Congregation, it is a joy and a privilege to minister again God's Word to you now. God's Word to you this morning, congregation, comes from John 1, verse 16. That'll be our text this morning, John 1, verse 16. In it, through his apostle, God says to you and God says to me, And from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. The subject that is being treated of here in this passage is the nature of the church's salvation, or how the church is saved. She receives it. And this subject, beloved, is at or is the very heart of Christianity, or what it means to be a Christian, to receive the grace of Christ. These words, as they are here in John's prologue, are a record of what the church of Jesus Christ has received. And I will hope to make clear to you and if you are in Christ know, do or does continue to receive. But here they are a record. We have received. The church has received from her Lord and her God, Jesus Christ, grace upon grace. The we in this verse, the we refers to believers in general. Every believer can, because every believer has, And every believer must think about we make a profession of faith. You must profess the grace that you have received before the congregation, have received in the full membership, testifying that you have received the grace of God and Jesus Christ. He is your Lord. He is your Savior. He has died for you. These words are also written that they may continue to bear record and the church may continue to bear record through them as a witness to the world that Jesus Christ is its only Savior. In the next verse we read, For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. You and I should have nothing bad to say about the law. It is good, it is holy, it is just, and it reveals God's unchanging character. But the law does have a lot of bad things to say about you and me, that we are idolaters, blasphemers, Sabbath breakers, dishonorers of our parents and those in authority, murderers, adulterers, liars, thieves, and generally unhappy, disgruntled, discontent people who don't want to be creatures but God, who are covetous. And yet, despite all that, Christ came and He showed us grace and truth. And by His grace, in dying for us sinners, He gives us eternal life and enables us to live as God's children and do God's will as it is revealed in His law. The law does condemn, Jesus Christ saves all who believe in Him. As one commentator I think helpfully put it, the law prepares, not because you do it to earn grace. The law shows you, you must be a debtor to grace alone if you are to be saved. Christ provides. The law prepares, Christ provides. And that is really the whole theme of this morning's sermon, what Christ provides to his church. Finally, these words as they are laying there in verse 16, they are an assurance to you You who do not yet believe in Jesus Christ for eternal life, that there is enough grace and truth in Him to save you. And from His fullness we have all received grace upon grace. Here's what I want to do, beloved. First, I want to consider these words more closely with you. and then close and end by just applying them a little more pointedly, or applying the truth of this passage, which is that from Christ's fullness, we believers, we the church, receive grace upon grace. From Christ's fullness, we who believe in Jesus Christ receive grace upon grace. Now this text, it breaks down into three parts, and we'll look at them in order. The first part is this, the church's source of her reception. You find those in the words, and from his fullness we have all received. So the church's source of her reception. What the church receives, she receives from Christ's fullness. His fullness is the source of what the church receives. And what you first need to know to really understand the fullness and to get a sense of the fullness from what we receive is you need to know a little bit about Christ. We are used to hearing the word Christ or Messiah, and that is a good thing. But words that become common have the habit of losing the fullness of their meaning, and even they can lose their original sense. The word church, as it's found in Scripture, does not refer to a building, and yet how often do we use it today? Primarily, maybe, as a building. So what do we mean then by the word Christ? First, this word means God's promised Savior. We should always think when we hear the word Christ or Messiah, the one that God promised to send for our salvation, right? God's promised Savior. Beginning in Genesis 3, verse 15, right? After the fall, apostate, apostasy, rebellion of man, God promised the seed of the woman to come. So Messiah first means God's promised Savior. To understand right the word Messiah, you have to think God's promised Savior when you hear of him. The second, the word means the anointed one, the one that God has anointed. that he is Israel's prophet, he is Israel's priest, and he is Israel's king, par excellence. They have many, but he is the final, and in the truest sense, only one. And this helps us understand how to relate to Christ. Because if he is a prophet, then receive the fullness of his truth to you. If he is a priest, then receive the fullness of his loving sacrifice and continual intercession for your sins, and draw near to God by him. If he is king, then receive the fullness of his reign, serve him, trust in him, let him save you, love him and enjoy his person, his friendship, his fellowship, and His eternal, heavenly, and spiritual kingdom. Still physical, and yet spiritual in the fullness of the power that we have by the Holy Spirit. But third, it means God-Man. And this is the most profound meaning of the word. And it is its most basic meaning, underlying meaning. If you could say it this way, it's the meaning that makes the other ones pop. But you understand that he is the God now. That your prophet, priest, and king is a God who took on flesh. In verse 