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Wilson, LesterStudies In The Gospel Of John 35 ~ John 14:8

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And I want to read a verse of in the Old Testament, Isaiah thirty-five, eight, and ten, eight to ten. Isaiah thirty-five, eight, reading the Amplified Version. You know, there's no truth in the New Testament that you can't find references to in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, the New Testament lies head, but in the New Testament, the Old Testament lies open. And over in Isaiah, thirty-five verses eight to ten, you read these words, And the highway shall be there and away, and it shall be called the Holy Way. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for the redeemed, the wayfaring man. Yes, the simple ones, even foolish, shall not err in and lose their way. No lion shall be there, nor any raven beast. come upon it. They shall not be found, but the redeemed shall walk on it. And the ransom of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall be away. And Job makes a reference to this way. In Job twenty-eighth, there is a path which no foul knoweth, and which the vultures I hath not seen on the land of Welsh have not trodden it, nor the fifth lion passed by it. And now our New Testament text in John fourteen, taking up these dialogues in John chapter fourteen. John fourteen and verse one. Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me, and my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. That where I am there ye may be also. And whither I go, 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? I know this that works. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the light. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. If he had known me, he should have known my Father also. From henceforth he knew me. He know him. and has seen him. There are four dialogues in this chapter. It begins at the end of chapter thirteen. Peter is the one who picks up the dialogue with the Lord Jesus Christ. Then you have Thomas in verse five. And later on you have Philip, a dialogue between Philip and the Lord, and then you have Jude. and his dialogue with the Lord. So this morning we'll come to the dialogue between the Lord Jesus and with Thomas. We may refer to what we were talking about last week because we didn't fully take up the subject of the place, the dialogue between the Lord and Simon Peter as to the place. There were two places. He was going to cross first. And then he was going back to heaven and to establish the many mansions, those who profit from the first. His death on the cross will benefit eternally from the second, the many mansions. If I remember correctly, we spoke of four conditions of heart last week. There was a quaking heart. You remember Moses at Mount Sinai when he saw the justice of God displayed? He said, I exceedingly fear and quake. Then if you're trying to get to heaven by the law, the Ten Commandments you might well quake. You'll never get to heaven by way of Sinai. No one was ever saved of Sinai. They are condemned of Sinai. having broken the law that under the curse of the law, that should make you quick. Then we know that a quicken heart, you have these quicken to wear dead in trespasses and in sin. When a person convicted of their sin and the curse under the law comes to Christ, for the law is our school master to bring us to Christ. When a person accepts Christ, he is quickened into a new creature in Christ Jesus. He has experienced a quickened heart. Then the qualified heart, if your heart has been quickened, you're qualified for service here and for heaven hereafter. You cannot qualify to serve the Lord here. You may teach in the Sunday school, sing in the choir, you may even stand in a pulpit. But unless you've been crept in by the Spirit of God, you are not qualified to serve the Lord. Only those who are saved can serve, to glorify God and benefit men. So you have the qualified heart. Then we spoke about the quiet heart. Let not your heart be troubled. In other words, don't worry. That's what the Lord is talking about. Don't worry. My, we're living in days of worry at the present. But he says, we're not. Don't worry about your condemnation. Because Christ has come. The Lord Jesus came into this world. to bear your condemnation. And he will, and he did bear it at the cross. He'll make good to you if you'll acknowledge your lost and guilty sin. So worry not about the condemnation that hangs over you. He that here is my word and believeth on him that set me half everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. So you need not worry about that condemnation that you've come to Christ. Worry not about your sins, for Christ has borne them. Christ has suffered for your sins. Worry not about death, for Christ has risen. Worry not about your weaknesses and failure, for Christ intercedes for you at God's right hand. Worry not about your future, for Christ is coming. everywhere you go. While in Canada there's some in the northern part of the United States, the questions on everyone's mind, what do you think's going to happen? What do you think about the future? How's it all going to end, yes? They've all right to worry. For the end for this poor scene is not thought off by this bad. Unless, you know, Christ, You don't have to worry about our monetary system collapsing. You don't have to worry about the shift of certain