Whatever it is, we are by the grace of God. And His grace is with you as I've noticed so many times being with many of you personally. And I know His grace will continue to be with you through today's message and tomorrow and the next day. And as you look to Him, you can count on Him to be at your side. The question is, will you follow the string? Because that's what He wants you to do. There's trouble when you get off of it. Well, as we come to this sermon topic, from John 14.6 particularly, Jesus the only way, question mark. Many of you know that one of the reasons that, besides my age that led to my retirement was when my prostate numbers went through the roof, followed, you know, prior to that, I had heart, at least one heart attack, probably two, stroke, kidney transplant. And so in the last couple of years, numbers you've known have given me your prayers that have been in and out of the hospital. Seems like every three, four months I'm in there for a week or two over the last couple of years. And they said, you're perfectly fine. We can't figure out what's wrong with you except for what's wrong with you. Everything else is great. So I've been taking a lot of medications like some of you, you know, and a lot of those really help you. You need them to survive. But some of those are what I call the elephant pills. It's like trying to swallow an elephant, putting so much stuff in there. And it comes to a topic like this that I know when I first thought about it years ago, it was one of those elephant pills. I think predestination, when I saw that in the Bible, that was another elephant pill. And they don't go down so quickly and so easily for many of us. Others, you know, God said it, I believe it, and that settles it. So, but as you begin to live the Christian life and you live in a society like we do, and it's a couple reasons why they may not go down as easy for us as others. One is because we live in a pluralistic society and it was great to have Renate up here presenting the ESL, English as a Second Language program. But as some of you know, I was involved in that for a number of years and I have met some great friends. You don't know if they're going to come from a Jewish background or be Muslim or Buddhist But we've had a lot of laughs together and it's been a joy going on that journey and what a contribution that ministry is making to putting the string out that leads to eternal life and bringing the light through relationships and through information, biblical information at some extent. But living in a pluralistic society because we want to be accommodating and loving and We really feel some tension in our minds sometimes as we come up to fellow neighbors to have a different persuasion and from a different cultural background or different religion. And also we live in a, another reason it feels like an elephant pill sometimes, this topic, is because that we live in a free enterprise system. And being here, we have competing ideas. We're always trying to improve. And so we bang ideas together. And whoever gets to the top with the best idea wins the day. And we want the best for everybody. And so sometimes we look at this topic of Jesus the only way, and it doesn't bang too easily. When you hit it, it doesn't move to the side. It just stays there. And so it is in other areas of absolute truth in our world it doesn't be consumed so easily, absorbed and embraced. So I have another slide, I've got about 8 or 10 slides up here for you to help us, like the string did. I'm glad Carl gave us that story. But as we think about who said this, that I am the way, truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Well, we see it right here in John 14.6. Right here, it comes straight out of the Bible. Please stand as we read this passage together. Jesus says to his followers, let not your hearts be troubled. believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also. And you know the way to where I'm going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. The word of the Lord. Amen. Please be seated. So who said no one comes to the Father except through me? That Jesus is the only way to get to God the Father. Well, the Bible says it and Jesus himself. Have you ever seen one of those red letter versions of the Bible? You open them up, you want to know what Jesus said? It's right there in red. They try to help you get to the bottom line. So it's not just Christian tradition, it's not just some super conservative position, where it comes from, but from Christ himself. And in the context, as we've just looked at this, it's Jesus, he's going to the Father, he's been with the disciples for about three years, he recruited them himself, and then invested himself into them, and over that period of time, He taught them so much about God, about heaven, about the way to heaven, all of that. And as he's ready to leave, he leaves this statement here before he's taking on our sins at the cross. And he tells them he's going away and they're to follow. He's preparing a place for them. And Thomas wants to know, well, We don't know