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[0:00] If you'd like to follow along with the reading this evening, I've turned with me to the Gospel of John, the Gospel of John and chapter 13.

[0:12] And we're going to commence reading in verse 31 of that chapter and read through into chapter 14. So the Gospel of John and chapter 13, beginning reading at verse 31.

[0:30] And this is towards the end of what is often thought of as the Last Supper. Christ has met with the disciples. You'll remember the time when he washes the disciples' feet.

[0:43] He prophesies that one of the number will betray him. And Judas, having taken something to eat, has got up and left the gathering. And that is who is being referred to here in verse 31 when we read, when he had gone out, that is Judas.

[1:01] Jesus said, Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and glorify him at once.

[1:17] Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, where I am going, you cannot come.

[1:32] A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

[1:48] Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going? And Jesus answered him, Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterwards.

[2:02] Peter said to him, Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you. Jesus answered, Will you lay down your life for me?

[2:13] Truly, truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times. Let not your hearts be troubled.

[2:26] 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?

[2:38] 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.

[2:53] Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life.

[3:08] No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.

[3:21] Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father and it is enough for us. Jesus said to him, Have I been with you so long and you still do not know me, Philip?

[3:33] Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?

[3:47] The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

[4:03] Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.

[4:15] Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. Amen. So reads God's word.

[4:29] Before we come to consider part of that passage this evening, we're going to sing again. I'll turn with me again this evening to the Gospel of John, and to that passage that we read earlier.

[4:48] And again, we're looking at the I am's of Christ, as we were this morning. And this morning, if you remember, we looked at two of these unique seven sayings of Christ that are recorded for us in the Gospel of John.

[5:01] And we looked at, I am the bread of life, and I am the light of the world. And this evening, I'd like us to turn our attention to what is the sixth of the seven sayings of Christ.

[5:14] And it's the one in that passage you read earlier in chapter 14, verse 6, where Christ says, I am the way, and the truth, and the life.

[5:24] Well, before we look in more detail at that, just a quick reminder of a few things we said this morning. First, we said, didn't we not, that the express purpose of John writing his Gospel is evangelistic.

[5:38] He wrote so that people would believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Secondly, we noted the continual use of these two words, I am, by Christ.

[5:53] And we said this carries particular significance. In each case, Christ, by using those two words, referencing back to the names of God that we saw in Exodus 3, Christ is claiming, by those two words, to be God.

[6:11] And that as he then explains himself in the I am saying, then he is, in a way, explaining who God is, and who or what Christ had come to do.

[6:26] And we said that we need to remember that this is not just a human being speaking, this is not just the Apostle John speaking, this is the I am speaking, this is God speaking.

[6:41] And then thirdly, we said, there is a pattern to these sayings. It's a pattern of Christ making a claim, I am something, his hearers finding that a challenge, so as he makes that claim, he's challenging the people who are listening to him.

[6:57] And then thirdly, his hearers then making some kind of a response, whether it be a confession of the truth of Christ's saying, or whether it be a rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[7:11] So again, as we come to this saying this evening, I'd ask you to try and remember that little framework, the framework of claim, challenge, confession.

[7:22] So, John 14, 6 then, I am the way and the truth and the life. And Christ goes on, doesn't he? No one comes to the Father except through me.

[7:35] First thing we need to do, perhaps, is to understand the circumstances and the context of this saying. It helps to put it in its context. This is a period of Christ's teaching that John records for us.

[7:49] He records the period of Christ's public teaching, doesn't he? And that finished at the end of chapter 12. And so, this is in chapter 13, 14.

[8:00] John, in 13 through to 17, gives us an extended record of the, in a sense, the private teaching of Christ. This is Christ teaching the disciples prior to his crucifixion.

[8:16] It's a period of private ministry to the disciples. It concludes with Christ's high priestly prayer in chapter 17. And John clearly sees this as a very important part of the life and ministry of Christ.

[8:32] The first 12 chapters in the gospel cover a period of time, roughly three and a quarter years of Christ's life. These five chapters cover a period of really just a few hours.

[8:45] So, John has made this record for us because he clearly feels this is an extremely important part of Christ's teaching.

[8:56] It's the time, in a sense, for Christ to leave the disciples with the words that they will remember forever. The words that will be their encouragement to them from Christ once he has left them.

[9:11] And it's within this important passage of teaching that we have this I am saying of Christ. Now, at face value, the saying comes in in answer to the question of Thomas.

