In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of Jesus Christ as the Savior for all mankind. He describes Jesus as the perfect solution to every sinner's need. The preacher urges listeners to embrace Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life, and to have a daily relationship with Him. He warns that those who do not accept Jesus as their way to God will be judged in the last day. The sermon also highlights the sobering conclusion drawn by Jesus Himself from His own claims.

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. Our Lord speaking to the 11, 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 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. And whither I go, ye know the way. 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. If he had known me, ye would have known my Father also. From henceforth ye 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 thou dost not know me, Philip? 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? 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' sake. 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. Let us pray. 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 that we are not left in the dark concerning the great issues of life, of death, and of the world to come. 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 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, 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. 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. Amen. Now I wish to begin this evening a relatively brief series of messages entitled, Simple Signpost to the Celestial City. Taking the term the Celestial City from John Bunyan's term for heaven in his immortal work, The Pilgrim's Progress, 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 book on preaching, Dabney exhorts the young man under his tutelage not to be reluctant to preach on epitomizing texts. That is, texts which capture in very short compass and in a succinct way the central truths of the Word of God. And in this series entitled, Simple Signpost to the Celestial City, we are going to be focusing our attention upon some of those epitomizing texts. Some of those texts in which we have the gospel of the grace of God set before us in a nutshell. And my aim in doing this is quite straightforward and uncomplicated, and it is basically a twofold goal. First and foremost, I want to proclaim by means of these texts, these simple signposts to the Celestial City, that gospel which is the power of God unto salvation. And I desire to do so with the prayer, and I trust some measure of expectation, that God will make that preaching of the gospel with these texts as our sphere of reference, the very power of God unto salvation to some who sit among us. There are certain texts which boys and girls and young men and women and adults should hear preached in their lifetime from any pulpit claiming to be a gospel preaching pulpit. And it is my earnest desire, and I trust it will be my increasingly fervent and believing prayer and the prayer of others with me, that God will take this series and make it effectual to the salvation of not a few. That there will be many who will point back to these days and say it was during the proclamation of those texts, those simple signposts to the Celestial City, that God was pleased to bring me out of darkness and into His marvelous light. And then my second goal is that I want to furnish you, the people of God, with a working acquaintance with some of these most crucial texts which ought to be part and parcel of every mature Christian's stock in the trade of witnessing to others the kinds of texts that you ought to be able to sit down and open up to son or daughter or to neighbor and work associate as God gives the opportunity in seeking to set forth the message of life and salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ. And since Ephesians 4, 11 and 12 indicates that one of the functions of pastors is to equip the saints unto the work of service, it is my goal that in the preaching of these texts you will not only be edified and built up as the people of God, confirmed in your understanding of and confidence in the gospel, but better fitted to communicate that gospel to others. So without any further words of introduction, I direct your attention to the first of these simple signposts to the Celestial City. It is verse 6 of John 14. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one cometh unto the Father, but by me. In this marvelously simple and yet subtly profound text, we have our Lord Jesus Christ telling us in his own words who he is, what he came to do, and the weighty implications of these things as they relate to each and every one of us. Note with me first of all in these words of the Lord Jesus what I am calling the amazing personal claims of Jesus Christ. The amazing personal claims of Jesus Christ. In this text we do not have a prophet pointing forward to Christ and saying amazing things about the coming Messiah. We do not have an inspired apostle looking backward to the coming of Christ in the flesh, to his life, death, and resurrection, and saying things concerning Christ. But we have Christ himself making these most amazing personal claims with respect to himself. And those claims are with respect to three things. Look at the text. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way and the truth and the life. First of all, our Lord Jesus claims to be the way. Now this word way is used in a figurative sense. A way is a path or a road leading from one place to another. And in the context, Jesus had just spoken of the Father's house, heaven, the celestial city. Verse two, in my Father's house are many abiding places. 