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Turn in your Bibles to John chapter 
14. John 14, I'll begin reading at 
verse 1. We'll read to verse 11, though 
our focus this evening will just be on the first six verses. The context, the larger, broader 
context is what's called the upper room discourse. The Lord 
Jesus is getting ready to go to the cross, and in John chapters 
13 to 16, He spends time with his disciples. He instructs them. He encourages them. He equips 
them for their ministry in his absence. Or when he dies, he 
rises again. He ascends on high. The Lord 
Christ has specific orders for his apostles that they go out 
and preach and teach and plant churches and all that sort of 
thing. So in the context of the upper room, he is primarily seeking 
to encourage, to stir them on, or spur them on to faithfulness 
in his absence. So beginning in verse 1 at chapter 
14, 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. If you had known me, you 
would have known my father also. And from now on, you know him 
and have seen him. Philip said to him, Lord, show 
us the father, and it is sufficient for us. Jesus said to him, if 
I've been with you so long and yet you have not known me, Philip, 
he who has seen me has seen the father. So how can you say, show 
us the father? Do you not believe that I am 
in the father and the father in me? The words that I speak 
to you, I do not speak on my own authority. The father who 
dwells in me does the works. Believe me that I am in the father 
and the father in me. or else, believe me, for the 
sake of the works themselves. Amen. Well, let us pray. Our 
Father, we thank You for this, Your Word. We pray for the ministry 
and the aid of Your Spirit now. We ask God for Your blessing. 
We ask God for strength. We ask God that You would see 
us through the various troubles and the trials and the difficulties 
that we face in this lower world. Increase our faith in the Son 
of God. Increase our faith in your glorious 
promises and in your purposes. Give us grace to submit willingly 
to your rule and to your government. And we pray through Jesus Christ, 
our Lord. Amen. Well, this is a very familiar 
passage of Holy Scripture, the entirety of the Upper Room Discourse. As I said, we're going to just 
focus this evening on verses 1 to 6 under two broad considerations. In verses 1 to 3, the Lord Jesus 
highlights his departure and his return. He does say to them 
that he is going to depart, but he tells them specifically where 
he is going and why he is doing that. And then secondly, as a 
result of what he says there, it raises the question, Thomas 
says, we do not know where you are going. That is then the setting 
for his statement concerning himself being the way, the truth, 
and the life. So we have the departure and 
return of Jesus, verses one to three, and then we have the way 
to God through Jesus, in verses five and six. So that is our 
map for this evening. Let us first notice the departure 
and return of Jesus in verses 1 to 3. He begins with a command. He begins with instruction all 
along the way in the upper room. As I said, He is encouraging. 
He is spurring them on. He is stirring them up. He is 
giving them instruction so that when He returns to His Father, 
they will faithfully execute the task of preaching the gospel, 
making disciples, and planting churches. In other words, carrying 
out the Great Commission. And notice the nature of the 
command in chapter 14 at verse 1. Let not your heart be troubled. Now, Jesus speaks to specific 
issues. He doesn't just throw out commands 
that would never have application. The Bible doesn't just suggest 
things. The Bible addresses real-life 
issues in real-life situations and contexts. Certainly, these 
men would be susceptible to heart trouble. The master they love, 
the master they are presently dining with, the master they've 
come to adore, the master they've come to trust in, is going to 
be violently ripped away from them. Soul or heart trouble is 
not something, or it is something that is frequent in the lives 
of God's people. Jesus Christ in the Gospel account 
itself has this soulish or heart trouble. Notice in chapter 11 
at verse 33 when he's at the graveside of Lazarus. Therefore 
when Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who came with her weeping, 
he groaned in the spirit and was troubled and he said, where 
have you laid him? And then in John chapter 12 verse 
27, as he's looking forward to the cross, he says, Now my soul 
is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, 
but for this purpose I came to this hour. And then again in 
John 13 at verse 21, When Jesus had said these things, He was 
troubled in spirit and testified and said, Most assuredly, I say 
to you, one of you will betray me. There is something very illegitimate, 
something very hypocritical, something very phony, and something 
very offensive about an approach to Christianity that describes 
it like a Disney movie, that describes it like all we ever 
do is skip our way into heaven. that describes it as if the bluebirds 
attend us with their fins, or with their wings, making our 
way unhindered. There is something vile about 
that depiction of the Christian life that minimizes the trial, 
that minimizes the difficulty, that minimizes the hardship. 