[9:27] Thomas there in verse 5. But I think, to really understand it, we need to go back into chapter 13, which is why we started reading in chapter 13, to see the context of the dialogue.

[9:39] Because it really starts in verse 31 of chapter 13. The Last Supper, it's often called, it's been eaten in the upper room. I mentioned this before we read the scriptures.

[9:52] In washing the disciples' feet, Christ has taught the disciples a lesson to do with greatness and to do with servanthood. He's revealed too that one of the twelve will betray him.

[10:04] And Judas has left the room a way to do his work of betrayal. And so, we then come to verse 31 and Christ begins to speak and he starts off giving the disciples a new command.

[10:19] He says, the new command I give you is to what? Well, it's to love one another. And he tells them that he is not going to be with them for very much longer.

[10:31] He's going to be going away. And he's going to be going away to somewhere they can't go. They can't go with him. And what happens? Well, as usual, Peter's the first to jump up and respond.

[10:44] It's there in verse 37. Why can't I go with you? I'd die for you, he says. Now notice, it's a very personal question to Christ. Peter often speaks to Jesus on behalf of the other disciples.

[10:58] But he seems to have been very much the spokesman. But in this case, this is a personal question. Why can't I come with you? Forget all the others, but why can't I come with you?

[11:10] I would die for you. What was the confession that we saw this morning in response to Christ? I am the bread of life.

[11:21] It was a confession. Came again from Peter, but on behalf of all of the disciples. You are the ones of eternal life. And we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.

[11:34] And that was Peter confessing on behalf of the disciples. But again, here, he's speaking for himself. And as Jesus answers him in verse 38, he reveals to Peter, but also, of course, to the other disciples who were present and listening, that despite Peter's apparent boldness, the morning wouldn't come before far from laying down his life for Christ, as he's just declared he is prepared to do, he would have denied knowing Christ.

[12:09] And not just once. But three times. So then, here we have this scene. These men are gathered together. Christ is revealed to them one is to betray him.

[12:20] And as if that wasn't enough to worry them, Christ is also revealed he's going to be going away somewhere, going away somewhere that they cannot follow him. And he's reinforced that by telling them something that they must do.

[12:34] That they must love one another. And in doing so, he says, they will demonstrate that they are his disciples. disciples. Well, why would they need to show that they are his disciples?

[12:46] Up to now, people could tell. They followed Jesus. They went where Jesus went. Wherever he was, the disciples went with him. You see, Jesus here is reinforcing to them that he's going away.

[13:00] So if he's not there, they need something to show to other people that they are his disciples. disciples. And that's this new command, that you love one another.

[13:13] But if that's not worrying enough, Christ goes on and he tells this guy who is seemingly the spokesman, seemingly the fearless one, seemingly the most bold of all the disciples, Peter, that he is going to deny his Lord.

[13:30] It's hardly an encouraging picture that we've got here. But then we get to chapter 14. And we have the start of Christ's encouragement there to his disciples.

[13:44] And it starts off with these great words. Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. You see, chapter 13 is the explanation for why their hearts would be troubled.

[14:02] This is terrible news that he's been giving them. There's a new command that he has given them. Why are you giving us a new command? This is why their hearts would be troubled.

[14:13] And so Christ addresses that. Let not your hearts be troubled. Just as a slight aside of translation, I'm not usually over keen on discussing translation issues in the scriptures, but there is one small translation issue here depending on what version of the Bible you're using.

[14:32] And that has led some people to think that Christ here is talking to Peter. And that the chapter break has been put in the wrong place so as to speak. So there are some English translations where it's a little bit unclear as to who Christ is talking to.

[14:50] You go back to the Greek, the Greek's very clear. In English, we have no way of differentiating between the singular and the plural of the word your. So it would be quite correct for me to look around the congregation tonight and to look at one person and to say to them, don't let your heart be discouraged.

[15:11] If you were listening to a recording, you would not know whether I was addressing that one person or whether I was addressing everybody here.

[15:27] Your could be all of you. We don't have this specific way of differentiating between singular and plural in English, but in Greek, you do.

[15:38] And they use a different word. And here, Christ is using your plural. He's addressing all of the disciples. He's not just addressing Peter.

[15:49] He's seeing that Peter is representative in a way of the concern of all the disciples. And he's addressing them all. So the best translation therefore this verse is indeed, let not your hearts with an S plural be troubled.