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, that is, in the place that I have prepared, you may be also the place of many abiding places, what John Bunyan calls the celestial city. And in this particular personal claim, the Lord Jesus Christ is declaring that he is the way. That is, all of the building materials needed to construct a road from earth to heaven for sinful men, all of those materials are to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He is the way. And in the context, he is the way with reference to the question that was asked. Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you are going. How can we know the way if we don't know where you're going? How can we find the road that gets there? Jesus has been speaking of where he is going. He will, in a few short days subsequent to the horrible ordeals of Gethsemane and Gabbatha and Golgotha, he will be laid in Joseph's tomb. He will come out of the tomb in triumphant resurrection life. And according to Acts chapter one, he will go back into the presence of the Father. And he says, with reference to the one and only path that leads from earth to heaven, I am the way. But then the second aspect of his amazing personal claims is that he claims to be the truth. Here we have no figure of speech. Truth is an accurate statement of reality. You kids get in a fight with one another in the family room. Mom or dad come in and say, what's going on in here? Well, she's doing this. He's doing that. She did this. And they stop and say, wait a minute. Let's get at the truth. And what do mom and dad mean when they say that? They are saying, let's establish reality. Who did what to whom and why and how. Let's get at the truth. Truth is an accurate statement of reality. And therefore, when Jesus in this text makes this amazing personal claim not only to be the way, but the truth, he is saying in the context with reference to the great issue of man's ultimate destiny, making one's way to the many dwelling places prepared by the Lord Jesus, that everything pertaining to how one is fit for those dwelling places, how one obtains a title to those dwelling places, how one can actually arrive at one of those many abiding places in Jesus Christ is the truth with respect to those great and all important issues of heaven or its opposite, hell, of knowing God and dwelling with God. It is the personal claim of Jesus Christ that He is the truth. So in a sense, long before Pilate cynically asked the question later on in this gospel in chapter 18 and verse 28, what is truth? As though there were no absolute truth, as though truth were a nose of wax to be pushed and shoved and shaped by the whims of some philosopher or someone with his own cause to promote, Jesus has already answered the question. Truth incarnate stood before him who cynically said, what is truth? For his amazing personal claim is, I am not only the way, but I am the truth. But then thirdly, his amazing personal claims culminate in this claim, I am the life. The life. Now the term life is not mere existence. We can talk of a fly that was alive until the fly swatter got it and it lay on its back dead. We can speak of an animal that was alive until the hunter bagged it in hunting season. And there we use life in terms of just animate existence. But in this passage when Jesus said, I am the life, He is speaking of life in its rich and highest biblical connotation, which means nothing less than realized communion with God Himself. Life in terms of Jesus' definition of it in John chapter 17, where in his high priestly prayer in verse 3 he says, this is life eternal, that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ. What is life? What is life eternal? What is that life which was forfeited by our first father and mother, Adam and Eve, and can only be realized in and through the person and ministry of Jesus Christ? It is nothing less than life known and experienced in the realm of communion with the living God. The knowledge of God, delight in God, this is the very essence of life. And the Lord Jesus in John 10 in verse 11 said, I am come with reference to my sheep that they may have life and that they may obtain life and have it more abundantly. Now these are the amazing personal claims of the Lord Jesus. This is not something a prophet said would be true about the one to come, nor an apostle looking back speaking about the one who had come. This is Jesus in the days of his flesh, gathered with the eleven in that upper room and making this claim, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Now having looked at these amazing personal claims, I want you to note with me two things about those claims that are very, very crucial. The first is that Christ is these things in himself. Christ is these things in himself. In the original there is a construction in which this emphasis comes forward very forcefully. If I can put it into a manner of speaking, it's not that the Lord Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. But he said, I, even I, am the way, the truth, and the life. There is that construction found quite frequently when our Lord is seeking to underscore a certain dimension of his own claims or the authority of a statement he's about to make in which there is that emphasis upon I, even I. In other words, I have not come to create a way. I have not merely come to point to the truth. I have not merely come to disclose a way of life. But I am in myself the way. I am in myself the truth. I am