We turn to the portion of Scripture we read, those familiar words, in the opening chapter of the Gospel according to St. John. And I want to direct you for a while this evening to the 14th verse. In John 1 and 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 1.14. Earlier this morning, of course, we were considering Moses and his prayer. there in Exodus 33 the context being that sad occasion when whilst he was in the mount receiving all those laws and statutes all that instruction concerning the true worship of the God of Israel the Israelites turned to Aaron and the incident of the golden calf which Aaron made and how they sought to worship God really, they thought they could worship God by means of an idol. was idolatry, but it was syncretism. They were still thinking in terms of the worship of the true God, but they were making an idol of anything that God had forbidden when he'd entered into covenants with them. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. And here was an image, and God sends Moses down from the mount with the two tables of the law in his hand and he breaks those tables at the foot of the mount, they'd broken the covenant, God would disinherit them.

And we remarked how Moses was very much a man of prayer and how much he prayed for them there in those chapters, chapters 32 and 33 and 34. Of course, Psalm 90 reminds us that that's a prayer of Moses, the man of God. He was a praying man.

But we were considering in particular that prayer that we have recorded there in Exodus 33, 18. I beseech thee, show me thy glory. He asked God to show him his glory. Well, the The glory of God can only be seen in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and that great work that He came to accomplish here in the fullness of the time. The very glory that's spoken of here in the text when the Word was made flesh. The great mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. And John says, we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.

Here, then, in this chapter, this remarkable chapter really, this beautiful portion of God's holy words, we read of Him, as He said before us, as that One who is the eternal Word. In the beginning was the Word, or before ever there was any creation, from everlasting. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God, and all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made." Clearly, the Word is God's. And the word here is the creator of all things.

The psalmist says, by the word of the Lord were the heavens made. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made. I know we often refer to those words in Psalm 33 in terms of the manner of God's creation, how He created by fiat, He spoke. He spoke and it was done, He commanded and He stood fast. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. But those words in verse six of the Psalm also remind us something of the doctrine of God and the doctrine of the Trinity. The word of the Lord is the eternal Son of God, the breath of His mouth or the spirit of His mouth is clearly a reference to God the Holy Ghost. All the fullness of the Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Ghost is there at the beginning in creation. Which is so clearly, so clearly when we think of the creation of man, let us make man in our image after our likeness. There's a consultation between the three persons in the garden. We're concerned primarily with Him who is the Word of God. God reveals Himself in and by His words. He speaks to us in His Son. No man has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son. which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him, we read here in verse 18.

It is in the Lord Jesus Christ then that we have that full revealing of God. No man knoweth the Son but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. Oh it's the will of the Son that is being spoken of there in Matthew 11.27 that sovereign will of the Son who comes the image of the invisible God and we remark this morning we see it in the language of chapter 14 where the Lord Jesus addresses himself to Philip remember what Philip says to the Lord Verse 8, Philip said unto him, Lord, show us the Father. And it's a fight as such. Jesus said unto him, Have I been so long time with you? Yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. O sayest thou then, Show us the Father. He is the image of the invisible God.

And now in these last days God has clearly spoken in and through his only begotten Son. That language that we have in the opening verses of the epistle to the Hebrews, God who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds, who, being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high."

Again there, the language of the Apostle Paul, those sublime words concerning the person, The same Jesus that is being spoken of here in the opening chapter of John's Gospel. The Word that was with God and the Word which was God. It's the same of whom Paul is speaking there in those opening words of that Hebrew epistle.

Well, let us consider this remarkable text really, one of the great texts to be found anywhere in the Word of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glories of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

Firstly, to say something with regards to the glory of the Only Begotten Son of God. Oh Moses prayer show me thy glory and we see it here the glory of the only begotten Son of God this little parenthesis this little section in the middle of the verse enclosed in brackets, a parenthesis John says, it's a little aside really if we omitted it, the sense would follow, you see. But it's put there for a purpose, no significant purpose. John says, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.

