If it were possible, I would
like, beginning at the very front row, to sit down next to each
one of you individually, from the youngest to the oldest, including
each of the young who would understand my question and be able at least
with some degree of comprehension to respond to it, and ask a very
basic and a very simple question. And the question is this. amidst
all of the manifold stories that are found within the pages of
this book that we call the Bible, the account of the flood, the
account of the mighty conquest of the armies of Joshua, the
sad account of the fall of David into sin, Noah in his shameful
drunkenness, the record of the mighty works and gracious words
and cruel death of the Lord Jesus, letters of apostles and messages
of prophets. If I were to ask you, what is
the sum total of all of this that we find within the pages
of our Bibles? Why has God given us these fascinating
stories, these heartbreaking accounts of the sin and tragic
failure of men and women Why has the Bible given to us an
account of the life, the death, the doings, the resurrection,
the words of our Lord Jesus Christ? I wonder, how would you answer
in a very brief compass such a question? Why has God given
us this book, the Bible? Well, I think it would be very
interesting were I to record everyone's response. and see
if we could break them down into various categories and find certain
common denominators. But in a very real sense, in
a very real sense, we could answer that question very simply by
saying that God has given us the Bible to be one large, massive,
unmistakable signpost to heaven. God has given us the Bible to
be one massive, true, unerring signpost to heaven. Within its pages, everything
that we need to know about God, about man, about sin, about Christ,
about repentance, about faith, the new birth, about a life of
holiness. Every single thing we need to
know in order to see us safely to heaven is contained within
the pages of this book. And though we might begin in
Genesis 1-1 and work our way through to the last verse of
Revelation 22 and call out of this book this massive signpost
to heaven, God has very graciously along the way distilled the whole
heart of the message of the Bible in very short statements or texts
of Scripture. And we're going to consider just
such a text tonight that in a very real sense gives us the very
heart of the message of the Bible in a very short, simple, and
straightforward expression of that message. And that text is
found from the words of our Lord Jesus in the Gospel according
to John chapter 14. Here in John chapter 14, we have
recorded the words of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself who said
in verse 6, Jesus said unto them, I am the way and the truth and
the life, no one comes unto the Father but by me. Now as I attempt with
God's help to unpack this verse in your hearing, I have two very
fundamental goals in view. And I want to state them up front
and honestly and bluntly. I am not here in order to fill
up some time I am not here simply to give you an opportunity to
hear another preacher, but I am here and my conscious goal in
standing before you is basically twofold. First of all, with these
words of our Lord Jesus that distill the entire message of
the Bible in a nutshell before us, I want to open them up and
apply them in your hearing, that in so proclaiming that gospel
which is the power of God unto salvation, God might be pleased
in this place tonight, graciously to put forth the arm of His saving
power upon the lives of some of you children, young people,
teenagers, young adults, middle-aged, and older men and women, and
God might take the proclamation of His Word and make it here
in this place tonight, the very power of God unto your salvation. In other words, I'm expounding
the text because I want to take you to heaven with me. But then
I have a second goal in view, and that is this. that for those
of you who by the grace of God have known the power of the gospel
and live in the power of the gospel, for if you've ever known
it once in reality, you live in its power continually, that
you and I might have perhaps a more intimate acquaintance
with a text of scripture that ought to be constantly at hand
as a tool to use as we bear witness to others concerning our own
faith in the Lord Jesus, and as we attempt to point others
to Christ as the Savior of sinners. Those are my goals, upfront,
straightforward, simple, explicit, trusting God by the Holy Spirit
to bless the exposition of this text that it may be the very
instrument of God to bring some of you into the possession of
life and salvation, and it might further equip you, the saints
of God, for the service of bearing a clear witness to the gospel
to those that God brings within the orbit of your influence. In this marvelously simple, but
