We met this Wednesday night for our family Bible study. And one of the questions was one of the, the startup questions asked whether we would, uh, whether the, the questioners would consider their church, a loving church, a loving place. And of course the, the answer was to that was yes. And somebody said, there's no other way to explain why I can hardly get people to sit down on Sunday morning. Uh, then the fact that this is a. This is a place where people love one another, and it is obvious that it is the love that is created by the Holy Spirit of God in the hearts of his people that is manifest in that. You can meet me in John chapter one. We're going to conclude our look at John's prologue today. We're going to look at verses 14 through 18, but I want to read the entire 18 verses since all of this fits in one. It's taken us... And I'm going to struggle to get through it today, to finish today. I'm going to press to finish it today and do it in three messages because we need to get back to Matthew. But we have to, as we moved away from Matthew here, we have to make very clear why it was that Jesus Christ could speak with authority as no other man spoke, because he was not like any other man. John chapter 1, I'm going to begin reading in verse 1. We'll read through verse 18 and then we'll pray. John writes, 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 came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which enlightens 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 is he of whom I said, he who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me. And 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 has made him known. Let us pray. Father, we indeed come this day in the humble privilege of standing before you on the merits of Jesus Christ. We come this day in His honor. We come this day for His glory. Lord, we come this day to hear of Him, to learn of Him, that we may become better servants and worshipers of Him. Lord, as we come to Your truth, it is so simple to understand, yet so profound that we could never plumb the depths of it, Lord, in and of our own selves. We have no hope. Lord, we cry out this day for your spirit to come and give us understanding, to give us a glimpse into this reality of the God-man, Jesus Christ, the Word that became flesh. Lord, may you solidify this reality in our hearts. Lord, may you make it very profound to us today. May we see Jesus Christ in a new light today, in a greater light, in a greater way. Lord, as I come to this passage, I'm keenly aware of my own inability, my own ineptitude. Well, the depth of your word is so far beyond the capacity of the greatest of men, and I fall far short of the greatest of men. But you've called me to this, you've equipped me for this, Lord, I look to you to use me as your instrument, that your people Let me leave here, able to say that they have heard the voice of God from the mouth of a man, for your glory, by your grace. In the Savior Jesus Christ's name I pray, amen. We have taken a step away from Matthew to discuss the authority that Jesus Christ had. As Matthew concluded his description of the Sermon on the Mount, he just gave what seemed to be a passing statement, but he said that Christ taught as one having authority. This authority caused him to speak in a way that absolutely blew the minds of the hearers. Says that they were astonished, they were amazed, they were astounded at his teaching because no one had ever taught that way. He taught as one who had authority. And as I've told you, he didn't just teach like he had authority, Jesus taught because he had authority. And I've come here to John, And we've taken this look, taken just a brief detour here to explain the deity of Jesus Christ. Now, I think we're going to...I had in mind that we would go on to Colossians chapter 1, we would go on to Hebrews chapter 1, that we would go in into 1 Peter. But I've decided not to do that. At this time, there are some other places where I can interject those. We're going to see the sufficiency of this passage of Scripture written by the Apostle John to paint the portrait of the God-man, Jesus Christ. And that being where he derived his authority. And we've asked the question, where did he get his authority? Was it his or was it given to him? And the fact is that this authority was his. It was inherent. He came here with it. He was not given this authority. It was his. It is still his. It was his from eternity past. R.C. Sproul says that this question This idea that John really introduces in verse 1 and concludes with in verse 18, it's really the same. He says the same thing. He begins and ends the prologue with the same statement, that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This question, this idea has plagued theologians since the first century. This is not a new discussion. In fact, until the fourth century, the church vacillated as to whether Jesus was actually a man, and they battled with this docetism that we discussed two weeks ago, that it was said that, no, he wasn't a man, he just seemed to be a man. And the Council of Nicaea met in the latter part of the fourth century, in the 380s, and they got it right. They settled for the church once and for all, the deity of Jesus Christ. They got it right because friends, the Bible gets it right. They got it right because John got it right. And if we get what John has, then we will get it right. And as I told you, you do not come to the gospel of John with your intellect because you're not going to be able to put all of the pieces together in your mind. You must come with your faith. You must come ready. to accept the Word of God. And if that's just a little too much for some folks, I understand