John chapter 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 and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you unto myself. that where I am, there ye may
be also. And whither I go, you know, and
the way you know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord,
we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. If you had known me, you should
have known my father also, and from henceforth you know him
and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord,
show us the father, and it sufficeth us. 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 thou then, show us the Father? Believest
thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words
that I speak unto you I speak not of myself, but the Father
that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I
am in the Father, and the Father in me, or else believe me for
the very works' sake. I want us to consider for just
a brief time four truths about what the Lord Jesus Christ said
in verse six, He being the way. I am the way. Four truths about
Him, about the Lord Jesus Christ being the way to the Father. First of all, Scriptures reveal
that he is the new way, the new way. If he's the new way, and
he is, then there had to have been an old way. There was an old way. How long
that lasted, we are not told, but not very long. It was when
Adam was first created and placed in the Garden of Eden. He was
placed there under a covenant of works, and God commanded him
to obey, and if he disobeyed, to suffer the consequences. That
was a covenant of works. That was the old way that man
could approach unto God by his obedience. That's the old way. As I said,
it didn't last very long. Because Adam ate, he disobeyed
God. He ate the fruit of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil. And immediately he lost
that life, that spiritual life, that communion, which God had
breathed into him at his creation. He lost the ability to come to
God, the Lord Jesus Christ, that I am the way to the Father. Adam had, at that time, a way
to go to the Father, and it was by his obedience, his absolute
obedience. It seems like a very easy command
that he was placed under, not to eat the fruit of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil, but we see Satan, the tempter
that he is, came and he questioned God's Word. He had them to question
God's Word. And that's the way Satan has
worked ever since, isn't it? He would cause men and women
to question the Word of God. We read that Psalm just a few
minutes ago, Psalm 19, which speaks about God's Word. It speaks
about God's creation, first of all. God's two books, His book
of creation and His book of the Word, the written Word. This was pictured to us, the
fact that Adam lost the way to come to God by his works, by
his obedience. Now, until he disobeyed, remember
the scripture there says that the Lord came in the cool of
the day, walking in the cool of the day. If Adam had not disobeyed
God, then they would have had communion that day. may suppose
that they had had communion until Adam disobeyed. What I'm pointing
out is there was an old way, and it was a way of works. It
was a way, do this and live, do this and fellowship with God. But when Adam disobeyed God,
he lost that ability to come to God by his works, by man approaching
unto God, He can never come to God in that way. And this was
pictured when God drove Adam out of the garden, Adam and Eve
out of the garden. The scripture says he placed
the seraphim there at the east of the Garden of Eden. And they
had a flaming sword, a flaming sword, which turned every which
way showing that man could not come to the tree of life by his
obedience. Never again. That way is closed. That way was finished. And the
Lord Jesus Christ now coming into this world as the God-man
mediator, he is the way, the new way. Look with me in Hebrews
chapter 10, just a minute. Hebrews chapter 10 and verse
20. Well, let's read verse 19 and 20. Having
therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the
blood of Jesus by new. That's what I said. Christ is away. He is a new way. We have boldness to enter into
the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way. Now that new way is Christ. A
new way is Christ. There's no other way to come
to God, to come to the Father, except in this way, this new
way. And Jesus Christ is that new
way, in distinction from that old way of works. And we know
the apostle Paul, in the letter of Romans points out that there's
only two religions in this world. One is one of works and one is
one of grace. And they cannot be mixed together. Men try that, men attempt that,
but if it is of works, then it is of works. If it is of grace,
it is of grace. And this new way is a way of
grace. That old way was a way of works. Obey and live. Obey and enjoy fellowship with
God. But this new way is a way of
grace. Believe and live. The second thing about this way,
it's a living way. We read that just now, didn't
we? Let me turn back there to that scripture in Hebrews 10.
And verse 20, by a new and living way. Now, what do the scriptures
teach by him being called the living way? When we come into
this world, we are born spiritually dead. Spiritually dead. We can't lift
a finger spiritually to make ourselves right with God. We
just can't do that. Man has not only lost the will,
but the ability. Our Lord said, you will not come
to me that you might have life. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me draw him. We come into this world
spiritually dead, we have physical life. We live and move and we
have our being and even that life is given to us by God. We couldn't draw breath apart
from him. He keeps us in life. We're talking
about spiritual life. He is the living way, all who
have spiritual life have that life from Christ. Listen to Paul's
testimony, very familiar scripture in Galatians 2 and verse 20.
He said, I am crucified with Christ. Well, how was he crucified
with Christ? He was in Christ and union with
Christ. When Christ died, Christ is the
head and his body, the church, were chosen in Him from before
the foundation of the world. And when Christ died, the members
of His body, we died in Christ. We were crucified with Christ.
