Jesus, The Only Way to God?

Introduction to the Series and John 14:1-11

0:00 Now will you turn with me please to the Gospel according to John, that Gospel record that we are presently focusing upon in our consecutive reading of the Word of God in our Lord's Day morning services. But we go ahead a few chapters, and I would ask you to follow as I read in your hearing John chapter 14, verses 1 through 11.

0:31 Our Lord speaking to the eleven, Judas has gone out to complete his wretched work of betrayal, and our Lord now addressing the inner circle as friends to whom he can disclose the deep secrets and concerns of his heart, speaks and says, Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe always.

1:05 Also in me. In my Father's house are many abiding places. If it were not so, I would have told you. For I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.

1:33 And whither I go, ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest. How can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one cometh unto the Father but by me.

2:01 If he had known me, ye would have known my Father also. From henceforth ye know 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 thou dost not know me, Philip?

2:29 He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. How sayest thou, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father? And the Father in me?

2:43 The words that I say unto you, I speak not from myself, but the Father abiding in me doeth his works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, or else believe me for the very works. Now let us again seek God's face and ask the blessing of the Spirit of God upon the preaching of the Word. As we pray together, even as we have sought that blessing in our hymn before the preaching of the Word.

3:21 Let us pray.

3:28 Our Father, we would seek to pause and marvel afresh that we should hold in our hands this Spirit-inspired, infallible transcript of the very words of our Lord Jesus Christ. O God, we thank you. Amen. That we are not left in the dark concerning the great issues of life, of death, and of the world to come.

3:59 And as we would focus our attention upon a portion of the words of our Savior, we earnestly pray that his own Spirit will be present, taking the things of himself and making them real to us. May the Lord Jesus be seen by the eyes. May the Lord Jesus be seen by the eye of faith, by eyes illuminated through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. O God, come and own this time of meditation in your Word, to bring some out of death into life, to confirm others in the life that is already theirs in Christ.

4:43 Further to equip each one of us to be faithful and accurate witnesses of the truth of Christ. O Lord, come. And meet with us, we plead. Bind the powers of darkness.

4:57 Drive the enemy and all of his influences from this place. That every mind and heart will be riveted to the Word. And may that Word come with the attendant presence and power of the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. We plead through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

The Purpose of the 'Simple Signpost' Series

5:18 Amen. To begin this evening, a relatively brief series. Messages entitled, Simple Signpost to the Celestial City. In the term, the Celestial City, from John Bunyan's term for heaven in his immortal work, The Pilgrim's Progress.

5:48 I plan to preach on some of the most simple and clear gospel texts given to us in the scriptures. In a book by the Southern Theologian and Preacher. The great Dabney. In that teaching, Dabney exhorts the young men under his tutelage not to be reluctant to preach on epitomizing texts.

6:17 Tension upon some of those hated, and it is based on gold.

6:57 I want to proclaim by means of the post that I desire to do so.

7:19 Measure of expectation that gone men and women and adults.

7:45 I'm from any thing. Prayer and prayer of others with me that God and make it effectual to the nation of not a few. There will be many who will point back to these days and say it.

8:17 Nation of those tech me out of dark is marvelous light.

8:29 And then my second goal is that I want to furnish you the people King acquaintance parcel ought to be able to set as God gives the opportunity in seeking to set forth the message of life and salvation. In our Lord Jesus Christ.

9:12 And since Ephesians four. Eleven and twelve indicates that one of the functions of pastors. All that in the preaching of these texts only be edified and built up as the people of God. Confirmed in your understanding of and confidence in the gospel.

Jesus's Amazing Personal Claims: 'I Am the Life'

9:38 To communicate that gospel words of introduction. I direct your attention to the first of these simple. Signpost the Celestial City it is verse six John chap fourteen. Upon to him they and the way this marvelously simple and yet subtly profound text.

