Shall I turn to the chapter that we read together, the Gospel of John, chapter 1, and our text for tonight is verse 14. John chapter 1, verse 14. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father. full of grace and wisdom. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. With the ashes pouring, the Lord has been looking upon us. We have more books than any other generation had in the past. A huge range of excellent theological works to teach us, to instruct us. But the books remain unread. We have on the internet many wonderful sermons, which teach and instruct us, but again, we don't have the means to solve it. Our fathers spent hours in Christian fellowship, arguing over theology and the application of Scripture to themselves. And in that way, they taught one another. It was a great way of learning, debating together of the things of God. But today, when Christians meet And so you hear from time to time heretical statements. And sadly, these heretical statements are not being recognized to be heretical statements. We have here St. Porius, the great teachings of the Trinity and the Incarnation, We cannot comprehend them. We cannot fully grasp what the Bible is teaching. But we can grasp many things. And our duty is to seek to grasp these teachings so that we will know the difference between truth and error. And the more that we discover of the glory of God, surely that will lead us to praise and worship and adore this great God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons, equal in power and glory, worthy made flesh, Christ taken to himself in human nature, two natures in one person, John says here, we beheld his glory. We saw it. We saw something of his glory. And you and I should be seeking to see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember Moses, Exodus chapter 33 and 34, how Moses prayed to God, show me thy glory. Show me thy glory. You remember how God put him on a cliff to the rock with his hand over him and passed by so that he saw a little of God. You can't see all of God because God is infinitely great. It would be too much, it would burn us up, but he sees a little. And God pronounces his name before him, merciful, gracious, long-suffering, slow to rise, that will not pardon the guilty. Well, here we have these wonderful truths. So the first truth that I want to refer to today is that Jesus is the Word and the Word is God. This chapter reveals to us the Trinity. We have here the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Verses 32 and 33 were told about the Spirit of God descending upon Christ. When Jesus was baptized, Matthew tells us about the voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Well, there we have the Father. And the Son was there, my beloved Son. And then the Spirit of God coming upon him. early church, there was a huge controversy over the nature of the Trinity. It was much debated. There were two extremes. On the one hand, you had modalism, or simileism, and that was the idea that the three persons of the Trinity are three modes of God. God at one time is the Father, and then he changes into the Son, and he dies Then it changes into the Holy Spirit and he comes into our hearts to live there. So the three persons are three modes for the one God. On the other hand, you have Tritheism, the idea that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit were three Gods somehow united together in a Trinity. Sometimes you find this error today when people say there are three beings in God. There are not three beings in God. That's heresy. There are three persons, not three beings. There is only one being. There is only one divine essence. cannot illustrate that. I don't take something made to illustrate it, but they all come short. For example, there's the illustration of water. Water sometimes is steam, sometimes it's liquid water. On the other hand, some of you may have heard of the words of Innisfail, the Angus of the Kilns, the old warrior of the houses. A little bit simple, and somebody asked him to explain the Trinity. People thought he made a wonderful explanation of the Trinity. He took his trouser leg and he bent it into three folds. You can't illustrate this mystery of the Trinity. It's beyond putting into words. We can only believe it and believe that yes, there is the Father, and there is the Son, and there is the Holy Spirit. son. And yet the father is not older than the son. The father and the son are the same age. And Muslims say, that can't be. If there is a son, then the son must be junior to the father. I think we've seen human terrorists. The son is again for suffering. Thou art my son, today thou art begotten, and the eternal day, he is eternally begotten. And the father and the son are the same age, they are eternal, they are above time. And then there is the Holy Spirit, and the father and the son generate the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit proceeds from And yet although the Father and the Son generate the Spirit, that doesn't make the Father and Son superior to the Spirit. They are all one God, equal in power and glory. And there is actually in God only one divine will. There's not a will of the Father, and a will of the Son, and a will of the Spirit. There's only the one will. God is one. God is one divine nature, one divine essence. Then when we come to creation, we see again the distinctions drawn. The father is the one who planned creation. The son is the one who speaks forth the created world. Let there be light. there being seas of dry land, the sun speaks the word, and the spirit perfects, beautifies, completes the creative work. So that the one God creates, and we can see that the Father creates, and we can see that the sun creates, and we can see that the spirit creates, because And when it comes to redemption, again there are distinctions drawn. The Father elects, plans. The Son comes and dies on the cross to earn salvation for us. And the Spirit applies it, coming to dwell in our hearts. In the beginning, the Word began. No. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was there. The Word existed in the beginning. There was no beginning to the Word. Because the Word is like the Father. He is eternal. In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. So you have two. And can you have one with another unless you have two? And you do have two. So there is a distinction, a personal distinction between the Father and the Son. And the Word was God. Was fully God. God in all of God's glory. The Word is equal with the Father. The same was in the beginning with God. Notice how it's stressed again. The Word was with God. Face to face with God. All things were made by him, made by the world. Who is the creator? All things were made by him. And without him was not anything made that was made. Did you hope for witnesses? They say to you. They say to you that Jesus was the first creature. But they're wrong. Totally wrong. Here we're told. Without Him, without His Son, was not anything made that was made. All things were made by Him, and He Himself was not made, because He Himself was at the beginning, already existing when time began, and when creation began, the world already existed. In Him was life, and the life was the light of day. And the light shining in the darkness, and the darkness coming into the light. So you see, three persons in one God. And then, we come to the verse in front of us. There was much disputing about what happened and how we were to kill the Son of God. There were those who said that when the Word became flesh, And so you have it go two persons. Nestorianism. Nestorianism is the cold Christianity that you find in the rampant Iran, parts of the Middle East. It regards Christ as composed of two persons, a divine person and a human person. That's one extreme. And then on the other extreme, became a man, he emptied himself of his Godhood. And quoting from Philippians chapter 2, who being in the form of God, thought not robbery to be equal with God, but he made himself of no reputation. Amen. Translate that, he emptied himself. Emptied himself of his Godhood, and he ceased to be God when he became a man. No, that's heresy. That is enoticism. When God became man, he continued to be God. He is God infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. And he took to himself not a human person, but a human nature. A nature composed of a body and soul like you and me. But Jesus of Nazareth is a divine person. This person didn't change. He remains a divine person. But as a divine person, he took to himself a human nature. Took that into himself, a human nature, so that he becomes truly man, real man, just like you and me. And as a man, you remember, he once said that he didn't know the date of the second coming. He didn't know when the world would come to an end. Of course, as God, he did know that, but not as a man. As a man, his knowledge was limited. A human brain has a limited capacity. He couldn't know everything. As God, he knows everything, but when the human brain God chose to reveal to him by the Holy Spirit. God revealed to him by the Spirit what was appropriate for him to know. He often knew things that other people couldn't know. And sometimes he knew what was in the people's hearts. You remember Simon the Pharisee judging him when he was allowing a sinner who loved Luke to wash his feet with their tears. He said, if this man was a prophet, he wouldn't allow that. He would know that he was a wicked woman. And Jesus knew what she was like. And Jesus knew what Simon was thinking. And Jesus made that a thing. As you can read for yourself in Luke chapter 7. Now, when God became man, he didn't empty himself of God. He continued to be God, and he ended up being God, and he started infinite, eternal, unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. And he took to himself a human nature. And he was born the virgin, body and soul, and he lived tempted by the devil in this world, God can't die. And God the Son, as the Son of God, can die. But God the Son, as a man, died. He died for our sins. God is a pure rising to behold iniquity. Yet God as a man, Christ Jesus, was made sin for us. God made sin, and God himself, of course, couldn't suffer, couldn't die, couldn't be made sin, and therefore he took to himself a full human nature in order to suffer, in order to die, in order to be a sacrifice for us, in order to propitiate the wrath of God, in order to be the Lamb of God and take away the sin of the world, he became a man. And we beheld his glory, and he belittled. Who had believed our report, to whom is the arm of the Lord we kneel? He shall grow up before us in tender plaiting, as a winter of the Clyde, rather be it no formal accompaniment, and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should assign him. And some people saw him as devil possessed, as a sonata, some last hymn. But John says, by faith, by the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, we beheld his glory. The curtain was raised a little. We saw, yes, we could see the glory, the glorious of the only begotten Father. So we have here a wonderful teaching for us. Jesus is the Word, and the Word is God, and the Word was made flesh, and the Word dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. Into the human nature, a full human nature, he was obedient, obedient to the Father, the suffering servant of the Lord, He laid down his life for us. He died and was buried, and he rose again. He had prayed, glorifying