[16:02] That helps to make it clearer that Christ is addressing all of them. And what is he saying? Christ is saying be encouraged. He's saying don't be troubled.

[16:12] He says believe. And then he goes on to explain again and reiterate again. He is leaving them. He's going away. But he's going where? Well, he's going to prepare a place, he says, for them.

[16:25] And of course, he's speaking of heaven, isn't he? But there's still consternation in the minds of at least one of the disciples. You can imagine perhaps what he's thinking. He's thinking how can we know where Christ is going?

[16:38] How can we get there? What is this way that he's talking about? And he tells us that we know the way. That's there in verse 4 in what Christ says.

[16:50] He tells us we know the way but we don't. And this is obviously buzzing around Thomas' mind. So he pops out in verse 5. Lord, we do not know where you're going.

[17:01] How can we know the way? And it's in response to that question with the backdrop of all the other things that we've just been seeing that then we get this great I am of Christ.

[17:14] And Christ says I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Now, again, we need to address something.

[17:30] There are some commentators and indeed some translations of the scriptures who take this saying and they make this saying to be I am the true and living way. And it's certainly true that Christ is the true and living way.

[17:45] No question. But that's not what this is saying. There's more to this because again the Greek here is very specific. Christ, it says, is the way and the truth and the life.

[18:01] These ands are not put in there by the translators when you read them in the scriptures of your version if you're using the ESV for instance. If you're reading a version where they're not there well that's a mistranslation.

[18:14] These ands were put there by the Spirit of God inspiring the Apostle John to record the words of Christ. They are the words of Christ and so to to compound them all together and say I'm the true and living way well we lose so much meaning and significance of the statements.

[18:33] I make no apology for considering each of these statements separately this evening. So first of all we're going to look at the first one I am the way. Now a way normally leaves somewhere doesn't it?

[18:48] It goes somewhere. So when Christ here says that he's the way we should ask the question the way to where. But remember this is part of Christ's answer to Thomas' question in verse 5.

[19:03] Lord we don't know where you're going how can we know the way? Christ has been saying and he said it more than once he was going somewhere starting in chapter 13 to explain it he goes on in chapter 14 he's going to his father to prepare a place for his people and it's the way to this place that Christ is proclaiming himself to be.

[19:26] That's what he's talking about it's the way to what? Well to the presence of his father to take residence in one of the many rooms that are being prepared there for his disciples for his people.

[19:39] I guess many of us have taken a journey maybe by car to some new place and you drive along the way there and you follow perhaps signposts you maybe have a map if you're really old school you maybe use the GPS you maybe have some instructions that somebody's given to you and all these things are things that show us the way to go to wherever it is we're going.

[20:08] Similarly you see Christ is saying I am the one who shows you the way to the father I am the signpost I am the map I am the GPS system so as to speak if we can talk like that he it is who can navigate us to the father I am the way to the father he is the one who teaches us the way so just as you might have your husband or wife sitting next to you teaching you the way from the map Christ is the one who can teach the way he gives instructions to follow the way and even the Jews recognized Christ as a great teacher of course but you see all those things are true of Christ but Christ here is claiming to be more than just these things because Christ is actually claiming to be the way itself yes Christ shows us the way to the father he teaches us the way to get to the father but he is also the way

[21:16] Christ is the way and in every word of the Lord Jesus Christ in every act of the Lord Jesus Christ in every attitude of the Lord Jesus Christ he is the way he is the mediator between God and his elect people he is the way when you think about a way I wonder what comes to mind what do you see in your mind's eye as a picture it might be a picture of a road perhaps some favourite piece of road that you've driven on your holiday some dramatic drive maybe it's a picture of a footpath in perhaps the local hills around here and maybe these are the sorts of things that you picture of a way and there's something characteristic of that isn't there there's something characteristic of a way and what is characteristic of a way is that it starts somewhere and it goes and it ends somewhere so it has a beginning it lasts for a period of time and then it has an end a destination and that's characteristic of a way and there's a sense you see in which when Christ talks about being the way then there is a beginning there is something that lasts for a time and then there's a destination the way is the way to God but we have a journey to make on the way through this life and this is the way it begins with conversion and then we have a life on this earth that lasts for a period of time and then we have our destination our eternal home in the Father's mansion that's been prepared for us and the way that this way is possible is Christ because he is the way we often hear people