in many ways subtly profound text, we have our Lord Jesus
Christ Himself telling us in His own words who He is, what
He came to do, and the weighty implications these things have
with respect to each and every one of us. And as we think our
way through the text together, I want you to notice with me,
first of all, the amazing personal claims of Jesus Christ as found
in the text. The amazing personal claims of
Jesus Christ as they are found in the text. Notice what he says,
I am the way. and the truth, and the life. Here are amazing personal claims
from the very lips of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He claims
to be, specifically, three things. He says, I am the way. What did He mean when He said,
I am the way? Well, he was speaking in figurative
language. The word way is the standard
word in the New Testament for a path or a road that leads from
one place to another. And in the setting in which Jesus
spoke these words, He had been speaking about His Father's house. Verse 2, In My Father's house
are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you, for 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 to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And where
I go, notice, you know the way, you know the path. Thomas said
unto him, Lord, we do not know where you are going, how can
we know the way? And in response to those questions,
Jesus says, I am the way. And in this setting, he is claiming
that he is the way, the road, the path to the Father's house,
in which there are many mansions. In other words, he is saying,
I in myself constitute the path to heaven. To state it bluntly,
our Lord is claiming that all of the building materials to
construct the road from earth to heaven are found in His own
person and in His own work. He is the way by which God comes
to us in the revelation of Himself and he is the way by which man
approaches unto God. You will notice in verses 7 and
8, he says, If you had known me, you would have known my father. From henceforth you know him
and have seen him. Philip said unto him, Lord, show
us the father, and that will be sufficient for us. Jesus said
to him, Have I been so long time with you and you do not know
Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the
Father. Jesus is the way by which the
Father reveals Himself to us. And according to the latter part
of our text, He is the only path by which we approach unto God. No man comes to the Father except
by Me. And the first amazing personal
claim of our Lord Jesus Christ is that He is the way. But then secondly, He says, I
am the truth. And here He uses no figure of
speech. Truth is an accurate statement
of reality. Truth is that thing which at
times we parents get very frustrated in trying to find out with our
kids. You kids know about that. Two of them come into the kitchen.
They've been squabbling, and mom or dad says, now wait a minute,
wait a minute, let's sort this out. Let's get down to the truth. Well, she didn't know, but he
did. Stop, stop, stop, quiet. Let's get the facts. Now, John,
you be quiet and let Mary have her say. Be quiet. And Mary has her say. All right? Now, Mary, you be quiet. John,
you give your account. And lo and behold, the accounts
don't mesh. And as a parent, you say, who
is telling the truth? In other words, who is accurately
reflecting the facts? That's what the truth is. And
here the Lord Jesus says, I am the truth. And in the context,
it is the truth on the great issues that pertain to heaven. and how men get to heaven, the
truths concerning God, and how men can know God. He who has
seen me has seen the Father. Jesus Christ is the accurate
statement of reality concerning God and man and heaven and hell. You remember later on, in conjunction
with our Lord's trial prior to his crucifixion, Pilate cynically
asked the question, what is truth? What is truth? Well, here our
text answers, truth is a person who said, I am the truth. I embody
in my person, in my words, and in my work all the reality that
man needs to know with respect to the great issues of God, and
sin, and heaven, and hell, and the way to God. But then his
amazing claims go further. He not only claims to be the
way, the truth, but now he claims to be The life. I am the life. Now life in scripture is not
mere existence in a conscious state. That's the way we use
it at times. There's a severe and frightening
accident on the freeway. And when the EMS group arrives,
the first thing they're concerned to see is whether or not within
those twisted, mangled vehicles there are any signs of life. in the victims. They want to
see if there is yet any conscious existence, any vital signs. Are the inhabitants of those
twisted vehicles alive or dead? But when our Lord says, I am
