The title of today's message
is, He was in the world. He was in the world. When I first
read this text of scripture, I had no idea that I would only
focus on those words. But I was trying to preach this
message to my wife, and she said, you need to limit it just to
that. So you have her to thank. All
right. We're going to read through this
scriptures here, and I want to read from John chapter one, verse
one, and all the way through verse 13. Every word here is so important,
and the depth of the meaning is beyond our comprehension,
but the extent of it is incredible. It spans from everlasting to
everlasting, across all of time, to eternity, and all to the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the salvation of his people.
John chapter one and verse one. In the beginning was the word,
The word here means the Lord Jesus Christ. The one whose name
is the word, who is himself the word. We think of words, when
I'm talking now, obviously I'm using words. When we read, we
read words. When God spoke, he revealed himself. He revealed his mind, his purpose,
his will, and his work, and his glory. And what did he say? the word, he spoke his son. And this was in the beginning.
There was never a time, not even before time, when God's mind
was not in and consisted in his own son. Everything that God
thinks, all of his character, who God is, is contained in,
in its fullness, in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he's talking
about that here, and this is all from the beginning, from
eternity, before the world was made, and through that creation. He says, in the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, face to face. in the most
intimate communion between the Father and the Son from all eternity. An uninterrupted communion of
intimacy in the will and mind and the work of God that Christ
would do. And the word was with God and
the word was God. He was not only the Son of God
as distinct in his person from the Father, but he himself is
God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him. And just so you know, without
him was not anything made that was made. And if he made everything,
then he made it for himself. He made it for his own purpose
and to his own glory, and that includes everything throughout
time that was made. No one was there to advise him.
No one was there to motivate him or influence him. And that's
intended to be communicated through this, that truth that God is
sovereign and he does what he wants without our influence in
order to show that this all comes from and is accomplished by our
Lord Jesus Christ. God's will is expressed in his
word And he who spoke it accomplishes his own will and his own word.
Without him was not anything made that was made. In verse
4, in him was life, in him, not in biology, but in Christ. And the life was the light of
men. This life of Christ is given to men. Excuse me. And in giving that
life to them, they know the truth. They know God. They know the
Lord Jesus Christ. They have the light. And the light shineth in darkness. And the darkness comprehended
it not. Not only did we not understand
that the truth of God that's in Christ by nature, we don't
understand it, but we couldn't prevent it from shining. We couldn't
stop it. When God determined to do His
will, to make known His glory in His Son, by saving a sinful
people, we couldn't prevent it, we couldn't assist Him. We didn't
contribute to it, it was all of Him. Verse 6, there was a
man sent from God whose name was John. John is the one, the
man, this man had no deity associated with him, he wasn't an angel,
he was just a man. But God was pleased to make known
his gospel, the gospel of his son through a man, even a sinful
man. The same John came for a witness
to bear witness of the light, the Lord Jesus Christ, that all
men through him might believe. There was a purpose for which
God sent John. It was that those who hear him
would believe. believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
would understand and see the light, be persuaded that this
is God in human form to save his people, to accomplish God's
will. Verse 8, he, John, was not that light because we have
a tendency to credit men with something they don't deserve.
But John's mission was to direct us to the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lamb of God. He was not that light, but was
sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light,
which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Verse
10, he was in the world, and the world was made by him, and
the world knew him not. This includes everyone from creation
to the end of time, all the world. Christ Jesus the Lord was in
the world and the world was made by him and the world of people
did not know him. But notice this was the purpose
why he came. He came to his own. His own meaning,
those were of the nation of the Jews who identified themselves
as being the people of God. He came to his own, and his own
received him not. This is all comprehensive. There
was no person, not in this world, who knew and received the Lord
Jesus Christ, not of himself, not of his own natural ability. Verse 12, but, and here's the
grace of God in that little conjunction, but, but as many as received
him, a miraculous thing occurred here, to them gave he power to
become the sons of God, the authority to know that they are born of
God, children of God. And what does it mean to receive
him? Even to them that believe on his name. Believing what God
has said and revealed concerning his son. Why he came, what he
did. That all of my salvation, all
my confidence, every blessing I have from God, eternal life
and eternal glory is all in the Lord Jesus Christ and nowhere
else. Verse 13, these who believe on
his name were born. Not of blood, not because they
were born to Abraham or to any of his children. Not because
they were circumcised as Moses in the law commanded. Nor of
the will of the flesh, they couldn't make it happen. Nor the will
of man, not some other person. Like their parents saying, I
want this boy or girl to be one of God's people. Notice, they
were born of God. That's verse 13. This is God's
work, and God must have the glory. He does His will, and what are
we going to say to these things as sinners? Lord. Cause me to know and receive
and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that your heart
response to this? How great God is that he would
say he was in the world, the one who made the world, the one
who was before time, the mind and purpose and will of God all
center in him, are all accomplished by him. That one was in the world. When was he in the world? Well,
we know He was in the world when He came into the world. The Lord
Jesus Christ came into the world. He wasn't like everyone else
who was born into the world. They were born, that's when they
began to be. When I was conceived and you also, in your mother's
womb, you began to be. But Jesus was already there in
the beginning. He who was in the beginning with
God and was God was in the world. He was in the world. And I've
always read this as He came into the world at that point in time.