When He was buried, we was buried. When He arose, we arose. And when He ascended to the Father,
we are seated with Him, Paul says in Ephesians 2, in the heavenlies. Where the head is, That's true
of us physically, isn't it? Where our head is, that's where
the body is. And he is our head, the head. But Paul said, I'm crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet, not I, but Christ liveth
in me. And the life that I now live
in the flesh, I live, now listen, by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me. Paul confessed here that
he was in the way, and that way is Christ by faith of the Son
of God. Now what that means is that the
Lord Jesus Christ, he is the author and finisher of our faith. The text in Hebrew says, looking
unto him, let us run with patience the race that is set before us.
He is the author and finisher of our faith and looking or trusting
in Him for all of our salvation. For my pardon, I'm guilty. I need a pardon. We must look
to Christ for that pardon. To be reconciled unto God, I'm
born in at Not at enmity, I'm born enmity with God, the scripture
says. Not at enmity, enmity with God. That's the way all of us are
born. And I need to be reconciled. I need peace with God. Where
am I going to find that? Jesus Christ is the way. He's
the way for pardon. He's the way for reconciliation.
My sins need to be forgiven. Where am I going to find that?
Jesus Christ is the way, the only way of forgiveness of sins
by his blood atonement. And I need righteousness that
God will accept. Where will I find that? Only
in Christ. He is the way. I want you to
look here in John just a moment. But when we think of him as the
living way, look back to John chapter five, just a moment,
a couple of verses here. In verse 24, the Lord said, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth
on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into
condemnation, but now notice, but is passed from death unto
life. A person is born spiritually
dead, And when we hear the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ, he
said, my sheep hear my voice. When we hear his, where do we
hear his voice? In the gospel, in the preaching
of the word of God. We hear his voice and we might
be in an audience of a thousand people and yet as a preacher,
he's preaching, he seems to be speaking directly to me. I remember many years ago when
Pat and I moved back to Houston, I invited Brother Milton Howard. He was not brother at that time.
He was brother-in-law, Milton Howard. I said, come and go with
us to church. And he told me this later. He
said, I thought you had told the preacher all about me. I had never spoken to the preacher
about him. That's the work of God the Holy
Spirit, isn't it? With the word, speaking to his
people. And you know when he speaks to
his sheep, his sheep, their ear just perks up. Sinner. Sinner. He's speaking to me. He's calling me, that's my name,
that's what I am. When he says sinner, man, our
Lord here says, he that heareth my word and believeth on him
that sent me hath, not will have, but hath today. There's therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the spirit. hath eternal life,
and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto
life. And look there at verse 26. I
said, Jesus said, I am the way, he's the new way, he's the living
way. Verse 26, for as the father hath
life in himself, so hath he given to the son to have life in himself. Now this is, A rule, if you'll
remember, any time that you read the Lord Jesus Christ saying
that the Father's given something to him, you know that he's speaking
now as a mediator. As God, all things are his. He is God. He is the creator
of all things. Just like when he said, my Father
is greater than I. Not as God the Son, but as God
the Mediator, as the God-man. That's part of His coming into
this world to be our Savior and becoming the servant. The Lord
said, behold, my servant. Paul tells us in Philippians,
doesn't he, about the Son of God being made the servant of
God. And I was thinking this past
week, that verse in 2 Corinthians, I believe, chapter 8, where you
know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich,
yet for your sakes he became poor. Have you ever been poor? I know some of us, we'd have
to say, yeah, I believe there was a time in my life when I
was poor. But this thought occurred to
me this past week. The Lord Jesus Christ, he became
poor. He did not have a penny. When they come asking him about
the legitimacy of paying taxes to Caesar, you remember if that
was correct, if that was right, he said, show me a coin. He didn't
have a coin. That's the way he was in this
world. Why? because he came as our substitute. And Adam had forfeited all of
the blessings of God that would have been ours if he had continued
faithful in obedience. And the Lord Jesus Christ, for
your sakes, for my sake, he became poor. poor, that we through his
poverty might be made rich. And you know, the people that
preach that prosperity gospel, they talk about a believer being
made rich, and they only think about money, don't they? About
cars and houses and lands. You know, there are people in
this world tonight who are rich, according to God's measurement,
who barely have enough food on the table. And yet they're rich,
rich by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And another verse that speaks
to me, at least, speaks to us about him being the living way
in his prayer in John chapter 17. When he's speaking in the
beginning there to his father, he said, as thou hast given him,
there we see it again, the father gave unto the son as a mediator. As the son, everything was his,
is his. But as the substitute, the God
man, he was given power. Now this is what he said, I believe
it. I believe that there's a man
in glory tonight who's at the Father's right hand, a man who
has a body, a new body, yes, a glorified body, yes, but he's
there at the Father's right hand and he has all power and all
authority, a man, a man, the God man, yes. Our Lord said,
as he hath given him power over all flesh. Now that includes
everyone, doesn't it? He has power over all flesh.
