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We turn back in your Bibles to 
John chapter four, continuing our survey or our study in Jesus 
discussion with this woman, the Samaritan woman by the well. 
We noticed this morning the first topic was the living water. Secondly, 
the woman's marriage. Thirdly, the worship of God proper. And tonight we'll consider the 
doctrine of the subject of the Messiah ship. This lady perceives 
correctly that she asks the specific question concerning Messiah and 
the Lord Christ says that I am he. I'll just pick up reading 
in verse twenty five and we'll read through verse forty two. 
The woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming, who is 
called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us 
all things. Jesus said to her, I who speak 
to you and he. And at this point, his disciples 
came. And they marveled that he talked with a woman, yet no 
one said, What do you seek or why are you talking with her? 
The woman then left her water pot, went her way into the city 
and said to the man, Come see a man who told me all things 
that I ever did. Could this be the Christ? Then 
they went out of the city and came to him. In the meantime, 
his disciples urged him, saying, Rabbi, eat. But he said to them, 
I have food to eat of which you do not know. Therefore, the disciples 
said to one another, Has anyone brought him anything to eat? 
Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of him who sent 
me and to finish his work. Do you not say there are still 
four months and then comes the harvest? Behold, I say to you, 
lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already 
white for harvest. And he who reaps receives wages 
and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and 
he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this, the saying is true. One sows and another reaps. I 
sent you to reap that for which you have not labored. Others 
have labored and you have entered into their labors. And many of 
the Samaritans of that city believed in him because of the word of 
the woman who testified. He told me all that I ever did. 
So when the Samaritans had come to him, they urged him to stay 
with them. And he stayed there two days 
and many more believed because of his own word. Then they said 
to the woman, Now we believe not because of what you said, 
for we ourselves have heard him. And we know that this is indeed 
the Christ, the Savior of the world. Amen. As I pointed out 
this morning in verse twenty six, it is literally I am I who 
speak to you. I am a go Amy. That is the Greek 
phrase that the Lord Jesus uses, and he uses it on several occasions 
here in John's gospel. And as I mentioned, it picks 
up the teaching from God at the burning bush when he reveals 
himself to Moses. and various places in the prophet 
Isaiah. I said there are several instances 
instances in the gospel of John, where it occurs alone, where 
Jesus just as I am and will look at just a couple of those, but 
then we'll look specifically at the seven places In John's 
Gospel, where Jesus says, I am, and then he adds another predicate. Basically, a predicate is a word 
that tells something about the I am. Jesus does this on seven 
occasions in the Gospel of John, and they are very instructive 
and I hope helpful for us. as we prepare our hearts, as 
we prepare to participate in the Lord's Supper. But before 
we get to those seven, just turn back for a moment to Exodus chapter 
three, Exodus chapter three, so we can appreciate the background 
and so we can understand why it is when Jesus uttered this 
famous statement on a couple of occasions, the people of The 
people who opposed him picked up rocks so they could throw 
them at Jesus, because he, being a man, made himself out to be 
God. They understood the implications 
of just what it was he was saying. In Exodus chapter 3, we remember 
the particular instance where God has appeared to Moses in 
the burning bush. We'll just pick up reading in 
verse 3. Then, Moses said, I will now 
turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not 
burn. So when the Lord saw that he 
turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the 
bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here I am. Then 
he said, Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off 
your feet for the place where you stand is holy ground. Moreover, 
he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the 
God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he 
was afraid to look upon God. Great disposition there. There 
ought to be a fear that goes along with the presence of God. I mentioned this morning, we 
don't just wander in to the presence of God as if he is our equal, 
as if he is on the same level as we are. We ought to pray to 
God that there would be a holy fear in our hearts as individuals, 
but as well corporately. It ought to be that when people 
come into this place, there is a fear of God present. Now, fear 
of God also enjoins joy. We can be fearfully happy. We can be happily afraid in the 
midst of God's presence, and we ought to seek, by the grace 
of God, to capture something of that in our public worship. Notice in verse seven, and the 
Lord said, I have surely seen the oppression of my people who 
are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, 
for I know their sorrows. So, I have come down to deliver 
them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that 
land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and 
honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites 
and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. Now, therefore, 
behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me, and 
I've also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress 
them. Come now, therefore, and I will 
send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children 
of Israel, out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, Who am 
I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the children 
of Israel out of Egypt? So he said, I will certainly 
be with you, and this shall be assigned to you that I have sent 
you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall 
serve God on this mountain. Then, Moses said to God, Indeed, 
when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, The God 
of your fathers has sent me to you, and they say to me, What 
is his name? What shall I say to them? And 
God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, Thus you shall say 
to the children of Israel, I am has sent me to you. This is the 
ultimate backdrop for what our Lord Jesus Christ, or when our 
Lord Jesus uses this phrase to identify himself, I am. And it's puzzled some people. 