17, when John refers to Jesus, or the one that John refers to there is Jesus Christ, he first describes in verse 14 as the Word who became flesh. And the Word who became flesh there in verse 14, he describes going back in verses 1 through 5 as the Word who existed before creation. In the beginning was the Word. Who lived in fellowship with God. He was with the Father, who is himself God, who was God. He is of one substance with the Father, of all the church's language. There is only one God. The Word is everything that God the Father is without being God the Father. And likewise, God the Father is everything the Word is without being the Word. There is a complete identity, yet distinction. The Word created everything. The Word gives life to everything. The Word gives light to men. And they use the language from the Synod of Dor. Whatever is left of mankind's notions about God, natural things and the difference between what is moral and immoral comes from the Word. It's talking there about natural light. Whatever true notions remain after the fall about God, natural things, think sciences, about what's right and wrong, the Lord Jesus is the source of that, the pre-incarnate Word. Even now the Word made flesh. He is the source of all man's life. All that is true, good, and right, He is the source of it. So what John is saying by the time he gets to verse 14 is that the world's maker came into the world in the same way you and I do, through birth. But with one difference. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. He had no natural earthly father. He was adopted and taken by Joseph. That's the significance of Joseph's naming Jesus. Joseph's giving him the name Jesus. He received him as his child. The Word did not become flesh. and so cease to become the word. The word became flesh like John Smith becomes a lawyer. John Smith doesn't cease to be John Smith when he becomes a lawyer. Becoming a lawyer is an addition. The incarnation, that's the church's word referring to what verse 14 means, is the mystery of the eternal Word taking on or adding to His eternal divine nature, a human nature, and joining them together in a union of His person, without confusion of these natures, without separation of these natures. In a word, Christ is both fully God, He is both fully man, and He is utterly wonderful and unique. There is none like Him, or will there ever be. He is the God-Man, and He is our Savior. So then what kind of fullness does Christ the God-Man have? He has the fullness of God. The Apostle Paul, he puts it this way in Colossians 119, For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. Again in Colossians 2, 9 and 10, For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him. All that makes up God in its infinite fullness resides bodily in Christ. And so what John or Paul was saying to the church there, What he says to the church today is, Christ is sufficient for all your needs, congregation. So then the church draws on the inexhaustible fullness of God from her head, Jesus Christ, the Word become flesh. That is what the first part of this text is saying. And if I can, let me now apply it. What it is saying, beloved, is that your need As you live in this world, as you exist as a creature of God, but as you exist new in Jesus Christ, all that you face that is before you, all the relationships God has put you in, all the callings that He's given you, all that you do in this life, whatever you face, whatever situation, your need is not greater than Christ's supply of grace. Give me this image, and keep it throughout the whole sermon. Jesus liked to illustrate to us what both faith is and what it is to live upon His grace through the vine, right? He's the vine, and we're the branches. That explains to you both what faith is, because you receive, and what living upon grace is, because you, the branch, don't support the vine. The vine supports you. Now imagine if you were a vine, Now, we're getting through the harsh winter, but the harsh winter comes, and all the vines of this earth, all they can say is, oh no, we're going to die, because winter. Is there a vine that lives through the winter? I don't know. If it is, it's Jesus. That would be a great illustration if I knew that one. I should Google better. But the point is, beloved, you and Christ, whatever harsh winter could come your way, you are united to an everlasting vine. Just imagine if you were a grape branch. And if great branches could think, and you were told, great branch, you have been grafted into an everlasting vine. How happy you would be, right? To know that you are always going to live and bear fruit. You don't need to be scared of what life holds for you. And you shouldn't. And you don't need to be overwhelmed. And you shouldn't. Do we get fearful? Yes. Do we get overwhelmed? Yes. Well, then you need to remember the source that you draw from. It can meet your need. You who trust in Him, do not live afraid. Do not live overwhelmed. Just live in whatever that situation is upon Christ. You know, the joy of this is Christians don't try to escape the world. We're not of it. But Jesus Christ was not either, and He most definitely lived in it. And He lived the most glorious, fullest life possible. What's the saying? You can engage any situation in your life, and you don't have to flee from it. Change what needs to be changed, but you have the fullness of Christ to face any situation. Rely upon Him. You who don't yet trust in Jesus Christ know that He is and has everything you really need, for He truly is God. He truly is your maker. He truly knows you, and He truly loves you. Believe in Him. Now, the second part is our first part. The source of our reception as believers is the infinite fullness of Christ. That's the second part of our text. The second part of the text is telling us that as a church, we are a receiving church. A receiving church. And from His fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. What the church, what the believer does is he receives. That's what the believer does. He receives. Now, I suppose that those who were healed by Jesus, without ever believing in Him as God, could say, we have received from Him. And yes, the glory of Christ, the grace that He is full of, they did receive. Their healing was an act of incredible kindness and mercy from their God, who became a man. But the words of this text are, and from his fullness we've all received grace upon grace. There is a great difference between these two. It is one thing to have a sample from Sam's Club. You know what I'm talking about? From BJ's. You go in there and you get a little sample, right? It is one thing to get a sample. It is another thing to sit down and eat at a buffet. This text speaks not of tasting of Christ's goodness. This text speaks of living upon Christ's goodness. Christian, you need to remember or you need to learn to live upon Christ's grace. But why does John write in the past tense here? You know, it reads as if You might think, well, the receiving is in the past. We have received, but what about today? Paul was told by Christ in 2 Corinthians 12.9, my grace is sufficient for you. Is today, is tomorrow, and it was is yesterday. It was past, present, and future. Christ taught Paul to rely upon his grace every day in every situation. Paul thought, with this thorn in my side from Satan, I can't be an effective minister. And Christ said, no, wrong. You'll be a better one, because you rely on me and my grace. But the past tense here has to do with its purpose, the purpose of verse 16 in the prologue to John's Gospel. As I mentioned and hinted at, these verses are testamentary. That is, they bear witness to the world of the fact that we have received from Christ, so that the world may come to believe as well and receive from Christ. John's Gospel, if you read through it, it reads like a case made against the world. Because the world rejected Christ. The light came in the world, the world didn't receive Him. But you read about this in John 16, to the promised paraclete, to the promised Holy Spirit, John is setting the record straight. The world needs to know that there is something to receive from Christ, that He is God, that He can give eternal life, that He can pardon sins. That is the good news. That is what motivates evangelism. There is something here to receive. You are offering Christ to people. You're not bringing them a message of condemnation. The law has nothing to give to people. Christ, there is something to receive here. Receive it. Jesus Christ, receive him. and receive His fullness now and forever. We've got to have that through our minds when we preach Christ. We are not preaching a message to condemn the world. The world doesn't need Christ to tell it that it's condemned. The world needs Christ to tell it, I came to save you, and there's salvation in me. Believe. If you do reject Christ, there is condemnation. But How does the church receive? She is the receiving church, but how do we receive the grace of Christ? I'll give you five ways to receive it. There may be more, but here's the five that I know this pacts and gospel tells us. First way is we receive it sovereignly. Sovereignly. Father, the hour has come, Jesus said, chapter 17, glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. We receive Christ's grace as an act of his sovereignty, as the Son of God, as the Son of man. And why was the man born blind, the apostles want to know? That God's sovereign grace may be displayed in him. That God's glory, beloved, is displayed in you, believer, by Christ's sovereign gift of eternal life to you. You might know him and his father who sent him. And since it is sovereign, secondly, it is free. We receive it freely. The woman at the well in John 4, she was told by Christ that if she only knew what God's gift was and who it is talking to her, she'd have asked for it and she would have received it. Prophet Isaiah said, come buy without money. There's Jesus offering without money the gift of eternal life. It is Christ's gift to give because of who He is, God's Son. Eternal life is, beloved, it's not some just donation. I know we think of giving, we think it's something, it's knowing God. It's God giving Himself to you to be your God forever. and to live with Him. Obviously, then, knowing who Christ is, that He's God, makes us understand that He alone can give it. He's God. Pardon for sins is Christ to give because of who He is. The Son of Man, God in the flesh, given all authority over flesh, who purchased forgiveness by His own shed blood. It's His to give. The church's receipt of Christ's fullness is without price. Think about it. Who would ever think of buying God's fellowship? You can make a lot of friends with money in this world. What do we have to buy God with? Can God be bought with our prayers, our tears, our promises to do better, our good deeds, is don't buy God. Please don't purchase God. He's not for the purchasing. He's for the taking. Just receive Him by faith. And that's the third point. Since it's sovereign, since it's free, the church's mode of reception is by faith. Go back to the woman at the well. Without the knowledge of God's gift and who Christ is, We'll never ask. And you'll never ask unless you believe. This is exactly what Paul said in Romans 10. Who calls on the Lord Jesus as God and receives from his riches who doesn't first believe in him? If you don't think he can actually hear you or help you, who calls? Who believes without first hearing? and knowing that there is a Christ to call upon. Salvation is not for the winning by merit. There is no other way than to receive Christ and what Christ has, but by faith in Him as the Son of God, who I think the Nicene Creed says so beautifully, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven. and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit, of