John chapter 1, and we'll kindly
go through this verse by verse. And the title is simply, The
Deity of Christ. The Deity of Christ. John says here in chapter 1 and
verse 1, In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. And that's what I want us to
see first and foremost here, is this is the main theme of
John's Gospel, is the Deity, the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now if you were to see the beginning
of the other Gospels, Matthew, Mark, And Luke, you would see
that these Gospels begin with the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. They begin with the virgin birth
and they show how that Jesus was the son of David, the son
of Abraham, the son of Adam. That He was the seed of the woman. The Holy Spirit reveals. How he was under subjection for
33 years, under subjection to his parents in those other Gospels. It shows very little of his childhood,
but yet when he was 12 years of age, you read how that he
confounded the doctors of the law. Yet John does not start with
the humanity. of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
does not start with the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, but
rather goes back even before the creation of time. John says,
in the beginning. In the beginning. This was an eternal state of
being before there was any time created. In the beginning doesn't
mean that it began. It always was. From eternity
past is where John begins his gospel. This is the eternal beginning
when God dwelt alone in perfect peace, contentment in the Holy
Trinity of His person. In the beginning. Do you realize
that if God needed us, if He needed a creature or creation,
that it would have been created from all eternity. But see, God
being perfect, God being holy and content with Himself, dwelt
from all eternity by Himself. I'll tell you this, when I'm
by myself, I usually go crazy. Why? I'm not close to perfection. And my own company is very boring. I'm bored with myself. I need
somebody else to talk to. And we are creatures that communicate. We are creatures made for one
another to inhabit this world together. But God is altogether
being perfect, was by Himself in eternity. of which Jesus Christ was one
with the Father and the Spirit. And He is called in John's Gospel,
the Word. In the beginning was the Lord
Jesus Christ. In the beginning was the eternal
Son of God. In the beginning was the Son
of God. The Son of God is the Word. And
the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Now, this Word
was. I don't want to make a big deal
about this, but I think it was important. This Word was. Look at this. In the beginning
was the Word. And the Word was with God. And
the Word was God. Used it several times here. And
when I saw what this meant, it was a blessing. Look down in
verse 6. He uses, in our language, the
word was again. He said, there was a man sent
from God whose name was John. This word was is very important
because it refers to an object as having no beginning. In the beginning, was always
was. never began to be. You see, John,
it says, he began to be sent. He was a man that began to be
sent of God. He wasn't always sent of God.
There was a time where he wasn't sent of God. But yet, the was
here has an eternal reference as to there was no beginning
to the being of the Lord Jesus Christ. There was no beginning. The Son of God did not begin
to be, but always was with God. Notice this. With God, meaning
separation of persons. The Word was with God, as one
beside God, as one that come up in the bosom of the Father.
And the Word was God. Showing the union between Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. One God. Three persons. The Blessed Trinity. The Gospel
of John holds this truth as a central theme throughout its book. That
Jesus, who was born of the seed of woman, of the seed of David,
far existed long before He was incarnate. Long before He became
a man. He was the eternal Son of God. Let us pause over this and consider
whom we have believed. You who believe on Jesus Christ,
do you not see that He is God? Because if you believe on Christ
and you don't see His deity, you don't believe on Christ. If you believe on Christ and
you don't see His humanity, you don't believe on Christ. You
see, He is both God and man. But before He became man, I know
a lot of people don't like that word, became, but the Scriptures
tell us He became man. But before He became man, He
was always the Son of God. He was always the Son of God.
