I Am the Way, Truth, and Life

I've had a particular song stuck in my head this week. Because I am happy. It started with the cases and then was just more solidified with our Friday evening gathering. It's a catchy song. It's one that sticks very quickly and fully and you're hard to get rid of it. And as I continue to play it over and over again, of course, it started to shape the way I was thinking and I wanted to figure out what is so catchy with the song other than just the tune and the melody. As I thought about it, okay, it's about being happy, this is nice, it's something we can all see together, but then I, maybe it's really sad. Because this is the closest our godless world and the anti-Christian culture can come to reality. This is the best we can do, this is the religion that we just need to be happy. So it made me think, well, what other kind of songs can we see have represented this worldview that says we just need to be happy? And of course, every decade has a song that marks it with happiness. 1970, Monday, Tuesday, happy days. 1980, big dip culturally in every possible way. Don't worry, be happy. You're welcome, but that'll be stuck in your head the rest of the day. 1990s in its glory. REM, shiny, happy people everywhere. What a vision of the world that would be. And then today, because I'm happy. Clap your hands if you feel like happiness is the truth. Clap your hands if you feel like a room without a roof. That last one, just a metaphor that blows my mind. We all want to be happy. There's a truth here. There is a reality that we were created to be happy. There's a longing for happiness. This is a pursuit. of every philosopher, of every wise man, of every person. This is what philosophy is supposed to be. Seeking the best, happiest, most pleasing life. Remember, I think what our culture does is it reduces happiness down to mere sensuality. Seeking happiness in the wrong place. We're Epicureans, and the Epicurean motto is eat, drink, be merry. For tomorrow we die. Now, if Christ is not risen, that's what we should do. Paul makes it very clear. We're to be pitied if Christ is not truly raised and we should just go out and try to live as much of a sensual life as possible. But we believe Christ is risen. This isn't the happiest life. Christ offers a true happiness, a heavenly happiness, one that's final, complete, everlasting, truly satisfying. You can go back to the Beatitudes. Blessed, blessed, blessed. I don't know how to translate that. Happy. Happy are those who are pure in heart, for they shall see God. Jesus is come and he's come to prepare us and provide for us the most pleasing true life. Because he's restoring us to the life he intended. This morning we're going to look and consider, at some level, how our happiness is to be found in Jesus and him alone. To turn this to the happiness theme, our message can be summarized thus. Jesus promises a perfect happiness when he returns and true happiness now if we trust him. We're in John chapter 14. It's important to remember that this is a closed meeting. Jesus is only talking to his disciples now. He is preparing them for a death that is just hours away. He's teaching them the last lessons they need to hear to be ready for what lies ahead. And in chapter 14 of John, if you're using a pew Bible and you want to take that home, you can. It's on page 901. Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my father's house, many rooms if we're not if it were not so what 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 were 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. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him. Will you pray with me? Father, as we long expectantly to see you in your glory, Without our sin hindering us. Lord, help us to see you more clearly this morning. Help us to have purified hearts. Help us to see you purely so we can worship you purely. Help us to see how much we need your son, Jesus Christ. Help us to rely upon him for the life we long for and the life we're striving for. Help us to see that he has accomplished it for us. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. I want to do something a little different. I normally just walk through the passage and I try to order the message according to the order of the passage. But I want to jump down to verse six, because in case you're tempted to check out at some point, I want everybody to hear this particular point. I know you don't want to check out at some point, but you could. It's important here. Jesus is the only way. Verse 6, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. It's important here to get the backdrop. We were once with the Father. We were once friends with God. We were once walking and talking and in a right relationship with God. We once knew Him personally. And then we decided we knew better for ourselves than God knew for us. We rejected him. We decided we did not want to follow him. We did not want to obey him. We believed a lie. What Jesus is doing is reconciling us to the father. There was a relationship and now