Hello, everyone. We're back to have a little more look at the Gospel of John. We're in chapter one. We call this food for thought for the Gospel of John. And I hope I'm not going to be confusing, but here's my problem. I have John the disciple who wrote the Gospel of John talking about and quoting John the Baptist, who was the official announcer of the Messiah to Israel. prophesied in the Old Testament Scriptures just like the Messiah himself was prophesied. So I am going to go back and forth a little bit here. I'm going to try to keep it clear and hopefully keep it simple. We talked about John the Baptist in the last video and this time we're going to bring up some more. It's going to take a while because John chapter 1 has quite a bit from John the Baptist. I want us to understand how sharply focused John the Baptist's message was. What I'm going to do is read John 1, 14 through 17, and then we're going to comment on verse 15 quite a bit. Let's go then. In John chapter 1. Verse 14, and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him and cried, saying, this was he of whom I speak. He that comes after me 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. Okay, that's a relatively short reading. And when he says in verse 15 that John bear witness of him, he's talking about John the Baptist. So John the disciple inserted a quote of John the Baptist. Now, quite frankly, if I were reading John 1, 14 and went right to verses 16 and 17, it would make a lot of sense. So it seems to be interrupted by this quote in verse 15. And to make it a little harder, John the Baptist is quoting himself, a statement that points to a conversation he must have had some other time. And not only that, It seems that John says something just like it again later on in verse 27, which I'll just read it right now. John the Baptist saying, he it is who coming after me is preferred before me, who shoelatched I am not worthy to unloose. Okay, so John the Baptist is quoted. And when he says, this was he of whom I spake, Kind of implies he said this before. He must say it a lot. We know that this statement is very important. And John evidently said it more than once or alluded to it because it was so important. And the statement basically is saying Jesus was physically born after John the Baptist. And that was by about six months. But in the bigger reality, Jesus came way before John as a matter of fact Jesus was long before all of us He is the eternal Son of God And we saw that back when we started this series in verses 1 through 3 in the beginning was the word the word was The same was in the beginning with God all things were made by him without it was not anything made that was made And it seems very important to us. Actually, it seems very important to John the disciple to make sure we know who Jesus is and not just what he did. So John the Baptist is pointing out that he says, I was born before him, but he's actually before me, and therefore he's preferred. He's the important one. We like to use the word preeminent with Christ, which means he has first place. He is more eminent, he is more important than anybody else. He came before us all. That way when John says in verse 14 John the disciple says in verse 14 The word became flesh the word was made flesh and well among us We're getting an amazing statement that God became a man Messiah is the second person of the Godhead It's a strong statement. It's an important statement. John the Baptist's ministry was to introduce and promote the person and work of Christ. And John the disciple stated that. Right after what I just read here, one through three, you go a little farther down to verse six. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. That's John the Baptist. The same was for a witness, to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. So John's weaving John the Baptist's testimony in and out here, and I'm trying to keep it clear. So as John the disciple says, and the word became flesh and well among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. You could just go right on down to verses 16 and 17, and it says, enough is fullness of all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. But just at that one moment, verse 15, he inserts John the Baptist, who says, this was he of whom I speak. He that comes after me is preferred before me because he was before me. Doesn't that sound like a real riddle? Well, welcome to the mysteries of the gospel. Now, as I said already, John the disciple wants us to know who Jesus is and not just what he did. And it's very important what he did, but if we don't appreciate who he is, we don't really appreciate what he did. This was my problem when I was young. I had heard about Jesus and I had heard about him teaching and healing and saying wise things and being a good person and dying on the cross, but I didn't grasp This was God who did this for me and nobody else would have died for my sins And so it wasn't just a martyr's death that Jesus had it was a sacrificial Gift to pay for my sins that no human could do And I hope next time or soon I'll get to that wonderful verse 29 where it says behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world But what I want to do right now is think a little bit about John the disciple's fuller statement. In other words, I want to take a look at what Jesus did and is still doing. Now I've read verse 14, 16, and 17 several times already. I don't want to wear you out. So I'm just going to summarize the points that we can learn from this. And there's really quite a few. Number one, Jesus, who is called the word of God, became flesh and dwelled with us. Number two, people could behold his glory. And his glory, it wasn't just charm and personality or powerful things or wisdom of