If you wanna turn in your Bibles
with me to the book of John, the gospel of John, today I want
to begin a series on that gospel. And so I'm looking forward to
that. And while you hold your place
in the book of John, we're also going to read from the scripture
in the book of Colossians chapter one. So I'm going to read in Colossians
chapter one before we go to the book of John. And I want to read
from verse 13 of Colossians one. It says in Colossians chapter
one and verse 13, actually I'll read verse 12. giving thanks
unto the Father, which hath made us meet, or suited, fit, fit,
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath
delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated
us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom, in his Son, we
have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. who is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn of every creature, for by him were all things created
that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers,
all things were created by him and for him, that's the son. And he is before all things,
and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased
the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. and having
made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile
all things unto himself by him, I say, whether they be things
in earth or things in heaven, and you that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death. to present you holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. Let's pray. Dear Father, we pray that by
the Lord Jesus Christ, your only begotten Son, we also might be
included among this company to whom you have written in scripture
and of whom you have written, who were the object of the eternal
love and the life-giving, saving work of the Son of God, who laid
his life down, that he might bring us to God, reconciled,
and translate us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom
of his dear Son. Thank you for this grace, Lord.
Apply your word now to our hearts by your Spirit, and write it
upon us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Now, if you turn back to
the Book of John, the Gospel of John, at chapter one, Now, before we read this, these
verses in John chapter one are no doubt very familiar to you.
And on our trip, as Denise and I were traveling this last week
to Southern California and back, and I was thinking about this
text of scripture and its familiarity, I realized that the familiarity
of things sometimes desensitizes us to the importance of them.
But I pray that the Lord would not allow that to happen. And
the other thing I noticed as we were on our trip is that in
the airport and in our travels, there were a lot of people. So
many people that you're bumping into them, you're behind them,
they're behind you, they're in front of you. There are people
on your side and on your left hand, and they're all different
kinds of people. large and small, old and young,
weak and strong, people that we might look at and admire,
or people that we would look at and pity, or whatever it might
be, just different people. And the one thing I realize is
that we're all here in this life, we're all pretty much the same.
There's not that much difference between us. Whether the outward
appearance, or structure, or intellect, or our status, our
wealth, or the lack of it. We're all pretty much the same.
We all live a certain amount of time. We all die. We all have
a self-centered view of life. And we all strive to carry on
our lives. In a lot of ways, there's not
a lot of difference between everyone in this world. But there is one. and only one who is unique in
all the world. And that's the one we're about
to read about here in the book of John. If when we're in those
times or our places where we're in a crowd and we realize that
we're just one in the crowd, really no different, not a standout,
and that the weaknesses we see in others are weaknesses in ourselves,
the things we aspire to, is what everybody else is striving for,
life and holding on to things that we hold dear. Yet there's
one who is unique in all the world. This one person is the
one we're about to read about here. And even though these words
are familiar, we should stand back and carefully listen to
what God has said about him. Because what God thinks of him
and who he truly is, is all important to us. And it says here, what
it says here about him is really wonderful beyond description.
Now, the Book of John, the Gospel of John, is one of four Gospels
in the New Testament. There's Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John. All of them give an account of
the life of the Lord Jesus Christ while he was on the earth. But
the Book of John is unique from the other three. And it is unique,
they're all unique in some extent, but the book of John is especially
unique. And you can, as you read through
it, you'll notice these things. In the book of Matthew, Mark,
and Luke, the time period that's covered covers the entire time
of Jesus's life. in quite a bit of detail in the
book of Luke. In Matthew, it begins even before
Jesus was born. It describes his birth. And in Matthew and in Luke, it
describes his growing up. In all three of them it describes
his being baptized by John, his temptation in the wilderness,
his coming into his ministry, his miracles, his teachings,
his life over three and a half years, the end of his life, his
sufferings and his death, his resurrection and his ascension
to glory. And so it covers all that mostly
in the context of a large group of people. But in contrast to
that, and in its uniqueness, the book of John covers the life
of Jesus almost in just a few selected days. So that from,
for example, from chapter 13 through chapter 17, there's only
one day. Four chapters are devoted to
just that one day. And then, of course, chapter
18, 19 have to do with his crucifixion, and 20 and 21, his resurrection
and his time with his disciples after that. So that's one thing
that's unique in the book of John is that it focuses on very
narrow intervals of time in the larger life of the Lord Jesus
Christ, giving the greatest weight to the time when the Lord Jesus
spent with his disciples near the end of his life. And those
words recorded there in chapters 13 through chapter 17 pretty
much are the Lord Jesus himself speaking and him alone speaking
to his disciples. So it's a very intimate discourse,
a disclosure of himself, of his purpose, of his glory, of his
work. That's a very unique aspect to
the book of John, Christ's discourse to his disciples, his intimate
disciples, a very near and dear relation to them. The other thing
about the book of John is that most of the time is spent in
a one-on-one solely with a particular individual. For example, in the
book of John, in chapter 1, we see Nathanael, and then in chapter
2, we see the mother of Jesus, Mary. Nathanael, Jesus, speaks
to him in chapter one, and to Mary, he answers her in kind
of an abrupt and a curt way, a way that you would almost find
to be offensive. Woman, what have I to do with
thee? Mine hour has not yet come. And so that was his response
to her coming to him and telling him that they have no wine at
the marriage at Cana of Galilee. But then we also see his one-on-one
interaction with Nicodemus in chapter three, with the woman
of Samaria at the well, with the man who was sick for 38 years
and lay waiting for the stirring of the water in chapter five.
