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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 made anything 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 was 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, He has
made Him known. Moses had gone up the mountain to meet with God, to receive
the Ten Commandments, And, well, he was delayed. And what happened as a result,
not that it was Moses' fault, of course, but Moses was delayed.
He was in the presence of God. He was receiving the law. And
the people down below go to Aaron. They are impatient, they are
unbelieving, and they demand that gods be made for them. And Aaron, tragically, acquiesces
to that, and the golden calf is made, and it is worshiped. Moses comes down, he sees what's
taking place, he breaks the tablets, he grieves. What did this people
do to you, he says to Aaron, that you have brought such a
great sin upon them? And of course, remember how God
reacts to this. He tells Moses, I will not go
up with this people into the land, or I would consume them.
And Moses, in response to that, acting as a type of the Lord
Jesus Christ, foreshadowing in his office of mediator who the
Lord Jesus would come to be for all of God's people, he intercedes.
He intercedes for the people of Israel before the face of
God, and God says, Moses, I have heard you, and I have favored
you, I will go up with the people. And remember at that point in
time, Moses says, hey, this is going pretty well, so I'm going,
Moses expresses the desire of his heart. He's in the presence
of God, And it's a beautiful thing. The Lord says to Moses,
I will do this thing which you have spoken, for you have found
favor in my sight, and I know you by name. And then Moses,
in response to that, he asks the greatest thing his heart
could desire. Wouldn't you do the same thing?
God has just declared that he knows you by name. Hey, this
is a pretty good time to ask for that one thing that your
heart desires more than anything else. Do you remember what Moses
asked for? Please show me your glory. And the Lord responds to Moses. We can't go through the whole
response, but a key verse I want to read, Exodus chapter 33 and
verse 20, the Lord says to him, you cannot see my face. for man
shall not see me and live. But he graciously condescends
to Moses' request, and you remember what happens, the Lord sort of
hides him away in the cleft of the rock and passes by and reveals
an accommodated portion, you see, of his glory to Moses. He
passes by him in the cleft of the rock, he covers him with
his hand, and he proclaims to Moses his name. The Lord, the Lord, 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, but who 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 fourth generation. And Moses bows his head to the
ground and worships. And then, remember with me what
happens next. He comes down the mountain, and
what do the people see? They see something absolutely
extraordinary. Moses' face is shining. Exodus 34, verse 29, when Moses
came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony
in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know
that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with
God. And so remember, of course, Moses
would veil his face. This was an alarming thing. He
would veil his face because of the glory. But what would happen
to the glory as it shone forth from Moses' face? Well, he wouldn't
have to wear the veil forever, right? Because that glory was
fading. The glory that shone from Moses'
face was, you could call it, a borrowed glory. His face shone
because he had been in the presence of God. But it wasn't his glory. And so it shone for a time, and
then it would dissipate, it would fade, it would end, because it
wasn't His glory. Now, in direct contrast to that,
when we look to the Gospel of John 1, how does John speak of
Jesus and His glory? Verse 14, and the Word became
flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory
as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. The glory that shone from Moses'
face was temporary because it wasn't his. It was borrowed,
it was communicated. He was simply reflecting it for
a time. But John tells us of Jesus' glory
here. The Jesus who is the eternal
word, in whom was life, and the life was the light of men. The
only begotten Son from the Father. His glory does very much belong
to him. And it is not a fading glory,
but it is the eternal glory of the one true and living God. The glory that God's people saw
in the face of Moses was a temporary reflection, but brothers and
sisters, coming to the Lord Jesus Christ, the glory that we see
as we behold him with the eyes of faith, he has no borrowed
glory. He does not simply reflect the
glory that properly belongs only to another. He is very God of very God. The glory is his, glory as of
the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Moses' desire was a beautiful
one, wasn't it? God doesn't rebuke Moses for
his desire to see his glory. But you see, it was not yet the
fullness of time. It wasn't time yet for the Son
to be sent forth by the Spirit of truth into the world to redeem
those under the law. No one has ever seen God. And
remember, that's exactly what God says to Moses on the mountain,
no one can see me and live. And so John repeats that same veritable truth here. No one
has ever seen God, but now the fullness of time has come. and
the only God, the only begotten God who is at the Father's side,
He has made Him known. God had reserved it for the fullness
of time, for the glory of the Trinity to shine forth in time
and in history to its fullest degree, at least in this present
age, in the incarnation of His beloved Son. And the Son comes
to us, brothers and sisters, as Himself, the only begotten
God, to make known to us the glory of our Creator. And in this sense, the whole
Bible can be summarized as the drama of humanity's relationship
to the glory of God. We've been thinking about the
book of Genesis, chapter one, and I know we haven't quite made
it to the creation of man yet, but man is created for glory,