words. His glory came from the Father. Divine glory is shining on people. Jesus could say, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. Thirdly, Jesus was full of grace and truth. The idea of appearing before God in his full glory could be painful if not deadly. No man shall see God and live. But when Jesus came, veiled in flesh, a kind of a filter in which we could behold him, but he was full of grace and truth. And this grace and truth is something that other people could receive. They could partake of it. So it's a benefit. This grace is an unending source for us now the way my Bible says it And of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace. Some Bibles say grace upon grace. Some Bibles say grace after grace. I'm fond of saying grace after grace after grace after grace after grace, like standing on a bridge over a river, and you see all this water coming down, and you look underneath you, and it's passing onto the other side, and all that water's going away, and you look back where it came from, and it's still coming. It doesn't run out. That's what the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is like. It's unending. We have yet discovered all of the grace that he has for us. The grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. We are able to partake of this grace, receive it, and benefit from it. Now, by contrast, Moses gave us the law. And the law is something which reveals the truth about God's nature, God's will, and the nature of our sin. Now the law is good because we need that knowledge. We need to know what God's like. We need to know what he loves, what he hates, and what he wants. We also need to understand why we are able to please him. because of a thing called sin. Sin isn't just something you do, it's a condition you're in when you're born in this world, and you can't deliver yourself from it. So we keep sinning. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So what Moses did is good, but in and of itself, that can't save us. The law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Jesus gave us truth that told us about God's deliverance from sin. We call that gospel truth. In Ephesians 4, 21, we call it the truth as it is in Jesus. Jesus also gave grace with that truth. Grace, okay? This enables us to repent, to change our minds. It enables us to believe, receive, and obey God. We had to be changed on the inside. We had to be saved from what we've done, and we also have to be saved from who we are. So the the grace that goes with that truth of the gospel It's spiritual life that empowers us to believe that truth to believe it to receive it to be Transformed by it through the grace of Christ and the truth of the gospel We are delivered from the penalty of our sin and the power of our sin nature Okay, what a great statement now, I'm gonna read it through one more time John the disciple said, and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Now we quote John the Baptist. This was he of whom I spake. He that comes after me is preferred before me, for he was before me. John the disciple now gets back on the page. And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace, grace after grace after grace. For the law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Okay, so the point, the point is really understanding who Jesus is, embracing it. Many people don't know, they either don't know from simple ignorance or they really don't want to know that Jesus Christ is actually God in the flesh. The second person of the Godhead. Glorious Savior, Messiah. But he has all authority given to him. But he came in gentleness. He came with grace and truth. Moses did his job. He gave us the truth about God and sin. But Jesus came to show us the truth about God's deliverance from that sin and he became that deliverance He's that deliverer. He will offer himself now We need to make sure we're clear on who Jesus is and that means he's not only savior, but he's Lord and so the question is Are you just learning about Jesus? Are you looking for Jesus just to help you out here and there when you have problems? Or are you ready for his complete solution to your complete problem? If you haven't received the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, then that's the thing to do right now. As many as received him, to them gave he the power, the authority, the right to become the children of God, which were born not of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, nor by, oh, I missed one, not by the bloodline of who you are, and not by the will of the flesh, not by the will of man, but you're born of God, and it's new birth we need. Transformation from this truth, which Jesus not only has done, but is doing, And he will keep doing till the last sheep is gathered in. Now, this is a message we've got to take to the world. This is what will not save the world, but save people from the world. And we need to keep focused. John the Baptist knew his message. John the disciple recorded John the Baptist's message, but he also wove it together with more gospel truth. and gives us the rest of the story. Hopefully, we will keep continuing food for thought from the Gospel of John. Let's pray. And Father, I thank you for what you've done and are yet doing, for the promises that show us what you will yet do, and all of your blessings are flowing through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He came. He's alive today after dying for our sins. He's alive evermore to save people, come into their lives, and one day he's coming again. And one day he's gonna make everything right. Give us that hope, give us that faith, and give us that message so it's burning in our hearts to tell others. I ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you.