of you with the glory that I have with me before the world falls. And he was glorified. How was he glorified? His glory as God had never changed, but as a man. up to heaven, seated at the right hand of God, glorified with the glory that He had for the Father. Given the name which is above every name that hath the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. And so we are in heaven today. that he took to himself in human nature, mysteriously united with the divine in that one person, that one divine person, the one who died on the cross, can in one sense be said to be God, although God can't die. It was the person who died. The person died, he died in human nature, and he rose again And he said, God's right hand in heaven. Essence, one divine nature, one divine will in three persons. And then you have the son becoming a man. So he has two wills. He has his divine will and he has his human will. And he can pray, Abba Father, take this cup from me. But it was not my will that thy will be done. And he's making a distinction between that divine will and his human will. Not my human will, but divine will be done. And so he says, when the soldiers come to arrest him, the cup that the father has given me, shall I not drink it? I certainly shall. He takes the cup. and he drinks it, and he suffers no more instead. The turn before us, the eternal life. Behold the Lamb of God. Take the way, the sin of the world. So how then do we respond to this wonderful teaching? John said, we beheld his glory. You and I have to behold that glory too. We seek to see it, to appreciate it, what little we can with our feeble minds, to see something of it, and to respond in adoration. The Lamb of God that taketh away the sinful world. We think of Nathanael here. Can any good thing come out of Nazareth, he says, when Philip tells him How many could think a man of Nazareth? None sees his blood. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and said, Behold, there is a light indeed in whom there is no doubt. Nathanael said, Prince, knowest thou me? How do you know me? Jesus said, Before that Philip spoke to you, while you were under the fig tree, I saw him. I saw him. How could you see me? I was far away. We weren't anywhere near. Dearest Fathers, Thou art the Son of God. Thou art the King of Israel. We think of Thomas. Remember Thomas who was saying, unless I put my finger in the print of the nails, unless I thrust my hand into the hole of the spear inside, I would not believe. And then he sees the rest He saw, and he believed, and he worshipped. And you and I are called upon to see and to worship. The Pharisee said, he's a man who's making himself out to be God. He claims to be the Son of God. He says, I and the Father are one, and they took up stones to throw at him. They said he's a blasphemer. He's a Samaritan. By the fruits of the devil's peals above thee, he casts out devils, and so today there are those who laugh with mock and curse the Son of God. The Olympic ceremony, the beginning of the Olympic ceremony, there was this array of drag queens pretending to be the Lord's supper, a kind of People today mock Him, but one day they will not mock Him. God will not be mocked. Every married woman will stand before God and give them a cup. And how terrible it will be when the mockers are face to face with the living and true God. If they do not repent, The Jews, they took Christ and they crucified him. And they laughed at him as he died. They mocked him and ridiculed him. You who saved others, come down from the cross and we'll believe in you. He saved others, he can't save himself. He's calling for Elias, let's see if Elijah will come to him, to rescue him. The Saviour destroyed the temple and burned it again for three days. Come down from the cross if you believe in Him. Thankfully our Saviour didn't come down from the cross. But He persevered in His work. And He laid down His life for us. And He sacrificed Himself on Calvary's cross for our salvation. He's our Redeemer. And we cry out in worship and adoration to Him. And to Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. To Him be glory and honour. To Him be glory and honour. To Him be glory and honour. To Him be glory and honour. To Him be glory and honour. To Him be glory and honour. To Him be glory and honour. To Him be glory and honour. To Him be glory and honour. To Him be glory and honour. To Him be glory and honour. To Him be glory and honour. To Him be glory and honour. To Him be glory and honour. To Him be glory and honour. To Him be glory and honour. To Him be glory and honour. To Him be glory and honour. To Him be glory and honour. To Him be glory and honour. To Him be glory and honour. To Him be glory and honour. To Him be glory and honour. To Him be glory and honour. To Him be glory and honour. To Him be glory and honour. To Him be glory and honour. To Him be glory and honour He strangled them under a roof. He laid hold of Satan and he crushed his head. And he has risen up and ascended up on high and gives gifts to men, even to the rebellious. Thank you, amen. He gives gifts, the gift of salvation to us. This is our savior. Behold him, worship him, praise him, honor him, serve him. If you're not a Christian tonight, a full Christian, put your faith in him. Ask him to be your savior. Trust in him. Flee from the wrath to come. He's a willing, loving, welcoming savior today. Him that cometh unto me, he says, I will not wise cast out. Come unto me, O you that labor and are heavy laden. Come in prayer. and how shall we see? It's freely offered to us in the gospel. Don't despise it. How shall we see if we neglect and despise so great salvation? Trust in Christ and be saved. Let's pray. O Lord our God, we thank Thee for a wonderful chance.