If you would take your Bibles, please, and turn to the book of John, John chapter one. As you are turning there, I do want to take just a moment to thank God for our marvelous musicians, Chi Hong and Ellie and Tony. We love and appreciate you so much for the accompaniment that we receive from you every week in our worship services, and we praise the Lord for you. If I can ask you to please stand with me, John chapter one, we're going to read verses one through 18 to give us some context, but also we're going to focus in on verses 14 through 18 this morning. John chapter one, beginning in verse one. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him. Yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory. Glory as of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness about him and cried out, this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me. For from his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father's side. He has made him known. Here ends the reading of God's word. Let us pray. Oh Father, we thank you for this text, a text which teaches us about the true light and life and truth and salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us, Lord, to wrap our minds around the glorious truth of this text and apply it to our hearts. By the power of your Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. In his classic late fourth century work entitled, The Confessions, Augustine prayed a prayer that many of you are familiar with. And it goes like this, Almighty God, You have made us for thyself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee. You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee. Augustine was right. There is no true rest. There is no true peace in this world or in the next one. Apart from knowing Christ. Apart from the one who made us for himself. Apart from the one who knit us together in our mother's womb. Indeed, if we are separated from the One who created us for Himself and for His own glory, it makes sense that we will always be uneasy. We will always be restless. We will always be unsettled. We will always be anxious. If we are living apart from the One who made us for Himself and for His own glory, we're not doing what we should be doing, what we are created for. to live for God's glory and to walk with him. Pastor Kent Hughes tells a wonderful little story about a man named Charles Steinmetz. Perhaps you've heard this story before. I may have shared it. He was a mechanical genius and a good friend of Henry Ford. One day, the assembly line at the Ford plant, it shut down and people were scrambling. And so they tried to repair it, but they couldn't. So Ford called in his friend Steinmetz. It's reported that Steinmetz came in and he tinkered around for about 10 minutes and got everything working again. My goodness, that's amazing. Well, a few days later, they got the bill, $10,000. And Ford inquired to his friend. He said, wow, $10,000. You were only here for a few minutes. You only tinkered around for 10 minutes before you fixed it. He said, OK, let me send a new bill. So he sent a revised bill, tinkering tinkering $10, knowing where to tinker $9,990. You see, this Christmas, we must all recognize afresh and anew that in our natural state, we are broken. We are broken people. We need to be repaired. We need to be brought back into communion with the one whom at present, if we are apart from Christ, we are alienated from. We are broken and corrupted by sin. Because we are broken and corrupted by sin, we are out of fellowship with God and we need to be brought back into fellowship with God. How does that happen? Well, that is the essence of the Christmas message. The good news of Christmas is this. God does not leave us without hope. He doesn't leave us broken in our sin. He does not leave us without hope for salvation from what our sins deserve. And it makes perfect sense, does it not, that only our Maker, only our God, only our God can fix the sin problem. And he has done it. He has done it, not through religious experiences, not through our own moral performances. He has done so in and through his son, his only son. The one, according to our text in chapter one, verse 14, is full of grace and truth. Do you know Christianity is the only religion that is founded on grace, which tells you that there's nothing you can do to save yourself? Every other religion, if you will study world religions, you'll know that every religion is you making your way up to God, performing for him, earning his love, earning your ticket into heaven. Christianity is the only religion where God has come down to you and your brokenness. And this book, the Bible tells you there's nothing you can do to save yourself. Not a thing. And that Christ has done it all. It's a glorious message of grace and salvation we want to consider this morning in this series, Joy to the World. And in this sermon, which is called Veiled in Flesh, The Godhead See. Let's look at point number one. There are six points this morning. The first one is this, God's eternal son tabernacled among us. God's eternal son tabernacled among us. Look with me again at verse 14. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth. Sometimes I'll get together with a pastor or maybe an acquaintance I don't know very well, and I'll get home. Man, I know you've had this experience, most likely. You come home, your wife says, so what did you learn about them? Where are they from? I don't know. What's their wife's name? I have no idea. Where do they work? I think they work there. What did you do the whole time? We played golf. we talked theology, we just, you know, we really didn't get to know them at all. And you know, the way you get to know someone is through communication, through words. It's the way you make yourself known to others, it's the way that others make themselves known to you, through words. People are known by their words, spoken words, written words, but you must Use words to tell others about yourself and to know about other people. Here in the prologue to John's gospel, Jesus is mysteriously called what? The Word. He's called the Word. Look at verse one. Look at verse one. It says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then in verse 14 it says, the Word became flesh. Over and over again, Jesus is called the Word. Jesus, therefore, is the revelation of God to mankind. Jesus is the perfect expression of God. Think of it, God's thoughts are disclosed to us in Jesus Christ. How can we be sure? Because Christ is God. If Christ wasn't God, we couldn't be sure of that, but he is God. Through Christ, the eternal word of God, we are shown the very heart of the Father. This isn't some trumped-up Neoplatonic thought only for philosophers, grabbing language from first century Greek life. This is actually rooted in Hebrew thought as well. Jesus is the Word of God. He is the Word made flesh. How can this be possible? Because not only was the Word with God from eternity, but the Word was and is God. Only God can truly reveal the heart of God. It's why all other religions, in my estimation, fall so short. of Christianity. Jesus is God. This is an important part of our passage. Pastor Ross mentioned earlier from Proverbs chapter 8. It's why we read it this morning, because Jesus is the fulfillment of the wisdom of God. It is crazy to have a church in its worship and in its discipleship, keep Jesus on the margins, to keep the gospel on the margins, or to think that the gospel, that Christ is sort of really for the unbelievers, and as they come in, we want to share with them. But for us, we're sort of beyond that. We've graduated from the gospel. No, Jesus is the wisdom of God. He is, as we'll see, the life and the light that comes from the Father. But you see what John says in verse 14, this eternal word became flesh and dwelt among us. And this is the essence of Christmas. The blessed eternal son of God, the only begotten of the father, the creator of the heavens and the earth, he came down and took on human flesh. Charles Wesley had it right when he wrote, veiled in flesh, the Godhead see, hail, the incarnate deity, pleased as man with men to dwell. Jesus our Emmanuel, God with us. God sent forth not just a word from heaven, as our Jehovah's Witnesses friends will try to tell us, but he sent The Word from Heaven, His only Son, the perfect revelation from the Father, the wisdom and truth of God incarnate. The wisdom of God that we read about in Proverbs 8 is Jesus Christ, the one who tabernacled among us. One thing that you won't see in your English translations is found in the Greek in verse 14, is that John uses a word that means that Jesus tabernacled or pitched a tent among us. He pitched a tent or tabernacled among us. This word is rendered dwelt in our English translations. We are meant to recall how God dwelt with his people Israel. in the desert in former days. In Exodus 25, in verse eight, God told Moses, let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst. Now, question, where is God? Where is he? He's everywhere. Not a trick question. God is everywhere. And yet, he is in certain places in a very concentrated, special way, is he not? We see it all over scripture, the burning bush. It was just a bush and God was there before the bush started burning, but when it started burning and not being consumed while being in flames, God was there in a very special way, his presence. The same goes for when he dwelt in the temple and when he dwelt in the tent, the tabernacle. And the way he comes to us when we gather together, where two or three are gathered, there I am in your midst. God is everywhere, but he is, in a special, mysterious way with his people when they gather. God told Moses, let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst. After the tabernacle was erected according to divine specifications, we are told at the end of Exodus 40, that the quote, cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle and Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. God was with his people in the deserts. in the wilderness. So what's the inspired John trying to tell us when he says that the words became flesh and tabernacled among us? He's telling us that the child born to Mary in Bethlehem, the one born in a stable and placed in a manger, was no ordinary child. He was and is the everlasting Son of God, born in human flesh. And in Him, God dwells among us. A lot of people talk about spirituality in our day. There are lots of spiritual people. People say, I'm not religious, I'm spiritual. As if there's any way to really understand that statement. I still can't figure it out. You can't be really spiritual. apart from a personal saving relationship with Jesus Christ. You see, spiritual for so many people means I do spirituality in my own way and I'm my own authority. I'm autonomous. Don't tell me. Don't tell me anything to do. Don't tell me how to be. I'm spiritual. I got a cover. And spirituality is something that is concocted in our own minds. rather than being spiritual according to what's been revealed to us in scripture, and that is to be filled