[23:07] I think these days talking about leading a full and fulfilling life and we hear people talking about quality time and we hear people talking about the work-life balance but you see the only way to true fulfillment in this life the only way to have fulfillment in this life is by following the way and that is to follow Christ Christ Christ has taught us how to live we have an example of Christ's life as to how we should live we have the writings of the apostles we have the writings of various authors in the Old Testament that point to Christ as well and we need to seek to live lives that are ever more Christ-like day by day recognizing that Christ is the way it's seeing that Christ is the way to the Father the way of salvation but also it's seeing that we live our lives in a way that brings honor to him brings honor to Christ brings honor to the Father empowered by the Spirit we live our lives in line with

[24:13] Christ's teaching we follow his way we are followers of the way the way that will bring us safely to our heavenly home I am the way says Christ the way to God but he goes on because he's not just the way he's also the truth he says I am the way and the truth says Christ you see just as Christ in his very person is the way so too in his person he is the truth he doesn't just teach the truth he is the truth in the Old Testament we have the ceremonial law don't we and that ceremonial law pointed the Jews to the Messiah pointed the Jews to Christ and many of the symbols in their religious rites were types and shadows as we call them of Christ they were images of Christ they pointed towards the coming

[25:14] Messiah and Christ then is the one in whom these Old Testament types and shadows were fulfilled they pointed to him he came he fulfilled those things he is the truth he is the final reality and in contrast to the types and shadows that preceded him he reveals to us in himself the full redemptive plan of God he is the truth you see about God he is the truth that tells us that we can be made right with God can set men and women free from sin and we think about the concept of truth it's true isn't it that when we think about it there is an opposite there is truth and there is untruth there is truth and there is lies truthfulness deceitfulness

[26:19] John 8 44 Christ says this you are of your father the devil he was talking to some of the religious leaders and your will is to do your father's desires he your father the devil was a murderer from the beginning and has nothing to do with the truth because there is no truth in him when he lies he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and the father of lies see Satan speaks out of his character he is the father of lies he blinds sinners to their sinfulness he is the opposite of Christ who is truth Christ speaks truth from his character and as Satan's character Christ's character is lies Christ's character is truth he is speaking of his character he speaks the truth

[27:20] Christ brings the truth that can make us right with God he is truth I am the way and the truth but Christ said more too not just the way and the truth but also the life I am the way and the truth and the life says Christ well what does he mean when he says that he is the life in Greek there is more than one word for life and you have to look again back to the Greek unfortunately here to get the sense and understanding of what Christ is talking about Christ here is using a word that is used to describe the God the living God through the apostles and throughout the New Testament and it's talking about the spiritual life of God it's not talking about the biological life of a human being there's a different word the living breathing life that we each have as a human being there's a different word for that this word here is talking about the spiritual life of God

[28:24] God is the living God Christ is the life if we want to have fellowship with God we must have this life this life of Christ Romans 6 10 talks about the Christian being dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus and this is what Christ is talking about here when he's talking about being the life he is the life in him we can be made dead to sin and we can be made alive to God and it's Christ that can do that because Christ is the life you see I am the way and the truth and the life there's a there's a complementariness to these three things that Christ is revealing to us here the way the truth the life they're necessary to each other and they complement each other the way brings us to the father it brings us to the father's house that the truth frees us from the lies of Satan it enables us to see our need of the way without the truth we cannot follow the way and then the life enables us and produces fellowship with

[29:38] God and it's a fellowship that's impossible without spiritual life you see it's a fellowship that's impossible without following the way it's a fellowship that's impossible without being set free from the lies of Satan by the truth by Christ the three are complementary you can't have one without the other you can't have the way and not the truth and the life you can't have the way and the truth but not the life you can't have the way and the life without the truth take one away it all falls down well having considered each part of these I am sayings there's something else that we need to say about this saying and it's very important for us to grasp and it's this there is an exclusivity in the saying of Christ we live you know in a day of multi-faith things services and relationships and

[30:38] July 2006 I believe it was we saw the first multi-faith service ever held at Westminster Abbey in London and it was a service to commemorate the victims of the bombing about a year before 7th of July in 2005 where a number of people died in London and there was a gentleman who was one of the organisers and he was a Muslim and his name was Dr.

