Well, we come to John chapter
14 this morning, and I've entitled this message, Show Us the Father. It's the first Sunday of a new
year, and you might say, well, come on, give us a special new
year message. But my message is just the same
as it always is. Why preach anything else? We're
determined to know nothing else among you save Jesus Christ and
him crucified. You see, the passing of a new
year, what does it mark? It's just another day, isn't
it? It's just a milestone on the way. Yes, the earth's gone
round the sun one more time, but nothing else much has changed,
and the message is exactly the same, that true life, true life,
is only in Jesus, who is the Christ of God. If you would have
life, true life, true wisdom, true knowledge, it's in Him and
Him alone. If you would know God, you don't
know God by knowing the Holy Spirit. The work of the Holy
Spirit is to take of the things of Christ and reveal them to
us. You don't know God, you don't
know God by seeking the Father without Christ, because you can't.
He's unknowable outside of Christ. No, true life is only found in
Jesus, the Christ of God. You know, I don't know how many
times I've read this gospel, I don't know how many times I've
preached sermons from it, but I find this, The more that you
dig into John's Gospel, it's quite unlike any human writing. You know, even the most profound
of human authors, the more you dig, the more you look into it,
the more eventually you will discover inconsistencies, and
the flaws will become apparent, and the mistakes will become
apparent. The more you think it's good to start with, but
the more you look, the more it starts to unravel. Look at the
pronouncements of politicians as to how wonderful they're going
to make things, and look back, and look what a complete and
utter mess they constantly make of every single thing they promise
to do. But the more you look into God's
Word, the more profound it is. the more consistent you find
it, the more truthful, true, true knowledge, the more life-giving
you find its message, when that message is taught to your soul
by the Holy Spirit. You can't find it amongst men
and women, you can't find it in the writings of men and women,
but when taught by the Holy Spirit, that's when you find how consistent
and truthful and life-giving it is. You see, people in their
blindness and their ignorance, in superstition, they... chase
after the key to life and spiritual power in all sorts of superstitious
things. They go after the Holy Grail.
You know, the Holy Grail was supposed to be the cup that caught
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, and thereby it
has magical properties. If you could find that Holy Grail,
then you're going to have the key to a fulfilled life. It's like the Raiders of the
Lost Ark, the Ark of the Covenant. If only you could find that wooden
box, you would suddenly release the power to do all sorts of
things. But you know, they're all just
superstitious icons. They're idols of men's imagination. None of them are true. None of
them contain the truth. None of them do anything for
you. God's message is that the key to true life is in Christ
alone, in knowing God. But God is only truly known in
Christ. You cannot know God without Christ. You need to know the doctrine
of Christ, but as Henry Mahan said once, we don't come to Christ
through the study of doctrine, we come to true doctrine through
the knowledge of Christ. It's knowing Christ that we get
the truth of doctrine. Look at 1 John chapter 5, this
is it, right at the very end of 1 John chapter 5, verse 20. We know, says John, that the
Son of God is come. and hath given us an understanding,
that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that
is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. He's saying this is how
we know the true God. This is the true God and eternal
life. That's it. If you would have
eternal life, this is it. Now in John chapter 13, after
verse 31, where Peter read from earlier, Judas Iscariot has gone
out. It says in verse 30, he went
out immediately, and it was night. It was night. How symbolical
of the darkness of that man's heart, going out to betray the
Son of God whom he'd seen and lived with for three and a half
years, and yet he goes out to betray Him for thirty pieces
of silver. And he went out and it was night.
And so now, Jesus is alone with the 11 apostles. And he's going
to the cross, and he's got a couple of hours with them. That's all
he's got. He'll pray, and then they'll
go to the Garden of Gethsemane, and he'll be arrested. And Peter
will indeed deny him three times before the cock crows. And he'll
be crucified. And they'll mourn for him. But
the third day he'll rise again from the dead. So here he is,
he's told them that as a seed he must fall into the ground
and die. He said that in chapter 12 verse
24 when those Greeks sought him. He said he's a seed, now is the
hour come, he's a seed that must fall into the ground and die.
Why? Because only that way. will redemption from the curse
of the law be accomplished. He's only with them for a little
while longer. Verse 33 of chapter 13. Little
children, yet a little while I am with you. You shall seek
me and you won't be able to find me. He's going away and they
can't go with him. Verse 33. Whither I go ye cannot
come, so now I say to you. And so he goes on with his teaching.
