In this sermon, the speaker begins by acknowledging that they have not yet discussed the "glorious I ams" of Jesus in previous sessions. They then share an illustration of a trip to Alsace, a region that has changed hands between Germany and France multiple times. During their time there, they witnessed God melting the hearts of the people and bringing about a softness and transformation. The speaker emphasizes that Jesus is not only the way and the door, but also the end, and that through His precious blood, believers can experience the fullness of His life. They conclude by encouraging listeners to rely on Jesus and His blood to overcome the devil and live in victory.

Now we come to the last of our series this morning, we could go on a long time yet because we've hardly touched on these glorious I Am's of our Lord Jesus. I will spare myself recapitulating what we've talked about on previous morning. Are there any friends here who are here for the first time? Oh well, perhaps I better recapitulate. All right, well, where have you been all this time? Anyhow, we're very late, better late than never, and we can just trust that God's going to give you on this one of the intentions that you should have. We've been thinking together in a connected series in these morning meetings of some of the great I Am's of John's Gospel. On seven occasions the Lord Jesus said, I Am, and then there follows a picture word which describes what Jesus is made to be to people as needy and as failing as ourselves. And we've been seeing that Jesus Christ is made to us all we need. Alas, we haven't had time to touch more than two of the I Am's so far. There was the first message about Jehovah, which means I Am. The unfinished sentence, that very name is like a blank check. God says I Am, well what are you Lord? What you need at any given moment. And grace permits us to fill up that check to the full amount of our needs all the time. Alas, we don't. We try and think about our own checks and our own wretched bank balance, and of course it isn't adequate, but there's no limit to grace and to what that bank balance has in store for you and for me. And then we've seen that it revealed so much in Jesus in these I Am's of His. The first one we looked at was, I Am the door. We saw that there's a way back to God from the dark paths of sin. There's a door that is open and you may go in. At Calvary's cross is where you begin when you come as a sinner to Jesus. We saw that he is the door out of all the darkness and death produced by original sin into the family of God. That's the door by which we have to enter in if we're to be saved. And that door is Jesus Himself. I Am the door. By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved. He's not come to condemn you. He's not come to point a finger at you. He's come to save you, to melt you, to bring you to repentance and not into peace. We also saw that He's the door for the Christian out of every other darkness and dryness that sin brings into every other blessing that the Bible speaks of that we may have. Everything is through that door. How easy it is to try and get into deeper blessing into the fullness of the Spirit by climbing up some other way that doesn't involve repentance rather than going through the door opened at the foot of the cross. And then we saw yesterday that that door leads us not into a palace or a garden, into a so to speak static experience, but onto a way. And we saw that the Christian life is a walk, something present and continuous and that if it is a walk there must be a way provided for us to walk on. We thought of those freeways, we thought of those Pennsylvania turnpikes and other roads. How easily and swiftly do we not get from one place to another, but how impossible would not be the journey but for those highways, but for those freeways. The pioneers must have taken months and months to take a journey which now takes us a few hours. And we need a way and we saw that that way is Jesus and his blood. I am the way. We saw it was the way of the precious blood, it was also the way of repentance, and it was the way of life. Well, that was something of the ground recovered. I just had it in my mind to add a further word to what we said about Jesus as the way yesterday. We walk with him and on him. He and his self is our way. We walk that way however with others. And if we are in fellowship with him we will be in fellowship with others on that highway. If we are not in fellowship with others, if there are barriers between us and others, wrong attitudes of unlove, and contempt, and despise, and resentment, and criticism, then we're not in fellowship with Jesus. Our fellowship with himself is no better than our fellowship with our brother. And the things that come between my brother and me also come between him and me. In fact I remember years ago when our friends from Africa first came back to England to give their simple testimony, what God had taught them in Revival, they brought with them a little illustration, which was very helpful, the illustration of the