Amen. Let's take our Bibles. Let's go to the gospel of John this morning. John, chapter one, please. John, chapter one, this morning. John, chapter one, as you know, we a number of weeks ago began to start a series of messages. In the book of John, our plan is to go through the book of John and we're obviously still in chapter one. It will take a minute or two to get through this gospel. We may be two or three years within the millennium reign before I get done with it, but we're going to work on it the best we can. But John is one of those books of the Bible that you could say like this, it's a, it's a mountain peak text. There are just some portions of scripture that just seems to be a little more lofty than others. Now, don't misunderstand me. The lineages and the list of names in 1 Chronicles is just as inspired as the Gospel of John, but where would you rather me preach? The Gospel of John. And so it just has that air about it. It has that touch. and power that is why oftentimes we'll pass out a gospel of John to lost people as a trap because it contains the message that this world needs to hear. And this world needs to hear about Jesus today more than ever, more than ever. We need to hear about the Lord Jesus Christ. And this passage that we're going to read this morning, we're going to begin at verse 15. It's about Jesus. And we read in verse number 15 where it says, John, this John mentioned in verse 15 is not the writer of this gospel. This is John the Baptist. John, the apostle is writing these words. John, the Baptist is the one that is speaking here. John, bear witness of him and cried, say, This was he of whom I spake. He's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. He that cometh after me, speaking of Jesus, is preferred before me for he was before me. And of his fullness have all we received and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. I want to preach out of these four verses this morning on this thought. Two great proclamations. Two great proclamations. All of these words spoken here are spoken by John the Baptist. He's saying these things. But in verse 15 and verse 16 and verse 17, we see the proclamation of John. This is what John is declaring. But then in verse 18, though John is speaking these words, he's talking about not his own proclamation, but the proclamation of Jesus. So in this passage, we see John proclaiming some things, but we also see Jesus proclaiming some things. And John the Baptist is the one that's conveying these proclamations to you and I. So let's look at these two today with the help of the Lord at two great proclamations. First, the proclamation of John. Now, in verse 15, he begins to declare truths about the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, at the beginning of the verse, he says he's bearing witness. John bear witness of him and cried. That means he lifted up his voice. He wasn't quiet about the situation. or about these truths. He lifted up his voice and cried and he said some glorious things. And this proclamation, this witness of John, is what the Bible speaks of back in verse number six. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the light. In your King James Bible, you'll notice that the word light there has a capital L. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. He came to bear witness of Jesus that all men through him might believe. He was not that light. John the Baptist was not the light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. And that's what John is doing in verse number 15. And we see in verse 15, John proclaims Christ's preference the preference of Jesus. John bear witness of him and cried saying, this was he of whom I spoke. This is not the first time John has spoken about Jesus Christ. This is not the beginning of his message. He's been proclaiming Jesus Christ. He's been baptizing with the baptism of repentance. He says, this was he of whom I speak. He that cometh after me, John the Baptist, is the forerunner of Jesus Christ. Think about this. John was chosen to introduce Jesus Christ to Israel and this world. What a privileged position. John is called to introduce Jesus to this world and to the nation of Israel. And he says, he that cometh after me, John came first. He that cometh after me, watch this, is preferred before me. Now, one of the reasons why John is stating this is because John came in power. John came in authority. Many people were coming to Christ through John the Baptist, and he's baptizing those that came by way of faith and repentance. He had a powerful, powerful ministry. For about six months, he has preached, and he has preached, and he has preached, and he's getting one convert after another convert, and it was such a powerful ministry, there were those who were supposing that maybe John the Baptist was the Messiah. Maybe he is the sent one, and he's letting them know, no, the one I'm preaching about, the one that's coming after me, he is preferred before me. Fundamental Baptist Church, let's bring this into 2023 application. First of all, you and I are essentially forerunners. We're to take the message of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world. We're to go before Jesus. We go first, we tell them, then they trust Christ, and there he is, in their life, changing them eternally. So we're forerunners, essentially. But at the same time, we need to remember that this thing ain't about us. Fundamental has a history of being a powerful work. Brother Freeman, you're an outsider, but you have watched this work down through the years. You've watched this church be a strong congregation. You've witnessed this. Sometimes on the inside, you kind of get used to things, and you take things for granted, and you forget what we have is a very special thing here, if I