I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life

of the Lord's Day Gathering. You can go ahead and be seated, thank you. We wanted to start the service off with that declaration of he is the one that we are gathered to worship today.

He is holy, and he is worthy of our praise, amen? We're glad you're here.

Today is kind of a special week, because this past Friday, we as a church, we came to our fourth anniversary of our very first service.

Our first service was September 20th of 2020 in our home, and we didn't know if anybody was gonna show up, and God has just continued over the past four years to prove his faithfulness.

Through difficulty, many of you have been here for much of that time, and we've gone through struggles, sickness, joy, people coming and going all along.

Christ has been building his church, and we trust that he is going to continue.

We are overwhelmingly grateful for what he has done, and we are looking forward to see what

King Jesus is going to do with his bride moving forward, and we trust him, don't we, church?

We rest in the providence of the triune God, but welcome to the Lord's Day Gathering.

I wanna say a special welcome to our covenant members, of course. Thank you for using your gifts.

I know we've got a number of people out today. We set up a few fewer chairs today because we knew we were gonna be kinda low, so for those of our covenant members that are elsewhere this morning watching online, we know that's not church, but we're at least glad you get to be a part of us in that way, but also wanna say a special welcome to our guest today.

Many of you, if you're a first -time guest, you got a bag at the beginning, and there's a Connect card that's inside that bag.

We would like to get to know you. We'd like to be able to answer any of the questions that you might have about what is this church?

What are we about? What do we believe? And then also, there's a section on the back that just says, how can we pray for you?

Everybody needs prayer. I know I need prayer. Every once in a while, I probably need to pull one of these cards out and hand it in. Fill out prayer requests because we gather on Tuesday mornings, which, by the way, members, if you have opportunity, every

Tuesday morning, this building is open from seven to eight a .m., and there is a group of us that gather around the chairs over there, and we pray.

We pray for those needs when you ask for prayer, and then we can get to know you through that card.

So we look forward to getting to know you. We're glad you're here. We pray that all of us would grow in the fear and knowledge of the triune

God today, God the Father who set his love upon us, God the Son who came and redeemed us by blood ransom, and God the

Holy Spirit who now seals us as a guarantee of that inheritance. And boy, oh boy, is he worthy of worship.

And so we are glad that all of you are here. We've got some announcements, actually, before we jump into worship for you to know about.

The family picnic is coming up. Guests, you are welcome to come to this. We would love for you to. It's gonna be

October 5th. We're meeting at Pavilion 5 at Craighead Forest Park. We're gonna have some food, and we would love for you to be able to RSVP.

If you're gonna come, there's a number on there. I believe that is Jamie's number. If you've got

Jamie's number, you can just text her. But if not, you can jot down this number up here and send a text.

Just say, hey, there's gonna be two of us. There's gonna be five of us. There's gonna be 20 of us. Whatever it may be, that way we can prepare for food.

We're gonna go and play some games, enjoy hopefully some fall weather by October 5th, but you never know in Jonesboro, right?

It could literally be 90 degrees or it could be 20 degrees and anything in between. So it's kind of a shot in the dark, but we will have fun nonetheless.

Our next announcement that we have this morning is if you join us at our doctrinal training on Wednesday nights as adults, we've been walking through different studies, and we just, this next

Wednesday, we're wrapping up 12 weeks in the doctrines of grace. And that has been, if y 'all enjoyed that study, that's been a good study,

I believe. It's been very helpful for us. But instead of jumping into a specific study for a specific set of time, we just thought we'd open up the questions.

Many of us just have questions about faith, life in Christ, about doctrine, theological questions.

You can see some examples up there. Whatever that question may be as it pertains to the Christian life and doctrine, please text, that's my number up there actually.

So if you don't have my number, jot it down, save it, you've got my number, and you can text, preface your question with question.

We're just gonna spend a week, a Wednesday at a time, just answering those questions and dealing with them.

Nothing is too practical and nothing is too heady and theological. We will try and address all and as many as we can.

And the next one that we have is membership class. If you are a guest, if you have not covenanted with this body and you are interested in saying, hey, what is 12 .5

church about? Like, what do they actually believe? And how do they function? What does it mean for me to covenant with them?

I'm not sure what all that means. Well, this is a perfect chance for you to come. This is the first steps towards membership.

It's a four week class starting October 9th. And so we walk through an introduction, then we go through the statement of faith, then we go through the church structure, and then finally the membership covenants.

And we would love for you to come and hear what it is, what it means to be a part of this covenant body.

So these are our announcements. That being said, that leads us in membership class to one of our favorite things that we do around here on the

Lord's day is the recognition of new covenant members.

Wilson family, would you mind coming on up here? Alrighty, so I'm gonna make sure to get this right.

All right, Zoeanna, right, okay. Sylvia, I got it, okay. Adeline, Adeline, Adeline.

Okay, I got it, all right. Joseph, that's my son's name. Joseph, that's a good name.

And Timothy. And this is Matt and Bethany Wilson. Matt has served, you served for what, two years in Harrisburg as a pastor there.

And you are now a chaplain at St. Bernard's. And so Matt and his family have been coming for a while.

Many of y 'all know them, have gotten to know them well. I hope and pray that all of us can get to know them even better.

They've gone through the membership class. They've gone through all of it. And they have been extremely thoughtful about what it means to come and covenant with this body.

And so they understand what they're signing up for, believe it or not, right?

They're crazy like us, they've committed to it. And so we are excited to present them.

We as the elders have met with them many times and talked and answered questions and walked through that.

And we feel confident to present this family to our church family for the affirmation of bringing them into this covenant.

