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Pastor David Mitchell
In talking about the character of God, we mentioned earlier in this series that theologians are universal in mentioning three things that they say God is. First of all, in 1 John 4 .8, the Bible says, He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love.
In 1 John 1 .5, the Bible says, God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. In John 4 .24, the Bible says, God is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. And I believe that we can add three more to those three.
If you turn to John chapter 14 and verse 6, I think these should be added. Let's get Brother Otis to write a new theology book and add these three. John 14 .6 says, Jesus saith unto him, I am, and here are the three others, the way, the truth, and the life.
It could be written this way, I am way, truth, and life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. For if you had known me, you should have known my Father also. And from henceforth ye know him and have seen him.
So in recent days, we've talked about God's holiness, God's justice, God's love. And we finished talking about God's goodness, though you've really never finished talking about that because it's laced within all the rest of these topics.
And this morning, I want to cover this topic. God is the way. Turn with me to Genesis chapter 6, verse 10. You'll see why I got a little nervous in Sunday school this morning. I thought Brother Otis was going to preach the entire message.
Like Brother Russell said, we had to have our pizza delivered a little earlier today. But when Jesus said, I am the way, this is misunderstood by many, in fact, by most. Many believe that it means Jesus was saying, I am the example.
Some would say Jesus is saying, I'm the pointer. I'm the one who points men to God. Some would say that Jesus is saying that when he says, I am the way, that he's saying that Christianity is a religious method and the right religious method.
Some might say when Jesus says, I am the way, that he is a choice that is better than lesser choices. Some may think when Jesus said, I'm the way, that he's saying I'm the right way, not the wrong way.
But I'll tell you this, Jesus is not saying I am the direction. He is not saying I am the direction to heaven. He's not saying I'm pointing the direction. He's not saying I'm the example of how to walk in order to get to heaven.
That is not what he means when he says, I am the way. What he means when he says, I am the way, is he means I am the way. He means I am the vehicle. The way is me, is what he means. In Genesis chapter six, verse 10, Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them.
And behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Notice that even as far back as prior to the flood, there was an us and a them. Isn't that interesting? Noah was part of the us group. Part of his family got to be a part of the us group.
But the vast majority of the world of that day were a part of the them group. And notice that it says that the them group had corrupted God's way upon the earth. This word corrupt is shalkoth, which means that they had caused it to decay or be ruined.
And it carries the connotation. In fact, it's been translated in other places in the Old Testament to utterly waste, which I think is my favorite definition. It was utterly wasted. They had utterly wasted his way on the earth.
And it says that they brought violence. And this word doesn't mean that in the same sense that we use it today where it's so exclusive to meaning only violent acts. In the Bible language, it simply is khalmas, which means wrong.
So when it says that for the earth is filled with wrong, made me think of a discussion this morning in Sunday school and the one that we had after Sunday school. With the beautiful illustration, and I suppose I'm gonna have to tell it, Bill, or it won't make sense to anybody but you and me because the rest of us didn't get to hear what you said.
But Brother Verge brought up the question in Sunday school, since all things came from God, isn't it true in a sense that sin came out of God? Well, there is a sense in which that's true, but were there a baby Christian around or someone who hadn't been in the word long, it would really ruffle their feathers.
But really, there is a better way to explain it. And Brother Otis has explained it to me very eloquently before over coffee where he said, David, you need to understand that it's that God is good. He doesn't have to create evil.
He doesn't have to create sin, and he never did. It's merely the opposite of him. And Brother Bill put it this way in telling me an example that they use in mathematics that in ancient times, when they would count their sheep, they would say, well, there's one sheep.
There's two sheep. There are three sheep. If the sheep were not there, they didn't say there are zero sheep. They just said, there's grass. They didn't have a concept of zero. And so that was developed later for mathematical purposes.
But what it meant was the absence of sheep and zero itself really wasn't anything. And that's kind of what sin is like. Did I explain that pretty well? Okay. Well, don't you think it's interesting that in this passage in Genesis chapter six, that God says that the earth was filled with violence.
Actually, in the Hebrew language, the word is better to say that the earth was filled with the absence of God's way. Now, we call it violence or sin or wrong, which I think is a great translation of this word, wrong.
The earth was filled with wrong through them. Who is them, by the way, before we go any further? Whose seed? Satan's seed. And the earth was filled with the opposite or the absence of the way through them.