with the Holy Spirit because we are in union with Jesus Christ, the God-man. This brings us to our second point in verse 14, where we have the eternal Son of God is full of grace and truth. Look at the second part of verse 14, it says, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. What does John mean by we have seen his glory? This most likely refers to the fact that John, in the first century, walked with Jesus and saw a lot of glorious things. He heard glorious preaching. He saw glorious miracles. Let's think about some of them. We have John, one of Jesus' disciples, witnessing Jesus calming the storm on the Sea of Galilee, raising a dead man during a funeral procession. We have him healing the lame and the sick and the diseased, casting out demons. And we could go on and on. John was also there when Jesus transfigured on the mountain, you remember? And it was a glorious sight. Moreover, he beheld Christ's death on the cross. You remember John was standing there with Mary. And he witnessed Christ resurrected from the dead and saw his glorious ascension. John beheld the glory of Christ. So it's no wonder that John could say, we have seen his glory, the glory of the only son from the father. In other words, Jesus was not just a son of God among many, he was and is the only son sent from the father into this world to redeem sinners. And we have beheld his glory. And to miss this point is to miss the entire gospel entirely. And Jesus, rather John adds that Jesus is full of grace and truth. He is full of grace. He is full of grace. He is full of that infinite grace. that can only be found in Him. The fullness of God's love dwells in Him. God is love, 1 John teaches us, and Christ is God, so Christ is love. The fullness of grace dwells within Him. He is a limitless reservoir of grace for those who put their trust in Him. It's been 25 years since I came into union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And for 25 years, he has never failed me, and life has not gone perfectly. Jesus has always been an ocean of grace in my life, and I know in many of yours. The fullness of the love of God dwells in him. And though this grace in Christ is freely received through faith, it came at a great cost. It is free to us, but it was very costly to Him. Christ, now listen, there is a stream of liberal theology which teaches that Jesus was born into the world and became man, and because He became man, He connects with our humanity, and thus everybody's okay, and it doesn't matter what you believe or how you live. You're okay because Jesus, God became man. He dwells with us, and so we're okay. We're connected with God now and we're all his children simply because Jesus, the son of God, became man. Well, that is only part of the story. Yes, Christ identifies with us as one of us. That is true. But it is not true that just because he has identified as one of us means that everybody is somehow no longer accountable to God. You see, Jesus is full of grace, not only because He was born into this world and became one of us, but because He satisfied God's law for us and then His justice for us on the cross. He was nailed to a wooden tree, bearing God's wrath for our salvation. And we must believe in Him and trust in Him. This is why He is said to be full of grace. And also why he is said to be full of truth, because God's law and all of the Old Testament economy, all the sacrifices, the temple worship, all the prophecies, all of that truth is anticipating the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the truth. That's why in John 14, six, Jesus says, I am the what? The way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the Father except through me. He is the truth. He's full of grace and truth. And this is marvelous news for us at Christmas. The word became flesh and tabernacled among us. Why? In order to redeem us from sin and from hell. Human, now listen, this is so important. Human flesh rebelled against God. Humanity rebelled against God. And so humanity, human flesh, needs to make things right with God. And so what does God do? He sends his son down to become flesh. He becomes the second Adam to undo what Adam did to make things right. John Owen rightly said this, quote, the same nature that sinned must work out the reparation and recovery from sin. We can't have an angel come down and save us. We need a human to save us. So Christ, the son of God becomes man without ceasing to be God. And he does what only God can do. Through Jesus then, by grace through faith, we are redeemed. This reminds us of the words of that ancient hymn that we heard played earlier. O come, thou rod of Jesse, free thine own from Satan's tyranny. From depths of hell thy people save, and give them victory o'er the grave. Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel. The eternal Son tabernacled among us. He is full of grace and truth. Thirdly, the Son of God was before John. Look at verse 15 with me. Look at this parenthesis in verse 15. It says that John bore witness about him and cried out, this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me. Here, John the apostle is quoting another John. John the what? John the Baptist, the final Old Testament prophet, as it were, the forerunner of Christ. He is quoting John the Baptist as saying that, although Christ came after me, being a few months younger in age, Jesus still ranks ahead of me because being the eternal Son of God, He was before me. All over scripture, We have passages that clearly communicate that Jesus was and is truly God. John the Baptist saying, may I become less and may you become more, Lord Jesus. Here saying that he ranks before him because he was before me. Jesus is the eternal son of God. He's trying to underscore here the primacy and preeminence and divinity of Jesus. The primacy, preeminence and divinity of Jesus. John the Baptist was finite, Jesus is infinite. John the Baptist was temporal, Jesus is eternal. This is reinforcing what was said earlier in the chapter in verses six through eight, quote, there was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about. Friends, you are not the light. I am not the light. Jesus is the light. But in him, we become light as we point others to him. There's a new age spirituality that's going around like that green mist in Prince Caspian. It's everywhere, it's seeping into the schools, it's seeping into churches, it's seeping into homes. It's this idea that we are all good and we are light and all we need to do is have a few more commercials on the TV that tell us how great we are and we need to just have a big group hug and everything's gonna be okay. Meanwhile, people are directing missiles at each other, they're killing each other. There's all kinds of chaos and lies and hatred. You see, we are not the light. Humanity's not the light. Jesus is the light of the world. And when we are brought into union with him, then we become light as we point others to him and as we are gospel witnesses. The eternal word became flesh and dwelt among us. Along with John the Apostle, John the Baptist was a witness to that reality, and he declared boldly that it was so. And this brings us to our fourth point in verse 16. The eternal Son of God grants infinite measures of grace. Verse 16, and from His fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. In case we didn't get it the first time, here we have it reinforced. John again tells us that in Christ we have infinite measures of grace, like waves rolling over at Folly Beach or Sullivan's Island, over and over and over again, week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade, century after century, grace rolling like the waves of the sea. Our Savior is always being poured out upon those who receive Him by faith. This grace upon grace is like a mother's love for a wayward son or daughter. Though totally undeserving of that love, it continues to come. And it's magnified. But unlike any human love, God's love and grace is perfectly holy. It's perfectly expressed in Christ, our substitute. God's love is a holy love in Christ. In Christ, we receive grace upon grace. Grace upon grace. Did you walk into this room this morning thinking, I am not worthy? Well, your theology is intact. You're right, you're not worthy, I'm not worthy. Grace upon grace. in Jesus Christ. That's what this passage teaches us. FF Bruce explains it this way, quote, the plentitude of divine glory and goodness, which is in Christ is an ocean from which all his people may draw without ever diminishing its content. One wave of grace is constantly being refreshed by another. One wave of grace is constantly being refreshed by another. Think about that for a moment. It's like that nowhere else in the world and with no person, I don't care who it is. It was a wonderful story. It happened this past week. There was some pictures that were going viral on the internet of a little boy in Afghanistan who was running around in his bare feet, all dirty, and he had this plastic bag on with number 10 written on it and the name Messi on it, on the back. He was, if you don't know, I can educate you on soccer if you'd like to learn some things. But Leonardo Messi is the greatest soccer player on the face of the earth right now. He's incredible. He's a human highlight reel. And he also has a big heart. Well, he got wind of this and he wanted, they were having a game, I believe it was in the Middle East somewhere. And so through various contexts, they found this little boy. And they brought him into the locker room of Barcelona before an international match. And they brought him out onto the field as the players went out there. And this little boy, about this tall, was just holding onto Messi's hand as they were walking out. And it was so beautiful. But then, when the little boy was supposed to run off the field when the game was going to start, he stayed out there. He didn't want to leave. And he ran over to Messi during this moment. I don't know if it was a moment of silence or something for something else. And he held his hand. And then they were trying to get him off the field, and he wouldn't go. And Messi was laughing. All the players were having a good time with it. And finally, the referee had to grab him and run him off the field. But you know, when we approach God, No one is ever going to, no referee is ever going to pick us up and take us away. It never, it never ends. It's just grace upon grace upon grace. We are never removed from his presence. God never gets too busy for us or too, or tired of us. There are people that we know and love and, and they will do nice things for us. But if we just hung around all the time, they're going, oh my goodness. God is never like that. Think about that today. The question we need to ask all of ourselves is, are you resting in that grace? I've been a pastor for 20 years, and I'll tell you, a lot of people are playing games with God. A lot of people have it set up in their head, well, yeah, I wanna take the name Christian, and I agree with a lot of stuff, but, you know, not really going to see him or call him my Lord because, Really, I