Both speak of Christ. Look back over at 1 John 5. And
I'll hurry. 1 John 5. I've been making a
conscious effort, folks, to start to say being short. Well, I am
that. Preaching short. 1 John 5. Look at verses 6 through
12, OK? Stay with me. Well, stay with
God's Word. This is God's Word. 1 John 5,
verses 6 through 12. This is He that came by water
and blood, even Jesus Christ. Not by water only, but by water
and blood. And it's the Spirit that bears
witness, because the Spirit is truth. There are three that bear
record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost,
and these three are one. And there are three that bear
witness in earth, the Spirit and the water and the blood. And these three agree in one. Who? What? What is this one? Christ. Read on. If we receive the witness of
men, the witness of God is greater. This is the witness of God which
he hath testified of his Son. He's the one. Read on. He that believeth on
the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth
not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the
record that God gave of his Son. This is the record that God hath
given to us, eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son hath
not life." What could be more wonderful? or it could be blank. Christ is the life, the creator
of it, the sustainer of it. Christ is the life, the life,
natural, spiritual, eternal, everlasting. What is eternal
life, people? What is eternal life? It's the life of God. It's holiness. It's goodness. It's righteousness. It's love, joy, gentleness, goodness,
meekness, faith, temperance, and so on and so forth. It's
the life of God. It's God-likeness, Godliness,
holiness. That's life that's contrary to
this flesh, isn't it? The flesh is opposite of all
that. You can't drum that up. You can't
get good water from a bad source, can you? You can't get fruit
from a dead tree. That's the fruit. That's what
it is. That's what life is. And someday, and those who have
it now, someday are going to enjoy it to its fullest. That's the best I can do with
that. What is life? What is eternal life? That's
the best I can do with it. Did that have any appeal to you?
Holiness? Goodness? Then maybe you have a spark of
it. Maybe that seed is in there.
If not, it's not there. If that has no appeal to you.
Now if I say, well, eternal life is just unending bliss and a
utopia and Always being happy and being able to do what you
want. That's carnal. Who doesn't want that? Huh? Who doesn't want that? Take the
wildest fellow on the streets. He wants to be happy all the
time. That's what he's trying to do. You remember that article by Pastor
Terrell talking about the difference between fun and happiness? Wasn't
that good? You talk about, oh, everybody
wants to have fun, wants to have fun, fun, fun. That's what they're
doing in religion today. Wanting to make it fun for everybody. People, the gospel's fun to cause
people, for lack of a better word, ain't nothing funner. I'm
speaking as a fool. But what he was saying is if
you find happiness in Christ, you're really happy. People in
hell are going to be able to say, I had fun. But only those with Christ are
going to be able to say, I'm happy. And even now on this earth, which
is under the prince of the power of the air, under the same dominion,
really, as that place, this same earth, lots of people haven't
fallen, but only those in Christ are happy. Do you know what I'm talking
about? Only if you have life. Well, look at 1 John 5 again, okay? He's still there. Look at verse
12. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son
of God hath not life. That's my last point. Do you
have life? Have you ever heard someone say
this? Have you ever said? I have said,
you know, when you're out there, you're really enjoying yourself,
whatever it is you like to really, really like to do with it, sitting
on the creek bank, you know, and casting the line in the water. And for me, I have to have a
stringer full of mine. It's no fun to me unless I've
caught some. Some of you may just like to
sit there. I read Rick does, and Dr. John
just likes to sit there and cast and care. At any rate, have you
ever said that whenever you were doing something you really enjoyed,
said, now this is living? Kind of foolish when you think
about it. Now this is living, isn't it? Well, have you ever
said that? This is the life. No, it isn't. No, it isn't. Scripture says
it may be temporary pleasure, but it's not the life. Scripture says it's about the
natural man. I haven't seen, or heard, neither
have I entered into the heart of man. Things that God has prepared
for them to love him. Now, he's talking about the natural
man. He's quoting Isaiah. The natural man doesn't. He doesn't
enter into it. He doesn't have any interest
in these things. This is life. But one who has life does enter
into it. These things happen. His eye
has seen. His ear has heard. His heart
has received the things that God has prepared for him. And
they sit while I do a little fishing.
Up here, and they say, now this is living. Barbara, you understand
what I'm saying? Do I feel a terror up here? This
is life. Have you ever said that? Sitting
under the sign of the God, now this is living. Have you? I think that's a pretty good
illustration, people. Unless you've experienced it, I don't
believe you can say that. Right? Do you have life? Well, ask yourself honestly.