When you read the Psalter, for instance, Psalms 42, and 43. What do you find the psalmist 
crying out? Why are you downcast, O my soul? Hope thou in God. Jeremiah has 
been called the weeping prophet. Isaiah the prophet describes 
our Lord Jesus Christ as a man of sorrows and acquainted with 
grief. So the reality is, it's not that there's no trouble in 
the Christian life, no affliction, no hardship, no trial, but what 
Jesus is speaking to here is, do not be paralyzed by heart 
trouble. Do not let it get you down to 
the point of inactivity. Do not let it get you to the 
point where you are ready to give up. You are to fight. You are to persevere. You are 
to realize that in this world, you will have tribulations. So 
he ends this whole discourse. But be of good cheer, for I have 
overcome the world. Notice the Lord Christ is about 
to go to the cross. And the Lord Christ is concerned 
that they are not bereft of heart trouble, or they are not experiencing 
heart trouble. It truly is an amazing thing 
that the Lord Jesus addresses here. So, I want to just suggest 
to each and every one of us, there will be trials. There will 
be difficulties. There will be hardships. There 
will be seasons in your Christian life where it seems like everything 
is against you. In fact, this morning in our 
study of the confession, I love our confession because these 
men knew the Bible. They knew theology. They were 
realists. They said, and though they may, 
he's talking about, they're talking about saints. The chapter is 
on the perseverance of the saints. And though they may, through 
the temptation of Satan and of the world, the prevalency of 
corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of means of their 
preservation, fall into grievous sins, and for a time continue 
therein, whereby they incur God's displeasure and grieve His Holy 
Spirit, come to have their graces and comforts impaired, have their 
hearts hardened, their consciences wounded, hurt, and scandalize 
others, and bring temporal judgments upon themselves, yet shall they 
renew their repentance and be preserved through faith in Christ 
Jesus to the end." He certainly We cannot accuse the divines 
at Westminster of having been health, wealth, and prosperity 
preachers. We have the devil who opposes 
us. We have the world that is in 
opposition to us, to our master, and if we represent him effectively 
to us as well. And we have our own remaining 
corruption. Galatians 5.17, Romans chapter 
7. Certainly, soul or heart trouble 
is bound to affect us at one point or at one time or another 
in our Christian lives. We see it in the Apostle Paul. We see that he received a messenger 
from Satan sent to buffet him. He received a thorn in the flesh. 
What did he do when he received that thorn in the flesh? Did 
he say, hey, this is wonderful, this is fantastic, this is great? 
No, he says, I pray to the Lord three times that you remove it. It's phony Christianity to walk 
around and pretend like there's never difficulties, never trials, 
never problems, never issues, and that everything only ever 
goes your way. That's just not reality. And Jesus speaks to 
that in the upper room. Notice, let not your heart be 
troubled. Again, he understands that it's 
going to happen. He knows there's issues in this 
life. He knows there's trials. He's going to tell them they 
will suffer tribulation in this world. But he gives a remedy. 
He gives an antidote. He gives something to engender 
faith instead of fear. He says, let not your heart be 
troubled. You believe in God, believe also 
in me. Faith is the preventative maintenance 
for heart trouble. This heart trouble has the tendency 
to paralyze us. Jesus says, do not let that happen. And the two verbs that he uses 
could both be indicatives or they could both be imperatives. 
It's probably best to take the first as an indicative and the 
second as an imperative. Anybody above the age of grade 
5 is probably lost now, so let me just explain what I mean. 
An indicative verb is the verb of reality. It is the case, you 
believe in God. That is a settled fact among 
his disciples. The command here is, believe 
also in me. Now certainly they are, certainly 
their faith in Him is growing, but this antidote for us ought 
to be applied. When we have heart trouble, when 
there is sorrow, when there is trial, when there is difficulty, 
when there is hardship, when we are facing certain problems, 
what ought we to pray? Lord, increase my faith. Increase my confidence in the 
living God. Belief is essential for justification. It is essential for sanctification. Belief in Christ is essential 
for these particular disciples as they would see him arrested, 
crucified, dead, and buried. Faith would be the necessary 
fortification against despair, against being buried themselves, 
against throwing up their hands and saying, forget about it. 