that. But the fact is, there are things that you just have to take by faith. And if we believe that the Word of God, that the Bible is indeed the inspired, inerrant Word of God, and the Theopilus' Bible church, we believe that, that is a hill that we will die on. This is the Word of God, the one and only Word of God, and every word of it is the Word of God. It contains God's own word. And if we believe that, then we have to come to it with faith and we trust it. We don't force it to have to be proven by reason. We trust it because it is trustworthy. We do not come here to say, well, are the prophecies right? Well, let's get a few evidences together. Well, we don't come to this looking for evidence. Friends, this book is the word of God. This book and this alone is the word of God. Therefore, the prophecies in it are true. This is the Word of God. Therefore, the scientific statements in it are true. This is the Word of God. The historical statements in it, therefore, are true. They are not evidences of it being the Word of God. It is the Word of God, so it proves to be true. We do not come with reason. Until the Holy Spirit gives you that conviction, friend, there is no one that can convince you that this is any more significant than any writing that any man ever wrote throughout history. Indeed, this was written by 40 authors over 1,500 years, and it has one central theme and one central focus, and that is the ministry of Jesus Christ, the propitiation for our sin, the Son of God at the right hand of the Father, interceding for God's people even today. Only one author could write that, and that author is the Holy Spirit of God. This book is trustworthy, and as we come to it, as we come to this Gospel of John, we come with that fact in the back of our mind. We come with that confidence on our sleeve, ready to take on the philosophical arguments that try to make sense of this. You cannot make sense of this. You take what the Bible says, and you go to the bank with it. John says unequivocally to begin this, he's describing to us really, if you take all of this first 18 verses and you want to find what is the message of this, in these 18 verses and really what becomes the message of this entire gospel of John, you come to verse 14 and these four words, the word became flesh. That is the message of the gospel. That is the message of the Bible. The word became flesh. John goes back and explains to us who this word is. He doesn't mention Jesus's name until farther in here. Uh, he doesn't mention him in the beginning. He refers to him as the word. He refers to him as the one, the life giver. He refers to him as the light that shines the light in the darkness. He is the light of every man. And he started out describing to us the eternality of Christ, that He was equal with God. We've seen His equality. The Word was with God in the beginning. He was there. The aseity of God, His self-existence, that in Him was life. Life was not given to Him. He possessed life. He is the life giver. We look at the creativity of Christ. He created everything. Nothing is here that He didn't create. He gives life. He gives the light of the gospel to men. He brought it. Without him, there is no life, and without him, there is no light for men. Men are trapped in darkness and doomed to destruction without Jesus Christ. He comes next to the superiority of Christ, and he looks at the greatest man. Jesus' own words said that John the Baptist was the greatest man ever born of women. Now, that pretty much includes everybody. out of every mother's son john the baptist was the greatest he said even john the baptist is going to be less than the least in the kingdom of heaven in the next life to come. But even John the Baptist, even John the baptizer gave credence to the fact that Jesus was the one. Jesus is the light. And John the apostle here, writing about John the Baptist here in verses six through eight, says he was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light. He was God's messenger, but he was a lesser messenger, and he began to proclaim the message that pointed to Christ. Jesus came and didn't say, There's the message. Jesus said, here, I am the message. John the Baptist went before him and said, I am not the one. And as we'll see in verse 15 in a little while, in fact, he continually pointed to the fact that Christ was greater than he was. He said, I'm not worthy to loosen the strap on his sandal. He was before I was. He existed before. He must increase and I must decrease. He is God's supreme one. Then we get into verses 9 through 13 and we discuss the authority of Jesus Christ, the authority that He had. And He came into the world and primarily His authority is found in verse 12. We looked at his arrival and he arrived here and he came to his own, he came to his own creation. He stepped in, all men are his creatures. He came to his own and it says that even his own people didn't know him. He was rejected by the world, then he was rejected by Israel. Every man rejected him. Israel does not have a special place of rejection because of rejecting Christ because every man rejected him. but he was not only did not only did he arrive, he D came here and, and, and he'll, he enlightened the world coming into the world. He says in verse nine, but the world didn't know him. He made the world and it didn't even recognize him. He was abandoned by the world. He was an outcast by the world. But what he did, what he did in verse 12, in spite of that rejection, in spite of being, uh, Accosted in spite of being rejected. It says in verse 12 that all who did receive him, those that believed in his name, they received him as the son of God, as the sin debt payer, as the Messiah, those