in myself the life. That's bound up in the very linguistic framework within which Jesus makes these amazing personal claims. He is these things in himself. And secondly, note, he is these things exclusively. He does not say, I, even I, myself, am a way, a truth, a life, a way, one among many. Oh yes, a way. And if you choose me as the way to the Father, to heaven, and the knowledge of God, you will find me to be a true way. But I am one way among many. Oh no, he said, I am the way. The way. Miss me. And there is no backup avenue to heaven and to God and to spiritual reality. I am not one way among many. I am the way exclusively. I am the truth exclusively. I am the life exclusively. I am not only these things in myself, but I am these things exclusively. These are the amazing personal claims of the Lord Jesus Christ. And since he made them, and his word is truth, there are some inevitable deductions about you and about me that grow out of those claims. Do you see what they are? If Jesus says, I, myself, am the way, then you see the way to heaven is not in us or in any of our fellow men, in any structure, in any institution, be it religious, be it sociological, be it educational, whatever it is. If Jesus Christ, in himself, is the way and exclusively the way, then the way is not in us. Apart from him, we are lost without a way. Apart from him, we are lost now without a way. Apart from him, we will be lost forever without a way. And the graphic, sad, doleful picture of a lost soul given to us in the book of Jude will be true of every one of us unless we find that way. It speaks of lost souls as wandering stars to whom the blackness of darkness hath been reserved forever. What a picture. Think of it, a star that shoots across the vast reaches of the outer edge of some galaxy with no path upon which to ride. And it shoots from one place to another, to another, and to another. A wandering star through the deep, dark, impenetrable recesses of space as we know it. God says that's a picture of what you'll be forever. If Christ does not become your way, the way is not in ourselves. The way is not in any of our fellow creatures. We are all, by nature, lost men and women, boys and girls who desperately need a way to God, even the one who said, I am that way. Furthermore, the second deduction is clear. The truth is not in us. The whole idea that each man has in himself the sufficient raw materials to sit and stroke his chin or to twiddle with her locks and come up with some insights about God and truth and reality, and so long as one is sincere, all will be well, my friends, that is damnable nonsense. The truth is not in us. The scripture 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. Hear the word of God which says there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth. Hear the scripture that says the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them. Hear the scripture that says the God of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving. Hear the scripture that speaks of their understanding being darkened, alienated from the life of God. The truth is not in us. It does not reside in any human being, no matter how educated according to the world's standards. For again, the scripture says, for after that, in the wisdom of God, the world, by its wisdom, knew not God. If Christ's amazing claims are valid, and they are, and he is the way and the truth, then the way is not in us. We are lost. The truth is not in us. We are spiritually darkened and ignorant. And the life is not in us. We are spiritually dead. This is why Paul could write as he does in Ephesians 2 and say, you have been made alive who were dead through your trespasses and your sins. When Jesus speaks of our state and condition, he likens it to people entombed in the death of our sin. That is our true condition. The life is not in us. If Christ says, I myself am the life, and he is that in himself, and he is that exclusively, then there is no life in us. Now imagine Robert Schiller, that plastic-faced, Cheshire Cat smiling heretic, saying nowhere did Jesus Christ ever call anyone a sinner. That would bruise their positive self-image. When Jesus sat in that upper room with the eleven of his most intimate friends and said to them, I am the way, the truth, and the life, he was not flattering them, for he was telling them that in and of themselves the way was not in them. That they were lost by nature. That the truth was not in them. They were ignorant and spiritually darkened men by nature. The life was not in them. They were dead men by nature. My friend, Jesus Christ is the great physician of souls. He never flatters his patients. He tells them what they really are. And if we would see in this text a simple signpost pointing to the celestial city, we must begin first of all by embracing these amazing personal claims that Christ himself makes about himself. I am the way, the truth, the life, and accept the inevitable deductions that grow out of those claims. It will not do to say, oh yes, he is the way, the truth, and the life, unless you are prepared to say, I therefore in and of myself cannot make a way to God. I have no way to God. My fellow men can construct no way to God. There is no truth beginning with me. There is no truth to be concocted by me. There is no truth that will be hammered out upon the anvil of my own intellectual exercises and then become the revelation of the answer to the great issues of life. No, I am spiritually dark and ignorant, and the life is not. Are you prepared to face those amazing personal claims of Christ with their inevitable deductions? If