Well, let us Think of these words for a while and just what it is that John is saying here. He is asserting the truth that Christ is a Son not merely by office. He is not the Son of God by office in the Covenant. Now, when we think of the Covenant, the Covenant of Redemption, the Covenant of Grace, Many ways we might say they're one and the same thing, although theologians would distinguish between the covenant of redemption, between the persons in the Godhead and in the covenant of grace, the outworking of that great purpose.



But in that covenant, we see that the Eternal Son of God takes to Him the office of a servant. He is equal to the Father, he is equal to the Holy Spirit, but in the Covenant he willingly becomes God's servant, and he serves in terms of being a prophet, and a priest, and a king. He has threefold office there. But when we think of him as the Son, that is not an office.

John says in that little 2nd epistle 2nd epistle of John and verse 3 he is the son of the father in truth and love he is the only begotten of the father the only begotten of the father that's an interesting word only begotten Manogeos. It's one of those words that's really two words, welded together, wedded together. The one word means only, the other one means offspring or begotten. The only offspring, the only begotten. Son of God.

Now think of what that means. That means He is eternally generated. He's the eternal Son. And we see it, and I've said this many, many a time, we see it in the language that we have in that remarkable 8th chapter of the book of Proverbs where we see the Son of God as the wisdom of God. Proverbs 8, 24, when there were no depths. He says, I was brought forth when there were no fountains abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth. Twice he says, I was brought forth, and I was brought forth before there was anything created.

What is he saying as the Wisdom of God? To be brought forth, he's speaking of being eternally generated, whose goings forth have been of old from everlasting. That's the language of Micah. Micah chapter 5 and verse 2. The question is put in Isaiah 53, who shall declare his generation? In a sense, it's brought out, isn't it? I know We can't build our theology, our doctrine in the hymns, but there's wonderful doctrine in the hymns that we sing. And that hymn we sang, our opening praise. And verse 3, as sin was born or Satan fell, he led the host of morning stars, thy generation, who can tell or count the number of thy years? Thy generation.

He is He is eternally begotten of the Father. The language that we have again in that 2nd Psalm. What does God say there in the 7th verse of Psalm 2? Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. and that implies it was neither yesterday nor tomorrow but always the present time this day, every day from eternity to eternity I have begotten it it's a remarkable thing to contemplate the eternal generation of the son of God. If the father is an eternal father there must be an eternal son. If there is no eternal son there cannot be an eternal father. That sounds very simple and yet it is so profound a truth.

Martin Luther says concerning the son he neither began to be born nor will he ever cease to be born but he's ever being born ever being born and the words are quoted in Hebrews chapter 1 a short chapter isn't it Hebrews 1 and yet I think there are nine references in that short chapter 14 verses nine references to Old Testament text of scripture all concerning the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and it's interesting to consider those verses Look at what's said there for example in verses 5 and 6 Hebrews 1 verse 5 and verse 6 Paul writes unto which of the angels said he at any time thou art my son this day have I begotten thee quoting from the psalm and again I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son quoting 2nd Samuel 7.14 and again when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world he saith and let all the angels of God worship him quoting Deuteronomy 32.43 this one who is the son of God thou art my son this day have I begotten thee I will be a father he shall be to me a son and then he's telling the angels to worship him this one is clearly equal to the father he is God's the glory of the only begotten son of God oh we're never we're never to deny that truth if we deny that truth we lose we lose the whole doctrine of the trinity

That's what John says in verse 9 of the 2nd epistle of John. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. You have to abide in the doctrine of Christ. He is the Son of God.

We read this passage through. And the testimony of the great forerunner, John the Baptist. And we finish there at verse 34. And John says, I saw and bear record that this is the Son of God. This one is the Son of God, the Eternal Son of the Eternal Father. God has many sons. Believers are the sons of God, sons by adoption. Oh, there is such a doctrine, isn't there? We can address God as our God, our Father, in Heaven. And our adoption, you know, is rooted in Christ's eternal Sonship. God sends forth the spirit of his son in our hearts, crying Abba, Father. Our very sonship, the adopted sons. We can't say that we are the sons of God, as Christ is the son of God, in spirit and in truth. but with the adopted sons, because God sends forth that spirit of His Son, His eternal Son, into our hearts. What a blessing!