But I was looking at different commentaries, people who understand
the original language, and I was informed of the fact that this
word, was, is referring to a past history. So that it's talking
about the Lord Jesus Christ having been in the world from the beginning. And then my mind begins to wonder,
what does this mean? And to think about how scripture
talks about this. And that's why I had Brad read
Psalm chapter 8. Look back at Psalm chapter 8.
I want you to see some things from there. And I could not,
with any authority, explain this Psalm had it not been explained
already in the New Testament. And we will look at that. But
in Psalm chapter 8, he says this. He begins, O Lord, our Lord,
how excellent is thy name in all the earth, who has set thy
glory above the heavens. He set his glory above the heavens. He's going to describe how he
made the earth in just a few verses here. He says in verse
three, when I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the
moon, and the stars, which thou hast ordained, what is man? But
here in verse one, he says he set his glory above the heavens. It means that God has set forth
his own person and character, his name, who he is, all of his
mind. And that setting forth is far
above this physical creation. And he's going to explain how
it happens here. In verse two, out of the mouth
of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of
thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. What is this talking about? Well,
this is also explained in the New Testament. When Jesus was
going to the cross, Before he went to the cross, he came into
Jerusalem where he would be crucified by the scribes, and the Pharisees,
and the chief priests, and the Sanhedrin, and all the people
of the Jews who were loyal to them, and the political powers,
Herod, and Pilate, and Gentiles, the soldiers, and all the people
in the crowd would rise up and crucify the Lord Jesus Christ. But before he did that, he came
into Jerusalem. And he came on the foal of an
ass, the foal of a donkey. He sat on it. And so he came
into Jerusalem as a king coming to be coronated, to be crowned. But he came in lowliness. He
came in meekness on this donkey's offspring. this young donkey. And the people, when he was coming,
they took palm branches and they laid them in the way because
they recognized this was the son of David who was coming to
be the king according to God's promise. And so he comes in and
while he's coming, the scribes and the Pharisees and these other
people and those who were like them were in the temple selling.
They were selling sacrifices to get money. They were enriching
themselves with money by selling sacrifices because they had set
up a business out of religion. And so Jesus came in and The
people are crying out, Hosanna to the Son of David, Hosanna
in the highest. And the children, little children,
and you've heard children singing and crying out. They can really
carry, can't they? Their voices really go out. And
as we get older, I'm speaking personally here, it seems like
our voices attenuate, they get smaller. But here the voices
of children were raised up by God and they were given strength
to shout and praise the Lord Jesus Christ when He came into
Jerusalem lowly and meek on the foal of a donkey. And so these children are praising
him. And here it says, this is what
that was. Out of the mouth of babes and
sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies
that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. The enemy
and the avenger were those who opposed Christ. They opposed
his glory. And so he comes in as David,
originally as king, rode in on that mule or whatever it was
that he rode in. And here the son of David comes
into Jerusalem, but he's not just the son of David, he's the
son of God. But the son of God is coming
in the lowliness and meekness of a man. And so he goes on,
when I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the
moon and the stars which thou hast made, what is man? that thou art mindful of him
and the son of man, that thou visitest him, notice verse five,
for thou hast made him a little lower than the angels and has
crowned him with glory and honor. Now, how did God make him a little
lower than the angels and crown him with glory and honor? Well,
we think when we read Psalm 8, that must be referring to the
fact that in creation God made people just below angels and
they're above all the rest of creation in their importance.
