Truth and Salvation #2

When it comes for our eyes to be closed in death. We can entrust our soul to our faithful Savior and that as we stepped from one realm into another way, the truth and the life he will carry us personally in a way that leaves us with no cause for fear. Welcome back with Don green founding pastor of truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. I build right today is Don continues teaching God's people. God's word will show us from Scripture that our salvation is found in Christ alone and his finished work upon the cross, and that there is absolutely nothing we can do not way into heaven right now. Here is our teacher with part two of a message titled truth and salvation from the truth of what we want to do here is we want to look at these three important terms that Jesus uses as a means of preparing our hearts for communion were going to look at number one.

The way to the father.

Secondly, the truth of the father. And thirdly, the life of the father, Jesus Christ is the way to the father Jesus Christ is the truth of the father, Jesus Christ is the life of the father and when you combine those you can see how he is able to bring us safely to heaven out of sand out of the earth and into heaven, and also you can see why there would be no other alternatives that there is no other profit. There is no other religion. There is no other Savior. It is Christ and Christ alone. We are shot up to Christ.

We are in close to Christ, or there is no salvation to be had. So, let's consider what he says it will go through these three points rather quickly.

Let's consider. First of all, Christ the way to the father. The way to the father.

Look at it there. Let's read verse six once again Jesus said to Thomas, I am the way and the truth and the life you see the threefold basis for the for the outline today were just building our outline from the words of Jesus himself. Jesus says I am the way now though the term way can have a little bit of a different nuance depending on the context in which its use of way could be a route for traveling know what what way are you going to go in order to get to Pennsylvania want to take and I want to take the interstate up and cut across on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

It's an idea of a route for traveling away a road highway a path. All of these things being a different significance of the broader general word way. It could also be the. The act of traveling I'm going to make my way to Arizona now. In other words, on taking a trip.

I'm going to journey to Arizona and find my way to Arizona and I meet it's either the route that you follow to get there or it could be the act of traveling itself in order to arrive.

All of that kind of bound up in the meaning of way depending on the context in which it's used. But as we said everything about those terms. A path journey Highway a road trip. Beloved, I want to emphasize this at the point to the to the point of undue repetition of the whole concept presupposes a starting point and a destination, a departure point and a destination you depart you arrive. That's what's bound up in the word way now for us here we are in and in and in the context of what Jesus is saying here.

Our starting point as we saw at the beginning of the message here today. Our starting point is that we are here on earth in a state of sinful separation from God. That is our starting point, the destination point is unattainable by man. The destination point is the holiness of God in heaven.

We are not fit spiritually to join him in heaven and we cannot traverse from our geographic starting point to where he is in in the throne room of God. We don't even know where that's at specifically and so that's our starting point in the destination point is utterly unattainable for the natural man. All men are lost and unable to find the path to God and you know you just look around. Sadly, the world around us and you see just the evidence of that, particularly in a month like this so-called pride month. You just see how miserably lost people are lost and slaves to their to their to their bodily loss and their bodily desires with no regard for God, having been handed over to a depraved mind, to not even recognize the principle of truth, let alone to know it for what it really is to be to be separated from Christ and to have no regard for him for his name to be a common curse word in the discourse of society to have his word mocked and rejected and undermined even by those who profess to teach it.

They all were and I were in a desperate position. Beloved, we don't even recognize the starting point. How can we ever go from the starting point to the destination. We don't even know where to start.

It should be obvious to you by now that if anyone is going to arrive at the destination point of the holy throne room of God and be safe there that someone else has to take us there. You need someone outside of yourself who has the power and the knowledge and the ability to deliver you from point A to point B without that your lost in only say this so many times, but it's it's worth recognizing in this context know people say I think I'm going to go to heaven I'm going to be okay. The good in my lit wife outweighs the bad will first of all, it's a completely false statement. Scripture says there is no one who seeks for God. There is none righteous, not even one to the very premise of the question is false. But how could the power. Even assuming that there was something of merit in human words I speak as a fool. There is no merit in human works. But even assuming that there was something of value in in human work. Spiritually, I ask you this question. How could. How could those works take you to a place that you don't know where it sat. How could your sin stained works prepare you for an encounter with the holy God.

How can it take you from a destination on earth to a destination in the third heaven, the very thought is is absurd and yet that's what people are saying and what they are banking on two things. One, it doesn't matter. Every religion leads to God. Secondly, if it does matter. I'm good enough to go there.

They have not seriously contemplated what Jesus said, I'm going away where I'm going, you cannot come you do not have the power to do it and what Jesus is saying here in verse six is that Jesus speaking I am the only one who can take you to heaven there is no other vessel by which you can get from here to there and beloved what I want you to see were going to look at several passages now, the Lord Jesus Christ was not bashful about making that exclusive claim in everything that he said throughout the course of his ministry. He consistently said things like this even and were just going to primarily confine ourselves to the gospel of John, so go back to John chapter 3 with me for 16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life is only son. His beloved son, and you have to believe in him.