Consider the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and the glory of
His deity. Our Jesus is God. Not a God,
not a creature of God, not a thought of God, but God. God. So when we talk of the Lord Jesus
Christ, we are speaking of perfect deity, perfect holiness, perfect
righteousness, perfect power, eternal being, Jesus, the Word. Now then, Jesus is called Word
for a very specific reason. This name is given to the eternal
Son of God because He from eternity was purposed to declare God. To declare God. As God dwelt
alone before there was any creation or time, it was purposed that
the Son of God should reveal the invisible God. This is why
He's called the Word. Who else but the Son of God who
was God and with God could reveal God? If He wasn't with God and He
wasn't God, how could He reveal God? There was a man who was given
an assignment by a king. The king said, I want you to
go and tell me who is God. And so the man began to study
concerning God. And he came back to report to
the king and he said, what have you found out? He said, just
give me some more time. I need more time. Large subject. And so he gave him some more
time and some more time and finally he said, I need an answer. Who
is God? And the man said, the more I
studied, the larger it became. Who could know God? Who could
expound God? Who could reveal the invisible
God? You couldn't with all the volumes
of literature. You couldn't with all of the
words of the human languages put together. You could not reveal
the invisible God because you and I were not there. You and
I have very little concept of what? We have no concept of eternity. Just be honest. We even say foolish things like
eternity past. We can't even say it right. We
have no other way of conceiving it. God is so large and so huge. How then can God be revealed
to such finite creatures? The Son. He was always purposed
to be the Word of God from eternity. He was purposed to tell the fullness
of God's person. He was purposed to reveal the
Father and the Spirit. He was purposed to reveal and
declare the eternal salvation of God's elect. Go over to Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 8, verse 22. Oh, the language here. God is
so condescending, but yet this language is still so vast that
we can scratch the surface of it. This is the Lord Jesus speaking. He said, the Lord possessed me
in the beginning of His way. When was that? When was the beginning
of His way? It was an eternal way. It always
was. He possessed me in the beginning
of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from the
everlasting, from the beginning, wherever the world was. Set up to do what? Set up to be. The mediator between
God and man. Set up to be the Savior. Set up to reveal God to man. That's what He was set up to
do. Go over to verse 30. He says, Then I was by Him as
one brought up with Him, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing
always before Him. rejoicing in the inhabitable
part of the earth. And my delights were with the
sons of men." He was always set up to be the mediator. He was
forever God's delight. And He was forever, we were forever
His delight. Is that not great? We who are
His children, we who know the Father by the Son, is it not
a great delight to know that you were always His delight?
You were always His delight. There was never a time He didn't
delight in you. There's a lot of times we don't delight in
ourselves. That's a different story. But we who are believers
in Christ, we have this assurance that His delight was with us
and we are accepted because we were in Him and God delighted
in the Son. Hebrews 1 tells us, God in sundry
times and in divest manners spake in times past to the fathers
by the prophets. Hath in these last days, how
has He spoken to us? He has spoken to us by His Son. The Word. The Word. No man hath seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father,
hath declared Him. Jesus is the Word that reveals
God to man. How can you know God? How can
you know God? How do you know what God requires?
How do you know His perfections or His holiness? How is it that
you would know how it is that God can be just and justify sinners? Only by the Son. If you miss the Son, you've missed
the whole purpose. You've missed God completely.
You know nothing of God if you don't know Him through the Son. Well, first of all, Jesus reveals
God to all men, listen to me, all men by creation. Jesus reveals to all men God
by creation. Look at that in the second verse.
The same was in the beginning with God. Number three, 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. All things were made by Him.
The Lord Jesus Christ was the Word that was spoken in creation,
that brought creation into being. Think of a word. What do we use
words for? Words If we have a thought, how
can you know my thought unless I clothe it in words? Or how can we know God unless
the Word of God revealed? Christ is the purpose of God. He is the salvation of God. He is how men know the invisible
God exists. And so by creation, Jesus has
manifested God's power. He's manifested God's wisdom.
He's manifested the Godhead, the deity. The supremacy of God
is visible to all men by just looking at the things that are
made. Atheists are the most ignorant
men in all the world, and they're willfully so. willfully ignorant. I remember one man trying to,
it's foolish to debate them, don't do it. It's foolish, leave
them alone. One man had just asked a simple
question, you know, well, if that's where that came from,
then where's this come from, where's this come from? And he
goes, okay, let's just skip all that, go back to the very first
spark, where's the spark come from? You know what the smartest
atheist in all the world said? Aliens! That was his answer. This is all they've got. They've
got nothing because they know there is a God. You can't look
at the complexity of a human cell and not see the divine power
of God. God is visible to all men in
creation. The Lord Jesus is the one that
spoke this world into existence. So all men are without excuse.
They know there's a God. It's revealed plainly. Truly, in the account of God's
creation, we who are saved by grace, we can see the gospel
in creation, can't we? I've preached I know a couple
of times in this body from Genesis 1, 1. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and
void. What is that? That's our sinful humanity, isn't
it? Without form and void. And darkness covered the face.
That's our depravity. And then the Spirit of the Lord
moved upon the face of the deep. Here is regeneration. The power
of the Spirit working on the heart of man in creation of what? God said, let there be light.