And so church, if you're a member and you affirm this family to become a member,

Matt and Bethany, and then they are bringing along their children, for them to be a member of this church, please stand in affirmation, amen, amen.

If everyone would stand, please, let's pray together over this family and where God is going to use their gifts for the betterment of this particular body.

Dear heavenly father, Lord, we come before you now and we are thankful. King Jesus, you build your church.

You place every block. You are strategically building this temple, building this body, building this church exactly as you prescribed and see fit.

And Lord, I have no doubt that your hand is in this with Matt and Bethany.

Lord, we see giftings in them. We see the giftings from you and both of them.

And we ask and pray that you would use those gifts to your glory. Lord, that we as a body would benefit from those gifts and grow in sanctification and strength.

Father, I pray for the children. I pray for these wonderful children that you would raise them up in the fear and knowledge of you that you would allow them to see the beauty of your bride here in this present darkness, in the midst of a dark world, that they would see the light shining from your body, the bride.

Lord, we thank you for them. Bless them. Bless us as a church that we would honor you with our lives.

We thank you. We are grateful for all that you are doing in Christ's name. We pray all of this and everyone said, amen.

Guys, that's always a wonderful time. Yeah, watch your step coming off of here. It's kind of hard to see here. Yeah, it's a good idea.

But before we go to a call to worship to officially start off our Lord's Day gathering, we always pray for another local church, right?

Another church that's gathered today to honor Christ, to come together and worship him on his day.

And so today we have First Baptist Church of Walnut Ridge. We just wanna bow before the

Lord and ask that he would work in their midst, that he would work in their leadership and in their people and do kingdom work through that body.

So please pray with me. Lord, we thank you once again. We ask for our brothers and sisters at First Baptist in Walnut Ridge.

We ask that you would work through and in them as you do us.

Father, I pray for their leadership. Lord, I don't know the pastors there, Lord, but you do.

And I ask that you would allow them to grow in you, to fear you, to love you, to be in awe of you, to love your word, to proclaim it with boldness and clarity that they would proclaim the full counsel of God, that they would not fear man in any way.

Lord, I pray for their people, that they would have a hunger for your truth and that they would be used to share the gospel in that community, that you would raise them up as a people of your word, as a people of your truth, that they would be doers of the word and not hearers only.

We thank you for them. We pray that they would be blessed this Lord's day. In Christ's name, we pray this, amen.

Well, guys, let's start off our service. We have a call to worship from Psalm 119, verses 41 through 48.

And for those of you that are guests, our call to worship is typically a psalm. It's always scripture and it's a read and a response.

And so you can see the screen is split. And so I will read the first part of the verse and you as a church will declare the next section of that verse as we go through, because you will see that here at 12 .5,

worship is not the active participants from the stage and then the recipients.

Worship, well, you're the worship team, we're it. We're all, this is a response.

And so that's why we've structured this way. But coming from Psalm 119, starting in verse 41, the psalmist says, let your steadfast love come to us,

O Lord. Then shall we have an answer for him who taunts us.

And take not the word of truth utterly out of our mouths. We will keep your law continually.

And we shall walk in a wide place. We will also speak of your testimonies before kings.

For we find our delight in your commandments. We will lift up our hands towards your commandments, which we love.

And all God's people said, amen, amen. Let's go to our God in a prayer of adoration before we sing to him.

Amen. Father, God who is above all creation, setting enthroned in the heavens, may your great name be magnified in the hearts of your people today.

That through, though our worship falls short of your transcendent glory, may it be a sweet smelling aroma rising into your throne room.

Not due to any righteousness of our own, but because of your great love, which you have shown us.

You've done so through the imputation of your son's righteousness that covers us and presents us to you in perfection.

And the glorious power of the Holy Spirit that it dwells and leads us to worship in spirit and in truth.

Oh, because of this, we find our delight in your truth, in your commandments, because we now love your law.

We've been given the ability to love your law. We desire today to meditate on your statutes, for they allow us to see a glimpse of your glory.

May our emotions and affections be aligned to your truth this

Lord's Day. And as we come into your presence as your children, our very lives would be a reflection of your radiant splendor.

♪ Because he lives, I can face tomorrow ♪ ♪

Because he lives, all fear is gone ♪ ♪

Because I know he holds the future ♪ ♪

And life is worth the living just because he lives ♪ ♪

I set my hope on Jesus, my rock, my only trust ♪ ♪

Who has set his heart upon me first ♪ ♪

I set my hope on Jesus ♪ ♪

Whose life of trials test my faith ♪ ♪ I set my hope on Jesus ♪ ♪

When the questions come and doubts remain ♪ ♪

I set my hope on Jesus ♪ ♪

For the deepest wounds that time won't heal ♪ ♪

There's a joy that runs still deep ♪ ♪ There's a truth that's more than all

I need, he's us ♪ ♪

Who has set his heart upon me first ♪ ♪

I set my hope on Jesus ♪ ♪

This towering sin, I set my hope on Jesus ♪ ♪

And the secret in, I sing though the shame would drown me in its sea ♪ ♪

And I dread the wave of justice, sing it out, he's us ♪ ♪

I saw in Jesus, my rock, my only trust ♪ ♪

Who has set his heart on me to leave my

Lord ♪ ♪ I set my hope on Jesus ♪ ♪

Though it offer all its vain rewards ♪ ♪

I set my hope on Jesus ♪ ♪

Though this heart of mine is prone to stray ♪ ♪

Give me grace enough to pray ♪ ♪

Till I reach on that final ♪ ♪

Who has set his heart on Jesus ♪

He said our hope on Christ and Christ alone is what gives us the boldness to come into the presence of our creator today.

