Let's look at the Word today.
Turn to the first epistle of John in Chapter 1. The first epistle of John, Chapter
1. And we want to continue tonight
to think about who is this man? Who is this Son of Man? And I
don't think there's anyone who can give us a better answer than
John. John. I think you can't read
anywhere in the Gospel of John, or in these epistles, without
recognizing that this beloved disciple has this great and burning
desire that we may know Christ. He begins his Gospel in this
way. In the beginning, the very first words of his Gospel, in
the beginning, was the Word. And the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. And how does he finish up his
Gospel? He ends in this way, this is the disciple who testifies
of these things. He's speaking of himself. This
is the disciple who testifies of these things and wrote these
things and we know that his testimony is true. And there are also many
other things that Jesus did which if they were written one by one,
I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the
books that would be written. To John, Jesus is a magnificent
person, a being of surpassing excellence. Everything which
Jesus did, everything which Jesus said, was of incomparable worth. Five minutes with Jesus is like
a whole library of truth. You can sense that if it were
possible, John is saying he would write down everything which Jesus
said. He would write down everything which Jesus did. And he would
fill the whole world with books. For what reason? That we might
know him. This is why it's so vital that
we know, who is this man? Who is this man? And it's something
that we'll be learning until the Lord takes us to be with
Him and we see Him face to face. Then there'll be a full knowledge
of this person. But what a blessing and what
a rich blessing it is in this life to learn more and more of
this man. There's nothing better than I
can do for you tonight, that even if it's in a small way,
to give you an understanding, a little better understanding
of who this man is, to give myself a little better understanding
of who this man is. Well, here in verse 5 of this
first epistle, Chapter 1. John tells us something that
is of the greatest importance. 1 John 1 verse 5. And this is what he says, This
is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to
you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. This is the essence of the divine
nature and all the perfections of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. He is essentially, invariably,
incomprehensibly light, purity, and holiness. This is what John
means when he says, God is light and in Him is no darkness at
all. This is an eternal and unchangeable
truth. How is it that John came to know
this truth? Well, he tells us in the first
verse. Look up there to the first verse. This is what he says,
"...that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we
have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our
hands have handled concerning the Word of Life." The life was
manifest and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you
that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested
to us. See, John is saying this is our
experience. This is something that is true. This is the reality. We saw Him. We were with Him. We heard Him
speak to us the words of truth. We touched Him. Their experience of Jesus and
what they came to know was this, that He was from the beginning.
This One who dwelled with them was the Word that was with God
and the Word that was God. And He is this eternal life which
was declared to them. Now Jesus dwelt with them. They
heard Him, they saw Him, they touched Him. Now think of what
John is speaking about here. They saw Jesus do this marvelous
miracle of taking a few loaves of fish, a few loaves of bread,
a couple of fish, and feeding 5,000 people until all were satisfied. And they saw Jesus too. cook breakfast for them beside
the Sea of Galilee. They saw Jesus on that mountain,
in that wondrous sight of His transfiguration, where His clothes
became white as light. And His face shone like the sun,
and the voice came from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased. And they saw Him beaten, and
mocked, and derided, and nailed to a cross as a criminal, His
face marred like no other man. They saw him persecuted by the
Pharisees. They saw him raise a man who
had been in the grave four days. They saw him say, come out. And
he who was dead came out. They saw him sit with a woman
of Samaria beside a well in the heat of the sun and speak to
this sinful woman of this water of life which would become in
her a well of water springing up into eternal life. I could go on and on. His dealings
with people. that we know of. And this is
what John is saying. In all of this, in all that they
saw of him, what did they experience? He says, the Word, this is what
he says, you know, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us
We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth." That's what he's saying. We saw
Him. We heard Him. Our hands held Him. In all of
this, and this was our experience, God is light and in Him is no
darkness at all. The disciples continually beheld
this glory. They didn't just glimpse this
glory for a moment, as we read so often in the Old Testament,
but they continually beheld His glory. It wasn't for a short
time. Yes, glory veiled in human flesh,
but glory revealed nonetheless. And that's the emphasis of John.