the life, He is not speaking of mere conscious existence,
but rather life in the Bible is realized communion and fellowship
with God. That's what life is. Jesus himself
defined it that way in John 17 in verse 3. where He said, and
this is life eternal, that they may know Thee, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. And it's beautifully
illustrated in the parable of the prodigal. You remember when
that son said in his heart, I can't hack Dad's rules, Dad's restrictions,
Dad's don't do this and don't go here, Dad's curfews and Dad's
all the time on my case. I've had it. I'm of age. Pop,
give me what's coming to me, and I'm blowing out of town." And he got his inheritance, hopped
on his Honda, full-throttled it, and off he went to Vegas. He was gone. And when he came
to himself, and said, I will arise and go to my father. Remember
what the father said when the father, seeing him afar off,
ran and threw his arms about his neck and kissed him. He said,
this my son was what? Dead. But he's alive. Now did he believe that his son
had actually had his head blown out? and expired physically and
had been resurrected? No. But in terms of the Father
having any face-to-face communion with His Son, He was dead to
Him. It's a beautiful illustration
of what the Bible means by life and death. You did he make alive
who were dead through your trespasses and sins. A reference to the
fact that in our natively sinful state we have no realized communion
and fellowship with God. And here Jesus says, I am not
only the way, all the materials necessary to construct a road
from earth to heaven are in me. And I am the truth. All reality
concerning all of the issues of life and death are to be found
in me, fully accurate. And I am the life. I am in myself
the one who imparts that realized communion and fellowship with
God. I am come, Jesus said in John
10, 11, that they might have life. and have it more abundantly. You see, men by nature have conscious
being and existence, but they do not have life in the sense
of our text. Now, with respect to these amazing
personal claims that I very briefly expounded, I want you to note
two very important observations. The first is, Jesus is these
things in himself. Look at the text. It's not on
my forehead. It's in your Bible. If you have
it, look at it. Notice what it says. Jesus said
unto him, I am the way and the truth and the life. And there's a combination of
words in the original which make legitimate a rendering as follows. I, even I am the way. I, even I am the truth. I, even I am the life. In other words, I am these three
things in myself. He did not say, I came to create
a way detached from me. I came to reveal truth objective
to me, but unrelated to me. I came to expound a way of life. No, He is these things in Himself. I, even I, am the way. I, even I, am the truth. I, even I, am the life. I am these things in the uniqueness
of my person as the God-man." And he was conscious of that
uniqueness. You see, there are some who say,
Jesus never claimed to be God. It was only the excessive affection
and admiration of his followers that attributed to him the qualities
and attributes of deity. How can they say that in the
light of this very passage? For in this very passage we find
these words, verse 7, If you had known me, you should have
known my Father. Philip said, Lord, show us the
Father, and that will be sufficient for us. Jesus said, have I been
so long time with you and you don't know me? You say you want
to see the Father? Philip, have you been with me
all this time? Don't you know who I am? He who
has seen me has seen the Father. I fully, accurately represent
and reveal the Father because I and the Father are one, John
chapter 10. Here is a claim, an unashamed,
unembarrassed claim to full deity. It's repeated in words such as
Matthew 11, where Jesus said, No one knows the Father save
the Son, and no one knows the Son save the Father. Only God can encompass God in
understanding. Jesus said, I fully know the
Father. For as to his Godhood, he is
equal to the Father, and only the Father fully knows the Son,
for only God can know God. He is these things in himself,
in the uniqueness of his person as the God-man, And He is these
things in Himself in the perfection of the work He was about to bring
to completion. These words were uttered on the
very eve of His crucifixion. And they conclude with that marvelous
prayer in John 17 where in verse 4 He says, I have accomplished
the work which you have given Me to do. I have glorified you
on the earth. He was about to bring to completion
his perfect obedience under the law of God, his work of validating
his identity as he says in verse 11 of our passage, Believe me
that I am in the Father and the Father in me, or believe me for
the very works sake. And He is about to accomplish
