Go to John chapter 1 again. We'll
be looking at verse 14. Verse 14. And the title of the
message this morning is Christ Our Tabernacle. Christ Our Tabernacle. Verse 14 says, And the Word was
made flesh. and dwelt among us, and we beheld
his glory, the glory of his of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth." Again, I want us to be reminded that
this book of John has one central theme. Throughout the whole book
of John, if you were to read the book, you will find the deity
of Jesus Christ, the central message of this book. And so John begins not at the
incarnation. He begins his book in the beginning,
from eternity. Jesus is the eternal Son of God. When we speak of the man Jesus
Christ, we are talking about God. God. He who was God. And He who was
with God. Speaking of the Holy Trinity
of His person. The Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. Equal in power, in will. Equal in character. but yet distinct in persons.
And thus it was written, the Word was with God and the Word
was God. And it was from eternity that
Jesus was to be the one to reveal God. To reveal God. To manifest God to us. If you
look at verse 18, it says, No man hath seen God any time. You
and I have not seen God. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him, declared
God to man. The invisible God is manifest
in creation, in the law that's written in the heart of man,
but no one could know anything of God's love You could not know
anything of God's mercy by looking at creation. If you were to look at your love
and your mercy, do you suppose that would be sufficient to say
God has that much love or mercy? That would be inadequate. Our
love is feeble. Our mercy is weak and almost
non-existent. The only way that we can know
God is by Jesus Christ. Go over to Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11 and verse
27. Jesus said, All things are delivered
unto me of my Father. And get this, No man knoweth
the Son. Got that? Anybody confused? No man knoweth
the Son, but the Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father,
save, except the Son. And He, to whomsoever the Son
will reveal Him. No man knows the Son, but the
Father. Truly, I know whom I have believed. I know the Lord Jesus Christ.
But I tell you this, I do not know Him like the Father knows
Him. I do not know Him like I want
to know Him. And truly, the Father knows the
Son. And no man knows the Son in the
fullness of His glory, of His person, save those to whom God
reveals His Son. And neither knoweth any man the
Father except the Son. No man can know what God demands. Isn't there a reason why everybody
has a varied opinion as to what God wants from you? Why is that? Because no man knoweth the Father.
No man knoweth what God the Father requires of you. What is holiness? Have you experienced it in your
body? God demands holiness. We could say that you could acknowledge
that. Can you provide that? Do you
know what that is? No one can know these things
except the son by his sovereign will reveal him. You'll never
know God except the son reveal him outside of the sovereign
power and will of Christ. No man can know God. And without
this revelation by Jesus Christ, no one could have spiritual life
or eternal life. Jesus said, And this is eternal
life, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom Thou hast sent. Jesus is the express image of
the Father. If you are to know the Father,
if you are to know eternal life, then you must know the Son. The
Son must reveal Himself. And so in our verse here, John
now deals going from the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ as God the Son. And now then
he reveals to us how it is that God is revealed to man. It says,
And the Word was made flesh, the incarnation. Incarnation. Before Jesus became flesh, He
revealed the Father in types and shadows and pictures. And
He who was God-blessed forever, who was promised to come, has
come. Jesus, who is God, has come in
the flesh. There was a Unitarian preacher
They don't believe in the Trinity of God. They don't believe in
the three persons of the Trinity. And he had a Baptist brother
who was a preacher, and he wanted him to preach for him. He said,
all right, you just come and preach for me, but I want you
to preach something that's non-controversial. I want you to preach something
that's non-controversial. He took his text from 1 Timothy
3, verse 16, without controversy. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
without controversy. There's no debate about this.
God was manifest in the flesh. Jesus Christ was made a man. Now, in the prophecy of Scripture,
concerning the Messiah. There are several prophecies
that speak to us concerning the deity of the coming Messiah. I'm just going to spell out a
few of them for you. Isaiah 4, 2 says He'll be the
branch of the Lord, beautiful and glorious. Isaiah 9, verse
6 says He'll be wonderful. He'll be called wonderful. Who
else is wonderful begot? Wonderful counselor. The mighty
God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. In Micah
chapter 3, it says, Jehovah will come suddenly to his temple.
