Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the Gospel according to John
chapter 1, and reading from our text, verse 14. 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 chapter 1 verse 14. We read really in this verse of
Jesus, the word in the world, how he was received, how he was
seen and believed on for very distinct ways that are set before
us in this verse. But firstly, we would notice
the way John opens this Gospel. It is unique amongst the Gospels
in the describing of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that is who
is being described and set forth here as the Word. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Very, very clear statement concerning
our Lord Jesus Christ, that He indeed is God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made, that was made, in him was
life, and the life was the light of men. These things are set
forth concerning our Lord Jesus Christ and with all that follows
here and John's witness of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is very,
very clear that John is choosing this description of our Lord
as the word and it is a very deliberate choice, and our text
begins in this way, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among
us. We notice how the Apostle comes
to the close of his Gospel, and in the 20th chapter, at the end,
we have again an emphasis written not upon the Word as spoken as
the Word, but those things that are written of the Word. And many other signs truly did
Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written
in this book, but these are written that he might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing he might have
life through his name. You would remember the commission
of our Lord was to preach the Word. And the preaching, the
preaching of our Lord on the way to Emmaus, was not only preaching
the Word in all the scriptures, but it was in all the scriptures
concerning Himself. He was preaching from the holy
inspired Word of God in the Old Testament. but also of himself
in the scriptures. It was the same with Philip when
he preached to the eunuch, beginning at the same scripture, Isaiah
53 as we know it, and preached unto him, Jesus. He was preaching
from the inspired word of God that was setting forth our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ in the prophecies. And so the hymn writer,
he takes it up and he says that the written and incarnate word
in all things are the same. And our Lord says that heaven
and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Now we have in verse 12 and 13
those that received the Lord Jesus Christ when he came to
this world. There were many that did not
receive him, but there were those that did. And to them he gave
power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on
his name. And so it is those that believe
on him, believing on his name, that are the sons of God. And again, going to the verses
we've just quoted at the end of the gospel, according to John,
it is through believing that we might have life through his
name. And then we are told in verse
13, that those then that received him, that they were born. John
returns to this in chapter 3, our Lord's insistence on being
born again of the Spirit, which we're born, not of blood. That
is not in the flesh, not like we are born through the through man or the natural generation,
nor of the will of the flesh. It is not us that have instigated
it, nor of the will of man, but of God. And so it is those that
are born sovereignly from God's work, God has made them new creatures
in Christ, given them eternal life, and they have been made
partaker of the new birth. And those are described as those
that received the Lord Jesus Christ. And our Lord said that,
he that receiveth you, that is the ministers of the gospel that
preach the word, receiveth me. and he that receiveth me receiveth
him that sent me. You can't separate between that
link chosen and appointed by God to reveal his beloved Son
and to bring those from death to life and to give them a very
clear evidence that they are truly saved and are truly born
of God. It is vital for us to view the
Lord Jesus Christ in the way that he is set forth in our text. And so I want to look this evening
just at two main points. Firstly, how the word was received
on earth, that is how our Lord Jesus Christ was received on
earth. And then secondly, how the Word
is received today, when He is in heaven, ascended up on high. How is He received today? Or how are those today born again
of the Spirit? So firstly, the Word. how it
was received on earth. And in our text, there's four
things, four vital things. And you know there are those
that would receive Jesus of Nazareth, but they would not receive the
truths concerning him as they are set forth in this verse,
and indeed right through the scriptures. is vital not just
that we believe in the man, Jesus, but that we believe what he testifies
of himself and that it be the true doctrine of our Lord. When John writes his epistles,
the second epistle, he makes it very clear how important it
is that we understand the doctrine of Christ is not just a simplistic
or a thing that doesn't have any depth to it, but there is
a true doctrine and there is a false doctrine, a false teaching
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he says, whosoever transgresseth
and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that
abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the
Son. If there come any unto you and
bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither
bid him God's speed. For he that biddeth him God's
speed is partaker of his evil deeds. Now we, when we preach,
we are to preach doctrine, the teaching, the teaching of the
Scripture concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord asked
the disciples, whom say the scribes, the Pharisees, whom say the people,
that I the Son of Man am. And they said several answers,
and he asked them, but whom say ye that I am? The answer that