Let us go now to a prayer of confession. The people of God have always been a confessing people.

We come into faith with a repentant heart because of the repentant heart that was given to us.

And we continue a life as we are in the flesh and we war against this flesh.

How we are prone to wonder, how we are prone to dishonor and disobey the

Lord. And so we come together corporately. And I would ask to at this moment that if you have not yet this day confessed your sin and your inadequacy before the

Lord, I would encourage you in your heart to go to the Lord and lay that before him as we...

Holy God, we boldly acknowledging the fact that we do not obey your precepts as we ought.

We confess that our lips speak both blessings and cursings. We pray for our brothers and sisters and then gossip about them in the next breath.

We often preach of unity, but reek of division. We acknowledge that all our material goods come from you, yet continue to spend our resources on frivolous temporal things.

Our minds wonder from your law and meditate on the things of this world.

It comes from Hebrews 10, 19 through 23. The writer of Hebrews, it's great comfort.

If we were resting in our own righteousness and perfection to come before the Holy triune

God this morning, we would all be burned at the spot we stand. We would not be able to come before the presence of the almighty

Christ, but we come boldly, can't we? So please bow with me as we continue a prayer, a prayer of assurance.

Father, even... ♪

Amazing, amazing, Jesus Messiah ♪ ♪

For sinners ransomed from hell ♪ ♪

Jesus Messiah, amazing you, sing that out ♪ ♪

Amazing you, sing, all our glory, Jesus Messiah ♪ ♪

The name above all, blessed redeemer ♪ ♪

Ransomed from hell, Jesus Messiah, Messiah, Lord ♪ ♪

Thousand burning suns blazing in the heavens ♪ ♪

There is only one, he is our God, yes ♪ ♪

Nations building up and tearing down ♪ ♪ Silencing his rivals, there is only one, he is our

God ♪ ♪

See, holy, you are holy, matchless in your glory ♪ ♪

Holy, God's with kindness, there is only one, he is our

God ♪ ♪ He is our

God, matchless in your glory, he's like you ♪ ♪

The king on the throne, who was and is to come ♪ ♪ And to the land who was slain, be glory ♪ ♪

Now to the king on the throne, who was and is to come ♪ ♪

And to the land who was slain, be glory ♪ ♪

Now to the king on the throne, who was and is to come ♪ ♪

And to the land who was slain, be glory ♪ ♪

You are matchless in your glory ♪

We thank you, Father, for these words this morning, God, that we proclaim to you, you are so holy. Father, as we continue to worship you in this time of giving,

I pray that you are honored and that you are glorified. Father, prepare our hearts to receive from you in your words this morning, but most of all, to you be all glory and honor and praise forever and ever.

And everybody said, amen. As the offering plates get ready to finish up, running through,

I want to explain what we're getting ready to do before Pastor Keith comes up to preach.

We do this fairly regularly, but maybe not as often as we should. A lot of times we tie it into the sermon, but sometimes it's good for us as a people to stop and pray a prayer of illumination.

What does that mean? Well, it's a prayer for the Holy Spirit to open our eyes and our minds up to the immense depth and goodness of the word.

And so if you would, please with me bow and we will go to the

Lord and ask for this very thing as we prepare to hear the word of God proclaimed.

And we pray that our worship thus far through prayer, our worship through singing, our worship through reading of your word, our worship through unity of the saints has been used to further mold us into conformity to your will, that our love and awe of you has widened, that our knowledge and fear of you has deepened and that our faith has been strengthened.

We come to you once again with a prayer, a plea for the illuminating power of the

Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds to the endless eternal truths of your word.

That great power that we learned about last week, that raised Lazarus from the dead is the same power that raised us who were once dead in our trespasses and sins to spiritual life.

With eyes that could see, with ears that could hear and a heart that could receive the glorious gift of grace given through Christ Jesus.

Oh, for those in here who have not yet been awakened by that power, we ask that the

Holy Spirit would blow through like a mighty wind and breathe spiritual life into them so that they may see the truth.

For those of us who have been awakened, may you prepare our minds to hear your word preached with clarity and boldness, that we may be doers of the word and not hearers only, that we may understand it with clarity, that we would handle it with care.

And we ask that you be with Pastor Keith as he proclaims it. May he do so with conviction, precision and trembling.

And we ask all of this boldly in the name of our savior, Jesus Christ and all

God's people said. I forgot.

The first time I got up to preach, I told my son who was running sound, I'll turn it on. And I was a sound man and forgot.

So anyways, good morning, everybody. If you were here last week, you saw that through speaking just three words, three words,

Lazarus, come out. The resurrection of life proved beyond a shadow of the doubt that death does not have the last word, he does.

We saw that. Jesus was teaching the two sisters, the disciples and the

Jews, that Jesus alone was a source of resurrection power and eternal life.

We saw that worked out. And we learned that not only does Jesus have resurrection power over physical death, but he also has resurrection power over spiritual death.

Christ alone can bring life out of spiritual death and that is spiritual life.

And we can have that spiritual life, not only through what Jesus did on the cross, but through the working of the

Holy Spirit through regeneration. If you would, please go ahead and turn to John 14.

That's where we'll be, our main text will come from today. And actually, starting in John 13, chapter 13, and running all the way to the end of chapter 17 is what scholars refer to as the upper room discourse.

Jesus is sitting in the upper room with his apostles and he's gathered them for the last time before he goes to his death.

And you would think, with time being so short and time running out, that some of the things or all the things that Jesus says to his apostles would be some of the most important topics that he would want to get across to them because he was soon to leave them.

