John 14:6, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me.”
INTRODUCTION: The fourteenth chapter of John’s Gospel speaks of the union that Christ enjoys with the Father. It speaks of the union that Christ enjoys with His people individually as well as corporately in the Gospel Church state. It also speaks of the union of the elect children of God with Christ and their enjoyment of Him as they walk in the old WAY of Christ and the Apostles. Our text is found in verse six which is Christ’s answer to Thomas’s question (vs. 5) “How can we know the way?” This question was preceded by his denial that he knew where Christ was going when he said, “We know not whither thou goest.” This exchange becomes very interesting when you begin to realize that where Christ was going and the “way” He would take to get there had already been taught by Christ to Thomas in verses one through four.
Time, space, and limited knowledge will not permit us to enlarge verses two through four as they deserve. Hopefully, it will suffice to say, that these verses have to do with Christ and His Church walking in the baptized way as His spiritual kingdom on this earth. The “Father’s house” is the Gospel Church and the “place” prepared is the due place of His various household servants. Each servant is personally called by Christ Himself and set into proper Gospel order.
OUR THREEFOLD INTENTION: First: To attempt to answer the question Thomas asked, “How can we know the way?” Second: To attempt to prove the truth of Scripture is in union with Christ. Third: To attempt to prove the truth is never understood by any until they become one with it.
NOTICE: In verse four, Christ affirms a thing saying, “Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.” One would think that would settle the matter. Alas, Thomas denies what Christ affirms to His face! “We know not whither thou goest” This is familiar to this old carpenter. Most of my wilderness wanderings have been filled with such an experience. Christ affirmed a thing, and I denied it! From this picture of a believer in a state of ignorance, we may very well observe some things, hopefully for the good of our needy souls.
It is one thing to know by notion or intellect any truth in the abstract. It is another thing to know the truth by experience, in which case it becomes vital, practical, and dynamic. When Christ brings His children along to know Him by EXPERIENCE, as He is in Himself, compared to our preconceptions of Him, then they know that they know! In short, it is one thing to know and another to know that you know, because you have experienced the truth and have become one with it, as your truth! Secondly: More often than we wish to confess, Christ knows things about us and in us that we do not know ourselves. Furthermore, Christ knows those things about us and in us that we are incapable of knowing by ourselves! With respect to the experience of truth in the life of a believer, I offer the following quotation by Elder Paul Hobson. It is directed primarily at ministers, but the experience is the same in all saints. It reads:
“He, and he only is fit to declare truth (Gal. 2:20; I Cor. 2:1-6) whose spirit is so crucified by the power of Truth, that in his acknowledgment of Truth, he does it singly for Truth, and not for self. ‘I will go in the strength of the Lord God; I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only,’ Psa. 71:16. But self in no soul is so laid down by the power of Truth, till that soul is actually possessed with Truth; for till then it is not Christ, but the self that reigneth. He and he only is fit to declare Truth, whose reason doth not master notions of Truth, but his reason is a servant to the power of Truth, being overcome and made silent by the authority of Truth. But no soul is so overcome and made silent by the authority of Truth, but he that enjoyeth Truth.” A GARDEN ENCLOSED & WISDOM JUSTIFIED, 1647.
This same Elder, in another book of sermons written two years earlier, spoke more directly to all professors in general regarding this experience of Truth. It reads this way: “We do not intend a Gospel knowledge in a notional way; by that I mean, men’s running out to fetch in notions of the truth and are not fetched by the power of the truth; and so, they rather carry notions of truth than the power of truth carrying them. And that is the cause why some walk loosely in the profession of the Gospel, which is a matter of great grief. But men do exceedingly ill in laying these scandals upon truth, and not distinguishing professors from possessors of truth.” A DISCOVERY OF TRUTH, 1645.
THREE IMPORTANT LESSONS:
1. It is a great thing to know Christ as He is in Himself in truth.
2. It is a greater thing to be known by Christ as He is in Himself when we are in our state of ignorance! It is then most needful for us to be acted upon by the “author and finisher of our faith,” Heb. 12:1-2.
3. This should teach us to live upon HIM WHO KNOWS US as compared to living on our knowledge! He who lives upon His knowledge is not living upon Him Who is known. To live upon knowledge is a fearful thing because we can never be secure in that which is always changing. To live upon knowledge as compared to the Him that is known is to live upon the streams as compared to living upon the FOUNTAIN.
David got this which is why he exclaimed, “For with thee is the FOUNTAIN OF LIFE: in thy light we see light,” Psalm 36:9. This is the very point Christ was teaching Thomas when He said, “I am the way, the truth and the LIFE: no man cometh unto the Father but by me,” John 14:6
In these few words, we hope to discover the Divine Excellency and absolute sufficiency of Christ HIMSELF to meet every need of all His people of all ages. Next lesson we hope to enlarge Christ Himself as “the WAY.”
If King Jesus would be so pleased, please groan an uttering for this old sinner with a reason to hope, if not deceived.
Weslaco, TX. Jan 31, 2024
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