the work of bearing away the sins of His people by His cruel
death upon the cross, where, as the Lamb of God, He will be
slain, and the knife of God's justice will be plunged into
the beating heart of the Son of God as the Lamb of God. And
I want you to note that with regard to these amazing personal
claims, Jesus underscores that he is these things in himself,
but now a second observation that's critical. He is these
things exclusively. Look at the text again. He doesn't
say, I am a way, I am a facet of truth, and I am one aspect
or dimension or conduit of life, the definite article is used
before each of these claims. I am the way, not one among many. I am the way. There is no other. And in an
age of ecumenical mania, in which we are to show respect for everyone,
regardless of what he believes, and whatever we do, we must not
say, a man's faith system is wrong, damnable, and elusive. We must say our way, we may judge
to be a bit better and a bit more validated, but the concept
of the exclusiveness of the Christian faith as it is embodied in the
person and work of Jesus is terribly offensive in a day where everyone
wants to have a togetherness orgy. But Jesus will not come
back and rewrite his words. He says, I am the way. the truth, the life. I am these
things in myself and I am these things exclusively. I am the
way. There is no other material under
heaven out of which a way has been constructed from man in
his sin to God in his holiness but that which is taken out of
the person and work of Jesus Christ. All other materials to
construct proposed ways are nothing but sand and shadows and are
doomed to fail. He says, I am the truth. I am
not one dimension of truth among many truths. I am not one facet
of truth among many facets. No, I am the truth. Miss me and
you land in error, delusive, damning, destructive error. I am the truth and I am the life. Again, not one contributor to
a collective life. that there is some larger life
force by which men may come into communion with God, elements
of which are to be found in Eastern religion, elements to be found
in our own inner consciousness if we dig deep enough and long
enough. No, against all such nonsense, the words of Christ
stand, I am the life. I am the life. He is these things. exclusively. Now having looked
at the amazing personal claims of Jesus Christ, what they are,
I am the way, the truth and the life, the fact that he is these
things in himself and he is these things exclusively, consider
with me secondly, the unavoidable implications concerning ourselves
You see, Jesus makes some amazing personal claims about himself,
but when he does it, it brings to us some unavoidable implications
about ourselves. And what are they? Well, the
first is this, that the way is not in us by nature. If he says,
I am the way, And He came all the way from heaven to earth,
went through all that He went through on earth, including the
cruel death of the cross, the horrible experience of abandonment
by His Father, resurrection and ascension. If He went through
all of this to be the way, then surely the way is not in us by
nature. We are lost, men and women, by
nature. We do not have the stuff to construct
a way to heaven. And what is clearly and unavoidably
inferred and deduced from these personal claims of Christ is
explicitly and repeatedly stated in the rest of the Bible. All
we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned every one of us
to His own way. There is not a just man upon
the face of the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is none righteous,
no, not one. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none righteous, no,
not one. Romans 3, 10 and following. You
see, in spite of the wishful thinking of humanism, the quasi-religious
jargon of the religion of self-worth and self-esteem face the fact
that when Jesus said in his amazing claims, I am the way, he is telling
all of humanity, the way is not in you. It can never be constructed
out of you nor by you. I am the way. There are no materials
in human nature out of which to construct a way to God. From Eden's fall onward, all
we could construct was a path to hell and to destruction. And if Jesus said, I am the truth,
Then the unavoidable implication is that the truth is not in us
by nature. The Bible describes us by nature
as spiritually ignorant. Oh, but you say I've got a B.A.
from a prestigious university. Well, then you just are a B.A. ignorant. I have an M.A., a Ph.D. Ah, but listen to the scriptures.
Ephesians 4, 17 and 18, Paul says, don't walk as the Gentiles
walk in a state in which their understanding is darkened, alienated
from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them,
who being past feeling have given themselves over to hardness of
heart. That's not very flattering languages.
