In the sermon 'The Way the Truth and the Life,' Jason Dohm focuses on John 14:1-6, where Jesus describes himself as the way, the truth, and the life. The sermon delves into the spiritual and physical realities, highlighting that while the disciples knew where Jesus was going, they didn't realize it. Dohm stresses the importance of understanding Jesus as the only path to the Father, drawing on the 'I AM' statements in the Gospel of John to emphasize Jesus' divine identity. The sermon contrasts the inadequacy of the law with the fullness of truth and grace revealed in Jesus. Dohm also discusses the implications of Jesus as the sole mediator between God and humanity, urging believers to focus on spiritual realities over immediate physical concerns and encouraging evangelism based on the truth of Jesus' identity.

Our text this morning is a familiar one, but as with many portions of scripture, there is much, much to be squeezed out of it. So we have the opportunity for the remainder of the quarter to bring this text home and put it in our hearts with our families. And I recommend that you diligently do that. Please follow along John 14, 1 through 6. Let not your heart be troubled.

You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go, you know, and the way you know." Thomas said to him, Lord we do not know where you are going and how can we know the way?

Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would Soften hearts, open ears, allow us to receive the word that you have provided and prepared for us. We ask you speak through Jason.

May Jason get out of the way and we hear straight from you. We commit this time of preaching and exposition to the precious name Jesus our Lord. Amen. You may be seated. Okay, we're in the upper room discourse.

It's going to last for chapter 13, chapter 14, where we are in now, chapter 15, chapter 16, chapter 17. It's remarkable. Here's the context for our text. Peter has just wondered out loud why he can't follow Jesus now. Jesus says, you can't follow me now.

Peter says, why can't I follow you? I'm willing to die for you. Jesus told all of the faithful eleven, the traitor has already left, so he is not present to hear what Jesus is saying in our text. Jesus has told all of the faithful eleven not to let their heart be troubled, but to trust in Him. Even though Jesus just said that the betrayer is one of them, the twelve, even though He's just said that before morning Peter will deny him three times, even though he's said repeatedly that he's only going to be with them a little while he's going to the cross.

He tells them to not let their hearts be troubled, but to trust him. That he was going to prepare dwellings for them in his Father's house, and that he would come again to receive them to himself so that they could be with him. As we come to our text, let's pray. Jesus, you have paved the way to heaven by your death and your resurrection and your ascension to sit at your Father's right hand. You are the way.

I pray that you would use these two verses to set our hearts rejoicing in Jesus our Savior. If you do anything among us today, I pray that it would be to give us joy that Christ has made a way that Christ is our way to enjoy you forever. Thank you for this great and precious promises found in your word. Pray that you would bless the preaching of your word now. Pray this in Jesus' name.

I had intended to say one or two sentences about verse 4 last week, and as I was preparing I realized I didn't say one word about verse 4 last week, even though it was supposed to be within the scope of verse 4. So we'll just fold it in, because it belongs with verse 5 anyway. I'd like to begin by looking at verse 4 and 5 together. So follow along as I read verses four and five. Jesus said, And where I go you know, And the way you know.

Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going and how can we know the way? I'm just going to stop there. Here in these two verses we have the spiritual and the physical. So if you're taking notes on the handout and filling in blanks, physical, fills in the blank. The spiritual and the physical.

Thomas, like Peter in verse 37, when Peter couldn't understand why he couldn't follow Jesus now, because he was willing to die for Jesus. I ought to be able to follow you anywhere. Like Peter in verse 37, Thomas is stuck. Jesus is speaking of glorious spiritual realities. According to Jesus, these eleven do know where Jesus is going, and do know the way to get there.

But Thomas, like Peter in verse 37, can't lift his gaze from the immediate physical reality. So, just tunnel vision. All Thomas can see, Comprehend, think about, is the immediate physical realities. He is unable to lift his gaze from the immediate physical realities to the glorious spiritual realities that Jesus is actually talking about. Thomas can't imagine how they could possibly know the way to an unknown geological location.

That's how it works with geological locations. If you know the geological location, then you can worry about paths to get there. If you don't know the geological location, there's no sense in talking about the way to get there. That's nonsense. This is where Thomas is stuck.

