book of John and we'll go to
chapter 14. I got very warm this morning
and I decided I wouldn't get that warm tonight, at least I
hope I don't. We'll ask God once again to bless
our service Would you pray with me? Lord, your people now have
been gathered by your providence and by your Spirit. We open the sacred book of God with a degree of understanding
that we are altogether helpless to receive anything unless it
is given to us from above. O Spirit of the living God, thou
who art the heavenly dove, would you be with us as we seek
to see the beauties of, the glories of, the majesty of our dear Savior. Oh, that all of us would be washed
in His sacrificial blood and robed in the garments of salvation. Oh, how desperately, Lord, we
need you to minister to each of us. And so we ask that you would
anoint both the speaker and these who listen. These who are gathered,
even on the internet, gathered to Worship with us. Lord, be
with all of us and direct our hearts' attention unto your altogether
lovely Son. He is fairer than 10,000 to our
souls. And though we don't love him
like we should, Oh God, we do love the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we give great thanksgiving to you for this unspeakable gift
of our Savior. May he be magnified this evening
before all of us. May he be lifted up in the gospel
of grace. And Lord, would you use this
gospel, may it be the power of God unto salvation to those who
know you not. And so bless us this evening,
for Jesus' sake. Amen. For those of you who weren't
with us this morning, or who have been You've gathered right
in your computer this evening to watch. I would suggest that
you listen to the message that I believe God enabled me to bring
this morning. This message, however, is altogether,
well, it's different. It isn't a repetition of what
I said this morning. And so I don't want anybody to
feel like, well, if I didn't hear the message this morning,
then I won't know where he's at this evening. I don't think
that's the case. But I do encourage you to look on the internet, on our
website, and listen to the word that was delivered to you this
morning. Let me, once again, read my text,
which is one verse of scripture in John chapter 14 and verse
6. And I will read it the way that
one of the Greek linguists stated that it should read, Jesus saith
unto Thomas, I, even I, am the way. I, even I, am the truth. I, even I, am the life. no person, no man, no woman,
no boy, no girl. No one cometh unto the Father
but by me. That is, no one cometh unto the
Father for anything, for any reason. There is no drawing near
to the Father except in, through, and by the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot pray apart from Him. You can't go to heaven apart
from Him. You can't know anything about
salvation apart from Him. He's all to be known. He's all to be loved. He's all to be followed, this
blessed Savior. I said this morning, and I made
this statement, and I will repeat this statement. This verse of
Scripture, this is a most dramatic, dogmatic, and doctrinal statement. It's one of the most dramatic,
and dogmatic, and doctrinal statements that our Lord ever used, that
He ever spoke. When I say dramatic, I mean it's
striking. It's attention getting. It certainly
gets my attention because I want to go to the Father. I want to
go to heaven. I want to know life. I want to know the truth. And
I want to know the way. This is a very dramatic statement
that falls from the lips of our Savior. And this is also a dogmatic
statement. This is, our Lord is totally
intolerant of any other belief, and we must be too. And it isn't
that we're trying to be hard to get along with. Our Lord wasn't. He got along with sinners just
fine. But he would not tolerate any
other religious teaching other than that which he set forth.
He was very dogmatic, unwavering. That's a good word. Dogmatic
means unwavering. When we say we're dogmatic about
what we believe, that doesn't mean that we are unkind or deliberately
difficult to fellowship with or anything like that. What we
mean is there is the truth And that which is not the truth is
error, and we won't compromise. One of the things about the people
of God is that we follow the teachings of our Lord Jesus and
we will not compromise what he had to say, which brings me to
the last word, the doctrinal. It's one of the most doctrinal
statements our Lord has ever made. And doctrine, it just means
teaching. There's still one of the churches
downtown. I forget what street it's on,
but anyway, the sign says something like this, that love will join
us together, will bind us together. It will unite us in ways that
doctrine never can. But doctrine is not a bad word. Doctrine just means teaching.