And in chapters six and seven and eight, we see the Lord reacting
or teaching and then the enemies of the Lord attacking him And
under attack, he reveals his work to do the will of God and
save his people. So he brings sweetness out of
their hatred and their cruelty and their pride. He brings out
the greatest doctrine that may be recorded in all of scripture
in chapter six, seven, and eight. And then in chapter nine, we
see a blind man. In chapter eight, in fact, we see a woman taken
in adultery and Christ's words to her alone. We see the blind
man in chapter nine who was blind from birth and Jesus has a long
interaction with him and his enemies are always present. In
chapter 10, he's the great shepherd of the sheep. His father sent
him to save by laying his life down and taking it up again.
And how none of his sheep could be lost. In chapter 11, we see
Lazarus, the one Jesus loved and his two sisters, Mary and
Martha, the sisters of Lazarus, whom Jesus also loved. And we
see Christ's compassion and tender care for them and his revelation
of himself as the resurrection and the life. In chapter 12,
we see Gentiles who were Greeks seeking the Lord Jesus Christ
just before his death. And then this goes right on into
not only further attacks on the Lord Jesus, but his disclosure
to his disciples in all of that. So the book of John is unique
in those ways. The one-on-one discourse and
engagement and encounters of the Lord Jesus Christ with soul
individuals is unique to this book. And the... the hatred that's
poured out by his enemies, and the salvation that he reveals
under their attack for his people, and how he uniquely saves them.
And his glory in all of this is revealed in his humility under
the greatest willing humiliation and sufferings and death in the
place of his people, which is reflected in John 18, verse eight,
where he tells the soldiers who came to arrest him, if you seek
me, then let these go their way. There we have it, the Lord Jesus
Christ standing between the enemies of his people and them to defend
them and save them and deliver them from their enemies, from
sin and death and the kingdom of Satan and all of Satan's subjects. So this book is very, very endearing
to God's people. And then when we pick it up,
we expect that somehow in the beginning, we'll encounter the
introduction to the book. And we do, but it's not what
we expect. One of the things that happens
in the book of John that's also unique to the other three gospels
is that God, it says in this book over and over again, the
Lord Jesus Christ was sent by his father. He was the sent one
of God. My Father has sent me. I came
to do His will. I know His mind. I know His work. And He has invested all of His
glory and all of His judgment and all of His people into my
hand. God the Father has done this.
So in the book of John we see this intimate relationship between
the Son of God and God the Father. And so this relationship in the
Lord Jesus Christ is revealed here by introduction in the book
of John, in the gospel of John. Now, when we read this, we're
gonna see two things. Number one, the words are extremely
straightforward and simple. The message of them also is clear. but it's exceedingly deep. On
the one hand, we can understand it, but on the other hand, we
have to confess, I really know nothing about what's being said
here, because it's so vast. It's so deep in its meaning,
and yet it's so important. It's monumentally important,
but it's so compact that we're just amazed. We're amazed at
this. But this is the word of God.