10:19 We have our Lord Jesus Christ telling us in his own word came to do and the way the implications of these things also looking backward coming of Christ in the flesh to his life.

11:16 Death and resurrection and saying things three things Celestial and all common triumphant Russian life according to acts chapter one he go back it's from earth to his amazing personal claims.

14:27 Claims to be. Figure of spin dad mean when they say that.

14:59 In lets us by the whims of to promote personal claim is given animal that was alive until.

17:45 The hunter. Bagged it. In terms of just animate existing passage when Jesus said I am the life. He is speaking of life in its rich and highest biblical connotation.

18:06 Which means nothing less in terms of Jesus definition of it in John chapter seventeen. Where in his high priestly prayer in verse three he says this is life eternal then.

18:37 Other in mother. And in the.

18:52 And can all of Jesus it is not just God in God John ten in verse eleven said I am come with reference to my sheep.

19:23 Have it something a prophet said would be true about the one to come. Nor looking back speaking about the one who had come this is Jesus in the days of third with the eleven in that upper room and making this claim. I am Jesus. In the days of the eleven in that upper room and making this claim.

19:57 I am Jesus. In the days of the eleven in that lower room and making this claim. I am. And personal claims I want you to note with me.

Jesus's Amazing Personal Claims: 'I Am the Truth'

20:13 Is about. The in which. Synthesis comes forward if I can put it into a manner of speaking. Said I.

20:51 Lee when our Lord is seeking to underscore. In dimension of his own claims or the authority of a statement he's about to make. There is that this is. Even I.

21:18 Be come to point to the truth. I have not.

21:27 merely come to disclose the very am. Each man has in himself the sufficient raw materials,

26:03 stroke his chin on his sincere organs. That is damnable nonsense. The truth is not in us. The truth that not only tells us that we are all by nature lost, tells us that we are all by nature spiritually ignorant and spiritually blind men and women and boys and girls. The word of God says there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that

26:44 understandeth. Hear the scripture that says the natural man receives not the things of the spirit of God, for there is unto him neither can. He thought of this world, hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, standing, being darkened, alien, not reside in any human being, no matter how educated according to the world. Standards, for again the scripture says, for after that in the wisdom of God the world

27:27 by its wisdom. And they are in Ephesians 2 and say, you have been made alive. Who were

Jesus's Amazing Personal Claims: 'I Am the Way'

28:04 smiling Herod sat in that upper room with the eleven of his most intimate friends. The

29:18 way was the celestial. First of all, embrace exercises and then become. No claims will

31:28 be damned for judgment.

The Sobering Deduction: Exclusivity of Christ

32:28 With the amazing standards personal claim of Jesus Christ, there are certain deductions we are warranted to make. I articulated the deductions. I hope they carried your conscience. I cited at least three texts for each of those deductions to show that they were not notions spun out

33:07 of my own noggin. But here in the text, as you say, I am the way and the truth and the life.

33:27 In claims now the sobering deduction often been said in days. It is passed and is said right down to the present hour. People have no complaints with

34:01 Jesus. Teacher, radical, bigoted, narrow-minded followers who got into that nonsense. You

34:51 listen to Jesus. I'm saying about him, this about himself. The language of Jesus. One

37:14 comes 1730s. God commands all men everywhere to repent. Why? Because he's appointed a day in which he will judge the world. Then every one of us shall give account of what God has

37:50 done. The word of the law says, this is our way of judgement, and it is the spirit of the judgment. Now it says in the Bible, in that sense come to the Father. You will see God in the day of judgment and see his approval at having his own son as the appointed son.

38:17 Come to God as a rescuer.