Now, who is right? Jesus has said one thing, Thomas has said another. Jesus says, you know the way. You know where I'm going and you know the way. Thomas says, we don't know where you're going.

How can we possibly know the way? Who's right? Of course, Jesus is right. What is the implication? They know, but they don't know that they know.

That's the implication of Jesus being right and Thomas being wrong. They actually do know where Jesus is going. They do know the way to get there, but they just don't know that they know both of those things. Why does that matter? Because they are intended to receive strength and encouragement from knowing those things.

And not knowing that they know robs them of the strength and encouragement that Jesus is intending for them, that Jesus is intending to lead them into. This is the heart of what the text was last week. Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many dwellings. I refuse to say mansions.

In my Father's house are many dwellings. If it were not so, I would have told you. What is the point of all of that? The way that your heart isn't troubled, even in the greatest turmoil, in last week's analogy, even when you're on the deck of a ship at night in a hurricane, and you can hear the wind howling and the waves are coming over the deck. The way that your heart is not troubled in there is being able to lift your gaze to the glorious spiritual realities that pertain to you and be able to embrace those and cling to those in the face of the immediate physical realities.

This is the whole problem before us in the text. Thomas can't lift his gaze from the immediate physical realities and so he is unable to receive the strength and encouragement that Jesus is giving to them through the glorious spiritual realities. That's the problem in the text. Ryle mentions another commentator, who I don't recognize, so I won't bother saying who it is, but Ryle mentions another commentator who says that believers in the frame of Thomas are like people who hunt for their keys when they have them in their pockets. You ever done that?

Where are my keys? They're in your pockets the whole time. But They might as well be lost. You're looking in the drawer where they ought to be. You start to disassemble the couch, the cushions.

They may have slid between the cushions and the couch. Meanwhile, they are in your pocket the whole time, but they may as well be lost. You get no benefit from the keys even though the keys are in your possession. This commentator that Ryle mentions is saying, If you are in the frame of Thomas, you are just like that. You have the things that are needed, but they are of no benefit to you.

In response, Jesus gives them a three-fold self-proclamation. I am this, I am this, I am this. So let's look at verse 6. This is Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father through me.

That's the question on the table, right? In my Father's house are many dwellings. I'm preparing them for you. We don't know the way. I am the way.

To the dwellings in my Father's house that are made ready for my people. I am the way to those dwellings in my Father's house. So this is Jesus' first of three self-proclamations. He's claiming something for Himself. He's declaring himself to be something to his people.

Jesus proclaims himself to be the way. That is the next heading on the handout if you are taking notes there. Way fills in the blank. Jesus proclaims himself to be the way. This is the sixth of seven I AM statements in the book of John.

So we have been encountering them and I have been saying this is the first I AM statement, the second, the third, the fourth, now we're to the sixth of seven I AM statements. They began in John chapter 6 with I AM the bread of life, then I am the light of the world, then I am the door of the sheep, then I am the good shepherd, then I am the resurrection and the life, and now in chapter 14, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Then we will have one more. In the beginning of chapter 15, Jesus will say, I am the true vine. The whole point of the I AM statements in the Gospel of John is that Jesus Christ is everything that His people need.

He is everything to His people. He is our all in all. He is all that we need. When we finish the seventh I AM in a few weeks, we'll stop and we'll take a Sunday and we'll go back and just revel in the seven I AM statements. We'll pull it all together and rejoice that Jesus is all that we need.

When Jesus has made these statements starting in John chapter 6, the seven I AM statements, He is doing two things. He is saying, I am which lays claim to deity. Every time he makes an I am statement, he is laying claim to being God. By the way, this would not have been lost on any of his Jewish listeners. This is not very subtle to the Jewish mind who would immediately hear these things and their thoughts would be drawn to Exodus chapter 3 when Moses is before the burning bush and God is instructing Moses to go and make demands of Pharaoh and to tell the people of God that God is showing up to rescue them.

And Moses says, what if they ask me who sent me? And God says, tell them I AM sent you. The God of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I AM. I am that I am.

I exist because I exist. It is the great name of God, the self-sufficient, self-existing God. We actually studied this in chapter one of the attributes of God. His solitariness. No one else is self-existing.

But God is that He is. You are that He is. He is that He is. So every time He makes an I AM statement, He is claiming to be the self existing God of Exodus chapter 3. God of Exodus chapter 3.