You see, the Lord Christ wants His men to manifest faith, not 
fear. He wants His men to press onward, 
not to be paralyzed. He wants His men to take seriously 
the demands to go there for and to make disciples of all the 
nations, to baptize them and to teach them. And He wants His 
people not to be paralyzed by heart trouble. He wants you and 
I to increase in faith. He wants you and I to grow in 
the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. What 
is the best way to feed faith? Guess where we're going, brethren. 
More Bible. The best way to increase faith 
is more knowledge of our Lord and Savior. The best way to steady 
your soul, the best way to sturdy yourself, is through the knowledge 
of God Almighty. When we have various trials, 
when we have various difficulties, the thing that takes us through 
it is not confidence in self, not confidence in our ability, 
not confidence in our prowess or power, but it is confidence 
in God the Lord Most High. And that is what Jesus Christ 
says to his disciples. Let not your heart be trouble. 
You believe in God, believe also in me." It's truly an interesting 
way. When we increase in faith, it displaces this heart trouble. Luke chapter 18. Pastor Cam referred 
to this, I think, this morning. Luke chapter 18. He spoke a parable 
to them that man always ought to pray and not lose heart. Notice those contrasting position. Pray and not lose heart. So if 
we're losing heart, what might we rightly conclude? We're not 
praying. If we're being overcome by heart 
trouble, what might we conclude? We're not believing the Savior. 
If we're being buried by our distresses and our trials and 
our difficulties, We ought to consider, God have mercy upon 
me, increase my faith, renew my repentance, and give me the 
grace to be a prayerful man or a prayerful woman. Jesus speaks 
comfort to his disciples in the upper room. He wants them to 
be steadied. He wants them to be sturdied. 
He wants them to be confident in his ability and in his leadership 
and in his lordship so that they are not overcome by this hard 
trial. Notice, secondly, with reference 
to his departure, it's interesting the way that Jesus now turns 
his attention. Let not your heart be troubled. 
You believe in God, believe also in me. And then he says, 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. Isn't that 
amazing? Now, if you were struggling with 
heart trouble, And you came to me after the service, and you 
said, brother, I'm really struggling with heart trouble. I'd say, 
you need to believe on the Lord Jesus. You need to read your 
Bible. You need to pray. You need to 
grow. And tomorrow, I believe God will give you the grace to 
get through it. And I think that's a legitimate answer. That's legit 
counsel. Jesus bypasses tomorrow. He bypasses 
all the tomorrows, and he points to the eschaton. What better encouragement than 
this? Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also 
in me. Let me just tell you something. 
I am going to my father's house. And when I get to my father's 
house, there's many mansions there. And I am going to carve 
out one specifically for you. In other words, you need to get 
your mind focused, rooted in, and pressed forward to the future 
reality that you will be where I am. It is truly an amazing 
way to address this issue of heart trouble. Yes, there'll 
be grace for you to get out of bed tomorrow and go to work and 
conduct yourself the way you ought to. But you need to focus 
upon the eternal realities. You need to think about the big 
picture. You need to realize that Christ, 
when He dies and He rises again, He is going to His Father's house. He has spoken of the temple as 
His Father's house in John chapter 2. Here, the reference is not 
to the earthly temple. It is to the heavenly temple. 
It is to heaven itself. Jesus says, I am going there 
and I am preparing a place for you. Isn't that amazing? If you've 
ever read the gospel accounts, you'll realize that hell is a 
place prepared for the devil and his angels. In the book of 
Acts, it says that Judas, by transgression, went to his own 
place. It seems as if in penal sanctions, 
God prepares specifically that which is fitting for offenders 
of his holy law. Well, conversely, the Lord Christ 
prepares places for His children that when they arrive in the 
eschaton, they have their place waiting for them. It truly is a means by which 
The people of God ought to be encouraged. Do not let your heart 
be troubled. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ 
and realize that after the trials, after the difficulties, after 
the woes, after the hardships, after the surgeries, after the 
cancers, after the loss of loved ones, after the sorrows, after 
the tears, after the challenges, there is a mansion waiting for 
you with the Father himself. And notice the way Christ speaks 
to this. He says, I go and I prepare a 
place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will 
come again, and here it is, and receive you to myself. Isn't that what makes heaven 
heaven? I know we visited that theme several times in the weeks 
past. Christ says, I will receive you 
unto myself. He is the jewel of heaven. He 
is the chief delight in heaven. He is what makes heaven, heaven. And he says, I will receive you 
to myself. It truly is a means by which 
he encourages his people and strengthens them. The Lord Jesus 
Christ wants His disciples to kill this heart trouble with 
faith. And He wants to encourage them 
to this end by the reality that He is going, preparing a place 
for them, so that when He comes again, He can receive them unto 
Himself, where they may dwell with Him, world without end. 