38:26 One can come to the Father and find forgiveness for all between God and man himself. Man's

The Undeniable Exclusivity of Christ's Identity

40:21 operations of this womb, and his eternity to his eternal undiminished divinity. And when he said,

41:04 to the father but by me of his identity so arrogant to say i came down from heaven to be a preacher i came down from heaven to be a housewife a mother a businessman a doctor i came down from

41:46 heaven not to do mine own will me the son of man is come proclaimed to be god it was his overly enthusiastic followers that that he did the bounds of propriety and elevated him to the state it will not stand up to the of the simple statements of to pick up stones and stone for blasphemy claimed

42:28 that god was his unique father claimed to be one with the father i and the father are one said before abraham was i am there but by me that me is out of the stuff about him whether the robe or the jesus film or some other nonsense that violates the second commandment under the guise of promoting the knowledge of christ the jesus

43:05 made up of the stuff of hollywood stories based upon biblical text and exegesis in your early days it's not the jesus made up of the stuff of philosophers and those who do not believe the word of god it is the jesus the only jesus who exists the jesus the christ the son defiled

43:49 lay down his life as i said i came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give my

44:59 life a ransom for many the idea that the death of christ of the son of god and some a great multitude of sinners is not a theological concept imposed upon some other reality my friend it is the reality that jesus himself expresses in his own consciousness so when he says no one comes to the father but by me the me is the christ who is this undeniably

Warning Against Eroding Convictions and False Christs

45:40 excluding for i have five the on the earth and i have five the on the earth and i have five the

46:22 birth and i have five the looking out and i have five the not-forget something she said today午 of peter still i see a little gunwale maron on june in a very하시는 this and everything is your church which for shixler i'm thinking

47:04 school class with its Bible stories and catechism instruction and old hymns that were just with doctrine and all of the rest and then that kind of dogmatic preaching and all the rest just wants you to be more well-rounded. I don't want you to give up Christ and give up religion and become a bum or a slut or a no-good. They want to begin to erode your convictions that the only Christ to exist is the Christ to exist in this Bible. Listen to me, kids.

47:38 The first temptation that comes, remember this, give up the Christ to the Bible and you give up salvation.

47:46 Give up the Christ to the Bible and you've opened the door to hell, said no one.

Bishop Ryle's Commentary on Christ's Exclusivity

47:59 Father, undeniably to the Father, hit the nail on the head in some of his comments on gospel portions.

48:43 Commenting on this very text, the old bishop said, you should mark in these verses how expressly the Lord Jesus shuts out all ways. He declares no man comes unto the Father, nothing that a man is clever, learned, highly gifted, amiable, charitable, kind-hearted, and zealous about some sort of religion. All this will not save his soul if he does not draw near to God by Christ's atonement and make use of God's own Son as his mediator and Savior. God is so holy that all men are guilty.

49:28 Sin is so sinful that no mortal man can make satisfaction for it. There must be a mediator, a ransom payer, a redeemer between ourselves and God, or else we can never be saved. There is only one door, one bridge, between earth and heaven, crucified.

49:54 Whosoever will enter in by that door may be saved, but to him who refuses to use that door, the Bible holds out. No one can save him. No one can save him. No one can save him.

50:02 No one can save him. There is no hope at all, for without the shedding of blood, there is no remnant to heaven, there is nothing of Christ. This idea is deadly and ruinous error. Never wipe away our sins.

50:25 It is not true that every man will be saved by his own religion, no matter what he believes, provided he is diligent and sincere. We must not pretend to be wiser than God. Christ is no man. Having looked at this text under the two headings, first of all, we must remember that all the headings of the amazing personal claims of Jesus Christ are based on the same conclusion.

Searching Personal Questions for All

51:08 We want to give you some searching personal questions, based on the same conclusion. We want to address some searching questions to every man, woman, boy, or girl who can hear with understanding, to use the language of Nehemiah, concerning the group that gathered for the reading and exposition of the word, men and women, it says, and all could hear with understanding. Listen to these questions, and you pre-adolescents, and you teenagers, and young and old, men and

51:46 women, go through the next three to four days, and you were sitting down three feet away, and no one else was there, not even your husband or wife. In the light of this text, conceive of yourself as in that setting, I am not here, earning my salary full. It is reduced to me being in this pool with what appears to be earnestness and sincerity,

52:31 that down underneath the suspicion, oh, Pastor Martin, just do it.