And then, what is paired with, I am, I am the Good Shepherd, I am the Door, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, declares what He is to His people. So there's two things that's happening in every one of these I AM statements. He's laying claim to being the God of Exodus 3. The self-existent God of Exodus 3. And He's coupling that with a declaration of something that he is to his people.

That's happening again here. Jesus, we don't know the way. I am the way. You know me, so you know the way. You trust me, so you know the way.

I don't just show the way, I am the way to the dwellings of my Father's house, which I'm going to make ready for you. What is the destination? Heaven, His Father's house where there are many dwellings prepared for Jesus' people. How does a person get there? Through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Because of who Jesus is, and because of what Jesus has done, you can go to His Father's house to a place prepared for you. It's because of who He is and because of what He has done. The person and work of the person and work of Jesus Christ. He is the way. Not a way, the way.

There is Only one single way to heaven. There is no other way. It is Jesus Christ, His person and His work, and Jesus Christ alone. At an event this past Monday, Michael Templeton and I were preaching alongside Paul White, a pastor friend of ours from Taylorsville out in the western part of the state. And Paul White was preaching on the preaching of the gospel.

He was actually instructing preachers on the preaching of the gospel. One of the things he said in exhorting us was, we need to read Exodus 34 and make people wrestle with that. So, turn to Exodus 34. You'll see what he was driving at. In our proclamation of the gospel, Paul White was saying we should bring people face to face with God's introduction of Himself with His self-revelation in Exodus chapter 34 and make them wrestle with how this can possibly be true That's it is 34 Verses 5 through 7 this is in response at the end of chapter 33 of Moses saying God show me your glory and God essentially says that would kill you but I will pass in front of you and let you see the very back so you won't be consumed by my glory.

I'll hide you in the cleft of the rock. This is a picture of Christ. And then he introduces himself or he reveals himself beginning in 34. I'll be reading 5 through 7. Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him, Moses, there and proclaimed the name of the Lord.

And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and the children's children to the third and fourth generation." Now zero in on verse seven. God is the Lord who keeps mercy for thousands, who forgives iniquity and transgressions, who forgives sin. To that we say, Amen! And God is the Lord who by no means clears the guilty. What?

How can you be merciful for giving sins without clearing the guilty? So anyone, anyone who's ever lived, anyone in this building or outside of this building, in our lifetime or in any other lifetime, measure yourself against this standard of God's holiness, of God's expectations and requirements and law. If an all-knowing righteous judge announces a verdict on anyone against this standard, what does the verdict have to be? Guilty! The verdict must be guilty.

If he by no means clears the guilty, How can he forgive sin and transgressions? How can he be a merciful God? Well, the types of the Old Testament, the sacrificial system points to the answer. He'll take an innocent lamb and pour out his anger and the penalty for the sin on the innocent, so that the innocent will die for the guilty. The just will die for the unjust.

Well, that's just a picture. Jesus is the only one who can solve that riddle. I think Paul White is right. When we preach the gospel, hey this clears away all the baloney. It gets right down to it.

This is the standard. Judge your thoughts and your words and your deeds by the standard. And if there's a judge who knows everything and is completely righteous, what will be the verdict on your life? Guilty. God by no means clears the guilty.

What does that mean for you? It means that you're down to one hope. All the other hopes have just been cleared out. You are down to one hope and that is that there is a lamb without blemish that God will accept in your place. Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

There is no other way that this can be true. Paul speaks of it in Romans chapter 3, and he says in Romans chapter 3 verse 26, God is just, He is that all knowing, perfectly righteous judge, and the justifier of who? Of those who have faith in Jesus. It's the only solution to the puzzle. It's the only solution to the puzzle.

Turn 35. Isaiah 35. I'm sure Isaiah 35 was always an encouragement to the people of God. And I'm sure it always had a glory, but now looking back at Isaiah 35 through the lens of the New Testament, the glory of it is magnified. When I start reading in Isaiah 35, you're going to almost instantly say there are clues everywhere here that this is about Jesus, that this is messianic prophecy, this is foretelling about the Messiah and all he will be to his people.

Listen to Isaiah 35 verses 3-8. Follow along as I read this. The prophet says, Strengthen the weak hands, make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are fearful hearted, Be strong, do not fear. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God.