Why? That he should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given him. He is the living way. A third thing I point out to
us is Jesus Christ is a consecrated way. And what do I mean by him
being the consecrated way? I mean that everything a child
of God can possibly need in our walk as we go through this world,
everything, we are admonished to find it in Christ. As Paul
said, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. How are we admonished to walk
in this world? I took the concordance and I
just looked at just at the letters that the Apostle Paul was used
to write. And here are a few ways that
we are told we're admonished to walk. To walk. Our conduct in this life. Our
conversation is a word the scriptures use often. It's not speaking
just about our Talking to one another is talking about our
practice, the way we live. And here are a few ways that
we are told to walk that are found in the epistles of Paul. We're to walk in newness of life. We've been given a life in Christ. It's a new life, a life we didn't
have before. And God, the Holy Spirit lives
in us. We're to walk in newness of life,
that old way of life that we lived, we leave that behind. And I'm so thankful, aren't you? That if you lived in an old way
of life, that you'd be, if you're like me, you'd be so ashamed.
You'd be so ashamed if somehow it was projected on the screen
behind me. But that's all gone. That's all
gone. Their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more. Walk in newness of life. And
then we're admonished to walk after the Spirit. Not after the
Holy Spirit, in that verse, but after the Spirit, the new life
that we're given. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit,
that's that new man, is spirit. Walk after the Spirit that we
do not fulfill the lust of the flesh. We are to walk honestly. All
of these are coming from the Word of God. I don't have the
reference to all of them, but we're to walk in newness of life,
we're to walk after the Spirit, we're to walk honestly. We're
to walk honestly. God help us to be honest. Honest
with God, first of all. and honest with ourselves, and
honest with those that we interact with. Walk honestly. And then we're told to walk worthy
of the vocation wherewith we are called. That word vocation,
of course, means calling. And in the scriptures, in the
New Testament, we are told we are called, we talk about God's
effectual calling, But we're called, it's a high calling,
high calling. God called you. It's a holy calling. He who called you is holy, so
be ye holy. It's a heavenly calling. He's
called us to glory. One day we'll hear his voice
say, come, and we shall go to be with him. Where to walk in
love? Walk in love. Do we love the Lord? Do you ever
think about the Lord asking Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou
me? I think most of us would say
tonight, yes, I love him, but not like I want to. and not necessarily
like I should. But you know the way to love
Christ more is to meditate more upon him, to think upon him,
to meditate more upon his sacrifice, about his dying in our stead
and in our place, what it cost him to redeem us with his blood. Walk in love. Walk as children
of light. We were in darkness, but thanks
be unto God who hath translated us from the kingdom of darkness
into the kingdom of his dear son. Walk as children of light.
Walk circumspectly. You know, a person who doesn't
profess to know Christ can do things that a person who professes
to know Christ A person who doesn't profess to know Christ, he can
do those things and people around you, your neighbors, the world,
they don't think anything about it. But you do the same thing,
I do the same thing, and oh, that's a believer for you. That's
the way those who confess Christ live. No, we're to walk circumspectly
because we are in a world and all around us are those who whose
eyes are trained upon it. Walk in wisdom toward them that
are without. And walk, here's one, walk worthy
of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good
work and increasing in the knowledge of God. All these admonitions,
how are we going to do that? How may we do that? Well, Christ
is this consecrated way He said, without me, you can do nothing.
And we know that's so. We couldn't even begin to begin
to do these things that we are admonished to do as they should
be done without him. But he is that consecrated way.
And as we look to him by faith for grace and strength to walk
as he would, as he commanded us to walk. And the last thing. Jesus said, I am the way, he's
the new way, he's the living way, he's the consecrated way,
and he is the only way, the only way to the father. The only way
to the father to be received, just like that prodigal son was
received by his father, not to be treated as a servant, oh no. but to be received as a son of
his love, to be given a ring, sandals on his feet, and the
best robe in the house, and to kill the fatted calf. The only
way to the Father, to be received into his arms, to be welcomed
by him, to be accepted by him, Jesus Christ is the only way. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. May the Lord bless this word. Yo soy el camino, la verdad, y la vida. Y nadie viene al padre sino por
mí. Amen.