not, my friend, you know the price you will pay? You will be damned for your arrogance. You will be damned for your arrogance. For Christ said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. And he further said in the close of John's Gospel, Chapter 12, the words that I speak unto you shall judge you in the last day. And if you go to the day of judgment and Christ has not become your way to God, your truth from God, your life of God, then these very words you have heard tonight will rise up and judge you in the last day. Christ's amazing personal claims. Then consider with me, secondly, not only the amazing personal claims of Jesus Christ, but secondly, the sobering conclusion drawn from these claims by Jesus Christ. The sobering conclusion drawn from these claims by Jesus Christ. You see, after looking at his claims, I said there are certain deductions we are warranted to make. I articulated the deductions. I hope they carried your conscience as I cited at least three texts for each of those deductions to show that they were not notions spun out of my own noggin. But here in the text, Jesus Christ himself draws a sobering conclusion from his own claims. Look at it. No sooner does he say, I am the way and the truth and the life, there are the amazing claims. Now the sobering deduction conclusion. No one cometh unto the Father, but by me. No one cometh unto the Father, but by me. Now you see, it is often been said in days past and is said right down to the present hour that people have no complaints with Jesus as a good man, a good teacher, but it is the narrowness of his followers, the fanatical claims his followers make that unless you believe as they believe, you are lost and damned and will roast in hell. People say that is the offense of Christianity. It is not Christ, the meek, the gentle, the loving, tender Jesus who went about doing good, who taught us the golden rule, who gave us the sermon on the mount. We have got no complaint with Jesus. It is these fanatical, bigoted, narrow-minded followers who go far beyond Jesus and say, unless you believe as we believe, you will roast in hell. Our problems with those characters. Oh no, no, my friend, if you have bought into that nonsense, you listen to Jesus. Listen to the meek, lowly Jesus. This is not something I am saying about him. This is something he says about himself. And this is what he says. The sobering conclusion drawn from those amazing personal claims is this. Here it is. No man cometh unto the Father but by or through me. Note in this conclusion that it is universal in its scope. It says no one, no one comes to the Father but through me. No one of any age, in any place, of any background, of any race, of any ethnic, social, religious, educational, cultural framework, at any time in human history, it matters not. It is universal in its scope, this conclusion. It says no one. No one boy, no one girl, no one pre-adolescent, male or female, no teenager, male or female, no young adult, male or female, no middle-aged, no gray-haired, no-haired man who is on his way down to his grave. No shaking, tottering, arthritic, grand or great-grandmother. No one. This is Jesus' own conclusion based upon his amazing personal claims. It is universal in its scope. It touches every single one of us in this building. You, and you, and you, and you, and the preacher standing in this pulpit. It is universal in its scope. Now notice, it is undeniably exclusive in its intent. It is undeniably exclusive in its intent. Look at the language of Jesus. No one comes to the Father but through me. Now what does he say? Well, surely he is not saying no one will see the Father as judge in the last day. Because that would contradict the rest of scripture and many other statements of the Lord Jesus. Acts 17.30 says God commands all men everywhere to repent. Why? Because he's appointed a day in which he will judge the world. Romans 14.12 says, so then every one of us shall give account of our sins. Of himself to God. Yes, you will 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 judge seated upon his throne when the books are opened. Yes, you will have dealings with God. But what Christ is saying is this, none can come to God as Father and find him a welcoming God, a pardoning God, a receiving God, a gracious God. None can come to the Father and find forgiveness for all of their sins, for all of their iniquities, acceptance and welcome. No man or no one cometh unto the Father but through me. That is, through me as the way to the Father, through me as the truth concerning how sinners can approach the Father, through me as the life who alone can impart that knowledge and saving relationship to the Father. In other words, Jesus is giving the most explicit, simple affirmation that he is the exclusive mediator between God and man. He is saying before the apostles said it in 1 Timothy 2.5, there is one God and one mediator or go-between between God and man, himself man, Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all. One God, one mediator between God and man. And that is the Christ of biblical revelation. When Jesus said, no one cometh unto the Father but through me, who is the me? It is the Christ of biblical revelation. It is the Christ who came to us by way of a virgin conception in the womb of Mary. When in the mysterious operations of the Holy Spirit there was conceived in Mary's womb the man Christ Jesus, taking a true humanity to his eternal undiminished divinity, the Word became flesh. The Word was with God. The Word was God prior to Mary's womb. After the Word took flesh, he was still God. But