as a divine image bearer, to have fellowship with God, to
dwell with him, to reflect his glory to all of creation. But
we rebel, we sin, and in our sinful state, again, remember
the Apostle Paul in Romans, we have fallen short of the glory. We are created for glory, but
we have fallen short of the glory of God. But in the Lord Jesus
Christ, we have now the hope of glory. We are restored to
the beauty of that final end. And coming is the day that we
will be confirmed in that glory. And here at the beginning of
John's gospel, he is eager and he is anxious for us to know
that as we are restored to the glory of God, we are beholding
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. This is who our Savior is. He is the one who redeems us
by his blood, who heals us by his Spirit and restores us to
fellowship with God, and he is the one who reveals God to us,
in whom and through whom the glory of God can be known, to
the extent that it is possible for human beings to know the
glory of God. It is in and through Christ that
we are restored to that glory. And amazingly, What John tells
us in the prologue to his gospel is that he does all of this because
of who he is in eternal relationship to the Father. How is it that
the Son can make God known? It's because He is the Father's
eternal Word. It is because He is the only
Son from the Father. And it is because In him was
life, and the life was the light of men. The glory that we see
in and through Jesus, it's not like the glory that people saw
in Moses' face, which was just a reflection. It is his glory,
the glory that he had with his father from before the foundation
of the earth. This is expressed beautifully
And we can't spend more than a glance here, but in the book
of Hebrews, remember how Jesus is introduced? In these last
days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the
heir of all things, through whom also he created the world, who
is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint
of his nature. Everything that God is, the Lord
Jesus Christ has come to show us and to reveal to us. Which
is why also, and we've thought about this verse for the last
couple of weeks as well, that the Apostle Paul can say, just
as God said, let light shine out of darkness, so he shone
into our hearts the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. The Son, brothers and sisters,
is the revelation of the Father. And again, this is jumping a
little bit forward in the book of John, but remember at the
Last Supper in the upper room, the disciples are rather confused
by a few things that Jesus said. And Philip finally says, and
you can almost hear a little bit of exasperation in his voice,
Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us. And Jesus said to him, have I
been with you so long, and you still don't know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen
the Father. How can you say, show us the
Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father
is in me? Again, Jesus comes as the fulfillment
of this drama of humanity's relationship
with the divine glory. Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God. Do you know that, brothers and
sisters, about your existence, you were made to see Him? That
is the highest goal and the greatest glory of the image-bearer, to
see God. But again, we have fallen short
of that glory. Sin has utterly blinded us to
the glory which is the true and proper end of our existence. But John proclaims to us here
at the beginning of his gospel, this is why the Son has come,
to restore to us the greatest blessing we could ever imagine
to attain as image bearers, to see God with glorified eyes and
to behold his glory. Now, I do want to be careful
here because we are not to think of the Father as the invisible
God, and the Son as the visible God. That's not what John is
talking about, and that's not this dynamic at all. God dwells,
God as Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, dwells in unapproachable
light. But you see, who more fitting
than the Eternal Word, who more fitting than the Only Begotten
of the Father, could come to us and take on flesh, that in
setting the eyes of our faith upon the God-man, we might truly
see the glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full
of grace and truth. As the Son, as the eternal Word,
He is the perfect, utter, complete expression of everything that
the Father is. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact
imprint of His character. Now, to better understand this,
I want us to think about a verse that could otherwise be a little
confusing in these opening verses of John. Look with me at verse
17. And we need to think carefully
here. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through
Jesus Christ. Now, when we think of truth in
normal conversation, more often than not, that is contrasted
with what? error, falseness, right? So what are we saying here? That
the law is false? That the law is untruth? So that
it is contrasted against Jesus Christ who came with grace and
truth? Well, we certainly do not want to say that, do we?
So whatever John is saying here, when he says the law was given
through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ, he's
not saying the law wasn't true. I would add to that, he's also
not saying that under Moses there was no grace, because there was. Moses preached grace to the people
of God. No, there is grace in the Old
Covenant. There is truth in the Old Covenant. But again, it's
this question of the fullness of time. It was not yet the fullness
of God's revelation. And we could enlist a little
bit of help here from Paul's letter to the Galatians. Remember
what Paul says about the law. Now before faith came, we were
held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would
be revealed. So then the law was our guardian until Christ
came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now
that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for
in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. And it's not too long afterwards.