But he must go and prepare a place for them in eternity, and for
all his sheep, for all those like us, 2,000 years later, who
believe in him. It's an eternal place of bliss
in God the Father's heavenly kingdom. This is what he's preparing. Here he promises in verse 3 of
chapter 14, If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come
again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there ye may
be also. He prays that in chapter 17 in
the Great High Priestly Prayer, that his people shall be with
him where he is and shall behold his glory. What is my desire
in preaching to you this morning? It's this, that you might find
him, that you might know him, that you might love Him above
all others and above all else, above everything that this world
can offer. Because in that, in loving Him,
in adoring Him, in Him being the pinnacle of your heart's
affection, think about it for yourselves now, think about what
I'm saying. Is He the pinnacle of your heart's
affection? Because in that alone is true
life. And that alone is eternal hope. The hope that we're meant to
be ready to be able to tell people who ask us the reason for that
hope that's in us. In that is heavenly riches. You talk about The riches that
we have in this world, they're but moth and rust. They're but
things that will just decay, silver and gold, and treasures
of this world. He owns the cattle on a thousand
hills. He owns all of this. And yet we run around as if that
is the thing alone that will make us happy. But in Him, in
knowing Him, we have heavenly riches. Riches beyond measure. What a goal it is to know Him
and to love Him and to know the life that is in Him, compared
with man's holy grail and every other idolatrous icon of religion
or worldly materialism. I've got three points this morning.
Firstly, the poverty of the natural human condition Second, its escape,
the escape from that poverty in knowing the Father. And thirdly,
Jesus Christ as the only way to know the Father. So firstly,
the poverty of the human condition. You know, we're born into this
world as babies, we grow, we mature, we grow through childhood,
we get our education, we learn, we grow up, we start to obtain
skills and we start to know what we want to do, we grow, we mature,
we establish a career, a family perhaps, and all of the things
of life, and the vast majority, die. having done all of that
without any knowledge or experience of anything eternal. Just think. All of that we do, you know,
people of this world, born, grow, mature, get educated, career,
family, all the other things that we do, and die without any
knowledge or experience of anything eternal, of anything to do with
the true life of God. This is what Proverbs chapter
4 says. In chapter 4 verse 19, the way
of the wicked, and whenever the Bible talks about the wicked,
do you know what it means? It's not what people commonly think.
It means not believing God. That's it. Not believing God. Calling God a liar is the wicked. The way of the wicked is as darkness. They know not at what they stumble.
Look at the politicians, our leaders in this world, how they're
tripping over every little pebble that gets in their way because
they're foolish. They're wicked in their own belief.
They do not seek God, they do not seek His wisdom and His righteousness. Compare it with verse 18, the
path of the just, those who are justified, those who are made
the righteousness of God in Christ, the path of the just is as the
shining light, not darkness, shining light that shineth more
and more unto the perfect day. In Ecclesiastes chapter 7 and
verse 29 it says that though man is made upright, God made
man upright, in the image of God made he him. they have sought
out, man has sought out many inventions, many deceptions,
many tricks and delusions for disbelieving God. So that as
Romans 3 verse 11 says, there's none that understandeth, none,
or seeketh after God. They're all gone out of the way.
There is none that understandeth. as Ephesians 4 tells us. In Ephesians
4 and verse 18, this is the world, the unbelieving world in general,
having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life
of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the
blindness of their heart, who being past feeling, they've got
no feelings for the things of God, have given themselves over
to lasciviousness, evil, all kinds of evil, to work all uncleanness
with greediness. You say, no, most people are
quite good actually. When it comes down to their view
of God. It's all lasciviousness and all
uncleanness with greediness. That's what it is. That's how
it is. There is a way which seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof
are the ways of death. That's the world around us. They
think it seems right to them. There is an end, there is a way
which seemeth right unto a man, in his own estimation, without
the wisdom of God. But the end thereof is the way
of death. If the best that you can aspire
to is the trinkets and baubles of this God-rejecting world,
for the little time that, as the world says, fate might deal
you, you look, you know, some live well into their nineties,
even beyond a hundred. and stay healthy until they die
of a good old age. And others, when they think everything's
going well, something arises and it's taken from them. Fate,
as the world thinks. Fate, whatever the fates might
deal with you. I can't stand that Christmas
song, if the fates allow. No, it's what God allows. It's
what God ordains. If that's all that you have,
how impoverished is your life? Oh, we're rich, we go here, there
and everywhere, there's nothing stopping us, we've got all the
money we ever need. How impoverished is your life experience? I mean
that. Really, it is. You're a pauper. You know nothing, you have nothing,
truly. For when it comes to the end
of it, like the richest men and women there have ever been, you
die without the knowledge of God. What a sad situation. How blessed of God to be awakened
to your real condition, to be given a sense of eternity, to
be given a sense of God. I remember as a teenager, suddenly,
probably about 17 years old, 16, 17, starting to think and
suddenly being arrested. by the fact that, what is this
life? What am I that's doing this thinking?