can say it that way. God's been real good to us. God's been very good to us. So we might take it for granted. But as great of a church as this is, as wonderful as a place as this is, if we ever get in a place where we think it's about us, it ceases to be a great place. I have a message. I may preach one of these days on how to be a great Christian. How to be a great Christian. In Philippians 3, I preach how to be a great Christian. Point number one on how to be a great Christian is never, ever, ever, ever under any circumstance, if you're gonna be a great Christian, never for any reason ever think that you are one. You ever think you are a great Christian, you have ceased to be a great Christian. The greatest Christians are the ones who don't think they're great Christians. And the greatest churches are the ones who don't think they're great churches. They see their flaws, they see their mess-ups, they see their mistakes, and they understand we're only who we are and what we are by the naked grace of God. We have what we have because of the grace of God. Fundamental Baptist Church, we've done nothing to deserve the hand of God in this place, and if we ever think that we have deserved it, that we've somehow earned God, we'll cease to be a place where God can work and use. John the Baptist was so greatly used He said, the one I'm preaching about is preferred before me. This thing's about Jesus, it's not about us. But it's John the Baptist who said in John chapter three, I must decrease, he must increase. So he talks about the preference of Christ. He proclaims the preexistence of Christ. He says, he that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me. The reason why Jesus has to be first is because he was first. He's talking about the pre-existence of Jesus Christ. Now John the Baptist is physically, humanly speaking, six months older than Jesus. He's Jesus's earthly cousin. He was born six months prior to Jesus's birth in Bethlehem. Yet he says, he's before me. Now, how could John the Baptist be born before Jesus, but Jesus is before him? Because Jesus is God. The very first verse in the book, in the beginning was the Word, that's Jesus, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Look at verse 3, all things were made by him, the Word, Jesus, and without him was not anything made that was made. In Genesis 1-1, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. That's talking about Jesus creating everything. He's God, he's before all things. So John's proclaiming the preference of Christ and the preference is based upon his preexistence, the fact that he is God. He's to be preferred, it's about him. But notice he proclaims the Lord's provisions. Verse 16, and of his fullness, talking about Jesus Christ here, of his fullness, have all we received. Of the fullness of Christ, we have all received. Now, a few weeks ago, we finished our series in the book of Colossians. I wanna remind you of two verses that we find in the book of Colossians. I'm gonna make it turn there. But Colossians 119 says, it pleased the Father that in Him, in Jesus, should all fullness dwell. In Colossians 2 verse 9, For in him, in Jesus, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So this fullness of Christ is saying that all that is God, is found in the person of Jesus Christ. Any connection, any blessing, any relationship that you have with God, it will come through Jesus Christ and him alone. There is no other way to God except through Jesus Christ. In fact, in John, John 14, verse six, Jesus said, I am, talking about himself, I am the way, The truth, the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by me. Jesus is not one of many ways. He's not even the best of many ways. He's the only way. The only way. Everything that has anything to do with God, if you're gonna come in contact with God, it must be through Jesus Christ. But notice this. and of His fullness have all we received. That means when you receive Jesus Christ, you've got all of God. You get all of it. That means that God literally held nothing back when he gave you Jesus. When he gave you Jesus, he gave you all of him. When he gave you Jesus, he gave you everything that belongs to him. You and I have everything that belongs to God Almighty today because he gave us Jesus. John says we received that. And if that's not enough, grace for grace. Grace for grace. Now that's an interesting phrase there. Grace for grace. I began to look at some commentaries just to see what some of these old preachers had to say about it. Albert Barnes gave us four different options as to what grace for grace could mean. I'm gonna tell you what I think in just a minute. But Albert Barnes, he said he believed option number one Grace for grace could mean that we have received under the gospel grace or favor instead of those granted under the law. And that's a real good one. The second one he said was, he said, we Christians, this is another option of what this could mean. We Christians have received grace answering to or corresponding to that which is in Jesus Christ. We are like him, we're like Jesus in meekness and humility and other attributes because God has given us Jesus Christ. That's a good one. In fact, after God saves you, his goal is to make you more like Jesus. So that's a good option. The third option he gave was We have received grace as grace. In other words, it's free. What we have in grace, we got it freely. We have not purchased it. We don't deserve it. But God has conferred it upon us freely. Well, that's that sounds good. The fourth option he gave was is that we receive through him abundance of grace or favor. So here, grace for grace may mean much grace, more grace, grace on top of grace could be what is being stated. John Phillips said he believed this means