mosquito net. And the mosquito net, you know, comes down, not only one side of the bed, but on the other. Of course you folks here don't need to use them, but out in Africa they do, otherwise they get bitten and they get malaria. And so over the bed you see you have some of those mosquito nets, it comes down here and it's tucked in under the mattress here and tucked in under the mattress there, and just before going to bed you pull out your flashlight and you look around inside and see they haven't shunned any mosquitoes in, and then you can go to sleep at peace. Well, this is the illustration they brought, that it's possible for something to come between you and your brother. And for that thing not to be what we would call a very big thing, it's only a slight barrier, a mosquito net. You can talk through a mosquito net, you can look through a mosquito net, but it's there. A mosquito net between me and my brother, me and my wife, me and anybody. And I'm just not loving them, I'm just resenting them, I just feel wrong towards them, it's sin. But if it's such a slight thing, it's little more than a mosquito net, it's something underlying only. But the thing is the mosquito net comes down the other side of the bed too. And the same mosquito net that hangs between me and my brother also hangs between me and the Lord Jesus. And I find I'm not really as close to him as I have been before. I don't know what's wrong, I pray Lord I love you. He says that's what's wrong. And the mosquito net that began there comes right over and now it's between you and me. Well, do you know that experience? Sometimes it begins the other way around. Something goes wrong between you and the Lord Jesus. You start worrying about him, complaining to him about something. And then when you meet another Christian, you find you've got to walk towards them. You don't warm up and get into close fellowship with them. There's a mosquito net. Well, I don't know, I love old Sir, he's a dear brother. What's gone wrong Lord? Ah, it's started here. And the mosquito net that starts with you and me also comes down the other side. So the two relationships go together. And then these friends of ours, I remember they said, but we've found that if you don't deal with that and call it sin and go to Jesus for forgiveness and cleansing and repentance, the devil comes along and he turns the mosquito net into a blanket. And there's a blanket between you and your brother and a blanket between you and God and you can't see through a blanket, though you can speak some. And it's a bit thicker. And you know it isn't that you've sinned more. It isn't that you've sinned any more. The same thing is not dealt with, if not repented or thickened. The same silly little thing. But you wouldn't call it, wouldn't deal with a mosquito net, now it's become a blanket. You blanket it off from the Lord and blanket it off from your brother. And then if you don't deal with it, then the devil comes along and he turns it into a brick wall. And you're bricked off from your brother, you're bricked off from the Lord and you're a little isolated person, the only person in the world who's right. Complete martyr. Oh you know, I think that old Paul got to that place, this terrible man who gave David such a bad time. And yet he got so bricked off, he felt he was the martyr. He said, none of you are sorry for me that the son of Jesse has conspired against me. He was the martyr. How mad we can be, how irrational. And you know you can get bricked up with your little wall so full of self-pity. Nobody worries about me, nobody cares about me, no one comes and calls me, no one talks to me. Although even God seems to do anything. And friend, it's you that's wrong. It's you. The pastor ever comes, no Christian ever calls, no Christian ever knows about me. It's you, every time. And nothing separates you from the Lord and from your brothers and sisters in Christ so much as sin. Even a mosquito net. And I say again, it doesn't mean that the brick wall represents more sin, it's the same silly little thing. But which I wouldn't deal with at the cross, and now it's become a brick wall. But oh thank God when you're willing, you look up at last, you find there's no room, thank God, oh Lord I'm lost. You deal with all the lot of the barrier. Well that's how it is on that highway, and you have to walk with one another. I'm thinking of a friend of mine, preacher friend, he's a dear friend, he's back in Britain. And he wasn't preaching that morning, he was going to attend the service, and he was waiting for his wife to get ready. And he was downstairs, and he called up and said, aren't you ready yet? She said, all right I'm coming. And so they went to church. It wasn't surprising that they were rather silent. It wasn't surprising that fellowship didn't flow very well on the way to church. And you know what happened, you see he had slipped off the highway on one side, and she had slipped off the highway on the other side. And Jesus was left alone. But you know as as they went along, the Lord Jesus spoke to my