that did receive him, he says he gave the right to become children of God. Not the possibility, not the hope of becoming. We have the right to be called children of God. It is not arrogance, friend. It is not pomposity. It is not being uber-pious to say that I am a child of God. Because I am in Christ Jesus, I am a child of God. He has given me that right. He alone has that authority. No man, no group of men, no church, no council of churches, no human authority can give you the right to be the child of God. They cannot come to you and say, I say that you are right with God. This book says it, or you are not right with God. The word of God, the written word and the living word, Either they say you are right with God or you are not. No man has authority outside of this book to say that, but Christ had that authority. Then we come to verses 14 to 17. And John is painting a picture for us here of the glory of Christ, the glory of Jesus Christ. William Barclay said, here we come to the sentence for the sake of which John wrote his gospel. He has thought and talked about the word of God, that powerful, creative, dynamic word which was the agent of creation, that guiding, directing, controlling word which puts order into the universe and mind into man. These were ideas which were known and familiar both to Jew and Greek as we have seen. Now he says the most startling and incredible thing he could have said. He described, you'll remember, the Israelis understood the word of God. God always communicated through his word. When he brought his message, it was, thus says the Lord, the word of God came to Jeremiah. The word of the Lord came to Isaiah. The word of the Lord was important. It is what accomplished God's will. And he says here, quite simply, that word, which created the world, this reason for the Greek, which controls the order of the world has become a person. And with our own eyes, we have seen him. That eternal being, that one that exists outside of our realm, that one that does not exist in time, that is out there, the Holy One has stepped into time and has become man. The Word has become flesh. The Word became flesh. And the first thing, the first point that really is made here, In the first half of verse 14 says the word became flesh and dwelt among us. We see this as a resident in the, this being the glory of Christ. We see the resident glory of Christ. It is a resident glory. he came and dwelt among them." This is the idea, this term directly means tabernacled among us, or he tented among us, he lived with us. And from a Jewish perspective, you don't have to go very far back into your Old Testament understanding to remember the tabernacle. We read from, uh, from Exodus chapter 33 and 34 this morning, we're going to go back there in a little while. But just prior to that, they'd finished building the tabernacle that God had them build, built it out of badger skins and, and, and kind of strange sound and things. It must've been an awkward thing to look at. It wasn't extremely majestic. It was a tent. How majestic can a tent be? But it was God's plan. This is the tabernacle where the glory of God dwelt. God's presence lived in the tabernacle with the Israelis. And he says, he came, the word came, he became flesh and he tabernacled with us. He lived with us. He wasn't something that was out there, he lived with us. And what he says, the word became flesh, what he does not say here, he does not say that the word became something he was not. He does not say that he gave up the word and became flesh. He didn't cease to be what he was any more than a boy becomes a man and ceases to be a boy. He was God, he is God. He's God and man, he's the God man. God himself took human form. That is who Jesus was. That is who Jesus is. Now, his form today is in a glorified body like of which we will have after the resurrection, but he's nonetheless a man still today. He wasn't changed from God to man, he is both. Now, he is not half and half like the Greek gods. You'll remember Greek mythological figures like, what was it, Hercules. His mother was a human and his dad was Zeus or something in the mythological characters. Christ wasn't half and half. It didn't happen like that. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. He was all God and all man. And we'll see in a little while why he had to be both. And he had to be both. You say, well, that doesn't make sense. Well, you're right, that doesn't necessarily make sense. No person can be a dog and a person. You can't be a person and a tree. That doesn't make sense to our minds, but friends, what is impossible with man is possible with God. God said it's that way, it is that way. He is God, we believe Him, we have faith in that. And friends, without faith in the fact that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, all God and all man, there is no salvation. That is what it means to believe in His name. That is what it means to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Now, some of the other reasons, one of the other reasons that it is important For us to know this, and I've told you, if you go through the beginning of Matthew, the beginning of Luke, you get a genealogy of Christ going back to his ancestors, a physical genealogy. One goes back to David, one goes back to Adam. John goes back before that. John just goes back and said it was even before that. That's just kind of the physical lineage that he had, but he existed before that. Horatius Bonner. was brother of Andrew Bonner who was the best friend of Robert Murray McShane. It was a time in Scotland when the Lord was doing great work and there was a serious revival there and right after the Reformation on the continent it came to England