Good morning. It is a privilege for my wife and myself to witness the grace of God among you. We were here once briefly in 2008, and you were not nearly as large. We're so grateful to see what God has done. And as I was thinking about it, and as I've talked to my son almost daily in the months he's been here, I honestly cannot think of a better place, of another place of which I am familiar where I would rather have my son be than here. And I want to express our gratitude to you, to the Conways for their hospitality and for you as a congregation for being the body of Christ to Him and to one another. I appreciate your love for the Word, appreciate your passion and zeal for lost souls, One thing being here I appreciate is your holy discontentment. You know, there's a sinful discontentment and there's a holy discontentment. Jesus said, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. That's not only up front, that's to characterize our entire Christian lives. And your holy discontentment and your desire for more, is a great blessing and a challenge to me personally. Thank you for being what you are to my son. And let me say before I begin with the word, give a commendation of him to you. My wife and I are deeply grateful for a son who is truly the wise son of Proverbs who has made his parents very glad. And I could wish upon every one of you as parents that you would have such sons and daughters to make you glad as our son has made us glad by the working of God's grace in him, by his honoring of us, respect for us, And even as I commend you to Him, I commend Him to you. And I know that He will continue to be a blessing among you as He has been to us. Do you all know what a caricature is? A caricature is an image or description of someone with exaggerated features. I think we're most familiar with caricatures in cartoons. People who are famous in our country or presidents usually get caricatured by cartoonists. So you might remember Bill Clinton, who had a slightly large nose, but the caricature would give him a big, bulbous red nose. Or George W. Bush, who maybe had a little bit of a point on his ears. Well, you know, the caricatures made him look almost like an elf with pointy ears, right? Our current president maybe has ears that stick out a little bit, but the caricatures give him ears that are like satellite dishes, right? And they make him look like a pencil-thin form. It's an exaggeration. And when it comes to caricatures of political figures, well, it's not intended to be attractive, is it? It's not intended to beautify someone. It's not intended to be flattering. But when it comes to caricatures of political figures, it's all done in good fun. But when there is a caricature of God, it is not a good thing. When we take one attribute of God and blow that out of proportion at the expense of other attributes, that's not a good thing. That robs God of glory. And so the Muslims who see God as a God of law and a God of wrath, but not a God of love, grace, and mercy, totally distort the character of God and dishonor Him. Likewise, those who would see God as love and only love and not a God of light and moral purity also do God a disservice and they demean and diminish God. Caricatures of God are not good. Brothers and sisters, sometimes we, in our Christian characters, because of our imbalances, can present a caricature of God, which is not a good advertisement for the God we want others to come to know. Well, there is one who is not a caricature of God, but who is an exact representation of God, because he is God himself, and that is our Lord Jesus Christ. And there is a description of Jesus that I want us to focus on this morning. that presents a beautifully balanced portrait of the Son of God, the one that we are to imitate. I turn you to John 1, although I tell you it's not going to be an expository sermon. I usually preach that way. This is a topical sermon. I'm going to use a verse there as a springboard. I'm going to jump on it like a diving board. I'm going to jump off of it and go other places, okay? But in John 1, as you know, John begins with these mysterious words. In the beginning was the Word, And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Wow, there's mystery there. Who is this One who is, on the one hand, with God, so He's distinct from God, and yet He is God? He goes on to say, all things came into being through Him. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. But it is not until verse 14 that He reveals the identity of this Word. There, in verse 14, John says, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Who is this Word? With God and was God, it is Jesus Christ, the Word who became flesh. And John says that we, I and the other apostles, beheld His glory. That word behold is the word from which we get our word theater. And it means not to casually glance at, but to contemplate and to view attentively. That's what you do when you go to the movies, right? I mean, you don't go and occasionally look up at the screen. If you're like me, if I'm going to pay for a movie, ten, eleven dollars, I'm going to get my money's worth, and I'm going to see every moment and catch every action, and so my eyes are glued on the screen. Well, their eyes were glued upon Jesus. They beheld, as in a theater, His glory. The word glory means magnificence, splendor, excellence, preeminence, dignity, grace, majesty. Their eyes were glued on the glory of Jesus. And how is His glory further described in this passage? What are the rays or the outshinings of His glory that John and the others beheld? We beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of what? Grace and truth. The glory of the Lord Jesus is seen in its fullness in two realms, grace and truth. And friends, it is these two attributes of Jesus that I want us to contemplate this morning. We can't do it with the eyes of flesh as the apostles could, but we can and we must