Peter gave was that thou art the Christ, the Son of God. the Christ that should come into
the world. And the doctrine is very important. If someone says, well, doctrine
doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what is preached. It doesn't matter about the Lord
Jesus, who he is, whose son he is, whether he is eternal, whether
he is created, or whether he is the uncreated God, Whether
he's truly man or truly God, it doesn't matter. Doctrine does
matter. And if anything, before we even
understand what that doctrine is, John's second epistle makes
it very clear that doctrine does matter. We should know what we
believe and why we believe it, especially concerning the Lord
Jesus Christ. If we are in error concerning
him, then that is a vital error. It is an error which means that
person cannot be saved if they are trusting in anything other
than our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as he is set forth in
the Word. In Acts chapter 1 when Peter
preached, We read that, as he set forth, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who was crucified and rose again, we read that those that gladly
received his word were baptized. So again, we have the idea that
the word is faithfully preached, and then it is received, and
it's those that receive that truly are saved. Well, then we
have in our text Four things, four important points of doctrine. The first is this, in the flesh,
made flesh. The Word was received on earth
in this way, by those that received Him. The Word was made flesh. So the Word originally was not
flesh. As set forth in the beginning
of this chapter, the word was God. God is a spirit. God is eternal. God filleth all
things. Heaven of heavens, said Solomon,
cannot contain thee, how much less this building that I have
builded, that will God in very truth dwell upon the earth. Emmanuel, God, with us. And so we have the picture of
the eternal God that was made flesh. Let us, we read in the
beginning, make man in our own image. Or the Spirit of God that
moved upon the face of the waters The creation was done by a triune
God. And here is very clearly set
forth that our Lord Jesus Christ was the creator, is the creator,
and we may say the maintainer of life. In Him was life and
the light was the light of men. And Paul, when he preached to
those in Athens, Mars Hill, he said, in him we live and move
and have our being. And so when we view Jesus of
Nazareth, we view him as truly flesh and blood, like we are. The Jews, they said, that thou
being a man, make us thyself God. In this they put the order
wrong. The truth is that God made himself
man. The word was made flesh. But they saw the reality of his
flesh. Many, many people saw that. And he was made flesh. He was Jesus, the son, Joseph's
son is what was supposed by man. And the son of Mary, And John
is very clear here of the incarnation of the eternal Son of God. Our Lord said of himself before
Abraham was, I am. And when the scribes and the
Pharisees were seeking to trip him up with questions of their
own, he had one to ask them. And he asked them that what did
they think of Christ, whose son was he, the Christ that should
come into the world, the seed of the woman, the one that was
expected, whose son, David's son, they said. They knew that
rightly. Then he asked them another question.
If that was so, how is it that David in the Psalms calleth him
Lord? saying, My Lord, saith unto thy
Lord, sit thou at my right hand, until thine enemies be made thy
footstool. If Christ is to be David's son,
how is he also his Lord? And they couldn't answer that.
They couldn't reconcile those two statements at all. And there are many statements
made in the inspired, infallible Word of God that are hard to
be understood. We are told that great is the
mystery of godliness, God, manifest in the flesh. It is a mystery,
because our Lord says at one time that I and my Father are
one. At another time He says my Father
is greater than I. Another time he said, if you've
seen me, you've seen my father also. And in another time that
he testifies that he himself did not know, the son did not
know the date or the time when this world should pass away,
but the father only. And then he prays to his father. He goes to His Father. He receives
commandment from His Father. And all of these things we see
from different angles and different ways. Three distinct persons
in the Godhead, and yet one true God. Only one God, and yet three
persons. The Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. When He, the Spirit of Truth,
is come, He will guide you into all truth. is not just an emanation
from the Father and the Son, but a person, He. Grieve not
the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of
redemption. He may be grieved. He is a divine
person. So our Lord is also an eternal
and divine person, the Word that was then made flesh. If ye have
seen me, ye have seen the Father also. how clearly he set forth
that as they viewed Jesus of Nazareth, they viewed the eternal
Son of God that was made flesh. And the Word was made flesh. Those that were born, born of
the Spirit, those that believe, those that have eternal life,
that is what they receive. They weren't stumbled that he
was born of Joseph or Mary. They would have known, as recorded
in Matthew, in Luke, of the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit of Mary. Therefore that holy thing which
shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. not by
natural generation, not tainted by sin, but holy and pure. His father, not Joseph, only
in the line as a symbolic line, kingship line as described in
Matthew, but his father in heaven. Wish ye not that I must be about
my father's business. And so this is the first thing
that is received. Receiving the Word, receiving
Him, receiving Jesus. You receive Him as to who He
says He is. Not who we think He is or want
Him to be, but whom He says He is. And that is the Word made
flesh. Secondly, we have another evidence,
another thing that is to be received, and that it is the word dwelling