Amen. And then He says, as I said in 
verse 4, and where I go, you know, in the way you know. And 
then this sets up or segues into this statement in verse 6. Thomas 
said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going, and 
how can we know the way? There's no contradiction here. 
Jesus affirms that they know the way. Thomas says we don't 
know the way. Jesus has told them many things. 
They don't always get it the first time. It sets the stage, 
or it makes the setting for his statement of verse 6. Beasley Murray says, the disciples' 
lack of understanding, as so often, provides opportunity for 
Jesus to clarify the revelation. In other words, Thomas asks the 
perfect question. We don't know what you're talking 
about, Lord. Well, let me tell you. So he moves from having 
sought to encourage them to faith in him. with the reality that 
they will be received by Him, to now highlighting the way to 
the Father through Him. His place in this whole process. This is the sixth time in the 
Gospel of John that Jesus says, I am, and then He says something. We call this a predicate. It's 
an I am with a predicate. There are certain times in the 
Gospel of John where Jesus just says, I am. What are we to think when we 
read those two words, I am? We're to think about the burning 
bush that Moses came upon when Yahweh of Israel revealed himself 
as I am. We're also to think of the prophet 
Isaiah, which sets the backdrop for that saying, I am. God the 
Lord reveals himself in the prophet Isaiah as I am. So those statements in and of 
themselves highlight the deity of Jesus Christ. These I am's 
with a predicate highlight certain aspects or certain truths concerning 
his person and work that are very instructive for the people 
of God. For instance, Jesus is the bread of life. He who eats 
this bread will never die. Jesus is the light of the world. Jesus is the door of the sheep. Jesus is the good shepherd. Jesus is the resurrection and 
the life. Jesus is, sixthly here, the way, 
the truth, and the life. And then the seventh is in John 
15. Jesus is the true vine. So in each of these statements 
that Jesus gives to his disciples, that he gives to his church, 
it highlights aspects of his person. that are very helpful 
and instructive for the people of God. And this one answers 
specifically to Thomas' question, 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 just unpack these various 
clauses. Notice that Jesus is the way. He doesn't say, I show the way 
or I shine the light on the way, but rather Jesus himself is the 
way. In other words, we don't get 
to God apart from the Lord Jesus. We don't have eternal bliss apart 
from the Lord Jesus. There is no salvation apart from 
Jesus Christ. There is a generic idea out there 
that if we have faith in a God, faith in some God concept, faith 
in a higher power, faith in something, it's somehow redemptive. It is 
not redemptive unless that faith is rooted in and founded upon 
and grounded in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
Faith itself is simply the instrument. It is the object of faith that 
is salvific. And if we have faith in a generic 
God, if we have faith in a rock, if we have faith in ourselves, 
we can't deliver the goods. There is no redemption apart 
from our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, sometimes Christians 
are said to be prejudiced or bigoted, not necessarily in a 
racial sense, but in terms of other religions. Well, you Christians 
preach your Jesus as the only way to salvation. Jesus preached 
himself as the only way to salvation. Jesus stands in the long line 
of prophets that highlight the reality that if Yahweh is God, 
serve Him. If Baal is God, serve Him. There is no pluralism taught 
in the Bible. There's no syncretism. By pluralism, 
I mean that you can have a multiplicity of gods, whichever one you want, 
and that particular god will deliver the goods. Syncretism 
is also Also, sinful activity. That's when we try to marry the 
worship of Christ, the worship of God with our idols or with 
other things. Jesus is alone the way. That needs to be preached. Secondly, he is the truth. Jesus Christ himself is the embodiment 
of God's truth. John 1.14. John 1.14. 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. Verse 16, And of His fullness 
we have all received, and grace for grace. 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. Look at verse 17 again. For the 
law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through 
Jesus Christ. He's not saying there was never 
grace and truth through Moses. He is not saying that there was 
no grace in Exodus 34. This morning it was pointed out 
that it was Exodus 34, quoted by Jonah in chapter 4, verse 
2. And I said Exodus 36, and I knew 
it was Exodus 34, but I looked at my notes and it said 36. So 
I guess my mindset was, my notes can't be wrong, but they were. 