But according to Hebrews chapter 2, that is not what he was talking
about. He wasn't talking about just
men and people in general. He was talking about a specific
person. In Hebrews chapter 2, he says
it this way in verse 5. For unto the angels has he not
put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. Hebrews
is all about how God, having given the law, the Old Testament,
that old covenant of God, which depended on man doing his part
in order that he might live and not be cursed by God. He had
to keep the law continuously, perfectly. And God gave that
law through angels on Mount Sinai. And he says here in verse 5,
it wasn't to the angels that God put in subjection the world
to come, or as we speak. There is a world coming. And
that world coming is going to be ruled by someone, but it's
not angels. He says, But one, and he's referring
back to Psalm 8, one in a certain place testified saying, what
is man? That thou art mindful of him,
or the son of man, that thou visitest him. Thou madest him,
the son of man, a little lower than the angels, meaning lower
for a time. Thou crownest him with glory
and honor, and did set him over the works of thy hands. Who,
who is this son of man, verse 8, that has put all things in
subjection under his feet, and for in that he put all, all without
exception, in subjection under him. He left nothing that is
not put under him, but now we see not yet all things put under
him. If you look at mankind, all things are not subjected
to them. They have disease, they have wars, sin has ruined things. Their sin against God has brought
destruction upon them. But, verse 9, Hebrews 2 verse
9, we see Jesus, He's the Son of Man, who was made, for a time,
lower than the angels, for what purpose? The suffering of death.
the suffering of death. He suffered that according to
the will of God and now what? He is crowned with glory and
honor that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every
son. For it became Him, God the Father,
for whom are all things and by whom are all things, and bringing
many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect
through sufferings. So when the Lord Jesus Christ
came into Jerusalem riding on that donkey, and the people were
praising Him, and the children were given strength by the Spirit
of God to recognize Him as the promised Son of David and King
over His people, who would do what they were asking, hosanna,
which means, oh, save us. Oh, save. And they were calling
upon the Lord Jesus Christ, now coming in the humiliation of
his manhood to come under the false accusations and the cruel
treatment of sinners at their hand in order that he might suffer
death taste death for every son, and then be crowned with glory
and honor. And then God would subject everything
under his hand. And he would rule not only over
Jerusalem, but all the people of God in all of the world. And
so he says in Psalm 8, O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy
name in all the earth. Thou hast set thy glory above
the heavens. The Lord Jesus Christ, was in
the world, in the beginning of God's purpose, in all of God's
promises, God spoke His Son. And he came into the world, yes,
and he was the one who in that purpose of God was made lower
for a time than angels that as the son of man he would fulfill
God's will and put away the sins of his people by answering God's
law in justice and fulfilling it in righteousness and delivering
his people from their sins and therefore from all their enemies
because of their sins. And they would say to him in
praise and honor, Hosanna, oh save, because that is his glory. And it's set above the heavens,
the glory of God seen in his salvation of sinners by the Lord
Jesus Christ. He was in the world. He was in
the world, not only when he came into the world, but in all of
God's purposes. Look at 2 Timothy 1. In 2 Timothy, in chapter one and verse nine,
let me read this to you. He says, who hath saved us, this
is God, God has saved us and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, had nothing to do with us and what
we could do, but according to his own purpose and Grace. Everything is because of what
God is in His person and character. Everything in His own purpose,
His will, and because of His grace. Grace. That gift of God
that blesses and favors His people, not for anything found in them,
but out of His own self, because of Christ. He says, he has saved
us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was,
notice, given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. You see, in the beginning, he
was in the world. God had ordained him in 1 Peter
1 and 18 through 19 he talks about Christ
being the precious blood of Christ is that by which God has redeemed
us and he says As you know, you were not redeemed, in verse 18
of 1 Peter 1, not redeemed with corruptible things as silver
and gold from your vein, your empty and foolish and sinful
style of life, conversation received by traditions from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish,
without spot, who, notice, verily was foreordained before the foundation
of the world. God had determined to offer up
His Son to shed His blood in order to pay the debt of crimes,
of sin His people committed against God Himself. God did this. God answered His own claims against
His people in justice in the blood of His Son. That's what
he's saying here. He redeemed us. We were indebted. Christ ransomed us at the price
of his own blood. And this was before the world
began, in the purpose of God, in the purpose of God. In Titus
chapter 1 and verse 1, he says it this way. Titus 1.1, he says,
Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according
to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the
truth which is after godliness, in hope, in the expectation,
the earnest, confident expectation of eternal life, which God, that
cannot lie, promised before the world began. When did God promise? Before the world began. He ordained
it. His purpose, we saw in 1 Peter
1.20, He ordained it before the world began. He purposed it,
2 Timothy 1.9, before the world began, according to His grace
in Christ. And here, He promised it before
the world began. The Lord Jesus Christ was in
the world. In God's purpose, in God's ordination, His decree
that He set down, it could not be changed, and in His promise
before the world, and God cannot lie. Who did He promise it to?