behold Him with the eyes of faith. And as we do, what should be the result? Contemplation of Jesus ought to lead to, first of all, veneration or worship. As we behold him, we ought to adore him. We ought to love him as we behold the beauty of his grace and his truth. And contemplation ought to lead to imitation. As we behold Him, we ought to become more like Him. And you know 2 Corinthians 3.18 that says, But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord the Spirit. As we behold Him, we what? Become Him. Become like Him. And that's what we want to do this morning. We want to behold his grace and truth. And before I begin and delve into this further, let me say this, that I believe that each one of us is imbalanced in the direction either of truth or grace. Some of us love the truth and we should. Some of us might make our life verse the proverb that says, buy the truth and sell it not. We love to proclaim the truth. But sometimes, in our proclamation of truth, we are less than gracious. And sometimes we can look back over our shoulder on those to whom we've told the truth, and we find them lying prostrate with tire tracks over them. Because we've run over them with the truth, but we haven't been gracious. Others of us are so intent on being gracious, and kind, and nice, that we may not have the courage to seek the truth that they need to set them free. Would you agree? If I were to ask for a vote, which I won't, which of you are stronger on truth and weak in grace? Stronger on grace and weak in truth? I think you'd resonate with that, right? You know who you are. Our Lord Jesus was full of grace and full of truth. We are imbalanced, that's why we need to behold him in the fullness of both his grace and his truth. We're going to first look at Jesus full of grace. And here's where I'm a little scared because I've got a lot of points to make. And I'm scared because I don't want to overwhelm you. But I thought of this, when I buy a car, and I always buy a used car, I may go on cars.com and I might hit the car I'm interested in, and it will pull up on the site photographs of that car. But it won't just give me one photograph, it will show me a front view. a side profile, a rear view, a view of the interior because they want to convince me that the car is good all the way around. And I need a well-rounded view of that car before I commit to it. And I can't just give you one passage to show that Jesus was full of grace or one passage to show you He's full of truth. We need to look at a composite of passages. We need to present a collage. Are you with me? And yet I don't want to overwhelm you. So because we could take a whole sermon on any one of those passages. So I'm not going to turn you to every passage. I'm going to tell the story, hoping that many of you are familiar with it. And if you're not, you'll get the flow of it because otherwise we'd get bogged down. So I really have a lot of points, but I really have two points. I want you to see the grace of Jesus and the truth of Jesus. So please don't be overwhelmed. Jesus was full of grace. What does it mean that Jesus was full of grace? Well, as you know, the grace of God is the undeserved favor of God. It is God's way of salvation. It's the only way it could be. God is unapproachably holy. We are helplessly wicked. If we're ever going to be saved, it's got to be God giving us what we don't deserve. So God's salvation is a gracious salvation. And as you know, God's gracious salvation reaches its pinnacle in Jesus. All of his promises find their yes in him. The law came through Moses, he says in John 1. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the culmination and the fulfillment of God's gracious plan of salvation. And so surely the grace of the Lord Jesus is seen in its highest expression in the cross. However, Jesus was gracious in all that he did, in all that he said. He's gracious in all of his words, in all of his works. And so I want to give you seven snapshots of Jesus full of grace. Jesus, first of all, and by the way, there are outlines on the ledge there. And if you want an outline later to study these things, to look up the passages in greater depth, please take one. But right now we wanted you to be focused on the preacher. Jesus full of grace enhances human joy. In John chapter 2, Jesus goes to a wedding. Weddings are times of celebration and happiness, aren't they? Have you been to any weddings this year? I think my wife was privileged to attend two weddings. Weddings are happy times. I can remember just a couple months before my wedding, praying, Lord, don't let me die now. Let me make it. It's only a couple months to go. Let me make it to my wedding day and my wedding night, Lord. Just let me hang on long enough to make it to June 19th. Weddings are happy times, celebrations. And Jesus was at a wedding and here the God of grace had provided another son of Adam with a companion, one who would be the desire of his eyes and the delight of his soul. God was providing for another daughter of Eve, one who would love her, provide for her, protect her, lead her under God. It was a happy time of celebration. But as you know, the wine ran out. And the celebration was winding down. What does our gracious Lord do? He makes more wine. And He makes fine wine. And the celebration resumes. And one pastor, I think rightly, although it's not in the text, pictures Jesus standing off to the side with a smile creasing his face as the celebration resumes. Jesus, behold your gracious Lord enhancing human joy. We're called to be like him. Do you see it as your purpose to enrich the joy of those around you? I confess that as a preacher, I once thought that I had preached a good sermon. When people came to me at the door and said, oh, Pastor, you really got me, I was really convicted and I'm really, well, conviction is needed, but you need to go through conviction to the joy of forgiveness and