continuous, uninterrupted grace. And grace is essentially favor from God that you don't deserve. So I was wondering about, well, which one of these would be right? Then I thought of a better question. Which one of these could be wrong? They're all right. Every one of them are right to an extent. When you got Jesus, you got all of grace. for this life and the next. Now, if you wanna be technical about it, I'll give you my two cents worth here. That first one that Albert Barnes stated, we have received under the gospel grace or favor instead of those granted under the law. That's the way I lean. In other words, let's look at the text. In verse number 16, he says, and of his fullness we have all received and grace for grace. On top of that, grace for grace. We got His fullness and grace for grace. Then that first word of verse 17, for, and that word for there means what you and I would say as because or because of. So we got grace for grace because the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. There was grace under the law, oh, no doubt. You say, well, wait a minute, I remember a man picking up sticks and laying them straight. That's an old rhyme, I'm gonna need to stop that. That guy picking up those sticks. On the Sabbath. And they killed him. Now that's not grace, that's law. But you know good and well that's not the only guy that ever picked up sticks on the Sabbath. That's just the one God chose to be the object lesson. Don't do that. You know that. Nadab and Abihu, they're not the only ones that ever put strange fire on an altar. They're just the ones that God used as an object lesson. Don't put strange fire on that altar. You know other priests did it as well. Uzzah is not the only one that ever touched that ark. You know he's not. He's just the one that got caught, if you will. He's the one that did it in front of everybody and God said, I'm gonna make him an object lesson. There's a whole lot of sinning going on under the law. But God didn't constantly open up the earth and drop people in hell. He didn't constantly kill people under the law. In fact, most people that disobeyed the law of the Old Testament lived because there was grace even under the law, even under the law. But when Jesus came, That grace was exchanged for a greater grace, a greater grace. And what makes the New Testament grace greater is I'm not living to keep from dying. I'm living because somebody else died for me. You're alive today, not because you're obedient. You're alive because Jesus is obedient. Because Jesus kept the law. Jesus did what you and I could not do. And he lived a perfect existence for 33 and a half years in this world. And when you placed your faith in Jesus Christ, God extended to you the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Now, as far as God the Father sees me, he doesn't see me so much as he sees the Lord Jesus Christ, because I'm in Christ, I've been justified by Christ, I have the righteousness of Christ. When God sees you, he's not seeing you as a lawbreaker, he sees you as the law keeper, he sees you as Jesus Christ. On the cross of Calvary, God the Father treated Jesus Christ as if Jesus Christ lived the life that you and I lived. So that right now, God the Father can treat me and you as if we live the life of Jesus Christ. I'll take the grace under the New Testament. Because in this grace, we have all of God, all of Christ, and all of his righteousness. Grace for grace. If you're not saved today, man, you're missing out. In fact, hold your place there in John 1. Go to John 3, the very last verse of John 3. He that believeth on the Son, that's verse 36 here. He that believeth on the Son, Jesus Christ, hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. If you're not saved today, the wrath of God is abiding upon you right now. You are like a man who is in his jail cell waiting to be executed. You're just waiting on the day of execution. You're sitting in your jail cell waiting on Your last day. You're a dead man walking. But if you place your faith in Jesus Christ, Jesus brings you out of that jail cell. Removes your condemnation. And not only does he look at you justified, guiltless before God, He not only just delivers you out of the cell of sin, but as he's bringing you out of that cell, he changes you into a person that you were not before. In John chapter eight, Jesus says, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. The Bible does not say he will set you free, although in a sense he does. It says he'll make you free. That means you're a new creature in Christ. When you get saved, you're not who you used to be. You're not what you used to be. You're not that anymore. You're changed because of your contact with Jesus Christ. Grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, and it was. but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Now, that's not implying that there was no truth or grace under Moses. There certainly was. In fact, the law of Moses, the law that was given to Moses, was given to Moses by Jesus Christ. That was Jesus' finger that carved those words into those tablets. So Jesus gave the law, and Jesus gave the grace under that law, and that law was truth. But what he's emphasizing is all of grace and all of truth came by Jesus Christ. Moses can only hand you the law, but Jesus can give you everything. Give you everything. That is the proclamation of John. Now, real quickly, notice the proclamation of Jesus. John's still talking. but he changes from what he has to say to what Jesus has to say. Look at what the Bible says here. No man, John says, has seen God at any time. Now, Moses called a glimpse, but he didn't see God in his fullness. No one had ever done that. The only begotten son, that word begotten means procreated or generated. The only begotten