We beheld His glory. Oh, there's something so unique about this wondrousness. His eternal generation, truly the Son of God, that belongs only to the Lord Jesus Christ He has a sonship that is peculiar to himself and none can share in that He is of the very same essence as the Father and of the Spirit but there is a relationship the Father begets the Son, the Son is begotten of the Father, the Spirit is proceeding from the Father and the Son. There's a relationship. Three persons but one God. That's the great mystery. The glory then of the only begotten Son.

Secondly, we have here of course Christ's manifestation in the flesh. We're told, aren't we, and the Word was made flesh. and dwelt among us. The Word was made flesh. What does that mean? Well, again, we have the same truth in that great statement that Paul makes in 1 Timothy 3.16, that little gem, that little theological gem of a verse. Without controversy, great is the mystery of God. justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. So much in those few words. What does he say there concerning the mystery, the mystery of godliness, the mystery of religion, real religion. God was manifest in the flesh.

It's the same as what John is saying here the words was made flesh flesh here refers to his human nature Isaiah says doesn't he unto us a child is born unto us a son is given we read of a child we read of a son interesting the child is born but he says the son is given there's a difference there is a difference a vital difference the son is not born he didn't become the son of God when he was born of the Virgin Mary I know what the angel says to Mary there in the opening chapter of Luke the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee the power of the higher shall overshadow thee therefore also that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God but that holy thing that was born of the Virgin's womb was the human nature referred to here as flesh the word was made flesh And that only thing, that human nature, was joined to the person of the eternal son of God.

It's that's the mystery, isn't it, of the doctrine of the person of Christ. He has two natures, but he's one person. He is Jesus Christ, but in that one person he is God, God the Son. but there he also becomes the son of man, he's man, he's God, and he's man. And made flesh really refers to the whole of his human nature, not just his body, but also his soul. You know, he has a human soul, as well as a human body, otherwise he couldn't be a real man.

when God made the first man he made his body of the dust of the earth and he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and he became a living soul and when he dies there's a separation the body returns to the earth as it was and the spirit goes to God who gave it and if Christ is a real man of course he must have a human soul as well as a human body and he does have a human soul

In Isaiah 53, we're told there at verse 11, he shall see of the travail of his soul. Think of his sufferings. Think of his sufferings. And not just the physical aspect of his sufferings. Think of the spiritual aspect of what he's suffering there upon the cross. He sees of the travail, all that's going on in the depths of his soul. as that holy, righteous, sinless man is made sin and bearing the punishment that was due to the sins of his people and yet he was an innocent man holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners and yet there he is pouring out his soul onto death in the language of Isaiah 53.10 and no man was able to take that life from him He bowed his head, we're told, aren't we? And he gave up the ghost, yielded up the spirit, makes his soul an offering for sin. All this is Christ, Christ when he is clearly being manifested in the flesh.

How real were those offerings? He's a real man. He's a real man and John, of course, the Apostle John, the longest living of all the Apostles. He outlived every other Apostle. And then, at the end, he's having to deal with Aurelius' teaching, heretical teaching that was coming in, the spirit of Antichrist. What does he say? mentions these things in his first epistle. There in 1 John chapter 4 verse 2 he says, Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have heard that he should come and even though already is it in the world. There were those who said that there was no such person that this Jesus of Nazareth was just a phantom. He wasn't a real man, didn't die a real death, there was no resurrection. How quickly you see. The truth of the gospel was under assault by wicked men. And John has to answer these things. This is why John writes so clearly with regards to the doctrine of Christ, and the person of Christ, and the work of Christ.