cleansing on the other end. I much more appreciate it now when people say, Pastor, thank you, that was an encouragement to me, you brought me to Christ. You convicted me, but you didn't leave me there. And because Paul said, we are to be helpers with you for your joy, 2 Corinthians 1, 24. Secondly, Jesus, full of grace, meets human needs and relieves human suffering. In Mark 6, and again, if you want a leaf there, but I'm going to be bouncing off, and so not going to be staying there long. In Mark 6.34, it says, And when He went ashore, He saw a great multitude, and He felt compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And He began to teach them many things. Jesus looks at this crowd of shepherdless sheep. You know who their pastors were? The self-righteous, legalistic, oppressive Pharisees. And Jesus looks at this crowd of sheep with no shepherd to lead them into the green pastures of truth. No shepherd to lead them beside the still waters of the promises of God or to lead them in their counseling into paths of righteousness. And Jesus, our gracious Lord, moved with compassion. What did He do? He taught them many things. But it's striking that just two chapters later, in chapter 8 of Mark, we read, in those days when there was a great multitude and they had nothing to eat, he called his disciples and said to them, I feel compassion for the multitude because they have remained with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And if I send them away hungry to their home, they will faint on the way and some of them will have come from a distance. The same Jesus who looked upon untaught people and moved with compassion, he taught them, looks upon a crowd now that has been with him, and he's sensitive to the fact that these guys are hungry, and they'll faint if I let them go. And so what does he do? He multiplies loaves and bread and feeds 4,000. The same Lord who fed the ignorant with truth feeds the hungry with bread. He opens blind eyes. He unstops deaf ears. He heals cripples. He delivers the demonized and oppressed. Behold your gracious Lord, meeting a variety of human needs and relieving a diversity of human suffering. But then, Jesus, full of grace, salves or comforts human grief. You may turn here if you care to, but Luke 7. I don't want you to sit there just with closed Bibles the whole time, so turn to Luke 7 and we'll pick up at verse 11. Another beautiful illustration of Jesus grace. And it came about soon afterwards that he went to a city called Nain, and his disciples were going along with him, accompanied by a large multitude. Now as he approached the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a sizable crowd from the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he felt compassion for her, and said to her, Do not weep. And he came up and touched the coffin, and the bearers came to a halt, and he said, Young man, I say to you, Arise. And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. Do you see yet another ray of the glory of Jesus in His grace? He comes to a situation where here's a woman and her husband has died, and her only living means of support, there was no welfare back then, her only living means of support is her only son, and he's lying dead in the coffin. And Jesus moved with compassion, raises him from the dead, gives him back to his mother. Behold your Lord, your gracious Lord, salving human grief. And then we can think of the well-known John chapter 11, Jesus there with Lazarus. He comes deliberately late. He listens to Martha. Lord, if you had only been here, my brother would not have died. That moved him enough, but then he comes to Mary, the one who had sat at his feet, who no doubt was maybe more dear to him. And Mary says the same thing, Lord, if you had been here. My brother would not have died. And that's too much for Jesus. And we have those famous words. Jesus wept and then he went on to raise Lazarus from the dead. So I say, behold, your gracious Lord, salving human grief. Here's another one. Jesus, full of grace, relieves human weariness in Mark, chapter six, 30 to 32. And again, I know I'm giving you a lot of text, but I want you to feel the graciousness of Jesus, okay? If you forget the particulars, get a sense of how gracious Jesus is. In Mark 6, He had sent His disciples out on a little missionary journey. And we read in verse 30, and the apostles gathered together with Jesus and they reported to Him all that they had done and taught. And He said to them, come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest a while. For there were many people coming and going, they did not even have time to eat, and they went away in the boat to a lonely place by themselves." Do you see Jesus' gracious sensitivity to human weariness? Those guys had been out there preaching, casting out demons, they were all excited, but he knew that there was a danger of burnout. And he said, you guys need some R&R. And he was sensitive to that and he took them away for a rest. Just like God his father. Do you remember the Elijah incident? Elijah had been in this colossal battle with 450 prophets of Baal, 400 prophets of the Asherah, this tremendous battle to determine who is the living God, a tremendous expenditure of physical, emotional, spiritual energy. And Elijah's wrung out and he's depressed. And what does he say? Oh, Lord, take my life for I'm not better than my father's. He's having a little pity party. What does God the Father do? Come on, Elijah, get it together. There's more work for you to do. No, our gracious God puts him to sleep, sends him an angel to give him some food, like you would with your little overtired child. You don't discipline him. You say, the poor kid needs a nap. And God the Father takes His servant, His faithful servant, puts him to sleep, gives him something to eat or drink, and revives him. Well, now the Son of God, sensitive to human weariness. Here's another