A Christian described by Jesus

Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to John chapter 14 and verse 6. Jesus saith unto him, this is unto Thomas, I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. John 14 and verse 6. Our Lord had been telling them of going before them and preparing a place for them, and then stated, Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. But then Thomas in verse 5 says, Lord we know not whither thou goest, how can we know the way?

And our text is our Lord's answer. But what is upon my spirit this morning, is in these words, our Lord is describing what a Christian is. There'll be many that say that they are a Christian, or that they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. But when you look at their lives, or when you hear of some of the things that they believe, Then you think, how can you be a Christian? How can you be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ? There are many in our day that do not know the Word of God. They do not know the teaching of the Word of God, and especially do not know the specific truths that our Lord Jesus Christ himself addressed. himself taught and so when you have our lord speaking in this clear way concerning himself i am the way the truth and the life then we are to ask ourselves how how is the lord jesus the way to me and how is he the truth to me is he my life is he what he says he is in our text to me because our text also says that the only way unto the father is by the lord jesus christ by me How vital it is then that we are able to come in with these three points, three tests, if you like, of being a Christian, or three ways described by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, a Christian is a follower of Christ.

We read that at Antioch, where they believed, And Barnabas was sent, and he saw the grace of God, and he was glad. It was there at Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians. Our Lord says in John 8, to those that believed on him, that if ye continue in the truth, if ye continue in my word, Then shall ye be my disciples indeed, or followers indeed, or Christians indeed. Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. And so these three points, they are very important ones, a great summary really of what a Christian is.

The one speaking here, our Lord Jesus Christ. He who is the I am, I am the way. Jesus of Nazareth. The one that was born of Mary. Joseph, the carpenter's son. The one that the Jews crucified on Calvary's tree. The one that they said was a deceiver, one that they cast out, this is who is speaking here. And this is the one. Upon our eternal destiny, our hopes are placed, and on him alone.

So I want to look, with the Lord's help, at these three ways the Lord would describe a Christian. Firstly, Jesus Christ will be the way to us. Not one of many ways, but the way. And secondly, Jesus Christ will be the truth to us, not just one source of truth, but the truth. And then thirdly, Jesus Christ will be our life. This is why we read the portion in Colossians Paul says, when Christ who is our life shall appear. So one has to look firstly then, that Jesus Christ will be the way to us.

We live in a nominally Christian country, one that has been greatly blessed over the years, and who has an established church and a king that takes the coronation oath to uphold the Protestant faith. And yet that very church and that very king that we have are those that undermine this point and that give allowance that there are many other ways of salvation than the Lord Jesus Christ and many other acceptable truths, or what they call truth, apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. And if ever there was a day to insist on these truths, it is today. And to be made very, very clear of the uniqueness of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the truth that is offensive to so many.

When I was working as an engineer in Australia, one time I was contracted to work for another firm, and working alongside me was a deacon in an Armenian church. And in conversation one day, and I got on very well with him spiritually, He mentioned that he was a Freemason. And I expressed great surprise how he, as a Christian, could be a Freemason.

And he said, but they insisted I must believe in God. I said, yes, they will do that. But if you define God as the Lord Jesus Christ and as Jesus the only way, they won't want to hear that. And he paused and he said, well, that explains that then. He said, I told them my call by grace. I told them my profession in Jesus. And they didn't want to know. That was the difference.

And I've had those at the door of this chapel seeming to get on very well until you say, Jesus is the way, the only way. And then they get angry. And then they get very upset why you're not allowing All of the other faiths, and what if no one, someone hasn't heard of the Lord Jesus Christ?

And yet the Word of God is absolutely clear. Our Lord is clear. I am the way. That way that is shown all through scriptures. When our Lord met with the two on the way to Emmaus, He went all through the Scriptures, the things concerning himself. There was not another. Moses, he spoke of he that should come, like unto me, him shall ye hear. The way that is set forth in Hebrews, those that walk by faith, phrase right through from Abel's day, and they all lived in the faith that Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah, the seed of David would come, and they died in that faith. There was not a mixture, there was not others.

Our Lord is very clear in John 8. If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall perish in your sins. And when he is saying that I am he, he is saying that I am the Messiah. I am the seed of the woman that should bruise the serpent's head. I am he that was pointed to right through scripture. When Abel and Cain offered their sacrifices, it was the blood sacrifice that was pointing to the blood that was to be shed, Christ's blood.