it's broken. It's our fault. Jesus has come to be the way of reconciliation. The reason we read the Matthew prayer. It's important to think about this here and that he has said in our passage, no one comes to the father except through me and Jesus is talking to his father, if there's any other way. Please do not let this cup of wrath that the world deserves be poured out on me if there's any other way. If there's a way, Father, I trust your plan. I know you're good. I know you love me. If there's any other way, let it pass. As he swept drops of blood, as he wept, as he was by himself. You see, it's important here to recognize Jesus is the only way of salvation. There's not a backup plan. There's not another way around Jesus, another way up the mountain. Jesus is the only way of salvation. To deny Jesus is the only way of salvation is to say he's not actually needed for salvation. There's really only two options. If you want to say there's multiple ways of salvation and Christianity is just one of them, there's only two ways you can really intellectually believe that. One is to say Jesus is not a way at all. If he's not the way, he's not a way at all. If he's not needed, if he's not necessary, he's His death was just futile. It was in vain. It was, it doesn't help. He believed he was a son of God and that he must die to save us. Either he's right or he's wrong. There is one other option. You may still want to keep the trappings of Christianity, but still want to believe that there's multiple ways. And this was actually pretty scary. If you want to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that somehow He is unique and He's special, you believe there is God the Father, and that God the Father put Jesus to death when He didn't need to die for our sins, you just made God a child abuser. Think about it. If He punished His Son when He did not need to punish His Son, it was meaningless. It's child abuse. When we look at the gospel, we see there's a need. It's for us. It's for our sin. It's because we deserve His wrath. Jesus was needed to be our substitute. He's not needed. It was a meaningful, meaningless pouring out of wrath upon a son. You just made God a monster. That's not a God worthy of worship. The God worthy of worship is the one that looks at us and says, they have no hope. They have no way. They will deserve my wrath. They will receive it unless I send my son. And then his death has meaning. Then his death has power. Then his death is necessary. And it wipes away all our sins. And it's for his glory that we come to believe in him. If you're not a Christian this morning, this is hard. Christianity cannot just be a simple sentiment. It's not just that Jesus comes and helps you when you're in trouble. Jesus is your life because you deserve death. Jesus is your justice because you are unjust and you deserve wrath. If you're not a Christian this morning, realize you are broken away from God. and that Jesus Christ has come to reconcile you. If you believe in Him, if you believe you deserve that wrath, if you believe that He came and took that wrath, if you believe He is risen, that is the only way to once again know God, to know the life that He has for you. Christian, stand firm on the one clear truth of the Evangelical Church. Jesus is the only way. Jesus is the only way. Cling to Christ. This is why we have to go out and share the gospel. This is why we have to go out and send missionaries. He's the only way. That is the only name under which anyone can be saved. They have to hear about the gospel. We've changed Vacation Bible School this week. It's a missionary training school. What we hope happens there is that we together as a church, old and young, not just for children, but everyone will come together and will realize how many people are still living today without any hope because they have not heard the name of Jesus. We're praying, and I want you to pray with me, that during the missionary training school, God will begin to call out missionaries from this church. our young ones, our young professionals, our married, our families, our retired folks, whoever it is, we pray God will use it to stir someone up, or many people up, to go out and proclaim that one name in which people must believe. Now let's go all the way back to the top. Chapter 14, verse 1. There's two elements to this passage, and we look at it in its fullness. There's a future hope, and there's the present belief. He sets forth what will happen, but then calls us to believe what's right there in front of them. He is the way, the truth, and the life. There's a future faith and a present faith. First, faith must be set on future hope. This takes us down through verse four. 