one. Jesus, full of grace, displays human manners. That may surprise you. Anybody here think manners? Mannerish manners. That's for high society people, not for Jesus. The scene is in Luke 7. Jesus is in the home of a Pharisee, Simon. And Simon had invited Jesus, and while Jesus is there, a woman out from the streets comes, perhaps redeemed out of an immoral life. And she's so filled with love for Jesus because of the forgiveness of her sins that she washes his feet with her tears and her hair. Well, there's Simon, the self-righteous Pharisee. How does he respond? Doesn't this guy know that she's a sinner? Well, Jesus has some words for Simon. And He speaks those words in Luke 7 and verse 44. And He says this to Simon. Do you see this woman? I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with perfume. My point is this, Jesus was sensitive to the customs of the day. It was customary hospitality that when you had a guest, they'd come and their feet would be dusty. From walking the dusty roads, the servant would wash their feet. You'd give them a holy kiss or a kiss of some sort and you'd anoint their head. This was manners in first century Palestine. Did Jesus care about manners? He did. Because he was aware when they were not followed. Jesus, full of grace, shows a concern for human manners. And we need to do the same. As we bring the gospel to people, remember how Paul says, I've become all things to all men, that I might save some. We need to become socially sensitive. We've worked with the Amish for eight years. And the Amish have their own cultural view of worldliness. But when we would come to our Amish Bible study, my wife would wear an unusually long dress so as not to needlessly offend them. I learned that the Amish would not wear patterned shirts, plaid shirts, and they wouldn't wear brightly colored shirts. So what should I do? come with a plain shirt because I don't want them stumbling over my shirt while I'm trying to preach them the gospel. Right. And so we need to become socially aware, socially sensitive. What are the custom? Jesus did not despise the cultural customs in the day in which he lived. Another expression of his graciousness, sensitive to human manners. Let me suggest that human manners are a subset of love. But then 6 of 7, Jesus, full of grace, calms human fears. There's a beautiful story in Mark 5, and I'm sure many of you have read it. Jairus, the synagogue official, comes to Jesus, and he asks if Jesus would come and lay his hands on his daughter, that she might get well and live. And Jesus agrees to go. So here Jesus goes off with Jairus. Put yourself here. You've got a little daughter, and she's sick. with a terminal disease, and you've come to the master who has power, and you ask him, will you come to my house and heal her? And he agrees, and you're filled with joy, so you're coming along with Jesus. And in the way, a woman tugs on his garment, and she's got this health issue, this blood that won't stop flowing. Jesus stops, and he's dealing with this woman. Now, your gyrus, you're the one with the sick child. And what are you thinking? Come on, man, let's get going. He's looking at his watch. If he had a watch, come on, Jesus, can you get this over? I mean, she's dying. Time is of the essence. We got to get there. Finally, somebody comes from his home and says, don't trouble the teacher any longer. Your daughter has died. Was Jesus insensitive? Was he unaware? Did he get caught up with something? No, very beautifully, we read in Mark 5.36, Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken, said to the synagogue official, do not be afraid, and the original Greek indicates, do not be afraid any longer, only believe. Jesus knew he was filled with anxiety and fear, didn't he? Jesus knew what he was going to do. I'm not just going to heal her. I'm going to raise her from the dead. But Jesus, sensitive to human fear, allays that fear. Don't be afraid any longer. Just believe. He was only testing him, expanding his faith. But another expression of Jesus' graciousness. One more on the grace of Jesus. Jesus, full of grace, speaks gracious words. This is really stunning. In Luke chapter 4, Jesus comes to his hometown of Nazareth. And as the visiting rabbi, as I am a visiting pastor and have been given the privilege of preaching, in that day, if you had a visiting rabbi, he'd be given the privilege of opening the Word and reading the Scripture. So Jesus does that. He reads from Isaiah 61, "...the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, But unlike any other rabbi, he says this is being fulfilled this day in your hearing. I'm the one that Isaiah spoke about, right? But what I call your attention to in that passage is what Jesus, what is said of Jesus in verse 22 of Luke 4. And all were speaking well of him and wondering, and notice this, at the gracious words which were falling from his lips. Jesus was speaking gracious words. What struck the people is that he was speaking graciously. Now this is especially stunning in light of what follows. Because what follows is they stumbled over him. Wait a minute, this is just Joseph's son. And they were not giving him the honor due him. He goes on to tell two stories in which the heroes are Gentiles. Now Jews hated the Gentiles, they were dogs. And the Gentiles are made, like in the Good Samaritan parable, Gentiles were made the heroes. It so provoked their nationalistic pride that they were enraged at Jesus to the point they wanted to throw him over the cliff. You remember that story? And yet it's in that same context that they marveled at the gracious words coming from his lips. What does that tell us? You can say hard things. You can say things that make people hopping mad, but you can still say them graciously because Jesus did. He said hard things. He said provoking things. He gave them truth they didn't want to hear, but he spoke with grace. There's no excuse for