When you sit and hear what I'm saying right now, all the things
I'm saying about Christ who is the life, do you say, has your
eye seen his glory? His beauty? Or is there no beauty
about him that you desire? Hmm? Do you have light? Have you seen
yourself? Do you remember over there in
1 John 1 where he said, if we walk in the light, it is in the
light. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves. No light in us. No life in us. When Christ comes, He reveals
the darkness of your heart. He reveals the sinfulness of
yourself. And you say, you keep saying, like Isaiah when he saw
his glory. Remember? Remember? When Isaiah saw his glory, what
did he say? Woe is me. Woe is me. I'm undone. until a person sees
themselves as the rottenness center on the top side of God's
earth. They haven't. They don't have
Christ inside. Is that too hard? It's so. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves, the truth is not in us. Who's the truth? If we say we have not sinned,
what's that? That means in everything we do,
have done, ever will do, have not sinned, full of sin, ever
before us, we make him a liar. Who? The truth. His word is not
in us. Okabe Plainer. Christ sheds light. You know,
when you turn on a flashlight. I took a flashlight out last
night. I was looking for one of the ducks. It was dark. And
they get under the barn there. And I took a flashlight out and
stuck it up under there. There's all kinds of things under
there. But the dog had dragged up my... The point I'm trying
to make is, when you shine the light, the more light you shine,
the more you can see. And if Christ is really in there,
when you turn your... The script, the poem says, John,
when I turn my eyes within, all is vain and dark and wild. That's the reason the Scripture
says, Look to me. Look to Christ. Do you have life? If you've seen his glory, have
you seen yourself? Have you heard his voice? Do you have life? If you've heard
his voice, you do. He said, My sheep shall hear
my voice. What's his voice? It's the gospel. And they hear it loud and clear. A stranger's they won't hear.
They'll say, that sounds pretty good. He ain't heard it. But he says some good things.
He ain't heard his voice. Isn't that right? Musicians have good They're not
tone deaf. If I were to ask some of you
in here, somebody in here, to hum a middle C for me, hum middle
C for me, and I'd ask somebody here not musically inclined,
they'd say, oh, or you know, it'd be bad, you know. It'd be
bad. Or play an instrument for me,
and they couldn't play a tune. Anything made any sense? About
like these preachers, you know. They can't play a hymn. But you ask somebody that's got
the melody in their mind and in their heart, they can hum
Middle C pretty close. That is, don't go play it. But do you understand the point
I'm trying to make? Somebody with Christ in them. Middle city. If thine eye be
single, thy whole body is full of life. Here comes a man preaching. What's he preaching? It's not
a what, it's a who. I don't care what he's preaching,
as good as it ain't who he's preaching, he ain't preaching.
They say it sounds, if you've ever done this, it sounds pretty
good, but I'm not hearing something. Have you ever heard somebody
play the piano or play the guitar or whatever, and you hear them
play, and everybody thinks, hey, that's good. But a trained musician
says, boy, she missed twenty-five notes, the first line alone. Lift up the whole second, stanza. That's the way it is with a person
who has Christ in there. He's missed it. That's not the
gospel. That's not his voice, a stranger's
voice he won't hear. That makes sense. It does if
you've heard it. Do you love the things of Christ?
Do you have life in you? Have you seen Christ's glory?
Have you seen yourself? Have you heard his voice? The
gospel, do you love the things of Christ? I've already said
this, really. His gospel, is what I'm doing
right now enough? Is this enough, or would you
rather me dance? I ain't going to do it." You
thought I was going to do it, didn't you? I ain't going to
do it. Would you rather me entertain you? I don't play the guitar
much. I don't play it when I'm playing it, Rick says, because
he's heard a good one. He can play it better than I
can. That's because I'm not up here
to entertain anybody. I'm up here to do one thing,
preach Christ. And those that love the—those
that have my upset preach Christ, nothing else. All that thrills my soul, the
song said, is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's all they need. Jesus Christ is made to me all
I need, all I need. If He's all, He's all you ever
need and all you want. Everything else gets in the way,
doesn't it? Get the choir down and put them
in their seats. We don't want to look at them.
They're just as ugly as we are. Let's hear it. Let's see Him.
Let's see Christ, preacher. Get behind the pulpit. Don't
let us see you dancing around carrying on. We don't want to
come here to see you. We can go see Merle Haggard or
somebody. Preach Christ. We want to hear from Him. Do you love the gospel? Is that
all you love? Is that all you want to hear?
His worship? His people? These are your kind of people?
Can you say with Ruth, now these are my people. This is my kind
of people. John, she's in my kind of people. Now, he's one of those squares
I was talking about one day. Brandon, he's one of those squares.
But he's my kind of people. Christ is the life. The life. You have life. All these things
speak to you. And all those who enter to Christ,
all who Christ enters into. They can say, they could really
say, when it's over, they can say, now this is living, now
this is life. I thought I had it once before.
But this, now this is life. Christ is the life, isn't it?
Huh? Charles, you're seventy-some
years old. Been there, you could say this, been there, done that,
couldn't you? That's a popular say of the day,
isn't it? Most who say it haven't, but now he's seventy-some years
old and he could say it. Been in the service, been here
and there, you could say, been there, done that. What's life,
Charles? Christ is the life. The life. All right. Brother Joe, you have—oh, he
got a big thing. $1.99.