Now, chapter 13, and we're not going there, I just wanna tell you, this begins on a Thursday. It's Thursday.

The next day, the feast of the Passover begins, we're told. The next day, on Friday, Jesus will become the sacrificial lamb.

So just try to imagine. Try to imagine the stress, the pressure, the anxiety that Jesus is facing, knowing that tomorrow his time has come.

He's gone from a triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Monday, and the very next day, the same people will be calling for his crucifixion.

And the apostles, think about what they're thinking now. They're seeing their dreams, their hopes, their aspirations of an earthly messianic kingdom crumble before their eyes.

They thought that Roman rule would be swept away and that they would reign in glory with Jesus Christ.

And now he was telling them he is leaving them. And then packed on top of all of this,

Jesus tells them that one of them will betray him. One of their own will betray him.

In verse 22 of 13, it says, and they looked at one another uncertain of who he spoke.

They didn't even know who it was that was going to betray them. They had to ask him who he was.

Talk about a wolf in sheep clothing. There is the perfect example of it.

Well, in chapter 14, verses one through six, where we're gonna be today, this is where we find

Jesus addressing his apostles. For the last time before he dies, before he comes back from resurrection.

And it says, starting in verse one through six, he tells them, 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 am going. And Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going.

How can we know the way? And Jesus said to him, I am the way,

I am the truth, and I am the life. No one, no one comes to the father except through me.

If you would have known me, you would have known my father also. And from now on, you do know him and have seen him.

So we see right off the bat that the apostles are troubled. Jesus knows this. And he tells them, let not your hearts be troubled.

Believe in God, believe also in me. And in the Greek, what this is actually saying, he's saying, stop being troubled.

Haven't I taught you yet? My time will come, that I am in control of all things.

And then he goes on to tell them, believe in God. And what he's saying is that you believe in God, somebody,

I mean, God who you don't see, you believe in him. And then he goes on to say, believe in me.

And this is an imperative statement. It's a command. If you believe in God that you don't see, believe in me, someone that you do see.

What he's trying to get them to understand is, what will you believe when I am no longer here?

When I go, in the title of our series, who will you say that I am?

That's what he's trying to get them to understand. In verse seven, he tells them, if you had known me, you would have known my father also.

And he's not saying that they don't know him. He's making a statement here to get their attention.

And he's saying, from now on, you do know him because you have seen him.

What Jesus is telling them is, the truth about the father cannot be obtained except for the true knowledge of the son.

You see me, you see God. You know me, you know God. This is one of the most important things he's trying to leave with them.

He is God manifest in the flesh. And Paul tells us in Colossians 2 .9,

for in him, the whole fullness, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.

He is God in the flesh. Now Jesus makes them a promise in verse two and three.

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.

Now, when we look at Thomas's statement, the question we'll see in a minute, most likely these apostles were thinking that Jesus was going to the temple.

That was known as the father's house. They were confused. Where are you going?

They've asked. But in Matthew 23, 37, after Jesus told the seven woes to the scribes and the

Pharisees, he's rebuking them. What he says is your house is left to you desolate.

Your house is left to you desolate. And he walks away and goes to the Mount of Olives and gives the

Ovilette discourse. Most scholars feel that when he left the temple, that was the dividing line.

God's presence was no longer in the temple, literally and spiritually.

So that wasn't where he was going. Of course, we know that he's going to heaven. And heaven is called many names in scripture.

But the important thing isn't what it's called. The important thing isn't where heaven is.

The important thing is who resides there. And that's the father. Hebrews 9, 24 says, for Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself.

Now to appear in the presence of God. And why?

On our behalf. Our mediator. He's going to the father.

And he makes this great promise. If I go and prepare a place for you,

I will come again and take you to myself that where I am, you may be also.

This is the second coming of Jesus Christ. This is our blessed hope that he's talking about.

He will come again. And what will he do? He will take us to himself.

We will have our glorified bodies fit for eternity. And as John said in his first epistle, we will see him like he is in all his radiant glory.

Amen. I mean, wow. What a promise. He goes on in verses four and five.

And he says, and you know the way to where I'm going. I mean, he makes this flat statement. You know where I'm going.

But Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. They didn't know.

Where are you going? How can we know the way, he tells them. But this question that Thomas is asking, he's asking the question all of them wanted to ask.

He asked it for him. But it's not really the question that he's asking. What he's really asking

Jesus is, take us with you wherever you're going. They didn't want to be separated from Jesus.

And what they had so much trouble understanding was that the way that Jesus was going to the father was not the way that they would go to the father.

Jesus' way was through the cross. Theirs is not. So he answers

Thomas in verse six. Jesus said to him, I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life.

That's the positive. The negative, no one comes to the father but through me.

This is the sixth great I am statement in our who do you say that I am series. He's making a profound statement here.

And notice that he's not giving directions to the father's house. He's giving directions to the father himself.

So in this declaration, this claim of Jesus, this statement, Jesus is stating,

I am the only way to God, I am the only truth from God, and I am the only life in God.

So our first section is, I am the only way to God. And that is through what he did on the cross and provided justification for us.

So picture Adam and Eve. They're being driven from the garden where they fellowshiped with God.

They walked with God. They talked with God. But because of Adam's sin, they were separated from God.

They were driven from the garden. They were driven from his presence. And we suffered the same thing.

We could not go into God's presence. We were separated from him when we were born.

This separation included one important thing, spiritual death.

God had promised them, if you disobey me, you will die. But he was talking about two deaths, spiritual death and physical death.

In Romans 3 .23, it says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified.

That's a very important word, justification. By his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, whom

God put forward as a propitiation. It's a big word, but what that means is appeasement.