us saying hard things in any other than a gracious manner. I want to fold something else in here. I thought of it later, but I need to add it because I think it's another point of graciousness in Jesus, and I'll fold it in under that last point. Jesus, full of grace, looked and found evidence of grace in others. C.J. Mahaney, the founder of the Sovereign Grace Movement, I think it was him who made this comment. He said, we ought to look for evidences of grace in other people. And this over against looking with a jaundiced, judgmental eye. I confess that there's been too much of that in my past, where I'd size somebody up according to my particular theological tradition and my church background and say, well, yeah, how do you fit? Where do we need to fill you out? Or where do we need to trim you back to fit what I think is a Christian? You know, people can sense when they're being judged, can't they? People can sense when you're kind of looking them up and down with a judgmental spirit. Now, I'm not talking about lacking discernment. We need to have discernment. But I'm saying I think Mahaney's counsel is good, and I've tried to follow it these last several years, looking for evidences of grace in people rather than looking with a hypercritical attitude. Does Jesus do this? I'm amazed. when he gets to his high priestly prayer. Remember how it was dealing with the apostles. They often exasperated Jesus. At times, he sighed. He had to say to Philip, have I been so long with you, Philip? At one point, he needed to say to Peter, get behind me, Satan! It was tough working with those guys, as it would have been tough working with any of us. Slow to learn. But Jesus gets to His high priestly prayer in John 17, and He's being debriefed as where He's giving a report back to the Father about His disciples. And listen to what He says in John 17, 6. He's reporting to the Father, I manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world. Yours they were, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. What a good report. What a gracious report he gave to these men who had exasperated him. Father, they're the real deal. They've kept your word. And so I say, brothers and sisters, behold. Your gracious Lord speaking gracious words, behold, Jesus, full of grace. Did you catch it? I know we went quickly through a lot of passages, but do you see the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the graciousness of the Lord Jesus Christ? Now we want to look at the other side for the remaining time. Jesus was not only full of grace, but he's full of truth. What is it to be full of truth? Well, truth, we might say, is the opposite of falsehood. But in the Bible, in the New Testament, truth is more than that. Truth centers on the saving truth of God in His gospel. Truth is all about God's saving purposes. And as you know, God's saving purposes find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ. All of God's promises find their yes in Him. Jesus said, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed." And so for John to say Jesus is full of truth, and for Jesus Himself to call Himself the truth, means that He is the fulfillment of all the types and shadows of the Old Testament. He is the final revelation of God that completes the story of salvation. And so for this section, I want us to highlight Jesus as full of truth, in his unbending determination to carry out the saving purposes of God for which he had come to earth. You with me? Full of grace, full of truth, gracious. But if I can say it plainly, Jesus was no wimp. Jesus was committed with everything in him to the truth of God and his plan of salvation. Let's see. I cut one out. It's on the notes, but we're going to look at six snapshots of Jesus in his relentless commitment to truth. And the first is this, Jesus, full of truth, did not allow the agendas of men to displace his agenda from God. In Mark chapter 1, Jesus had spent the whole day healing people, casting out demons. And then we read in Mark 1.35, Jesus did what we ought to do, and that is seek God in a quiet time, alone with God. And Jesus got alone with His Father. It says in Mark 1.35, and early in the morning, while it was still dark, He arose and went out and departed to a lonely place and was praying there. And Simon and his companions hunted for Him, and they found Him and said to Him, Everyone's looking for You. What were they doing? They were trying to set the agenda for Jesus. Hey, Jesus, there are more people need to be healed. More people need to be exercised. You need to come back, Jesus. We want you. You made a hit with the crowd. You need to come back. It's our plan for you that you come back and you continue what you started. But listen to Jesus words. Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby in order that I may preach there also, for that is what I came out for. The point is, Jesus did not allow himself to get bullied by the agendas of men. He followed the agenda of his heavenly father. And sometimes we can get bullied by the agendas of people, what they want us to do sometimes at work. They'll want you to work overtime and sell your soul to the company store. But you say, no, I've got a family to tend to. I can't neglect my wife and children. I'll give you a good day's work for a good day's wage, but I'm not going to sell my soul to the company store. I've got other priorities God has given me. And like Jesus, we can't allow ourselves to be bullied by the agendas of men when God has given us his agenda, his priorities for us. And you've got your Lord as an example in that. But then further. Jesus, full of truth, did not allow the offended pride of men to soften his message. He did not allow the offended pride of men to soften His message. Matthew 15 is the text. And Jesus has just said some hard things to the Pharisees. He said, it's not what goes in a man that defiles him, but what comes out of him. And then the disciples come to Jesus, and they come with these words. Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement? Jesus answered and said, Every plant which my heavenly father did not plant shall be rooted up. Let them alone. They are blind leaders of blind. You see, offense taken does not always mean sinful offense given. Jesus did not sinfully offend them. They took offense, but it was only their bruised pride. And Jesus didn't back down from that, did he? He said, you know, they were offended. No apologies. They're blind leaders of blind. Sometimes we want to go to a brother or sister. We want to bring a word of correction or reproof. And we pray about it. Make sure we're right. Make sure it's a pattern. We make sure our heart is right. We make sure we're going in love. We want to speak the truth in love. And we go and we speak what is true. We speak it humbly. We speak it lovingly. Oh, you get a negative reaction and they blow up against you and they accuse you of this and that. And we're not Jesus. And we do need to examine ourselves. But so often, you know, we can be filled with guilt. Oh, no, I shouldn't have gone. Maybe I should have gone differently. Maybe I should have gone at a different time. We can be filled with guilt. Jesus did not back down because of the offended pride of men. Such is his commitment to truth. Here's another one. Jesus did not allow the fearful threats of men to keep him from his duty to God. I use this often with the Amish. Because the Amish that I work with, when they begin to commit to Christ and the Bible, they face excommunication from their whole community and serious shunning. They're cut off by family. They're cut off by the whole community. Their excommunication is not just ecclesiastical, you know, fellowship-related. It's familial. It's economic. I mean, your whole security and identity has been in this system. And when you begin to follow Christ, they begin to sniff it and you risk getting cut off. Jesus is in the synagogue on the Sabbath day. The Pharisees had a lot of Sabbath traditions, many of them centering around the the Sabbath, what you couldn't do on the Sabbath. And here in Mark's three, there's a man with a withered hand. And Jesus is there to heal and to do good on the Sabbath. But he looks out of the corner of his eye and there are Pharisees watching him. They're watching to catch him to see if he'll break one of their traditions. I say to my Amish friends who need to defy human traditions and stand for the gospel, how easy it would have been for Jesus to come up to the guy and say, hey, wait till tomorrow. These guys will be gone. It won't be the Sabbath. What's one more day when you've lived with this affliction all these years? Wait till tomorrow. Come back. I'll heal you then. It says in Mark 3.6, He looked at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and He said, stretch forth your hand. And He healed them. And it says, they went out and planned to destroy Him. Our Lord, full of truth, did not allow the fearful threats of men to keep Him from His duty to God, nor must we. Here's another, Jesus did not allow attachment to earthly family to override his calling from God. Later on in that same chapter, Mark chapter three, Jesus is teaching a crowd of people and we read in verse 31, and his mother and his brothers arrived and standing outside, they sent word to him and called him and a multitude was sitting around and they said to him, behold, your mother and your brothers are outside looking for you. What do you expect Jesus would do? Oh, sorry folks, we're gonna have to cut the lesson short. My family's here, you know, I gotta spend time with family. Now Jesus loved his family, no doubt. But at that time, his mother and his brothers were not believing in him. How did Jesus respond? Jesus, full of truth, answered. That's not in the text. Answering them, he said, who are my mother and my brothers? And looking about at those who were sitting around him, he said, behold, my mother and my brothers, for whoever does the will of God, he is my brother, sister, and mother. Now, Jesus loved His family. And we're called to love our families. And we're called to be winsome toward unsafe family members. But Jesus made it very clear, He who loves father or mother, son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And He is our example. He did not yield. He did not yield to sentimental attachment to family and allow that to override His calling from God. Here again, The Amish that I work with have to face this. They know that if they follow Christ with all their hearts, the family's going to cut them off. Mom's not going to be there for the birth of the child. The grandchildren are not going to be able to visit. They're going to lose family in many cases. But that's the call of Christ. We need to love family, but we need to love Him supremely. And so Jesus, full of truth, did not compromise His God-given message or allow, I'm sorry, attachment to earthly family to override His calling from God. Two more. Jesus full of truth. Jesus did not compromise His God-given message that He might carry out His calling from God. You all know John chapter 6. In John chapter 6, Jesus says some very hard things. In John 6, He's dealing with a crowd that he knows are following him because they had their bellies filled with bread. This is what we recently called the free lunch crowd. Okay? Hey, this is a good deal. He's a guy who multiplies bread and fish. Free lunch. We're going to follow him. Well, Jesus knew that their motives were wrong, and so He ratcheted up His message. It is in this sermon that He says, you know, Moses gave you manna from heaven, I am the bread that comes down from heaven. It's in this passage that He says, no man can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him. It's in this passage, in this sermon that He says, unless you eat My flesh and drink My blood, you