son. Now, that's not saying that Jesus is the only son that God ever had. What he's saying is Jesus is the only person that was ever born of a woman as the sinless son of God. See, everyone born from Adam and Eve, after Adam and Eve fell into sin, everyone born from Adam and Eve, they're not born as the children of God. You're born in sin, you're conceived in sin. You don't come into this world a child of God. You come into this world as a son of Adam, a sinner. You must be born again. But Jesus didn't have to be born again, because he was born right. He was born sinless. He's the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father. Now, I'm just going to confess, that phrase still And I've been studying the Bible for almost 28 years now, about 28 years. And that phrase still is mysterious to me, because John puts it in the present tense, which is in the bosom of the Father. Now, I can understand prior to Jesus' birth, Him being in the bosom of the Father, because He was with the Father in heaven. But John is saying this while Jesus Christ is now in a body in this world. Now maybe Brother Chanel or Brother Barry, maybe after church, y'all can help me understand this a little bit better. Maybe y'all done more studying on it. I just think it's fascinating that John says that at this time, while he's here on earth in a body, he's in the bosom of the Father. Now I could look at that phrase as a phrase of sentimentalism in the sense that, well, he's in the Father's heart. because the Father loves him, and that may be the case. That's a fair interpretation. But in John 14, verse 20, the Bible says, Jesus said, at that day, ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. Colossians 3.3 says that we're dead, our life is here with Christ in God. So somehow, some way, Jesus He was in this world and in the bosom of His Father. And Jesus said in John 14, 20 that He was in His Father and that we are in Him and He is in us. So if Jesus is in the bosom of the Father and I am in Christ and you're in Christ, guess who else is in the bosom of the Father? We are. And here's what John says about this proclamation of Jesus. No man has seen God any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared. Jesus hath declared him. So what Jesus' proclamation is, is the Father. The one who we're all in, if you're saved, you're in Christ, and in Christ you're in the Father, Jesus is declaring to us who the Father is. That word declared there in the Greek language is the word we get the word exegesis from. Exegesis means exposition or explanation, it means interpretation. What this is saying is Jesus is exegeting, He's expounding, He's explaining, He's interpreting for us. Because of who we are and what we are, we're disqualified from a relationship with God. We all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's what Romans 3, 23 says. Because we've all sinned, we're all disqualified from having any relationship or any contact with God. But because God sent Jesus Christ into this world, and in Jesus Christ, we have the Holy Spirit, the fullness of God, and Jesus lived that lawful life, a sinless life, and died on a cross, paying for our sins, and rose again the third day. Now you and I can come to God because our sins have been paid for, and we can be forgiven, and we can come to God and have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. And Jesus came so that he could tell you and me about that. He wanted us to know you can come to God. Let him come and drink of the water of life freely. In the Old Testament, there were barriers. Though there was grace under that Old Testament law, there were some barriers they could not cross. And only one time a year on the Day of Atonement could that high priest go into that most holy place. But even before that, there was a veil. There was a veil that separated that high priest and everyone else from that most holy place, that mercy seat, that Ark of the Covenant. That veil kept all humanity out. And the glory of God was inside. And only once a year could a high priest go behind that curtain. And he better be right with God before he went in or they're gonna drag him out. But when Jesus died on the cross, Jesus died on the cross. As soon as he said into their hands, Father, in their hands, I commend my spirit. And he bowed his head and he died. And his spirit left his body, his spirit went up to the father, his soul went into the heart of the earth. His body stayed on the cross as the mercy seat for our sin. And I believe either his soul or his spirit, I don't know which one. The first thing that happened after Jesus hung his head and died, he went over to that veil in that temple and he grabbed it from the top and he tore it from top to bottom. They said two teams of oxen could not pull that veil apart, but the hands of Jesus Christ can. The blood of Jesus Christ can. The death, the burial, the resurrection of Christ can tear that apart. He tore it apart to say, what once kept you away from God has been removed, whosoever will may come. That's what Jesus proclaims today. If you do not know Jesus Christ as your Savior, you can. And Jesus said, he that hath seen me has seen the father. That's also in John 14 verse nine. He that has seen me has seen the father. That means when you get in contact with Jesus, you get in contact with the father. You'll have a relationship with God, the creator of this universe. You'll have a relationship with him through his son, Jesus Christ, if you'll come to him by faith. You don't have to die on your sins. You don't have to die with your sins unforgiven. You can be saved, forgiven today forever if you'll come to Jesus by faith, realizing you are a sinner. You have sinned. You don't want to be a sinner anymore. You want to be saved. Come to Him. Come to Him.