It's Exodus 34, where God manifests, or God reveals Himself as gracious. He doesn't judge the idolaters 
who were dancing around that calf. He shows grace. He shows mercy. When Moses went 
up to Sinai, and he received the law, and he came back down 
to the plains of, to the base of Sinai, or to the plains of 
Horeb in Deuteronomy, and he spoke those 10 words, were not 
to conclude they were false. What he is saying in verse 17 
probably speaks to larger covenantal concerns. But it's probably a 
comparison to highlight that in God's redemptive plan, in 
his dealings, in redemptive history, we have his son now. We have 
the one in whom dwells all the fullness of deity bodily. When 
he speaks, it is truth. When he speaks, we are to listen. When he speaks, we are to bow 
down. When he speaks, we are to respond. Jesus Christ said, I am the way. I am the truth. Thirdly, he says, 
I am the life. Again, he himself. To love the 
way the scriptures embody Christ with these attributes. Last week 
we considered Christ himself is our peace. Simeon, cradling 
the babe Christ in his arms says, mine eyes have seen your salvation. Christ describes himself as the 
way, as the truth, as the life. Christ in John chapter 5 at verse 
26 has life in himself. In John 6, there's a group of 
people that were following Jesus because He fed them. And then 
Jesus started to teach them Reformed theology. I'm reading that into 
the text. It is Reformed theology. He didn't 
call it that. But when He teaches them that, 
what do they do? A lot of them stop following 
Him. And then Jesus looks at the 12 
and He says, Do you also want to leave me? And Peter makes 
this declaration, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the works 
of eternal life. John 6 verse 68. Jesus says in John 10 that he 
gives life and he gives it abundantly. Truly amazing. People look at 
Christians like they're miserable beings. There is no greater joy 
than to be a Christian. There is nothing more abundant 
than to have Christ as Lord and Savior, to have your sins forgiven, 
to be counted not guilty, to be those who have a right and 
inheritance to heaven above. What is bad about that? That 
is abundant life. And then Jesus, According to 
John 11, 25, the graveside of Lazarus says to Martha, I am 
the resurrection and the life. First John 5, 20, the apostle 
signs off before a caution against idolatry. He says that Jesus 
Christ is the true God and eternal life. So those are the things 
that Jesus commends to his disciples. He says, let not your heart be 
troubled. The famous news commentator that oftentimes cites this particular 
verse. I wonder if he means what Jesus 
meant when he says it. I sort of don't think so. Jesus 
meant, look to me, trust in me, steady yourself against the trials 
and the difficulties and the problems of this life. with a 
confidence and a certainty in Jesus Christ the Lord. He encourages 
them that he is going to his father. He is going to prepare 
a place for them so that when he returns again, he may receive 
them unto himself. And this then sets the stage 
for Thomas to ask this question and Jesus to answer in a most 
blessed and wonderful way. In conclusion, first of all, 
we learned something about eschatology. You say, what do you mean about 
eschatology? Eschatology is the doctrine of or study of last 
things. And most of the times, the discussion 
concerning eschatology revolves around the thousand years mentioned 
in Revelation chapter 20. And when we talk about that thousand 
years, we talk about beasts, and we talk about antichrists, 
and we talk about perilous times, and we talk about eschatological 
meaties, We talk about all sorts of things. But if we look at 
the eschatology of our Lord Jesus, highlighted in John 14, verses 
1 to 3, it really is quite simple. Jesus goes to heaven. He prepares 
a place for his people. He returns in glory. He receives 
them unto himself. That's eschatology. That's eschatology 
that promotes hope. That's eschatology that promotes 
comfort. That's eschatology that promotes, 
hopefully, faithfulness in our lives. 1 John 3. The apostle 
speaks this way. 1 John 3. Verse 1. Behold what manner of 
love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called 
children of God. Therefore the world does not 
know us because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children 
of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but 
we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him. For we 
shall see Him as He is, and everyone who has this hope in Him purifies 
himself just as he is pure. I'm not suggesting we ought not 
to search the scriptures and ask the question, who is the 
beast? Who is the Antichrist? How do these personages fare 
in the discussion of eschatology? But we ought not to complicate 
matters. We ought not to make it so difficult 
that we need a newspaper in the one hand and a Hal Lindsey novel 
in the other in order to try to figure out what's going to 
happen in our future. Jesus makes it very clear. When 
I die, when I rise again, when I ascend on high, I am preparing 
a place for you. I will come again and glory to 
judge the living and the dead. and I will receive you unto myself." 