now he is enfleshed. He does not cease to be all that he ever had been. He begins to be what he never had been, the God-man. And when he said, no one cometh to the Father but by me, he was conscious of his identity. This is why he could speak of, I came down from heaven. None of us talks that way. If we have the most clear sense of our calling in life based upon the Word of God and the providence of God, none of us would be 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. None of us would say that. It would be blasphemous. But Jesus again and again said, I came not to do my will but the will of him that sent me. I came down from heaven not to do mine own will but to do the will of him that sent me. The Son of Man is come. All of that language shows his self-consciousness of his unique identity. This stupid notion that Jesus never claimed to be God. It was his overly enthusiastic followers that exceeded the bounds of propriety and elevated him to the status of a God. My friends, it will not stand up to the test of the simple statements of Scripture. Here in the Gospel of John, several times he made claims that caused the Jews to be ready to pick up stones and stone him for blasphemy. He claimed that God was his unique Father. He claimed to be one with the Father. I and the Father are one. He said before Abraham was, I am. So when he says, no one comes to the Father but by me, that me is not Jesus made out of the stuff of what you've picked up along the way from popular books and movies 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. It is not the Jesus made up of the stuff of Hollywood films and Sunday school stories poorly 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 biblical revelation. The Virgin conceived eternal word become flesh. It is the Jesus who passed through every stage of normal human development. He grew in wisdom, in stature, favor with God and man, yet never once sinned, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners who could look his most bitter enemies straight in the eye at spitting distance and say, which one of you can convict me of sin? Think of it. Would any of you dare say that to anyone who's far beyond spitting distance? Which of you can convict me of sin? Would you dare say that to your wife, to your husband, to your son, your daughter, mom or dad? Who of you can point out a sin that I've committed? He could look his bitterest enemies who've been hawking and hounding him all over the various regions of Palestine, looking for something to pounce upon. And he dared to hurl the challenge into their moral teeth and say, which of you convicts me of sin? The sinless one. It is the Christ who knew, even as he spoke these words, in a few short hours he would be going out as a lamb to the slaughter, voluntarily to lay down his life as a sacrificial offering unto God. The one who said, I came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give my life a ransom for many. The idea that the death of Christ was the purchase of the blood of the Son of God to ransom a great multitude of sinners is not a theological concept imposed upon some other reality. No, no, 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 the Christ of biblical revelation. And he is making this undeniably exclusive conclusion. No one comes to the Father but by me. Me in terms of the uniqueness of my person. Me in terms of the uniqueness and sufficiency of my work on behalf of sinners. I, the Christ, who in a few short hours will cry from my cross, not I am finished, but it is finished. Literally, it stands accomplished. That's why he could pray as he did in John 17, for I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. My friends, listen to me, especially young people, hear me now. When you get into that class in high school, later on in college, and someone with pseudo intellectual impressions whacks away at the foundations of your Christian faith and tries to say, oh, look, I'm not trying to make a pagan out of you, but I just want to rid you of some of those narrow minded notions you've picked up along the way in your very rigid, insulated, Christian family. And in that even more rigid church which formed and shaped much of your thinking in the Sunday school class with its Bible stories and catechism instruction and old hymns that were just stodgy with doctrine and all of the rest. And then that kind of dogmatic preaching and all the rest. I just want 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. And they want to begin to erode your convictions that the only Christ to exist is the Christ who exists in this Bible. Listen to me, kids. The first temptation that comes. Remember this. Give up the Christ of the Bible and you give up salvation. Give up the Christ of the Bible and you've opened the door to hell and to outer darkness. For he said, no, no one, no one comes to the father now for forgiveness, pardon, acceptance, life, salvation, and no one will come to the father in the last day to receive one of those dwelling places except Jesus. He said through me, through me, universal in its scope, no one undeniably exclusive in its intent. No one comes to the father except through me. Listen to old Bishop Ryle, how the old bishop could hit the nail on the head in some of his comments on gospel portions, commenting on this very text. The old bishop said we should mark in these verses how expressly the Lord Jesus shuts out all ways of salvation. But himself, he declares, no man comes unto the father, but by me, it avails 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 atonement and make use of God's own son as his mediator and savior. God is so holy that all men are guilty and debtors in his sight. 