don't want Him to be. I want to take His benefits, but I don't want His Lordship. And when you do that, you are basically ripping Christ apart. He is not your Lord or your Savior in that instance. You see, Christ comes as one person, and He is Savior and He is Lord. And so I'll ask you this morning, are you resting in Him? Are you abiding in Him? Are you trusting in Him? Have you ever received Him into your life as your Lord and Savior. Do that today if you've not. I implore you. Put your hope and your faith and your trust in Christ, and you will receive grace upon grace. You will receive forgiveness. You will receive his righteousness. You will receive everlasting life. It's no joke. He is the way, the truth, and the life. This leads us to verse 17. The eternal son of God is greater than Moses, for the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. He's of higher rank than John the Baptist. He is also greater than Moses, the great mediator of the old covenant, because through Moses came the law, but through Jesus comes truth and grace. Most first century Jews, of course, were looking to their own performance to make them right before God. We've seen the Pharisees, the way they've acted, all throughout the Gospel of Luke, haven't we, this past couple of years. They thought that just to obey God's law in their own way, by their own standards, really, that they were going to be delivered from the wrath to come. But this is not the case. Friends, the law whether it's the law of God or some law that you have come up with in your own head, what some have called law light, neither one of those can save you. Good works cannot save you. They can only condemn you. Paul says in Galatians 2.16 that we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. The law came through Moses, but that law could not and still cannot save anyone from their sins. It was never meant to. It was never meant to save anyone in and of itself. Hebrews 10 verse one says this, the law is but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of those realities. Only through faith in Christ, not faith in the shadows, not faith in the law, only through faith in Christ. Can we be saved? Can we be delivered from the clutches of Satan and eternal death in hell? Grace and truth come through Jesus Christ. Young people, young people going through a stage in life which can often be difficult, I want you to know that the world will promise you many things, but grace and truth it will not bring you. Grace and truth are found in Jesus Christ. You may keep running headlong into all these lies and promises of the world, but they will all be uncovered in that last day. Grace and truth are found in Jesus Christ. And finally, the eternal son of God makes the father known to sinners. Verse 18, look with me again at verse 18. No one has ever seen God, the only God, who is at the father's side. He has made him known. This is a bit of an enigmatic verse. Sounds strange to our ears, but. Simply, we understand, in fact I read it in my devotions this morning, I'm in Exodus and I read this very passage where it talks about Moses being face to face with God. And this, of course, is metaphorical, but we understand that God As he passes by Moses in his majestic glory, as Moses was a kind of old covenant mediator, we know that he got a glimpse of God, but only Jesus knows God in his fullness. That's what this is saying. Only Jesus truly knows God in his fullness and can reveal him to us in his fullness. Many look to other mediators, other so-called prophets and saviors to connect them to God, to save them, but none of them can deliver. because only Christ can do this. He's only, he is capable of doing this. We see this in this text. Herman Ritterbosch says this, quote, only Christ is the one who has God's grace and truth at his disposal. As one 18th century hymn writer declared, quote, in thee most perfectly expressed, the Father's glories shine. Of the full deity possessed, eternally divine. Worthy, O Lamb of God, art thou, that every knee to thee should bow. We began this message with this well-known quote from Augustine. Almighty God, you have made us for thyself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee. My prayer for all of us this Christmas is that we would find our rest. and that we would find grace, and that we would find truth, and that we would find light, and that we would find love through faith in Jesus Christ. He is the eternal Son of God. He is the one born of human flesh that he would bring these things to us, and that we'd receive them by grace through faith. He is our light and our salvation. veiled in flesh the Godhead see. Hail the incarnate deity, pleased as man with men to dwell. Jesus, our Emmanuel, beloved, let us turn from all destructive idols and sin, and let us put our faith and our trust in Him. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you that veiled in flesh the Godhead we see. We thank you for Emmanuel, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who was born of a virgin in a stable placed in a manger, the one whom the angels worshiped and still do worship, the one who the shepherds rejoiced in, the one who the wise men rejoiced in and came from afar to visit and to worship and to give gifts, the one who was placed into the arms of Simeon in the temple and rejoiced in. Oh Lord, we pray that we would rejoice in him today and that he would truly be our life and salvation and that we would go to him for that wave upon wave of grace. And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.