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. I see for the disciples, given where we are in the timeline of Jesus, he's about to die. This is an urgent message. It's very powerful. Let not your hearts be troubled. On some level, they've just heard somebody's going to betray him. But why would our hearts be troubled? We're here having the Passover feast with our master. He just washed our feet. We're a little confused, maybe. But why would we be troubled? Well, Jesus knows that what's about to happen, it should trouble them. What's about to happen is extremely troubling. Their righteous master, their good and loving master, is about to be betrayed by a kiss. He will be treated like a common criminal. He'll be put forth as an unjust trial, given accusations that are not true. He'll be hung on a cross, a cursed death reserved for the most cruel and shameful criminals. He will die. He will die alone. This is all very troubling. He's preparing them for the trouble they're going to have to face. The light they've invested in, the light that they've been following, it's going to be extinguished. The one that they've been following, he's going to die. How could they not be troubled? How could they possibly not be troubled as they see their master die such a shameful death? Well, it's because he's been telling them promises along the way. He's been telling them this temple, it will be destroyed. They'll be raised back up in three days. They've had the word of God with them, that one sure foundation that goes against what we experience, what we sense. They should have been listening, they should have been believing. They have all the promises of God, they should believe in God and they should believe in the sun. Do not be troubled. And again, I just want to emphasize this is helpful instruction as they're about to see the most troubling event in their lives. Now, as we look at this in our life, we were after the cross, we're after the resurrection. They're being challenged to not be troubled when they see him die. We could apply this to our own life that's full of trouble. But we have even better news, better promises, because we know He's alive. Now, we live in a troubled world. We live in a world full of sin. And the prescription for us is the same prescription for them. Believe in God. Believe in the Son. Believe in the Father that He has a perfect plan and He will execute it. Believe in the Son that He loves you and is committed to you, regardless of who you are. When we're faced with trials, we are to believe and trust in the Father and in the Son. This is where it gets complicated, though. How do I grow in my trust? How do I trust God more? It's only by continuing and remaining in trust. We learn to trust God more by persevering and continuing to trust Him. This is important because life is extremely hard. It is extremely hard. We think about what is so troubling in this world, there's actually one thing that should trouble us the most. It's not the wars and the threat of wars. It's not our fear of politicians and their agendas. What should actually trouble us the most is the sin that resides in our hearts. The thoughts that we have throughout the week, that are towards sin, that are desires that we are constantly experiencing, that are lingering, that are opposed to God, the constant need to say no to temptation that bubbles up from within. That's troubling. We should be troubled over the kinds of sins that are always coming out from our hearts, and sometimes they make it out of our mouths. We need to be extremely troubled by what's residing in our heart, and we need to do this. We need to believe that even while we were sinners, Jesus died for us. This is the encouraging part, friends. Even though we have these sins residing in us, and they should be troubling, we must believe He died for us while we're still sinners. We must believe He's the Lamb of God that washes away all the sins, not just committed, but the ones that reside within. We must believe that he sent us the spirit to help us battle against these sins and fight the good fight. And I want to focus here on the future, right, verse two, and my father's house or many rooms, if it were not so what I have told you that I'm going and I'm going to come back and we're all going to be together. There's an important theological backdrop here as well. This is where the father son language of the Trinity is so important. He is the firstborn son. He is the heir to the entire inheritance of the kingdom of God. And what we see happening here is he's telling us in that kingdom, I'm going to make a place for you. I'm going to make a special place reserved for you. You get to share in my inheritance that I deserve and that you get by grace. Joseph is a beautiful type of this. He was betrayed by his brothers, put into a pit meant to be a grave. Denied by his brothers, hated by his brothers. They sought to kill him. But then God, in his goodness, he raised Joseph up out of the grave, out of the pit. He sent him into Egypt and then eventually, by God's good providence, using good for evil, he made Joseph the most powerful man in all of Egypt. He made him, put him in a position where he had the rights over all the land and all the kingdom. So that when his brothers came, he gave them the most choice pieces of land. He had the inheritance at his disposal and he used it for his brothers who had hated him. But