He will come and save you. So already you should be thinking, His name is Jesus for He will save His people from their sins. His name literally means Savior. Verse 5, Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing." We should be thinking here, marks of the Messiah.

How will we know when the Messiah is here? Well, the eyes of the blind will be open and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. The tongue of the dumb will be set to singing. The lame will leap like a deer. Marks of the Messiah right here.

Starting again halfway through 6. For water shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water. In the inhabitants of jackals, where each lay, there shall be grass with reeds and rushes." Verse 8, a highway shall be there, a road, and it shall be called the highway of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for others.

Whoever walks the road, although a fool, shall not go astray." Now think about that, verse 8, through the lens of the New Testament. A highway of holiness. The unclean won't be there. Now think about what we just studied about this righteous standard and its bearing on us. Okay, I can't be on this highway of holiness.

No, you can be if one cleans you. The unclean won't be there, but the cleansed are there. Even if you're a Fool, you'll not go astray. If God puts your feet on this highway of holiness, even though you're foolish, this should be such a great encouragement to us, even though you're foolish, your foolishness will not take you out of the way. God is promising to be the one to take his people to heaven here, looking through the lands of the New Testament.

And Jesus is the highway of holiness. The one who takes the unclean and makes them clean people, walking on the highway of holiness, not in danger of even their foolishness diverting them from this way. This is glorious messianic prophecy. Jesus Christ, the highway of holiness. Jesus Christ, the way, the only way.

Jesus proclaims himself to be the way. Now Jesus proclaims himself to be the truth. The next heading, truth, fills in the blank. Jesus makes this declaration about himself. He says He is the truth.

John the Gospel writer got this. He understood thoroughly what Jesus is teaching here. So when he opens his Gospel with Christology, Christology is just the study of Christ, the doctrine of Christ. Do you remember John chapter 1? He doesn't begin with the historical account of the birth of the baby.

He begins with Christology. He begins with theology. It has nothing to do with the baby. John chapter 1 doesn't. It has to do with who Christ is in theological terms.

He begins with Christ as the truth. Turn to John 1. Let's review. John 1. John 1 verse 1.

In the beginning was the Word, And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This is the very start of John the Gospel Writer's Gospel. So the introductory name to this person of the triune Godhead is not Jesus, it is not Son of God, it is not Son of Man, Jesus' favorite self-designation, it is not Son of David, It is not Messiah, it is not Christ. What is it? The Son.

He is introduced by his revelatory identity. Fundamentally, Jesus reveals the truth of God to man and he himself is that core truth. Fundamentally, Jesus reveals the truth of God to man. Look down on verse 14. We're still in chapter 1 verse 14.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, The glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Because the Word took on flesh For the first time in human history, we could behold God and His glory. Before there were visions of God described by prophets to you, of God and His glory, but you could not behold God and His glory. When the Word took on flesh, you could behold God and His glory.

God and His glory. God and His glory were personified. God and His glory were embodied. What do we call it? Fleshed out.

If you take concepts and you make them concrete, we call it fleshed out. The word became flesh. Literally, God and His glory are fleshed out for you. Made concrete for you. Where you had concepts that could never do it justice, you could now behold God in His glory.

Jesus was full of grace. You had the concepts of grace. They are everywhere in the Old Testament. How can you understand them? How can you ever see them in their glory without Christ going to the cross?

He was full of grace and truth. The grace of God and the truth of God is literally on display in the Lord Jesus Christ. Skip to 17, look at 17 and 18, we are still in John chapter 1. Verse 17, for the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time.

The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. Here John is not pitting Jesus against the law as if the law didn't come from God but Jesus reveals God. No, no, no. There's no pitting Moses' testimony. It is divinely inspired testimony.

Moses is just a prophet. God's speaking through a man that he had raised up. So he is not pitting Jesus against the law. He is simply pointing out the inadequacy of the law to do God justice. Paul said the law has a glory.

It is just vastly superseded by the glory in Jesus Christ. There is a glory to the law. The law is from God. It is the concepts that God wants mankind to know. They are all there in the law, but it can never do God justice.

You have said this at some point in your life. You have to see it to believe it. I can describe it to you, but until you see it, my description could never do it justice. That is the relationship of the law to the Word made flesh. You have to see it to believe it.