By his blood to be received by faith. Three important things here that lead up to justification.

Grace as a gift. By his grace as a gift.

To be received by faith. It can only be received by faith.

Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. What is

Paul saying here? By grace alone, through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.

That is how we are justified before God. Now this being justified or justification, this is a legal term.

It's an act of a judge declaring a person to be right according to the principles of legal justice.

It is God's attribute of being just. It's a dramatic reversal of the legal status of a sinner.

We were guilty. We were guilty in our sins and justification turns that around.

Now there's a basis for this justification. It's extremely important. Without this very important condition, we could not be justified before God.

And what is this condition? Christ's righteousness. Without that, we could not come into the presence of God.

We could not be justified before God. It's the righteousness in Jesus Christ that's this basis for our justification.

Now, before I get to talking about Jesus Christ's righteousness, in order for us to understand that, we need to understand our darkness.

Just where we were before this justification. In Ephesians 5 .8,

and I'm only gonna use a couple of words, you were darkness. We know that. We've heard that Wednesday nights.

We went all the way through Ephesians. So the question is, being darkness or sin, how can we become justified?

How can we become light? That's the big question. How can we be reconciled to God?

Well, the answer is God ingrass us into his son and by doing so makes us partakers in the reconciliation that is in him.

We are reconciled to God. Now let me explain this a little bit deeper. But first, I think a really good place is

Isaiah 53, four and six. It talks about where we were and what happened. And listen how many times it talks about our, or us.

It says, surely he has borne our griefs, carried our sorrows yet we esteem him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities.

Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.

Reconciliation. And with his wounds we are healed. Our sin is healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned, everyone. And all here is all.

Everyone is everyone. To his own way. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He has laid our sins on Jesus Christ. All our iniquities.

And then later in verse 11, Isaiah says, out of the anguish of his soul he shall be satisfied.

By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, Jesus Christ, make many to be accounted righteous.

He shall bear their iniquities. What a marvelous statement. We see here there's an exchange going on.

There's an exchange of sin for righteousness. The sins of the elect are placed on Jesus Christ.

It's called imputed. The doctrine of imputation. It's imputed on Jesus Christ. And in return his righteousness is counted towards them.

It's imputed to them so that they share in his vindication. That is what

Jesus has done for us so that we might be justified before God and be able to come into his presence.

That's why he says, I am the only door. We talked about that when we were talking about the good shepherd.

I am the only door. But justification is not just some mechanical or impersonal event.

It's a benefit. It's a benefit of our union in Jesus Christ. We are justified in Christ.

We were condemned by the disobedience of one man, the first Adam, and we are justified by the obedience of one man,

Jesus Christ, the last Adam. Romans 5, 19, Paul says this plainly.

For as by one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners. It's original sin.

We were made sinners because of the action of one man. So by the one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous.

One man who paid the price for us. See, people can disagree.

And they often do about one man's disobedience making us guilty. Well, if you disagree with that, you're gonna have to disagree with what the last

Adam did. Did you think about that? If you can't accept this, you surely can't accept that either.

So justification. It's a change in our relationship with God. We can come into his presence now because we're accounted righteous.

When he looks at us, no sin, no darkness. It's a judicial act of God acquitting believers.

It's turning them around. They're now innocent before God. It's complete.

There's no different degrees of justification. You are justified. It cannot be lost.

It's instantaneous. It happens. It gives the right to eternal and abundant life.

And it's by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

Jesus is the only way to God. The only. No one can come to the

Father, but through him. The second section is I am the only truth from God.

And this is Jesus as being the revelation of God. In John 8, verses 31 and 32, so Jesus said to the

Jews who had believed in him, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

The truth will set you free. From what? What will the truth set us free from?

It will set us free from the wages and the effects of our sin.

We were under the grip of sin. Adam fell prey to the devil's lies.

And ever since then, man has lost his ability to accept and understand the truth.

Okay? That's important. Because of original sin, when we became spiritually dead, we could no longer accept or understand spiritual truths.

This was a spiritual understanding that Adam was created with. He had that spiritual understanding.

He walked with God, he talked with God, he understood God. He could think about spiritual things, but then he lost that because of spiritual sin.

And man is typically referred to, in Scripture, that is lost because of this, as the natural man.

He's devoid of spiritual understanding. And we'll go deeper into this in just a little bit.

But truth is literally used, when you see it in Scripture, to refer to the revelation of God that Jesus Christ brings.

He's the truth because he is God incarnate. He embodies the supreme revelation of God.

He himself narrates God, and Jesus Christ does exclusively what

God tells him to say and what God tells him to do. And that's what

Hebrews 1, 1 and 2 says. Long ago at many times in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.

But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he created the earth.

And it's amazing, here we are back at the beginning, once again, through whom also he created the world.

And that's not just thrown in there as a parathetical statement, that there's a reason why it's there.

And this is an important doctrine that we have to understand. Jesus communicates spiritual truths when

God speaks through him, when he's the revelation of God that leads to spiritual life.

He communicates spiritual truths that leads to spiritual life.

He is a self -disclosure of God himself. And why? Because God declares it so, and God created it so.

See, creation leads to the truth. That's why Hebrews is telling us this, through whom also he created the world because of inexhaustible knowledge.

God and Jesus Christ, who he created the world through, has inexhaustible knowledge because they created everything out of nothing.

That is the only entity, the only God that has inexhaustible knowledge about everything.

That's why all of our knowledge should be based on him as the truth.

And that's where we get the term biblical view. When you say, oh, I don't have a worldly view,

I have a biblical view. What you are saying is God is presupposed,

I don't know where Jeremiah is, presupposition, I presuppose God as the truth.