among us, and dwelt among us. The apostle testifies here that
the man, Christ Jesus, did not just, and we would speak reverently
here, come straight from heaven, and then accomplish his work
at Calvary, and then ascend up into heaven. He dwelt among them. He dwelt for 30 years, you might
say, in obscurity first, with his brethren, with his mother
and father for a while, and evident that Joseph was not alive when
he began his ministry. is mentioned here, it wasn't
just of a day or an hour, but he dwelt among us. And that is
vital to an understanding of his true humanity, an understanding
also of the righteousness that he wrought out right from the
womb. All his life was a perfect, spotless,
sinless life. Mirid, when he was baptized,
he was led not by Satan, but by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness
to be tempted of Satan, 40 days and 40 nights. 40 is a number
that is of testing. The waters of Noah, 40 days upon
the earth. The children of Israel were 40
years in the wilderness. It was to be 40 days, and Nineveh
was to be destroyed. Forty is always set forth as
a trial, a testing, a proving. Forty days from when our Lord
rose from the dead, then he ascended up into heaven. Forty days he
was seen of them. And so the dwelling among us,
he as the second Adam, by Man came death, so by man must come
the resurrection from the dead. And so it must be proved that
the second Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ, could not be tempted,
could not fall, that he was not sinful of the seed of Adam. You know, Adam and Eve, they
sinned before They were tainted with sin in their innocency. And we ourselves, we might pride
ourselves that we can keep ourselves from sin. But given the right
temptations, given the right situations, we cannot not sin. Man is born unto trouble. He
is so easily led astray into sin. David knew it. Peter knew
it. People of God, they know that
there is no man that doeth good and sinneth not, or have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. But our Lord did not sin,
neither was sin, and guile found in his mouth. He was the great
antitype of the spotless, perfect Lamb of God, and had to be set
aside and ready for the offering of the Passover. And so his dwelling
among the disciples was very vital, because they saw his life. You know, we might meet someone
in the street, and think, oh, that's a nice person, and they
speak very nicely, but then you can't live with them. And then
you see them, what they're like in the morning, and what they're
like at night, and you see them when they're down, and you see
them in their moods, And you see a very different person.
When we're with our families, we know our wives, our husbands
well, our children well, in a way that the world does not know
them. Our Lord had brothers, sisters. The Word testifies that
his brethren, his sisters, they are all here, they saw him. And
this is part of the witness, part of those that received the
word, received Christ, was that he dwelt here below. This is
emphasised later on in this chapter where John points out the Lamb
of God and the disciples, verse 38, Jesus turned, saw them following,
saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, which
is to say, being interpreted, Master, where dwellest thou? Where dost thou bind? He saith
unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt
and abode with him that day. It was about the tenth hour. You know, there were the pre-incarnation
appearances of our Lord. He appeared to Abraham, one of
those three men, before he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham made intercession to
the Lord for Lot. It was the Lord that told him
of Isaac being born in due season. It was again another pre-incarnation
appearance to Jacob. They wrestled an angel with him,
a man with him. to the breaking of the day. He's
given the name of Israel because they have wrestled with God and
with man and has prevailed. And we have it with Gideon, with
Manoah and his wife. All of these appearances were,
you might say, fleeting. They were brief. Those angels,
the Lord, before he was to come upon earth and be made flesh,
They were very quick visits, and Manoa said, and Gideon as
well, they only realized it was God the Spirit, God the Lord
Jesus, or not Jesus, known then, but the true God, when they didn't
see him anymore, he ascended up in the flame of the fire of
the sacrifice. Manoah said, we shall surely
die because we have seen God face to face. And so in those
visits, they were very quick, they were very short. And the
realization that it was God that appeared to them was because
he wasn't seen anymore, he was taken up into heaven. But when the Lord came, when
he came, he was given a name. Gideon and Menorah and his wife,
they asked after the name of the angel, and the angel would
not tell his name. Wherefore, askest thou after
my name, seeing it is secret, or Margin says, wonderful, which
we have in Isaiah as one of the titles of our Lord, the Eternal
Father, wonderful, and the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Those are the titles of our Lord. Not confusing them with the Trinity,
they belong to Him as truly God, tending forth His divinity. But the point here is that those
that received Him, those that believed on Him, was that they
saw Him dwelling among them. Not just a quick visitation,
but a time years upon earth, so they could view him, see him,
hear his word, know that he was truly man, and also in those
things that they saw, they knew that he was truly God as well. So then we have the third point,
that they beheld his glory. I didn't just see Him in the
flesh, dwelling among them, but in brackets here, we beheld His
glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father. He had
the glory of God upon them. They saw this, of course, at
the Mount of Transfiguration, but they saw it other times as
well, when the Lord rose from sleep, when He was in the ship,
and He quelled the wind and the waves, and they said, what manner
of man is this, that even the winds and the waves obey him?