The concepts are all there in the Old Testament. But You have to see it to believe it. The concepts are all there in the Old Testament. But you have to see it to believe it, to really understand it in its fullness and its intensity, you have to gaze upon Jesus Christ. Jesus is the ultimate self-revelation of God to man.

Praise God for the Old Testament words. But Jesus is the ultimate, fullest, most comprehensive, most understandable self-revelation of God to man. The law is no comparison. Because of the constraints of the written word, the law simply can't do God and His glory justice. You have to see it to believe it.

Well then see it and believe it. Gaze upon Jesus Christ. We can gaze upon Him now through the Gospel accounts. There were types in the law, the sacrifices, the candles, the showbread, the temple. There were types to give us a Glimpse that Jesus is the fulfillment of those types.

Jesus is the truth that those types were pointing to. Jesus is the substance that those types were pointing to. Jesus is the truth. Friends, all Truth is rooted in God. Scientific truth is rooted in God.

We're not inventing things. All historical truth is rooted in God. It's really a study of what God has done through time. There is no truth that isn't rooted in God. All truth is rooted in Jesus.

Jesus is the truth. Not a truth. Not your truth or my truth. I never heard that term growing up. I'm glad.

Your truth? My truth? There might be things that are true about you that no one else can know because no one else is inside your head. There is truth and there is falsehood. All truth is rooted in God.

All truth is rooted in Jesus. He is the truth. Jesus proclaims himself to be the way. I am the way. Jesus proclaims himself to be the way.

I am the way. Jesus proclaims himself to be the truth. I am the truth. Jesus proclaims himself to be the life. The next heading on your outline, life fills in the blank.

You're taking notes that way. Yes. In an existential sense, Jesus created all living things. Things exist because Jesus made them. We go to John 1 for that.

All things were made through Him. Without Him, nothing was made that was made. We can go to Colossians 1 for that. By Him and through Him and for Him are all things. But I don't believe that is the truth that Jesus is teaching in our text when he proclaims himself to be the life.

Again, we're talking about spiritual realities. That is what is in view. Spiritual realities. I believe the exposition on what Jesus is teaching here has already been given by Jesus in John chapter 5. So let's review that.

Turn to John chapter 5. Jesus has already spoken at greater length about what he means when he says, I am the life. John chapter 5, follow along as I read verse 21. Chapter 5 verse 21, Jesus says, For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom He will." He's in this section where He's talking about the complete and utter unity between Father and Son. No daylight between Father and Son.

So he extends this to life giving in verse 21. For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom he will. In exactly the same way, exactly the same willingness and ability, the son raises the dead, just like the father, and gives life to whomever he will. Verses 24 through 26, just skipping down a couple of verses 24-26 Most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment but has passed from death into life most assuredly I say to you the hour is coming and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself." It's so clear from the context that Jesus is not talking about immediate physical realities. Although he controlled those as well.

We saw Lazarus come forth from the tomb. So he can do that. When he does that, he's proving that he's master of the glorious spiritual realities, not just the immediate physical realities. Clearly within view in John chapter 5 are the glorious spiritual realities. That it is Jesus who is calling the spiritually dead from their graves, Hallelujah.

You are dead in your sins and trespasses. You are not sick needing a little balm. You are dead in your sins and trespasses. You don't just need a little rest and recuperation. You don't just need a little rest and recuperation.

You don't just need a little medicine. You need a voice to call you forth from your spiritual grave. A voice who has the power to raise you from the dead. Jesus says, that's my voice. I call you forth from your spiritual grave and make you alive when you are dead in your sins and trespasses.

You're dead, but God who is rich in mercy. Finally, Jesus draws the inescapable conclusion. So that's the last heading on your outline. Conclusion fills in the blank. Finally, Jesus draws the inescapable conclusion, meaning there is no wiggling out of this conclusion.

No one comes to the Father except through me. Because Jesus is the way, the truth, the life, no one comes to the Father except through Him. As a consequence of this three-fold self-proclamation, I am the way, the truth, and the life. The result of that is that no one comes to the Father except through Jesus. Multitudes.

Millions and millions and millions think that they are on a road that leads to heaven when really they are actually on a broad road that leads to destruction. Nice people! Good neighbors in man's eyes. God sees so much more about them than we see. He sees into their hearts, their motives, the things that they say when we don't hear what they say.

