John 14:4-7

And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

The Evolution Of Scientism

The foreign mission field of this peculiarly pagan postmodern culture of America that we are serving in is one that has been heavily indoctrinated by the godless religion of secular humanism. The word secular simply means “worldly,” and humanism refers to humanity–human beings. In essence then, secular humanism is actually the worship of man. As a result, what you will find with most people that you talk to today–being that the theory of evolution has long been presented to them as fact–is that they look at virtually everything from a “worldly” position that is focused almost entirely on man.

This is to say that they don’t think much about God anymore, and despite a professed interest in spiritual things, in practice people generally feel that everything has a natural explanation. In particular, there is a worship of the field of science, leading to what Christian apologist and philosopher Dr. J.P. Moreland refers to as “scientism.” If you truly wish to understand this warped secular society and the basic philosophical flaw of the Emerging Church movement then you must come to see that basically this foolish culture has replaced preachers with scientists in answering life’s most important questions. “Who am I; Where did I come from; and Where am I going.”

As you follow your Lord Jesus today in seeking to save those who are lost, it’s also very important that you have a working knowledge of the prevailing philosophies that you will run into. Due to this almost totally secular attitude among the people you will come in contact with in this foreign mission field of America, a belief known as “relativism” has come to be the dominant force forging people’s world views in our nation today. Relativism is most simply understood this way: No one can ever really know anything for sure. This is the root reason why the prevailing philosophy of this twisted time we live in has become the mantra that we need to be tolerant of every type of belief, because whatever might be true for someone–whatever works for them–will not necessarily true for someone else. And so they tell us: Since what you believe might not work for me, we’ll never know anything as absolutely true, because no one person’s opinion on any given subject is any more important than any other person‘s opinion on that same subject.

Let me also add, this is held to be true no matter how ridiculous another’s opinion might happen to be. And trust me, there are plenty of just plain foolish philosophies and beliefs out there in this disastrously disoriented world. Arguably the most ridiculous would certainly have to be the theory of evolution. Here we go; we are told that this incredibly diverse and complex universe just caused itself, and then inanimate matter–dead stuff–simply made itself to come to life. Then over billions and billions of years (time is the great champion of secular scientists) life evolved upward until we reach the incredibly intricate societies we see today. Um, right: And these would be the people who are so in love with the so-called superior reasoning of man who would then call Christians ignorant. Well, at least we know enough to realize that life cannot originate from non-life.

Just Maybe God Knows More Than Man Does

Even with all of this in mind, there are no “sure-fire,” step-by-step, “this always works” ways to share the Christian faith. Life just doesn’t work that way. In fact, one of the biggest problems the Lord has is that when He gives a pastor an insight to help his local church, of course it does work for that flock. This is because Jesus knows what is best for His local churches in the areas that He Personally has planted them in. And, believe it or not, the Master even knows more about human nature than secular humanist guru Peter Drucker–Rick Warren’s teacher–whose new age doctrines of demons are also slithering into the Emergent Church movement as well. Well, the next thing you know, old pastor so-and-so is out there on the TV, or the radio, and is hawking his (or her) tapes and books as the key to the Christian’s doing whatever it may be. As a result of these denials of Scripture, the Holy Spirit just grieves, and the Lord cannot trust His people to just take His blessings to use them to lead people back home to God like we are called to do.

Whenever you hear any minister telling you he has the key about how to do whatever it might be for the Lord–run, do not walk–run to the nearest exit. No one man will ever have the only anything for God. The Lord knows He could never trust that kind of power and authority to one corrupt, degenerate, and sinful human being. All we pastor/teachers can ever have are some effective ways about how to live the Christian life that will be helpful to those who feel led by their Great Shepherd–Christ Jesus the Lord–to go in that direction along the narrow pathway. And at this juncture I do want to share with you one way that I find helpful in approaching someone who has been indoctrinated into thinking that no one can ever really know anything for sure. What is so important to do with postmodern pagans is to help them understand, that when all is said and done, everyone ends up trusting someone, or something, somewhere along the line, as they go through this life. The real issue then becomes: Is that someone, or something, reliable?

Can Something True For You But Not For Me?

I find it helpful at this point to establish the idea that “what is true for one person, is not necessarily true for another,” is not even a true statement in itself. This idea is already a false statement. Even within the field of one of man’s modern sacred cows–the discipline known as philosophy–one must study the concept of logic. The Christian holds that God is the Author of logical thought in the first place. He is logical in His Own nature, and this is why we can trust our Lord to reveal truth through the Bible that will be consistent with the orderly laws that He created for this world to operate by. You will hear me talk a lot about the fact that a human being cannot really know God without His two revelations. These of course, would be His written Word–the Holy Bible–and His living Word–Jesus Christ of Nazareth. An edifying way to understand the Bible is to come to realize that these Holy Scriptures are where the LORD God Almighty–the only true and living God–had His thoughts written down. Our Creator did this for a couple of very important reasons; so that we can learn about Him in the first place, as well as to give us a way to come to know how it is that He thinks.