[31:05] Hamid and he said this he said I believe in the goodness of all religions I also believe we're now a multicultural society here in this country and we have to live within the UK at peace with each other now I've no problem with living at peace with whoever lives in the country whatever their race ethnicity or religion but I don't really understand what he means by the goodness of all religions other than to assume that what he means is that all religions ultimately lead to God and of course that would be a common position for many people in our country tonight but the problem is that's not a Christian position Christ himself gives a light of that view here in chapter 14 verse 6 no one comes to the father except through me he says no one you see Christianity is exclusive the Bible is quite clear if you're not a

[32:09] Christian you can't find God if you're not a Christian you can't enter into a relationship with God I don't know if you remember your English lessons from school I'm not sure if they even teach this in school in English lessons anymore I don't know but in the English language we have two articles we have the word the and that is the definite article and we have the word a or a that's the indefinite article and when we use the indefinite article we generally think of a group we're referring to a group not a specific instance but a group so for instance we might say a dog is a mammal and that refers to all dogs because all dogs are mammals whereas when we use the definite article we're referring to a particular instance something specific so if we said the dog is in his bed we're referring to a specific dog we're not saying all dogs are in their beds we're saying that specific dog is in his bed it excludes all others that one dog

[33:20] New Testament Greek doesn't have a word for a if you want to say a something for instance a way you just said way and the a was assumed but it does have a word for the so when the Greek word for the is used it's quite clear that it means the it doesn't mean a it means the there's no confusion and our English translations are quite correct in this verse in the Greek Christ uses the word the I am the way he you see is the way not one of many ways not a way but the way he is the truth not one of many truths but the truth all truth you see is in Christ he is the life not just one of many options to give life he is the life and you see if that's not enough for you

[34:25] Christ goes on to reinforce his exclusivity there in verse 6 not only is he the way the truth the life just in case you don't get it he tells us no one comes to the father except through me again exclusive me not me and others but me I have to say I struggle to see how anybody who reads the bible can avoid this conclusion Christianity is exclusive exclusive it's an all or nothing there's no other way and no other religion can bring peace with God no other religion can bring the way of life that brings peace with God it doesn't matter what that religion is doesn't matter how clever we are how gifted we might be how friendly to others we might be how charitable we might be in our lives God is a holy

[35:26] God and he's so holy that all man no matter how good we think we are no matter how good we think the things we do we're guilty sinners in his sight and the only only way that we can approach God is through Christ through the work of Christ no one comes to the father except through me says Christ and unless we want to make Christ Christ who is the truth Christ who is by very nature truth unless we want to make him a liar then we need to understand this exclusivity no one comes to the father except through Christ so if Dr.

[36:07] Hamid were here this evening I'd have to say to him that I'm very sorry Dr. Hamid all religions are not good and any religion that doesn't acknowledge Christ as the son of God any religion that doesn't acknowledge Christ as the Messiah the saviour of mankind any religion that says it can bring you in some way into a relationship with God that doesn't include the saving work just another way to the same end any such religion is a lie it's a lie it's not good and if therefore in your religion there's no Christ there's no truth because he is truth if in your religion there's no Christ there is no life because he is life if in your religion there's no Christ there's no truth and life and therefore there can be no way no way to God let's move on because before we close we need to look at something else so we've looked at

[37:09] Christ saying we've looked at the background to it we've looked at the exclusivity of this claim of Christ but we need to look and ask ourselves about our response so we've seen the truths of Christ claims set out for us there it's a challenge to us what's our response to these claims the claim is quite clear isn't it it's a claim of his deity the very use of the words I am is Christ claiming his deity it's him being the way to the father and his saying of being the way it's his truth it's his life givingness and it's his exclusivity these are all the claims that Christ is making it seems such a simple little statement just a small little verse that we have in the Bible amongst all the rest of the Bible these are huge claims that Christ is making there's a sense in which this saying of

[38:10] Christ here didn't get an initial response from his hearers we're not told that we get an immediate response by the disciples we don't hear the disciples saying to Christ and echoing back to Christ we believe that you are the way and the truth and the life we don't see that but you see this is part of Christ teaching to his disciples before he leaves them and what we find is that this teaching is part of the foundation of the early church it was laid down for the church and the early Christians were known as what they were known as the followers of the way the saying of Christ you see is underpinning the start of the New Testament church the early church they were followers of the way and the apostles you see were instrumental in spreading abroad this message of the way it's the message of