The one name given among men, whereby we must be saved. The name that has been given, which is above every name, that the name of Jesus every knee should bow. Not some you say, but not everyone will be saved. No, but everyone will bow before him. His people with joy, with worship, but his enemies in fear and in trembling.

And so when our Lord says that he is the way, may we view the whole plan of salvation The covenant of grace, the promise between the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and the people of God being the beneficiaries that our Lord would take them, redeem them, save them, bring them safely to heaven, and that that way was through being redeemed through the precious blood of Christ. God's plan. of which our Lord Jesus Christ is absolutely central. He is the mediator of the new covenant. He is the one that has brought it about in his own blood and brings it about in the lives of his people.

And so we need to be, if we are a Christian, then there is no way that we can ever make an allowance that there is any other God but one, any other salvation but the Lord Jesus Christ, that there is no other way. And personally, to be able to testify that He is our hope, He is where we look alone for salvation. We have none other helpers. We have none other to look to, no man, not ourselves, no other name, but the Lord Jesus Christ alone.

Jesus Christ will be the way to us, not just as a notion or teaching in our head, though it will be known in our minds, professed in our words but to know really in our hearts to really know in our hearts that the Lord Jesus Christ is the way the only way our souls can ever be saved that is the absolute vital first point and is really highlighted in a day that we live, when so many make allowances for all other, and even if they testify of the Lord, will then join things that are totally opposite to his teaching and his way. So I want to look then secondly at Jesus Christ, will be the truth to us.

I'll name these things not just in any specific order, but just to notice at the onset that there's many things that even professed Christians today deny as being truth that our Lord specifically taught. Sometimes it will be that they'll explain away our Lord's words, or others that they'll be totally ignorant of our Lord's teaching, or others that they will say, well, it doesn't matter, the Lord is loving, he's kind, he'll just pass over these things.

Paul, when he writes to the Ephesians, he states in Ephesians 4 verse 21, that the truth is in Jesus. Pilate asked our Lord when the Lord testified that he was the truth, what is truth? Well, truth is reality as perceived and seen by God. And the only way that we know how God sees is through the Word of God.

It's not through our thoughts or our ways, but the Word of Truth. Those things that are set before us in the Word of God, to the law and to the testimony, if they speak not, According to these things, it is because there is no truth in them, there is no life in them. And so, we've already mentioned about our Lord saying to those that believed, if they continued in His Word, then they should know the truth, and the truth would make them free. And so we are directed to the Word of God. Now, I esteem, we esteem, every Word of God as pure, from Genesis right through to the Revelation.

I don't like the idea of the red-letter Bibles that give the impression that some parts of the Word of God are more important than others. But nevertheless, for this morning, I do want to confine those things that I set before you to what our Lord Himself said. And especially for those that would say, well, this is Paul, or this is some other teaching, but they cannot get round it when the words, you might say, are in red, because our Lord literally taught these things while He was upon the earth. There were those that thought that our Lord came to destroy the law of God.

And our Lord was very clear in this in Matthew 5 and verse 17. He says, I came not to destroy, but to fulfill the law. That's very important for us because that comprises all of the Ten Commandments. It comprises all the law of God in all that they teach.

So those that would say that they are of Christ and yet sin that grace might abound or live lawless lives, they deny what our Lord came to fulfill and really despise the sufferings and death of our Lord. He magnified the law and made it honorable and though a believer is not under the law as a condemning law is under the gospel also as a rule of life containing the law and all of the other teachings of our lord for their life the law of god remains by the law is the knowledge of sin And if we ever to know and value the sin bearer, he who bore our sin and bore it away, then we will esteem the law of God and not sin lightly. Men today live very much as if they just have this life.

Our Lord was very, very clear that man has a soul. and there is part of him that is eternal, that never ever ceases to exist. Our Lord says in Matthew chapter 10 and verse 28, He says, Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Now I know there are passages in the Word of God that when it is mentioned soul, it is meaning the whole body, the whole person. But here in this portion, the Lord is making a clear distinction between the body and the soul. The soul that when the body dies, returns to God that gave it, that doesn't cease to exist. Another thing that is undermined today and fought against is that there is a hell, there is a wrath to come, there is a place that is called hell. In Matthew chapter 5 and verses 29 and 30, we have our Lord saying, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

And he repeats of that twice. We think also of the time our Lord spoke of the rich man and Lazarus and hell as a very real place. Many times he speaks of it as the place of torment, a place where the worm dieth not, where there is under the wrath of God. Our Lord himself taught the existence of hell. What about heaven?