What does it mean that God is? Well, it means at least that 
he is eternal. God is from everlasting to everlasting. There has never been a time when 
God has not been. He's always been and he always 
will be. God is. Secondly, it means that 
he is independent. You and I are dependent beings. We are dependent upon God. He has to feed us and give us 
water, and we often just think, oh no, we just go to Superstore 
and we get all that stuff. Yeah, but who's sovereign over 
Superstore? Who keeps the power grid operating? Who keeps everything in place? 
It's the Lord God. We are dependent upon Him. Jesus 
tells us we are to pray that God would give us our daily bread. We are dependent creatures. God 
is an independent being. He doesn't need us. He didn't 
create because there was a void in himself. He didn't create 
because he needed to add on something in order to be happy. The Father, 
the Son, and the Holy Spirit have been everlastingly happy 
together in inter-Trinitarian communion. They didn't create 
because there was a hole in their heart. created out of his sovereign 
good pleasure. He created not because he was 
dependent, but because he is independent. So this name, this 
phrase describes the eternality and the independence of God. 
And it's also the covenant name of God. You've heard the name 
Jehovah. Jehovah is an English translation 
for the four letters that make up the name Yahweh. Well, we 
speculate. Before a group of people called 
the Mazarites came and put some vowels in the Hebrew text, it 
used to all just be consonants. And there were four letters, 
Y-H-W-H. Yahweh is probably the best way 
that we can pronounce it. That is the covenant name of 
God. The name God refers to God as 
Almighty, as Creator, as Lord. But Jehovah or Yahweh refers 
to Him in relation to His covenant people. This is why God said 
and identifies Himself to Moses as the God of your fathers, the 
God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. What does this mean but 
God's kindness to His people? The name Jehovah or the name 
Yahweh stresses the covenant nature of our God and the way 
that he relates to us so graciously and so kindly. We ought to love 
that blessed and holy name. Most Bible translations don't 
translate it. Most of the times when you're 
reading your Bible and you see the name Lord, and it's in all 
capital letters, that's how the translations refer to that name 
Yahweh or Jehovah. The only translation that I know 
of that translates the name into Yahweh is the Old American Standard 
version. They didn't call it the Old American 
Standard. It was the American Standard 
version of 1901, and that was revised and made into the new 
American Standard, which has gone through a couple of updates, 
but they don't use that name anymore. This, incidentally, 
was the Bible that Jehovah's Witnesses used before they printed 
their own corrupt version to propagate their heresy. They 
used it because it had the name Jehovah in it. And then, of course, 
the doctrine didn't coincide with their doctrine, so they 
printed the corrupt version, the New World Translation. But that name is a most blessed 
name. It highlights the covenant relationship 
that God has to his people. So that's the backdrop for Jesus 
statement in various places in the book of John. Again, Isaiah, 
the prophet, this name or this phrase comes up a couple of times. I'll just read a couple of them 
in Isaiah 43. Isaiah 43, verse 8, bring out the blind people 
who have eyes and the deaf who have ears. Let all the nations 
be gathered together and let the people be assembled who among 
them can declare this and show us former things. Let them bring 
out their witnesses that they may be justified or let them 
hear and say it is true. You are my witnesses, says the 
Lord. This is the motto text, by the 
way, for Jehovah's Witnesses. I don't want this to be a study 
in Jehovah's Witness theology, but this is their text. This 
is the one. Well, it's not their text. It's 
the one they claim as to ground or prove they are witnesses of 
Jehovah. Well, they are most certainly 
not. They deny Jehovah. In their denial of the deity 
of Christ and the triunity of God, they are enemies of Jehovah. They are not His witnesses. We ought to pity them, we ought 
to pray for them, and we ought to preach to them, so that God 
would open their eyes and deliver them from that deluding lie that 
they have fallen prey to. Verse ten, you are my witnesses, 
says the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, that you 
may know and believe me and understand, here it is, that I am. Before 
me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after me. I, even 
I, am the Lord, and besides me there is no Savior. I have declared 
and saved, I have proclaimed, and there was no foreign God 
among you. Therefore you are my witnesses, 
says the Lord, that I am God. Indeed the day was, I am He. 