It was the glory that the Father bestowed upon him, this is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. The miracles that he
did, the Lord said, they are they which testify of me. These things were done in his
Father's name. And they set forth what the father
was doing in him. Really notice that the disciples
in Acts, they also did miracles. They did not do them in the father's
name. They did not do miracles to have
anything to suggest that they were divine. they had some power of their
own they clearly stated when they made the lame to walk why
look ye on us as if there was some power in us and they testified
that this man walked through the power of the lord jesus christ
the risen savior they extolled the lord they didn't say he walked
in the power of the father or of god but of Jesus Christ, to
please the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell, and
all power is given unto Him, all authority is upon our Lord
Jesus Christ. And so those that receive Him,
they receive Him beholding the glory of the Father. They see Him truly, as God, and
they worshipped Him on earth. They worshipped Him. Now we read
in the Revelation that John bowed before the angel that showed
him the things, and the angel promptly lifted him up. I am
as thy fellow servant, the prophets. Worship thou God. Our Lord never
did that to man. He never forbade them to worship
Him, because He truly was God. He is God. And that glory they
gave unto him, and the Lord received it from sinners. And if you and
I truly believe, then this will be our doctrine, this will be
what we see in him. Unto you which believe he is
precious, we will see his glory, we will esteem him as truly God. That my Lord, says Thomas, and
my God, The fourth thing that will be
seen and believed and received is beholding Him full of grace
and truth. As of the only begotten of the
Father, beholding His glory and full of grace and truth. In one sense they are joined
together, but a few of you wouldn't do. harm wrongly to the text
to separate them into two points, is beholding His glory, but beholding
Him also as full of grace and truth. Because the work that
our Lord did, the work that He came to do, was to bear witness
to the truth. Pilate says, what is truth? And
the Lord says, He came to bear witness on it. that man cannot
save himself, that God has provided a ransom, an atonement, a redemption. The truth of man's sin is witnessed
by our Lord. The truth of all of the Old Testament
types is witnessed by the Lord. He fulfills the Scriptures. He
is that Paschal Lamb. John is very clear in this. Behold
the Lamb of God. that taketh away the sin of the
world." He is testifying, here is truth. Here is the types of
the Old Testament, now here is the truth, the great anti-type.