And in Micah chapter 5 verse 2, it says, From Bethlehem shall
come one whose goings forth was from all eternity. So, in the
Old Testament, Messiah was pictured and was shown forth to be God.
They expected God to come because that was what was prophesied.
But notice this, that also in the Old Testament it was prophesied
that the Messiah would be man. In Genesis 3.15, He should be
the seed of the woman. In Deuteronomy 18, He said He
will be a prophet like unto Moses. He'll be a man. He'll be like
Moses. In 2 Samuel 7, 12, it says he'll
be of the seed of David. And in Isaiah 42, he'll be the
servant of God. Isaiah 53 says he'll be a man
of sorrows. So who in the world can these
two meet together? Who is God and man? The only person who is God and
man is Jesus Christ. This is the only place that deity
and humanity meet together, is in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And friends, if either one of
these are missing from your faith in Christ, if either one of these
are missing from your view of faith in the person of Jesus
Christ, you're lost. You don't know who Christ is.
If you just think He's man, you're lost. If you just think He's
God, you're lost. Because He is the God-man. The God-man. And this is altogether
important. Jesus is the eternal Son of God
that was made flesh. The only God-man who is able
to reveal God and to mediate. Altogether important. This is
why He became man. Jesus, as God, did not just possess
a body. You know, you see those things
where people are possessed. He did not possess a body. The
Lord Jesus Christ, His body was made by the Holy Spirit and He
came down and became in union with His body. Deity and humanity. One man. One man. One person. Not two persons. One person. One nature. And this was so that he might
represent both God and man, mediate, reconcile, bring together. The truth is that we have sinned
against God. I'll tell you what, this term
to the lost strikes no fear. You see that on the back of big
trucks, don't you? No fear. It should say, no fear, I'm an
idiot. That's what it should say. We have sinned against God. We have sinned against the Almighty. We owe a debt to God that we
cannot pay. And men are just, ah, everything's
wonderful. Nothing to see here. Everything's
fine. We cannot even imagine the horrors
of hell. Much less pay for our sin. Eternal hell is the sentence
against all sin. Not just all of your sins. But every sin deserves eternal
hell. Every sin deserves eternal justice. You remember in the Old Testament,
the city of refuge, how that if a man accidentally killed
his neighbor, that they had set up these cities, And if the man did not run to
the city, the avenger of blood was legally right to go and kill
that man. And so what did he do? He would
flee. He would run to the city of refuge. Sinner, listen, run to Christ. Believe in Christ now. Don't
wait. Run. You've sinned against God. The
avenger of blood is coming. God is coming in His holy vengeance,
and He'll take you straight into hell if you don't find a refuge. And the only refuge that God
has sent is Jesus Christ, His Son. If you despise His Son,
you despise the Father, and He'll cast you into eternal hell and
be just and holy to do so. Sinners, Jesus is the only one
that can stand between you and God. He's the only one. He was sent of God to make peace
and accomplish salvation. He's done that. He's finished
it. The work is accomplished. It's finished. Believe on Christ. Trust in Him. Run to the refuge. And be saved from the justice
of God. He's the only hope. The only hope for sinners is
that the Word was made flesh. Behold the power of the incarnate
God who was made flesh to speak salvation to the hearts of His
people. He says the day is coming and
now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God. I know this, I get excited. If God is going to speak to you,
believe me, it's not just my voice you're going to hear. Doesn't matter how excited I
get, that doesn't do anything for your soul. God has to speak to you. If God
don't speak to you, you won't hear, and you won't be saved,
and you will die in your sins. God is sovereign. It was the God-man who spoke
and made the water wine. It was the God-man who spoke
and Lazarus was raised from the dead. And it was the God-man
who spoke and raised me from the dead. I was a sinner and
I was lost and I was dead and I was hopeless. I was bound up
in my religion. I was bound up in my good works. I wasn't seeking God. Praise