God says, My doctrines shall fall like the dew. God's doctrine
is necessary. God's doctrine is true. The teachings
of our Lord Jesus. You cannot have the Savior and
not have His teachings. You cannot have the Lord Jesus
and not have His doctrine. He is himself the truth, and
that which he teaches is the truth. And to not bow to what
he says, to not bow to his teachings, to his doctrine, will be fatal. And this one who is the truth,
he sets before us the fact that he is the way, he is the truth,
and he is the life. Now, our Lord Jesus is actually
answering two questions that were raised by one of his disciples,
that is Thomas, in verse three. He said, our Lord Jesus said,
in fact, I'll back up to verse two, and I know Ron has read
these verses to us already, but just let me just read these again.
Look at the second verse. He says to these men who were
greatly troubled in their hearts, greatly agitated, Disturbed by
the things that he said, he said, in my father's house or in many
mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to
prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for
you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I
am, there you may be also. And he says, with her I go, you
know in the way you know. Now stop right there. The Savior
says to these 11 men, Judas has left. And he says to these seven
men or to these 11 men, you know where I'm going. And you know the way to where
I'm going. And then right after that is
when this man, we call him Doubting Thomas. It's an awful thing to
have hung to your name for all these hundreds and hundreds of
years, but that's the way we typically refer to him. Thomas
said unto him, Lord, we don't know whither thou goest. We know
not whither thou goest. And the Savior just said, you
know where I'm going. And now Thomas says, we don't
know where you're going, so which way is it? And then he says, how can we
know the way when the Lord Jesus has said already, the way you
know? So here is our Lord Jesus answering
this disciple. He has said to all of these men,
you know where I'm going. And they did because he just
told them. But you know, there are some
times when we can hear something, but we really don't listen. You
know what I mean? Those of you who are teachers,
retired teachers, those of you who are Sunday school teachers,
and hopefully we'll be able to resume our Sunday school classes
at some point in the near future. You know that there are lots
of times when you say something, but you don't feel like that
your students have really heard what you're saying. Why, that
happens with our kids. That happens with our children.
and you'll tell them something and they'll act like they didn't
even hear you. And then you'll say, did you hear what I said?
Did you hear what I said? Yes, mom. Yes, dad. Well, what did I say? Well, let me tell you again. But you see, in many ways, we're
like little children. That is, when it comes to the
things of God, we're very slow to grasp the seriousness of the
Savior's words and then to take them to memory and to take them
to heart. You know where I'm going, the
Savior said, and you know the way. I've already told you. Where
am I going? Well, I'm going to die, and I'm
going to the Father. And I've already told you the
way. The way to the father's house is by means of my blood
sacrifice. I've already told you that. But
these men, though hearing, they weren't listening. It has not
really registered with them at this point exactly what's going
to happen. He has told them repeatedly,
The son of man goeth as it was determined. The son of man must be arrested. He must suffer many things at
the hands of the chief priests. He must die and be raised again. He said that to them repeatedly. And yet when it comes right down
to the time when he's to die and he says, you know where I'm
going and you know the way, I'm going back ultimately to the
father and the way is my substitutionary death. That's the way. And poor
old Thomas. And he just spoke for the rest
of them. He says, We don't know where you're going. And how can we know the way? Now these disciples, there's
no question about the fact they're troubled. The very first verse
of chapter 14, our Savior says, let not your heart be troubled. The word troubled means agitated,
and I'm sure you've heard a definition of the word agitated. washing machine, that thing at
the bottom, and an agitator that stirs up the water and it goes
back and forth, back and forth, makes suds and washes your clothes
and it goes and it goes and it goes. It's constantly agitating
your clothes. It's washing your clothes. It's
disturbing the water. And these men, their hearts are
disturbed. They're disturbed by three things
that he had said. He had said one of them was going
to betray him. Notice with me, go back into
chapter 13 just a bit and look at, let me see which verse it
is I want. Look at verse 21. When Jesus said thus, or thus
said, he was troubled in spirit. Ah, exactly the same word used
with reference to his disciples in chapter 14, verse one. He's agitated in his spirit,
in his soul, which shows his real humanity. This is a troubling
situation to him. Not that he is shocked by it,
not that he is in any way surprised by it. Because all of this is
according to the determination of God. This will all fulfill
the purpose of God, but it shows his real humanity. He is touched
with the feelings of our infirmities and he had similar emotions and
feelings as we have yet without sin. Well, if he is agitated,
if he is troubled by Judas, the betrayer, selling him out, if
this bothers him as a man, how much more would it bother his
other disciples? And then he also told him not
only that one of them would betray him, but the second thing, one
of them would deny him. And of course, Ron read to us
there at the end of chapter 13, that's Simon Peter? This is a troubling situation. One of us? One of us? We're so united. We're so close. Lord, we all love You. We all
look to You. We're trying to learn from You. We're Your disciples. We believe
You're the Christ, the Son of the living God. All of our hopes
of salvation are in You. And now You say that one of us,
one of us will deny You three times? And who was it? It's Simon Peter.