where you're going, how can we possibly know the way? How are we going to follow you when you leave us here high and dry, so to speak? And Jesus simply said, I am the way. I think what he's saying when he says, I am the way, is that whatever I've told you about myself, whatever you've seen through my life, whatever you've learned from me, take that and then basically follow wherever that leads you. because that's going to get you to the place that's going to be far better than this world, a place in the presence of God the Father. We're all looking forward to it. We're all going to get to heaven as we look to the Lord Jesus Christ. There's going to be a lot of shouting and joy as we've sung. Right now it's a little more difficult, and each day faces a new challenge. Some days are more difficult than others, particularly if you're living in Turkey or Syria or maybe over in Ukraine. And for some of us, we have other challenges. So the context is Jesus going to the Father, the way to the Father, God the Father. And of course, who said this? Not only Jesus, but his closest followers, his apostles. As we see in Peter, as Jesus leaves and Peter begins to preach, he says in Acts 4.12, which many of you are familiar with, he says, Peter says, salvation is found in no one else, for there's no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. If you look around for another name, another person who's going to help you get there, there's no other name under heaven given. except the name of Jesus Christ. St. Paul put it a different way. He didn't speak in terms of getting salvation, but Paul spoke in terms of a mediator in 1 Timothy 2.5. St. Paul says there is one God, self-obvious, there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind. One mediator, and he says it's the man, Christ Jesus. What's the meaning? Well, the meaning is, you know what a mediator is, right? You've got two people. You've got God, you've got a human being, or humans. There's one go-between. One person that's going to connect you to God. And the implication is, the mediator is actually going to help you and mediate for you. He's going to plead on your behalf, he's going to stand for your defense, and he's going to be your lawyer, and a super good one. Some of you are in that field, and not too bad yourself, but you're certainly not going to do the kind of defense that Christ can do. Then there's the Apostle John. Jesus spent a lot of time with John, as he did Peter and James, his three close, whatever it is, friends. And the Apostle John speaks about Jesus in terms of life. that life itself is bound up in Him. In 1 John 5, 11 and 12, God gave us eternal life, says Apostle John, and this life is in His Son. Whoever has the Son has life. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. And of course, he's speaking to people, a lot of people who are alive, but they're really dead still in terms of a relationship with God and not connected to eternal life. In 1 John 5.13 he goes on to say, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. One of the saddest things is for professional Christians to walk around and not be settled in their soul. I hope you're settled that you know you have eternal life. He who has the Son has life. Do you have the Son? Are you holding to Him? Are you trusting in Him? These things are written that you might know that. And those who don't know the Son of God by faith, John says, you don't really have life. You have existence, but not life. So let me say a qualifying statement. These statements are not meant to be exclusive. They're not just to drive people away, to exclude or eliminate or ostracize. or anything like that. It's so that you don't miss out. So that you don't miss the way. So that once you've come to Christ, once you've found Him, you know you've got the real deal. And don't be confused by whatever else is leading you in another direction. So you've started following Him, continue. Because he's your life, he's your salvation, he's the one that's going to mediate for you in the end. And even now, intercedes on our behalf, as we're told in Romans, for us who believe. And he also says, in John 6, that whoever comes to me, I will never turn you aside. It doesn't make any difference if you're Jewish, or if you're Buddhist, or what your background is, or whether you're raised in Christianity in general. We still need to trust in him and the invitation is for all of you, no matter how you've disqualified yourself in terms of your records. Some of you may have a prison record. Some of you may have done things that are, we've all done things that are totally embarrassing. It wouldn't be something if they were put up on a screen. That would be a horrible thing. But Jesus says, whoever comes to me, it doesn't make any difference. I'm not going to turn you aside. I am the way and I'm not going to turn you aside. Now why? In terms of my thinking, one of the things that helped me, why Jesus, it makes sense that Jesus is the only way. We see from the slide up here that when he was born, it says in Matthew 1.23, at his