And tragically this precious and so very vital absolute truth has all but been lost in the growing self-defeating skepticism of the pedantic postmodern church. Leaders within the Emergent Church movement consistently denigrate the Bible through suggesting the so-called “need for alternative ways of understanding Scripture” because they have already succumbed to the deadly deception of the philosophy of relativism. All the while Rick Warren, the number one Evangelical in America according to Time magazine, shows his own lack of respect for these magnificent truths that God has most graciously condescended to reveal to sinful creatures such as we are, through his careless quotations of portions of selected verses–often from paraphrases–in order to make the Bible serve his own purpose driven life.

Back to the study of logic then; one of the very first things you will learn is the “Law of Non-contradiction.” Simply put this law says: A, cannot at the same time, and in the same way, be non-A. In other words, it is either A, or it’s not. What we need people to see, is that logically things cannot be true for one person, and then not be true for another. Do you see; something is either true, or isn’t. For example, concerning our subject of God, most people refer to this area as religion, so we will use that term. First; religions all contradict each other, and in particular they are in direct contradiction to the historic orthodox Christian faith. As such then logically, since all religions contradict each other, they cannot all be true. They can all be false at the same time; but only one could be true. Of course, we Christians know existentially, by our experience each day with the Lord Jesus living within us, that the God of the Bible–the Creator and Lord of this universe He ordered–is the only true God, and Jesus said, “I am the truth” in John 14:6.

The Absolute Truth And The Literal Source Of Life

Let’s look at verse 6 of our text a little more closely and think hard about what our Lord is telling us. Jesus says – I am the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father except through Me. What we have just read is the very heart of the Christian message to the world. Once more, let’s look at this important verse, and as we do look at, and truly see, the all inclusive, and absolute finality of this statement from Jesus of Nazareth. The ideals He lived for; the very principles He lived with, and the truth for which He was crucified for – I am the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father except through Me.

In his commentary on the Gospel of John the dean of Evangelical Bible scholars the late Dr. F.F. Bruce says – “[these words of Jesus] are best understood by us as they were understood by [the Apostle John]… Jesus is not only the way to God; he is the truth of God – how could he be otherwise, since he is the embodiment of God’s self-revelation? – and he is the life of God, ‘the true God and eternal life’ (1 John 5:20), manifested on earth to give his flesh ‘for the life of the world’ (John 6:51).”

Our job then as Christ’s chosen ambassadors to so-called postmodern America is get this people–so apathetic to spiritual truth–to focus on what our Lord means here in John 14:6. As was aptly stated elsewhere, the Master says: Follow Me. I am the way and the truth and the life. Without the way, there would be no place to go; without the truth, there would be no way to know; and without the life, there would be no truth to live. So just who might be the source of all this confusion concerning absolute truth and the literal life God Himself lived while on His Own planet?

The absolute truth is that all who follow this merging into the one world satanic deception of his ecumenical man-pleasing purpose driven emergent word faith church will spend all of eternity in unending torment in a literal place Jesus Christ of Nazareth Himself called Hell. For in John 14:6 the Lord of all lords and the King of all kings says – “I Am the way that you must follow; I Am the truth that you must believe; and I am the life for which you hope.” Christ Jesus says – “I am the certain way; the infallible truth; the never-ending life. I am the straightest way; the sovereign truth, life true, life blessed, life uncreated. If you remain in my way you will know the truth, and the truth shall make you free, and you will lay hold on eternal life.”

In closing we turn to Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse one of the best illustrative Bible teachers the Lord ever gifted His Church with who pointed out:

Perhaps the most important verse in the Bible for Christian growth is that found in the second chapter of Ephesians where we read that He has “raised us up (not in the resurrection but in the ascension) and made us to sit with Him in the heavenly places in Christ.” [Men and women, you must understand that] This is not a prophecy of our future but the available condition of [our life on earth right now]. This is the normal [and] healthy Christian life. The throne of God is not to be distant – [up there] – but here, not future but now. [Yes], Our life is to be lived on the earth, but God has made provision in Christ for us to go “in and out” (John 10:9), in to the source of power and out to the sphere of activity.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear the Voice of God the Son as He speaks to His Church and go tell this pagan postmodern nation awash in the Devil’s serpentine reasonings about the absolute Truth concerning God the Father by the literal power of God the Holy Spirit…the time has come for our Lord’s true soldiers to arise and go…get into the greatest battle ever…