He is my foundation of the truth. I go to him for the truth.

The reason why? Truth can never change. And we learned at the very first sermon, one of the foundational truths is

God never changes. He's always the same. I am that I am, he says.

I am always the same. I'm immutable. If truth changes, then what was before was a lie.

It's no longer the truth. It's a lie. You just gained more knowledge about it. God cannot gain more knowledge about himself.

He knows everything. Truth is that which stands against the lie. And one of the biggest lies that Jesus is addressing here is that there's many ways to the father.

You know, we talked about when he said, I am the door, that the world is always trying to create other doors to come to the father.

Well, that's just a lie. Because Jesus, as the truth, is the only way to the father.

He's the only reliable source of redemptive revelation. We need to understand that.

Why is truth so important? It's because faith and truth are bound up in each other.

They're tied together. Hebrews 11, one and two. Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

So here we see this conviction, this assurance. How can we have that if it's a lie?

We have to be thoroughly convinced, and that's spiritually, that God is the truth.

This hope isn't something like Pastor Keith hoping that the Razorbacks win at least eight games this year, because that's probably a pie in the sky.

Maybe not, Don. But that's what we think hope is.

But this hope is a firm conviction. Because of God's work in us, we know that this is true.

It goes on to say, for by it the people of old received their commendation. They were saved by the same faith.

By faith, this is the first example he's given about faith. By faith, we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, back to the beginning again, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

We can't see it. Science can't experiment on it. They can't observe it. They can't repeat it.

It takes faith. Faith in God. When we talked about that at the very first,

I said, when you read those first 10 words in the Bible, that's a test. It's a test.

Do you believe? Do you submit? You cannot have faith in a lie.

That is false faith. So our serious question, who do you say that I am?

Well, part of the answer lies in this question. What do you say the truth is? If you get that wrong, you can't say accurately who do you say that I am when

Jesus asks you that question. Is your truth based on experience? What you see, what you smell, what you feel, what you observe?

Is your truth based on man? Is your truth on the earth? Is it on the internet?

When you listen to what people write or when you watch the news, is it subjective?

Is it based on feelings and emotion? And we have people nowadays that wake up in the morning and think they're a cat.

Is that the truth? I know it's funny, but people believe it. Is your truth based on science?

I mean, we were told five years ago, believe the science. Believe the science. You heard that everywhere. Believe the science about COVID.

Well, I want to tell you a secret about science. All science is, is man trying to learn the truth about God's creation.

That's all it is. They set up their experiments to try and learn something they don't know that God created and he already knows.

But there's one major fallacy with science. And do you know what that is? That's true.

Amen, brother. But there's one, it goes deeper than that. The fallacy is man.

Man is the one that's setting up the experiments. And we all know through politics what man does. He lies.

He has an agenda. So what is your truth based on? Is it based on God?

Is it based on Jesus Christ? On the Bible, what the Bible says? Is that where your hope is?

In John 18, this is Jesus is standing before Pilate. And Pilate says to him, so you are a king.

Jesus answered, you say that I'm a king? For this purpose, I was born.

And for this purpose, I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth.

That is, he's bearing witness to his father. Everyone who is of the truth, who is of God, listens to my voice.

And Pilate said, what is the truth? And what Pilate did not realize is that truth was staring him in the face.

It's Jesus Christ is the truth. So we've seen that Jesus is the only way to God.

And that's through what he did on the cross. Through his reconciliation, we are justified.

We see Jesus is the only truth from God. He can be the only one that can speak spiritual things to us.

Things that we need to understand. Things that we need to accept. That we know is the truth.

And now we see, I am the only life in God. And that is through regeneration.

Spiritual life is what we're talking about. And claiming to be the life, the only life,

Jesus is stating he is the source of spiritual life. And this spiritual life can only be obtained by supernatural means.

Several years ago, it might have been one of the first sermons that I ever preached, I asked people, has a miracle ever, have you ever witnessed a miracle?

And about a third of the people raised their hand. Spiritual life can only be obtained by supernatural means.

It's not natural. It's a miracle, okay?

When you are changed, the Holy Spirit comes in you and changes you. He has done a work inside of you and made you different.

It's an act of his creative power. It is a miracle that is done in you.

If you are saved, you have witnessed a miracle. The Greek word here that Jesus uses for life, in his statement,

I am the life, is also used in John one. When John is introducing who Jesus Christ is.

He says, in the beginning, and here we are again, was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was

God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

So we see here in this last sentence, in him was life, and life was the light of men. We see that spiritual life and light are related to each other.

You see, when spiritual life from God is manifested, it's called light. It is called light in us.

We have Christ in us. It's a metaphor for Christ Jesus' righteousness that has been imputed to us.

This is his light that is in us when we are saved, when we are justified. Now once again,

I'm gonna go back to darkness, because I want you to see the contrast.

It says in Ephesians 5a, for one time you were darkness. You were sin.

You were separated from God. You were spiritually dead, is what Paul is saying, but now you are light.

You are righteousness because of Christ Jesus. You now have spiritual life. You are light in the

Lord. Walk as children of light. That's what he's saying. Walk like you have a life of righteousness in Jesus Christ.

Now if you would, turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians. This is where I'm gonna end today. 1

Corinthians 2. I want us to see three things. I want us to see what we were, what happens, the changes, and what we become.

This is talking about regeneration. And I wanna reinforce something. When Scripture talks about the person who is lost, who is dead in their sin, who is spiritually dead, he is called the natural person.

That is our default condition. That is what we are born with. When we are born, everybody is spiritually dead.