52:35 I am asking you in God's name, asking you with judgment, honestly in your heart, have

53:21 no dishonest thought, every meme that comes out of your mouth, he knows our thoughts from

54:10 afar, every one of us is with God right now, and every one of us will have dealings with God in the day of judgment. But you see, Hebrews 10.31 says, it is a fearful thing into the hands with God, to fall into his hands, to have God deal with you in judgment, and cast you into hell.

The Only Hope: Casting Yourself on Christ

54:40 Now, my friends, I am asking you, I am asking you, I am asking you, I am asking you, I am asking you, my question is this, fellows, girls, men and women, the conviction in your own heart, dealings with God, who has ever lived, will one day come to that conviction,

55:04 either in this life, hopefully leading to conversion, or in the day of judgment, into eternal despair.

55:14 The day of judgment will be God's universal heart from Jesus, under the conviction, the

56:16 Christ of the Bible, only the Christ of the Bible, to come to the conviction, is not the third and final person.

56:57 It is not in yourself, it is not in your deeds, it is not in your prayers, it is not in your sighs, it is not in your groans, it is not in your church attendance, it is not in your participation in the sacraments, it is not in rituals and forms.

57:14 It is the casting of yourself, I say it reverently, into the arms of Christ, laying hold of sinners,

58:00 come to the conviction that only the Christ of the cruncher, the third and final person, is Jesus Christ, right now.

58:20 Knowledge, yes, is in this person, and in the perfection, I am convinced, he, the deed

59:11 of my soul, upon him, the casting of the most, and on the most simple, little child, ask

59:56 mummy, what happens when I die, where do I go, and take all that the philosophers have said, and pile it up, and it is nothing more than a dung heap of human ignorance, a dung heap, you say reality is what Jesus says it is.

The Reality of Spiritual Death and Life in Christ

60:25 No more, no less, truth about the only way that sinners can be made right with the holy God, through the blood shedding of the incarnate God, the Lord Jesus, through the triumph of

60:48 his resurrection, impartation of his spirit, say, do you know what it is to say I once was dead, as the father said of the prodigal, this my son was dead, but now is alive, was dead in terms of his father's ways, and his father's rules.

61:30 But when he came back, to see his father's face, and live in his father's presence, and live under his father's government, the father says, my son was dead, and is now alive, of the father's fellowship, to everyone who can say, by the grace of God, pastor, he is that

62:12 to me, listen to the old bishop exhorting Christians, who can say that, forever let

62:18 us grasp, and hold fast these truths, to use Christ, since he is alive, to use Christ,

63:06 is faithful, and just to forgive, if any man sin, we have an advocate with the father, that's what the old bishop means, when he says, use him as the way, go to him, as the only mediator, live on him, believe on him, as the truth, all that he says about you, and about life, and relationships, as the truth, and then live on Christ daily, as the

63:32 life, how can you own children, to fathers, and citizens, the massive, as our life, the old bishop says.

Concluding Prayer and Exhortation

63:59 Jesus Christ, day package, who have embraced him, our father, how we thank you for this

66:15 text of scripture, we thank you for our Lord Jesus, we thank you that he ever spoke these words about himself, and we are bold to plead that he who promised that the spirit would come, and would take of the things of himself, and make them real to men, that when he was come, he would convince the world. Of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment, of sin, because they do not believe upon him, oh Lord, we ask, do that work in hearts, in this place, in this hour, that some may indeed

66:55 point to this very day, as the day of day, and then we plead that we who are your people, who have come to know our Lord Jesus, as the way, the truth, and the life, will more consistently do. And then, oh Lord, make us bold to speak of him to others, around us we know, there are groping, cannot know, from their right.