The thing they witnessed in this person, in this man, was the
glory of God. And we beheld His glory, what? As of the only begotten Son of
the Father. His glory. How can we find words
to explain the glory of God? Words fail. Glory is something
that is felt. It is. Glory is something that's
experienced. Glory has a weightiness to it,
a quality, a powerful substance. That's what's revealed to us
in the Word of God. It has this overwhelming element
to it. It's something, this is something
we know, it's something that's beyond the realm of men. The
glory, let me put it this way, the glory of God is the splendor
of God shining out through His Son and making His greatness
known. And the glory of God, above all
else, has to do with His holiness. To be confronted with the glory
of His holiness is an experience which overwhelms. It confounds. It levels a man. We see that
with the prophet Isaiah in that familiar passage. Turn with me
there to Isaiah chapter 6. Who is the Son of Man? Well,
Isaiah tells us. Here in Isaiah chapter 6, in
this marvelous vision given to the prophet, we read, In the
year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne,
high and lifted up. And the train of His robe filled
the temple. Think of this. The kings of the
earth die. The kings of the earth die. Even
the greatest, even the most powerful, even the most wise. And King Uzziah reigned longer
than most. He reigned for 50 years. He reigned
for 50 years. Longer than most kings ever reigned. But what do we read? What does
Isaiah say? In the year that King Uzziah
died, who does he see? sitting upon the throne. He sees
the LORD sitting upon the throne. Who is it that Isaiah sees sitting
upon the throne? He sees the Son of God. That's what John tells us in
chapter 12, doesn't he? He says, quoting from this chapter,
he says, this he spoke of when he saw his glory, that is, Christ's
glory. This vision is of the Son of
God. John is telling us, who is this
man? Well, this is who he is. He saw his glory sitting upon
the throne. The kings of the earth die. When
did this happen? 700 years before the Son of God came into the
world. And where is he? 700 years before
that. He's sitting upon the throne
of God. The kings of the earth die, but
the king of glory lives forever. He sits upon his throne high
and lifted up. He rules over the earth. He rules
over the realms of men. He rules over the realms of angels. He rules over all things visible
and invisible. And the glory of his reign is
like no other king. says the train of his robe filled
the temple. You know, I think we probably
all have seen that Americans are obsessed with royalty in
England, aren't they? So many have seen the weddings
of royalty. And I don't know if you remember,
during coronations in particular, as well as weddings, the royalty
have these great trains. And the greater the royalty,
The greater the esteem and the greater the power of the ruler,
the longer the train. That's what that is signifying. And many people hold up that
train as they come in. Well, that signifies the glory
of that monarch. Well, what about this monarch?
What about this one who sits upon the throne? What does his
train fill? It fills the whole temple, doesn't
it? He is a great king. He's a glorious
king. He's a king who rules over all
things. This is the one who sits upon
this throne and his glorious majesty and splendor surpass
all. But two, where is his throne? Where is his throne? Aren't the
thrones of kings in palaces? But not this king. His throne
is in the temple. It's a spiritual rain. You know,
this was one of the greatest stumbling blocks for the Children
of Israel, wasn't it? They looked for the Messiah to
be a temporal king, to sit upon the throne in Jerusalem and deliver
them in a temporal way. But here, Isaiah is saying, no,
this king, this man is a king who sits upon the throne in the
temple. He's a spiritual king who rules
over all things. And his throne is high and lifted
up. The reign of the Lord Jesus Christ
is a spiritual reign. Look in verse 2. Above it stood
seraphim. Each one had six wings. With
two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and
with two he flew. And one cried to another and
said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth
is full of his glory. And the posts of the doors were
shaken by the voice of him who cried out. And the house was
filled with smoke. The glory of the Lord above all
else is His person, isn't it? It's His righteousness, His holiness,
His wisdom, His power, His truth, His goodness, His unchangeableness,
His eternality. This is the glory of the Lord,
isn't it? He's a King that's like no other
King. And so, glorious a presence is
this. Isaiah sees in this vision that
these holy angels, think of that, these are powerful angels created
by the Lord to serve Him at His will, to fly to do His bidding
without sin. But when they look upon the radiance
of His glory, what do they do? They cover their faces. In reverence
and godly fear, this is who this man is. The greatest work that the angels
can do, think of this. The greatest work that the angels
can do is extol the glory and majesty of this king. Holy, holy, holy. The whole earth is full of his
glory. That's the attribute that the
Lord glories in most. Did you know that? This is how
He most often refers to Himself, as He reveals Himself to us.