And there is no no one who can deliver out of my hand. I work 
and who will reverse it. Isaiah forty three twenty five. 
A passage that I hope is precious to all of you. Isaiah forty three 
verse twenty five. Even I am he who blots out your 
transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your 
sins. Isaiah 45 and verse 23, Isaiah 
45 and verse 23. I have sworn by my verse twenty 
two, look to me and be safe. All you ends of the earth for 
I am God and there is no other. I have sworn by myself. The word 
has gone out of my mouth and righteousness and shall not return 
that to me. Every knee shall bow. Every tongue 
shall take an oath. We go back to John's gospel with 
just a bit of this background in our minds as we come to consider 
our Lord's claim, our Lord's assertion that he is, in fact, 
the Messiah who came to save his people from their sins. We'll 
look at, as I said, just a couple of them without the predicate. 
Then we'll look at those particular seven sayings of the Savior where 
he said, I am. And then he specifies something. Turn over to John chapter six 
for a moment. John, chapter six, verse sixteen. Now, when evening came, his disciples 
went down to the sea, got into the boat and went over the sea 
toward Capernaum. And it was already dark and Jesus 
had not come to them. Then the sea arose because a 
great wind was blowing. So when they had rode about three 
or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing 
near the boat. And they were afraid. But he 
said to them in his eye, Do not be afraid. Literally, he said, 
I am. He used that phrase. Now, you 
can see why the translators don't translate it that way, because 
it reads a bit awkwardly. I would prefer that they translate 
it properly, because I think we missed something here. Jesus 
is the ruler of the waves. There are various places in the 
Old Testament where God is said to be the ruler of the waves. Various places where the Lord 
is sovereign over the waters. Well, here we have the sovereign 
Lord walking on the water and displaying this glory, this sovereignty 
and majesty to his disciples. They understood it because they 
were afraid. In Mark's Gospel, when there 
was that tempest blowing against the boat, and Jesus was in the 
boat napping, taking a rest, and they wake him up and he gets 
out on the boat and he hushes the storm. What does the text 
say that the disciples did? They were exceedingly afraid. Why? Because they said what manner 
of man What is this, that even the wind and the waves obey Him? He is sovereign. He is the God-man. He is the glorious Lord of the 
covenant. He is eternal. He is independent. Turn over to John 8. John chapter 
8. Jesus is in a confrontation with 
the religious leaders in Israel. By the way, was the primary target 
of primary audience or primary opposition that Christ received 
on Earth was from the religious leaders. Notice in John eight, 
beginning in verse fifty two. Then the Jews said to him, Now 
we know that you have a demon. Abraham is dead and the prophets 
and you say, if anyone keeps my word, he shall never taste 
death. Are you greater than our father 
Abraham, who is dead and the prophets are dead? Who do you 
make yourself out to be throughout this whole context? They are 
saying that they are sons or descendants of Abraham. Jesus 
said, if you were really of Abraham, you wouldn't want to kill me. 
Simple logic, right? If you were really sons and daughters 
of Abraham, you wouldn't want to kill me. because I am the 
one to whom Abraham looked. Abraham wouldn't have picked 
up stones to throw at me. Abraham wouldn't plot in his 
mind and in his heart to destroy me. Abraham would love me and 
would honor me and glorify me. They are claiming privilege with 
God based on race. They are claiming that because 
they are Jewish, they have entitlement and privilege to the Lord. We 
are children of Abraham simply because we have been born in 
the right families. Christ says, no, there's a spiritual 
dynamic that you have neglected here. Notice in verse fifty four, 
Jesus answered by honor myself. My honor is nothing. It is my 
father who honors me, of whom you say that he is your God. 