God, He sought me. Praise God, He found me and spoke
to my heart. And when the Son of God speaks,
friends, there'll be no question, you will believe. The scripture says, He hath made
us willing, when? In the day of His power. And until then, people will just
lay dormant and dead and the message of God's grace will pass
them by. Because the Son of God was made
flesh, He became bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh. And
I tell you this, would you find in the Scriptures anywhere that
the Son of Man was not approachable? It's not there. When those little children were
running around our Lord, and the disciples were trying to
shoo them off, He said this, Suffer the little children to
come to me." I like little children. Sometimes
little children don't like me. I'm loud or I'm abrasive and
it doesn't get to them like I want it to. That's alright. The Lord
Jesus is nothing like that. Everyone was... The little children
were not afraid of Him. They came to Him. He says, of such are the kingdom
of heaven. That's how we've come to Him. We've come to Him as
a little child in meekness, humility, seeking mercy, and finding grace. Sinner, don't wait. The Savior was made flesh. Come
to Christ. Come to the man. Jesus Christ. He will embrace you. God was manifest in the flesh. And He came to produce righteousness
and to make salvation for as many as the Father had given
Him. And notice how this salvation
was accomplished. It was accomplished by the work
of Jesus Christ. As a man, he did everything we
could not do. He pleased God. He satisfied the justice of God
by his blood. And everyone that believes in
Him has His righteousness and His blood. And are accepted. Accepted. Accepted. God will in no wise cast you
out if you are in the Son. And notice this word. Move on. Notice this word in verse 14. And the word was made flesh and
dwelt among us. Dwelt. This word does not just mean
lived among us. He did live among men. But this
word dwelt is a very special word used by the Holy Spirit
to show us a picture. to reveal that Jesus Christ is
the fulfillment of a certain type in the Old Testament. This
word means tabernacle. We don't use the word tabernacle
very much. It means tent. He dwelt as a
tent in this world. This was a very special tent.
It wasn't just any old pop-up tent. This place was a place where
men met with God. This was a place where men worshipped
God. This was a place where atonement
was made for sin. Jesus tabernacled among us. He is the anti-type of the Old
Testament tabernacle. First of all, This tabernacle
in the Old Testament, it was temporal. It's no longer here. It's temporal. The tabernacle
in the wilderness was set up until the temple of Solomon was
built. So it was set up for a temporary
time. Even so, the Lord Jesus Christ,
in this weak and frail body, only for a short time was here
and suffered in the body, so that he might be touched with
the feelings of our infirmities." Our Lord Jesus felt what it is
to be tired. J.D., you talked about being
tired. He knows what that is. He knows what it is to feel hunger.
He knows what it is to feel betrayed. Have you been betrayed? Have
people turned their backs on you? The Lord Jesus Christ knows
that more than any of us. He came unto His own, His own
received Him not. But this was only for a short
time until He accomplished salvation. And then when He accomplished
salvation, Jesus rose again from the dead. Second of all, this
tabernacle was in the wilderness. During the pilgrimage of Israel,
they had no permanent place. And even so, the Lord Jesus Christ,
when He dwelt among us, He tabernacled here. He knew this. He had no permanent place here,
because His place was on the throne of God. Believer in Christ,
our tabernacle is now A temple. Our home is not in this world. Do you find yourself rooting
around in the garbage of this world trying to build a home? Do you find yourself often confused
and baffled, desiring, wanting, And then when you get it, you
want more and you want more. It's because we've taken too
much of our eyes off of our home. We're placed here on this earth.
The Lord Jesus Christ had His eye to heaven the whole time. The tabernacle on earth, it was
an humble and unattractive tent. On the outside of this tent it
was made with regular boards and badger skin. Now, you hear
of mink coats. Does anybody wear a badger skin
coat? I say, man, I can't wait to get
a badger skin coat for my wife. She's really going to like that.