Remember what Paul does there, he contrasts the old covenant
church with the new covenant church as a matter of maturity,
of development, that the old covenant people of God were as
a child under age, being watched over by the law as a guardian. But when the fullness of time
had come, Paul says, God sent forth his Son, born of woman,
born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law
so that we might receive adoption as sons. The law was not ungracious
or untrue in some sort of absolute sense. The law was preparation. The law was a guardian. keeping
watch over God's people until such time as the fullness of
time had come and God's Son was sent forth. Grace and truth came
through Jesus Christ because he's the only one that came from
above. Remember how John the Baptist testifies about Jesus.
I am from below, he is from above. He's the only one who testifies
as to the things that he has seen in heaven because he comes
from above. That's the grace and truth that
John speaks of here. The fullness of time and the
revelation of the fullness of God's redemptive purposes in
the sending forth of his only begotten Son. Or to use a comparison
from the book of Hebrews chapter three, Moses served God's house
as a servant. but Christ as a son, Christ as
the builder of the house. Moses serves in the house as
a servant. Jesus built the house because
he's the eternal word of God and the only begotten son of
the Father. It's not diminishing Moses as
untrue. or not gracious, but simply recognizing
that Moses was just an instrument in God's hand. But Jesus comes
to us as the only begotten of the Father. Truth here means
fullness. You know, another comparison
here from the book of Hebrews is, remember the Old Testament
temple. What was it? It was just a little
picture. I think it's Hebrews chapter
eight, where the author of Hebrews describes the temple as a copy
of the heavenly sanctuary. The real thing was in heaven,
but there was a copy on earth. The copy was true, and the copy
was good, and the copy was given by God for his gracious purposes.
But it was, at the end of the day, it was only still a copy.
So also here, Moses served truly and graciously, and by God's
purpose and design, was an instrumental aspect of God's shepherding of
his people through redemptive history. But he didn't come from
above. Moses couldn't testify of things
he saw in the bosom of the Father. Jesus can. Again, Moses could
only reflect the glory of God. Jesus is the glory of God. Law was given through Moses,
that is preparation, anticipation, promise. but grace and truth,
that is the fullness of God's redemptive purposes for the restoration
of humanity, that, that grace, that truth came through Jesus
Christ. We can see this in John the Baptist's
testimony later on in chapter one, verse 30. John the Baptist
said, this is he of whom I said, after me comes a man who ranks
before me because he was before me. And that's exactly in the prologue
of John, the line that John chooses to quote there about the Lord Jesus, verse 15. It's the same thrust of later
on in John chapter eight when he's speaking to the Jews and
says, before Abraham was, I am. The glory of the incarnation
is it's not just another wonderful theophany like the burning bush.
It's not just God temporarily appearing in the form of some
earthly thing. It is the Eternal Son, the Eternal
Word Himself become flesh and dwelt among us. And what has
He come to bring? Remember last week, again, the
two wondrous becomings, the Word became flesh so that we might
become children of God? Well, having become the children
of God through the Only Begotten Son, What have we received? We have received, verse 16, from
his fullness, grace upon grace. Grace upon grace. You see, the
Christian life begins with grace. The Christian life begins with
God reaching out to us, giving us faith, raising us to new life
on the basis of nothing that we had to offer in ourselves.