and to Scotland and Horatius Bonner wrote during that time about this verse and he's pointing What John says here is that the word became flesh. We have a whole narrative from Luke and a whole narrative from Matthew about the birth of when he became flesh, when he was physically seen as flesh. In Bethlehem, Bonner says that at Bethlehem, our world's history began because his birth has influenced all history, sacred history and secular, history before and history behind. The most important person to ever be born was Jesus Christ. The word became flesh and makes him the centerpiece of history. This is important. It is important to understand that the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Alexander McLaren said, he became flesh, which involves the willing transformation by the energy of the person himself. No one did it to him. He took on humanity. He made himself a man. He didn't go to somebody and said, hey, can you make me into a man? No, he became a man. It was not a transient manifestation such as the Buddhist incarnation or the Hindu avatar. This was not God coming down in the likeness of men for a moment or two, but this was God so becoming us that he ceased to be the word. This is the living heart of Christianity, and it is supernatural, McLaren says. He became man. He took a physical being. There were times in the Old Testament when the angel of the Lord appeared, and that was a pre-incarnate manifestation of Christ, sometimes called a theophany or a Christophany. But when he became flesh, he stayed that way. He is still flesh today, although it is a glorified flesh. He is still has a physical body. You'll remember his resurrection body. He came and ate with the disciples. He did everything like he did before, except he didn't have to open a door and he could travel really fast. You're like, he'd fax himself everywhere. It was great. We're going to have one of the one like that one day. What he is saying here, friends, that he became flesh and dwelt among us, John says he was no phantom. He was no hologram. He did not merely seem to be a man. He was flesh and blood, and he had to be so. He had to be. He couldn't be a phantom, couldn't be a hologram, couldn't be some spiritual manifestation that looked like a man. He had to be a man. John Flavell says this about this hypostatic union, that's the technical term, the hypostatic union was the full deity and full humanity of Christ, and this is one of the great mysteries of the Scripture, along with the virgin birth, along with the perpetuatory efficacy of the crucifixion, along with God speaking all things into existence, these things keep theologians busy, and the hypostatic union is one of those thoughts. And John Flavell says this, we see the concourse and cooperation of each nature to his mediatory works. He said, we see them blending together. We see them working together. In his mediatory work, he had to come to mediate between God and men. And he says, we see both of them in cooperation. For in them, Flavell says, Christ acts according to both natures. The human doing what is human suffering and dying, but the divine, the divine nature stamped at all with infinite value. You say, how can one man die and pay for the sins of all who will ever believe? Because that one man was God and the infinite God's death on that cross had infinite value. Friends, if there was no God, man, If there was no being, or no becoming, as we are becomeings, not beings, God is eternal being, we are temporal becomeings, if those two did not merge into one person, God and man, there would be no payment for sin, and there would be no hope of resurrection. The humanity of Christ died to make the payment for sin. The deity of Christ raised his humanity from the grave to say that I'll do the same for you. Without the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ perfectly joined together, there would be no payment for sin and no hope of resurrection. And we indeed, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians, would be above all people to be pitied in this life. We need him to be God and man. This is not extracurricular stuff. This is not over the head of people that we really don't need to have a full grasp of. If we don't have a grasp of this, we don't understand the gospel. Friends, this is important. This is important. We see a resident glory in the beginning of verse 14. From that point to the end of verse 16, what we see is a revealed glory, the revealed glory of Jesus Christ. John says, the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory. We have seen it. Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. The only Son from the Father, The monogamous now we have to make a difference between the monogamous Being the son of God what it says here The only son of God. Well, you just read in verse 12 that we could become the children of God and that's true Both are true Son and child is not the same word, doesn't have necessarily the same connotation. Child is technon is just a generic term for my children. When you speak of the monogamous being the only son, it means the unique son. It means the one that is above all the others. The only Son from the Father, Christ, Emmanuel, Jesus are His names in time, but the Word and Son are expressions of His eternal standing. He is the eternal son of God. He is the firstborn of all creation. The monogamous was the one that was above all others. He was the most important. He was the most cherished. He had the one that would, he would be the son that had the most, uh, provision from the father. When the father died, you really only have to go back a little way in the old Testament, back to Abraham. You know, it says that in the book of