And who is the light but the Lord Jesus Christ? For the light shined out of darkness.
God commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in
our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God. Where? In the face of Jesus. We know this! We can see
this! I'm glad to see this, aren't
you? When I read creation, it's not some dry thing for me. I see salvation. I see God's
in it. The lost man can't see this.
The creation of the world doesn't show the lost man God's salvation. The world that was made in perfection
is now under a curse and it can by no means give light and knowledge
of God's character such as His love, His mercy, His grace. You can't look at the world and
find that. You can't look at nature and find that, can you?
What do you find when you look at nature? I find cruelty. I find cruelty. You defy the
laws of nature and see where you will get you. It will not
be merciful at all. It's common. If you jump from
this building, there are going to be great repercussions. If
I jump from this building, there are going to be great... It's
just natural. You break that law and you're
going to suffer for it. You can't find mercy in that.
You can't find kindness. You don't find any of that. It's
cruel. It's cold. It's callous. A person can't look at nature
and find salvation. The only thing a person looks
by nature and sees is confusion. I know this by my own nature,
by my own sinful nature. I'm very confused at times, aren't
you? I seem very confused. The Word of God, Jesus Christ,
created the world, which reveals the existence of the person of
God, but not the character or salvation of God. Second of all,
Jesus has revealed God by life and light. Look at verse 4. In Him was life. And that was,
again, it never began. He, in Him, dwelt life from eternity. He is the source of all life. And the life was the light of
men. Jesus Christ is the author of
all life, for in Him we live and move and have our being,
both lost and saved. All that have life, it is given
by Jesus Christ. Know this certain truth, that
our very breath rests in the hands of this man, Jesus Christ,
who is God, blessed forever. Our ability to move our bodies,
to have strength, to work, to eat, to play, this comes from
the will of Christ. You will live as long as Christ
allows you to. That's what John is telling you.
In Him is life. That's it. He controls all life. And John says the life was the
light of men. Now, this is the natural light
which is given to man, which comes by the revelation of the
law of God written on the hearts of men. Everyone who has life
has the law of God written on their hearts. Children are the
greatest example because you have to teach them to do good. You do not have to teach them
to do evil. Yet, when they do evil, they
know it already. Because the law of God is written
on their hearts. When they lie for the first time,
they know the guilt of it. They know it's not right. Every man has this light. Now as men grow older, what they
begin to do is sear their conscience. You do something enough and it
doesn't feel as much shame as when you first did it. But yet
that law is still there. That law is still there that
People know that fornication is wrong. They know adultery
is wrong. They know homosexuality is wrong. They know abortion
is murder. They know this! Now, will they
admit it? No. But I know this. It's so. I'm not here to debate it with
them. They know it's evil. It's evil. Because the law of
God is written on their hearts. The Lord Jesus gave them this
life. And behold how pathetic the human nature is to rebel
against the light it has. No man has ever created anything. And yet we see the power of God
to create, and yet we still rebel against such a power? We still
shake our fist in such display of God's vast, holy power? Yes. Even with this light, man still
defies God. Look at that. He says, And the
light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it
not. Jesus said, If your eye be evil, The whole body is full of darkness.
And if the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that
darkness. This light of the existence of
God, this light of the law that is written in your heart, is not going to penetrate the
darkness and depravity of a man's soul. You can convince a man
that God exists, and you can convince him he's a sinner. But
I'll tell you this, that will not penetrate. That will not
shed light on his old nature. Why? Because the old man loves
darkness. Loves darkness rather than light. This is the pathetic nature of
man. That he would be so gracious
to give us such light, and yet we by nature hate. that light. We are spiritually dead to all
light, and all light is darkness. Now, you put a dead man in a
room full of lights, is that going to do anything? No. You're not going to see the light.
You put a blind man in a room full of light, it doesn't do
anything. It doesn't matter how great the
light is. He's not going to be able to see it unless you give
him life, unless you open his eyes. He cannot see it. The light
is darkness to him. And that's how it is with the
natural man. Oh, the hopeless condition of the natural man
who will not come to Christ, who cannot come to Christ because
he loves his sin. You hear this message of light
that is given to you, but if you are dead, unless the Word of God, unless
God the Son revealed Himself, you will die in your darkness. You will die in your sins. Unless the Son of Righteousness
rise in your hearts, and reveal the Father, you will never know
Him. How will the Lord Jesus Christ give this spiritual life
and light? Because that's what we need.
Natural light, natural life, those two won't save. What will? Spiritual life and spiritual
light. That's what we need. How does
it come? Well, look at verse 6. It's so abrupt. There was a man
sent from God whose name was John. Do you see how abrupt that
change is? Here we go from the deity of
the Son of God. Now then, all of a sudden, He
changes view and we have John. Why is that? Why this abrupt
change? There was a man sent named John. John the Baptist reveals to us
the means by which the Son of God is revealed to men. By witness. By witness. There was a man whose
name was John, Son of God. The same came for a witness. To bear witness of the light. To bear witness of the light. The light of salvation. All who
preach the gospel of Jesus Christ are witnesses. I am a witness to you. I'm a witness to you of the light
because I have seen the light. You can't be a witness of what
you haven't experienced, can you? You can't be a witness of
what you haven't seen. We who preach the gospel, we
are telling you what God has done for us. He's cut on the
light. He's given me life. By His sovereign
grace, God came down by His Holy Spirit, and His Son was made
clear to me. That He is the only hope for
my soul, that His blood is the only atonement for my sin, that
His righteousness is all my hope before God. This is the witness
we bear. We bear witness of the light
because we were dead and now we're alive. Because we who were
blind now see. We did once follow our lusts
of our flesh, just like all other men, but now we are washed. Remember
that the apostles said that neither fornicators, nor adulterers,
nor effeminate, nor abusers themselves of mankind, nor liars, nor any
of these shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. And such were. Such were some of you. But you
are washed. Have you been washed by the blood
of the Son of God? Have you been given the water
of the Spirit of regeneration and life to believe on Christ? If you have, then you have a
witness in yourself. You have a witness of the Holy
Spirit in yourself, that Jesus Christ is all your righteousness,
sanctification and redemption. Therefore, we bear witness to
men of the light. We do not bear witness of ourselves. I'm not here for you to look
at me. This morning, I want you to see
the Son of God. I want you to see Him, to know
Him. John says, I'm not worthy to
bend down and unlatch His shoes So don't look at me. I'm not
the Christ. I'm not the light. He's the light. And I know this, that if you're
ever going to have the light, he has to give it to you. All
I'm here to do is bear witness of it. I'm just to tell you what
God has given me. And Jesus Christ is the true
light. Look at that in verse 9, that
He was the true light. He's not a deceptive light. Satan
sometimes transforms himself into an angel of light. But He's
not the light. He's not the light. He's a deceptive
light. Jesus is the true light. In other words, He is the light
that gives life to the soul. Do you have life in the soul? that
comes from the light that's true. Jesus is the true light because
He is the real light. He is the light that shines on all
those Old Testament shadows. When you read the Old Testament,
are you looking for Christ? Otherwise, why would you read?
history of a Jewish nation going from place to place, miracles,
all this. If you're not looking for Christ
there, you're not going to find anything. This whole book is
about Christ. He's the true light that shines
off those old shadows. He is the fulfillment of all
the Scriptures. He is the true light. Jesus is the true light because
He is underrived. In other words, all light comes
from Him. All knowledge and understanding.
Do you know Him? Well, you know that's a gift
from Him, don't you? You know that He gave that to you. You
didn't merit that. You didn't deserve that. He didn't
have this light because He deserved it. He had it always because
that's who He is. He is light. We're not that way, are we? Our
light is derived from Him. Anything I know about Him is
because of Him. One man likened us to a lantern.
If you put a lantern there and set it down, it has no light
in itself unless it be lit. And how can the light shine in
the room unless a man carry it? You see, we're the lantern. He's
the light and He carries us. And the light shines from us.
We are the light of the world only because He is our light
and He carries us about and we witness of Him. Every preacher's
sin of God does not ever point men to himself. But we, like
John, say, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin
of the world. Behold. Behold. Behold God manifest in the flesh. Jesus Christ. I witness to you this morning
to behold the eternal Son of God, the Creator and Sustainer,
light and life, physical and spiritual. And by His sovereign
free grace, He who is the true light gives light to whomsoever
He will. If you have light, it is because
He willed to do so. I believe it was Thomas Goodwin
that said, Why has God chosen you? and saved you, there is
only one answer, Himself. He is the cause of everything.
He does all things for Himself. You're saved because of Him.