and this troubled him. But the main thing that troubled
him was that he said he was going away. He was going away, which
begs this question, where was he going? Well, number one, he's
going to the cross of Calvary. That's what he means, I'm going
away. In fact, he says in the second verse of chapter 14, I
go to prepare a place for you. I'm going, I'm going to the... the cross. I'm going to the place
of sacrifice. I'm going to lay down my life
for you. I'm going to die. Death is a troublesome subject,
isn't it? We get word that someone in the
family is near death. That gets our attention. And how the Savior says, I'm
near death. I'm near death. It's just a few
hours away. This is the evening of the last
night before his crucifixion. In a matter of a few hours, I
will come and arrest him in a garden. that will drag him off to be
brought before an ecclesiastical group of men, a religious group
of men who will judge him guilty of blasphemy. And because they
could not carry out the death penalty, they will then send
him over to the Roman government and insist that he be crucified,
and they would not take no for an answer. Where is our Lord
going? He's going to die. But remember,
he was born to die. That's why he came. Well, you
and me would say we're born to live. He was born to die. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. His death was
marked out from old eternity. He had a path. marked out for
him just like we all do. He had a race to run, as it says
in Hebrews chapter 12, even as we do. And that would lead him
to Golgotha's brow. He did not die merely because
men wanted Him to die. He died because God ordained
that He die. God purposed that He would die. God determined He would die.
For in His death, that is tied up our life. In His sacrifice
is tied up our salvation. There is no salvation, there
is no redemption, there is no reconciliation to God except
through the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's going to die. But the second thing is that
through his death, as a result of his death, he would then go
to the Father. Where is he going? He's going
to the Father by way of the And we've often said, and I'm sure
that you've heard preachers say this, the way to the crown is
by the cross. Where is our Lord Jesus? He's
in heaven. He's at the Father's right hand.
He's been exalted. He's there because he finished
the work that God gave him to do, which was to lay down his
life for his sheep to satisfy divine justice. And having done
that, he has gone to the father's house. Where am I going? I just
mentioned brother Thomas. And the rest of you, I just mentioned
about my father's house. You ask me where I'm going, I'm
going to my father's house. And I'm the way to the father's
house. He said, I go, I go to prepare
a place for you. Aren't you thankful he went and
prepared a place for us? because by nature we only have
one place where we deserve to go. Do you remember what it is
said concerning Judas in the book of Acts chapter 1? It says
Judas went to his own place. That's where it went. What happened
to Judas? He went out and hung himself.
The rope broke. He fell on some rocks apparently
and burst his bowels asunder. That's what it says in Acts chapter
1. He died. His soul went to God
and God commissioned him to hell. And what is hell for Judas? His
own That's what the scripture says. He went to his own place.
I don't want to go to the place that I deserve to go to. I don't
want to. I don't want to be separated
from God. What is hell? It's to be forsaken by God. It's
to be cut off from God. You can talk about the fire,
you can talk about the brimstone, and I'm sure there's reality
in that, but the essence of hell is to be cut off from God forever. You're not cut off from God now. None of us are. You breathe His
air, you drink His water, you eat His food. He gives you life
every moment. He is light. He is goodness. But there is no light in hell. There is no goodness in hell. There is no truth in hell. There is no mercy in hell. There's
everlasting darkness forever and ever. You're cut off from
God. I don't want that. That scares me to death. If you're
lost without the Lord Jesus, that should scare you too. It
should frighten you. Cut off from God? God who provides all things necessary
for me? banished from his presence, go
away from me. Get out of my presence. Can you
imagine that? And the Lord will say to many
people, depart from me, I never knew you. Go away, go away. Go away in everlasting darkness. I don't want to have anything
to do with you. That's the God of the Bible. That's a just God
right there. That's a holy God. And that's
the God you got to do business with. Not a God who loves everybody
and hates nobody, who will accept the best effort that you give.