And God says, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Now, this is kind of interesting to me too. You see up here where it says that in verse 12, it was corrupt. And we said that this word corrupt can mean utterly waste or too utterly waste.
The word destroy at the end of verse 13 is the identical Hebrew word, shalkof. So God says that those who brought shalkof or utterly waste have wasted my way upon the earth. Behold, I will shalkof them with the earth.
They brought waste and utter waste to the earth and I will now use the earth to utterly waste them, God says. But now let's move on into Brother Otis's message for a moment, verse 14. Make thee an ark of gopher wood, room shalt thou make in the ark and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
This word pitch in the Hebrew is kothar, which that one Hebrew word that we're kind of familiar with because it's the word that our English word atonement comes from and it means a covering. And so there is a lot of symbolism in the ark.
In fact, the ark is so symbolic, it's just almost moved from being symbolism to just absolutely bordering on being the real thing, but it is a picture. It is a marvelous picture of Jesus Christ. And so when Jesus said, I am the way, he didn't mean I'm Noah pointing the way to the ark.
He didn't mean that I am preaching a righteous message to show all of you how to go get on the ark because that's the way. Here's the direction, go this way and go through that door. Get on that big funny looking boat.
That's not what Jesus meant. That's not what he is. He is the boat and the kothar, the pitch, the tar that was placed on it, sealed it so that the water of judgment could not get in to it. And that is a picture of the atoning blood of the little Old Testament animals pointing the way to the cross where Jesus did more than atone for our sins.
He obliterated them from our viewpoint anyway. He totally removed them from us by his own blood. He became the scapegoat and our sins were placed upon him and he was sent into a wilderness. They will never understand anything about the wilderness that he suffered when he was on that cross.
He said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Beautifully pictured. But look at verse 16. I'll talk about something we didn't cover in Sunday school. A window that thou make to the ark, shalt thou make to the ark.
And in a cubit shalt thou finish it above and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof with lower, second, third stories. Shalt thou make it. This Hebrew word window is sohar and it literally means dual, double light.
All in one word. In fact, it is translated anywhere in the Old Testament you see the word noon, high noon, the brightest part of the day where the sun shines its brightest. It comes from this little word sohar and it can be translated into a window because that's what brings that brightness in.
And it's interesting that this window was placed on the top of the ark, not on the side like you would in your house. God had it placed so strategically that they could not look out and see his wrath and the judgment that was becoming upon them.
All that the us could do was look up and see the light of God through that window. Well, that window is a part of the ark and the entire ark is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and Jesus is the way.
When you look at the boat itself into which God's people were placed, you remember who shut the door? God shut the door. That's what happens at the moment you got saved. When you receive Jesus into your heart, your personal Lord and Savior, you step through that door into Christ and God shut the door and you were sealed within there, be safe through all the storms of this world.
And his blood was the pitch that sealed you. And that window is the window of faith that we look through every moment of every day while we're still really down here in this storm. And when we look through there, we see light and only God is light.
And so the first thing I think about when I think about God being the way is this ark, which is such a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus who is the way. It goes on in verse 17. And behold, I, even I do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life from under heaven and everything that is in the earth shall die.
But with thee will I establish my covenant and thou shalt come into the ark. I am the way, the only way. If you are not in me, you're out of the way. And we give that terminology, like brother Bill says, the mathematicians create a zero, but it really means nothing.
It's the opposite of the way. So if you are not inside this ark, I hate to use bad grammar, but you ain't got no nothing. You don't have no way. And there's no one to point you in the way because Jesus is not a pointer.
He is the ark. And God has commanded us to come into the ark and made a covenant with us, thou and thy sons and thy wife and thy sons' wives with thee. Isn't it interesting that in Matthew chapter 24, verse 38, it says, for as in the days of Noah that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark.
They were not in the way. They had their own way, but it was not the way. Their own way was to focus on eating, banqueting, and drinking, and becoming drunken, gluttony and drunkenness, and marrying and giving in marriage.
All that the world has to offer, they focused on it. It became their God, their idol. Their love until the day Noah entered the way. And when Noah entered the way, all the rest were found out of the way.
Bible says, and knew not until the blood came and took them all away. Not the way, but away. So shall also the coming of the son of man be. There's a warning for the future. For the now, perhaps. This generation is that as this generation is so caught up in eating and drinking, some of the best stocks you can buy if you're in the stock market are restaurant stocks probably nowadays because America has left the home and gone into the restaurant.