That's the default. That's what we are. In 1 Corinthians, it says, and I'm just gonna touch on this now.

We'll go deeper in a minute. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him.

Here we see him talking about the natural person and what he cannot do. He is spiritually dead.

That's the point I'm trying to make. And you know, before we were saved, we were dead in our trespasses and sins.

This is spiritual death. We were ruled by Satan's kingdom. We were consumed by the spiritual power of darkness.

All we knew was a lie. We did not know the truth. There was no good in us.

Death consumed us, darkness covered us, and our daily walk, Paul says, there was no good.

Now, all of this is taken straight from Scripture. This isn't my words. All of these are taken from Scripture.

But I wanna go to the gold standard verse for this in Ephesians 2, 1, and 3. It says, and you were dead in the trespasses and sin in which you once walked, following the course of the world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now is at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath.

It's talking about that default condition right there at the last, and were by nature. That was our nature.

That was the natural man that he's talking about, and we were children of wrath. Well, you might say, well,

Brother Keith, this is Paul. He's writing to the Ephesians. These were the Jews. I said, well,

I left off the last five words purposely. Like the rest of mankind. So that gets us all, doesn't it?

This tells us that man was not merely weakened by sin, but we were dead in our trespasses and sin.

Once again, this is spiritual darkness. This is spiritual death. So I did a Greek word study on dead.

I went into Logos, you know, the different things, and what it really means is dead.

And I've got an object lesson for y 'all that don't learn but by object. That's a nail.

It's a doornail. Dead is a doornail. It moves in the door, but it has no life on its own.

It's inanimate. It can't think, it can't do anything. So in Titus 3 .3,

Paul is saying basically the same thing when he writes to Titus. Titus, he says, for we ourselves,

Paul's talking about himself and Titus, who were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

Basically what Paul could have said if he wanted to save words in ink was, for we ourselves were spiritually dead, because that's the point he's getting across.

So Paul is stating here that there is no spiritual life outside of Jesus Christ.

There is no spiritual life outside of Jesus Christ. And why? Well, we know this because of what follows in Ephesians 2 .4

and Titus 3 .4. What follows tells us. In Ephesians 2 .4,

the next two words after what I read is but God. In Titus, the next word in 3 .4

is but when God. See, what he's telling us is this is our condition, but now

God is gonna get involved. But God is doing it. You see,

God sent Jesus to make a way for us. Jesus is the way.

He sent Jesus to proclaim the gospel, the truth, to reveal who God is.

And now we're gonna see that God sent Jesus so we can accept and understand this truth, so we can have that ability to understand spiritual things within us, so we can have spiritual life and come to God.

Now, I'm gonna talk a little bit of Greek, and I'm not one of the Greek guys, girls, people that's taking

Greek. So pardon me if I'm gonna try to, I've done some consulting, so I hope

I get it right. And if you're taking notes, I will repeat some of this, but I wanna talk about the three tenses of verbs that's in Greek.

First is the aorist tense, A -O -R -I -S -T.

This is a single completed action in the past. It has already happened. It's happened, it's one action.

There's the present tense. It's an action that is ongoing. It's a continuous action.

And then there's the perfect tense. That's a completed action that has produced results that are still in effect.

Okay, and I'm gonna repeat this. Don't worry if you didn't grab all this, because I'll point it out. So in 1

Corinthians 2, 14, I hope you're still there, it's talking about spiritual death.

It tells us right away, the natural person, and this is a negative statement, does not accept the things of the spirit of God, for they are folly to him.

He cannot, he does not. The meaning of the Greek word here is welcome or receive.

He does not accept, he does not welcome, he does not receive. And the tense here is, sorry, the present tense.

It is an ongoing action. It is continuous. Not only does he not have the ability, he won't have the ability going into the future.

It is a continuous action that he will not be able to accept the things of the spirit of God.

He'll think they're folly, they're stupid, or whatever. And then he goes on to say, and he is not able to understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

So another negative statement. And this understand actually means the ability to experience or to learn.

So he's not able to experience them or learn them.

And this is in the aorist tense. It's a single completed action in the past.

Why is this important? Because this happened sometime in the past that he does not have this ability to spiritually discern that.

The default condition, he was born dead in sin. He was born spiritually dead, and you could also take it all the way back to what

Adam did. That is an action that happened in the past that put us in this condition of being spiritually alive.

Something must happen, is what Paul is stating here, to the natural person so that we can accept and understand spiritual things.

Because we're just told, does not accept, not able to understand. Something must happen to us.

We must be transformed from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh, from spiritual death to spiritual life in order to know spiritual things, in order to understand who in the world

Jesus Christ was and what he did, the person in the work, as Pastor Nathan prayed for, illumination.

That's what we're talking about here, the ability to receive illumination from the triune God. You cannot know what you do not understand.

I mean, that's the truth. And this ability to understand is the work of the Holy Spirit.

We are regenerated, born again, born from above. We are given a heart of flesh, and our heart of stone is removed.

When that happens, we now have the ability to accept and understand the testimony of God concerning Jesus Christ and other spiritual matters.

Once again, this isn't a natural occurrence. This is changing what is natural to something that is unnatural, and that is spiritual life, that is new life.

Like I said, it's a miracle. Nontitus three, four through seven. And I wish

I had time to park here for a while because there's probably at least two or three or four sermons here.

Martin Lloyd -Jones would probably get more than half a dozen. But it says, when the goodness and loving kindness of God our

Savior appeared, that's Jesus Christ, right? He saved us.

And then Paul puts this parenthetical statement in here. Just in case you don't know or you're confused or maybe you're a little bit mistaken.