That's not the God of the Bible. The scripture says, God is angry
with the wicked every day. It says it's a fearful thing
to fall into the hands of the living God. That's why we're
reading the book of Hebrews. I don't want to be cut off from
God. Do you? Surely you don't want to be cut
off from God. I want to enjoy God. I want to dwell in God. I want to abide with God. I want
to have fellowship with God. I want to have communion with
God. And I think about how it was with Adam and Eve before
the fall. How blissful was their condition. I want to enjoy that. I want to know what it means
to walk with God. The scripture says, Enoch walked
with God. Well, I do walk with God and
all of God's people walk with God. But Adam and Eve walk with
God in sinless perfection. I wanna know that. Don't you
wanna know that? Wouldn't that be wonderful? To walk with that,
the God who made all things, the God who reveals himself in
his son. To walk with the son of God in
fellowship with him, in communion with him, and he takes us by
the hand as one of his children. and He caresses us to His bosom? I want to know that. That's what
I want. That's what it means to go to
glory. It means to worship Him, to enjoy Him, to praise Him forever
and ever and sing with all the other myriads of the saints,
worthy is the Lamb that was slain, who has redeemed us unto God
by His blood. He told these men, I'm going
away. Well, where did he go? Well,
wherever he went, he said this. Look at verse three. And if I
go or since I go and prepare a place for you, I will come
again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there ye may
be also. So what's gonna happen to a believer
when they die? You say, well, they're gonna
go to purgatory. Is that where the Lord Jesus
is? He said, you're gonna be with me. That's what he said. That where I am, there ye may
be also. So are you saying he's in purgatory? What is the meaning of purgatory?
A state of temporary punishment. Is that where he is? Well, no. Well, then you're not gonna be
there either. You see, all the purgatory, all of the purging
of all of the sins of all of God's people took place at Calvary. And I had somebody that got really
upset with me about this very thing just a few weeks ago and
walked out. Maybe unbeknownst to most of
you, but they were very upset over this. There is no purgatory,
that's a lie out of Rome. You understand? I can't say it any clearer than
that. There is no purgatory for the
people of God. All the purging of our sins was
taken care of by our Lord Jesus Christ. He says that where I am, there
you may be also. Well, where is he? He's in the
Father's house. He's in the Father's house. Here's
what the apostle Paul said, to be absent from the body is to
be present with the Lord. What happens to a child of God
when they die? Angels of God have been commissioned
to minister to the dear saint all their life. And then when
they breathe their last breath, when God gives the word to his
angels, bring him home, bring him up here. His days upon the earth are used
up. I want him with me. You know, our Lord prayed that
prayer, didn't He, in John chapter 17? He said, I will that they
be with me where I am that they may behold my glory. And I just,
I'm convinced of it that when the Savior prays that for you
or for me, it's gonna be absent from the body and present with
the Lord immediately. There is no intermediate state.
There is no soul sleeping. One second we're here and another
in the next second, we're at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll be in the Father's house.
Heaven is called a country because of its vastness. That's where
we're going. Heaven is called a city because
of the number of its inhabitants. Heaven is called a kingdom because
of its orderliness. Heaven is called paradise because
of its delights. It's called the Father's house,
which to me speaks of everlasting permanency. That's what he says. So our Lord was going and then
He says to them in verse six, and now I'll get back to my text.