Where does it come? And being aware that there must
be a source of life, there must be, and becoming aware of that,
and having your eyes open to see the truth of it, and to understand
something of the person of God in his righteousness as his word
reveals it to you by his spirit teaching you, and to come to
know something of sin and the justice of God, and have a sense
of hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God, that I
haven't got it but I need it to be right with Him. to be amongst
that multitude of banished sinners. There's a multitude of banished
sinners, for God cannot look upon sin. He's a purer eyes than
to behold iniquity. But to know that you're among
that multitude of banished sinners, as 2 Samuel 14 verse 14 says,
that multitude of banished sinners that He will not expel, that
He won't cast into eternal condemnation. Yes, we're sinners, but to be
amongst those that he will not expel. To be amongst that multitude
of sinners, a multitude of sinners for whom God's thoughts are,
Jeremiah 29 11, thoughts of peace and not of evil. God is angry
with the wicked every day. But for his people, whom he loved
with an everlasting love, he has thoughts of peace and not
of evil, to give you an expected end, a good end, an eternal end,
a blessed end. For so becoming aware of God
and eternal truth, a strong desire is planted that can only be satisfied
in fellowship with your Creator. The One who created you, who
made you. Why have you got life? Because
He created you. That's why. With your Redeemer, if you're
redeemed from the curse of the law. Because He came and redeemed
you from the curse of the law. With His own precious blood paying
redemption's price. Your spiritual husband. One who
has done all things for you. In the court of divine justice. Your spiritual husband. So what
is it to know the Father? What is it to know the Father?
This is the aspiration, isn't it? All life is from God, all
life, everybody that lives. As John 1 verse 9 says, He is
the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the
world. Everyone, believer or unbeliever, has a life in them,
they have a sense of consciousness, they have a sense of right and
wrong within them, all of them. It lighteth every man that cometh
in the world. Oh yes, how foolish it is to
trust fairy stories, what the Bible calls science falsely so
called. There's true science and there's
the science of this world, which is falsely so called. So many,
the vast majority. We're regarded as cranks who
believe in fairy stories, who believe in God as a creator,
and yet they believe in their hordes, and the television presents
it all of the time, the impossible, unscientific evolution of life. That's unscientific, not the
other way around. It's not faith in Christ that
is unscientific, it's faith in evolution that's unscientific.
Oh yes, I know, I know about the adaptation of viruses, we
hear about it all the time with these new variants, but... The
idea that you and I exist because we evolved from slime so many
billion years ago is utterly ridiculous. It's absolutely unscientific. It's completely without any credible
explanation whatsoever. Nor can it ever be. You cannot. It fundamentally defies every
known law of science. Fundamentally. And yet they believe
it. Why? Because they did not like to
retain God in their knowledge. That's why The pinnacle of human
experience is, as an old catechism says, is to know God and to enjoy
Him forever. To know God and enjoy Him forever. What greater experience can there
be? Take me to the top person, take
me to the boss, take me to the leader. Oh, God is the pinnacle
of the universe. What greater experience can there
be than to know Him who is preeminent and enjoy him forever. The created
and the creator in complimentary communion. You say that's a bit
of a bold statement. The creator, God, who is supreme
and those whom he has created, his people, in complimentary
communion. Where do I get that from? Again
and again in the scripture, God says this, I will be their God
and they shall be my people. Doesn't that sound to you, it
certainly does to me, like complimentary communion between our God and
his people. The patriarchs diligently sought
comfort in knowing God. You know the Old Testament saints,
they diligently sought comfort in knowing God. and yet so often
found it elusive. How difficult, as Zophar, one
of Job's comforters in Job 11 verse 7 says to him, and he says
to all of us as well, to you and me, Canst thou by searching
find out God? Of course you can't. Your searching,
your human searching, will not find the truth of God. Canst
thou find out the Almighty to perfection? No, of course you
can't. It needs a special revelation. It needs Him to reveal Himself.
No man has seen God at any time. That's what John 1, verse 18
says. No man has seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He
has made Him known. He has declared Him. No, no man
has seen God at any time. He's invisible to human eye.