friend, and he just repented. He said, oh Lord it was wrong. So he turned to his wife and said, I'm sorry darling, I shouted at you. She said, well I'm sorry that I resented you shouting at me. You see he'd gone off one side, she'd gone off the other. You see Jesus doesn't shout at people, he's the Lamb. And Jesus doesn't resent being shouted at, but he's the Lamb. And their necks grew stiff with one another, but worst of all they slipped away both of them from Jesus. But there was a way, the blood-sprinkled way. And he came back to Jesus, and she came back to Jesus. And in coming back to Jesus, they come back to one another. And I'm sure they had a wonderful service that morning. And there wasn't a thing to hinder the grace of God blessing that couple. Well that's the way it goes. It's not only your wife, anybody else. And oh this is the blood-sprinkled way. It isn't the way where people don't sometimes slip. But it's a way that provides for failure, if you will call it by its name. It's something sweet, it's right down on our level. Although it's a highway, the standards are high. Highest is always the standard. Not that you struggle to attain those standards, but you simply repent when you don't. And you find Jesus there to meet you, restore you, forgive you, cleanse you, and to put into your heart that which just wasn't there before. And you find a love that isn't yours, and a sweetness for God that's yours. And you say, well this is the real Christian life at last. This is the way. This is that old, original, primitive way of the primitive church. The way of the blood. I must need go home. By the blood-sprinkled way, there's no other way than this. Well now we move on quickly to think. Where does the way lead? Now will you turn to John's Gospel again? John's Gospel, chapter 14. Verse 4, the same few verses we read yesterday morning. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye 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 ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also. And from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith, show us the Father, and it suffices us. Jesus said, he that hath seen me, hath seen the Father. Now let me just expound that little scripture first, and you'll see what is the theme we're going to touch upon. Jesus said, whither I go you know, and the way you know. Thomas said, you're wrong Lord, we don't know whither you're going, and we don't know the way. Jesus said, you do know the way. How's that Lord? For I am the way. And if you had known me, you would have known the way. No man comes unto the Father but by me, I am the way. Well then if we know the way, we certainly don't know the whither. Oh yes, said Jesus, in effect you know the whither too. Well how's that? Well this way, as I just told you, leads to the Father. No man comes unto the Father but by me. But we haven't seen the Father, says the Lord, said Philip. Yes you have, said the Lord. For he that has seen me, has seen the Father. I and the Father are one. And so we see that day, Jesus not only claimed to be the way, but himself to be the whither. You don't come to Jesus and find him the way to something else or someone else. He is the end, he is the whither. He's both the way and the end. The way and the whither. And so we see here then that Jesus is saying virtually, I am the end. I'm the door, I am the way, I am the end. Now the question we want to ask ourselves, is Jesus the end to us? And I would suggest that unless you're very unlike me, very often Jesus is not the end. Something else is the end. Now someone may say, these meetings have been a tremendous help to me, I've seen the way of repentance, the way of bowing my neck, the way of brokenness. It's costly, but I know it's the only way. To what? It's the only way to revival. It's only when we will bend our necks that revival can come. Jesus is the way to revival. This is the only way which I'll ever be used. I can't expect the Spirit of God to use me to the of others, unless I'm willing to go on the blood-sprinkled way of brokenness and repentance. And therefore for such, the end is to be used. For some the end is revival, the end is to be used. There's another, we preachers are very much inclined to say, I can't expect God to work in our church and to bring the people, unless I myself am willing to be the first to get right with God. By the way that's a great advance for a preacher, most people think a preacher everybody else has got to repent. It's a great thing when the preacher says, I've got to be the first. That's a great advance. We evangelists and preachers, we are very slow. David said, why are you the last speaker of words to bring back the king? And we who are in the leadership sometimes want everybody else to break, and then perhaps we'll be the last. It's a wonderful thing when God shows us, as he does, that we've got to be the first. Only so can God work in the church and bless the people. The end in such a case, is God working in the church, bringing the people, the thing beginning to lift up, and