have no life in yourselves. In other words, with Me it's all or nothing. And He called for whole-souled commitment. Hard words. And then we read in verse 66, a large number of his disciples walked no longer with him. What did he do? Is he like the modern evangelist or pastor who says, oh, we can't lose this crowd. Let me go after him. Let's cut a deal here. Let's compromise. Look, you can take me as savior now and we'll deal with lordship later, you know. I can't afford to lose this crowd and my reputation. No, he let them go and he turned to the 12 and said, you will not go away also, will you? But in effect, he's saying, there's the train, there's the bandwagon, if you want to jump on it, now's a popular time to leave. But I'm not changing my message. And Peter, of course, came through. Lord, to whom shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal life. But again, behold your Lord, full of truth, did not compromise his God-given message in order to fulfill his calling from God. One more, Jesus, full of truth, did not allow physical fears to keep him from his mission of redemption. Peter denied Jesus with cursing, because he feared whatever punishment Jesus was about to receive. And so he denied, at a moment of self-trust and weakness, he denied his Lord before a little servant girl. Thankfully, he later repented with bitter tears. But in contrast to that, picture Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. In verse 35 and 36 of Mark 14 says, he went a little beyond them and fell to the ground and began to pray that if it were possible the hour might pass him by. And he was saying, Abba, Daddy, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me, yet not that I will, but what you will. Jesus was a man, and in his humanity he was terrified. He was facing the agony of being impaled on a wooden cross. He was facing the worst agony of being cut off from fellowship with his father, which we cannot imagine, something he had known from eternity past. He was facing an inky blackness of soul that we can only begin to imagine. And he was terrified. Luke tells us he was so terrified that the capillaries under his skin were bursting and blood was coming out of his pores. As a man, he couldn't be more terrified. But Jesus, full of truth, did not allow physical fears to keep him from his mission of redemption. And he resolved it with not my will, but yours be done. And so, brothers and sisters, I ask you this morning to behold your Lord full of grace and full of truth. We've seen snapshots of Jesus in his glory, full of grace and full of truth. What should be our response? Well, as I said earlier, contemplation ought to lead to veneration, to worship. As we behold Jesus and the glory of His graciousness and yet the glory of His commitment to truth. We ought to fall on our faces and worship him. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for your grace that doesn't deal with us according to what our sins deserve. Thank you for being gracious and being willing to come to the sin-cursed earth and suffer the indignation, the indignities of men, and ultimately go to a cross and die. Thank you for your grace and graciousness. And thank you for your commitment to truth. The truth of your father's plan of redemption, though all the powers of hell rose up against you, you set your face like a flint, you went to the Jerusalem, you went to the cross, and you purchased our redemption. Contemplation of Jesus, full of grace and truth, ought to lead us to worship and adoration as we see his beauty. It also ought to lead us to imitation. We are called to be like him. And we need to ask, where am I most unlike Jesus? Am I one who loves the truth? And, oh, I love telling people the truth and proclaiming the truth, but often in doing so I am less than gracious. Maybe it wouldn't be said of me that people are amazed at the gracious words. I speak the truth, but maybe I speak it with harshness and severity and with an edge. We need to pray, Lord Jesus, help me to continue to love and speak the truth, but help me to be more gracious, so that it might be said of me. Even when I say hard things, people are amazed at the grace that was coming from His lips. But maybe you're on the other end of the spectrum, and maybe you have a gift of mercy, you have a tender heart, and you're so intent upon being gracious and kind and nice, that you often come away saying, I didn't have the courage to speak enough truth. I was a coward. Behold, your Lord, not only full of grace, but full of truth and courage and boldness to speak the truth, even in the face of opposition and rejection. We need to pray, Lord, give me courage and boldness not only to be gracious, but to be committed to the truth and have the courage to speak the truth. May God help us to be full of grace and full of truth as individual Christians. And may he help us as a church to be full of grace and truth. And brethren, I don't flatter you, but I speak my honest perception as I know you in these days and more from what I hear of you from my son. I thank God that you appear to be a church full of grace and truth. The truth is preached in an uncompromised way, and yet I believe you are and are becoming more a congregation full of grace and full of love. People who come in should have the experience maybe that they're punched with the truth, but the hand that is punching them has a velvet glove. It's a powerful one-two punch. Those people speak truth. truth that convicts truth I don't want to hear truth that makes me uncomfortable. But when I come into their midst, I'm loved. I'm showered with grace. How can it be that they speak such hard things and yet have such loving hearts and such a welcoming, hospitable spirit? Isn't that what we want? We want to confuse people in that way. Let the truth punch them with a velvet glove. Powerful combination, truth and grace. That's what we want to be as individual