Yet you have not known him, but I know him. And if I say I do 
not know him, I shall be a liar like you. But I do know him and 
keep his word. Your father, Abraham, rejoiced 
to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. A beautiful statement. Your father, Abraham, rejoiced 
to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. What was Abraham 
believing that it was credited unto him for righteousness? He 
was believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. one way of salvation 
in the Old and the New Testaments. It is by grace alone, through 
faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. The promise given in Genesis 
3.15 was the promise believed on for salvation. Old covenant saints were looking 
forward to the cross and believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. New 
Covenant says, What are we doing? But looking back to that same 
cross for the same salvation in Jesus Christ, the cross is 
the center point of history. Old Testament Israel, the faithful 
look to that cross and were saved. The New Covenant Israel, the 
church looks to that cross and is saved. Now notice in verse 
57, then the Jews said to him, You are not yet 50 years old. 
And have you seen Abraham? Jesus was 30. thirty around thirty 
at this particular time. Why you fifty. That's a big somebody 
said to you while you're not yet, and they added twenty years 
to your life, you might be a little offended. What do you mean? Would 
you imagine if you were thirty and someone paid you for fifty? I think it's because of his life, 
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We cannot picture 
this savior. The second commandment forbids 
the making of images, the making of pictures. You know, this picture 
that there is of Jesus, this ancient Near Eastern man with 
the long flowing hair and the rippling muscles and all that 
sort of thing. We aren't supposed to do that. You cannot picture 
our Lord Jesus Christ. We would idealize him, we would 
make him that long flowing hair, that tan, that glistening body. What's the prophet say? He has 
no form. He has no comeliness that we 
should look upon him. We hid, as it were, our faces 
from him. When estimated, they add 20 years 
to his life. You are not yet fifty years old 
and have you seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, most assuredly, 
I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. He's saying, saying, I'm God, 
I'm Jehovah, I'm the Lord of the covenant. I am Yahweh, and 
they understood exactly what he was saying. Notice in verse 
fifty nine, then they took up stones to throw at him. But Jesus 
hid himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst 
of them and so passed by. That was the response of unbelief 
in Israel to the I am of God. Notice the unbelief or the response 
of the Roman Legion or the Roman soldiers in John 18. This is 
an amazing passage. John, chapter 18, beginning in 
verse one. When Jesus had spoken these words, 
he went out with his disciples over the brook Kidron, where 
there was a garden, which he and his disciples enter. And 
Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place for Jesus often 
met there with his disciples. Then Judas, having received a 
detachment of troops and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, 
came there with lanterns, torches and weapons. Jesus, therefore, 
knowing all things that would come upon him, went forward and 
said to them, Whom are you seeking? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said to them, I am and 
Judas, who betrayed him, also stood with them. Now, when he 
said to them, I am, they drew back and fell to the ground. Not in worship, not in praise, 
not to glorify him, but in terror, in fear. When God Most High manifests 
himself to sinful men, this is an appropriate response. They 
fall to the ground. Absolutely incredible. We should 
learn something from these pagan Roman soldiers about reverence 
for our God. These men weren't even converted. 
How much more should we fall before the Lord Christ? How much 
more should we bow down before the great? I am. How much more 
should we bow before he who is from everlasting to everlasting? Glorious testimony to the deity 
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let's look at the ones quickly 
with the predicate. The first is, Jesus says, I am 
the bread of life. John, chapter six. John chapter 
six. We noted this morning in his 
teaching concerning the living water. Christ likens himself 
here to bread. We must have bread. We must eat 
in order to be sustained. This comes on the heels of Jesus 
having made bread, having multiplied loaves and feeding a great deal 
of people. He didn't do this for stick. 
He didn't do this for magic. He didn't do this just to impress 
people with his ability to multiply loaves. That was the foundation 
upon which he would then preach and teach concerning himself 
as the bread of life. He fed their bellies with the 
intention to call them to repentance and faith. He didn't just wander 
around doing miracles to satisfy the curiosity of the crowds. You will not find that approach 
to miracles in the New Testament or in the Old for that matter. 
It's not as if the Bible is just a book of miracles where people 
go out and do all these fancy things just so everybody can 
go, wow, that's amazing. Miracles usually came or signs 
and wonders usually came when God was revealing himself. When 
you take the entirety of the Bible and you look at the periods 
of miracles, they are done at the time when God is speaking 
through his prophets or God is speaking through his son or God 
is speaking through his apostles. We should not be looking for 
miracle workers today because the Bible, the canon of Scripture 
is closed. That does not mean God can't 
do miracles. That does not mean God can't 
do wonderful and glorious things. It does mean that we ought to 
be very weary or wary of a man who claims to have special powers 
from on high to do wondrous things. to impress, amaze, and stun onlookers. That's not the way Christ operated. He fed them so he could teach 
them. Notice in John 6 at verse 34. 