And here we stand, he says here, if you look at this in chapter
one and verse five, he says, the light shineth in darkness
and the darkness comprehended it not. Didn't catch it, didn't
grasp it, couldn't see it. And that's phenomenal. That's
phenomenal. The light shines and the darkness
had no concept of it. This is talking about men in
this world. When the Lord Jesus Christ came
into the world, they could not comprehend who he was. And yet
it's stated here in simple words, in clarity, that's undeniable. And the truth of it also undeniable. And yet men have tried to pick
it apart and deny it because they hate what God has said here.
And this is true throughout the book of John. It reveals that
the heart of man is not only blind to the truth of God, but
opposed in hostility to the one who is himself the light. And
so we're going to start this now. And I have to confess that
as we look at this, we're going to read words here that we might
understand, but yet we have to confess, I really know nothing
about what's being said here in terms of its full meaning,
in terms of its full meaning. Now, by way of introduction,
I also want to read this particular text of scripture in Psalm 138. In Psalm 138, listen to these
words in Psalm 138 and verse 2. It says there, I will worship
toward thy holy temple and praise thy name for thy loving kindness
and for thy truth. So, notice, catch the meaning
here. The one who's writing this psalm
under the inspiration of God, his Holy Spirit, records this
truth, I will worship toward thy holy temple. That's where
God's presence is known. That's where God reveals himself
to his people in the sacrifice. and in the glory of his work. He says, I will worship toward
thy holy temple and praise thy name for thy loving kindness
and for thy truth. For thou hast magnified thy word
above all thy name. Now, when we talk about, when
scripture talks about the name of God, It's not like a label,
like we would label something. That's a horse. That's a zebra. That's my dog or something like
that. Or that's Bob or Bill or whoever
we're talking about. It's not that. It's the person,
the character, who they are. This is who God is when we say
his name. And I've tried to capture this
in the bulletin if you get time to read that. The name of God,
God himself makes himself known by his name. And here in this
text of scripture in Psalm 138, he says, you have magnified your
word above all your name. Now that scripture, like many
scriptures, arrests our attention because it says something that
we don't understand, and therefore it captivates us to try to understand
it. And we ask the Lord, what does
this mean? And I believe this is what it
means. Look at John, the Gospel of John
chapter one and verse one. In the beginning was the word. God said in Psalm 138 too, you
have magnified your word above all your name. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him.
So the Word is a Him, H-I-M. And without Him was not anything
made that was made. This is the Creator, obviously.
The Word is the one who created everything. He's the creator.
In Him was life. There's no life apart from Him.
And the life, the life of the Word, the life was the light
of men. Those words are clear, aren't
they? But what do they mean? Isn't that the problem? It seems
simple. A child can read it. A third
grader could read this. But what does it mean? If I live
to be 999, those words will always be a mystery to me in some sense. In the next verse, which we just
read a moment ago, and the light, the life was the light of men
and the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended
it not. Now from the very first verse, it's in the beginning.
But in verse 5, the light shined in the darkness, it's in history,
isn't it? One of them is before what we
call time. Before time began, in the beginning
was the word. And yet in verse 5, the light
shined in darkness, that happened in time, in history. and the
darkness comprehended it, that's talking about people. So there's
something that happened between verse one and verse five that
indicates that man, mankind, all mankind, all mankind, have
fallen into a darkness, a spiritual darkness that prevents them from
seeing the light. And that's a pretty gross darkness,
isn't it? So we see that the first five verses of this gospel
covers before time, through the creation, all things were created
by him. And then it also covers the fall
and the results, or at least the results of the fall, where
we are today. This is who we are. It covers
so much time in those first few verses that we're surprised that
later on in the book of John, through the Apostle John, so
much time in just the interaction between the Lord Jesus Christ
and, say, a woman at the well, or a blind man. It's amazing,
isn't it? These things should arrest our
curiosity in the most holy sense. This is very important. This
is monumental. And I'm trying to underscore
that. I want you to realize here that the one being spoken of
here as the Word is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Look
at verse 14. We're not going to get there
today, but look at verse 14. It says, 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. So the one who is spoken of in verse 1 as the Word,
that one is a man. And before he came into the world,
he was with God and was God, and yet he came into the world,
he was made flesh, he was made a man. So the first thing we
notice here in this Gospel of John is that the scripture is
describing to us the one who is himself God and who became
man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the unique one I mentioned
earlier. He's the one that is unique among
all people in all the earth, over all of history. In fact,
he's unique also in heaven among all other beings. He's not created. He is himself God. So I wanna
take some time now to look at these first few verses of the
book of John with you. And hopefully we will get some
understanding of it and appreciation for this one who is being spoken
of here. Because as I mentioned, when
you're in the airport or in life, you're outside your home, you
realize there's so many people in the world. and that you are
really not different from them. You all have the same needs.