Hebrews, it says that Abraham offered up his only son, Isaac. Well, if you know history, biblical history at all, you know that he had more than one son. What was the other son's name? Ishmael. And if you know your history a little more than that, you know that he had six other sons after Sarah died with Keturah. So he had, what's that, eight sons and a bunch, he doesn't even name how many daughters, he just says and daughters as well. Well, how did he offer his only son, Isaac? Because Isaac was the important one. Isaac was the unique one. Listen, Isaac was the important one. Isaac was a prefiguring of Jesus Christ. He was the promised one. God said, I'm going to bless all the earth through your seed, through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Without Isaac, there's no Jacob. Without Jacob, there's no Judah. And without Judah, there's no Jesus. And friends, without Jesus, there's no hope for you or me. It was important that Isaac be his one and only son that was offered. And we need this glory to have been revealed to us. He says that we've seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the father, this heavenly son, this heavenly representative from God. I mentioned Robert Murray McShane earlier. I have a quote from him. McShane says that the pure Godhead is terrible to behold. That is an understatement. The pure Godhead is terrible to behold. We read some about it this morning. It says that we could not see it and live, but clothing himself with our flesh makes the divine nature more amiable and delightful to us. Now we need not be afraid to look upon God, seeing him through Christ's human nature. He came to be God's representative, and now we can actually say that we have seen God. You remember, in the Gospel of John, Right before our Lord's betrayal, Thomas asked him, Lord, show us the Father and it'll be enough. And he said, have I been with you this long and you do not know that he who has seen me has seen the Father. No man could say that. You know, throughout the gospel, John, in chapter 5, he healed a guy on the Sabbath, and they said, you can't do that on the Sabbath. He said, my father has been working, and I am working. And they picked up stones to stone him because he claimed to be God. You can't be God and man, but Christ was. Christ was. And we think about this idea, what was his glory? It says, we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. What is this glory? Well, immediately your mind may go back to the transfiguration because John was there. John is writing this, we have seen His glory. You'll remember that Peter writes about this in 2 Peter, and he says that we, in chapter one, he said, we saw his glory, we beheld his glory on the mountain, on the Mount of Transfiguration. Christ is there with Peter, James, and John. He pulls back the veil, they're able to see his eternal glory through the physical manifestation, and it showed in the Shekinah glow of God, and they fell down like dead men, they fell into a coma. Is he speaking of the Transfiguration? Possibly. Well, John was there to see all of the miracles. John said there were so many miracles that he did that if we wrote them all down, I don't know that all the books in the world could hold what he did. Listen, historians tell us that Jesus Christ eradicated disease from Palestine. And believe me, if the devil knew he was coming and he did, then he had as many people in pain and misery and suffering as he possibly could to distract them from him. And Christ healed them all. They didn't all believe. In fact, the majority of them didn't. There were only 120 of the multiple thousands that he healed. Only 120 were there on the day of Pentecost. So maybe he's talking about the miracles, all of the withered hands and the raising people from the dead and causing blind eyes to see. People that have been blind from birth, he would heal them. It had never been done before. It had to be astounding. Is that what he's talking about? I don't think so. I don't think that is his primary meaning here. Those would fit there. His transfiguration, John said, we beheld his glory. I think that would qualify for this, but I don't think that's what John has in mind. She's talking about the miracles that would qualify for this. I mean, to, to be there at the wedding and Kena and he turned the water into wine. You have to remember what those water pots were. Do you remember what they were for? Those big water pots were there to hold the water for the purification rituals. And Jesus Christ came and said, I'm changing this. I'm changing the whole deal. You don't need the purification ritual anymore. It's sweeter than that. It's better than that. John saw the miracles and they were, producing glory. But I really think that what John means is this, that they saw the glory of God through Jesus Christ as it was shown through his dealing with sinful, weak, rebellious people. He says he was full of grace and truth. I think that's what John means. I don't think that it's just this idea of, look, I'm glad Jesus healed the blind man. I'm glad Jesus raised Jairus's daughter from the dead. I'm glad he healed the centurion servant. I'm glad, I'm happy. I wish I could have been there to see it. But friends, for me, his glory is made more manifest in the fact that he saved a wretch like me. It was easy for the creator to say, you're healed. But to suffer what he did on my behalf, It's a greater manifestation of his glory. Now, it grows even more astounding when we realize, when we come to this, the understanding of what God is, who God is, what he is like, God's disposition. We see what he has done, but maybe we forget who he was or who he is and why Christ had to die. I'm afraid that we