spiritual success to come. And a man may say to him, this is hard to bend my neck, but my one is going to be worth it. And he has a mental picture of spiritual prosperity, of the people coming, of everything going well. Others of us, they say, it's power that I need, and this is the way to power. This is the way to power. The way all the saints of God went, you can turn the biographies, there was always an hour in every man's life when, if they got power at all, they had to be broken at the foot of the cross. Therefore, for this great gift of power, I am prepared, it's necessary for God to deal with me however he likes, and power becomes the end. Others of us feel, well now this is the only way to a peaceful home. I know I've been very much to blame in my home. My husband, he says, this is difficult. But that I've been difficult, and I can see very, very clearly, that I will be the first to repent, then I can expect him to repent too. And we shall have a wonderful, happy home. And the tension which has been so unhappy to there will be resolved. And therefore, a happy home is the end. And very often we do take certain steps of brokenness, caution, although they be, but with an eye on the hope that that will prevent the other person to do the same. Very often we'll say sorry, hoping the other person will say sorry. We'll get right with them, in the hope that that will help them to get right, then they will get right with us. And that'll be just a couple of words. And so we're prepared to obey the Lord. Well now these ends sound fine. As you've listened to me, you aren't quite sure whether I'm saying they're right or wrong, have you? Well, in many ways they are in some ways, but don't you see, they are ends other than Jesus. And I'm using Jesus, and the cross, and his precious blood, and that's the reason why we don't get those ends. Make them the end you'll never see again. You know, I've known groups of people from churches, and they, and nobody could have humbled themselves more than they did. They were prepared to repent and put things right, in the hope of revival. They had all-night prayer never came. Because revival was the end, and not Jesus. And gee, God is not going to give us any end than his own dear son. And very often, a person tries to get right with the Lord, in the hope of somebody else. Isn't that all right? Do you want it anymore? Are you worth it anymore? If we have our, well you see, I bought something wonderful, and very often that end isn't achieved. Because that was the end. And even our repenting can be, if you understand the phrase, repenting under law. With another end in view. And in there, but you don't get the end. You don't get the power, and you don't become used. And you do all this, and all the other, and yet God doesn't, and you get discouraged. But God never does promise to give us those ends. The end of the way, is the same person as the way. He's the end. And what he wants us to do is this. To let him show us sins. To let him help us bend our necks at the cross. To let him help us be broken. What for? That you might have revival? No. That you might have power? No. That you might be used of God to win souls? No. What for? That you might have me? Oh Lord, I thought I was going to heaven. So I wasn't the one you really wanted. And deep down that's how it is. Or being you. Become a soul with her. Or spiritual success. Or to easing of a situation. And we're repenting and dealing with things for that end. Whereas what God hoped would have been the end, was that you might have Jesus. You see, sin has caused you to slip his hand. That peace with himself has been disturbed. The vision of his loveless face has been obscured. And he did hope that you would have loved him so much, that for no other end than to have, be back in fellowship with him again, you'd be willing to go to the cross. But so often it's some other end. And that's one of the reasons of many, many frustrations in our Christian life. We're panting after some other end. We pay a big cost for that end, but that's the end. And so often in the shadows, a little selfish motive. We want power. You want to ensure it's because of God's glory. Haven't you got a mental picture of yourself being some great one? You want to be used amongst the other women. Is it only that you might serve them and help them? Are there being fallen men and women that we are? Of course there are. No, no. The end, and I'm to get right with God, for no other reason than I've got wrong. No other reason. If it doesn't ease the situation, I'm in the better situation. Not because I want to be used. All the evangelists I know from my own experience is in great danger of this. A little thing that I might say to my wife, it's all tense, but oh, I can walk with her. I can't promise you get all easy ways, and you need never no frustration. You may find that which being to you what you, not only your way, and there comes a sweetness even in your repentance. And the amazing thing is this, that when he becomes the end, not only do you get that end, but he delights