Then they said to him, Lord, give us this bread always. And 
Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to 
me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never 
thirst. Verse 41, then the Jews then 
complained about him because he said, I am the bread which 
came down from heaven. And then verse 48, I am the bread 
of life. Your father's ain't the man in 
the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which comes 
down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the 
living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of 
this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I shall give 
is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. It's 
unfortunate that Roman Catholicism appeals to John VI to justify 
their view of transubstantiation when nothing could be further 
from the mind of Christ. You're not telling them to physically 
ingest him. Augustine said it best, believe 
and you have eaten. Believe and you have drunk. He's 
not talking about actually eating his body and his blood. When 
he said this is my body, when he's talking about the bread 
and he's talking about the wine, he didn't mean those things corporally 
changed. Any more than when he says, I 
am the true vine, did he mean that he had grapes growing off 
of him? I'm not trying to be cheeky here, but that is a bad 
manner of interpretation. No Jew in his right mind would 
ever think to ingest blood. The law of God opposes such a 
thing. I love our confession, it says 
it's repugnant, not only to scripture, but to common sense and reason. Do you realize rational beings 
thinking that the bread and wine undergo a change? That's not 
what we are about. This bread remains bread, this 
wine remains wine. It represents, it signifies, 
it displays, it is an emblem, it is a physical representation 
of a spiritual truth that Jesus died and that Jesus rose again. Notice in John 8 for the second, 
Jesus is the light of the world. Jesus is the light of the world. Verse 12. Then Jesus spoke to 
them again, saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows 
me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. You 
want to walk in light. You come to the light. You want 
to walk in the light, you come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus 
is the living word. What the psalmist said about 
the word of God in Psalm 119 is true of Christ. He is a light 
unto our path. He shines. He makes clear. He gives us wisdom. He guides. He directs. His spirit is real. It's one of the things that has 
just perplexed me throughout my life as a Christian. Sometimes 
people come up and say, well, you need to go tell this person 
how to live and how to do and what to do and how to do. Well, 
if they're out doing vile, horrible things, hopefully we will stop 
that. But, brethren, we have to leave room for the Holy Spirit. 
It's a real person. He really operates in his people. 
Someone has the Spirit of God in them. We trust they will grow. They will be conformed. They 
will be like Jesus. His light, the Word of God, the 
light of God, the revelation of God by the power of the Holy 
Spirit is sufficient to lead us, to direct us and to guide 
us. That doesn't mean we don't need 
brethren and friends and fellowship and accountability. The Spirit 
uses those things, too. We need to be very cautious that 
we aren't playing Holy Spirit in the lives of others. Christ 
really is sovereign. It's been one of the most liberating 
concepts for me. Oh, well, you didn't know that. 
Yeah, theoretically, I've always believed God's sovereign. But 
practically, it's nice. When you realize. The church 
is God's project, ultimately. If you look at the church, you 
think, how in the world are we ever going to make it to heaven? 
God is sovereign. Jesus is the light of the world. 
He has spoken in his word. He has given us his spirit. That 
is no bad reflection on anybody here. I'm not saying y'all are 
messed up. I'm just saying in church life, 
as I understand it, it is tough. We need to trust in the light 
of the world. Thirdly, Jesus describes himself 
as the door of the sheep in John 10, verses seven and nine, John 
10, verse seven. Then Jesus said to them again, 
Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before me are 
thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear that. I am 
the door. If anyone enters by me, he will 
be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does 
not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have 
come that they may have life and that they may have it more 
abundantly. That text needs to be preached. 
Sinners think they have abundant life. They really don't. Abundant 
life comes to the knowledge of God through Jesus Christ, the 
Lord. There's no greater place to be than in Christ, not having 
a righteousness of your own, which is from the law, but having 
that righteousness, which is from God through faith. That is abundant life. Fourthly, in the same section, 
Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. Verse eleven, the good shepherd 
gives his life for the sheep. I hope that as soon as you hear 
the word shepherd, your mind races back to Psalm 23 because 
it's supposed to. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. David is rejoicing 
in Yahweh, rejoicing in the God of the covenant. And now Yahweh 
is here among sinners. And he says, I am the good shepherd. We are to see him that way. We 
are to look for his protection. We are to look for his guidance. 