I can't imagine the man who holds forth with his plastic grin in
his crystal palace, telling his congregation next Sunday, you
are natively shrouded in the mists of spiritual ignorance. You have a darkened mind and
you are alienated from the life of God. The Apostle Paul in 2
Corinthians 2 says something even more humbling. I'm sorry,
2 Corinthians chapter 4, he says, If our gospel is hid, it is hid
in them that are lost, in whom the God of this world, referring
to Satan, has blinded the minds of them that believe not. There
is a satanic blindness over the minds of men. And in 1 Corinthians
2.14, he says, the natural man, the person who has nothing but
what he got from his mother's womb in the way of intellectual
faculties and faculties of perception, the natural man receives not
the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto
him. Neither, neither can he know
them. We are spiritually ignorant,
spiritually blind. The truth is not in us by nature. And if I'm speaking to anyone
tonight who's been sucked along in the frightening return to
Eastern religion in which truth is supposedly found either by
the silencing of all of the inner agitation of our mental faculties
until we are lifted up into cosmic consciousness Truth will somehow
be found as we are lifted up into cosmic consciousness, or
if we dig deep enough into the dark channels and caverns of
our own inner consciousness, there we'll find truth. No, my
friend, Jesus said, I am the truth because the truth is not
in you by nature. There is ignorance in you by
nature, blindness and darkness by nature. And if he says, I
am the life, then very clearly he's telling us the life is not
in us by nature, that we are spiritually dead. As Ephesians
2.1 says, you have been made alive who were dead through your
trespasses and sins. Some passages describe us in
our sinful state as blind, deaf, sick, corrupt. But others go
further and say we are dead. There is no spiritual life, no
communion and fellowship with God. And I say again, in a day
in which people are told that the great problem with American
society producing the violence And the harshness and cruelty
of one man against his fellow man is that we've got to learn
how to feel good about ourselves. If only we'll feel good about
ourselves, then we'll treat one another as we ought. No, my friends,
we already feel altogether too good about ourselves. That's
the problem. We feel altogether too good about
ourselves. We need to face the reality.
If Christ is in Himself the way, the truth and the life, then
God is saying to you and to me, you are lost and you need a way. You are blind and ignorant and
you need the truth. You are dead and helpless and
you need life. So we have looked at the amazing
personal claims of Christ, the unavoidable implications of those
claims, but now thirdly, coming back directly to our text, notice
the sobering conclusion drawn from the claims of Jesus. The sobering conclusion drawn
from the claims of Jesus. And this is a conclusion not
made by the preacher, but by Christ himself. Look at the text.
Jesus said unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes unto the Father
but by or through me. Here is the sobering conclusion
drawn from the claims of Christ by Christ himself. Now what is
often said is this, people will say, you see I have no complaints
with what Jesus claimed to be and what he taught. He was a
good man whose teaching is the highest of all of teachers in
terms of its ethical and moral standards, his teaching of love
your neighbor as yourself, do unto others as you would they
should do unto you. My complaint is with these followers
of Christ who have so narrowed the Christian faith as to claim
that in Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ alone is salvation and
outside of him is nothing but death and damnation. Well, my
friend, that shows a great ignorance of Christ's own claim. It is
not His followers who elevated Him beyond His own claims who
said these words. It was Jesus Himself who said,
No one comes unto the Father but by Me. Now look at this claim. Notice first of all, it is universal
in its scope. No one comes to the Father but
by Me. No one of any age, in any place,
Any background, any race, any sociological framework, any educational
privileges or deprivation of such privileges, no one, not
one, not one in this building will ever come to the Father,
except you come through Jesus Christ. You have His Word. You can go out of here and tell
me about that arrogant preacher. My friend, your complaint is
not with me. You can call me anything you want and get away
with it. Honestly, you can. Experiment if you want. Call
me, call me anything you want. But you still have to reckon
with Jesus Christ when he sits on the throne to judge you and
to determine your eternal destiny in the last day. And he said,
no one, no one comes to the Father except through Him. What will
you say to Him? How will you pass off His words
when you stand in His presence? You see, it is universal in its
scope and it's undeniably exclusive in its intention. Look at the
language. No one comes unto the Father
except through Me. Now what do those words mean?