If you too.

If you are to avoid death and to enter into eternal life.

Scripture goes on in verse 36 and notice the exclusivity of the statements there's a positive affirmation in a negative denial of an alternative means. John chapter 3 verse 36 he who believes in the son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. If you are in the sun you are safe if you deny the sun you are in danger. Your and present immediate danger in the wrath of God abides on you. Even now it is. It is one or the other. There is no comfortable place in between. There is no halfway house. There is no rest area along the way.

It's one or the other go on to John chapter 6 verse 40 Jesus says this is the will of my father, but everyone who beholds the son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on the last day you behold the sun you believe in him that is the loving promise of God that if you come to Christ. You will be saved in the invitation goes out to anyone and everyone with ears to hear, you may be a a forgotten person in the scheme of the world you may be a a horrible center you may be weighed down with guilt as you're here today. The promise of God, the promise of Christ comes to you if you behold me and believe in me, you will be saved. This is the gracious love, the kind of purpose and patience of God but is found only in Christ.

Look at John chapter 8 verse 12 John chapter 8 verse 12 Jesus again spoke to them saying I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life.

Jesus, again pointing to himself calling attention to himself in a way that would be impossibly arrogant if it came from the lips of anyone else but the son of God.

Jesus says I am the way, I am the light of the world and look at chapter 10 verse nine Jesus said to them again. Truly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters through me. He will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. What about other teachers. What about other religions first 10 the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they might have life and have it abundantly. Jesus says I am the door. You want to pass into heaven. You want to pass from death into life. There's only one door through which you can go. There are not multiple doors is not door one door to door three. There's one and it's in Christ.

In chapter 11 verse 25 we read this I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this. And so Jesus has said he is the exclusive way to God, and you can see how he had been building as the apostle John recorded the life and teaching of Christ. You can see how he was building up and leading up to this climactic statement in John 14 six Jesus been saying all along on the way I have the power, other teachers, other religions cannot take you there.

You must believe in me, and if you believe in me, you'll enter into life, but if you don't you will be lost in all of that informs the broader context of what Jesus says in John 14 six I am the way I in myself.

You must be in me you must belong to me. You must you must have faith in me you must give yourself to me and then I can take you. Then I will take you from the departure point to the destination point, but without me you cannot get there without me, you are eternally lost and so Jesus prepared the way Jesus accomplished the way even better accomplish the way to heaven by his sacrificial death is sin, bearing death in his resurrection, and then 40 days later.

What did he do, he ascended into heaven, showing visibly showing visibly that he that he knew the way and that he had the power to take himself there. The only way to join in that resurrection life and to ascend, as it were, into heaven by being in Christ, and the only way that you can be joined to Christ is by faith in him and receiving him, trusting in his death and resurrection.

Any self-reliance in your ticket is invalidated.

Ask for verse 12 says there is salvation in no one else.

And so when we talk about the concept of truth and we talk about the concept of salvation from sin. We see that Scripture makes a bold, defiant, unapologetic truth claim and assertion that Jesus Christ is the only way to the father thing about this way, to teach something else to deny that and say something else and to make room for other religions. The maybe someone who's never heard the gospel is never heard about Christ can actually go to heaven.

Listen to say those things is to deny Christ himself, you stand in opposition to Christ when you say things like that. You either take Jesus in his exclusivity or you don't take him at all. He is the way to the father. Secondly, he is the truth of the father. Let's go back to John 14 verse six John 14 verse six Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. Jesus is the truth of God precisely because he himself is God he can say I am the truth of God in a way that no one else can say because he is the very manifestation of God himself. Look at John chapter 14 verse nine here where Jesus says in the middle of the verse.

He says he who has seen me has seen the father is the truth of God in the sense that he is the personal manifestation of God.

He is the exact representation of his nature. Scripture says that in Christ all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form that is the truth. The fullness of God veiled in flash is revealed in Jesus Christ.

There is no distinction Jesus and the father share the identical essence of God, Jesus, the second person of the Trinity clothed that essence in human flesh and therefore whenever they were watching Jesus they were seeing God in action.

When we read the words of Jesus we are reading the words of God him self. Scripture says, and in John 11 in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Look at chapter 5 verse 18 with me. Chapter 5 verse 18 Jesus is the truth of God because he himself is God. He is equal with God, he is uncreated. There has never been a time where the second person of the Trinity did not exist is uncreated and and fully coequal with God in all of his attributes.