We are to look for his care and his watchfulness. We are to trust 
that he knows what's best for us, that he will not give us 
serpents or rots or things that are bad for us or harmful. We 
are to submit to him in his word. We are to submit our minds and 
our thoughts to his holy scripture. And I realize that outside the 
church, that sounds very weird. You people follow a book? Absolutely, 
because it's the book of God. God has spoken, and because He's 
gracious and kind, He committed it to writing so that we could 
be protected, so that men could not take from it, so that men 
could not add to it. We come to this book to learn 
of our blessed Redeemer, our blessed Shepherd, who guides 
us and who directs us, and who has given His life for the sheep. That is a chief blessing in the 
gospel of Jesus Christ. The good shepherd gives his life 
for the sheep. You imagine that. I've never 
tended sheep, but I imagine that if I was and wolves came, I would 
take my gun and shoot the wolves. Couple heads nodding. Absolutely. That's all what Jesus did. He 
went and laid his life down for those walls in order to protect 
his sheep. He didn't just shoot our enemies. He died to save us from our sins. It's incredible. The just died 
for the unjust. To bring us to God, as Peter 
says in 1 Peter 3.18. A fourth Five-fifth statement is found 
in John eleven. I am the resurrection and the 
life. I am the resurrection and the life. I love what Jesus does 
here. You remember the scene. He is with Mary and Martha. Lazarus 
is dead. He's been in the grave for a 
few days now. They are seeking comfort. They're seeking encouragement. 
She says, Lord, if you would have been here, you wouldn't 
have died. So, Jesus uses this opportunity to speak. In verse 
23, Jesus said to her, your brother will rise again. Martha said 
to him, I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at 
the last day. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the 
life. He who believes in me, though he may die, he shall live. 
Isn't that great? Though you may die physically, 
you could go out right now and get run over by a truck and die 
physically, yet you live. What's Paul say in 2 Corinthians 
5? To depart is to be with the Lord. Notice in verse twenty 
six, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Look at what Jesus does. Do you 
believe this? Christ was not a hyper Calvinist. Christ pressed her conscience 
with the truth. Christ called her to decision, 
not an altar call, not a crusade, walk the aisle. But Brendan, 
when we tell people the gospel, we ought to call them to believe 
it. That's what evangelism is. We 
present the truth with the desire and intention that they be converted. Not just filling their head with 
Bible stuff and say, go on, you just figure it all out. Do you 
believe this? And if you're here this evening, 
if you have not come to Christ, I ask you with the Savior. He 
is the resurrection and life. Do you believe this? If yes, praise God. Welcome to 
the family of God. If no, then believe it. What do you want? What are you 
waiting for? What is it? Why do you carry? 
You say, well, this doesn't sound Calvinistic. It's Bible brethren. What does the prophet say in 
Isaiah 55? Oh, everyone who thirsts, let 
him come. And even please your God through 
the prophet, please, there is a fifty five. Why do you spend 
your money on those things that do not satisfy? Why do you take 
your money and go buy that? Why do you take your money and 
go traffic in that? Why do you spend your efforts 
and energies and attention on that which does not satisfy? 
That's just come to me. I will satisfy. I will give you 
abundant life. You need to be pressed, you need 
to come away from this thing, I believe. I believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ. I don't want to pass the play. 
I want to take and eat. I want to drink. I want to know 
what Christ is all about. I want to love him. I want to 
learn from him. I want to submit to him. I want 
to go to his word, not as some dead, dry letter, but I want 
it to be that living word that cuts me deep, but heals me too. I want it to penetrate down to 
the very marrow of my being. and then to bring that bomb of 
Gilead and heal me. Some of you all might just be 
playing games. Oh, no, I can't believe for this. 
Believe the gospel and you will be saved. Great meditation this 
morning, a brother read from Spurgeon. The devil will always 
cause you to look to self. The Holy Spirit causes you to 
look to Christ. You look to Christ in faith. 
What about that statement we read in Isaiah 43? We didn't 
even spend any time commenting it. What does God say? Look to 
me, all ye ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no 
other. Do you know that the preaching 
of that verse saved a very famous man, C.H. Spurgeon? It was a 
young man of fifteen or sixteen. It was a snowy day. He couldn't 
get to the church that he was going to, so he fell into a little 
Methodist church. And this is Spurgeon's work. 