us so you might find yourself being you. You probably will, but he's the end, not being you. You won't be worried about it. It's Jesus you're walking with. But there's grace and glory and revival. Oh, my friend, if that doesn't revive in your heart and your testimony of joy and peace in him is going to make somebody else very happy. But if it doesn't work out that way, it's all right on you. Though of course you long for their good. But you see, it wasn't this spectacular revival that you read about that was the end. It was Jesus. And with him, God delights us. And in giving, he wants to spare your life, you see. But the thing is, when anything may subside on the circumference of our world, we're not down. The thing we've been after is Jesus. We're still walking with him. And I tell you, if there's an in any church, an inner group of people where revival's going, even if there will be, don't worry about it. You go on. You go deeper in the center. And he'll take care of the rest and the winds of God will blow again and work again. And revival is Jesus. Not an end. Not a spectacular thing. It's you walking with Jesus and finding him. Power, holy power isn't a chunk of something that's given to you. Power is simply letting Jesus work. Do you know what wisdom is? It's simply letting Jesus guide. It's not a chunk of something. Do you know what holiness is? It's letting Jesus live. Let him be what I can't be. It's Jesus. And a couple of people are finding that and in fellowship with one another on the highway. And all I can say, if you want something more than that, I will want to spread to the next person and the next. That life of his. And he hardly reminds you of Solomon. He asked for that. You want to then understand all how generous he is when we see that Jesus is the end to us. All our end. You've got no idea what else he's going to throw in. More than you've ever thought. You're going to be rich and wealthy indeed. And you'll know when you need to get right with him when you've missed his presence. The peace of God will be like a restoration. Having been cleansed by people who... Now that's another variation of this. What we've seen of this way is not the way to a blessing that lies beyond the cross. And experience it. You haven't got it. Friends, it isn't you haven't got it. It's that when I've come to Jesus. He is in each of us. He is. And in repenting of myself, I know I'm going to carry it. I've got all the hindrances out of the way in Jesus to whom we come complete in him. And he becomes in each successive act of repentance of your resentment. Jesus in that very act when he cleanses you that he will come and tend to that deceit along a certain line. You'll judge it. He cleanses you and he becomes your victory on that line. Not having been cleansed. Now I've got to go on to something beyond. The Jesus I come to as a sinner is himself. All I need. And I don't need to go any further. Do you know that wonderful verse Romans 10 for Christ to everyone that believes he's the end of your struggle for righteousness when you come as a sinner, come again, say that you may be Christ is made to your righteousness. You can't bring any more right with God than what Jesus. But he's the end of the struggle with everything else. The end of the struggle for peace, the end of the struggle. I may have to go deeper in him. I certainly will. I should never have never come to a place where he may may not have a baptism. I was so ill and the doctors. Well, I'll tell you why I didn't go to him. My cram and what I wanted. And he did do what was needed. Some years ago, I went with several friends of a little team to Alsace on the borders between France and Germany. A country which by the way has changed hands five times in people's lifetime in the two world wars. Sometimes it comes from. And we have a good friend there at the conference center. And one or two from Africa and one or two of us from England went to the team to take the meeting. And we spoke by interpretation proved to be a very wonderful time. And as the sessions went by, we had several days together with several hundred people there. We knew that at one particular session, God had really begun to melt the people. Not that we asked for any invitation, but you see it in people's faces. You see that softness coming all over their faces. And we knew. And of course they began to tell us. And on we went and on we went. And we didn't call the testament until people just would have burst unless we had testimony. And away we went. And oh, how long it lasted. Hours listening to these testaments. Two meetings of testaments I remember rightly. It was very precious. And oh, the stories that people told of his deep dealings with people. I remember one man had come onto the campus with a car which had painted all sorts of text of great size. He was a great person. Well, he was. Well, I didn't think very much about it. I thought, well, that's how some people are. But God thought otherwise. And one of the testaments was that of that man. And God showed him a pride in putting