The things that they do when no one else is watching. And they stand condemned. Religious people. Very sincerely religious people who will die. We're not the only ones with martyrs, you know.

So, sincerity is not the criteria for whether you are on the road to heaven or not. Not at all. Very respectable people. Convinced that they are on the road that leads to heaven, but they are actually on a broad road that leads to destruction. They are hurling towards an eternity separated from God of torment and getting what they deserve.

Multitudes are trying to get to God, to heaven, another way, working and working and working. Think of how sad that is. Not realizing that all of their righteousnesses are as filthy rags before the God. They are working and working and working, endlessly working, not knowing that they can't offer any of that to this perfectly righteous God. They're all like an unclean thing.

This is the words right out of Isaiah 64 verse 6. We need to memorize Isaiah 64 verse 6. It keeps the perspective right. It sweeps away nice people and religious people and respectable people and it sets them in the view of God. That's our view of them, and sometimes ourselves.

I'm nice, I'm religious, I'm respectable. This is how we view each other often. How does God view us? That's what really matters. How does the judge of the living and the dead view you?

He looks down from heaven and says, they are all like an unclean thing, all of their righteousnesses. It's plural, actually, in that verse. We usually quote it, all of our righteousness is like filthy rags, but it's actually in the plural. All of our righteousnesses, meaning we have these particular things that we think must be acceptable to God. There are righteousnesses, there are the things that we've separated out that are better than the other things, our best things.

All of those added together are like filthy rags before God. Multitudes are hoping that they will get to heaven at last, but all of their hopes will abandon them when it counts because they are not hoping in the way, the truth, the life. There is only one way. There is only one truth. It is embodied and personified in Jesus Christ.

There is only one life. There is only one voice that can call your dead soul from the grave. Hoping in anything else is hoping in something that will abandon you when it matters. Listen to Acts chapter 4 verses 11 and 12. Acts chapter 4 verses 11 and 12.

In Acts chapter 3, Peter and John went to pray. They met a lame man on the way. He asked them for alms. He held out his palms and this is what they did say. They heal him.

Peter preaches Christ. It has drawn a crowd to hear the gospel. The healing of this man draws a multitude to hear the preaching of Christ. He preaches Christ and he is arrested. So this is what he says to the Jews in Acts 4, 11 and 12.

This, Christ, is the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone. Nor is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." Jesus is the stone. Rejected by the builders. We don't want this stone.

We don't like this stone. Too bad! God made him the chief cornerstone. He is the chief cornerstone by appointment of Almighty God. There can never be another cornerstone to build the building on.

Nor is there salvation in any other. There is no other name under heaven. Peter is reaching for language to convince you of how comprehensive this is. Under Heaven. Under heaven.

Everything we know is under heaven. Everything we've ever seen or touched or experienced or heard of is under heaven. There's no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. If you are to be saved you must be saved by this name, by the person and work of Jesus Christ. The Father The Father is utterly, utterly holy.

As we read in the attributes of God last week in chapter 1, He is solitary. That doesn't mean He is lonely. That means that there is no one like Him. There is no one to compare him to he's not a better version of anything else you know Even my righteousnesses are like filthy rags. So how can someone like me come to the Father without being consumed by His holiness?

Jesus. Only Jesus. He is the only saving way. He is the only saving truth. He is the only saving life.

If I am to be saved, it is through Jesus or not at all. 1 Timothy 2 verse 5. 1 Timothy 2 verse 5. Paul says, for There is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. There is only one who can interpose himself between this utterly, utterly holy God and you to keep you from being consumed in his presence.

To interpose means to throw yourself between, to make right. This is the mediator. There is one God and one mediator. Only one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ. Applications.

I'll give you five. Number one, in the form of a question. How stuck am I in immediate physical realities. Peter? Stuck.

Thomas? Stuck. How about me? To what extent Am I being withheld by the glorious spiritual realities in Christ that are meant to strengthen and encourage me? I have the keys in my pocket, but I'm groping around in the couch cushions for the keys.

They're there, but they might as well not be there. There's a sense in which Christians can live lives where the glorious spiritual realities might as well not even be there. You're not receiving the strength and encouragement from you that God has intended, and so your heart's troubled. Number one, how stuck am I in immediate physical realities? Set your eyes on heaven where Christ is.