We weren't there, were we? Ah, but we were, because He was
the Son of Man. He was set up from everlasting
as the Lord Jesus Christ. God couldn't promise us eternal
life in Jesus Christ unless he was set up as Christ, the Son
of God, the Word of God was in the world in that sense. And
you can see this throughout scripture, in prophecy, in visions. Remember, God appeared to Jacob,
and the ladder was set up from earth to heaven, reaching up
to heaven. And Jacob dreamed a dream, and he saw the angels
of God ascending and descending on this ladder. And the Lord,
Jehovah God, stood in heaven at the top of this ladder. And
Jesus told Nathanael in John 1, verse 51, he says, you're
going to see. the Son of Man and the angels
of God ascending and descending on him. The Son of Man. He was explaining the vision
that Jacob saw was Christ and him crucified upon which sinners
on earth would be able to go into heaven through the Lord
Jesus Christ and the angels of God ascending and descending.
God's message coming to his people And that message being Christ
and through Christ. So throughout the Old Testament,
we see in God's purpose, as we just read in God's promises.
Remember in Genesis chapter 3, he says, the seed of the woman
will bruise the head of the serpent. That's a promise. Speaking of
Christ, what he would do before he did it. God spoke it before
it happened as if it had already taken place. God calls things
which are not as though they already are. Things that do not
exist, he calls as though they do exist. He raises the dead,
and this is God's character. This is his power, that he can
speak the word, and he himself brings it to pass. And the word
spoken was Christ. Everything in all of God's work
was vested and put in his hands to bring it about. And that work
was the salvation of his people. In the bush, God appeared to
Moses. Remember in Exodus chapter 3,
the bush was burning. It wasn't consumed. Moses approached. God spoke to him out of the bush
in Exodus chapter 3. And he said, I'm the Lord, Jehovah
God, the God of your fathers. He told him, you go to the children
of Israel and Egypt, and you tell them, the God of your fathers
has appeared to you. How could God appear to a man?
In the Lord Jesus Christ. So everything God did in the
Old Testament, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, it was speaking
about this. Look at one verse, for example,
look at 1 Kings 8. The setting here is the situation,
the occasion of this text of scripture. Solomon is dedicating
the temple. He's praying to God. He's calling
to mind what happened that David, his father, had prepared for
the building of this temple. And he was asking God to put
his name here in this temple in 1 Kings 8. And in his prayer, he said in
verse 27, notice these words, take these words with you today,
repeat them over and over again, think about them, understand
the great mystery of them. Solomon says in his prayer, by
the inspiration of the spirit of God, but will God indeed dwell
on the earth? Behold, the heaven and the heaven
of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house that
I have built. He's talking about the incarnation
of the Son of God coming in our nature, represented by the building
of this cedar temple in which God would put his name. And Solomon
in contemplation of the visual type, the figure of Christ coming
in our nature and accomplishing by his humiliation the work God
would give him to do. And the fact that his people
would be saved by it and children would rise up and praise him
for it. Us who have no strength, no strength in ourselves as foolish
and ignorant children given grace by God to acclaim and ascribe
all credit to our Savior for saving us and asking Him to do
that. And he says, will God indeed
dwell with men on the earth? The heaven, this universe can't
contain Him, and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee. And He is going to dwell in the
body of a man? The fullness of the Godhead in
a body? The Lord Jesus Christ, yes. And
the glory of God is set above the heavens in the coming of
our Savior in promise, in prophecy, in type, and shadow and everything. His presence was with His people
in the cloud, remember, in the wilderness. God was in the cloud
in the wilderness. He was between them and their
enemies. Behind them were the Egyptians.
Ahead of them were the enemies of Israel as they made their
progress toward that Land of Canaan, which represented our
eternal inheritance and salvation in Christ. And there between
them and their enemies was the cloud by night as a pillar of
fire, and by day to protect them from the heat of the sun, just
as the Lord Jesus Christ, according to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. He's our cloud. He's the one
who guides us and protects us and stands between us and our
enemies. The presence of God with his people, that's Christ. He was in the world. And then
they passed through the Red Sea. Moses led them through those
waters which were opened up to them and they walked on dry ground
between the wall of water on their left and their right. And
it says in 1 Corinthians 10 that they were baptized unto Moses
in the sea. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
would lead his people and he would be baptized and they would
be with him in his death, buried with him and raised again. And
that baptism in the Red Sea looked forward to the fact that Christ
would bring his people through the judgment of God. They would
be baptized and delivered from it. And every believer, when
we are baptized, we confess, this is all of my salvation. That Jesus Christ, when he died,
I was joined with him in his death. When he was buried, I
was with him in his burial and rose with him in his resurrection
by God's own doing. And just as those children of
Israel followed Moses through it, we follow the Lord Jesus
Christ, believing Him, don't we? He was in the world and all
these things. He was the bread from heaven,
the manna given in the wilderness. That was teaching according to
John 6, 35, that Jesus Christ was given by the Father for the
life of his people, his body broken, his blood shed. He was the rock that the law
of God by Moses's rod struck that rock. And out of that rock
came water for the thirsty Israelites in that wilderness, just as the
Lord Jesus Christ was smitten by the justice of God, in order
that all the grace of God flowing to His people would give them
the righteousness of Christ, eternal life, the Spirit of God
to know Him and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, to even be
born as sons of God. Jesus Christ was in the world.