birth, they shall call him Emmanuel. which means God with us. It makes sense. God with us because he's God. That's why he's the only way. The only way to get to God the Father is by God himself saying, you're good. You're good to go. He can authorize God the Son as full divinity, divinity, fully God, fully human, He's taken on human flesh and he is able to make us right with God. He's also, as God, he's the creator. As we read in Colossians 1.16, all things were created by him and for him and without him nothing has been created. So it makes total sense. The creator of the world is the only way to God because he's the creator of the world. And he's a sustainer, Colossians 117. All things are created by Christ and for him. And in him, all things are held together. Who holds the universe together? Well, that's the person, the only person, who can hold you and basically take care of you throughout eternity. He's our glue. And he, as well, Christ as Emmanuel is has the power to forgive. God has the power to forgive you. How many of you need forgiven? That's not rhetorical. Just feel free to raise your hand, because we all know we're in the same boat, right? We all need forgiven, because we're undeserving. We haven't lived up to what God expects us, and we know that, but it's a horrible thing. But Jesus has the power to forgive us. You know, one of the things the Pharisees and the scribes had right, they asked a good question and they were terribly upset when Jesus, remember the man in Luke chapter 5, they ripped up the roof and they lowered the man down on a mat and Jesus saw their faith and he said, You're forgiven. Man, you're forgiven. That upset the Pharisees. The leaders of the religious establishment was upset. Who does he think he is? Only God can forgive sins. They had it right. Intuitively. Only God can forgive sins. And of course, just to make sure, to show them he can forgive sins, what did he do? Oh, it's easy to say your sins are forgiven. Not so easy. take up your mat, who knows how many years you've been on the mat, get up and go home. And that's what he did. The miracles of Christ were done to authenticate his divinity and particularly his power to forgive you. And John says in his gospel, and the whole book of John was written, many of the miracles were written, there's seven actually, and there were many more that were done. He said, but these are written that you may, you who believe in the Son of God, that you may believe that God is the Messiah, Jesus Christ. That Jesus is the Messiah. And if I believe in his name, you're going to have life. That's what the miracles are for. So, it makes sense that Jesus is the only way because he has the power to forgive us. Now, on this next slide, this is a great quote. It really struck my attention as I was preparing for this message. Keith Green, how many of you remember the name Keith Green? Some of you are older, a songwriter, Christian songwriter. What a great quote, because it catches it. It catches the truth that we need to hear, that all roads lead to the judgment seat of Christ. People want to tell us, some people want to tell us that, you know, Jesus is optional. And we might want to tell ourselves that, that apart from Christ, that we're good to go. And you may feel that way, you may think that way, I hope you do, but you're connected to Christ. But as you get these other people, voices, whether through its books, through its friends, through some other culture, wherever it's coming from, and they give you a check mark, you're okay, you're gonna be alright in the end. Eventually, at the last one, you gotta get by Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5.10, for we all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ. That's what the Bible teaches, and it makes good sense. If the Bible teaches that we've got to get by Christ, we've got to appear before Him, He's the only way to get to the Father. John 5.22 and 23, particularly, Jesus is very clear on this. Listen. Jesus said, Moreover, the Father judges no one, but He has entrusted all judgment to the Son. The Father, God the Father is not going to judge anybody. He says, He gave that to me. And so we may be, someone may approve you and say you're good to go without Jesus. But Jesus says, no, I have the judgment. I've been authorized by God the Father. And one day we're going to have a discussion. Might not be in a discussion. I think, as Romans says, we're just all going to be dumbfounded. We'll have nothing to say. There'll be no excuse. You only have one good excuse, and that's Jesus. He's your only, he's your alibi. He's the one that's going to get you in, because he's good enough to do it. You know, the story is told about Babe Ruth. You know, Aaron Judge, I think, was it last year he hit 62 home runs? Okay, and before that was Roger Maris, but the first guy to break 60, Roger Maris was 61, but when Ruth did it, he hit 60 home runs. Of course, when he got steroids, everybody was hitting 60 home runs and more, right? So the story is told about Ruth, and he was quite a character, and he had