I'm not saying it. He described the preacher as 
a stupid preacher. The man had no learning. He had 
no education. The minister was not there. And 
this man filled in. And he took as his text, Look 
to me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. And Spurgeon 
says, all he did was repeat the test. All he did was he kept 
saying that. And then he looked at me directly 
and he said, young man, have you looked? It was that sermon 
God used to save Spurgeon. Why? He looked from self to Christ 
and God saved him. This is the message of Christ 
in John three, just as Moses lifted up that serpent. So must 
the Son of Man be lifted up. You remember that account? God 
is angry with Israel. He sends serpents to bite the 
people. The leaders are commanded to 
build a bronze serpent and erect it in the wilderness. The instruction 
is given. You look and you live. It's the 
gospel. You look and you live. Man's 
gospel, which is not gospel, says go do go work, go labor, 
go atone, go fix. God knows you can't labor, fix, 
atone or work. God says, look and live. Jesus 
said, do you believe this? Thankfully, she did. The sixth 
is the way, the truth and the life. John 14, verse six. Thomas, 
verse five, says 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. I think if you boil down the 
Bible, this is probably one of the most offensive verses in 
it. It was offensive in the first century. It is offensive today. You can worship anyone, anything, 
anyhow. But when you tell people that 
they're wrong and that Christ alone is the way. Wow. That's 
when the opposition comes. That's what brought the wrath 
down upon the first century Christians from the Roman Empire. You could 
worship any god that Rome had to offer. You could worship Greek 
gods. You could worship Roman gods. 
Didn't matter. But when you came and preached 
that there is no other name given under heaven, among which we 
must be saved and you are talking about Jesus, you will go to jail. You will be executed. You will 
be fed to lions. It's that way today. You can 
believe whatever you want. I mean, witness the kinds of 
religions that are out there. Witness the kinds of philosophies 
that are out there. There's some strange stuff out 
there. I mean, do you realize how strange? We had several years 
ago, people thought a spaceship was coming to get us. Jim Jones in the 70s, drink Kool-Aid 
and die. It never ceases to amaze me. We're looked at as being strange. 
We're not drinking Kool-Aid and dying for some megalomaniac. You can worship anything. But 
man, when we come along and say, no, Jesus Christ alone is worthy. Oh, that's when you bring the 
opposition down. The final is when he said, I 
am the true vine. This is a good place to end because 
it highlights our dependence. It highlights the fact that apart 
from him, we can do nothing. John 15, verse one, I am the 
true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Notice in verse 
five, I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in 
me and I in him bears much fruit. For without me, you can do nothing. Christ is the I am. We are not, we are dependent, 
we are finite. We are not. I mean, we're going 
to go on forever because of God's grace and his mercy. But we had 
a beginning. You cannot say of us from everlasting 
to everlasting. Thou art Jim. Thankfully, you 
can't say that or fill in whatever name you happen to possess. God 
alone is independent. We are dependent, and Christ 
highlights that here in his teaching on the true vine, we are branches. 
We derive our life, we derive our strength, we derive our sustenance 
from him. And what does that mean, but 
that we should live close to him, we should use the means 
that he is given. How does that sap flow? It doesn't 
flow when you're sitting out in the meadow just saying, hit 
me with it. It flows through the word, it flows through prayer. It flows to public worship, it 
flows to Christian fellowship, it flows to reading good books, 
it flows through what men have called the means of grace. If you value your soul, you will 
value the means of grace. The person who does not use the 
means of grace, what are they saying? But in essence, I don't 
want grace. That's a bad place to be. Christ 
is the true vine. We are the branches. Let us feed 
on him by the means that he is ordained for that. Well, let 
us pray. Father, we thank you for these 
descriptions of our Lord Jesus. Truly, he is a great and a glorious 
savior. We just pray now that you would 
help us to have good thoughts concerning him. Help us, God, 
to see that apart from him, we can do nothing and help us, Lord 
God, to see him as our our beloved savior and our friend and our 
Lord and our our master. Help us to make much of the things 
of God and to Take up and read the scriptures and to pray and 
to seek you earnestly, Lord God. And we ask through Christ our 
Lord. Amen.