You're all dependent upon God's gracious supply of life and breath
and all things. And so so we want to understand
this is God's view. It's not man centered at all,
is it? It's God's view. OK, look at these first words
in the beginning. Now, where else do we find that
in Scripture? Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1. In Genesis chapter 1, the very
first words of scripture. So John really is doing, he's
repeating as it were, he's picking up from the beginning. In Genesis
1 verse 1 it says, in the beginning. In John 1 verse 1 it says, in
the beginning. The same three words. In Genesis
1 verse 1, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the
earth. Now that's just a statement.
God doesn't try to prove His Word is true. He just says it
is. And this offends men. Men want
to sit in the place of the seat of deciding what's true and what's
false. They want to be the judge. And
they need evidence. Bring the evidence. If you can
bring me evidence to convince me, then it'll pass the test. It'll pass my scrutiny. And since
I sit on the throne of what's right and wrong, what's true
and error, and I can pass that on to other people in my exalted
place and my arrogance, I'm going to demand God to prove himself
to me. God doesn't do that. You know
why? Because God's word is the unprovable
axiom Everything is foundational. I mean, everything in God's Word
is foundational. Everything else must be established
on the basis of what God has said. And so in the beginning,
he says, this is what it was. You can't prove it. You might
spend your entire life, an army of scientists could spend their
entire lives trying to prove how this world came into being,
and you could not do it. Why? Because God reveals it in
his word. It says in Hebrews 11 in verse
3, by faith we understand that the worlds were formed by the
word of God, so that things which are visible or which are seen
were not made of things which can be seen. God created everything
out of nothing. He created it by his word. Okay,
in the beginning. So the beginning is what? Well,
we understand it here, it's creation, isn't it? In the beginning. And
in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, and
the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the
face of the deep. And notice, in verse 2 of Genesis
1, and the spirit of God. In verse 1, God created, here
in verse 2, the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters,
and God said, Let there be what? Light. And there was light. Now, going back to John 1, verse
1, in the beginning was what? The Word. Now, the Word is who
is being described here. And notice, everything is brought
like a funnel Or they used to have this thing when I was surveying
called a plumb bob. And you drop it. It's a heavy
weight with a sharp point. You drop it in order to establish
straight up and down from wherever you are. Everything like a plumb
bob is weighted on that point here. And it's lying on top of
the meaning of this, the word. In the beginning was the word.
Notice, was. He was. It doesn't say He was
created. It doesn't say He began to be. It says He was. He was there. He was the Word then, in the
beginning. And it says that the Word also
was with God. From the beginning, therefore,
the word was, and he was with God, and he was God. So he's both with God and was
God. Now this tells us a couple of
things. First of all, the one who is the word is God. He is
God. but he's also with God. So in
the Godhead, he's distinct from the other members of the Godhead. There is a Trinity in the Godhead. We saw in Genesis 1, God created
the heaven and the earth, the Spirit of God moved on the face
of the water, and God said, let there be light. So when God commanded
in the first creation act, light to shine, he's revealing to us
the word. He speaks, and what does he speak?
Let there be light, and the light shined. Now, this was in the
beginning, and I'm gonna talk more about that, but I want to
emphasize here the word, the word. Now, it's obvious in the
English translation it's the word, In the original language,
the word is L-O-G-O-S, logos. And it's the Greek word from
which we get the word logic, or which means the science of
proper thinking. In other words, it's the only
valid way of reasoning. And so he's saying here that
the one spoken of here is the reasoning or the wisdom of God. In other words, this is God,
God's mind laid bare. This is God opened up and disclosing
himself, revealing himself in this person. And this is so significant. When God would speak, when God
would utter and disclose himself, what does he say? The Word. He speaks Christ. There's no
way of knowing God except in his Son. That's what it's saying
here. In fact, if you look at verse 18 of the same chapter,
he says, No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten
Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.