national politics. You don't have to worry about those things. Place is coming. He says, let not your heart be troubled. He can say that because his war is troubled in chapter twelve. Now is my sole trouble. He was thinking of the cross. And so he went to the cross, he suffered and bled and died. Now he's in heaven. Now he says, you don't have to worry. I've taken care of those perplexing problems. You don't have to worry. How sweet it is to be able to say, I have nothing to worry about. Everything settled today, tomorrow, and forever. Let not your heart be troubled. He says, you believe in God, believe also in me. It's amazing in these elders prior to Christ going to the cross, the words he often used in the upper room. He used the word glory, love, peace, and joy. Strange words, if you were to go to a prison and they're soon to pass on, And they're talking about the glory. This is true in some cases, partly Christians. They've talked about the glory. They speak of their joy and their peace and their love. The Lord did that. He knew of before him the agony of Golgotha. He knew it. Yet he could speak of the glory. He could speak of joy. He could speak of peace. He could speak of love. And for the joy was set before him, he endured the cross, and he despised the shame. We can endure a lot in the present. We know the future is bright. Let not your heart be troubled. He didn't say let not your heart. He didn't use the plural. He used the singular. One heart. For he was speaking to his own. Let not the heart. be troubled. There's the oneness of heart. All loving the same Lord. Isn't that nice? All believing the same word, the Bible. All speaking the same thing. All entrenched by the same spirit. All going to the same place. That's what he means. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe all souls mean. You know, last week we were referring to heaven. How can you exhaust this subject on heaven? The glories of heaven have often been portrayed in various terms, such as it's called the country, because of its vastness. It's called a city because of a large numbers will be there. It's spoken of as a kingdom because of its orderliness. spoken out of paradise because of its delight. It's spoken out of the Father's house because of its pregnancy. Isn't it wonderful? Heaven is home. Home is a wonderful word, not the house. House is bricks and mortar. Many people live in bricks and mortar, but it's not home. When everything goes well, And that love and harmony in our house, it is a home, a real home. No sin, no sickness, no sorrow, no destruction, no disappointment, no suspicion, no separation, no insecurity, no shame. That's home. That's what heaven will be. There'll be no end there. Here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. A home that'll never end. A home that'll be perpetuated throughout the eons of eternity. That's where the Christian is going, the place of many mansions. It's a place of rest. Blessed are the dead which die on the Lord from henceforth, for they do rest from their labors. And the fruit they wore, follow them. Also it's a place of light, unscathed light, untarnished light. There'll be no light there. It's a place of adoring worship, where all shall worship one person. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ. It'll be a place of blessed realization and relationship. The Father's house. A wonderful place. You know, in Peter's dialogue, he begins life's journey for the Christian with the cross. And he ends life's journey in paradise. Heaven. That's the dialogue between Peter and the Lord. What a wonderful beginning, Calvary. What a wonderful end, the glory. First three wonderful. He says, I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go, I will come again and receive you unto myself. So remarkable are those words. If you will read those two or three verses, you'll find the pronoun I mentioned about six or seven times. Here's the blessed person. If I go away, that's the blessed person. I will. There's his power. Come again. There you have his promise. And come again. Yes, there's his prospect. We are looking forward. That's our prospect for coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ, to receive you. That's for people. Receive you. He's talking to his own. The same. Receive where I am. That's the place. But there ye may be also. That's the purpose. Why all this? He might have people with him sharing the Father out throughout all eternity. That's why he came. That's why he died. That's why he was back then. That's why he's living at God's right hand. That's why he's coming again that he might have his own. With himself throughout all eternity. Chapter seventeen, when we get to it, I will follow that all those who have not given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. That concludes Peter's dialogue. Now we come to Thomas, and Thomas is talking about the way, as we note in verses five and six. Christ says, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. This is the way to the Father's house. He doesn't say, I am a way. as if there are other ways. He says, I am the way. He's the only way. He doesn't say, I come to show you the way. No. He says, I am the way. He is the only way to heaven. And he's all the way, not part of the way. He doesn't say, and later on you lose it, you lose the way, and you get it back on again. He said, I am the way. I'm the only way. And I'm all the way. For the moment