In one sense, all of us will come to God in the last day. Acts 17 30, Paul says, God commands
all men everywhere to repent because he's appointed a day
in which he will judge the world in righteousness. And as surely
as you had no choice in the matter of your birth, you will have
no choice as to whether or not you stand before God in judgment.
There's not a one of you here, not a one of you kids, young
people, adults, who in some pre-birth consciousness went up to God
and said, you know God, the idea of being a human being is rather
attractive to me. And I think at a given place
and a given time I'd like to be conceived in the womb of so
and so. And oh by the way God, I'd like to be conceived a man,
woman, and also God, I'd like to be conceived at a time when
people regard my being conceived in the womb as a blessing, and
I won't be violently murdered before I see the light of day."
Now God, those are the terms on which I'd like you to bring
me into the world. Anyone here ready to claim that you talk
to God that way? You have no choice in it. Almighty God engineered
the whole thing, and you cannot unborn yourself. You were born
in God's Word through no choice of your own. He didn't consult
you. And there's a day coming when
the Scripture says, Jesus' own words, an hour is coming in which
all that are in the graves shall come forth, some to the resurrection
of life and some to the resurrection of damnation. You are coming
to God in judgment. You are. I am. So what did Jesus
mean when He said, no one comes to the Father except through
Me? What He means is, no one can
come to God as Father, that is, come to Him in the approval and
acceptance of God as Father, in the favor and the forgiveness
of God, As the one who pardons and cleanses from sin, no one
can come to God except through Christ as the way, the truth,
and the life. He is the exclusive mediator
between man and his sin, and God in His gracious offers of
mercy. 1 Timothy 2.5, there is one God
and one mediator between God and man himself, man, Christ
Jesus. I remind you that the me in our
passage, no one comes to the Father except through me, is
the Christ of biblical revelation in all the glory of His unique
person. described in verses 7 and 8 in
all the perfection of his glorious work on behalf of sinners. Listen to old Bishop Ryle who
wrote, we should mark in these verses how expressly the Lord
Jesus shuts out all ways of salvation but himself. No man, he declares,
comes to the Father but by me. It avails nothing that a man
is clever, learned, highly gifted, amiable, charitable, kind-hearted
and zealous about some sort of religion. All this will not save
his soul if he does not draw near to God by Christ's atonement
and make use of God's own Son as his Mediator and Savior. God is so holy that all men are
guilty and debtors in his sight. Sin is so sinful that no mortal
man can make satisfaction for it. There must be a mediator,
a ransom payer, a redeemer between ourselves and God, or we can
never be saved. There is only one door, one bridge,
one ladder between earth and heaven. the crucified Son of
God. Let us beware, if we love life,
of supposing that mere earnestness will take a man to heaven, though
he know nothing of Christ. The idea is a deadly and ruinous
error. Sincerity will never wipe away
our sins. It is not true that every man
will be saved by his own religion, no matter what he believes, provided
he is diligent and sincere. We must not pretend to be wiser
than God. Christ has said and Christ will
stand to his word. No man comes to the Father but
by me. Here is the sobering conclusion
drawn from the claims of Christ by Christ himself. There was an old Scottish theologian,
they called him Rabbi Duncan, not because he was Jewish, But
he was so knowledgeable in Semitic languages and so steeped in Hebrew
thought that they nicknamed him Rabbi Duncan. George Duncan was
his proper name. And he had a very deep and passionate
love for Christ against the backdrop of an unusually sensitive temperament
overlaid with Holy Spirit conviction of sin. and he greatly treasured
Christ, and Rabbi Duncan said these very precious words, there
is nothing but Christ between us and hell, and thank God we
need nothing else, but nothing less will do. My friends, that's
what Jesus is saying in these words. nothing but Christ between
us and hell and thank God we need nothing else but nothing
less will do no man comes to the Father except through me
but the flip side of that is anyone can come to the Father
through Him His redemption is of such worth and magnitude that
no one has so sinned as to put himself outside the orbit of
the virtue and power of the saving work of Christ, except those
known only to God who have blasphemed the Holy Spirit, which Jesus
said is a sin that has no forgiveness in this life or in the life to
come. And whether that sin can even
be committed in this present epoch, I'm not convinced of it.