become accustomed to grace and we're no longer amazed by it. And we read this and he was full of grace and truth. And that just rolls off the tongue. And it's nice to say, I want you to turn back with me to Exodus chapter 34. We read it this morning. I want to go back and, and, and pull a piece of this out. We read all of the context around it. Moses says, what did he say to him? Please show me your glory. And in chapter 34, I wanna read verses five through seven again. And in verse five, this is, this is in English, the word Lord in all caps. This is the word Yahweh, the self existent one. The I am says that Yahweh descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of Yahweh. He proclaimed the name of Yahweh. That doesn't mean that he stood there and just said, Yahweh, he goes on to tell us what that means. This is the name of God. Those that believed in the name of Jesus Christ, if Christ is the God-man, then this is Christ. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, Yahweh, Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. Friends, this is a holy God that forgives iniquity and transgression and sin. If you need more evidence of His glory than that. But, verse 7, He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation. Look at this contrast, friends. And remember we come from John chapter one that Christ was full of grace and truth. He was the embodiment of grace and truth. It says here that Yahweh is merciful and gracious, slow to anger. Praise God for slow to anger. Abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. He doesn't have a little bit. It's not just something that he keeps on the side. He doesn't have a pocket full. He is abounding in it. And he keeps steadfast love. He just has more than an abundance of it. He's got piles of it for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. Friends, that is grace. This is a holy God that owes nothing to no one. This is a holy creator that owes you not your next breath. And yet he is abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. He keeps ready steadfast love for thousands. but who will by no means clear the guilty. Friends, we see here a contrast between grace and truth, steadfast love and a vengeful judge that brings the truth to bear on people. God is not up there saying, well, you know, I just like people so much, I'm gonna forgive everybody. No, he has forgiveness for thousands, but he brings true condemnation and recompense on the unbeliever, on his enemy. He brings his truth to bear on them. On one side, he is forgiving. On the other, the truth says you must pay. God is forgiving, but someone must pay. Christ paid, or you will pay. That is the truth. full of grace and truth, full of steadfast love, yet a vengeful judge that will use the truth as a weapon to destroy. Friends, only God can be full of both with no interference and no controversy. Only God can administer both equally and accurately, righteously. A human judge is required by law to recuse himself from a case if it involves a family member because he cannot resist being biased. And if someone that he knows comes before his court, he is going to be more inclined to go easy on them. He's going to be more inclined to exercise grace or leniency. God doesn't do that. Christ was full of grace and truth. He didn't let any sin slide, but he forgave those that asked. You'll remember in John chapter 8, Religious leaders brought the adulterous woman to Christ. They had the stones in their hand ready to stone her. And they came to him. We found her in the act. She's a condemned adulteress. And the one full of grace and truth didn't panic. He didn't blow up. He didn't have a cow. He knelt down and wrote on the ground, wrote in the dirt. When people have always said, well, what did he write? And you would imagine all the people that have tried to come up with what he wrote. All we know is that he wrote in the ground. It doesn't matter what he wrote, what he wrote convicted them so much that when he stood up and said, okay, he who's without sin cast the first stone. And one by one, they dropped the rocks and walked away until all were gone. And he went back to riding on the ground, and he looked up and he said, woman, where are your accusers? She said, there are none, Lord. He said, neither do I accuse you. Go your way and sin no more. That is grace and truth. Grace and forgiveness, truth, and this cannot happen again. The truth comes to bear on sin, grace brings forgiveness. And Christ was full of both, as only he can be. As only God can be, only Christ, the Word made flesh, could exhibit both equally. And in this idea of revealed glory, we see in verse 15 that even John the Baptist revealed his glory. It says, John bore witness about him. And he cried out, this is he of whom I said he who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me. John was the first prophet in 450 years. You wanna look at somebody in the Bible that had a lot of stroke in society? John the Baptizer had some stroke. John the Baptist showed up in Ephesus, they had a table waiting for him. He comes to Jerusalem, he just went straight to the hotel, said I'm here, said okay, your room has been waiting since you left the last time. This guy was popular. He didn't do any of that, by the way. Even in his camel hair outfit, they would have let him in the best of the best places because he was so privileged. He was so highly esteemed. All of Jerusalem, all of Judea was going to the Jordan river to see John the baptizer because he was the first prophet in 450 years. And what he says to them, this is he of whom I said. They asked him, who are you? The Pharisees had come to him. Who are you? And he said, I'm