That's the point of what we read in John five verse 18. For this reason, therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him because he not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God his own father, making himself equal with God and Jesus answered verse 19 and was saying to them, truly, truly, I say to you, the son can do nothing of himself, and let us it is something he sees the father doing for whatever the father does these things, the son also does. In like manner for the father loves the son and shows him all things that he himself is doing the father will show him greater works than these so that you will marvel.

Verse 21 for just as the father raises the dead and gives them life. Even so, the son also gives life to whom he wishes. Beloved, he has the character of God.

He does the works of God.

He speaks the word of God.

He is truly God incarnate and he is the only one who is Jesus Christ is God's only son. There is no other that connect us. There is no other that can provide a way from our departure point to the destination point. Christ is the truth of God. He says I am the way of God and I am the truth of God and thirdly were going to see go back to chapter 14 verse six, the Christ is also the life of God, the life of God. He says I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the father but through me. The preexistent uncreated life of God resides fully in the Lord Jesus Christ before time began. God was God had no beginning point in the same is true of Christ.

There was never a point at which he began to exist.

He is always existed in a way that transcends our ability to understand that is true of God. It is the father is true of God the son, and so beloved the skits. This might seem a little bit philosophical or esoteric, but it's crucial to understanding what Jesus is saying the preexistent uncreated life of God abides, fully abides always and abides without diminishment in the Lord Jesus Christ.

John chapter 5 verse 26 for just as the father has life in himself. Even so, he gave to the son also to have life in himself, and we saw earlier in chapter 11 verse 25 Jesus said I am the resurrection and what the life Christ saying I am the life. If any of us tried to say that it would be a lie would not be true. We we do not possess blight the life of God in that same sense we do not have the power to impart the life of God to others by our own hands. We can't lay hands on somebody and transfer the gift of the Holy Spirit from our hands to someone else. We don't have that power.

Jesus does. He shares the indestructible eternal existence of the Godhead. It is fully in him in bodily form. First John chapter 5 verse 20 says he is speaking of Christ. It says he is the true God and eternal life.

So we take all of these things together kinda catch our breath in light of everything that was seen in red on the way the truth and the life.

Jesus, having made that triple assertion look at what he says there at the end of verse six. Having said that, and I said it emphatically, as we saw. He says no one comes to the father but through me. You could be no other way no one else is the way no one else is the truth. No one else's life noticed the present tense. Here Jesus says no one comes to the father but through me. The present tense in this instance is expressing a perpetual condition.

It has always been this way it has always been this way in the past.

It is this way now and it will always be this way that no one comes to the father but through me.

No one ever came to God through their own obedience. Even in the Old Testament that is the point of Romans chapter 4 that Abraham was saved by faith and justified by faith alone. David in the same way in their faith. They were looking forward to the coming of the Messiah who would deliver them in our faith. We look back chronologically to the one who has come. And so it is always been this way it is always through faith in Christ alone and beloved, that has a really simple profound implication for us in the room here today if your faith is in Christ alone. You are safe.

You have the way and the person that you know is the one who is able to take you from the departure point to the destination point. We don't have to worry about that when it comes for our eyes to be closed.

In death we can entrust our soul to our faithful Savior and know that he will carry us and that as we stepped from one realm into another. The Christ is who he is. The way the truth and the life he will carry us personally. He will do it himself and usher us in in a way that leaves us with no cause for fear.

That's what he promises to his disciples, he set up. I go to prepare a place for you when I come again either. When he comes in glory when he comes for sin, death. He's coming in order to take us to where he is in Christ who sends in lawless deeds are remembered no more. The presence of God. He doesn't hold them against you. He takes you he embraces you he receives you as one of his own know the blessed thing beloved is this Christ to save so many people there is grace through his love through the power of the cross yet. There's still room for you as well and a wonderful that's done green founding pastor of truth Community Church in Cincinnati Ohio with the second part of a message titled truth and salvation from the current series in defense of truth.

Don will have more for us next time on the truth pulpit.

We hope you won't miss a moment, but right now here's done with the closing word before we end our time today. Friend one of the things that I'm always mindful of when I'm here in studio is a mindful that there are people out in the audience that are like I used to be thinking that they were Christians, but not really having the life of God in their soul you perhaps read the Bible or gone to church, but you've never really turned your life to Christ in repentance and saving faith.

I was like that. I know what it's like to be self deceived. I just encourage you if you've just viewed Christianity as something kinda casual. Not all that important. My friend examine yourself. See if you're truly born again and let that work of God in your heart lead you to truth lead you to the Scriptures so that you would enter into the profound life that belongs only to those who are true Christians.

Thanks God and friend that's start time for today my bill right. Hoping you can join us again next time is done. Green continue teaching God's people. God's work on the truthful