He was in the world and all these things. He was the one who was
with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in that fiery furnace. He was
the one promised who would sit on David's throne, the son of
David, as David's Lord forever. And there would never be an enemy
who would rise up against his people. He would subdue all of
their enemies under his feet. The Lord Jesus Christ was in
the world. Back to John chapter one. And we'll have to close
it here. But the book of John is incredibly, all of scripture is like this,
but the book of John is laying these things out for us in the
very beginning of the book, and it unfolds them to us throughout
the book. He says, he came, he was in the
world, and the world was made by him, the creator. The one
who was the word, the one in who all of God's purposes and
promises of salvation of his people was in him, and the world
knew him not. There we are. He came to his
own, he came to the nation of the Jews, and his own received
him not. Now that includes both groups
of people that we normally think of in scripture. The Gentiles
and the Jews, they all didn't know him, they didn't receive
him. What hope do we have? Ah, here's the hope, that out
of the Gentiles, those people who were not Jews by birth, and
out of the Jews which were born to Abraham through a physical
generation, being born through his children, that out of these
nations, God would have a people for himself. So we see then that
the purpose of God for the word of God coming, the creator coming
into the world, is for this. Notice, as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the children of God. To be known
as the children of God, he says, These which received him were
born. What caused them to receive? Where did this come from? Because
they were born. Born how? Well, not of physical
blood, nor of the will of man, not of man's flesh, nor of man's
own will. It has nothing to do with the
will of man. We just saw that all the world
and his people didn't know or receive him, but some did. And the reason is that they were
born of God. He says, not of blood, not of
the will of the flesh, not of the will of man, but of God. You see, it's very simple. It's
not of you, it's of God. How do I become a believer? God
has to give you faith. How does he do that? He births
you. How does he birth you? He births
you as His child by His Spirit because of the Lord Jesus Christ
to know Him. And this is grace, isn't it?
He was in the world. The world was made by Him. The world did not know Him. He
came to His own. His own did not receive Him.
As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons
of God, even to those that believe on his name, because they were
born, and this birth was of God, not of themselves. Now, that
leaves us utterly dependent, doesn't it? It leaves us utterly
dependent upon God's grace. And that's exactly, that is precisely
the message of the gospel. You are a sinner without strength,
But in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Even when we
were yet sinners, even when we were sinners, when we had no
strength, God sent his son. God commended his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
And this birth, this death of Christ, His coming of Christ,
His birth and death of Christ, and the faith that comes to us
because of His victorious life and His victorious death are
all ours by the will of God and the work of God. We can't make
it happen. What do we do then? We look to
the Lord Jesus Christ to do it, don't we? If He is God, He can
do this. That's our only hope, that the
one who came as our savior made us. He's God, and all of God's
mind and purpose are in him. So we come to him, Lord, Lord,
I need but cannot do one thing. In fact, I have offended in every
way. Save me by your grace, according
to your own purpose and grace, which were given us in Christ
Jesus from the world began. And so just like the songs we
sang earlier, we just, we look to the Lord Jesus Christ and
plead with God to receive us because of his precious blood.
And we're confident that because it is only because of the blood
of Christ, because of his doing, not ours, that God can receive
me. That's our hope, isn't it? Let's
pray. Father, thank you for your grace.
in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is not only able, but actually
did accomplish everything needed to save us from our sins. We
have no hope, but the hope you've given us in your word concerning
him. And so we come as we do today,
every day of our lives, we will always be in our entire person
in all of our life dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ to
save us for his name's sake, not for our sake. We don't ask
these things because of anything in us or potential of us, but
for his sake that you might be glorified in your son. You have
set your glory above the heavens. And we pray that out of these
mouths of ours, though we be babes, in understanding, and
though we be sinful in ourselves, that you would ordain and bring
forth praise to put to silence all of your enemies, that you
saved sinners by yourself, and all to your glory, and for our
salvation, and by your great grace, to praise you as your
own children. as your own children. What a
great grace this is. Lord, be with us now as we consider
what our Savior has told us to do in taking his broken body
and his shed blood in these elements. In Jesus' name, amen.