the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready for the way of the Lord. But he says something very interesting here in revealing the glory of Christ. This is he of whom I said, he's been announcing that this one is coming. He who comes after me ranks before me. Now that could make sense. You know, he's coming behind me, but he has more authority. He's after me, but he's the one that has more stroke. He has more responsibility, has more power. He's the better one, but he doesn't stop there. Look at the next statement. He says, because he was before me. This is very interesting for John the baptizer to say, because this was before he met him. You remember when Jesus came to the bank, John said, behold, the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. When they were little boys, they may have known one another, but you'll remember if you go back in the beginning of the gospel of Luke, God came to Zachariah, the priest who was an old man. He had an elderly wife and he said, you're going to have a son and he doubted him. So he struck him mute until the child was born and it was John the Baptist. Well, about six months later, the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and he said, you're going to be overcome by the Holy spirit and you will conceive a child by the Holy spirit. She went to see Elizabeth who was miraculously pregnant as an old woman. Mary showed up. Elizabeth was already six months pregnant. Baby leapt in her womb. So John the Baptist was at least six months older than Christ. His ministry started before Jesus. And not only does he say that Jesus ranks before me, that he was before me. He makes the claim that Jesus was God. This is God. Listen, the fact that he was before me, John the Baptist understood this is God. He existed before me. I was born first. I was first. I'm the eldest of the two. Everything I've done in this life has been first, but he was before me. In verse 16, he says, from his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. The fullness of Jesus's grace here is revealing as to who he is. This reveals his glory. This doesn't say he had a part of him that was grace. It doesn't say he had a lot of grace. It doesn't say he had a huge amount of grace. It says he had the fullness of grace. It says grace upon grace. This would just mean grace in the place of grace. It's just wave after wave just coming, plenty. It's immeasurable. There was grace for everyone. Now the one that you read the most about in the gospels that needed the grace was Peter. Peter's always been called the disciple with a foot-shaped mouth. That's a bad rap for Peter, because Peter spoke for John. Remember John and Jimmy and Johnny, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Jesus called them Boanerges, which means sons of thunder. These guys didn't get walked on by anybody. You didn't push them around. It wasn't that Peter was just pushy and the rest of them were pushovers. Simon the zealot would rather stick you in the kidney with a Mycira than say good morning to you. He's not gonna let anybody push him around. Nobody speaks for him, but all of them let Peter speak. If Peter spoke and they didn't agree, one of them would've argued with Peter. But they didn't. So when Peter spoke, Peter got the reprimand, but the rest of them caught the point. They caught the edge because Peter spoke for them. And John said, we saw his grace after grace after grace because of the failure, because of the weakness. Friend, he writes this in his twilight years. This was probably written in the early 90s AD. John no doubt remembers that night when all of them left him in the garden. John and Peter followed him to Caiaphas's house, but all of them fled into the dark. They all left him. They abandoned him there and he took all of them back. When he recommissioned Peter, all of them got the point. All of them got the point. And John said, we just saw grace upon grace upon grace. We've just experienced his grace beyond measure. That's the only thing I can tell you is that it was grace upon grace. There was no end to it. It was astounding. It was amazing that his grace would continue to be poured out on us. And that grace can be poured out on you. Friend. Christ is still. the fullness of grace, the one full of grace and truth. Not only was it a resonant glory and a revealed glory, we see in verse 17 that his glory was a renowned glory. It was well-renowned. He says, for the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Now, this may just, I don't know what this seems like to you, but this is significant. He's saying here that Jesus' glory was even greater than Moses. That's one thing to say. He was better than John the Baptist. John, the baptizer was, was kind of Johnny come lately. He was the newest thing. He was the first one in a long time, but the first one ever was Moses and Moses was the greatest prophet of Israel. All of them revered Moses. They all looked to Moses almost as though Moses would be the God man. Moses brought the first covenant. He brought the first testament to them. Moses is referred to as the friend of God. At the end of Deuteronomy, it says no one ever was raised up in Israel that knew God face to face as a man knows his friend except Moses. Moses was the most significant servant of God until Jesus Christ arrived. And what he says here is that the law was given through Moses. Moses brought the law. Listen, if God had not revealed himself to man, man never would have found God. Paul tells us that in the wisdom of God, he made sure that man could not find him on his own. God had to reveal himself, and he began to reveal himself through Moses. But it says here that Moses had an insufficient revelation. Moses's message only produced