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, one ladder between earth and heaven. The crucified Son of God, whosoever will enter in by that door may be saved. But to him who refuses to use that door, the Bible holds out no hope at all, for without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. Let us beware if we love life of supposing that mere earnestness will take a man to heaven, though he knows nothing of Christ. This idea is deadly and ruinous error. Sincerity will never wipe away our sins. 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 has said, and Christ will stand to it, no man cometh unto the Father but by. Having looked at this text under the two headings, first of all, the heading of the amazing personal claims of Jesus Christ, secondly, the sobering conclusion drawn from these claims of Christ, now thirdly and finally, I want to give you some searching personal questions based upon Jesus' claims and his own conclusion. I 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. And I ask you children to listen to these questions and you pre-adolescent and you teenagers and young and old men and women, some searching personal questions. I want you to envision that we dismiss the whole congregation and set up appointments that they had to go through the next three to four days. And each one of us were able to go into the back room where the elders meet for prayer. And you were sitting down three feet away and no one else was there, not even your husband or wife. And I looked you straight in the eye and I asked you these questions in the light of this text. I want you to conceive of yourself as in that setting. I'm not here earning my salary, folks. Some of you I still don't think believe that. You've gotten so used to me being in this pulpit and speaking with what appears to be earnestness and sincerity that down underneath you really got the suspicion, oh, Pastor Martin's just doing his thing in God's name. Please, please, in God's name, junk that stupid notion. I'm on my way to judgment to answer for the stewardship of preaching to you. And I'm asking you with Judgment Day earnestness and intensity and tenderness, hear these questions, answer honestly in your heart. Question one, have you, not your wife, husband, son, daughter, father, mother, cousin, uncle, aunt, no, have you come to the conviction that your own condition is such that you can have no safe dealings with God apart from Jesus Christ? Have you come to that conviction that you can have no safe dealings with God apart from Jesus Christ? Why do I say safe dealings with God? Well, you're going to have dealings with God, my friend. You're having them right now. Whether you think of God or not, he thinks of you. He knows your every thought, every idle word. He knows every unclean, dishonest thought. He knows every mean, petulant, selfish, ungodly word that comes out of your mouth. He sees the envy of your heart. He knows our thoughts from afar. Every one of us is having dealings 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's a fearful thing, a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. That's not a safe dealing with God, to fall into His hands, to have God deal with you in judgment and cast you into hell, saying, depart from me, I never knew you. Now, my question is this, fellas, girls, men and women, teenagers. Have you come to the conviction in your own heart that you can have no safe dealings with God apart from Jesus Christ? Every man, woman, boy or girl who's ever lived will one day come to that conviction. Either in this life, hopefully leading to conversion, or in the day of judgment leading to eternal despair. The day of judgment will be God's universal impartation of the conviction to every unsaved man or woman that they could not have safe dealings with Him apart from Christ. Now there the choice stands before you. Face the humbling reality of your sin now, and say, I dare not face Him who is a consuming fire without my sins being washed in the blood of Christ, without Christ being to me the way to God, the truth from God, and the life of God. I ask you, have you come to the conviction that your own condition is such that you can have no safe dealings with God apart from Jesus Christ? Second question, have you come to the conviction that only the Christ of the Bible, only the Christ of the Bible can secure your acceptance with the Father? Have you come to that conviction? If I do not lay hold of and have answering for me the Christ of the Bible, I can have no safe dealings with the Father. Father, have you come to the conviction that only the Christ of biblical revelation can secure your acceptance with the Father, that your acceptance is not in yourself, it's not in your deeds, it's not in your prayers, it's not in your sighs, it's not in your groans, it's not in your church attendance, it's not in your participation in the sacraments, it's not in rituals and forms, it is outside of yourself in a person, and that person is Jesus Christ, and faith is the casting of yourself, I say it reverently, into the arms of Christ that He might present you. It is laying hold of Christ as the pierced one, the resurrected one, saying, Lord Jesus, be my mediator with the Father, with the incensed Godhood that has righteous anger against my sins, Lord Jesus, be my propitiation, the one who turns away the wrath of the Godhead from me, because you bore that wrath in the room instead of sinners upon the cross. Have you come to the conviction that