you're saved, for the moment you arrive in glory. Man lost the way. When he sinned against God in the beginning. And he's been seeking a way back ever since. And that's why he's got all these religions in the world. You find over in Isaiah chapter fifty-three, six, All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way. Here are people taken their own way. All have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way. And think of the thousands, hundreds of thousands of religions in the world lost sheep and are seeking a way back to God. Some of it is very weird. Yes, there are many ways. So many things. There is a way that seemeth right unto man, unto men, but the end thereof is the way of death. Man-made ways. But the Lord makes it very plain, there is only one way. And the strange thing is, this way is the narrow way. O Matthew seven, he speaks of the broad way that leadeth to destruction and the many there be with who in the left. Straighteth the gates and not with the way that leadeth unto life and few. There be that, but I didn't say that, the Lord said it. There are people today that think the majority of people are going to heaven. They're sincere. Oh yeah, they'll get there. Only a few go into heaven, compared to the majority going to hell. The Lord said that. He says, I am the way, the life. That's a sad thing. Christ is the straight way. He's the narrow way. No crookedness on this way. No deception. This way is clear, it's plain, and only a few are on it. No room on this way. It's too narrow for the thieves, the drunkards, the liars, the proud, the self-righteous, the unconverted church members, the rebellious, the pleasure-seekers. This way is too narrow for that card. He says, I am the way, the truth, and the light. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. What characterizes those who are on this way to heaven? Well, I'll tell you what characterizes. They're born again. They're in Christ. They have the Spirit of God. They've been broken by the Spirit, sealed by the Spirit. They have everlasting life. Their sins are all forgiven. They have peace. Do you have these things? I'll ask you again. Are you born again? Are you in Christ? Have you been sealed by the Spirit? Do you have everlasting life? Are you single forgiven? Do you have peace? You say, no, I can't say that. Then you're lost. And you don't have Christ. You may have religion. There are only two ways in the Bible, up and down. The way of life, the way of death. There's no neutral pattern. Just two. Which road are you on this morning? There's no neutral ground. It's the one or the other. And there's only one way. That's taught in the Old Testament. The ark only had one door. It didn't have a door on one side or one on the other side. Three stories, one at every story. It had one door. That was true then. And it's true now. There's only one. In Exodus twelve, when the judgment of God held upon Egypt, There was only one way, the sprinkled blood of the land on the two side posts on the upper lip, though, one way. If you didn't have the blood applied, that night, judgment fell. Red Sea, only one avenue in the Red Sea out of Egypt. Only one. To Jordan, from the wilderness into the promised land. One way through the river Jordan to open up the way. And you remember they have one scarlet thread, and she trusted it. Just one. That's it. One serpent of brass, the twenty-first of numbers, when the children of Israel had sinned, and God sent fiery serpents among them. God says, Moses, erect a serpent of wrath, and everyone who looks to that serpent of wrath shall live. And the Lord Jesus refers to that in John three, fourteen, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish. But have a last thing like one serpent of wrath. On the Savior, one way. just one. Are you on that one way? Then we come to the next truth. I am the way, the truth. The truth in contrast to error and lies. And I'll tell you both, abandon our world today. Error and lies. The Lord was brought before Pilate. And the Lord says, I'm the truth. He's referred to truth. And Pilate says, what is truth? What is truth? Pilate was looking right at it. Yet he asked the question, what is truth? Christ was truth. You ask me, what's the truth today in the midst of worldwide error? And with all these ways, religious ways, which is the true way, Christ. And with all these errors and lies that are circulated, which is the truth, Christ. These are the truths. There's no lie here. The truth. There are some wonderful words in your Bible. Wonderful doctrines behind those words. And there are seven of them. The doctrine of regeneration. That's when you're quickened into a new creature in Christ Jesus. Just regeneration. Justification. You're cleared all blame before God. Reconciliation. Give and reconcile to God. To the death of his son. Sanctification. Set aside for God. Set apart for God. Proficiation. God appease and satisfies. Redemption! You've been bought, purchased, glorification, seven things. All these seven things are found in Jesus Christ. All of them. Christ is made unto a system of righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. All these truths are found in Jesus Christ. You have him, you have them all. That's what the Bible says. I wonder what it knows that you have Christ. I have all these things. I may not understand the meaning of all these words, but you have Christ. And eventually, if you study your