hopelessness. The law says the truth came and the law says, do this or die. Well, I can't do that, then you will die. The law says, do this, keep this. It presented God in the way that most people think of every other deity, except God pointed to Christ and he said, this sacrifice is necessary to pay for the sin. Moses brought condemnation, but it was a constant. Listen, these people didn't go once in a while to bring a sacrifice. Think about your own life. Those of you who are, who spend time with God every day, who spend time in the word of God, communing with God through prayer. How often do you confess sin? Let's just assume that it's every day. In the old covenant, you had to go to the tabernacle every day. You had to bring a turtle dove, you had to bring a lamb. Just think how big of a flock you would have had to have in those days. That's what Moses brought. But what he says, Moses brought the law, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Christ's message of forgiving grace overshadowed even Moses. It was a renowned glory. that that overshadowed everything and everyone. There was only one God, man, and it is Jesus Christ. And he brought grace and truth in full measure. And finally we come to verse 18. Let me see the reality of Christ. No one has ever seen God. Even Moses couldn't see God. God said, no one can see my face and live. I'll put you in the cleft of the rock, cover you with my hand and I'll pass by and reveal myself to you. And it was not what Moses saw that revealed God. It is what Moses heard. No one has seen God. The only God who is at the father's side has made him known the reality of Jesus Christ. This says the only God, No one has ever seen God. That's, that's simple. Everybody understands that everybody can accept that. Barkley said, when John said no man had ever seen God, everybody in the ancient world would fully agree with that. Men were both fascinated and depressed and frustrated by what they regarded as the infinite distance and the utter unknowability of God. God is just out there. We can't get to him. And in the Old Testament, God told in Deuteronomy 4, He said, you heard the sound of the words, but you saw no form. There was only a voice. All you heard was God's voice and you were so terrified. that later on they said, please don't take us back there. Whatever you do, Moses, we're in the wilderness. If you want us to cross the Red Sea or the Jordan River, we're there, but please don't take us back to Mount Sinai. And they didn't see God. They only heard him speak from the mountain. And he says, you've not seen him. All you did was hear him and you wanted to die. You couldn't handle seeing him. They would understand that. But he says, the only God. This is the divinity of Christ. He is the only God. Well, how do you know who he's talking about? Jesus, because he says here in ESV, it says, who is at the father side, but many places it says in the bosom of the father, in the bosom of the father, there's only one in the bosom of the father. There's only one beloved son. There's only one monogamist. That is Jesus Christ. That Christ, he says, that divine Son of God, the reality of His glory is that He is the Son of God. But friends, it's not only the divinity of Christ, it's the discovery of God. We see the discovery of God here in this reality, a realistic discovery of God. It may be better to say an explanation, but I wouldn't have divinity and discovery. I'd have divinity and explanation. And that doesn't fit well in the, in the outline. So the discovery of God, the explanation of God, what it says here, friends, is that he exegeted God. He did for man. and man's understanding of God, what I am responsible to do for you and your understanding of the word of God. Christ came and showed and explained who God is. He divulged God to the world. In Jesus Christ, the distant, unknowable, invisible, unsearchable God has come to men and God can never again be a stranger to us. That is how important it is. to understand that Christ is God, that the Word became flesh. That is where he derived his authority. He has authority because he has always had authority, and he always will have authority, and when he speaks, we had better listen. And when we come to the full realization and the full grasp of who Christ is, this Only begotten Son of God, in the bosom of the Father, the monogamies, the Word having become flesh. Friends, we have no choice but to bow before this all authoritative God, Jesus Christ. That is salvation. There is salvation in no other. where there's no other name under heaven given among men by which you must be saved. It is the name of Jesus Christ. And to call upon Jesus Christ is to call upon the word made flesh. If you'll stand, we'll pray. Friend, if you've never turned your life over fully to this God, man, Jesus Christ, today is the day of salvation for you. I know it's not the best, but it's the best I could do for you today. It's the clearest I could make it for you. And I think that the Holy Spirit has made it even plainer. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Let us pray. Father, it is our privilege to have your truth. Lord, it is such a blessing to us to have your spirit, to make it real and true to us, Lord. Make us understand it because there is no excuse for man. Even those that do not accept it, Father, You do not grade on a curve. The truth will prevail. We plead with You in Your grace that You would save those who hear this message or those that are here that do not know Jesus Christ, Lord, that You would bring the conviction of their rejection of the God-man on their heart, Father, and drive them to repentance and be glorified this day. We pray it in Jesus' name, amen.