Jesus Christ is the exclusive way to God, offering truth and eternal life. The sermon contrasts the self-chosen paths of individuals, which lead to destruction, with the divine way provided by Christ. It illustrates the futility of humanly devised paths through the parable of the king's jester and the example of the 'sundowners' in Australia, both of whom are unprepared for their ultimate journeys. By accepting Jesus, one finds forgiveness, peace, and a new direction for life, both on earth and into eternity.
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This evening I should like to read three verses from three different portions of God's Word. The first from the book of Proverbs. There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. The second from the prophecy of Isaiah. We have turned every one to his own way. And the third the words of our Lord from John chapter fourteen verse six. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Life sometimes has been compared to a journey which commences at birth, which ends at death.
Life also has been compared to a preparation for that fuller and more meaningful enduring life which is to come. If you and I were to take a journey, we would make preparation. I wonder what preparation we have for this journey of life. I expect you may have heard the story of the king and his fool, the jester. That was the day before radio or television entertainment, and he employed this man to while away the weary hours of the day. After a number of years of service, this jester determined to leave his master and seek other employment. As a farewell gift, the king gave this jester a richly ornamented staff, saying to him, Here, keep this until you find a bigger fool than yourself.
And so the jester left the king. Some years afterward the king fell ill, and the jester returned to visit his old master. The king knew that this was a sickness unto death, that he would not recover. And speaking of this, he said to the fool, I'm going on a long journey. When will you return, said the jester. In a week? No. In a month? No. In a year, no. Well, when then? Never. The next question, what preparation have you made for this journey? The king paused for a moment and said, I haven't made any preparation at all. The jester replied, if that's the case, take back the staff you gave me.
You told me to keep this till I met a greater fool than myself, and I've met one today. I may be only a poor king's jester, but I would never take a journey from which man never returns without any preparation whatsoever. You and I are in the midst of that journey, from birth to the grave and into the beyond. Are you prepared? Are you prepared for the journey of life with its temptations and trials and problems and testings? Are you prepared for that life beyond death from which man never returns? Think of our verse. There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
This describes so many people today. They choose their own way. They're described in those pathetic words of the prophet Isaiah, we have turned every one to his own way, in contrast to the way of God, which is the way of life, the way of forgiveness, the way of peace, the way of salvation. I used to live in Australia. And there we have a class of individual known as the sundowner. They are sort of hobos, but not like the ordinary hobo you may meet around this country. Very often a sundowner is a well-educated man. I've met such a one who's been graduated from a university such as Oxford or Cambridge University in England.
They're often men with high professional training and good skills, doctors, lawyers, scientists, teachers. They used to live in England. Often we're married and had a happy home and family for a time, but something goes wrong. The way of life I have chosen ends in failure, and they're afraid to face life at home. So they take ship to Australia, about as far away to the end of the earth as they could go anywhere. And when they arrive, they buy themselves some tobacco and flour and sugar and tea and a couple of blankets, and they pile this as a great bundle on their back, and they spend the rest of their life wandering. wondering aimlessly from one farm to another farm, from one cattle or sheep station we say, or as you would say, ranch to another cattle ranch.
Usually they find a bed for the night, they may do a bit of weeding in the kitchen, garden the next morning, and then with their bundle on their back they start to wander afresh. It isn't that they cannot work. It isn't that they're not trained for a good position, but they've lost ambition. They've lost a sense of direction. They've chosen their own way. and that way ends in death. Oftentimes in a country newspaper you'll read of a policeman finding a sundowner dead in a bark humpy or shanty. You see, the bark of our trees in Australia peels off. The tree shed their bark rather than their leaves. And so such a sundowner when he's feeling tired and weak and ill, he'll drag himself off to the side of the road and pull off some of that loosely hanging bark and leaning against a bush or a tree and crawl in there at the end of his life and he'll sleep himself away into death.
What a sad, sad picture. A picture of a man who was well prepared for this life but he'd chosen the wrong way and that way ended in death. Let me ask you a question. Is your way of life God's way or have you turned to your own way? A second question. Does your way end in life Or does it end in death? There is a beautiful parable to the story of the wise men who came to see the babe, the Lord Jesus Christ. You know they came from the far east bearing gifts, and they were warned in a dream that having seen the Lord Jesus Christ, in Bethlehem they should return home another way.
And so Herod did not find decisive news concerning the babe, the Lord Jesus Christ. But the parable of the story was this. They'd come to Bethlehem. They'd met the babe, Christ Jesus. And they returned home another way. Having met the Lord, life for them had to be different. Having met the Lord, life for them was a new way, another way. And that is a sort of thing described in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. Elsewhere we read of a new and living way which he has opened up to us to the very presence of God through the veil that is to say his flesh.
The Lord Jesus is not just a way, show us. He is the way. By his death for us at Calvary, whereby he shed his precious blood, that our sins might be cleansed, that we might be forgiven, he, the Lord Jesus himself, becomes the way to God. The way of acceptance, the way of forgiveness, the way of salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ himself is the way of life. Is he your way of life? Have you met him? Are you journeying with him? Not only is the Lord Jesus Christ the way of life to God, But he is the way of life so far as life on earth is concerned.
He is the one who knows all about us, our weakness, our difficulty, our possibilities. He knows all about our makeup, our physique, our mentality. He knows us better than we know ourselves. And he wants to come into these hearts and lives of ours and make all things new. He wants to come into these hearts and lives of ours and take up residence there. Make his home there and become life itself for you and me. Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ in that way? And then when you and I come to die, he's with us when we come to die. He's not only the way of life, but he's the way through death into life everlasting. He said to John of all old, fear not.
I am the first and the last. I am the living one. I am he that liveth and was dead and I am alive forevermore. The Lord Jesus is with His people in life. He is the way of life for them. He is with His people in death. He never leaves them when they come to die. And He is with them in that great beyond, to be with them in the Father's home, in the Father's house in heaven. Think of the contrast then between the way which seems right unto a man, a way which ends in death. Think of the tragedy of men and women. who have heard the way of the gospel, who know the way of the Lord Jesus, but have turned everyone to their own way.
And men and women, as you listen to me, your way is not the way of life. Your way, unless it is Christ, the living way, becomes the way of destruction, the way of eternal doom. The Lord Jesus said, I am the way. I am the life. I am truth. No man comes to the Father but by me. Think of those verses again. The way which seems right unto a man but ends in death. The tragedy of the one who hears of the way, who hears of the Lord Jesus and turns to his own way. But all the joy and peace in believing, in meeting the Lord Jesus, and having him indeed become that way of life by way of the cross.
Give yourself to him tonight. Put your trust in him. And you'll be able to say, yes, the Lord Jesus is my salvation. He's my forgiveness. He's the way of life for me.