He's made Him known. So when God, when it says the
word, it's really saying this is God in His thought, in His
mind, who He is revealed. This is God, the Lord Jesus Christ. We want to, if I want to know
something about you, you're going to have to tell me. I can see
what you look like. I can see something about how
you behave. But if I really want to know
what you're thinking, you have to tell me, don't you? You have
to say it. You have to express it, either in writing or hand
gestures or by speaking. That's the most concise way of
doing it, telling me. And God Himself has to make Himself
known. We can't know God unless He discloses
to Himself who He is. And how does He do that? He gave
His Son. He spoke in His Son. He is the
spoken Word of God. He Himself in His person. No
man has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son in the
bosom of the Father. He has declared Him. He has revealed
and made Him known. That's phenomenal, isn't it?
It's phenomenal. In Hebrews 1, verse one, it says,
in these last days, God has spoken to us in son, or in his son. It's the same thing. We saw it
in Colossians 1, where we read it a few minutes ago, where he
said this. In Colossians 1, he says that
he is the image of the invisible God. God is invisible. Christ can be seen, but not just
in his body, he's obviously that, but in the disclosure of who
he is and what he did, he reveals himself. He reveals God. Okay,
so I point these things out. Now, let me talk about this fact
here that it says the word was with God and the word was God,
just briefly. First of all, it's showing us
the word with here means not just with as like Bernadine is with Mary. It doesn't
mean that, they're side by side. But here it means with in a very
close relationship, an intimate relationship. It's a very strong
word that means nearness of relation, face to face. Literally it's
saying that the word was face to face with God from the beginning. face-to-face, God beholding the
Word, the Word beholding God, and yet the Word is God. God
is utterly complacent and approving and pleased with the Word and
the Word with God. Now we know from the rest of
Scripture, and I'll read this verse to you so you understand
this, that God is revealed as being three in one. In 1 John 5 and verse 7, it says
it this way, there are three that bear record in heaven, the
Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, or the Holy Spirit, and
these three are one. Now I could read many, many verses
to you from scripture that says there is one God, and there is
only one God. And yet here in 1 John 5 and
many other places, God reveals that he is a trinity of persons,
both God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
And in 1 John 5.7, he says that it is There are three that bear record
in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these
three are one. So we see that in the Godhead,
there are three, and the three are one, and the one is three.
And in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. So the Word, the Father, and
the Holy Spirit, and the Word was God. He himself was the divine
person. The one who is God. And how can
you understand this? I don't know. Do we really understand
what we're talking about? Not very much. But we believe
it, don't we? We believe it. And that's the
important thing. God states it. He says it without proving it.
He just says this is the way it is. We would not know it otherwise. We can't look at nature and figure
out who God is, that He is God the Father, God the Son, and
God the Holy Spirit. We can't know this in any other
way than that God put it in His Word. And let me take a minute
here to talk about this nature of the Word of God, because the
Word of God itself is three in one. What we have in our hands
is called the Bible is the word of God. This is scripture. There's
nothing else in all of this world that where God has spoken except
here in the 66 books of the Old and New Testament, the word of
God. God gave us his word written. This is scripture. This word
cannot fail. This word will be fulfilled in
all of its parts. Heaven and earth will pass away.
Jesus said, but my word shall not pass away. This is scripture. Jesus said in John chapter 10,
the scripture cannot be broken. That's the written word. But
then there's another aspect where God says the word, and that's
the Lord Jesus Christ here, the person who is the word of God.
He's the living word. He's the one who was in the beginning
with God, who was God. He is the one who created all
things. And then we have a third part of this, and this is very
important that we understand it because it'll help us understand
the rest of this. In 1 Peter 1, he says this. We have just gone through the
book of 1 Peter to some extent, and he says this in 1 Peter 1.
All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower
of grass. The grass withereth, and the
flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord That's
what we're talking about. The word of the Lord endureth
forever and this is the word, notice, which by the gospel is
preached to you. The gospel is what? The gospel
is the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ and what he has
done to save his people from their sins all to the glory of
God. So the gospel is the message.