Not preaching against eating in restaurants. In fact, I believe in it very heavily. But there's a great focus in this country on eating and drinking. And as we know upon marriage and all the things that the world has to offer, and the Bible says, just as the flood came and took them all away in that same manner, so shall it be at the coming of the son of man.
There'll be two in the field. One will be taken, the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill. The one shall be taken, the other left. Watch, therefore, for you know not what hour your Lord doth come.
Here we see the rapture. We see the second coming. God says that it's very much like the days of Noah, as in the days of Noah. Well, in Genesis 18 and 16, we move forward a little bit in the history of the world, and we see another place where we can discover a little bit about what the way of the Lord means.
God is dealing with Abraham. And the Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.
For I know him that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep, quote, the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.
And you may say, well, that makes it sound like that the way is stuff you do. But he said that he knew that he would instruct his household and his children to keep the way of the Lord and to do justice and judgment.
The word way in the Hebrew literally means a road or a course of life. But where it says that he will do the way and it will be justice and judgment, the word justice in the Hebrew literally means rightness.
He will do rightness. And the word judgment means to pronounce a verdict judicially. It means to have judgment, wisdom, the ability to make a correct judgment. And when we look into Proverbs chapter 8 and we see the personification of wisdom, we find out if we read far enough that it is, in fact, Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the personification of wisdom and judgment and justice. And so God looked down at Abraham and he said, I know he'll stay in the way. Now, if you don't realize that it's a person, not a thing that he's doing, not acts that he's doing, but the way that Abraham stayed in and kept his family in was the Lord himself.
Turn to Genesis 24 and look at this for a moment, starting with about verse 10. The way is not a direction. It's not a moral or ethical standard. It's not a list of things we can do that is making us be like God.
The way is God himself. Genesis 24, 10. And the servant took 10 camels. I'm sorry, I'm in the wrong place. Forgive me. I'm gonna get into Otis's Sunday school lesson if I go there. So let me, I'm gonna start over here.
Wait just a second, hold on. If you didn't know, you could mess me up this badly, didn't you? I'm trying to skip part of my sermon, that's what I'm doing. Well, I apologize. We may just totally skip that part.
We'll have to, I'm sorry. Let me just tell you about what I was gonna give you scriptures on. Is the part where Moses said, show me yourself. And God said, I can't show you my face. And it says he put him in the cleft of a rock.
And he put him in that place. Now I see it in my notes. It's in Exodus chapter 33, I apologize. Let's turn to Exodus 33. He says, I will put him in a cleft of the rock, but he can't see my face. Let's drop down about verse 13.
Exodus 33. Now, therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way. See that little phrase? Show me thy way. That I may know thee, and that I may find grace in thy sight, and consider that this nation is thy people.
And he said, my presence shall go with thee. He did not give him at that point a list of instructions, are good things to do, are godly characteristics to try to have in his life. When Moses asked the Lord, I pray thee, show me now thy way, the Lord's response was, my presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.
Isn't that amazing? He said unto him, if thy presence go not with me, carry us not up from this place. Love this passage. For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight, is it not that thou goest with us?
Do you see how he's not pointing the way? He is the way. His presence with them was the way. It is not that thou goest with us, so shall we be separated. Even Moses understood that to be separated or to be brought out from the world and to be different is caused simply by God's presence in the life.
It is not caused by trying to keep a list of things that I can be different from other people. Now that's what causes religious perversion and legalism and these strange churches where people are kind of like Martin Luther was, you know, under the yoke of man's rule.
But Moses said, no, if you go with us, this is how we will be separated and I and thy people from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. In Exodus 33, 17, and the Lord said to Moses, I will do this thing also that thou has spoken.
In other words, I'll go with you. For thou has found grace in my sight and I know thee by name. You know, that's the only way he'd go with you. He might as well have said, I have known thee from all eternity.
I have known thee by name. That's why I go with thee. And he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. He still remembered the whole question is, show me your way. And God redirected his question and said, no, you don't need me to show you some things to do.
My presence will be with you. So now Moses is asking the right question and he's saying, well, now, if that's how I find your way by finding you, then show me you. What a brave man Moses was. He was rather ignorant about God's being at that point.