He's unknowable in human experience. Ever since the fall, he's unknowable.
Before the fall, Adam and Eve walked in the garden in perfect
communion with their God, but after sin came in, after Satan
deceived Eve, after Satan came in and they fell, that communion
has been spoiled, unknowable in human experience, yet earnestly
sought after. and clearly seen when approached
in the right light. In Exodus 24, let me just read
this to you. Exodus 24 and verse 10. God told Moses and Aaron and
Nadab and Abihu and 70 elders of Israel to go up onto the mount. And in verse 10 of Exodus 24
it says, and they, hold on, you can't see God, can you? And they
saw the God of Israel. And there was under his feet,
as it were, a paved work of a sapphire stone. Do you hear that in one
of the hymns we sang earlier? Sapphire paved court for stable
floor. As it were, the body of heaven
in his clearness. They saw God. How did they see
God? They came according to his specification
as to how they would come, which was through the blood of an acceptable
sacrifice. The glory of the Lord shall be
seen, we read that in Isaiah chapter 40 verse 5, the glory
of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. How shall all flesh see it together? Look at chapter 14 of John and
verse 9. How shall all flesh, how shall
flesh see the unknowable God? Jesus said unto him, to Philip,
have I been so long with you and yet hast thou not known me,
Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen
the Father. This is how. He that has seen
Me has seen the Father. To know the one true God, in
whom alone is the bliss of eternal life, the pinnacle of human experience,
it must be only through God's Son, who is the fullness of God. In Him dwelleth the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. in a human body in Jesus of Nazareth,
Jesus born of Mary, the Virgin in Bethlehem, Jesus raised as
a carpenter in humility, he who gave up sapphire-paved courts
for stable floor, he who, though he was in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, laid aside that glory, and
in humility came down, and was obedient as a servant, obedient
as the servant of God, though he was God himself. He was obedient
as a servant to do the will of God, and this is the will of
the Father that sent him, that of all that he gave him, all
the people that he gave him, he should lose nothing, not one
of them, but should accomplish their salvation, and raise them
up qualified for his eternal kingdom. Oh, in him dwelt the
fullness of the Godhead bodily, as Colossians 2 verse 9 tells
us. This is how we know the Father. Oh, you know, how weak are my
words, how pathetic is my attempt to explain to you. Oh, that the
Spirit of God would shine his light into your heart that you
might see that you know the eternal God, you know the promise of
eternal life, you have a good hope of which you can gladly
testify when anybody asks you, because of him, because of knowing
him, because of the Holy Spirit revealing him to your sense,
in your soul. So how is he the only way to
the Father? Because he is the unknowable
God, manifested to our human sense. In John's Gospel so far,
we have seen seven signs, and there were many more, but John
lists seven, that give an undeniable testimony to his divine person,
that he's God. But he's now come to his hour.
You know, he kept saying, my hour has not yet come, but now
the hour has come. He's as a seed that must fall
into the ground and die, and thereby bear much fruit. He's
come to His hour for redemption by blood, for paying the price.
What price? The price of liberty from the
curse of the law for His people. What will pay that price? His
life. The soul that sins, it shall
die. The life is in the blood. He
poured out His life, blood. He poured out that blood, that
precious blood. You are redeemed, not with silver
and gold, but with the precious blood as of a lamb, without blemish
and without spot. Shortly, he will leave them physically. In a few hours, he will leave
them physically. And they can't come with him.
Look in chapter 13, verse 33. He says, you shall seek me, and
as I said unto the Jews, whither I go, you cannot come. You can't
come with me. Verse 36, Simon Peter said to
him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, whither I
go, thou canst not follow me. You can't come now, you can't
come with me. Chapter 14 and verse 2. In my
father's house there are many mansions. If it were not so,
I would have told you. I go, I'm going. I go to prepare a
place for you. In verse 1 of that same chapter. Let not your heart be troubled.
Yes, I've told you I'm going. And their hearts were troubled.