that on. Not merely to be a witness, but to show something of his own holiness. You see when God deals with people like that, that's deep dealing. And people were set free. And they went home rejoicing. Remember the joy of those days? There was a sign that they used to give to one another. One brother had gone to another leader, one leader had gone to another to get right about something. God had dealt with him in his attitude. And he said, you know, now brother, I love you ten times more. It was said in French, it was dix fois plus. And that became the great word I remember of that conference. Dix fois plus. Amongst the Germans who were there, saying mal mere. And we used to greet one another with ten fingers up. And when we left, everybody was raising their ten thumbs and fingers. There they went at it. Dix fois plus, ten times more. Oh, it was a precious time. It was over. And then as some were leaving, a group came up to us and said, now we come from the next door town. We've been praying three times a week for revival. We have special prayer meetings for revival three times a week, and we've continued for three years. Now our next prayer meeting for revival is tomorrow. And we'd like you to come along. We're going to continue three times a week for so many more years, praying for revival. I said, would you come along and speak, they said to us. So we said, yes we would. It was only just before we went to the meeting we suddenly discovered what it all had added up to. Here were a people who prayed three times a week for three years for revival, and they're going to go on praying for revival. And that African friend, he said, you, they haven't seen it. They haven't seen Him. Oh friends, if that wasn't revival, what was? They might say, oh, we just saw Jesus, that's all. Well, do you want any more? Could revival be anything more than seeing Jesus and being melted in love and peace and repentance and finding Him, lifting the burdens of the earth? Couldn't be anything more. But you see, like so many of us, they had a mental picture of what they wanted God to do. And thinking of that, they were missing Jesus Himself. And I remember that brother gave a sweet message that day to them, so applicable. He was from the Holy Spirit. He told them how in the days when Jesus was born, everybody was in expectation, looking for Messiah. They had a mental picture of what the Messiah was, how important He would be, what a big thing He would do for them. He came to the bed, grew up as a carpenter, moved quietly among them, standing among them and not being recognized. And you would hear them sadly talking about the Messiah they were waiting for. What a big thing He'd do for them, how they're going to wait. And he said, Jesus is revival, but we're looking for something beyond Him. And we're missing the deep significance of Jesus and the little group are willing to bow their necks around His feet. And I believe that was happening in America. Thank God for the stirring in interest and the mental picture of the big thing that needs to be done. And they're not wanting people to work and pray to that end. But they're missing the significance of Jesus Himself and the few, only a few may be at the present, for many, and being broken and going deeper around His feet. That's revival. He said that may not look very much to you, but where is He now? That Jesus. And my friends, the few meeting around Jesus may not look very important. Two men in 1928, let God deal with them, they were melted around the feet of the Lord Jesus. That was revival coming to East Africa. An African and a doctor. Equally bankrupt, equally finished and defeated, equally admitting it to one another and equally coming to Jesus, who met them and filled their hearts as they came to His cross. It's not revival, isn't it? 20 years later, from that beginning, slowly, slowly, slowly, as people just gathered around Jesus, gathered around Jesus and beckoned others, come and see what we see in the spiritual movement. It's not only spread right the way through the whole of East Africa, we're just touching the ends of the world. You may be missing what God wants you by your pining for some spectacular thing, instead of really going to Jesus and getting right with Him and dwelling deeper and ever deeper there and helping others to come and gather around that cross, where sinners bow their necks and find Jesus to be all they need. And so He's not only the door, the way, but He is the end. How good of God to make it like that. You needn't be a Christian who's always seeking for something just around the corner. Jesus is the end and the easily accessible way to that end. As you avail yourself of His precious blood, draw that separates you from that Eden and that blood leads you into the very life and fullness of Jesus Himself. Until the next time, the devil does something, but you know what to do now. You needn't be defeated any longer than it takes you to call it by its name and you're free. Well, we share then the simple, simple vision of the Lord Jesus Himself. Amen.