yet he sought to reconcile them to himself. We have to realize we were created to be in a place of privilege with God. We were meant to be walking with him and talking with him and communication with him and relationship with him. But we chose that to pursue something that he was keeping from us, thinking he was keeping us from something good. And in pursuing that one thing, we lost everything. The most important thing about us, our friendship with God. Now, if you're a Christian, you're in a better position than Adam was before the fall. This is something that's very important to grasp. You were once in a right, Adam was in a good, right relationship with God as the most high servant in the entire kingdom. But now, because of Jesus, the son of God, we're adopted as heirs. It's a different, it's a different position. Not only is it that Adam was able to sin and when, and when we go into glory, we won't be able to sin. It's a whole different position. that Christ has accomplished for us. As you think about this house, it reminded me of one of those beloved stories in all scripture. Luke 15, the prodigal son, right? There's a father, there's a house, there's two sons. The younger son says, hey, dad, kind of wish you were dead already. Give me the inheritance that I deserve. That's what he was saying there. I wish you were already dead because your money is worth more to me than your life. He takes the money. He blows it. He spends it all. Then he realizes while he's there eating, wishing to eat the food of the pigs. My father, he's so much better to the servants than I'm being treated. I'll go back. I'll just beg to be a servant. I'll beg to be forgiven and be brought in just a general household. Not the position of the son, just a general household so I can at least eat a decent meal. Maybe he'll let me be a servant. What does the father do? He runs out and restores his son quickly and fully with a great celebration. The son is brought into the house. It's very important. The son is brought into the house where the celebration is. You have to remember, this story isn't primarily about that son. It's the older son. Where's he? He's not in the house. He's in the field. He's in the field, angry and sulking. He's in the field because he's looking back and he's saying, how dare you celebrate that son? I have earned my right in this home. How dare you celebrate That son of yours, he didn't have a place in the house, this older brother. We have to realize something. Licentious living, it drives you out of the house, but so does boasting in what you have done. There's two sins that drive you out of the house, that drive you out of the inheritance. One is the licentious living. I'm going to live as what my senses tell me, what I desire to do in my sin. And the other one, more dangerous. Boasting. Boasting in what you've done. How do you come into the house? Humbly. Recognizing you deserve nothing but punishment and seeking a God who is just and merciful. To trust God, we must remember his promises. What He accomplished for us on the cross, our sin is washed away and wiped away. He's promised that He would give us the Holy Spirit to convict us and convert us and change us. We must believe in the promise that He will return. We've just sung songs. I long for the day where the praise is never ending. Do we really? Is that what we're longing for? Are we really longing for that day when Christ will return? It'll be great. All the tears we wiped away, all the troubles gone, all those murderers and fornicators and liars and steal and thieves, they'll be all gone. We have to realize the beautiful thing about Christ's return is that our hearts will be renewed. We will no longer have bitterness. We will no longer have anger. We will no longer have lust, deceit, envy. When we're longing for heaven, we have to realize what we really are longing for is for this heart to be changed so that we can worship the way we're supposed to. Seek to purify your worship by now being expectant for Christ to come. This is the challenge. How much have you thought about the return of Christ this week? Me, not enough. That's always the answer. How much have I thought about the return of Christ this week? How much have you thought about the new heavens and the new earth that would await you? How much have you thought about the resurrected life? See, what we're longing for defines us. We're forgetful. We must be reminded that there is a new life awaiting us. This isn't it yet. Let's look at the second half of our passage. The present faith in Christ. This begins in verse five. Thomas decides to give Peter a break. Peter being the one who usually says something kind of dumb. This isn't a dumb question, this is that we had Peter, he said something stupid and other disciples decided to say something. Then Peter puts his foot back in his mouth and now another disciple is choosing to give Peter a break for a moment. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not 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. I pick on Peter, I pick on Thomas. It's actually kind of encouraging that Jesus loved them when they didn't get it all. It's not an excuse to be lazy and not pursue the truth deeply and fully and genuinely. But it is encouraging that these guys were so slow to learn and It's encouraging that God loves us regardless of how slow we are to learn, follow, trust, and obey. We really have to identify with Peter and Thomas. When I listen to this glorious truth, Jesus' answer, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. Now, those first two words, I am. John can be traced. You can organize John with the I am statements. This is a divine claim. In Exodus, when God revealed himself with his personal covenant name, I am who I am. I am with you. Jesus is identifying himself with God. I am. And then we have these three beautiful declarations. First thing, they actually tell us something about ourselves. If Jesus is saying, I am the way, we must realize we have gone astray. When he says, I am the truth, we have to realize we're living the lie. When he says, I am the life, we have to realize we are dead in sin. When he says, I am the way, we have all blazed our own path of sin. When he says, I am the truth, we have to realize we resist God's word and lean more upon our own understanding. When he says, I am the life, we rely too much on our own works. You know, as I think about this, I want to do a confession together. Stand up. Your part is this, and you can go ahead and warm up. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. I'll say one phrase and then you're going to respond. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Let's try that now. Jesus is the way, the truth, the life. We have all gone astray. We have all been deceived by our sin. We deserve death because of our sin. We have all pursued our own sin. We have all loved the lies that justify our sinful desires. We were all once under wrath and destined for hell. Our God has sent his son to call us back to himself. Our God has spoken to shine light into our darkness. Our God has saved us by the death of his son. All praise to him who sits in the throne as our prophet, priest, and king. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Amen. You may be seated. I am the way. This is interesting. The early church, this is one of the ways they identified themselves. They didn't call themselves Christians. That's actually what the Roman rulers or the culture would call them. They called themselves as people of the way. It is a significant marker for Christians. You have to realize that we've gone astray. That's the important part of appreciating I am the way, but we also realize the way is a continuous marker. In order to get the power of the way, we must not see if we must see that it's not a ticket booth. It's not an entry point, it's the way. It's not just simply merely one moment. It is how we live. It's not one point on a map among many. It is the way. It's not getting your hole punched on your Christianity card. The path is a great image for the Christian life. Christianity is a belief system. It's a lifestyle, an ethic, a worship. It's meant to be constant. Now, the thing about the way, we have to realize there's two different ways. There's the way, which is narrow. This is the way of righteousness. Then there's a way of destruction, which is broad. This is what's hard. The way of vice, it's downhill and it's wide and it's easy. The way of virtue, the way of Christ, is narrow and difficult. The way of Christ is narrow and it's difficult. Let me first explain what I mean by difficult. Becoming a Christian is hard. Because before you become a Christian, before you get to the point where I can say I believe in Jesus, you have to first get to the point where you realize I've got nothing good about me. That's hard. To realize there is nothing in me about myself towards God in which I can boast. I have nothing to take before God except for my own sin. That is difficult. And if it's not difficult enough to realize how bad we are, we have to realize we can't fix it. That's real frustrating for men. We see a problem, we're going to fix it. Why can't I fix it? Why is it that it gets worse when I try to fix it? We have to realize we're completely dependent upon Christ. He has to do it all. And we look at Him with an act of faith, trusting Him. But we have to realize we have nothing to bring to God of our own righteousness. And it's all of His righteousness. Now, I want to emphasize Coming to Christ, it's all of grace. It's a gift. It's given to you. But it's not cheap grace. It's not cheap grace. It costs Christ greatly. And it is costly for us. Not only is it hard and difficult to become a Christian, it's hard to live as a Christian. It's done with great effort. It's hard. It means going against the flow of the world. It means losing friends and gaining enemies. It means you have to resist sinful desires that seem natural, but are clearly condemned by Scripture. It's an uphill climb. It is a constant uphill battle. If you're coasting in your Christianity, you're going