Because they didn't want it to end. They didn't want his ministry
to end to them. But let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God. Believe also in me. Don't be
troubled. He must go and prepare a place. Do you know when I first read
that verse, years and years and years ago, I used to think about,
you know, a house. When you move house, as we've
done this year, and you move in, And it's a dreadful mess
for the first few days, and you need to reorganise the furniture,
and you need to put things in the right place, and things where
you can remember they are. And I sort of foolishly, in my
mind, I'm thinking that Jesus is preparing heaven, that everything
will be tidy, and all the furniture will be in the right place. Yeah,
I'm talking very simplistically, but you know the sort of thing
I mean? No, it's not what it means. that He's gone to prepare
a place for us. How does He prepare a place for
us? How does He prepare a heaven
in the blissful perfection of God? Turn to Hebrews chapter
9 and verse 21. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 21. This
is speaking about the Old Testament temple worship, the tabernacle
worship, the worship under the law of Moses about the blood
and the hyssop and all that sort of thing. Moreover, verse 21,
he sprinkled with blood, this is the priest, moreover he sprinkled
with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry
and almost all things are by the law purged with blood. And
without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.
It was therefore necessary that the patterns of the things in
the heavens, what are the patterns? The things that went on in the
temple. They were the patterns of the things in the heavens.
They were the picture given by God through Moses of the things
that were in the heavens. The patterns, these patterns
should be purified. With these, with what? Animal
sacrifices and their blood, symbolically. But the heavenly things themselves,
the heavenly things themselves, of which they were only a pattern,
the true heavenly temple of God, with better sacrifices than these. What could be better? The blood
of Christ himself. For Christ is not entered into
the holy places made with hands, he's not entered into the temple
on earth to accomplish the redemption of his people, but into heaven
itself. of which the temple was only
a picture, of which the temple was only a type of his body,
of his church, now to appear in the presence of God for us.
Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest
entereth into the holy place every year, day of atonement,
with the blood of others, animals, For then must he often have suffered
since the foundation of the world, but now once, in the end of the
world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself. Once for all. Appointed unto
man to die once, but after this the judgment. Once for all. You
see, how does he prepare a place for us? By accomplishing redemption. The place is prepared by us being
qualified as his redeemed people, by his blood qualified. That's
the preparation of the place. That's how it's done. And he
will come again, verse three, chapter 14, verse three, he will
come again. The ultimate goal will be attained.
We shall be with him, that where I am, ye may be there also. That's the ultimate goal. He
says, you know where I am going to your, eternal heavenly home. That's the objective, that's
where we want to be, not here continuing forever. And you know
it is by the way of sacrificial death. And the flesh is so weak,
so Thomas says, we don't know, we really are struggling to understand
what you're saying. We don't really know. That's
the weakness of the flesh. But then he says, look, let me
state it as plainly as he possibly could, in verses 6 to 11. He
is the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father,
but by Him. This is how the Father is known.
How do we know the Father? Because of Him. This man, Jesus,
is God manifested to human sense. Oh, can you get a grasp of that,
to some extent? Oh, that the Holy Spirit might
show it to you and reveal it to you. This man, Jesus, is God
made plain to human sense. To know Him is to know the Father. Our Father which art in heaven.
How do we pray to the Father? Through Jesus Christ. There's
no other way. To see Him is to see the invisible
God. He is the only way to God. I
am the way. There's no other way. There's
not multiple ways of which He is one. There is only one way.
He is the one door into heaven through which sinners can...
He said that earlier on, didn't He? I am the door. the door of
the sheepfold, you must come through that door. He is the
door, the one way which sinners must pass through by virtue of
his substitutionary death. It's that that opens the door
to his people. Only his sacrifice, only his
shed blood poured out, only his death, no other. There was no
other good enough, says that hymn, to pay the price of sin.
He only could unlock the gate of heaven and let us in. His
shed blood, his death, answers the demands of God's righteous
justice against sinners. His people, whom he loved with
an everlasting love in sovereign grace, are sinners deserving
of hell. That's you and me. But His sacrifice,
His shed blood, His death answers the demands of God's righteous
justice against sinners. Nothing else unlocks the way
to heaven for me, the sinner. He is the way, He is the truth
of God. He is the truth of God. We live
in a world, don't you find, I found in this last two years while
this so-called pandemic has been going on, I don't believe we
have ever been lied to systematically on such a grand scale as we have
by the governments and authorities and scientists, so-called, of
this world. Really, I think truth has never
been more violated than it has in recent months. This is the
truth of God. What do we mean by truth? Pilate
asked that question. What is truth? Surely it's relative. No, it's absolute. Do you know
how truth is absolute? God is truth. I am the way, the
truth. He is the truth of God. What is true is that which conforms
to the being of God in Christ. That's what truth is. That's
the definition of it. Any deviation from that is error.
That is truth. In Him are bound up, as Colossians
tells us, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And He
came down. How are we going to know them?