Because of Himself. For His glory. And it must be by this message
that the Gospel of Jesus that is declared unto you, it is by
this message that the Spirit of God gives life. The Lord Jesus in His high priestly
prayer said that those of His people should believe the word
of His disciples, of His apostles. Look at verse 10 and 11. It says, He was in the world,
and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He
came into His own, and His own received Him not. This light
who is God-blessed forever, the Son of God, came into the world
as a man, and He was not recognized or received. Regardless of the miracles that
the Lord Jesus Christ did, none of those, those miracles, caused
one person to believe. If they believe because of the
miracle, just because of some great thing they saw, they're
like the 5,000 that followed the Lord Jesus across the sea.
They fed 5,000 men with bread. And what they do, they said,
Oh Lord, we're going to make you king. And Jesus said, you know, you're
not mine. And he proved it by declaring
to them the gospel, and they all left him. They all left him. This light, the Son of God, He
declares the Word of God, but no man is able to receive Him,
no matter physical proofs of physical proofs. He came into
the world, and the world knew Him not. He came into His own,
and His own received Him not. How remarkable that Jesus the
Creator came to His creation, not as a tyrant king, not as
a dictator, not as one to condemn. He came in loving kindness, tender
mercy, forgiving sins, and they hated Him. They hated Him. And they still say, man still
says, we will not have this man to rule over us. Nobody is mad with the Jesus
that loves everybody. But a sovereign Christ, natural
man will have nothing to do with Him. Jesus came in sweetness
and meekness in our nature, and dwelt among us in flesh and blood,
He shared our mortal frame and our sorrows, that He might reveal plainly
God's salvation. You, sinner, hear the gospel,
behold the true light that gives life, Jesus Christ. And notice
what happens when the gospel is witnessed and testified of,
but as many as." I love those words, as many as. Even as many as the Lord our
God shall call. That's how many were added to
the church. As many as. But as many as received Him,
to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even them that
believe on His name. Do you believe on His name? You who believe on His name,
as many of you as believe on His name, do you realize that
you have right now the power? And this word is not saying that
your faith gives you power to become the Son of God. It's not
what it's saying. He's saying this word power,
it means right. You who believe. You have a right. to be called the sons of God. You believe? You believe on the
Son of God? You know you didn't believe because
of yourself. You know you didn't believe because
of the light of this creation or because of the light of the
law. You didn't believe because of that. You believed because
the true light shined out of darkness in your heart and gave
you faith. And you believe. You are an heir! And join heir
with the Lord Jesus Christ, your Son of God. And our sonship,
when did that begin? Well, that began when the Son
dwelt in the bosom of the Father, when the Father adopted us to
be His sons. predestinated us to be as children.
And now that we have believed, now is the time that we can realize
it. We rejoice in it. Now is the
time for joy. Darkness has been turned to light. Sorrow has been turned to joy. Ungodliness turned to righteousness. All because of the work of Jesus
Christ, the Savior. You who believe, you have the
right, the power to be called the sons of God. How is it then that you have
received the Lord and believed on Him, which were born, verse
13, not of blood, not because you were related to a Christian?
Do you realize that churches still believe in this? A member of a church who's a
believer, when they have children, that their children are entered
into the covenant? People still believe that garbage.
That you can be born of a believer and you can produce a believing
child. That's a lie. That's a lie. Not of blood. We were not born
of blood. Some people believe that you
can be born again by your will. That you can determine to be
born again. And God must honor your will. Hogwash. Filth. Blasphemy. Not born of
the will of the flesh. And no matter how much I want
my children to believe, I know this, they'll never be born again
because of my emotional and sentimental efforts. Not by the will of man. I want you to be saved, I want
you to believe, but my will has nothing to do with your salvation. You that are born again, you
know you are born of the will of God. The will of God. This is our comfort. This is
our assurance. That God who purposed our salvation,
Jesus who as God accomplished our salvation, the Holy Spirit
who has given us salvation, will He not finish? Will He leave you? Will He forsake
you? Never, no never, no never will
Jesus Christ forsake you who have been born of the Spirit
of God. None. None. Who can take you out of His hand? No one. Remember, the Son is
God. And if God shed His blood for
our sins, is that not enough? God was satisfied, why would
you not be? May God give us grace to see
the deity of our Savior and submit ourselves to Him. Obey Him. He's not our buddy. He's our
God and Savior. And we should commit every part
of our life to His service. He's worthy of it. I pray that
God will bless this to your hearts. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.