In verse six, he makes this statement. Dramatic, dogmatic, and doctrinal. This is a loaded verse of scripture
here. He, first of all, reveals his
undeniable identity. I am. I am, which sets forth
the fact that he's eternal. You see, Jesus of Nazareth is
the eternal God, the eternal I am robed in flesh. Not part God and part man, but
all man and all God. He's forever been God. In the
purpose of God, he's forever been the God-man. His humanity
came into existence as a result of the overshadowing of a virgin
by the Holy Ghost. And thus, flesh was the robe
that deity wore. forever joined together. This is his undeniable identity. It reveals his eternality. He is God. He's the great I am. I read to you this morning from
Exodus chapter three. He has no past. He has no future. Everything with God is now. You say, preacher, I can't comprehend
that. Join the crowd. Nobody else does either. But
this is a glorious attribute of our God. From everlasting
to everlasting. Can you comprehend when there
was no time? No, you can't. Can you comprehend
when there will be no more time? No, you can't comprehend that
either. But when there was no time, He was there. And here
in this time right now, He's still the great I Am. And in
eternity, He'll still be all that He was back in eternity
past. He's I Am. He's Jehovah who saves. Our Lord made several statements
in the Gospel of John, which John was led of the Holy Ghost
to record. And our Lord used this expression,
I am. I am the bread of life, John
6, 48. I am the light of the world. That was spoken in the
presence of a man who was blind. Remember we read, in thy light
shall we see light. And then I am the door. I am
the door. Would you enter into salvation?
Would you enter into righteousness? Would you enter into forgiveness?
He says, I'm the door. He says, I am the good shepherd. He has sheep that have been given
to him and he laid down his life for the sheep. He said, I am
the resurrection and the life. We're like Lazarus who died. I'll tell you what, the only
one who can raise us from spiritual death has got to have life in
himself. That's the Son of God. It won't
take more than a decision to raise you from the dead. It won't
take a whole lot more than walking an aisle to raise you from the
dead. coming to some imaginary altar, it's going to take more
than that to raise you from the dead. It's going to take the
same kind of power that raised our Lord Jesus from the dead.
What it says in Ephesians chapter 1, and he says, I am the vine,
you're the branches. And he says, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. Let me give you a reference here,
John chapter 8. If you would, look at John chapter
8. Our Lord has been going back
and forth with the Pharisees, these who were his enemies. And they had no use for him. And of course, ultimately they
will see to it that he dies. But in John chapter eight, as
he continues his back and forth with them, He said in verse 56, your father Abraham rejoiced
to see my day, John 8, 56. Your father Abraham rejoiced
to see my day. He saw it and was glad. Well, then the Jews jumped on
him about that. They said to him, thou art not
yet 50 years old. Hast thou seen Abraham? snickering
as they said it undoubtedly. And Jesus said unto them, verily,
verily, and whenever he said verily, verily, that's the time
to really perk up your ears because he's going to say something that
is very weighty and you need to grasp it. You need to hear
what he has to say. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
before Abraham was, I am. Oh my. You know what he's claiming? Deity. That's what he's claiming. And they understood exactly what
he was saying because it says, then took they up stones to cast
at him. We'll stone you to death for
that. But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple and going
through the midst of them, he so passed by. This is his undeniable identity,
he's I am. And then secondly, his undeniable
self declarations. He said, I am the way, the truth
and the life. Back in John 14, six again. First
of all, I am the way. What is a way? Well, a way is
a path. It is a road which leads from
one location to another location. I am the way, he says. And here's
what we need to understand. All of the building materials
necessary to construct the way to God are only found in Him. You have no building materials.
There's nothing within you that God will use in making the way
to heaven. All of the building materials
All of design for this bridge to heaven, this path to heaven,
this way to heaven, all of it is in Christ Jesus. He designed
the way. He designed the bridge. There's
a great gulf between us and God. Who's going to bridge the gap?
Can you? Well, you wouldn't know where
to start. You don't have the materials. You don't have the
authority, you don't have the power. But he did, and he's the only
one. He laid all the groundwork for
it. He did all the planning, the
blueprints. You know, come the Lord willing,
middle of September, we're going to We like to go to northern
Michigan to take a few days off, go on vacation, and we always
visit the Mackinac Bridge. It's a marvelous structure. It took several years to build.
It's nearly five miles long, one of the longest suspension
bridges in the world. But you know how that started?
Many years before construction began, if memory serves me correctly,
I think construction was from 1954 to 57. In fact, Nancy's
dad, he was a foreman of a steel construction crew, and he took
his steel construction crew from Baltimore, Maryland, up to Mackinac
City. And of course, there were many
other workers there, too. But how did that bridge begin? Well, it began with blueprints, with somebody
drawing up all the plans. Hey, you don't just go up there
and build a bridge like that. Well, I think I'll build a bridge.