only the Christ of biblical revelation can secure your acceptance with the Father? Well, then I come to the cruncher, the third and final personal question, is Jesus Christ right now your way, your truth, and your life? Can you say to the best of your knowledge, yes, I have turned away from ever hoping to find in all the universe the raw materials that will make a way to God? I believe they are all in Jesus Christ, in the uniqueness of His person and in the perfection of His work. I am convinced He is the way, so convinced that I have placed the whole weight of my soul upon Him. I have put the feet of my soul upon Him as the way, the only road that leads to the Father. I joyfully acknowledge that He is my way. Is He your truth? Have you embraced Him as the one who speaks the words of God, whose truth makes free and liberates from the tyranny of men's silly notions? About life, the meaning of life, death, and what lies beyond the grave? Take all of the theorizing of the most profound, insightful, intellectual philosophers of all the ages and on the most simple issues that a little child asks, Mommy, 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 of human ignorance! Christ is the truth! Is He your truth? Do you cling to Him with a death grip in terms of His Word? You say reality is what Jesus says it is. No more! No less! Christ is my truth. Is He your truth? Your truth about yourself, that you are a sinner? Your truth about God, that He is holy? Your truth about the only way that sinners can be made right with a holy God? Through the blood-shedding of the incarnate God, the Lord Jesus? Through the triumph of His resurrection? Through the impartation of His Spirit? Is He your truth, and is He your life? Can you say, I know I have passed, in the language of John, from death unto life? 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! He was dead in terms of communion with his father. Dead in terms of delight in his father's presence, in his father's ways, in his father's rules. But when he came back with the disposition of desire 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. And so it is true when Christ becomes our life. We love the father's face, we love the father's fellowship, we love the father's rules. Is Christ your life? Is He your way, your truth, and your life? I conclude by saying to everyone who can say, by the grace of God, Pastor, He is that to me. Listen to the old bishop exhorting Christians who can say that, forever let us grasp and hold fast these truths, to use Christ daily as the way, to believe Christ daily as the truth, to live on Christ daily as the life. This is to be a well-informed, a thoroughly furnished, and an established Christian. Isn't that precious? You want to be, in the truest sense of the word, well-informed, thoroughly furnished, established as a Christian? Then spiritually believe Christ daily as the truth. Use Christ daily as the way. If we confess our sins, He 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, embrace it as the truth. And then live on Christ daily as the life. How can you obey the words of truth that He gives to husbands and wives and fathers and mothers and children to fathers and citizens of state and the massive array of biblical precepts that are to shape and govern us? For He said, without me, He can do nothing. But we are to live upon Him as our life. Paul says, Christ who is our life. And the old bishop says, to use Christ daily as the way, to believe Christ daily as the truth, to live on Christ daily as the life. This is to be a well-informed, a thoroughly furnished and an established Christian. And oh, if that is your experience, then I ask you, my brothers and sisters, how can we be silent about Him in the presence of the unconverted who have no way, who know no truth, who have no life? There are many ways that we could help our neighbors. Surely one would be to say, you know, a week, two weeks, a month, two months ago, I heard a sermon on a simple text that our pastor said was a simple signpost to the celestial city. Could you give me five minutes while I just tell you what Jesus said in that text? Dear people, we're without excuse. We don't need little package presentations. Surely this text is enough to sit down with a friend and explain the good news and why men need such a Savior so perfectly suited to every need of the sinner. May God grant that this first of our simple signpost to the celestial city will be owned of God as a means to bring some of you to embrace Him who is the way, the truth, and the life, to cause us all who have embraced Him to use Him daily as the way, to believe Him daily as the truth, to feed on Him daily as the life, and then out of that living relationship to Him, to speak of Him boldly to others that they may come to know Him who is the pearl of great price to us. Let us pray. Our Father, how we thank You for this 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 point to this very day as the day of days, 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 daily use Him as the way, believe Him as the truth, and feed upon Him as our life. And then, oh Lord, make us bold to speak of Him to others, for all around us we know there are groping, confused, battered men and women, boys and girls who do not know spiritually their left hand from their right. Oh, God, give us compassion, we pray, and boldness that we may be ready to speak of our glorious Savior. Hear, then, our prayer and seal Your word with the blessing of Your continued presence by the Spirit. We ask through the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.