Let that thought, my dear brothers and sisters, encourage you. Let 
that thought, my dear brothers and sisters, help you and increase 
your faith in the Savior so that it will displace this heart trouble 
and you will not be paralyzed by a fearfulness, but rather 
emboldened by a faithfulness. Secondly, The Antidote to Heart 
Trouble. We've already touched on this. 
Just want to read a quote by J.C. Ryle. He says, we have in 
this passage a precious remedy against an old disease. You see, 
that's another thing. You read the old writers. You 
read the Puritans. You read the Reformers. You read 
the guys post-Puritan, post-Reformation. You read men that know theology. They don't minimize the reality 
of difficulty in the Christian life. They don't say, hey, what's 
your trouble? Just buck up. The sun will come 
up tomorrow. You can bet your bottom dollar. 
Just be encouraged. That's not going to help the 
Christian agonizing. Ryle says we have in this passage 
a precious remedy against an old disease. That disease is 
trouble of heart. That remedy is faith. Faith. And then thirdly and finally, 
the importance of John 14 and verse 6. It defines our allegiance to 
Christ. He is the way, He is the truth, 
and He is the life. Our allegiance must be to Him. It demonstrates our confidence 
in the gospel. If in fact Jesus is the way, 
the truth, and the life, I can hang my soul on Him. I can rest 
assured that what I commit to Him, He is able to keep until 
that day." 2 Timothy 1.12. As well, it highlights the exclusivity 
of Christianity as the redemptive religion of the true and living 
God. John 14.6 is crucial in a pluralistic 
age. John 14.6 is absolutely essential 
in a day where everybody has their way, everybody has their 
ideas, and everybody's is as valuable as the next. No, they're 
not. If they do not preach the gospel 
of Jesus Christ our Lord, if they do not maintain and insist 
that He is alone the way, the truth, and the life, there is 
no truth in them. Brethren, we have to realize 
that when the church is watered down, it is precisely at this 
place. We don't want to be so narrow. 
We don't want to be so exclusive. We want to be broader. We want 
to be more inclusive. We ought to be broad and inclusive 
when it comes to ethnicities. We ought to be broad and inclusive 
when it comes to economic status. We ought to be broad and inclusive 
when it comes to genders. In other words, we ought to be 
concerned for every tribe and tongue and people and nation. 
But we will never, God helping us, be broad on the way of access 
to God Almighty. If we compromise here, may Christ 
rip the lampstand from us and cast it far away. We are not 
going to play the game of trying to tear off rough edges to make 
the unbeliever happy. We are not going to try and look 
more appealing to the masses. We will preach continuously, 
and I hope consistently, Christ and him crucified. to the Jews, 
a stumbling block, and to the Greeks, foolishness. But to us, 
who are being saved, Christ, the wisdom and the power of God 
Almighty. We are in an exclusive religion. We are committed to the Lord 
Christ, and we are not given license or opportunity, and we 
shouldn't even want to tamper with. or distort the message 
of acceptance with God through Jesus Christ the Lord. If you 
have not believed, if you have not looked to Him, He is the 
way, He is the truth, and He is the life. No one comes to 
the Father except through me. It is exclusive, but Jesus saves. The Father receives. The Father 
has purpose to save a great multitude. So believe on Him, come to Christ, 
and as the Bible says, He will not cast you out. Let us pray. Our gracious God and our Holy 
Father, we thank you for this passage of Scripture and for 
what it teaches us. I pray for each and every one 
here that we let not our hearts be troubled. Believing in you, 
we would believe in your blessed and dear Son. That we would look 
forward to the future when Jesus comes again in glory to judge 
the living and the dead, to receive his children unto himself. And 
our Father, we pray for this generation, for this age, we 
pray for churches that they would emphasize the truth of the gospel 
of Jesus Christ as the alone way of acceptance with God. We 
pray that this message would be proclaimed from sea to sea 
and that Christ would have dominion. And we ask in His most blessed 
name, Amen.