The Way, The Truth, The Life

oftentimes in single-syllable words. And it's just plain. It's understandable. And it's clear. I don't know, it's awkward for me to comment on somebody that's preaching, and I preach, it's awkward to have people, you gotta have something to say, feedback, I guess. But I tell Todd whenever he gets to preach, that's what it says. That's what the Lord says. And it's so clear. Yet, it's more amazing to me, it takes the power of God for men and women to believe it. It's his doing. And I hope we can see that tonight, how clear this is.

If you look here in John 14, let's look back just a few verses there in chapter 13 to get the context. Here in chapter 13, verse 36, Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, where goest thou? Jesus answered him, whether I go, thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me afterwards. Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I not follow thee now?

I will lay down my life for thy sake. He meant that, didn't he? And Jesus answered, wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, the cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice. You will deny me three times. And then immediately, chapter 14, verse 1. Let not your heart be troubled. That'd trouble your heart, wouldn't it? Let not your heart be troubled. Do you believe in God? Believe also in me.

In my Father's house are 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 whether I go, you know, and the way, you know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whether thou goest. How can we know the way? I don't know where you're going. How can I know how to get there? I only know what the destination is.

And Jesus saith unto him, here he's gonna give nine words, and every one of them's a single syllable. I am the way, the truth, and thee life." What a message. There's a colon there because he's going to continue that thought, expound on it a little bit. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also, and from henceforth ye know him and have seen him.

They had heart trouble, didn't they? Believers have heart trouble sometimes. The Lord said there in verse one, let not your heart be troubled. These disciples thought all of these things the Lord was saying was going to take place here, is going to take place now on this earth. They believed him, but they couldn't wrap their head around what he was saying. They didn't grasp how this was going to come to play. They didn't know the outcome. Job believed, didn't he? Job believed the Lord, but he did not comprehend what the Lord was doing.

I'm a child of God. My children, gone. My cattle, gone. My wealth, gone. Servants, gone. Land, gone. Everything's gone. And it said Job arose and he rent his mantle, he shaved his head, and he fell down upon the ground. That's troubled, isn't it? It wasn't for show. His neighbors weren't watching. He wasn't trying to impress anybody. He was troubled. His heart was troubled. And he worshipped. and said, naked I came out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return.

This is what the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And then later on, a while later, 13 chapters later in Job, he said, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. These disciples were troubled, so the Lord speaks to them. He says in verse one, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.

And he says, in my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I'd have told you. And he's telling them now, my father's house, many mansions. People in this world hear that and they think, well, a five bedroom with marble showers, you know, some fancy house. That's something you can work hard towards, isn't it, in this life? That's all of our minds, our nature, our instinct is geared to see, is geared to hear.

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 3, for other foundation can no man lay that was laid, which is Jesus Christ. He's the foundation. Now, if any man build upon the foundation, if any man tries to make a mansion, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and stubble. I can do something with wood, hay, and stubble, can't I?

I can go build a hut or something, build a chicken coop to live in, but it's all gonna burn. What about gold and silver? The Lord said those will perish too. Every man's work shall be made manifest, for the days shall declare it because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work out of what sort it is.

So it's not talking about a physical mansion. This mansion the Lord's speaking of, it literally means dwelling places, just a place to stay, a living place, a residence, abode. And it says in my father's house, there's a lot of room. There's enough room for the sands of the sea, but there's no vacancies. It's exactly tailor-made for them. It's a place. And the master says there, I go to prepare a place. A place. That's very important. We have a place of our natural state. We have a place in our seminal head of Adam, don't we?

20, or Acts 1, 24, they prayed and said, Lord, thou which knowest the hearts of all men, show whether of these two thou hast chosen. They're trying to replace Judas, weren't they? Voting on him. That he may take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas, by transgression, failed, that he might go to his own place. Judas had his own place to go to. There in Genesis 31, Jacob's father-in-law, his eye had turned against him. And he'd treated him wrong. He'd wronged Jacob, hadn't he? And it said, early in the morning, Laban, his father-in-law, rose up and kissed his sons and his daughters and blessed them. And Laban departed to return to his own place. Laban had a place. Balaam rose up and went and returned to his place. There in Numbers 24.