Christians. That's what we ought to want to be as a church. And as you as an individual grow in being full of truth and grace in a balanced way, you will help your church to be a church full of truth and grace because we're all parts of the body. But before I close, I want to ask, are you even a Christian this morning? Could there be someone here who maybe is even questioning, am I a Christian? I want to help you to understand or answer that question. R.C. Sproul, the theologian philosopher, once asked a group of people, do you love Jesus as much as you ought? They answered, no. And that was the right answer. I hope that would be your answer, because none of us loves Jesus as much as we ought, as much as he deserves. That's the right answer. But then he followed with another question. Do you love Jesus at all? To which this crowd of Christians answered, yes. Yes. And he went on to say, that's what a Christian is. None of us loves Jesus as he deserves to be loved, but every Christian loves Jesus. How do I know that? Paul, at the end of First Corinthians, makes a stunning statement. It stuns you, he says, if anyone does not love the Lord, let him be anathema accursed. A Christian loves the Lord. And if I as I presented this portrait, however poorly I've done it, but if you've seen Jesus from the pages of his word full of truth and full of grace and your heart responds with that's lovely, that's beautiful. That's perfect manhood. That's the man I want to be. That's the person I want to be. Jesus is beautiful. Jesus is lovely, lovely in his graciousness, lovely in his commitment to truth. He's beautiful to me. Then very likely you love Jesus. And you're a Christian. But if you can sit here and hear that portrait, however poorly presented by me, but you can get that picture of Jesus and say, that's not attractive to me. That's not what I especially want to be like. Then the likelihood is you're not a Christian because Christians love Jesus. They see the glory of God in the face of Jesus. They see the beauty of Jesus. And if you don't love Jesus, you're not a Christian and you're not going to heaven. But guess what? You don't want to go to heaven. Because the chief feature of heaven is that Jesus is there. That's what makes heaven so glorious. And if you don't love Jesus, why would you want to go to a place where he is so prominent? So if you don't love Jesus, you're not a Christian, you're not going to heaven. And my friend, there's only one other alternative. There's only one other destiny presented in the Bible, and that's hell. There's only two destinies, eternal presence of God, or eternal absence from God in a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, hell. But I say to you this morning, you don't have to go to hell. You can come to love Jesus. and become a Christian and be destined to heaven. But what is it that will make you love Jesus? In order to love Jesus, you need to come to hate your sin. Every person here who is a Christian got to the place where they were sick and tired of being them. Sick and tired of being who I was. Sick and tired of being what I had made of my life. Sick and tired of being separated from God. And they saw the ugliness of their own sinful hearts and lives, and recognized that God had made a provision to forgive us and to change us. And that provision was Jesus, who came and died on a cross in the place of sinners, so that when we put our trust in Him, a beautiful exchange takes place. He becomes the dumping ground of sin, and God takes all of my sin and dumps it on Jesus, and His perfect righteousness is credited to me. You need to love Jesus to go to heaven. In order to love Jesus, you need to hate your sin. And then you'll see His beauty, because He came to die for sinners. Let me give you one simple illustration of the gospel which I frequently use, and it's very simple. Imagine two children coming home from school at report card time. And the one child says to the other, how'd you do? And the second kid says, terrible. I got all Fs. And am I going to get a beating from my father when I get home?" So how'd you do? Well, he says, sheepishly, I got all As. And suppose the student with all As, if it was ethical, and it's not, don't try this at home, but if it was ethical, he says, look, I'll trade my report card for yours. I'll take your report card with all Fs. And I'll get the punishment that you deserved. And you get the credit as though you got all A's. Friends, that's what Jesus has done. We got all F's in the moral spiritual school of God. We've broken every commandment countless times. We deserve the punishment and how Jesus got all A's. He lived a life of perfect righteousness and thought and word and deed. When we believe in him, God exchanges our report cards. He takes our Fs and gets punished. We get all his A pluses and get accepted by God in this life, and when we die, welcomed into his eternal presence. If you're not a Christian, you need to come to love Jesus. You're only gonna love him if you hate your sin and realize that he's the cure for your sin. Come to him. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we worship you. as beautiful in our eyes, full of grace and full of truth. We confess our own sinful imbalances. Sometimes we are zealous for truth, but less than gracious. At other times, we can be desirous to be so kind and gracious, but cowards in standing for the truth. You were neither, Lord. You were full of grace and are full of grace and full of truth. Continue to press us individually into your lovely image, and continue to make this church full of grace and full of truth, that it might attract many to you. And for those who are here in their sins, show them the ugliness of their sinful hearts. And Father, show them the beauty of your Son, that he can meet them in all of their needs, and give them grace to repent and believe. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.