some strong opinions. So it says that during one baseball game, the plate umpire was Ralph Pinelli. and the plate umpire was calling balls and strikes and the babe got very upset because the umpire called one pitch a strike. Ruth disagreed and he turned to the umpire and he looked him straight in the face and he said, and I quote, there are 40,000 people in the stands who know that that pitch was a ball, not a strike. The umpire, Pennelly, calmly replied, but my opinion is the only one that counts. Many roads may appear to lead upward, but in the end, it's only the opinion of Christ that will count. What does he think of you? A lot will depend on what you think of him. Why is he the only way? Because he has the final say. Then there's another thing I want you to think about. We have another slide up here. Hebrews 12.15. Without holiness, no one will see the Lord. Without holiness, unless you are holy, you are not going to see God. You're not going to be in the presence of God. Only the Lord Jesus' moral beauty can fit you for heaven. Only if you're wearing wearing the moral beauty of Christ. In other words, if you're trusting in His beauty and not your own, will you be wearing the right garment to be in the presence of God? Jesus stands in absolute contrast, in absolute contrast to you and me and to everybody. May I put it this way, with some familiar verses, or at least one. As God looks down on you, what does He see? as he looks down on us. He says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All have sinned, all of you are sinners, sinful. Undeserving. As God looks down upon his son, what has he said? And he said it a few times in the scripture. This is my beloved son. What's the rest of it? In whom I'm well pleased. In whom I'm well pleased. You see the contrast? God looks at you. He sees someone who's disqualified. He looks at Christ. He sees someone who's well pleasing. Why is that? Because he's kept all the moral expectation that you need. to be acceptable by God. He came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. Everything morally that God expects of you to be qualified for heaven, you find in Christ and His life. And that's the garment we need to wear in order to get in. I love all the parables, but one particularly that Jesus told in Matthew Matthew 22, I think there are 23 parables in Matthew. Most of them, I think maybe almost all of them are about the Kingdom of God. And let me just briefly touch upon this, I won't spend much time there. Where it says that Jesus again, Matthew 22, 11, Jesus again spoke to them in parables saying, the Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. Okay, so we're talking about getting into the Kingdom of Heaven. Getting to the God the Father. And it may be, the Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. And the king said, invite to the wedding feast as many people as you can. You know, whoever wants to come. But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. He wasn't dressed for the occasion appropriately. And so the king said to him, friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Jesus went on to say, then the king said to the servants, bind him hand and foot, take him away and cast him into outer darkness. There will be crying and pain and weeping and gnashing of teeth. So this is a parable that Jesus tells about the kingdom of heaven. He's throwing a celebration, it's a wedding celebration for his son. One man, it's almost as if he tried to crash his party, it's almost as if he's in bed, he gets up in the morning, throws on his old sweatshirt from the day before, and pulls up a pair of blue jeans, and he's going to crash the party. He just shows up and the king looks at him, hey, how in the world did you get in here? As we look at that, I mean, the Bible doesn't say outwardly, but when you read the whole sweep of the Bible, you begin to realize that there's going to be a big celebration. The king of heaven celebrating his son, and some of the people who are going to be there may not be fit to be there. So we need the garment. Everybody's got the right garment. It doesn't tell you, but by implication, The garment is a garment fit for the king. And the only garments available or fit for a king is the moral beauty of Christ. He alone has the beauty, the moral beauty that you need to be accepted. And they receive his garment by faith. By faith. Actually, if you got this, this illustration isn't exactly right for me. It'd be much better if Jesus were taking his own garment off. But here it's a second, but maybe this is a sun and moon image. But you get the idea, right? We need his moral beauty, your trusting in what he has done for you and not for yourself, to justify yourself. And lastly, there's one last thing that I want to share with you, one last reason. When my wife was a young girl, and she used to go after church every Sunday to her grandmother's house, and her grandmother made these delicious meals, delicious appetizers, and maybe some soups, and you might find baked chicken, or you might find some delicious roast beef