And he's receiving all that truth. The truth is in Jesus. Paul, when he writes to the Ephesians,
is very clear in that statement. The truth is in Jesus. Truth concerning sin, the evil
of it, the bringing forth of death, the truth that God has
laid on His beloved Son, the iniquity of us all, all of His
people, the truth that He then suffered in their place and rose
again for their justification, the truth of what that transaction
that has been accomplished and done, how vital it is to View
in the Lord Jesus Christ, that near kinsman, the one that can
take our debt, take our poverty and take it unto himself, give
us his righteousness and take our sins. And it's full of grace. Paul again, when he writes to
the Ephesians, he says, by grace you are saved through faith and
that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. There would
be no grace, there could not be any free, unmerited favour
given to sinners, except that the debt be paid first, except
that justice be done, except that the holy law of God were
fulfilled in every jot and tittle for His people. And so is viewing
in the Lord Jesus Christ the fullness of grace, sin and AIDS is found in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And these four things, those,
the dear disciples that saw him in the flesh, that he dwelt among
them, they saw his glory, the glory is of the only begotten
of the Father, they saw him full of grace and truth. Even the
chief priests, They sent the officers to take him. They came
back without him. And they said, why have you not
brought him? They said, never man spake like that man. And they wondered at the gracious
words that proceeded out of his lips. They could not resist the
grace. They could not but know he was
one that spake as never man spake. And so that is how he was received,
and that is the record that John has here, and all of the evangelists,
all of the Gospels they speak are the record of what they had
seen and heard as true witnesses of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus
Christ. And we read then, that as many
as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of
God, even to them that believe on his name. They were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God. But now what of our second point,
how the word is received today. Our Lord has ascended up from
the dead, alive, same body, the flesh and bones that hung upon
the tree are now glorified in heaven and nowhere else. One
day he will come again with power and great glory. And Paul, when
he writes of the Corinthians, is very clear that 1 Corinthians
15, of the certainty of the resurrection of the dead, the resurrection
of our Lord Jesus Christ. But in the Gospel, in these days,
these Gospel days, when our Lord is in heaven, but His promise
is that, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.
His commission is to preach the Gospel, to preach the Word. So how is the Word then received
today? It's not received by fresh revelations
or fresh signs, but what is set forth what the disciples saw
in the Lord Jesus Christ, the people of God, those that are
born again of the Spirit, they will see right through to the
end of the world through the preaching of the Word. This is
why John says that these things were written, that he might believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing
he might have life through his name. Even those in the days
of his flesh that believed, the Lord pointed them to his word,
and he said, if ye continue in my word, Then ye shall be my
disciples indeed, ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall
make you free. The Bereans were like that. They
had the word preached to them, but they continued in the word,
searching the scriptures daily, whether these things were so.
Therefore many of them believed. And so the word received today
is the same way it's received, our Lord was received on earth. and it is received through faith
in the Word of God that is written. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of the Lord. It is believing the report that
is set before us in the holy, infallible Word of God. That is how we know of those
that are the children of God. They receive that same Word made
flesh. They believe the doctrine of
the eternal Sonship of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, that
He truly is God and truly is man. They believe also of what
the Lord has said, that to those that believe on His name, He
and His Father will come and dwell in them, and He dwells
in His people by His Spirit. My Spirit remaineth with you
and dwelleth in you. And the very reason why the world
cannot see the Spirit, cannot believe, because they cannot
see the Spirit, but ye know Him because He dwelleth in you. He
shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you. So the word
received today, where it is truly received and believed, It will
dwell in us, not just transient, not just a little here and there,
but the Lord will take His abode with His people. It is a new
birth, it is a new life. Old things are passed away, all
things become new. And that soul will see His glory. They will worship Him. He will
be precious to them. in the work that he's done. They
will see the grace, they will see the truth. And to you which
believe he is precious. And these things will come through
the word of God. Not fresh revelations, not anything
different. Really it gathers together those
that saw him when he was on earth and brings them their belief
was the same as those that should believe through the writing.
Our Lord says to Thomas, because thou hast seen, thou hast believed. Blessed are they which have not
seen, and yet have believed. Intimating! There would be those
that, through the preaching of the word, had not seen the Lord
personally, bodily, but they would believe. And they did,
on Pentecost and ever since, as the Lord Jesus has been lifted
up on the pole of the gospel. Men, women, children have been
brought to believe as they've seen these same things, these
same evidences. 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. The question we need to ask ourselves,
do we believe these things? And have we beheld his glory? Does he dwell among us? And do we see him full of grace
and truth? The Lord says, You shall know
the truth, and the truth shall make you free. The receiving
of these words, Whoso receiveth you, the preachers of the gospel,
receiveth me. And whoso receiveth me, receiveth
him that sent me. And there they have a token of
being a child of God and of being of those described here that
receive the Lord. What a solemn thing to be as
those who do not receive the Lord, do not receive the true
doctrine, reject the Lord as the eternal Son of God made manifest
in the flesh, reject the Scriptures to the destruction of their own
soul. But may we love the Word. May
the Word dwell in us. May the Lord Jesus Christ be
precious unto you which believe He is precious. May the Lord
add His blessing. Amen.