The very passage where our text is. Our Lord is clear. In my father's house, verse two, are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. Place in heaven. Our Lord often spoke of it. The dying thief, this day, shalt thou be with me in paradise. He speaks of in heaven, the angels behold the face of his father. Our father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. The Lord teaches the existence of these places, real places, not just a figment of the mind.

One years ago from our churches said, well, Do you think hell really is a real place or heaven? Is it not just in how we're thinking when we die? And they've been brought up in the gospel standard churches. We need to be very clear of the reality. If this time, state, this world is but as a shadow, then the world to come, whether heaven or hell, is even more real than what we have here. If we can see, we can hear, we can feel, we can smell, the reality of heaven and hell is more acute than what we have here now.

What about the judgment to come? Is there a judgment? Men will say, well, there's not. The apostle was very clear. that he taught because of that. But what about the Lord? The Apostle May says the reason why we are careful in our walk and all that we do here, knowing there is a judgment to come. But our Lord speaks of it in Matthew 25 and verses 31 to 46.

He says, when the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of glory. And before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. He shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

For I was an hungred, he gave me meat. I was thirsty, he gave me drink. I was a stranger, he took me in naked and he clothed me. I was sick and he visited me. I was in prison and he came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee, and hungered, and fed thee, or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in, or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, or came unto thee?

The king shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren. ye have done it unto me. But then listen what he says of the others. On his left hand depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Those that, at the verse 46, shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. And so in this portion, when the Lord is speaking, he covers heaven, he covers hell, he covers the judgment to come.

These are the Lord's own words, the truth that our Lord said, I am the truth. If we are true Christian, then Jesus Christ will be the truth. to us he tells us also whom he laid down his life for in john 10 he says i laid down my life for the sheep how very clear that he speaks of this he says that of the jews that were around about him that did not believe on him you are not of my sheep therefore ye hear not my word. But John 10, 11, I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. And verse 15, I lay down my life for the sheep. Particular redemption taught by our Lord Jesus Christ. But is our Lord really God?

That again is something that is challenged today, certainly by Jehovah's Witnesses, but really every other religion would challenge that as well. But John 10, again in verse 30 and 33, our Lord states in verse 30, I and my Father are one. The Jews interpreted this and they took up stones to stone him. And when the Lord asked them why, he says, they said, for a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, because that thou being a man, makest thyself God. They understood very clearly that our Lord was claiming to be God. But we have it also in our chapter, John 14, verse 9.

Philip is saying that he wants the Lord to show them the Father. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father, and how sayest then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? Oneness with the Father, the triune God, God manifest in the flesh, Emmanuel, God with us. Our Lord also clearly setting forth before Abraham was, I am. But what are some other doctrines, some other things that especially are being attacked today? A six-day creation. Does the Lord teach that? What does the Lord say concerning creation?

Well, actually many things, but just to suffice from the gospel according to Luke and chapter 11, the Lord refers to the beginning of the world. He speaks of the prophets that have gone before and those that have been persecuted. And he says in verse 50, that the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation. From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias which perished between the altar and the temple, verily I say unto you, it shall be required of this generation. And our Lord puts his stamp upon Genesis and upon all that happened at creation. Our Lord was a six-day young earth creationist.

Death entered into the world because of sin entering into the world. entered into that world which God created and God established one day in seven, a day of rest, which is another thing that is undermined today. A hallowed day, a one day in seven, a day when God rested from his own works, a day that is sanctified, a day that he emphasized in the moral law of God that we've already spoken of, that the Lord came not to destroy, but to fulfill, and the longest commandment that is written is to remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

So, Lord, in Luke chapter 6 and verse 5, when they were finding fault with him because the disciples were plucking of the corn, eating it on the Lord's Day. But he said unto them that the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath. And our Lord performed good works. What he was speaking against was the Jews forbade acts of mercy. They would pull their ox or ass out of a pit on the Lord's Day but they didn't like him healing someone. on the Lord's day or on the Sabbath day in their case.