the Virgin Mary, became man, right? Suffered, died, rose again, right? But saying, accept the gospel message and act according to it. And I've already hinted at that in that threefold office of Christ. Receive him as prophet, receive him as priest, receive him as king. But fourthly, this text tells us how the church receives. We receive him continually. The sun continually descends its rays upon the earth. Yeah, one side doesn't get it, but as the other side rotates around, so it's continuing to shine on this earth. The ocean continues to send its waves upon the beach. Christ continues to give grace upon grace to the church. That's the first meaning of that word, upon, that it's continual. It points to the inexhaustive nature of Christ's fullness. Only one who is full of grace and truth can give grace upon grace. Notice what the passage says. It doesn't say, wage upon grace. as if after a while we stop receiving grace and now stand on our own under new law and receive wages for our service. Like, Christ gives us a little grace to get started, and then it's on our own, and we finish it off on our own strength, and now we get wages for what we've done. That's not what it says. For we will always be, beloved Christ, unprofitable servants. Not unliked servants, That's not what that word means. Not undesired servants, not unloved servants, not uncherished servants, just unprofitable. We can never do more than what God asks of us. And we can never do what God asks of us without first receiving His grace continually. Saint Augustine said it best in his confessions when he said, quote, And all my hope is nowhere except in your great mercy. Grant us what you command, and command what you will, end quote. And apparently, those words sparked a whole Pelagian controversy. Because what's it saying? God, go ahead, command of me perfection. but give me perfection." That's grace, continual grace. Notice also the text, it doesn't say grace once and for all. We never stop needing grace. Christ coming as a man, His self-disclosure in the flesh as the God-man, his gift of himself to his church as the bridegroom to his beloved bride. We never stop needing Christ, right? What spouse stops needing the other spouse? That is not marriage. And that is not Christianity, if we stop needing Christ. It was Martin Luther and his work on Christian liberty. You can find it online. It's fairly short. You can read it this afternoon. It first really opened my eyes to the wonderful truth of how we receive everything from Christ in this wonderful marriage covenant. So if you really want to go further in that, on Christian liberty, Martin Luther. But not in this life. Did we stop needing Christ's grace? Not in the next. Everything, all that we shall ever receive as the bride of Christ now and forever comes to us from His grace and the fullness of it. A graceless Christian, beloved, is like a person without air. Try going without that. The second meaning of the word upon and the fifth way the church receives is it receives it cumulatively. That word means increasing by addition after addition. The Bible says we go from one degree of glory to another. The more Christ-like we become, being transformed into His image as we now behold Him by faith, the more our glory is increased, right? One addition upon another. But what is it then to receive grace? What is that but to receive it, right? Grace upon grace. But not only in this life, right? When we are raised to a mortal life at the resurrection, and we are given the new glorious spiritual bodies that will outshine these present ones that we sow in dishonor, what is that but to add grace upon grace? Do not think that Christ's grace is for this life only. Everything you receive in salvation and redemption is grace. Though a sculptor takes away He increases the image's glory with every additional stroke. And it's the same with believers. Every additional grace added to you increases your glory as you know Christ more and become more like Him. Helps us to get the sense of what it means to be God's children. And I don't know about you, beloved, but I've only found that I need not less grace as a Christian, as I've been sure, but more grace. And I thank Christ that he's got an inexhaustible supply of it to draw upon. How could it be any other way when Jesus says, my grace is sufficient for you? So let the world, let the flesh, let the devil, add weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities, and yet we, like Paul, shall receive grace upon grace till we face the hardest and final trial itself, death, where we will learn and know, my grace is sufficient for you. Do you believe that? So then what this second part is saying is that we receive Christ and we receive from Christ by faith forever. Let's see if I can apply it. Believer, you are his and he is yours. You need to live as one spirit. Do not do life without Him. And I can't even really put words to this, right? This is the first. This is the beginning of Christianity. This is the last. This is all that it goes on to be, living with Christ. This is the easiest thing, and yet this is the hardest thing, because we continually want to do it without His grace. This past Thursday night, as I was working on this after I got better and was in my study, I came down, You know how life is, it can be difficult, dealing with children and all that. Before we could sing and bless the Lord at our dinner table, because I'd been studying this passage, I just had to say, family, no. Jesus is full of grace. He is full of truth. There is an inexhaustible riches of his grace for you to live by. That is good news. And let every sinner believe it and live upon it. All right, third and finally, The third thing we have here is we have the church's reception. What does she receive? I've been hinting at it the whole time, but