But God continues to bear with him. And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee. Now we have an interesting thing about to happen. We're going to see the Lord proclaiming the name of the Lord.
We're going to begin to see the Lord Jesus proclaiming the name of the Lord. He says, I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. You see, that is not modern theology.
Modern theology is God is gracious to all. The sign on the little church that you pass says, Jesus loves everybody. God himself says, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. I will show mercy on whom I will.
And the emphasis is on I will, his will, his sovereign will show mercy. And he said, thou canst not see my face for there shall no man see my face and live. Now Moses is no longer ignorant about this matter.
He now begins to understand. And the Lord said, behold, there's a place by me and thou shalt stand upon a rock. Isn't it wonderful how God uses pictures, teaches spiritual things. We know who the rock is, don't we?
And it shall come to pass while my glory passeth by that I will put thee in a cliff of the rock and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by. And I will take away mine hand and thou shalt see my hinder parts.
But my face shall not be seen in passage of scripture. As you go on and follow the story, five, next chapter. And the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord.
What's happening? Who is this? Who is this Lord which descended and can stand as a man and proclaim the name of the Lord? That's the way. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.
And that will by no means clear the guilty. That's the them. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children and to the third and the fourth generation. And Moses made haste and bowed down his head toward the earth and worship.
See, worship comes at the presence of the Lord. Doesn't bring his presence. Now, praise may have something to do with that, humanly speaking. Praise comes and the Lord loves praise and the Lord is then in the midst of his praise.
And then when the Lord becomes to be in the midst of his praise, worship follows because worship is the natural response of a spiritual person to the presence of God. And he bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.
And he said, if now I have found grace in thy side, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us. You see how he's saying he's no longer asking point me the way to live, right? He's saying you are the way and you must be with us.
Go among us. If we found grace in your sight, Lord, we pray thee, we beg thee, go among us for we're a stiff neck people and pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us for thine inheritance. And he said, behold, I make a covenant.
Before all the people, I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth nor in any nation and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the Lord. For it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee.
You might say it in modern English, amazing, an awesome thing that I will do with thee. That could be said of you this morning. You children, you older children, you younger children, do you realize that the Lord is going to do an awesome thing with your life?
He has shown his grace upon you and placed you in the ark. Who is the ark? Jesus. And because of your position in that ark and because that means God is present with you all the time, it means you are therefore in the way and the Lord will do awesome and amazing things with you.
Things that are not seen out there in the world, things that can't be seen in the other nations and that's a type or picture of the lost seed of Satan. The people of the world, these things can't even be seen among them unless they see it in us.
Observe thou that which I command thee this day. Behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Phisorite, the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Take heed to thyself lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land.
It is not appropriate with God dwelling in us for us to make a covenant with the people of Satan. It is not appropriate, it cannot be. Take heed that it does not happen whether thou goest lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee that ye shall destroy their altars, break down their images, cut down their groves.
All of these things are the absence of the way. These are the non-way, the anti-way. For thou shalt worship no other God. You know what? That's kind of like the zero, Brother Bill. We use the phrase no other God simply as a mathematical proposition, but really it represents nothing because there is no other God.
We really don't even need to discuss other gods. But from a human viewpoint, for the sake of our limited language, we invent the zero and we put it here and call it another god. But we're supposed to destroy this nothingness, don't allow it to become part of our real life because it says we shall destroy the altars, break down their images, cut down their groves, for thou shalt worship no other god.
For the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous god. Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a-whoring after their gods, that's our children. For not to allow that, and to do sacrifice unto their gods, to live their life for these nothings, for these non-entities, these lifeless things that are called gods.
And thou eat of his sacrifice, and thou take of their daughters unto thy sons. And you allow their daughters to go a-whoring after their gods and make your sons go a-whoring. After their gods. That passage of scripture teaches very clearly that the way is God himself, that we are in God and that's the only way we can be protected from the world's lifestyle, the world's judgment of sorrow, and blackness, and darkness, and emptiness, oppression.
Because they really don't have the way. So we see that the way is typified in the ark. We see that the way is typified in the rock. As Moses asked to see the way and God said, I'm the way and my presence is with you.
And he said, then let me see you. So we see that it's typified in the rock. There's another way in the Bible in which it's typified and that's in the cloud and the fire of Exodus chapter 13 and verse 21.
And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them the way. And by night a pillar of fire to give them light to go by day and night. He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night from before the people.