No, it's rough, it's coarse, it's ugly. That's what the tabernacle
was made of. How that pictured our Lord Jesus
Christ. in this world. The Scripture says in Isaiah
chapter 53, it says, He was despised, oh, it says in verse 2, And He
shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, as a root out of dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness. And when we shall see Him, there
shall be no beauty that we should desire Him. Y'all see those weak,
effeminate pictures of that man they call Jesus? That is nothing
what the Lord Jesus Christ looked like. Nothing. Scripture says
He had no beauty that any outward man would desire Him. No form
or comeliness. He was like a root out of a desert
ground. I wouldn't go pick a root for
my wife on our anniversary. I just wouldn't give her a big
thing of roots. No! They're unkindly. Well, that's
what it was Christ was to man. That's what He is to man now.
They don't have any desire to know Christ, any desire to learn
of Christ. Man by nature hates Christ. Still, the lost man whose eyes
are full of himself cannot see. that the Lord is not just a root
out of dry ground, He is God's tender plant. He's God's salvation. To us who
see Him, He is altogether lovely. Lovely. And this tabernacle was a place
where God dwelt. Do you know there was no other
place on the earth during that time where God dwelt? In a tent. In the middle of a
desert, among the Israelites at one puny, rebellious nation,
there was a tent in the middle there, and God dwelt there! Nowhere else. Well, that's pretty narrow, isn't
it? Preacher, surely God dwelt somewhere else. Yes, God's everywhere
at once, but God's presence dwelt only in that temple. God's manifested presence dwelt
only in that tent. And I tell you, the only place
you're going to know God is in the tabernacle of Jesus Christ.
The only place you'll know God is where God dwells. There's
only one Savior. There's only one salvation. And
it's in the person of Jesus Christ and no other. And the tabernacle was the only
place to meet with God. Scripture says in Hebrews 9 that
they would go into that tabernacle once a year, into the Holy of
Holies, but not without blood. It was altogether important that
they meet God with blood. If they didn't have the blood
of the sacrifice, they could not meet with God and have peace.
God would have killed them. It was the only place where the
blood of the sacrifice was accepted for the atonement of sin. And
I tell you that there is only one place that God will meet
with you. It is in the person of Christ. God will only meet with you if
the blood of Christ was shed for your sins. The sin of false religion is
to say that there's many places that God will meet with you. Isn't that the lie? The lie is that there's many
ways to God. Oh, that's just one way to God, preacher. You
know, there's other ways to God. No, there is not another way
to God. There is no other way. Broad
is the way that leadeth to destruction. And many that go in there at. But narrow is the gate that leads to salvation. Straight
is the gate. Singular is what that means.
It's not like we're walking a tightrope into heaven on our works. No.
What it means is there's only one. There's only one place God
will meet with sinners. Jesus Christ. Him alone. He's the tabernacle. And if you
want to read more about that, you can read the sin of Jeroboam.
The sin of Jeroboam was to tell Israel that you could worship
God somewhere else, where God says there was only one place.
I tell you there's only one place to worship God is in Jesus Christ.
You can go anywhere you want to, but that's an abomination
unto God. Jesus is the only place. And
the tabernacle was the center of the camp. In Israel, there
were three tribes on each side of that tabernacle. And the tabernacle
was the center. Jesus Christ is the center of
every believer's life. He is our life. Do you have any other reason
for living? No. What's life without it? Oh, cold, bitter, tasteless. How tedious and tasteless the
hours when Jesus no longer I see. Sweet birds, sweet prospects,
sweet flowers have all lost their sweetness to me. I love to feel His presence,
don't you? I love to see His hand working
among His people. I love to hear His gospel preached because I love Him. He is my tabernacle. Better yet, he's my temple. That
tabernacle was turned into a temple. When Solomon built that foundation
and that temple, the tent was put away. Oh, friends, Jesus
Christ, we have in him a sure foundation. We have a home and
it's not here. We have a life, it's in Him.
Our salvation rests in the person that was made flesh and dwelt
among us. Jesus, our tabernacle, our meeting
place with God, the forgiveness of sins, pardon of sins, peace
with God, is all found in the person of Christ. Do you know
Christ? To know Him is to know the Father,
and to know the Father is to know life. May God give us such
grace as to know and love and believe on Christ. I pray that God blesses you,
heart. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed in prayer.