But we have our Lord speaking of that day. And then we have his example when he rose from the dead of the first day of the week. He waited until eight days later to see Thomas again on the first day of the week. The practice of the disciples was the first day of the week. Now the great themes in the scripture, the great work of creation, followed by a hallowed sanctified day, and the work of redemption followed by that, and we have in Revelation, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. It is the day that the Lord made, the Lord rose from the dead and appeared. And we read in Hebrews, there remaineth a rest to the people of God, a day which was marked by their gathering together. But it goes right back to the creation principle of a sanctified day.

You might say, well, doesn't the apostle say that let no man judge you in meat and drink and in respect to the Sabbath days? What's that what he said? Sabbath days? men will say well virtually what he's saying is sabbath day is done away you can have one if you want you have one if you if you don't you don't but he's he's saying these sabbath days and even if it is not the one day in seven there may be things like a good friday or other days that we'll have as a sabbath and we're not to judge one another in that One other respect is where we hold forth one day in seven. There's great differences even amongst us and amongst the Lord's people, how they keep the Lord's day.

Some will not do any cooking at all on it. They'll do their cooking beforehand. Others will do a small amount of cooking, do all the preparation before. But the important thing that it is kept to have a day. And most that would do away with the Sabbath day, if you looked at their lives, it doesn't resemble a hallowed day at all. There's not a rest from unnecessary labors or amusement or pleasure. Those that are in it are not looking to be walking especially in the spirit on the Lord's day.

And to be seeking those things that are above and to be gathering with the people of God. The trend today for just one service on the Lord's day and the rest of the day given to pleasure is amongst many, many churches. The Sabbath attendance dropping off tremendously, whereas many would say, well, I'm a Christian. And yet the Lord would have his people gathering. That's when He met with them, unto him shall a gathering of the people be." And our Lord then is teaching by practice and saying he is the Lord of the Sabbath, not saying, I am the Lord, there is no more Sabbath. No, there is a Sabbath and I am the Lord of it.

Marriage and divorce. There's another thing that's set apart today. Our Lord again goes back to creation in Matthew 19 and verses 4, where the Pharisees had come to Him, tempting Him. Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? This is our Lord answering. Have ye not read that he which made them at the beginning, so we have again reinforcing the beginning, made them male and female.

There's something else that's undermined today, isn't it? People don't know who a male is or what a female is. The Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, very clear. And said, for this cause shall a man leave father and mother, shall cleave to his wife and they twain. shall be one flesh. Therefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." They then asked, why was it Moses commanded to write a writing of divorcement?

And the Lord said, it was because of the hardness of their hearts, but from the beginning it was not so. And he said, for fornication, those who are put away, they commit adult free this again is the the teaching of our lord it's not could be ascribed to any other when our lord says i am the way the truth then these are things that the lord himself is teaching and setting forth what about paying taxes the covetous heart of man will often try to to to get around that but Our Lord was clear when showed the money.

Is it right to give tribute unto Caesar? And you can find that in Luke 20, verse 25. And our Lord answered it by asking for them to show him a penny. And he asked them, whose superscription is this? They said, Caesar's. So our Lord said, render therefore unto Caesar the things that be Caesar's. and the things that God's. And so he sets forth that also as a clear teaching.

What about the sinfulness of men? Men hate this. They don't like the idea that we are not good or inherently good and that we're sinful. But our Lord, again, was very clear on that in Matthew 15. And verse 19, he says, of those things that come out of the heart, precede evil thoughts, murderers, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies, these are the things which defile a man.

If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him. And our Lord is very clear that man by nature is evil. A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign. There shall no sign be given but the sign of Jonas the prophet. And our Lord all the time exposed the sinfulness and wickedness of man And the very fact that he came to put away sin sets forth how he viewed that men were sinners.

These are things that today, they're truths that men do not like, and yet they are truths that our Lord says, I am the truth. And the important thing to us is the Lord Jesus Christ, the truth to us the means of salvation our lord emphasizing though one rose from the dead they won't believe but they're moses and the prophets is sending forth of his disciples he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved he that believeth not shall be damned that's our lord that's our lord And how many today have no desire to hear the word preached?