Or without controversy. This isn't John, this is Paul. Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit that's an interesting aspect of the mystery he's justified in the spirit he's justified by the Holy Spirit even in his incarnation we see it in so many ways in his birth, in his life, in his death, in his resurrection how as a man there's a complete dependence upon the Holy Spirit at every turn

we might say in his conception he has no human father but the angel says the Holy Ghost shall come upon them the power of the highest shall overshadow them how is she with child? it's by the Holy Ghost, it's a miracle It's a miracle birth, of course it is, for a virgin to conceive, but it's the Holy Ghost. He's there.

And then subsequently we see time and again the Spirit in various aspects of the Lord's earthly life when he's baptized. by John in the river Jordan how the heavens open and the spirit descends upon him in the form of a dove how the father giveth not the spirit by measure unto him that's his anointing, he's the Christ, the anointed one anointed with the spirit of God and then immediately after his baptising he goes into the wilderness, how come? he's led of the spirit The Spirit leads him into the wilderness where he's tempted, 40 days and 40 nights.

And then when he comes out of the wilderness, we're told, he returns in the power of the Spirit, having resisted Satan. It resisted the great adversary, it overcome the temptations at that time. I know there would be other temptations. His life in many ways has seen many, many temptations. But he returns to Nazareth in the power of the Spirit and then he goes into the synagogue as was his wont and the minister there gives him the book of the prophet Isaiah and the Lord turns to Isaiah 61. recorded there in Luke 4, and he reads that passage, the Spirit of the Lord is upon them, because he hath anointed them to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, and so on. All his dependence upon the Spirit.

How does he cast out the demons? If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, he says, then is the Kingdom of God come among you. He performs miracles by the Spirit. This is the life, you see, the Spirit justifying him. And then, through the Eternal Spirit, he offered himself to God without spot. the Spirit is there at the end and then in the resurrection He is declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead.

Oh, He is a real man He is a real man and He is living a life and He is living a life of faith, a life of dependence dependence upon his God, upon the Father. He prays to the Father. It's the Father who has anointed him with the Spirit. He's dependent upon the Spirit. He's living the life of faith. This is the life that he lives.

In all his humiliation and yet, nevertheless, always God. never anything less than true almighty God he makes himself of no reputation takes upon him the form of a servant he's made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man he humbles himself and becomes obedient unto death even the death of the cross all those words in in Philippians 2.7 that expression made himself of no reputation some of you are probably aware it's just a simple verb in many ways it's a verb to empty and you know some of the modern versions are daring enough to translate it like that emptied himself but it seems to suggest that he emptied himself of his deity he never emptied himself of his deity in fact that expression made himself of no reputation is Tyndale's Tyndale coined that expression as a translation of one word and Tyndale got it right He got it right in the context.

Because what is the context there in Philippians 2? It's all humiliation, isn't it? That's what's being spoken of. I'm sure you know the passage well. Philippians 2 Verse three, he says, let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. and took upon him the form of a servant and that's where we have the expression you see in the moderns they say well it just means he emptied himself and became a servant and the implication is that he his divinity is gone he's just a man in all his humiliation He was never anything less than God. He couldn't be. He's always God. He's always God. Amazing as it might sound, but true it is. He's always God. The end of 2nd Corinthians we read he was crucified through weakness. This poor weak man who died the cruel death of a cross was never anything less than God manifest in the flesh that's the mystery, he's a real man touched with the feeling of our infirmities he was tempted in all points like as we are yet without seeing the wonder of it all How can we know Him? Well, we have to humble ourselves. That's what Paul is saying there in Philippians, really. Let this mind be in you. We need the mind of Christ. That ominous mind.

If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, says Christ, and take up his cross and follow me. To be a follower of Christ, it involves the denying of self. The big eye. has to be denied. You have to venture to be nought, to zero. The great apostle Paul, though I be nothing, he says. That's how he conceives himself a wizard. He's a nothing really. A zero.