You know why he didn't take it away? Because it was him. He can't take himself away from his own people. And we know that the pillar of cloud and the fire gave the direction. So if we want to bring it into human terms and say, well, how do we know the way?
How do we know your way, God? We know his way by simply following because he is with us. He is within us. And it's beautiful that in Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 30, it recounts this and discusses it and gives this beautiful little phrase.
Deuteronomy 130, the Lord, your God, which goeth before you, he shall fight for you. We battle out against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness. But God fights for us. According to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, he's given us physical pictures.
He's given us examples of how he fought physical battles for his people. And they are merely pictures of the spiritual battles that he fights for you and your children, your wife, your husbands every day.
According to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes and in the wilderness where thou has seen how that the Lord thy God bear thee as a man doth bear his son in all the way that you went until you came into this place.
Yet in this thing, you did not believe the Lord, your God, who went in the way before you to search you out and place a place to pitch your tents in. Now you think about this part of history where they pitched their tents and the fire hovered over them by night.
And in the day, the pillar of the cloud stayed. But if it moved, what were they supposed to do? Take up the tents and move with it until it stops. And then they pitched the tents again. And he says, even with all this, you didn't believe.
You didn't have faith. You didn't believe the Lord, your God, who is the one who went in the way before you to search you out a place to pitch your tent in. In fire by night to show you by what way you should go.
And in a cloud by day. Isn't that beautiful? God doesn't just give you a list. He doesn't just point you in a direction. Jesus didn't just say, well, I'm the way. Here it is. Go this way. He came inside of us.
And came to dwell within us. And when he moves, we move. And where he goes, we go. And we find ourselves, therefore, in the way. Well, that's all we have time for this morning. But I want to close with this passage.
Deuteronomy 28, verse 1. It shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God. Now, you see, we grow up. We think of that meaning that God's given us the Ten Commandments and all of the rules.
And we're supposed to keep them. But what is emphasized in this verse is his voice, which is him. What is your voice? Your voice is the way you express your spirit to my spirit. So he says to follow the voice.
The person, not the rules. The rules are important. Don't get me wrong. You can't follow them by trying to follow them. You can only follow the rules and find yourself in God's way by hearing the voice, being with the voice, by being with the Lord Jesus in fellowship and in union and in communion.
That oneness that he brings into our life when we're spirit-filled. To observe and do all his commandments, which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high. Do you realize that if you walk in Christ, he has promised he will set you on high above all the nations of the earth, above the world, above the flesh, above the devil, above the earthly law, above the physical things that it showed.
You're above it. You're in the spiritual realm. You are in the heavenly. All these blessings shall come on thee and the blessings will overtake thee. Isn't that amazing to picture yourself being overtaken by a blessing as if we're running from them?
Sometimes we are. They'll overtake us. These blessings shall come on thee and overtake thee if thou shalt hearken unto the voice, not the rules, the voice of the Lord thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city and blessed shalt thou be in the field.
Blessed shalt be the fruit of thy body, our children in this room today, and the fruit of the ground and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kind and the flocks of thy sheep, their economic well-being.
Blessed shalt be thy basket and thy store. You will have enough. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out. That's the way. You are now in the way. The Lord shall cause thine enemies, listen to this one, that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face.
They shall come out against thee one way, but they shall flee before thee seven ways. Let's stand. Dear Father, we thank you so much for your written word. We thank you that you've placed your spirit within our hearts, that you might teach us the written word and make it become your voice as you speak to us by it.
We can hear your voice. We thank you that you are the spirit of Christ in us. We have the way. We don't need to seek the way. We need to listen and walk in the way. Thank you so much for saving us, for opening our eyes to you, to your love.
Thank you so much that we have looked at you and said, Lord, what would you have us to do? And you have indwelt our bodies, fellowship with our spirits, become one and brought us into union with the Father himself.
Because you are the only way to the Father. Thank you for placing us in you. Lord, as we go out and come in, may we be in the way. As we go about our lives, may we find ourselves in the way and hearing your voice continually.
Thank you for the promises of these blessings, even the fact that you promised you would bless our children if we find ourselves in the way. They're comforting to our hearts, especially in these end times.
So, Lord, we just thank you for your beautiful words today, for your spirit, which moves our hearts. I don't know what else to say other than thank you. Bless our meal together, we ask in Jesus' name.