[39:12] Christ and even intense persecution they spread abroad the message of Christ the message of the way you see their response quite clearly was one of acceptance of Christ claim read the rest of the New Testament see what was proclaimed it's Christ the way the truth and the life it's fully accepted by the apostles wasn't it they lived lives that showed out Christ love they lived lives that showed out their love for one another and that was how they showed they were the disciples of Christ they lived lives that witnessed to the life that Christ can bring to other human beings if they turn in repentance and faith to Christ as Saviour and Lord well that was the response of the apostles and of course it was to them who these words were initially spoken but what about us what do you and I make of these claims of Christ you see you and I we have no excuse we we can't say that we don't know the claims of

[40:24] Christ we can't say we've never heard the claims of Christ even if you'd never heard them before you've heard them tonight haven't you here before us and the thing is they demand a response Christ is the only way of salvation we're told what's your response to that do you believe that we have to make a decision here there's no middle ground you either believe it or you don't maybe you don't think you need salvation I don't know all of you here I don't know well if you think you don't need salvation that's to deny Christ claim to be truth because Christ teaches us that we need salvation so to deny that is saying Christ is not true all have fallen short of the standards God requires the Bible quite clearly teaches us that so if you think you don't need salvation then you're making Christ out to be a liar if you don't know

[41:27] Christ is your Savior and Lord you need to look to his claims you need to believe in him you need to see him and love him as the way and as the truth and as life the way the truth and life that can bring you back into communion with God and you need to start on that journey of life you need to join the way the way to what well the way to heaven the way to an eternal life with Christ because the option doesn't bear thinking about if you're not on the way you're on the way of lies and that's eternity with Satan in hell but there's implications here too for Christians we may already have responded to Christ claims we may already have put our faith and our trust in him but we need to ask ourselves a couple of questions and the first is this are we faithfully following in Christ's way are we leading lives that are honouring to him or are we straying from that way even the apostle what did he say apostle

[42:38] Paul we often think of him as being the great apostle Paul don't we what did he say in Romans 7 the evil I do not want to do I do the times that Paul strays off the straight and narrow way and he tells us quite clearly you see the Christian life can be hard can't it and our natural inclinations are to give in our natural inclinations are to stray it's easier to sit down at the side of the way than it is to keep walking on the way if you ever walked a hard stony pathway sometimes you would find the same it's far more attractive to sit down in the sunshine and eat your picnic than it is to keep going you see Christ is the loving shepherd and Christ lovingly brings his sheep back to the safe pathways because make no mistake if you wander off the way you're not in safety if you're wondering listen to the voice of the shepherd what does

[43:43] Christ say my sheep know my voice listen to his voice listen to him get back into the straight way get back into the narrow way get back into that way of safety for the believer way of safety from the snares of sin way of death confess your waywardness come back to Christ and come back to his ways so that's the first are we faithfully following Christ ways but the second question as a believer we should ask is this do you really believe in the exclusivity of Christ and the message of Christ do you really believe in the absoluteness of the Christian religion and if you do what does that mean to you how does it change you do you have an interest in mission do you have a desire to see the gospel spread abroad what about your own personal witness are you somebody who can keep quiet about

[44:47] Christ or do you witness for Christ you see if we properly understand what Christ is saying here and we properly grasp the exclusive nature of Christ and we understand that without Christ people are lost it's a need of the world to need Christ if we properly understand that how can we be silent how can we not be passionate about mission how can we not be passionate about evangelism how can we be anything other than evangelistic in our outlook on life in our dealings with other people day by day in some ways I sometimes think this has been a failing of modern evangelicalism we have lost the vision for the lost in this world

[45:47] I think perhaps we've made a mistake of being too taken up with right doctrine and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with right doctrine I think right doctrine is essential but you see the problem is that if you lose sight of the fact that this right doctrine is exclusive then you lose sight of the lost don't you and we need to regain the need of right doctrine but we need to understand that right doctrine is utterly exclusive and it therefore demands us to take that to the lost because there's only one way to God one way it's the Lord Jesus Christ he alone is the I am he alone is the way he alone is the truth and he alone is the life I pray that each one of us would see the truths of Christ's claims as he makes them and that we would respond in faith who would respond in an active living faith and that we would live lives that show abroad what well show abroad the love of

[46:59]  Christ that allows us to reach out to those needy sinners that are all around us who need to know the one true message of salvation and that message well it's Christ isn't it it's the truths of Christ it's it's the way of Christ it's the life giving Christ that can make us right with God Amen