And Job, his three friends come down, those miserable comforters. They heard of all the evil that was come upon Job, and every one of them came from his own place. So now instead of going to trouble, they're bringing trouble with them. It's not good.

The average person, and me included before the Lord taught me, thinks that this earthly carpenter is going to heaven to build a subdivision and to have Streets paved of gold and diamond chandeliers, and he's gonna install fences and gates and made out of precious stone.

No, no. The preparation of a place, that's a place of acceptance in the sight of Almighty God that we offended. That's a place of atonement, atonement. He goes to prepare that place, that acceptance. That's his work, and it's done through his obedience. By one man's disobedience, look around. By one man's disobedience for me, look in the mirror. And that's me. I can't blame it on Adam. I fell in Adam. I fell from the womb willfully, didn't I? Is that you?

Oh, by the obedience of another, many were made righteous. Many were made righteous. He made a place of acceptance, a place of righteousness. That's the acts of a holy nature, a place of holiness, a place of glory, a place of eternal rest in the presence of God.

Willingly, he did this. He obeyed his father. Willingly, he died. He laid down his life. He was resurrected. He's now at intercession for his people. And that's preparing a place for me, and that's preparing a place for you. By nature, we have no place but hell. And this place, prepared by the Holy One of Israel, this is a place of God's favor.

It's always sweet to me. I talked to that last week. The Lord ain't mad at me no more. There ain't nothing to be mad about. It's accepted. Come home. This is good. happy, content, satisfied. There's nothing to be unsatisfied with. We fell out of favor with God, didn't we? And outside of Christ, he's angry with the wicked every day. But there's that one. We're not born in God's favor. As a doctor said that, he said, well, he said, we're born perfect. And then it just goes kind of bad after that. And we got to get you back better. No, we're born rebels against God.

But the Lord went to prepare a place. He says in verse three, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. You're going to be with me. How is that possible? We have to be like him. We have to be made just like him. Old Barnard said that one time.

He said, you want to fight predestination because it means you're being conformed to the image of Christ. Don't you want to be made like Christ? You want to fight predestination? Fight that. I want to be with him. I want to be made like him. I want to think the way he thinks. I want to see things the way he sees them. Not the way I think, not the way I see them. Be with him.

If he does not go away, if he does not leave this group, if he's not raised, the Holy Ghost won't come. The Comforter won't come. Why? There's no good news. There's nothing good to publish. But he's risen. He goes to prepare a place, he satisfies the father. We know that sacrifice is accepted because it was taken up. We have an empty tomb. And he said, whether I go, verse four, you know, and the way he know. He said, I've been telling you for three years, you know. He also told him, he said, after I rise, you'll remember all these things. It'll come back to you.

Thomas. Poor Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? Thomas only brought up the need of the way, didn't he? And Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me.

I wanna look at those three things, the way, the truth, and life, but if you bear with me, I wanna look at them backwards. We'll look at lie first, then truth, and then the way. But you know, those are the exact three things we lost in the garden. That's why Adam's disobedience, Adam's unbelief and not believing God, we lost the way, we lost the truth, and we lost the lie. Let's look at that, Genesis chapter two. Genesis chapter two. Here's the lost. And Adam was told. Genesis 2 verse 15.

And the Lord God took the man and he put him in the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Did Adam physically die the day he ate of that tree? No. He began physically dying right then. There's no such thing as death until then. But there was no life in him. He was spiritually dead.

That's a problem. That's a great hindrance natural man has, born of Adam, is we're physically alive, we're physically breathing air, and we think we're spiritually alive. Well, how could it not be? I'm breathing, heart's beating. Right then, death entered that race. And all the offspring of Adam, if two zebras have a baby, it's gonna be a zebra. Two sinners have a baby, it's gonna be born a sinner. Conceived in sin, grew in that mother's womb, and come forth speaking lies. The Lord says so. Paul told us in Colossians 2, and you being dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your heart, hath he quickened and made alive together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses.

How can we get that life back? We lost life. It ended. There's no life. The Lord has to quicken us. He said in Ephesians 2, and you hath he quickened, made alive, who are dead in trespasses and sins. And the Lord said himself there in John 10, the thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have life. And that they might have it more abundantly. Not just restored to our former glory. This is eternal life. It doesn't stop. The truth, we lost the truth in the garden. Look at Genesis three verse one.

Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden. God hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die, for God knoweth that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and it was pleasant to the eyes, and the tree was desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat. And nothing happened to her. Nothing happened. She didn't know she was naked. She wasn't the head. She wasn't the head, was she? and gave also unto her husband with her.

And he did eat. Now trouble comes." I hope that thrills your heart as it does mine. And when Sarah laughed, the Lord told Abraham, said, you're going to have a child. And she giggled. The Lord didn't say nothing to Sarah. Why are you laughing? He looked at Abraham and said, why is Sarah laughing? That's intercession. That's a mediator right there. That's what I need. Lord, don't look at me. Look to your Son.

Right here in Genesis 3, a lie had never been told on this earth. And it wasn't that Eve was duped of believing a lie, though she did in action. She believed the serpent over the word of the Lord. And that's what the Lord asks him. Why did you hearken to your wife down in verse 17? But it was the heart behind the action, wasn't it? It wasn't just the action that took place, it was the heart behind it. Believe in the serpent over the Lord. And that's, the action may look the same. Did you know that?

Those Pharisees said, Lord, show us a sign. And he said, you're not getting a sign, but Jonah, as he was in three days in the belly as well, so shall the son of man be. Now leave me alone. And Thomas said, I'm not going to believe unless I can touch him. He said, come here, son. Put your hand right here. It's different, isn't it? Sonship there. Rahab, a prostitute. Government officials came down. She lied to them. They said, where are these men? She said, oh, they went that way.

You know what the Lord calls that in Hebrews? A great act of faith. I want to see things the way he sees them, don't you? I do. Here in verse 7, Genesis 3, and the eyes of them both were open, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. Right then, they knew they were naked. Right then, they knew they needed a covering. They needed a robe of righteousness, and so they sewed fig leaves together.

Nothing's new on the earth. Nothing's changed. It's getting less common, but our youngest is named Josiah. A lot of people can't pronounce it. I guess they read it. Joshua, they come up with all kinds of things. Where did you get a name like that? And I said, well, it's King Josiah in the scriptures. It's a good story. And 100 times out of 100, what's the first response? I go church. I didn't ask. I was just, you ask more than that. I'm answering your questions. I didn't ask you no questions. What are they doing? Sowing fig leaves as fast as they can stitch them. I know what they're doing. I'd have done the same thing. My faith's strong. Good. Good luck with that.

Verse 8, and they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself.

And he said, who told thee that thou was naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree where I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? He was just honest. He said, I hid from you. And he said, did you eat of that tree? Did he say, yes, Lord, I ate of the tree?

We lost life. He died right then spiritually. What comes with that? The loss of truth. The man said, the woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat. It's your fault. Lie. That's a lie, Adam. There's no truth in Adam anymore. There's blame, deceit, self-promotion, casting of blame. He's charging God foolishly right now. From morally innocent, didn't know what a lie was, that fast.

If Adam would fall that fast, what would I do if the Lord took his hand off of me? Remember Job, he said, the Lord gave The Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. And it says in verse 22, in all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. He hurt, he was troubled. He was a righteous man. And that new creation in him said, what the Lord does is right. What the Lord does is right. And Psalm 58 says, the wicked were estranged from the womb.

They go astray as soon as they're born, speaking lies. Every time I read it, I hear Don Fortner say, which one of you mamas had to teach your children how to lie? They lie. And then I had children. And they cry. And you change their diaper. Well, they didn't need a diaper change. They cry, you try to feed them. They don't want to eat. And you pick them up. They just wanted to be picked up. They was lying. And that's just an action.

Proverbs 14 says, the way which seen right unto a man but the end thereof is the ways of death. We lost that way, we lost that truth, we lost that life. What are we gonna do but God? James tells us, of his own will begat he us with the word of truth. We were begat, we were born, that new creation in you, that seed, born of truth. We don't even know what truth is anymore.

Adam, Phil, Adam, think how, Far off my mind is. A man asked me one time, he said, can you interpret the scriptures well? I said, if Paul saw through a glass dimly, what do you think I see? I'm begat by his truth, by the word of truth. He said in John 17, the Lord prayed, he said, they are not of the world even as I'm not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. What word? People would research that, wouldn't they? Like if we had a piece of Noah's Ark, it'd make a shrine out of it. We'd better get rid of that thing. What word is it?