They're not concerned that they don't believe. They don't realize the Lord has said that if they do not believe, they'll be damned. And yet these are the words of the Lord that they will say, well, he's a loving Lord. He just passed over these things. But that's not the words of truth that he set forth. And if our Four souls are saved. It will be because we've got the truth on our side.

The Lord Jesus Christ and what he has set forth will be saved within the compass of those precious truths. Remember the Lord said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. Set you free from every error, every wicked way, every deceit of the devil. The standard of the Word of God, the standard of the truth of God, is that which is to set you free, not to put in bondage. Many think, well, I don't want to know the truth because it'll put me into bondage, it will change my life, it'll ruin my life. The truth doesn't do that. It does if we think our life is just this world.

So I want to look then lastly at Jesus Christ will be our life. This is why we read the portion in Paul's letter to the Colossians, when Christ who is our life shall appear. How highly the Apostle set forth our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 3 of chapter 3 of Colossians, For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him. He says to those, Paul says to those in Acts chapter 17, in him we live and move and have our being. Our Lord says, because I live, ye shall live also. God's people are a redeemed people. Paul says, ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are his. And so our life was a dead life. It was a life under condemnation. It was a life under the sentence of death. It was a life lived in the world.

But now when the Lord converts, when the Lord brings us to believe, when he gives us eternal life, I give unto them eternal life, they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hands. They realize and feel what the Lord said, Without me ye can do nothing. From me is thy fruit found. Abide in me, and I in you. In the type of the vine, if the branch abide not in the vine, it cannot bring forth fruit. No more can ye except ye abide in me.

Our life is to be Christ, not sparks of our own kindling, not faith of our own working up, but that which comes from the Lord Jesus Christ, communicated through the means of grace, through the Word of God, through the Holy Spirit, the power of God, changing the heart, renewing our spirit, and changing our whole life.

What a picture of the Apostle Paul, before the Lord met him on the Damascus Road and after, what a different life he was living. And if this is so with us, if Jesus Christ will be our life, our life before conversion and after will be different. You think of the picture of one for whom Christ is not just a part of their life, but their life, not just one service on the Sunday, or not just the whole of the Sunday, but day by day, they're making things a matter of prayer, they're mindful of the Lord's presence, they're making plans subject to His will, they're reading His word like the Bereans who serves the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so, therefore many of them believed. All that we do, how we pray, how we worship, how we seek guidance, how we serve him, those things that we do, we do to the honour and glory of God. Our Lord then, as he sets himself forth as, I am the way, the truth, and the life, describes a real Christian. That Jesus Christ will be the way, the only way to us. That he will be the truth. and that whenever any question or bring anything up, we always come to the touchstone of the truth of God.

What saith the scriptures? What saith our Lord Jesus Christ? And he will be our life permeating into all that we do and all that we say and how we think, how we act, who will run the race set before us, looking unto Jesus. Our Lord prays in John 17, that his people be kept from the evil. And then he prays that they might be with him and behold his glory. May we have these tokens, these evidences, the Holy Spirit bearing witness of what the Lord Jesus Christ is to us.

And we're able to see in a world that, for the most part, none of these points holding up to so many. So many would say, no, Jesus Christ is not the only way. It can be any other way. And just his teaching, that's not the truth. We can be like in Judges. Every man does that which is right in his own eyes. And as for Christ our life, we have no room for him. Men shall be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.

And dear friends, if the Lord has made the difference here, don't just pass it by. Do be encouraged. The Apostle says, what I am, I am by the grace of God. The Lord had made a change in him, he saw it, he recognised it. The Lord has done that change in you, may you see it, may you recognise it. You'll feel your sinnership, you'll feel what the Lord says of yourself as a sinner, true.

But what is Christ to you? And is Christ your life? If someone just say to you, look, I want you to erase Christ from your life. You stop believing him. You don't have regard to any of his truths. You get him out of your life. How would you feel? How would you feel? Or has he become so precious and you want of him so real that you know these things are true? that he is the way. He is the way to you. He is the truth. And he is your life. May the Spirit bear witness to this. And Lord, add his blessing. Amen.

A Christian described by Jesus

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A Christian described by Jesus

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About Rowland Wheatley

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