Well, I'll get it done by the end of the week. They'll lock
you up, throw away the key. You're crazy. This is an engineering,
magnificent, marvelous thing. It took great ingenuity. But
oh how much bigger is this salvation, infinitely larger than a man-made
bridge. How can a bridge be constructed
to go from sinful man to holy God? Who's going to make the
way? Well, He not only made the way,
He schemed the way, He planned the way, He designed the way,
and there was within Him the ability to make the way by His
death. He says, I'm the way. Isn't that
wonderful? Now don't think that anything
concerning the construction of the way is left up to you. That's stealing his glory now. That'd be like me going up there
and looking at the Mackinac Bridge and then saying to somebody,
you know, I helped build this bridge. Really? Don't think you're
old enough. No, I didn't have anything to
do with that bridge. and you don't have anything to
do with, and I don't have anything to do with this bridge to God. Who did it all? Christ the Savior. He said, I'm the way. I'm the
way. Now, I know there are ways that
seem right unto a man to get us to God, but the Scriptures
say there's a way that seemeth right unto a man, but at the
end there are the ways of death. Every other way is the wrong
way. The religions of man just envision
a sign that says, a big sign that says, wrong way. I believe baptism's the way.
Wrong way! Because if you take a wrong way,
endeavoring to get to God, you're going to have a head-on collision
with God Himself. And there won't be anything left
of you but a memory. And that'll fade pretty soon. He's the unchangeable way, the
old way, he's the new way, he's the living way, he's the narrow
way, he's the highway, he's the low way, he's not a toll road,
he's a freeway. And then he says truth, and I've
got to go quickly. What is truth? Well, truth is
an accurate statement of reality. And especially in the realm of
religion, there's very little truth. You know, we always want to arrive
at truth. You parents, two kids, they're fussing. Probably your kids never do that.
Probably didn't do it when they were young. Those of you who've
got grown children, your grandchildren, they have a fuss. And they come
in and you say, and they're just going back and forth, back and
forth. You say, stop, stop. What happened? Well, she did.
No, he did. I want to get the truth. And you hear this side, okay.
And they start telling their side, and this other one speaks.
No, I said be quiet, I want to hear this side. And then they
finish. Okay, what do you have to say?
And then they tell the opposite thing. That's not the truth. The truth is somewhere in the
middle probably. We have a difficult time sometimes
arriving at the truth. But as far as the truth of religion,
the truth of Christianity, there is no doubt Christ is Himself
the truth. I'll tell you what I think. I
don't much care what you think. Because what you think doesn't
affect me nor my standing before God. All that matters is what
God says and all that matters is Him who is the truth. You remember our savior said,
you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. He makes us free. In the book of John chapter one,
John the Baptist said, John the apostle wrote, that grace and
truth came by Jesus Christ. And he's full of truth. The truth
of what? Truth of everything. The truth
of God, the truth of us, the truth of sinfulness, the truth
of salvation. He is the embodiment of all truth. And outside of him, all is error. Our Lord stood before Pilate.
John chapter 18 says this. And Pilate said to him, what
is truth? snide, snarky remark, what is
truth? And he didn't hang around for
an answer. Our Lord Jesus is the truth.
Too bad he didn't stay a little longer. And our Lord is the life. What is this life? Well, it's
not mere conscious existence. This is life in the Bible, in
the word of God. Life, as it's used in the scriptures
pertaining to us in God, is life in its richest and in its very
highest order. Give you two quick examples.
Please bear with me just a little bit longer. Adam's fall. What did God say to Adam when
he put him in the garden and then told him about that tree
of knowledge of good and evil? He said, don't eat of it, for
in the day you eat thereof, you'll surely die. He lost some kind
of life there. In the third chapter, he died. He ate. He died, but he still
had life physically. He was still physically alive.