Paul says, I was myself a blasphemer and a murderer, but I found grace
through Jesus Christ. Now, having sought to open up
the text and let the words of Jesus speak their own message,
as I draw this to a conclusion, having considered the amazing
claims of the Lord Jesus with those two observations, having
considered the inescapable conclusion drawn from those claims and the
sobering implication, Jesus' words, no one comes to the Father
except through me. I want to close by asking some
searching personal questions based on what we have studied
together. Consider yourself as we started
in the beginning. Remember I said if I could come
to each one of you and ask you what is the Bible all about and
record your answer. Consider me now sitting next
to you looking you straight in the eye. No one else is around.
It's just you and me in the presence of God. And I'd like to ask you
these questions. Question one. Have you personally
come to the conviction that your own condition is such that you
can have no safe dealings with God apart from Jesus Christ. Have you been brought to that
conviction? You gals, you guys, you kids,
men, women, teenagers, have you been brought to the conviction
that you can have no safe dealings with God apart from Jesus Christ. You see, what do you mean, safe
dealings? I'm thinking of such words as these. The writer to
Hebrews says, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands
of the living God. I'm thinking of the words of
the psalmist who said, oh God, if you should mark iniquities,
oh Lord, who could stand? Our God is a consuming fire. This is what I mean by safe dealings
with God. Are you convinced that if God
deals with you directly without this blessed mediator, He must
of necessity consume you in the fire of His righteous anger and
cast you into hell forever for what you are and what you have
done? Don't treat that question lightly,
for no one ever goes to God through Christ thinking it's a luxury. It's when we've been brought
as that publican we looked at last night. to the place where
we see that our sins have created an irreconcilable controversy
between ourselves and God, and that if God does not intervene
to resolve that controversy, we've had it, but blessed be
God in Christ, He has intervened. Have you come to the conviction
that your condition is such that you can have no safe dealings
with God apart from Jesus Christ. My second question to you is
this. Have you come to the conviction that only the Christ of biblical
revelation can secure your acceptance with the Father? Have you come
to the conviction that only the Christ of biblical revelation
can secure your acceptance with the Father? That acceptance is
not in yourself, not in your works, not in rituals, not in
the church, it's not in the water, it's not in wafer, it's not in
doing this or doing that. Have you come to the conviction
that only the Christ of biblical revelation can secure your acceptance
with the Father? Then I asked the third, and this
is the capstone question, is Jesus Christ right now your way,
your truth, and your life, is Jesus Christ right now, tonight,
January, whatever it is, the 26th. It's all been a blur since
we arrived a week ago, preaching hither and yonder. But this night,
the 26th of January, 1966, is Jesus Christ, 1996, is Jesus
Christ your way. Your way. Not the way in abstraction,
but your way in personal appropriation. Not the truth out there, theoretically,
in abstraction, but your truth. Not the life in abstraction,
objectively, but your life. Is Jesus Christ right now your
way, your truth, and your life? Is He? If so, my friend, you're
a Christian. That's what it means to be a
Christian. If not, and I think of you young people, who have
heard the gospel, some of you, from the dawning of your consciousness. But the real issue is you have
not personally appropriated Christ to yourself. And what are you
waiting for? You expected God will somehow
in the middle of the night send an angel down from heaven with
a big neon sign with your name on it saying, John, Mary, Harry,
Susie. You are elect. You will be saved. No, if you saw such an angel,
tell him to go back where he came from. It wouldn't be an
angel of God. Because God never comes to declare
a man's election to him personally. He comes and proclaims the gospel
to a man indiscriminately and freely, and we only discover
our election in embracing the freely offered Savior. Christ
Himself tonight, dear young person, is before you again, the Gospel,
saying to you, and to you, and to you, I am the way. Will you appropriate Me to be
your way? Will you cast yourself upon Me