It's the meaning. It's the interpretation of Scripture. And the message of God is what's
essential to understand the Scripture, which is the written word, and
all of them, the gospel message and the written word, are encapsulated
or contained, comprehended in and described the living word. So you see the three, the three
when we talk about the word of God. Now let's talk a minute
about this in the beginning. We've already seen that the Lord
Jesus Christ was in the beginning. It says in Ephesians chapter
3 and verse 9, God created all things by Jesus Christ. We saw
it in Colossians 1. All things were created by him
and for him. And here, without him, not anything
made was made. So in the beginning, who was
there and what was there before he created anything? Well, only
God. Only God was there. So where
did it all come from then? It had to come from God, didn't
it? Why? Again, we have to answer, it
came from God. It came from His initiative,
from His mind, from His purpose. Whatever reason He had for doing
it, it came from Him. And no one or nothing was there
to influence Him or to help Him. He didn't say, well, here's some
raw materials, I'll start with that. Here's a fallen man, I'll
start with that. Here's a spiritual kingdom that
was obviously in ruins, I'll begin there. No, nothing was
there. Only God. But there, when there
was only God, there was the Word. And this word of God, the logos,
the reasoning, the divine wisdom of God, God's mind is unfolded, it's laid bare,
and the counsels of his heart are centered in the word. So that even when by taking the
words in the beginning and applying them to creation, we haven't
gone far enough nor deep enough. Because it really means in the
beginning of God's will, in the beginning of God's purpose, in
the beginning of all that God would ever do in order to reveal
himself and to magnify his name, he exalted his word above his
own name. And He set forth Himself in the
counsels of His heart, in His infinite mind, with utter complacency,
face to face with what He designed, which was His Son. To exalt His
Son, and in His Son, and in Him alone, set forth His glory. We wonder, we might ask this
question, how do we know things? Well, we say, well, I can see
it, I can experience it, I can feel it, I can smell it, all
these things. How do you know, for example,
that the sun is in the sky? Well, I can see it, obviously,
so bright. Well, yeah, but how do you know
that there's a sun there? Well, because the rays of the
sun are shining out of that ball of fire. Okay, now let me ask you this.
How do you know the mind of God? How do you know his character?
How do you know his name? The outshining of God is the
Lord Jesus Christ. In Hebrews chapter one, it says
this. It says, he's the brightness, the outshining of his glory. So that in the beginning, God
had a purpose, an eternal purpose that he purposed in himself.
And a decree was set down that he would make himself known in
the word, in his son. But this revelation that God
would make of himself in his son had to do with something.
It had to do with something so magnificent, it had to do with
the work of God. And that work would be such that
it would make known who God is in his heart and what he thinks,
what motivates him, how he is in his nature so that we can
know God, the unknowable God, the invisible God in the Lord
Jesus Christ, in his words, in his work, in all of his life
and in his death. And what is that? It's God's
purpose. from creation and before creation
in his son concerning the church of God. And this is what I want
you to see in Ephesians chapter three. Look at Ephesians chapter
three. These things are certainly beyond
our ability to even imagine had they not been revealed. He says
in Ephesians chapter three, he says, In verse one, for this
cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,
if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which is
given me to you, word. In other words, God has dispensed
grace to me for you, how that by revelation he made known unto
me the mystery, as I wrote afore in few words, whereby when you
read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ. which
in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is
now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit."
And what does the Spirit do? Remember Genesis 1-2? The Spirit
of God moved upon the face of the waters, and God said, let
there be light. The Spirit of God reveals the
Word, Christ, It's made known, revealed by God. It was hidden
from the foundation of the world from the beginning of time, but
is now revealed the mystery of Christ by the spirit to his holy
apostles and prophets. In verse six, that the Gentiles
should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of
his promise in Christ by the gospel. So in other words, God's
disclosure of Christ and what he did, the gospel, God's purpose
to do, what Christ accomplished, that message of all of Scripture,
which reveals Christ, is given at this time in history through
the Spirit of God to the apostles, and it concerns these people
called Gentiles, that they would also be part of those who were
the Lord's people, called the church. Whereof, he says in verse
7, I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God
given to me, Notice, among the Gentiles, the unsearchable riches
of Christ to make all men see what is the
fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world
hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ to
the intent, this is the reason, that now unto the principalities
and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church
the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose, which
he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom, in Christ, we
have boldness and access with confidence by His faith or by
the faith of Him. So what is it saying here? That
God's eternal purpose is contained in the Lord Jesus Christ called
the word in his person, who would accomplish by himself, accomplish
this work. And this work of God would be