downhill. You're going the way of destruction. You're living in the way of destruction. To follow Christ is a difficult uphill task. Why do we go uphill? Because the higher and higher we get, the more glorious the vision of God is. It's difficult to cast off sin and be drawn closer to God. Now, there's an accusation we think about when it comes to Christians and the narrow way and that we can be narrow minded. Yes. Yes, we are. Without any apology. I'll speak for myself at this point. I'm narrow-minded and you should be too. The Bible says the way of righteousness is narrow. God says things and we have to think His thoughts after Him. We have to change the way we think to think like God. We have to change the way we desire to desire like God. A couple of these things that people would accuse us of, these narrow truths that people would accuse us of being narrow-minded. First, God hates divorce. God hates divorce. We need to be careful, those of us who are married, we need to be seeking Our marriages, when you be seeking their purity, when you be seeking the right standing before God, we have to realize that marriage is sanctified and ordained as good and right by God. This means you do not spend time with somebody of the opposite sex alone. If you're married, You protect yourself and your spouse. You do not spend time with someone of the opposite sex alone. That will seem narrow when you have to say, no, I'm going to drive my own car when someone from the opposite sex offers you a ride. But it's protection. You have to say no to certain kinds of meetings and coffees and opportunities. It's for your own protection. It's foolish to open the door of sin that's crouching, seeking to devour you. Abstain, keep yourself from every kind of evil. As I think about divorce, I also want to say this. God seeks to care for those who are divorced and cast out. One of the sweetest stories in all the Bible is Genesis 16. It's an amazing, moving story. Here's Hagar, who was forced by Sarah to be her husband's mistress. She is forced as a servant to be the husband's mistress. When Sarah has a child, what does she do with Hagar? Get her out of here. Throw her out. She's abused. She's left alone. She goes into the wilderness. She puts her son down because she cannot bear to see him die of starvation. Goes away and God appears and with the sweetest names in all scripture, the God who sees me. That's what she discovered. That though she had been cast out, though she was despised, though she had been despised by her own family and the man she had been with. God sought to care for her. He saw her. We have to think like God. With a desire to be like God desires, we have to seek those who are downtrodden and cast out and love them as God loves them. Another way we're narrow-minded. God believes marriage is between one man and one woman. So must we. Let me speak to you. If you struggle with a same-sex attraction, You have to fight the same fight everybody else in this room has to fight. And it's a desire that's perverse and twisted and corrupted and wants to send you in the wrong way. We all have desires that are seeking to corrupt the way we think about God, the way we think about ourselves. And it all stems from a denial to thank God and honor Him. We're not afraid of those desires. We cannot be afraid of those desires that reside in us. And in everybody else, that twists and corrupts us. We all have different kinds of desires, but they're all twisted. Another point we need to make sure is clear. God says, protect your eyes, your hearts, and your minds. I'm regularly railing against pornography. I realize that. And I'll stop as soon as I have to quit counseling people about it. It's a disease. It's an addiction. Every sin's an addiction, actually. Every sin's an addiction because that sin says, you need me. That sin takes your mind, it takes your heart, and it makes you think, it makes you feel as if you need it. That's an addiction. And that addiction has power over you unless Christ comes and frees you with his victory. When we think of the way, we must realize we have a new master. We are called to obey him and to trust him. When we think of the way, we must realize we must grow and be fruitful in good works. We live in a fallen world. It's a painful reality, this fallen world. It's not the way it's meant to be. Now, many of us are experiencing how bad this fallen world is because many of us are trying to build a garden right now. And the garden is a great lesson here. I've been spending a lot of time in the garden, so here we go. What's so frustrating about the garden is that the things that you want to grow, they take a lot of time, they take a lot of care, and they're very tender. The things you don't want to grow, grow so easily and quickly and fully. Friends, that's the heart. It's a beautiful metaphor for the heart. It's part of the curse. I think it's helpful for us. The curse is that the thorns and thistles are going to grow so much quicker and harder and better than the good fruit. So you've got to work harder at them. That's