In the beginning was the word. The word was with God and the word was God. The Lord Jesus Christ is his word. How are we sanctified? Through the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the life, Christ is the truth, and he's the way. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Catch those definite articles?

Anyway, a good friend of mine was in my home one day, and one of my children asked something before they went to church. He said, well, me and your daddy's getting to the same place. We're just going different ways. And I said, I can't have you talk like that to my children. That's not what the Lord says. There's one way. It's one man wide, that narrow gate. And the Lord says, he's the way, and he's the truth. Well, that's your truth. No, He's the truth. He's the life. He's not just my life. He is life. He's the life. It's still there in Genesis 3, look at verse 17.

And unto Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, thou hast eaten of the tree of which I've commanded thee, saying, thou shalt not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shalt bring forth unto thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field, and in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. Till thou return to the ground, for out of it was thus taken from dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return. How can we have the way? The Lord made them coats of skin, didn't he? He slew a lamb. He said, I'm going to give you a covering. And he clothed them.

And then verse 23, therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So he drove out the man and he placed in the east of the garden, at the east of the garden of Eden, cherubims and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. The Lord's going to keep the way and show it to his children. Balaam was on his ass.

Balak had pursued him and said, hey, we want you to come down. These people come out of Egypt. They're giving us a bunch of trouble. They're going to eat everything we got. Will you come down and curse them for us? And he said, well, let me pray to the Lord. And the Lord said, those are our precious people. They're mine. Don't go down there. And so they sinned again. And Balak said, come down here. And he said, what if you give me a whole warehouse of silver and gold? I'm still disobeying the Lord. No, and the Lord said, well, you can go down there.

If they ask you again, you go ahead if you want to. But you remember what I said about not going. And that always confused me so much until I got married. And one day, Kimberly said, if you want your truck, go buy a new truck. Go ahead. I thought, oh, she told me I could buy a new truck. I couldn't buy a new truck.

Balaam went, and he was riding that ass. And three times, that ass saw an angel with a sword in the way. Hit turn. That donkey had enough sense to not get in the way of this, to avoid it. This is trouble. This ain't my doing. I need to be away from this. I need intercession. I need a mediator for this.

And he whipped it, and it went another way, and it bumped his ankle up against the tree, and he whipped it again. Finally, the Lord spoke to him through that. He said, why'd you whip me three times? That donkey had enough sense, didn't it? How are we going to go? We don't know the way. We can't go ourselves.

It says in Zechariah 13, Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts. Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn my hand upon the little ones. And it shall come to pass that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die, but the third shall be left therein. and I will bring the third part through the fire, and I will refine them as silver is refined, I will try them as gold is tried, and they shall call on my name, and I will hear them, and I will say, it is my people, and they shall say, the Lord is my God. That's atonement, atonement, reconciliation. Who does that? The Lord does it. Who does the work of that? The Lord does the work of it.

You know a way, back in our text, we'll read it one more time, John 14. If you go the way, that's from one place to another, isn't it? He says in verse one, John 14, let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also." Where is he right now? The right hand of his father. The position next to the king of acceptance and love. What a thought.

And whether I go, you know, and the way you know. Thomas said to him, Lord, we know not whether thou goest, and how can we know the way? Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. And he didn't just leave him with that. Look at this, verse seven.

If ye had known me, You should have known my father also. Wouldn't you just think? Oh, I should have. Lord, do I know you? I believe. Help my unbelief. And then he gives clarification of that. It's a command almost, isn't it? And from henceforth ye know him, and you've seen him. Have you seen the Lord in that? Have you seen the Lord in his life? Lord Jesus Christ's life. Truth. Way. That's the way. It's Him.

Have you seen Him? To the Father. If we've seen Him, we've seen the Father. And then He commands salvation. Salvation's a command. And He said, and henceforth you know Him. You know now, Thomas. That's what I want to know. The simplicity of Christ. He is all. If I've lost life, I need Him. If I don't know what truth is, I need him. I don't know what to go, where to turn. Him. Him. That's what I need. There's one thing needful, he told Martha. Martha's chosen that good part. I pray it be with us all. Thank y'all.

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The Way, The Truth, The Life

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