to be your way? I am the truth. Will you embrace
Me to be your truth? I am the life. Will you take
me to be your life? That's what it is to be a Christian. And oh, I urge you with all the
passion of my heart, embrace that Christ who says, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. And if you can say yes by the
grace of God, He is my way, my truth, my life, How would you
continue to be a healthy, growing, vigorous, useful Christian? Ah,
listen to Bishop Ryle, the old Anglican bishop, had great wisdom
on many things. Listen to this. Let us grasp
and hold fast these truths. To use Christ daily as the way,
to believe Christ daily as the truth, to live on Christ daily
as the life, this is to be a well-informed, a thoroughly furnished, and an
established Christian. You see, we don't start with
Christ on the threshold and go to something else in the Christian
life. Paul said, as you received Christ
Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. Root it and build it up in Him
and establish in Him. The old bishop said, to use Christ
daily as the way. What did he mean? He meant every
time you sin and every time you have the remembrance of your
past sin. You think again of all that Christ
is as the only Savior of sinners who died once for all, the just
for the unjust, and who lives to intercede, who is at the right
hand of the Father, our advocate, our representative in heaven,
pleading the virtue of His precious blood. We are to live upon Christ
daily as the way We are to feed upon Him as our life. We are to constantly take to
ourselves Christ and His Word as the truth. This is to be a
well-informed, a thoroughly furnished and established Christianity. I come around full circle to
where I began. I said that my purpose in expounding
and applying this text was twofold. I was preaching to seek to instruct
and persuade you to become a Christian. Has the Holy Spirit blessed that
intention? Have you sitting here tonight
said, Oh God, I see it all. It makes sense. How could I have
missed it for so long? If so, then you openly declare
that Christ is yours and you are His. Do it in the way of
His appointment. Approach one of the elders of
this church and say, Christ is my life, Christ is now my way
and my truth, and I want to openly declare it in the way of His
appointment in the waters of baptism and by becoming a part
of His visible church. If he is not, and I have failed
to persuade you, I ask you, what proof do you have that God will
ever again give you the privilege of having Christ set before you
in the preaching of the gospel? What proof do you have You'll
see the light of another day. Boast not thyself of tomorrow,
for you know not what a day may bring forth. Behold, now is the
accepted time. Today is the day of salvation. Today, if you hear His voice,
harden not your heart. Embrace Him now. And child of
God, I said, my concern for you was so to establish you in this
truth. that you, by the grace of God,
will be able, when your neighbors ask, well, what do you mean you're
a Christian? I hope you could take this text now and say, let
me explain in simple terms what it means. Here Jesus said he
was the way. That means the way to heaven
has been made by Christ, and he is the truth, and he is the
life, and that you'd be able to take this text and use it
as a framework to bear witness to your faith in Christ and to
what Christ has done for sinners, and that God may use that witness
to bring others to embrace Him as the way, the truth, and the
life. And if you're struggling in your
Christian life, could it be that you somehow thought, well, I
go from Christ to something else? I start with Christ, now I go
on. No, no, no, no. He is to be this to you every
day. He is the new and living way.
Feed upon Him by faith. He is the truth. Feed upon Him
as He reveals Himself in His Word. He is the life. Abide in
Him. Plead that you may daily be filled
with His Spirit and know the virtues of His life-giving grace,
enabling you to live to His praise. May God seal His Word to our
hearts for our good. and for His glory. Let us pray. Our Father, how we thank You
for these words of our Lord Jesus, so simple, so clear, and yet
we know that they will not be clear nor simple unless the Holy
Spirit illuminates darkened minds. O God, as many prayed before
this service, so we pray again that Son will mark this night
as the night when Christ became to them their way, their truth,
and their life. Draw many to yourself. Establish your people in the
truth and in the power of the gospel. Seal this word to our
hearts, to our good, and to your glory through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen.