As you know, Todd's preaching
in Louisville this morning at the Redeemer Baptist Church.
So in his absence, we're happy to be able to have Mark fill
in. So Mark, come and preach to us. While you're finding your way
to the Gospel of John chapter one, let me just say it's a great
privilege to be part of this congregation. And it's a very
great privilege and honor to be called upon to bring the message to preach the
gospel. And I pray that the Lord would
be pleased to bless us all together as we look at a few thoughts
here this morning about the word of God. You know, it takes almost
775,000 words in the English Bible for God to have revealed
everything he had to say to us. Yet the truth is, God in all
of his greatness and power revealed everything he has to say in one
word, the word, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I pray the Lord might
give me grace to preach that word to you this morning. In
the Greek New Testament, they used two words to talk about
to describe this phenomena of language that we call a word.
There was one that focuses on the externals, the sound that
hits our ears, the grammatical form that we see on the page.
The other word was one that spoke of the sense, the meaning, the
sum and substance of the reality that can get summarized by that
written or spoken word. Now, as long as our knowledge
of God's word is limited to mere symbols we read in the Bible
or to the audible sounds we hear from a preacher's lips, our knowledge
of the Word of God will prove of absolutely no value to us.
Many people read this book and know nothing of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We may go on, some of you may
go on and master Greek and Hebrew. You might learn every definition
of every word of those ancient languages that God chose by which
to reveal his mind to us. We may master all those rules
of grammar. We may be able to translate the
scriptures from their original text. I went to school with people
who can do that very thing and have not a clue of who the word
of God is. We may be able to pronounce them
like the disciples did, but if we do not know The Word of God
of whom they speak, we will only have the mere form. We will only
have the religious sound, but we will not understand the reality
of God Almighty perfectly expressed in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That is the Word of God. Without Him, it's all just religious
noise. Many of us have endured that.
Many of us have created that. form of worship, useless chatter,
unless the living Word of God Himself reveals Himself in us. You know, if we know Him who
is the Word, we know everything God has to say. He said it all
in one word. Now the sense of the text I want
to read here in a moment in John 1, I want to I want to give this
information and you pardon me for being who I am, but I can't
be anybody else. I've got to do what I do. The
sense of our text relies heavily on the repetition of a verb.
It's the verb to be. It's used throughout this first
chapter of John and it's used in the imperfect tense. Now I
know that kind of makes people cringe. I'm saying that for this
reason. I'm not going to give a grammar
lesson this morning, but I do feel impressed to emphasize what
may appear to some to be a very small point, and yet it's what
the meaning of the whole text relies upon. The verb was is
used here seven times in a manner which clearly demonstrates the
deity of Christ, the wonderful way in which God inspired John
to reveal Christ in this passage. is such that it depends upon
these verbs. In these seven instances, in
this imperfect tense, and you know, you may not, you might
like me, I had to look that up again. The imperfect tense is
that one where two things are going on. While speaking of something
that has already been in process, something else happens. Like,
I have a good one. While I was going to college,
that's the timeline as that's the first action that's going
on. While I was going to college, I met my wife. That was the good
part. Two things are happening. That's the way this word was,
needs to be understood in this passage. In all seven instances,
This little word was is used to show that the Lord Jesus Christ
already was. He's that continuous line that
was from before time ever began. And he had, it had been continuously
in process from eternity and will be so throughout eternity. But before he ever came into
the world, the Lord Jesus Christ already was now. because the
action of this verb was indicates the eternal existence of the
Lord Jesus before everything else that came to pass in time
we could justifiably read them as already was. Now read along
with me. I want to read the first 11 verses
and I want to ask you to do a little extra brain work while you read
in your King James. I'd like to read a literal translation
and I think that it will help when we put those together at
the same time. In the beginning, verse one, the word Already was. And the word already was with. He was one with united together
with God. The word already was with God.
And the word already was God. This one already was in the beginning
with God. All things came to be through
him. And without him, not one thing
came to be, which has come to be. In him already was life,
and the life that was in him already was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness did not take hold of it, did not subdue it,
did not overpower it. There arose a man having been
sent by God whose name was John. This man came for a witness in
order that he bear witness concerning the light, in order that all,
now let's pause there just a moment, There is no such thing as a universal
gospel by which all people that ever have been or ever will be
will be saved. God never did that. God chose a people. And,
beloved, those are the ones that are going to be saved. Now, why
would you say that, Mark? Wouldn't it be much better to
tell a congregation like this that God loves you all and he's
trying to save you all? And why would I diminish the
power of God to say he's trying to do anything that he cannot
do? God is going to save. every one of his people, every
one of his elect. So when it says that the light
came in order that all you got to understand it in the context
in which it was spoken. This was spoken at a time when
when Jehovah was only associated with one group of people, and
that was Jewish people. And for him to say that he was
coming for all was a saying that there's some Greek people. Roman
people and hillbilly Kentucky people and others around here
that God by his grace has purpose to save. That's what that means.
Not that he's trying to save everyone. He's going to save
all the ones he means to save. That's what he's going to do.
Now, this man came for a witness in order that he bear witness
concerning the light in order that all both Jews and Gentiles
alike believe through him. He was not that light. I'm talking
about John. He was not that light spoken
of in verses three and four that we read earlier, but he was sent
in order that he witnessed concerning the light. He, the Lord Jesus
Christ, already was the true light coming into the world. who enlightens every man. There
again, let's just back up and say the same thing applies. Not
every man in terms of all the population of men that have ever
lived, but every kind of man, Jew, Gentile, bond, slave, all
kinds of folks. God saves from all kinds. Verse
10, he, the Lord Jesus Christ was in the world and the world
came to be through him and the world knew him not. He came to
his own, and in that word there, the word own is about things. He came to his own creation and
his own, that's personal there, his own people received him not. This was a common theme in John's
writing. Look on down in chapter one to
verse 15. John bore witness of him and
cried saying, this was he of whom I spoke. He who comes after
me is preferred before me. And look at what he said, for
he was before me. Look on down in verse 27. Everyone
knew standing there that the Lord Jesus Christ was born chronologically
after John. But John said, no, he was before
me. Verse 27, he it is who coming after me is preferred before
me, whose shoes latched, I'm not worthy to unloose. These
things were done in Bethlehem, beyond Jordan, where John was
baptizing. The next day, John sees Jesus
coming unto him and says, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away
the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said after
me comes a man which is which is preferred before me. For he
was there it is again. He already was before me a long
time before me. He is the eternal word of God
in the beginning. The beginning of what? Well,
everything that we know anything about. The beginning of this
world, the beginning of this universe, everything that's in
it. I know that it's a stammering
thing for us and, you know, scientists are still going crazy trying
to figure out how far it goes. You know, they keep finding planets
and they keep finding another star and they keep finding something
else out there. And we may be able to get a telescope to look
even further than that. I don't know how far it goes, I just
know that it's a lot of it, and it's the Lord Jesus Christ who
made it, and before any of it was there, He already was. He's the eternal Son of God.
This is recorded to establish that the Lord Jesus Christ is
the great creator. It didn't precede him, he preceded
it. God Almighty, in every sense
that God the Father and the Holy Spirit are almighty, so is the
Lord Jesus Christ. May we bow to him this morning.
His human body, however, obviously is not eternal. It had a beginning
in the womb of his mother. where the eternal word of God,
now I can't get my mind around that, but I bow before it every
time I read it. where the eternal word of God
was literally made flesh. He is exactly who we are. He
is us. And yet, he's not us, and he's
gonna make us him. Union with Christ is wonderful.
He united himself with our sorry figure and form that we might
be united with him in his glory and in his preciousness. His
personal divine essence, however, never knew a beginning. That's
how Christ could say centuries before his human birth. You remember
when Moses asked him for his name, you remember what he told
him? He said, I am that I am. And he said, thus shalt thou
say to the children of Israel. They ask you who sent you tell
them this. I am has sent me unto you. You remember that what he says
about himself in Malachi 3, 6, where the Lord Jesus, God's eternal
son, gives these glorious words of comfort. I am. I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore, you
sons of Jacob are not consumed. There's ground for even the wickedest
of sinners to find some peace. He's always been the same, and
he always will be the same. And I don't know about you, do
you still have, some of you are like me, you have a religious past.
You know, and I still in my religious mind at times fear standing before
him, but I've already met him and he's altogether lovely, excuse
me, and kind and wonderful. I fear him not. He is the same. He already was my savior before
he ever came. Now here's the point of the text.
Because Christ is eternal, the benefits of his death are eternal. They cannot be lost. The substitutionary
death of Christ at that precise moment in the stream of time
in which he came brought about an eternal and irrevocable redemption
for all of God's elect who existed before he came, who lived after
he died, and yes, even those who have not yet been born. His
blood avails for them. Read with me in John chapter
8, verse 56 through 58. One more proof of that Christ
is eternally, has always been and always will be the second
member of the divine trinity of distinct persons who are each
one fully God. Verse 56, your father Abraham
rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad. That's looking
back in the past. Then said the Jews unto him,
why you're not yet 50 years old and you've seen Abraham. Jesus
said to them, before Abraham was, I am. What a glorious thing
that didn't say before Abraham was, I was, because that means
he may not be any longer. No, before Abraham was, I am. That's our God. That's our God. You think that we'll ever come
up on a time when we don't have Him around? He was here a long
time before we were and has never not been here. And He'll be here
forever. He will always be our God and
our Savior. This revelation was also given
to John a second time in 1 John. You don't have to turn there.
I can read that for you. It's in the first four verses. John
writes, what was from the beginning That's the way the Lord inspired
him to say that. It's interesting that in that
whole four verses in 1 John 1, that it's almost as though, and
if you look as we read down through here, you'll see John didn't
know exactly what to call him. He didn't say he or whom and
refer to him in personal pronouns. He referred to him in an impersonal
pronoun, just called him what. I don't know what he is, but
he's mine. I don't know how he is, but I'm just glad he is.
And I'm glad he is my God. what was from the beginning,
what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld,
gazed at intently in our hands have handled. We touched him
concerning the word of life, literally the living word and
the life. This life was manifested, made
clearly plain and evident, and we've seen and we bear witness
and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which already was with
the Father in eternity and was manifested to us in time. What we've seen and heard, we
proclaim to you in order that you also have fellowship with
us. And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with his
Son, Jesus Christ. That is the glory of God Almighty
in the flesh, just as much fleshly as you and I are, yet without
sin, and yet absolutely God Almighty forever and ever, always the
same. John never got over that. He
mentions in other passages, you remember how that in 1 John chapter
2, twice for emphasis, he calls on the Lord Jesus and he calls
him the one from the beginning. Before anything else ever was,
he already was there. He also refers to him in Revelation
1.8, as best as I could find, that was the last time that he
hit upon this theme that he hit upon so often in the New Testament.
And that's the one where he quotes the Lord Jesus, telling us one
more time, I am the Alpha, the first, and I am the Omega, the
last, says the Lord God, the one who is, the one who already
was, and the one coming, the Almighty. The glory of Christ
being the eternal word of God means that nothing that occurred
before the foundation of the world, nothing that has occurred
since the foundation of the world, and nothing that will happen
before the destruction of this world can possibly alter to the
least degree the purpose of him who already was God's unchangeable
word before any of it ever began. Safe. Saved. To be saved by this
savior is to be safe, absolutely safe, and cannot be otherwise. Isn't he glorious? Isn't he wonderful? He's not only the eternal word
of God, he's also in this passage presented as the eternal son
of God. Take that from that verse where it says, and the word already
was with God, and the weight of that meaning rests upon that
little word with. In 1 John 1, verses 2 and 3,
John writes about that again. He speaks of the eternal life,
which already was with the Father, equal with the Father, one with
the Father, everything that the Father is. The word with, as
it's used in these passages, and I want to bring, I hope the
Lord will let you hear me. I know I'm not always easy to
hear, but I want you to listen to this. The word with, as it's
used in passages like this, of the eternal and inseparable union
that Christ enjoys with the Father, there's no sense in which the
Lord Jesus ever was, is now, or ever will be in any way less
than the Father in terms of his divinity. He's God Almighty.
He's God Almighty. Here's how that works. And I'm
going to talk things I know nothing about. And this is the only way
I know how to describe that. True, there are three persons. We worship them all. We worship
God the Father. He's a distinct person. We worship
God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Distinct from the Father, the
Scriptures speak of them as speaking to each other. They're clearly
distinct from each other. There's the Holy Spirit of God. He's
God Almighty. They're all three God Almighty.
But they are three persons in one single essence. We can't
get a hold of that. Everyone I'm looking at is a
single person in a single essence, a single physical human body.
He's three in one. I don't know how that works,
but yet it apparently works quite fine for them because they communicate
with each other. They agree with each other. They
never disagreed with each other and they do what they had all
intended to do. And each one accomplishes his
part in the, in the fulfillment of the divine will. And God is
absolutely right on schedule. God, the son does his part and
God, the father does his part and the Holy spirit does his
part. And yet they're one God. And that must be maintained.
We're not talking about three separate persons. We're just
talking about three separate persons in one essence. The designation
son then, I think, which is so misunderstood in modern religion
where son makes Christ something like a lesser God. He's our big
buddy that we can, you know, go hang out with. You know, he's
our close friend that we can just, you know, pal around with.
No, he's not. He's God almighty. Fall on your
knees, fall on your face before him. He's God almighty. Every
bit as much as God, the father is there a bit as much as God,
the Holy spirit is no. Designation son, as it applies
to Christ, speaks primarily not of a subordination of relationship,
but of a sameness of nature. I've got two daughters. They're
a lot better looking than I am, but they're the same thing as
I am. They're just like me, just like
me. Same thing with Christ. That
word son does not make him less than the father. He's only submitted
to the father in terms of his role and their relationship,
but in terms of his being, he's God almighty. He's God Almighty. Would you trust your soul to
anyone less than God Almighty? When you pray to the Lord Jesus,
you're praying to God Almighty, let us bow before him. He's the
only one, truly in this particular case, I think that's the only
time it could truly be said, when I'm speaking of Christ and
God the Father, that's a for sure, like father, like son. They are both exactly the same.
Just have different roles and relationships. In terms of His
deity, as the Son of God, the Lord Jesus is as fully divine,
as absolutely holy, and as equally eternal as God the Father. And
there isn't a single attribute of the divine nature of the triune
God that is in the least measure diminished in the Lord Jesus
Christ. So whenever Christ is called
the Son of God in the Bible, it speaks of the relationship
that he has with God. It's the way they interact. He's
the Son. He's the eternal Son. He was
the Son before he ever came to this earth. He's the eternal
Son of God. It's talking about their relationship.
And whenever the scriptures speak of the Son of God, they speak
of the Lord Jesus Christ who has absolute power, full divine
authority to do whatever he wants to. And you know what he wants
to do? Save sinners like me and you.
And do you think if God Almighty wants to save a sinner, they
won't be saved? Well, I'll have to make my decision. No, he'll make it for you. He'll
make the decision for you. You'll be so glad he did. Because
you and I would still be waffling and trying to find our way through
theology books and trying to figure out which religion is
right and blindly following the religions of our forebears. And
yet he's the one as God Almighty who comes to us when we weren't
looking and saves us anyway by grace alone. Christ's essential
union with the Father is everything. That is his power to save. It's
his essential union with the Father. Everything we receive
in salvation is the result of Christ's union with us. You know,
salvation is not the result of our decision, our biblical knowledge,
or our faith. I've put my faith in Christ,
therefore he's got to save me in return. That's the gospel
of our day. Salvation is the result of union with Christ.
Salvation isn't a what, but it's a who. Now, this isn't a deal
that we enter into with him. It's the king's divine decree.
When He determines to do for His elect in time what He has
always decreed for us in eternity, He comes to us at the moment
He chose, in the venue He determined, in the manner He decreed, and
joins Himself in eternal union with us. Our understanding of
divine truth, if we have one. Our absolute trust in Him, if
we have that. Our determination to follow Him
in spite of everything, if that is our case, has nothing to do
with anything in us. Are you kept by your clinging
to Christ? No, we're kept by His holding
onto us. It's all the result of Him becoming
one with us of His own will, not our own. Let me get you to
look with me briefly at a few verses. Look at Romans 6, 8 with
me. I want you to notice the wording of that text, how plain
and vivid it is. Romans 6, 8, now if we died,
If we died, that's the literal tense of the verb there. If we
died with Christ, that is, if we died in union with Christ,
if we died when he died, how is that, Mark? Well, that's a
problem for us, because we're time-bound creatures, but it's
not a problem for him. He's an eternal, eternal being. He's the son of God. If we died,
Paul is saying, in union with Christ, here's what we believe. we believe that we will also
live with him. That is in union with him. If
I was with him hanging on that tree and the sins God slew him
for were mine, I will be him when he wakes me up in the morning
and that resurrection morning, because if he was joined himself
with me on the crop, the cross, I will be joined to him for eternity.
Look in Galatians chapter two, verse 20, He speaks again, this
is a theme that Paul hits often, I love these verses. They're
the very essence of my salvation. Paul writes, I've been crucified. I've been crucified together
with, in union with, we were on that cross together with Christ.
And I live no longer. What's he saying? Most folks
try to turn that into, well, I'm dead to the world. I've taken
on an attitude in which the world no longer impresses me and I
died to the world. I don't think that's what it's
saying. I've been crucified together with Christ is the prefix. And
the result is I live no longer. God already slew me. God already
put me through the equivalent of hell. He slew me in the person
of my substitute on the cross. I've already been killed. God's
already killed me. But Christ lives in me, in union
with me. Those of you like myself, and
I think all of us to some degree struggle with our religiousness.
You know, we've accumulated, I'm still finding some. I thought
I, I thought I'd gotten through most of them. I'm still finding
that some of those little things you do, you know, you do something,
you say something like, and oops, you know, when you do some little,
something like a, you might not do this, but you'll lose like,
Oh Lord, forgive me about the same thing. It's about the same
thing. There's not much difference there. No. We don't look to something
we do to keep ourselves united with Christ. The very son of
God has chosen by grace unimaginable to join himself to creatures,
sinful creatures like us. And do you think that we have
anything to do? Do you think my pinching his hand is going
to hold me any tighter than what he's got a hold of me? Oh, no,
no. Our salvation is his union with
me. Christ lives in me and the life
I now live in the flesh. In this physical frame, I live
by the faith of the Son of God. That is, I live by the faith
of which I only have one object. The Son of God is the only object,
only glorious thing that I am looking to in my salvation. Not
my baptism, not my church membership, not my church attendance, not
my preaching. I'm looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ if I'm found in Him. Nothing's going to go wrong with
Mark Daniel. Stupid as he is, blind as he
is, foolish as he is, sinful as he is. If I'm bound to that
one, I cannot be lost because he cannot be lost and we're like
this. We are absolutely one. Look,
in Ephesians 2.5, Here again, we see this same
theme. I'm stacking them up on you, but I'm stacking them up
for a purpose. So many people do not understand
the nature of salvation. Ephesians 2.5, even when we were
dead in sins, God quickened us together with Christ. Through
union with the Lord Jesus Christ, eternal life is not a gift. It's not something he does to
us or for us. It's something he does in us.
He unites us with him. Let me read you one last one.
This is the one that Paul wrote to the Colossians. If then you
were resurrected, spiritually resurrected through union with
Christ, seek the things above where Christ is sitting at the
right hand of God. Mind, Think on the things above,
not on the things on the earth. What things do we have above?
Well, I'm looking for a man and I'm looking for a man who's sitting
down. That's what I'm looking above for. I want to see one
who bore my sins and now is at rest because if he's at rest,
those sins have been so taken care of that he's at peace. I'm
at peace. I'm at peace. He finishes that
line saying, for you died You died. I didn't die. Christ died,
but you died in Christ and your life has been hidden together,
all bound up with Christ in God. All who are in Christ have always
been. with Christ, are always with Him, always will be with
Him because we're with Christ and Christ is with God. Now,
let me finish with these three quick things. Three works, this
passage presents three works that only the Word of God can
perform. This passage speaks to the fact that salvation is
an act of creation. We cannot participate in it except
as objects. We have no hand in it. We have
no ability in it. Our mind, our decision, our mood,
our wants, our whatever has nothing to do with salvation. It's a
resurrection. You know who gets resurrected?
Dead people. Dead people. I'm one. I'm looking at a bunch. Dead
people. God saves dead people. That's
the only kind he saves. The living ones who have found
their own way, God does not save. He just doesn't. He's not going
to share His glory with another. He's not going to let there be
a single but I. Can you imagine that? Standing
in judgment before God Almighty and somebody says, but I was
baptized. I went to church every time.
I went to Bible college, but I... There will be no but I's.
Do you think any but I? could ever come anywhere close
to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ who is all of our salvation? Absolutely not. God won't let
it be. No. John writes, all things came
to be, all things became through him and without him not one thing
became which has become. Paul writes of it this way to
the Ephesians again, again for by grace, Grace, you're saved. Do you know, when he wrote that,
he wrote that in the present tense to those people back then.
By grace, you are saved right now. Now, I hope that that will
be saved, enters into that. But what I'm happy for is that
right now, he writes and tells me, by grace, I am saved. By
grace you are saved, right this moment, having been saved through
faith. And that's not from you, it's
the gift of God. It's not out of works, not something
we worked up so that no one should boast. And I like this ending,
for we are His workmanship. We're his product. No one was
helping him. He alone stood at that bench
and hammered this thing out. He alone hung on that cross and
finished every last detail of this. And he created us from
nothing, from absolutely nothing. We are his workmanship created.
He didn't take something that he found in me and said, I think
I can use that. Nothing usable, nothing usable. We are his workmanship. created
in Christ Jesus in union with him unto good works which God
previously prepared in order that we walk in them. Now, salvation
is not only an act of creation, it's an act of resurrection.
This passage shows that very well when it said, in him already
was life and that life That life that was in him already was the
light of men. Paul writes to the Ephesians
again in chapter two, verses four through seven. But God,
who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which
he loved us, even while we were dead in trespasses, and I like
these past tenses, even while we were dead in trespasses, unable,
absolutely could not help him, even with a nod, he quickened
us. He made us alive, didn't do it
with us. He did it to us, quickened us
by union with Christ, by grace. And the verse actually says,
if we knew old English, we would have read it this way in old
English in the King James, but it says, by grace, you were saved. We were saved whenever he joined
himself to us. And he raised us together with,
and he seated us together with in the heavenlies. in union with
the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is not your decision. If there's a person here this
morning that's holding on to something you did, I've got my
certificate. Bless your heart. I've got my
baptismal certificate. You know, my name is in my granddad's
Bible the day I was saved. Whoopee! Whoopee! You know, there's
nothing you and I can do. Cold, dead. No, we rely entirely
upon him. We need to be raised from the
dead. Salvation is a work that he does. Whenever a person comes
to Christ and says, Lord, save me, he's already done it, because
they come and say, Lord, save me. I need to be saved. They
wouldn't even know they needed to be, had they not already been
saved. And finally, salvation is an act of enlightenment. We
live in a very enlightened age, and yet everything I hear people
say anymore sounds very dark to me, sounds very blind, sounds
very stupid. Very enlightened age. Salvation
is the only true enlightenment there is. The Bible speaks of
Christ and says He already was the true light coming into the
world who enlightens every man, every kind of man. Paul writes
this same thing to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 4-6. for God,
the one commanding light to shine out of darkness. Who can do that?
Is He who shined in our hearts unto the enlightenment of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Can you do that? No, we can't do that. That's
the work God must do for us. We depend on Him for salvation.
Now, salvation is an act of creation. What in the world can we do to
bring ourselves into spiritual existence? If salvation is an
act of spiritual resurrection, what can we do to give ourselves
spiritual life? If salvation is an act of divine
enlightenment, where in the world can sin-darkened sinners like
us find even a spark to guide us within? No. My prayer and
I trust yours is the same. May we be found in union with
Him who's already accomplished everything a sinner needs. Let's
pray.