2. Don't undervalue what you do know. You might not know a million things. You might say, I'm just a dummy, I don't know hardly anything. You know more than the rest of the world, than most of the world, in the important things if you're in Christ.

You know the things that will take you to heaven when most of the world is groping around in darkness. The poor eleven, they knew but they didn't know that they knew. Don't undervalue the things that you know. You know the most important truths in the world. The truths that will change your eternity, take you from death to life.

Number three, Jesus said that He is the way, the truth, and the life. That means there is a way. What right do you have to a way to heaven, you sinner? But there is a way. There's a reason this is called the Gospel of John, the good news of John.

There's a way. You are not beyond the grace of God. Christ has come. He has died. It is finished.

His work is done. Nothing else needs to be done. You couldn't do it even if it did need to be done. Christ has come and done it. There is a way.

There is truth and we can know it. Sure, unchanging truth. And it's not hidden from you. It's revealed to me in you. Rejoice, there's truth.

You can know it. There's not my truth and your truth. There is the truth. And God hasn't kept it to Himself. He has revealed it to us.

There is life. And we can have it. It's available. All you have to be is thirsty. Oh, all who thirst, come and drink.

Isaiah 55, Revelation 22. The Bible ends with that offer. All you have to be is thirsty. You can come and drink of these living waters. Rejoice!

We're getting in five minutes. We'll be probably already into the extended teaching time where men can stand. This text lends itself to stern warnings and admonitions. I want to hold you back men from the stern warnings and admonitions. Just hear me out.

We get a lot of those. I'm grateful for them. Let this be a time of magnifying the beauty that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Soak in the beauty. Unbelievers can connect the dots.

There are times and places for connecting the dots. I'm saying don't connect the dots for them today. Glory in the beauty of Jesus as the way. There's a way! I'm a sinner.

I have no right to a way to heaven. There's a way. There is solid truth and God hasn't kept it to Himself. He's revealed it to us. There is life.

I don't have to stay spiritually dead. Jesus is a voice that calls the dead forth from their spiritual graves. Glory in that. Rejoice in that. Number four.

What will you do with Jesus' self-proclamations? No prophets ever spoke like this. Find me one. No apostles ever spoke like this. Find me one.

The prophets and the apostles pointed to another. Jesus pointed to himself. He has taken away the neutral corner. When a man talks like this, he forces you to decide. If a man doesn't talk like this, you don't have to decide.

There's a neutral corner. You don't have to be for or against, you can just be whatever. Not with Jesus, not with these claims. You have been deprived of the neutral corner. You either have to be before Him, you have to either have to be for Him and say, this is truth, He is the way, there's not another way.

He is the truth. The embodiment of all truth. All truth is rooted in him. He is the life. There is no other way to have spiritual life but in Jesus Christ.

I embrace that, or you have to say, I can't listen to another minute of this. Unbeliever. No decision is a decision. No decision is a decision. But believer, if you've said, I'm for Christ, I embrace this, This should have radical impact on us.

He's the way, and I'm in the way. He's the truth, and I know truth. I have truth at my fingertips, at my disposal. He's the life, I'm alive. What should I do with this life?

What will you do with Jesus' self-proclamations? Number five. Jesus said, No one comes to the Father except through me. Think about the implications of that for your neighbors, your friends, your coworkers, your countrymen. Here's what D.A.

Carson says in his commentary on this text. That is the necessary stance behind all fervent evangelism. That's what's crouching behind all fervent evangelism. No one comes to the Father except through this Jesus. Really simplifies things for the evangelists too.

We don't necessarily have to unpack everything related to rock layers. We have to tell them about Jesus. He is the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to Him. I'd like to have a rematch with the guy in front of the clinic yesterday.

This guy was a mess, and he got me diverted on all sorts of things. And I wish I could go back in time and just declare the truth of Christ to them. We sort of got there in a roundabout sort of way. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. The Gospel is not something to be argued with people who really have motives that they're not making clear.

It's just truth to be declared about Jesus, about God's love for mankind and what Jesus has done. God, thank you. Thank you for this text. I pray that you would press the truths of it on our hearts. In Jesus' name, amen.