He came down from heaven as God in flesh to communicate God's
truth. He is the way, He is the truth. If you would know the truth of
life, the meaning of life, the what we're here for, it's in
Him and Him alone. And He is the life of God. The
life of God. All life derives from Him. As
God, He has life in Himself. And all life derives in Him.
He said, I have power to lay down my life, I have power to
take it up again. No man takes it from me. No man
takes it from me. I have power to do all of this.
The highest state to which I can aspire is to see the glory of
God. And where do I see it? God who
caused light to shine in the darkness. When in the creation
He said, let there be light, and who was it that said it?
It was the Lord Jesus Christ. For He is the Word. He is the
Word who spoke in the beginning. And He caused light to shine
in the darkness, but that same God has shined in our hearts,
the hearts of His believing people, to give us the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God, where? In the face of Jesus Christ.
in the face of Jesus Christ. Look full in his wonderful face
and the things of this world will go strangely dim in the
light of his glory and grace. Look full in his wonderful face. You see Moses, via the covenant
of the law, because the law came by Moses, but grace and truth
came by Jesus Christ. In Exodus 33, he asked God to
show him his glory. And in verse 23, at the end of
that chapter, God said, Thou shalt see my back parts, but
my face shall not be seen. Moses, via the covenant of the
law, could not see the full glory of God. And all those legalists
who tell us that the law of Moses is the believer's rule of life,
they need to hear this. You cannot see the glory of God
in the law. All you can see is the back parts.
My face shall not be seen. If you would see the full glory
of God, look full in Christ's wonderful face. That's where
we see it. We see it by the law of Christ,
not the law of Moses. The law of Christ is the gospel,
the gospel of grace. And it's made abundantly clear.
We haven't got time now, but read 2 Corinthians chapter 3,
comparing the old covenant in its glory, the law of Moses in
its glory, with the surpassing glory that is in Christ and the
gospel. His mission in leaving heaven's
glory for this world's sin and corruption was so that his people
might have abundant life. I am come that they might have
life and have it more abundantly. Do you aspire to that? To abundant
life? It's in Him alone. There's nowhere
else. You will not find it anywhere
else. Other foundation, 1 Corinthians 3.11, other foundation, can no
man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. He alone is
the foundation for eternal life. Salvation from sin's just curse
is only in Him. As Peter preached in Jerusalem,
Acts 4 verse 12, neither is there salvation in any other, for there
is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must
be praised. There is one mediator between
God and man, one, only one, the man, Christ Jesus. Look at Isaiah
as we close, Isaiah 43, which we read at the start, and verses
10 to 13. Think about who's speaking these
words by the prophet Isaiah. Ye are my witnesses, says the
Lord. The Lord, God, who? Ye are my
witnesses, saith my servant, whom I have chosen. I think that's
what it means. It's the Lord, who is God, who
is also his servant, whom he has chosen, who is Christ, the
Messiah. The Lord said unto my Lord, sit
thou at my right hand. Do you see what I'm saying? Ye are my witnesses, saith the
Lord, and my servant, whom I have chosen, that ye may know and
believe me. Who? Jesus the Christ, who is
God, the Lord, the servant of God. And understand that, note
the am is in italics, you know when God said to Moses, tell
the people that I am sent you, yeah? I am he, I am God, before
me there was no God formed, no strange God, no. Neither shall
there be any after me. I, even I, am the Lord. Is this not the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking as the servant of the Lord who is God? And beside me,
beside him, there is no Saviour. Read Don's article in the Bulletin.
You never ever read, Believe on the Father and you shall be
saved. You never ever read, Believe on the Holy Spirit and you shall
be saved. But you read again and again, Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Beside me there is no
Saviour. I have declared and have saved,
not made it possible, have saved. And I have showed, He's revealed
it. when there was no strange God among you. You know, again
and again, the Scriptures talk about idolatry and going, condemning,
going after strange gods. He's not a strange God. He is
very God of very God. Therefore ye are my witnesses,
saith the Lord, that I am God. This is Christ, that he is God.
Yea, before the day was, I am he, and there is none that can
deliver out of my hand. I will work, and who shall stop
it? Who shall let it? As Pilate said, Behold the man,
pointing to Jesus in his shame before his crucifixion. Behold
the man. Look at the man. There he is
in humility, the Lord of glory, the God of the universe. The
Saviour, the only Saviour. Behold the man. Look unto Him. There's a couple of chapters
later in Isaiah 45, 22. Look unto Me, says God, says
Christ. Look unto Me and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth, for
I am God and there is none else. Amen.