And just as the Christian life begins with grace, so too it
ends with grace. We neither merit the first grace
of faith nor the final grace of glorification by anything
that we have to offer from ourselves. And this is why God came. Because this salvation, this
grace upon grace, could only be secured and achieved and given
to the people of God by the only begotten Son of God. And so fear not. beloved flock
of the Lord Jesus Christ, because you stand in the grace of the
only begotten Son of God. There's an absolutely beautiful
line from Romans 5. John speaks of the grace upon
grace that is ours in him. And Paul speaks this way, that
since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through him we have also obtained
access by faith into this grace in which we stand. You are standing
in grace. The Christian life begins in
grace, it ends with grace, and right now, wherever you find
yourself, as you stand before the face of God, trusting in
the Lord Jesus, you stand in grace. And just to tease that out a
little bit more, you can close your eyes, you don't have to,
but imagine yourself standing in water. Let's say four or five
feet of water. That might be treading water
for some of the kids. A couple feet of water, a couple
feet of water, and you fall. What have you fallen into? If
you stand in grace, brothers and sisters, you fall into grace. This is the grace upon grace
that we receive from the Lord Jesus Christ. provided that we receive Him,
provided that we truly believe in His name, provided we come
to Him not as just the giver of gifts or the giver of certain
benefits we find attractive, but if we come to Him as the
only begotten of the Father. with hearts yearning to see God,
receiving Him, being united to Him by the Spirit. We stand in
grace, and it is grace at the start, and it is grace at the
end. And as we survey these things,
brothers and sisters, we see the depths, but we cannot see
the bottom. I can only stand and wrestle
with these things together with you as the sower of seeds. Each
one of us must pray against the birds that would snatch them
away, against the thistles that would choke them out, and go
to God and pray earnestly for a harvest of truth and holiness
in our own hearts. as we meditate upon the glory
of His Son, that these things would not be in vain in our lives,
but that the Spirit would illumine the eyes of the heart and heal
the eyes whereby we may see God and rejoice in Him and abide
in Him? What is it that should thrill
our hearts beyond anything else in the whole of the universe? Is it something that can be seen
with the eyes of sight? It's not. John unveils it for
us here. What should thrill our hearts
beyond anything else is that God has given us His Son, and
as we look upon Him with the eyes of faith, we see the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Do not love God because of what
you get out of it, or for what he can do for you. Love him for
himself. Remember Moses. God has proclaimed
his favor to Moses, and Moses just sort of bursts forth with
almost a reactive statement of the inner desires of his heart.
Please show me your glory. And may it be so too for us,
brothers and sisters, that we love God for Himself, that He
Himself is our greatest reward. And as we do this, as we do this,
we are actually aligning the deepest desires of our heart
with the highest prayers of our Savior for us. John chapter 17,
this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom you sent. I glorified you on earth, having
accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father,
glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with
you before the world existed. And then how does Jesus pray
for us? Verse 24, Father, I desire that
they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am
to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me
before the foundation of the world. Moses didn't quite understand
the fullness of what he was even asking for at that time. although
he knew great and wonderful things about the Lord, but Jesus reveals
to us the fullness of what Moses was actually asking for, and
the fullness of what Christ has promised to us in the gospel,
that we might be with him where he is, to see his glory, the
glory that he has had with the Father from before the foundation
of the world. There's the beautiful psalm where
David says, one thing I have asked, Lord, and one thing only,
that I may gaze upon your beauty in the holy place. If you had
only one thing to ask of the Lord, what would it be? What
would you pray for? What would you desire? And in
this regard, David and his son Solomon were two very different
people, weren't they? Solomon was told by the Lord, ask me
anything and I will give it to you. Solomon asked for wisdom,
but David asked for glory. Now they're two different men
with their own life before the face of the living God, but what
about you and I this afternoon? That one thing that you will
ask of the Lord, what is it? Well, let us pray for this and
long for this and treasure this, for it is the prayer of our Savior.
Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be
with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me
because you loved me before the foundation of the world. That is the end for which God
has both made us and has saved us, brothers and sisters. And
may our hearts long and beat and pant for that glory, glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Let's pray. Gracious Father, This world has lied for us. Every
day we are told from a thousand different angles, your life is
meant for this. Your heart wants this. You are
to desire this above all else. And they are all lies. Because the God of this world
has blinded unbelievers from the glory of the one true and
living God. But you, Father, as you said,
let light shine out of darkness so you have shown in our hearts
to see the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
And so let us resist the voices dragging us down to worldly pleasures
destined to pass away. And Lord God, each and every
day, may the Spirit stir us up with affection toward the Lord
Jesus and hearts that long for Him, to wait patiently for Him
and to see His glory as the greatest possible reward and inheritance
that we could ever desire or imagine. We praise you for your grace. How could we ever merit the glory
of the only begotten in our own strength and power? Never, Lord
God, never. But as a free gift of your grace,
you have given us faith by which we have received the Lord Jesus
and in whom we have been filled with the spirit of adoption and
are now the children of God. May your children long for that
heavenly glory, and may we wait patiently for our Lord Jesus,
and endure the struggles of this age, and resist the lusts of
the world, and put to death the deeds of the body. and serve you with gladness and
willingness, Lord God, as true disciples of your Son. We pray
this, that we would walk by faith and not by sight, in the strength
of your Spirit, despising that of the flesh. We pray these things
in Jesus' name. Amen.
Grace and Truth
Series John
| Sermon ID | 112624219374514 |
| Duration | 38:59 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | John 1:1-18 |
| Language | English |
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