we'll say it a little more fully. Grace. The church receives grace upon grace. You might be thinking, well, doesn't she also receive truth? Because John says she's full of grace and truth. Why does he just say the church receives only grace? Let me ask you this question. What can the receipt of sight be to a person who has gouged out their own eyes? What can the receipt of truth be to a person who's darkened his own mind? I'm talking about sinners. What can fellowship be with the true God to a people who hate Him and rejected Him? Sinners. And Adam. Before the world took on flesh, he was the light shining. Now that he's taken on flesh, he is the same light. both here on earth in a state of humiliation, now in glory and exaltation, everything that we receive from Jesus, everything about God's knowledge, even the knowledge that He came to save us. What can all this be but grace? What can the offer of eternal life be that is true life, life according to the truth? What can that be to that adulterous woman at the well but grace? The law condemned her. But Christ didn't. Because Christ did not come to condemn. Christ came to save. Christ offered himself to that woman. He's the gift. Think about the words themselves. The word became flesh. What do we expect John to write next? Think about if he didn't know the next thing that came after the word became flesh. What, so that God could reveal his wrath upon wrath to us? Paul writes that the heavens reveal God's wrath and they were doing it before Jesus took on the flesh. God did not take on flesh because he hates us. God took on flesh because he loves us far more than we ever believe. Because Jesus is full of grace and he is full of truth. Let me just see if I can hint at you the fullness of this term grace. I usually sing Psalm 23 at night to my kids when I put them to bed. And because I've been thinking about this passage, think through Psalm 23. What is that but grace? The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. The Lord returns my feet back to the way. Just think about Psalm 23. If you want to fill out the concreteness of what it is to receive Christ's grace, meditate on Psalm 23. Grace is God's sacrificial love for sinners. Grace is redemption and all of its benefits. Grace is the faith that you and I live by. Grace is the love that you and I show. Paul says, from Christ's fullness of grace, these things overflowed to me. Grace is the gift of the Spirit in everything. If I could sum it up, everything that Christ is and does for His people to secure our salvation and to bring us to an enjoyment of it now and forever is grace. Do you know what the last words of the Bible are? I think they say it all. The last words of the Bible, Revelation 22, 21, is this. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. It's the final words of the Bible. I think they sum up that the church lives and receives grace upon grace. What does that mean? Let me apply this. You who do acts of kindness, that's what grace means, just pure acts of kindness and goodwill, how do you want people to receive those? I grew up in a family where when it came time to pay the bill at the restaurant, my dad and uncles all argued about who was going to pay it. Nobody wanted to just let the other person be gracious and receive the grace. Do you like that? It is grace that makes salvation enjoyable. It is free. It comes from God's kindness. It comes from His love. He wants you to have it. He wants you to enjoy it. The law is an unbearable yoke, but Christ's free fellowship is life indeed to sinners. I'm going to close with this. As I was thinking on this, I thought, you know what, this is really just a truism, right? Because truism means it's so obvious that it's hardly worth saying. Because what Christian doesn't know he lives by grace and has received grace? It's like saying babies receive from their mothers in the womb everything they have. Who doesn't know that? The baby doesn't, but everybody else knows the baby lives upon mama. So what's my concern? My concern is that there may be people here who call themselves Christians but don't live upon grace. I don't want anybody to come short of Christ's grace. So let us constantly be speaking of the fullness of the grace and truth in Jesus Christ. But let us speak of it, beloved, as the needy sinners we are. And I'm thinking in particularly of our children. Parents, will you deal with your children as those who are just as needy as they are? just as sinful as they are, who only lives by Christ's grace. A good friend of mine said when I first became a Christian, what is evangelism like? It's like being a beggar, telling another beggar where he's found bread. If you live by grace, beloved, don't pretend like you don't. Tell the world what you live by. Tell the world who the source of your life is. It is Jesus Christ. Tell your children that. Make it clear to them. Because I think it can be really hard for covenant youth. See, parent, Christ does change us. We can feel like maybe we never measure up. Or we can so easily become legalistic because we're better than those other children who aren't Christians. It can just be hard. We are needy sinners. And we live upon Christ's grace. If you're in Christ, beloved, my soul is so happy for you. I know how blessed you are. And my really only word to you is strive to live more fully upon Christ's grace, because that's what He wants from you. And I think if I can put it this way, you'll find you'll be a happier Christian and a more useful Christian. But if you are not yet in Jesus Christ, if you do not believe in Him, my soul is sad for you. And it is sad for you like it is for a blind person or a deaf person. Because that's not the fullness of life as God intended it, is it? You are missing out. And as sinners, you are choosing to miss out. I pray that God, by His grace, will show you Christ so that you won't miss out.