the salvation and bringing in of his people called the church. They would be called the body
of Christ. He would be joined to them, they
to him in an eternal union. And the revelation of this in
the message of the gospel would reveal the manifold wisdom of
God. That's amazing, isn't it? So
that in the book of John, as it opens up, he's saying here
in these words about the Lord Jesus Christ being the word of
God, God revealed, outspoken and uttered his mind laid bare
in the reasoning and his wisdom in this person, the Lord Jesus
Christ. who is God, who was God then,
and is God now, and was with God, distinct in His person,
and yet intimately related to Him in this eternal communion,
heart communion and pleasure between God the Son, and God
the Holy Spirit, and God the Father. And all of God's eternal
purposes, the counsels of the Godhead were brought to a point
and revealed and made known and fulfilled in the Word of God. And that purpose of God in him
concerns the Church of God. We just sang that song, the Church's
one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord. He's the foundation
of it. Now, this is God's purpose from
before time. It wasn't just a point in time. In fact, you might ask the question,
what is time anyway? That question has been kicked
around. What is time? Well, we think, well, let me
see. It's 12, 16, and 15, 16, 17. It's what's going on inside
this little box here. No, that's not time. Well, it's
in Colorado. In Boulder, Colorado, there's
a time reference, and we're all locked to that because it's connected
to these five geosynchronous orbiting satellites. And they
have atomic clocks on them, and it establishes the time. No,
that's not time. What is time then? Well, in the beginning,
God actually created it. And what was it that he created?
Well, the sun, moon, and stars, they keep track of time for us. But time, really, if you want
to know the essence of time, it's the unfolding of God's mind
in the experience of our lives. So whatever God does is the unfolding. It's the clicking of God's purpose. It's the revelation, the unfolding
of history. It's what God does. And the Lord Jesus Christ reveals
that before the sun, moon, and stars were created, before time
began, those things that he created. He set time markers. His purpose
was for all of time to reveal God in himself. This was God's
purpose. The joint councils of the Godhead
came to this purpose to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ so that
all men would know God in him and that all of his people Seen
him would be joined to him and be made the sons of God. That's
the revelation here. So this intimate union, this
sharing of will and glory and purpose and people and work that
is the God the Father and God the Son revealed by God the Holy
Spirit throughout the book of John is captured by way of introduction
and disclosure here in these words that the word God's mind
and revelation of himself, his wisdom, his purpose, his decrees,
all concern his son, and he makes himself known only in his son. And his son makes himself known
to his people by his spirit, and that in his work. So that
when in Genesis 131, it says, God looked on everything he created,
and he saw that it was very good. When the Lord Jesus Christ completes
his work, he's going to look at it all, and he's going to
set it forth, and to every angel and principality and power and
dominion, he's gonna set forth a manifold wisdom of God in his
work in the church. And now I wanna read this in
closing. Listen to these words in Revelation 21, the last book
of the Bible, the consummation of all things is given here,
the fulfillment of everything we've just been talking about
is stated here. Notice the glory of it, the glory
of it. The Apostle John writes, I saw
a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the
first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And
I, John, saw, what? The holy city. New Jerusalem
coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for
her husband. The bride are the people of God
saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. The husband is the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.
And he, this is the tabernacle now, God is going to dwell with
them. That's where God dwells, in his
people, by his son. And they shall be his people,
and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow
nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former
things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne
said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said to me, Write. For these words are true and
faithful. And he said to me, it is done. I am the Alpha and Omega, the
beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is
a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that
overcometh shall inherit all things. I will be his God, and
he shall be my son. That's the end of it, you see.
It's going to come to pass, and God tells us when it does, He's
going to set His people forth as His dwelling place. The Lord
Jesus Christ will dwell amongst us, and the beauty and the glory
bestowed upon them will be Christ's own beauty and glory, and God
will dwell among them. They will be His people. He will
be their God. There will be no more sin, no
more judgment. Every tear wiped away, all sorrow removed, and
God's work will then be done, and it will be seen, and he will
be seen in it. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we pray
that you would show yourself to us by your spirit in our very
hearts. through the gospel, the message
about the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our savior and our Lord,
our creator and our God, the one who gave himself for our
sins to bring us to God, reconcile us, to make us his sons, to make
himself known to us in that work. Lord, we pray, overcome our darkness. Shine your light according to
your great creative power, according to your redeeming power, by the
Lord Jesus Christ, whose word cannot be broken. In Jesus' name
we pray, amen.