You don't kind of really understand this. What does he say? Not because of the works done by us in righteousness.

I mean, he's already said, we are devoid of righteousness. How could we do a work in righteousness if we're spiritually dead?

He goes on to say, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the

Holy Spirit. It's number two. The Holy Spirit is washing and regenerating us and renewing us.

Whom he, he's talking about God, poured out on us richly through Christ Jesus, our

Savior. So that being justified, that's what Jesus declared, by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Now, if you're taking notes or you'd like to underline in your Bible, I'm doing this for Jeremiah's sake, where it says become heirs there, underline that and right underneath there, adoptification.

I thought I'd throw that in. But the main point here, three things, right? Jesus Christ, the

Holy Spirit, God. The point I'm trying to make here is that salvation cannot be accomplished outside the redemptive work of the triune

God. The triune God gets involved in all of redemptive work.

The father, his predestined, he sent his son to atone for our sins. The son,

Jesus Christ, obeyed him and went and he atoned for our sin, he died on the cross.

And the Holy Spirit comes in and regenerates us and convicts us of our sin.

So we've gone from spiritual death and the work of God, the triune God, to where we can now understand spiritual things to spiritual life.

And we're gonna see this in 1 Corinthians 2, 10 through 13. It says, these things

God has revealed to us through the spirit, we now have that understanding.

We can understand it. For the spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

For who knows a person's thought except the spirit of that person which is in him? So also, no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the spirit of God.

This is telling us the spirit of God knows everything about God, comprehends everything he says.

They are one together is what it's telling us. Now, this verb here, comprehends, this means to have knowledge of.

He has pure knowledge of everything about God. And the great thing here is it is in the perfect tense.

It is a completed action in the past, okay? It's been completed and it is still producing results that are in effect.

Where is that? In us. This action that happened in eternity past is still producing effects in us.

He is enlightening us, illuminating us, giving knowledge about spiritual things.

Paul goes on to say, now we have received not the spirit of the world, just in case you're mistaken, once again, if you have thoughts, that isn't it, but the spirit who is from God.

We have been regenerated. That we might, and this might understand is actually a phrase, and it means that we have the ability to understand the things freely given to us by God.

This is spiritual matters. These are spiritual things that we couldn't understand before. Now, this understand, it's different than this understand we saw in 2 .14,

which was Gnosko, and I can't pronounce this word, so I'm not even gonna try. But what it means is it is to comprehend the meaning of something with focus upon the resulting knowledge.

So this understanding is we can comprehend it. We can know it, and it's gonna give us resulting knowledge about God, about the

Holy Spirit, about Jesus Christ, the Son. And this is also, this is good to me,

I'm sorry if I get excited, in the perfect tense. It is a completed action.

It has taken place. We are regenerated. You can't go back on it. We're regenerated, but it's producing results that are still in effect.

This completed action, this understanding is continual. It keeps on going, and we continue to be illuminated by Jesus Christ, by God, and the

Holy Spirit. And then it goes on to say, and we impart this in words, not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the

Spirit. We have the ability to speak spiritual things. Interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual, is what

Paul says. So again, in closing, to have spiritual life, one must know, believe in, have faith in Jesus Christ, the

Son, and it is through regeneration that we are given this ability to accept and understand the testimony of God concerning His Son.

Jesus has told us, I am the way, the only way to God. I am the only truth from God.

I am the only life in God. No one comes to the

Father except through me. He's the Messiah. He's our Christ, our

Redeemer, God incarnate, the only Son of God, the perfect Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the earth, our

Savior, our God and King. John sums it all up in his epistle, 520.

And we know that the Son of God has come and given us understanding, so that we may know

Him who is true. And we are in Him who is true, in His Son, Jesus Christ.

He is the true God and eternal life, the way to God, the truth from God, and the life in God.

Let us pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, we are so thankful of your revelation, of the life that you've given us, that you opened the door, you made the way that we can come to your

Father through you, Father. And I pray, it is my prayer that you illumine every person that is in here so they can have complete understanding of what your

Son has done on the cross for us. And when you ask us, we will be able to answer that question with confidence.

We will know who you are. Thank you, Jesus. Well, today we come to the table.

We come to the table with a sense of gratitude for our salvation and for our Savior.

We've been saved, justified from our sins, brought from eternal death to eternal life, redeemed from the wrath of God.

And for such a salvation, this is what we're celebrating today when we come to the table.

Now, I want to remind everybody that this is a sacred time at the Lord's table. It's for believers who have rested all of their hope in Jesus Christ.

It is the believers that look on the death of Jesus Christ and his resurrection, what he did for them to give you this eternal hope.

Now, if you're not a believer, we ask that you refrain from coming to the table, because this is just for the people who have faith in Jesus Christ.

And we also encourage you that if you are a believer, examine your heart today.

Examine your heart so you can partake in a worthy manner. If you have any issues, issues with the other brother, maybe issues with sin or something, please refrain from coming to the table until you can get this matter settled.

So please, take this with all seriousness that it is. Now, the way we do this is we kind of divide down the middle here, and half go to this side, come up to the table, go back to your chairs, same over here, and take the

Lord's Supper with your family, with your friends, with those that you're with. Please pray with me.

Our gracious heavenly Father, we come to this table because you have restored us to spiritual life, because you have opened our eyes to see the truth of your gospel, and because of the obedience and sacrifice of your son,

Jesus Christ. We can freely confess this morning our love to you, and our dependence on Jesus Christ.

This is all based on the miraculous work of the triune God in our lives.

We come to this table in remembrance of all that Jesus did for us, especially what he alone accomplished on the cross, amen.