and for dessert perhaps some baklava. You don't know what you're going to find but it's going to be absolutely scrumptious. And so as a young girl she said, Grandma, one day she said, Grandma, what is it or why is it that your meal always tastes so delicious? And her grandmother put her arm around Kay and said, Honey, is because I made it with love. I have a special ingredient, and I made it with love. That's the ingredient. And that's what we find that God has brought to us, his love. When you think about Jesus Christ, have we got a slide up here, do we? Yes. Since we are dead in trespasses and sins, therefore we would be lost apart from God's love. You see, we're dead. We have lost interest in God. Our sinful nature has taken over us and we've gone other ways, and yet we need God's love to come to us, to embrace us in all our ugliness, in all the things that are wrong with us. We need Him to come. and to pour out His love on us. Would you repeat this after me? Since we are dead in trespasses and sins, go ahead. I would be lost apart from God's love. Change that slide for me, would you? We're lost, indeed, apart from God's love. The critical question that some people ask, theoretically, could God have given us another way? We're not told of any other way. What we are told, what God did give us, was to give us himself. That's the way that God opened heaven for us. by his love, by giving us himself. You see, there's no greater way for God to show us his love. No greater way for God to show us his love. So how can we possibly begin to think about looking for some other way when it's the love of God? He showed us his heart, and his heart is for you and for us. He cares for us so much, so much that He came Himself, coming to us personally. God can't suffer pain. He can't be tempted. He can't be tested. He's above all that. He's immutable. He's impeccable. And yet, because we're in such a predicament and so deserving of His judgment, God says, I don't care, I'm coming. He takes on human flesh. And he goes through all the agony of being tested in the temple. And when he was tested, he chose the good every time. And when he was forsaken by his friends, he continued to trust God. And whenever God asked of him, he did it. And it was not easy. And of course, the hardest part was to see him suffering, even to the point of blood coming out through his pores, until finally, at the cross, He was forsaken by God himself. Father, why have you forsaken me? The judgment of God falling upon him, which should be falling upon you. It should be falling upon me. He was wounded for our transgressions and willingly. But that was to make a way. That was to show us that you are loved. And I know some of you are suffering right now. Some of you are going through some hard times, but you're deeply loved. Jesus says the only way makes good sense because it shows us that God cares so deeply for us. And that is his solution to getting us through this life and safety into the world to come. And know that you're loved and believe it. Application, as I close here, two quick things. First application is the scars. Visit the scars in Christ's hands often. Visit them often, the scars in Christ's hands, because they remind you how deeply you're loved. And they will renew your spirit. They're going to give you strength to know that He cares for you, even though you might be wounded, you might be wronged right now, someone might have hurt you, you might not know where you're going or how you're going to get there. You're wondering, where am I going to get the strength? But know this. that you are loved more than your problems, and he's greater than those, and he's going to be with you through that. As Romans 8 says, if God didn't spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also along with him freely give us all the other things that we need? And finally, the second application, besides visiting the scars often, is basically love on the people around you. John actually has that application himself at the end of this passage here in 1 John. He said, this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also. ought to love one another. In other words, just as a river overflows its banks, so the kindness of God that you've received is to overflow in kind acts of love to the church community, to your family, to the people around you, to strangers, to enemies, it doesn't matter. Love on them just as God has loved on you because that's the pathway to heaven, the path of love which leads to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for your kindness toward us. Pray that these things we've meditated on and thought about here would help us to continue to trust in you as our only hope. And I don't know how to exactly pray this, but we ask that you continue to love us and give us grace to love on the people around us. And know that your grace and your love is sufficient for us. And thank you for the privilege of being able to think about your word. And may it go with us as we leave later on from this place. In Christ's name, amen. Do you understand?