our heart. Sin grows so quickly. So fully. In order to properly Take care of your heart. We must see that we've got to get to the root of sin. It's not just plucking the action off. It's the root of sin. What are the desires that are causing those sinful actions to take place? We have to realize sometimes the ground has to be broken up pretty bad to get those weeds out. Sometimes it takes surgical precision to get those weeds out. It's frustrating work. Because every time you take a weed out, when you go back, there's another weed there. So it is with our hearts. The way is how we walk. Walk worthy of the calling, not with envy, lust, anger, bitterness, grumbling or complaining, but with peace, love, joy, gentleness, patience and self-control. Secondly, I am the truth. I am the truth. We live in a world full of lies and liars. There's lies all around us. Let me just list out a couple of these. One, we're constantly being bombarded with what a woman should look like. There are lies constantly in front of us about what a woman should look like. It's a lie to women because it's telling you to put your self-worth in where Scripture tells you not to. Not in your braided hair or your appearance, but in your good work. Women, find your worth, not in the outward beauty the world is constantly pressing you with, but in what glorifies God, and that is your character. Men, avoid the lie of the world and looking for a woman like the world is telling you. Men, I'll say a little harder, quit being stupid. External beauty fades. Desire the character of a woman. Another lie, what will make you happy? I mean, this is the constant, this new commodity. If you have this new thing, it will make you happy. Then you'll need another new thing, another new thing. There's constantly a lie vying for your happiness. It's sports, entertainment, vacations, comfort. They're all competing for your entertainment. You're either going to be delighted in God or these things that are not satisfying. We need to believe the truth. We are created by God for God. When you believe the truth, we love the darkness rather than the light. And that's what keeps us from God. And that Christ has come to save us. The truth is against all the lies. Key question. Who's the most dangerous liar out there? Who's the most dangerous liar to you? Satan, we could give that answer because his lie really set the world in the wrong direction. But I'll tell you what I think the most dangerous liar is. It's ourselves. We lie to ourselves. We love the lies. We find comfort in the lies. In the lies. And one of the difficult things about the way and the truth, because the way is so hard, sometimes we think, you know, I need a break. I need a rest. And there's a twisted, corrupt thing about this. We say, you know what? I'm going to rest by kind of letting my guard down and I'll just rest and maybe enjoy some sin. You know how ridiculous that is? To try to find rest in the hard, difficult way by believing the lie that somehow sin is going to add rest? That's not where rest is found. We must realize that we are so susceptible to the law. And finally, I am the life. Jesus came to give life and life more abundantly. The life we cannot get on our own. The life we have lost because of our sin. In Christ there is life. It is to be enjoyed. It is to be enjoyed abundantly. We need rest. We need rest in Him alone. In order to live the life and enjoy the life Christ has provided for us, we must resist sin. Spurgeon said it this way. Sin has been pardoned at such a price that we cannot henceforth trifle with it. Or Peter says it very well. If you've been purchased with the precious blood of Christ, live obediently. He's provided life with his death. Now he's calling us to a new kind of life that's better than that old life that was only destruction and would end in death. Why are we so easily tempted and swayed to think that death is better than the life Christ has for us. Why is it we try to find rest in that death? Why is it we're so tempted to be the dog that returns to its vomit? It's because we're so easily swayed by lies and those desires within us are twisted. We must constantly seek Christ. As we close, Jesus is our way, our truth, in our life, the only hope we have, the only sure foundation, what we must be placing our faith in presently, longing for the true, final cleansing, glorification that awaits us when He comes and gets us and brings us to Himself. Will you pray with me? Father, we praise You that You have not left us in our own sin. You came and you pursued us, you sent your son to us, you've now given us your spirit. Help us as a church to walk together on this narrow way. To remind one another, to warn one another, to rebuke one another when necessary, to encourage one another, reminding each other of your glory, your grace, your promises. We praise you, Jesus, because you are our way and our truth and our life. Help us to cling to those promises now and help us to wait expectantly for your final fulfillment. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.