I thought he was gonna die. Look at him, he's still breathing,
eating, sleeping. But he lost the life of the very
highest order. Fellowshiping with God, communion
with God, he lost it. And so did we. And one other
illustration is in Luke chapter 15. Last week I spoke to you
about the parable of lost things, lost sheep, lost coin, lost son. When that prodigal son, he came
home and the father welcomed him,
treated him royally. And the father said, let's have
a banquet. This my son was dead, but now he's alive. Interesting
use of words. What, did he think his son had
died in an accident and been raised from the dead? No. What does he mean there? This
my son, he was dead and now he's alive. It means that for a while,
ever since he left, as far as the father was concerned, this
boy This boy didn't care about the father. His father's house
was dead to him. He didn't have any communication
with the father. He didn't have any fellowship
with the father. He didn't go home to see his father. He's
dead to the father. I'm dead. I'm dead to all of
that. Because he went to his father and said, I want my inheritance.
I'm tired of your laws. I'm tired of your rules. I'm
tired of your curfews. I'm tired of you telling me what
to do. I'm tired of you telling me to do my chores. I want what's
coming to me because I'm out of here. That's what he said. And when he left, when he packed
up and left on his mule or whatever it was, he said, this is all
in the past to me. I'm finished with you. It's like he was dead to his
father. Ah, but he came back. Fellowship
is restored. Communication once again. He said he was dead. Now he's
alive. Christ is our life. Now we can
have fellowship with God. Now we can have communion with
God. Now we can talk with God. You
see, our Lord Jesus, He's the way, the truth, and the life.
He's the way, and that we come to God through Him, and God deals
with us in grace through Him. And He's the truth. All you want
to know about God, you learn from Christ Jesus. All you want
to know about us, you learn from Christ Jesus. All you want to
know about sin, you learn from Christ Jesus. He'll even show
you what the penalty is for sin, His own death. the way, the truth, and the life,
and leads me to the undeniable conclusion, no man cometh to
the Father but by me. No man, that's universal. Universal. But preacher, they're
so sincere. Sincerity's got nothing to do
with it here. There are people just as sincere
and just as zealous, maybe more zealous than we are. That's not how you come to God.
Come to God through Christ Jesus. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. And here is a definite statement. And I'd say this, no man cometh
safely to the Father except through Christ Jesus, because everybody's
gonna meet God someday. That right? because He's appointed
a day in which He will judge the world. God's going to judge
the world by that man whom He ordained, by that man whom He
raised from the dead, Jesus Christ. He's going to judge the world
in righteousness. Righteousness. Undeniable conclusion. You can't come to God any other
way. Well, preacher, you sure are
ruling out a lot of people. I'm not ruling people out. Christ
Jesus is. This didn't originate with
me, Marty. I didn't come up with this. Larry,
it's not my words. I'd go around the building, call
on all of you if I know your name. It wasn't something I come
up with. This is the Lord of Glory says
this. He says no man, no woman, no
boy, no girl, no teenager, no young person, no old person,
no middle-aged person, no white person, no black person, no brown
person, no red person. Nobody, doesn't matter whether
you're rich or poor, educated or uneducated, it don't matter.
All those things don't matter. You can't come to God anyway,
except through a man in Christ Jesus. And there it is. Dramatic, dogmatic,
doctrinal. Can you take it? I can, by his
grace. And I say, thank you, Lord, because
I get it. You grasp it? I do. James, you
do, don't you? Yeah, Joe does. I get it. Jesus saith unto him, I, even
I, am the way. I, even I, am the truth. I, even I, am the life. And Joey says, no man cometh
unto the Father but by me. I'm coming to God through him,
aren't you? Yeah, he's the only access. He's the bridge. He fashioned the bridge. He completed
the bridge. He put every nut and bolt in
the bridge. Every rivet in the bridge. He
did it all. I said, well, we got to contribute
repentance and faith. I beg your pardon. He's been
exalted for to give repentance. He got to give that and he's
got to give faith too. Well, may the Lord bless His
word. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Father, for the blessed,
blessed words of our Savior. And they're simple words, but
my, how profound they are. Would to God that we would grasp
this simple, and yet glorious verse of Scripture,
and see that He is the way to God, and He is the truth of God,
and He is the life of God. And we're not gonna come to the
Father any other way, not through baptism, the Lord's Supper, doing
good, Mary, Any dead saint, no, we're not going to come to God
any other way except in, through, and by this God-man, Christ Jesus,
and His work of redemption. Glorify yourself. Do us good. For Jesus' sake, amen.