Or the mystery, the mystery of the incarnation. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And then the Glory. The Glory, we dealt with that initially, the parentheses in the middle of the verse. We beheld His Glory, the Glories of the Only Begotten of the Father. And then finally the the statement full of grace and truth. He's full of grace and truth. Oh, it's a whole mystery, isn't it, of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, who He is. Who He is. What He does.

You know, the first mystery of all, of course, is the doctrine of God. The first and greatest of all the mysteries He's the Trinity. Here O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. One God. No other gods beside Him. But then we learn there are three that bear record in heaven. The Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one. Oh, that's an eternal mystery. It's always been. always being, from everlasting to everlasting, three persons, and yet one God in essence.

But then there is a second mystery, and that is the doctrine of the Incarnation. And that's a mystery that came to be. It's not an eternal mystery. It came to be when the fullness of the time was come. God sent forth his son, made of a woman made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that they might receive the adoption of sons. That was when the fullness of the time was come. And he continues forever now, this mystery. The word was made flesh. And he is ascended now into heaven, having risen from the dead, he's in heaven, as God and man. There's a man in heaven, with God's right hand. whoever lives to intercede for his people in the language of the Athanasian creed it says although he be God and man yet he is not two but one Christ he is not two but one Christ two natures in one person. Two natures in one person.

And there's been great controversy over that from the early, earliest centuries of this Christian era. It was 1700 years ago in the year 325 that there was a great council that produced a creed called the Nicene Creed. which answered the heretical teaching of the Aryans, they denied they denied the deity of the Lord Jesus, they denied that he is God manifest in the flesh and of course it goes on, there's nothing new under the sun, the cults the Jehovah Witnesses, they believe what the Aryans believe They believe that Jesus Christ is not God. Not the true God. He's some sort of inferior God. That's what the Aryans said. Nothing new under the sun. The cults all have their own... well, they think it's their own peculiar teaching, but you can trace it back to those early centuries, how quickly these heresies came into being.

And so it was necessary that these matters had to be addressed. There must need be heresies amongst you that they do not approve may be made manifest, says Paul. We might think it's rather irksome, but it's necessary that our thinking is clear, our understanding is right in the light of what God says here in his word concerning these things. But all this man, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the grace of his ministry, that's what's being spoken of here at the end of the verse. He's full of grace. He's full of truth. full of grace and truth.

Moses was a great man, we were thinking of Moses this morning. All of the prophets appealed to Moses. That was their authority to the law and to the testimony. If you speak not according to this word, it's because there's no light in it. They wouldn't contradict the law that Moses had received from God. He was the mediator. The law was given by Moses. But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And what grace!

Or the psalm, Psalm 45, and it's a lovely messianic psalm. It speaks of Solomon, but there's greater than Solomon in Psalm 45. Grace is poured into thy lips, it says. And all the grace that was poured into the lips of Christ. Never man spake like this man. Oh, what gracious words. The Lord spoke in the course of His ministry. We have the record, of course. We have a fourfold Gospel. We have the record over and over and over and over again. God in His wisdom has given us four Gospels, recording the ministry of this man, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Amen, the Faithful, the True Witness, And what does he say? I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Amongst all those wonderful I am statements scattered throughout John's Gospel, that statement. No other way. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. There's only one way. Comparative religions are nonsense. it's a nonsense there's only one why there's only one true religion and he concerns this man and the words was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glories of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth oh have you ever beheld him? have you ever beheld him? what is it to behold? well it's to look but it's such Intensity, I suppose, of looking. It's to fix the eyes, isn't it? It's a serious matter. It's not just a mere glance. It's a proper consideration of the subject matter. Oh, the Lord, give us eyes to see and ears to hear, that we might know this one, the one to whom all the word of God bears its testimony. What we have here, of course, tonight, before us again, is God's Word in Holy Scripture. It's the Word of God. But it all speaks of Him who is the Word of God incarnate. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the same was in the beginning with God, and the Word was made flesh. and dwelt among us. Oh, the Lord be pleased and to bless His Word to us. Amen.