Bible, you'll understand them all. But over against the truth does come in Jesus Christ, you have the lies of the wicked one, Satan. And the Bible says that he's a liar. Over in chapter eight of John, Christ said to those religious men, You are of your Father the devil. The lust of the Father he will do. He's a murderer from the beginning. He's a liar. I'm the father of lies. There's no truth in him. When he speaks of the lies, he speaks of himself. Over against the truth, being preached in Jesus Christ, you have the lies and errors of the devil. And all these false cults in the world today, you can twirl your dial in here all of the country. Cult, cult, cult. And God says, people don't want my son. They don't want the truth. And in the latter days, I'm going to send them strong delusions for doctrine that they may believe the lie. And the lie is the devil and the coming antichrist, or world dictator. For when he comes, he'll tell the great lie. I'm the true Christ. What a lie. Jesus Christ was an apostle, apostate, achiever. He wasn't the real one. I'm the real one. Jesus Christ was a fake. I'm the real one. And people are going to believe him. They're going to believe him. After ninety hundred years hearing the gospel preached and Jesus Christ exalted. They're going to turn from the truth and they're going to receive the lie. The Bible says that. And you're believing him this morning. If you have in Christ, you're following the lie. Christ is the truth. He's telling you to accept the truth right now. The devil says, Don't do it. Put it up. They're listening to the lie, the liar from the beginning. I am the way he says, and the truth. How wonderful to have the truth and know it. The lie is going to be personified in that coming man. And to think the world becomes so atheistic so ostracized from the truth, that they'll receive that onment. Satan is going to give all his power. Satan, a liar, the dragon from the beginning, is going to give all his power unto the beast. And the world will believe it. And the Lord is believing it today. People will knock at your door and hand you some literature. And you take it and you read it and you believe the lie. Unless you know the truth. Unless you know the truth. I am the way, the truth. But he says something else. I am the life. I am the life. How wonderful to know the life. The life that's in tragedy. I am the way, the truth and the life. Life, eternal, it always has been. Life everlasting, it always shall be. Do you have this everlasting life this morning? God wants you to have it. If you have Christ, you have this everlasting life. He is the source of life. In him was life, is life, and forever shall be life. He's the source of life. He's the given of life. I give unto my sheep eternal light. They shall never perish. He's the one who sustains life. He that eateth me, even he shall live by me. He's the assurance of life. He that hath the Son hath life. He is also the security of life. Your life spiritually is hid with Christ in God. And he is the abundant life. on come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundant, inexhaustible life. All this is in Jesus Christ. Man lost the way. He believed the lie, experienced death by following Adam. But when he finds the way, he'll know the truth and he'll possess the life when he comes to Christ. Think about this. If you're not a Christian here this morning, it's just simply a thing. You're lost. You're in the wrong way. You're following a lie. And you're going to experience death. Not only physical, but eternal death, the lake of fire. Now that's the one way. Here is, if you come to Christ, you'll find the true way, and you'll know the truth, and you'll possess the light, Jesus Christ. We find reconciliation in the way, we find illumination in the light, and we find regeneration in the light. All this is in Christ Jesus. If you have Christ, you have everything. If you don't have Christ, you don't have anything worth having. It's all in Christ Jesus. Christ is the way to walk. Christ is the truth to trust. And Christ is the life to live. Some people try to show their steep spirituality and they say, I'm willing to lay down my life for Christ. I'll tell you something harder than that. Live for Christ. God's not asking you to lay down your life for Christ. He's asking you to live for Christ. Let people know you belong to Christ and manifest the life of Christ which is in you. And as Thomas A. Kempis that great divine said back in the mid-century, the dark-centered, I am the way. Beside me, referring to Christ. I am the way, beside me, there is no going. I am truth, beside me, there is no knowing. I am life, beside me, there is no living. How true. Christ, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man, underline it. No man, be he king or beggar. rich or poor, educated, or illiterate. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me, all these religions that don't embody the personal work of Christ. Strag them off, lost. He says, I am the way, the truth, and the light. No man cometh unto the Father, and that means a father's house of many mansions, too. No man comes unto the Father but by me. How wonderful that is. No Christ. This morning you are unsaved. You have no Christ, no Father, no Spirit, no hope, no heaven, and no excuse. You have absolutely no excuse for being as you are this morning because you've had the opportunity and you have the opportunity to accept Christ and know the way, the truth, and the life. This is your chance. We referred to those passages in the Old Testament, those wonderful passages. And it has a reference to Israel in the future. That wonderful high with holiness. And it refers to that day when Christ is going to come and dispose of his enemies at the arm again. Russia hates Israel. The East, things of the East, hate Israel. There are millions on the continent, hate Israel. Billions of Americans hate Israel. Billions in the United States, hate Israel. And in the Middle East, keep free, you know what they're doing. Climbing up to the Arabs against Israel. The world is turning against Israel. And the day's going to come when they're going to try and exterminate Israel. The devil's going to try and dispose of that nation. They've got it brought forth. the conqueror of sin. She's the woman, the prophet, the man-child, according to Revelation, twelve. And they're trying to kill the woman. And she wears twelve stars on her crown, as you'll find that, the twelve tribes of Israel. But in that day when Christ disposes of his enemies and the enemies of Israel, he says there will be a highway, straight to Zion. And he says, the redeemed of the Lord are going to travel straight to Zion. And he says, I'll be with them on it. I'll have to give them my fellowship as they tread it. And he says, no lion can see it. No vulture can behold it. Here is a way that beasts and birds don't understand. They don't have that intelligence. We read that in that text. No vulture's eye can see it. No lion can tread upon it. Are birds and beasts more intelligent than you? In other words, you have intelligence and you're not using it. And yet birds and beasts have obeyed the Lord. The Lord sat on a beast, undue and cold. It submitted to him. The birds obeyed him when he told them to go and take dread to his servant Elijah. Yes, birds and beasts have obeyed the Lord, even though they haven't the intelligence to know the way. You're an intelligent human being. You've got brains enough to make money, but you don't have enough intelligence to know what's coming on the world and what your desperate need is and the only way to receive it. You haven't seen the way yet. And it's not for birds or beasts, it's human beings. This is the way. Christ says, I am the way, the truth, and light. No man cometh unto the Father. But by me, birds and beasts die, and that's been. There's no hereafter. That's not so with you. You've got a soul that's going to exist as long as God exists, either in hell or hell. You say, I know that I believe that I'm not. You will believe it. One second after you die, you'll believe it. For you'll be. in that place where there's weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, if you don't believe there's a hell. Call Jesus Christ a liar, a fabricator, if there's no lake of fire. He spoke of it. He was no apostle. He's no liar. He tells you the truth, but people don't like the truth. They don't want the truth. The truth hurts, but He is the way and the truth. And if you don't want the truth, you just don't want Christ. I'm giving you the Bible. You might differ with me on other subjects all you like, but you can't differ with me on this subject. I'm giving the Bible. It's not an argument between you and me. It's an argument between you and God, and the Lord Jesus Christ. This is His Word. Are you going to believe it? He asked you to come. I am the way, the truth, and the light. No man calleth unto the Father, but by me. Do you want Christ, or are you going to continue in the wrong way, in the way of error and lie? and also the way of death. Oh, you're going to come this morning and find Christ either way, the only way, the safe way, the satisfying way, the straight way. I want him, and I want the truth, nothing but truth, and I want the light, the light of God, not human life, the life of God. We are the partakers of the divine nature. All this is in Christ. He is the reservoir of all these wonderful things. Your eternity is wrapped up in one personality, not in a creed or a doctrine, but in a person. That person is our Lord Jesus Christ. He can be Lord. He can be yours now. The choice is yours. What will you do with Jesus? What will your answer be? Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we come into thy presence. We ask thy blessing on thy word. We rejoice. It fills our hearts to be able to tell the truth and to present thy Son, the Lord Jesus, are the only one, the only way, the one who is the personification of truth. He cannot lie. We thank thee. He is the only one who has eternal life. All that men need. for happiness here in eternity, in eternity is found in the Lord Jesus. Oh, that someone at this moment will open his or her heart and allow the Lord Jesus Christ to come in. He stands knocking at their hard door. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If a man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and suffer with him. and be with me. O Father, may someone yield to that knocking this morning and swing their hearts wide open and bid them enter while they may. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Shall we sing closing that familiar hymn? just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, that thou bid'st me come to thee, O Lord God, I come. There are undoubtedly million in heaven through this hymn. There could be a million and one more. That means you.