He is the Holy God. The angels that serve Him, we
know, are beings of awesome power, aren't they? Think of that day in Egypt. the day of the
Passover, what happens? The angel of the Lord, how many
angels? One angel comes through Egypt
and in one night slaughters every firstborn of Egypt, man and animal. One angel. We read in the conflicts
of the Lord delivering the Israelites, One angel comes. I forget the figure. 32,000.
Slaughters the enemy. 32,000 men. Just like that. These are beings of incredible
power. Here it says, the voice of the angel itself
shook the temple. But what do these angels do?
They stand with their faces covered, their feet covered, to signify
nothing, nothing even remotely signifying anything that is dirty
can approach or look upon such a one as this. His holiness is
on all-consuming fire. That's how the scriptures refer
to it. And smoke filled the temple. And look at Look at Isaiah, verse 5, when
he sees this vision of the Lord. So I said, woe is me. Woe is me, for I am
undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in
the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen
the King, the Lord of hosts. This is the response of every
man when he has even a glimpse, as the light of the glory of
God is poured out into his heart, as he hears the word of God revealed to him, and he
sees the glory of God in Christ, he cries, Woe, woe is me, for
I am undone, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. When confronted with the splendor,
the majesty, the glory, the holiness of God, Isaiah was laid prostrate. He was overwhelmed. There's nothing
he could do but cry, woe is me. That's all he can think about.
The weight, this overwhelming weight of his holiness fells
sinful men. The Lord Jesus Christ, this is
what John is telling us. This man, the Lord Jesus Christ,
manifested this glory throughout his entire life. The disciples
beheld this quality. They saw his glory. This glory
radiated from the person of the Lord Jesus Christ in all that
he did, in all that he said. All that He spoke and all that
He did were full of grace, full of truth, overflowing and abounding
grace and truth. This is what John is telling
us. God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. That's who
this man is. Turn to Isaiah 59. Turn over to Isaiah 59. Now, we know in God's revelation
that the scriptures reveal to us that the substitutionary sacrifice
of which Rick just read to us must be clean. It must be pure. It must be perfect. It must be
spotless. A polluted sacrifice is never
acceptable to God. Ever. Ever. Well, where is a
sacrifice like this to be found for sinners like you and I? Where
is a sacrifice like this to be found? Listen. Listen to the
words of the Prophet, beginning there in verse 1. Behold, the Lord's hand is not
shortened that it cannot save, nor His ears heavy that it cannot
hear. But your iniquities have separated
you from your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you
so that He will not hear." For your hands are defiled with
blood." Now listen, this is a description of you and me. This is a description
of all men. For your hands are defiled with
blood and your fingers with iniquity. See, it's not sufficient. It's
not just the hands. It's not just the hands. It's
the fingers too. It's the whole person of our
being as sinners. We're defiled. Your lips have
spoken lies. Your tongue has muttered perversity.
No one calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth. They
trust in empty words and speak lies. They conceive evil and
bring forth iniquity. Their feet run to evil." See what's being spoken of here? The total, total iniquity of
the person, of the sinner. Their feet run to evil and they
make haste to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of
iniquity. Wasting and destruction are in
their paths. The way of peace they have not
known and there is no justice in their ways. They have made
themselves crooked paths. Whoever takes that way shall
not know peace. Therefore, justice is far from
us. Nor does righteousness overtake
us. We look for light, but there
is darkness. For brightness, but we walk in
blackness. We grope for the wall like blind,
and we grope as if we had no eyes. Is it because there isn't
the revealed glory of God? No. We stumble at noonday. It's bright and glorious. But
we stumble at noonday as at twilight. We are as dead men in desolate
places. That's man. That's sinful man. Look at verse 14. Justice is
turned back, and righteousness stands afar off. For truth is
fallen in the streets, and equity cannot enter. So truth fails,
and he who departs from iniquity makes himself a prey. Then the Lord saw it, and it
displeased him that there was no justice." Where, where in
all of this is the justice to satisfy the demands of a holy
God? Look at verse 16. He saw that
there was no man. No man! And he wondered that
there was no intercessor. God from eternity looked down
on all that he created. He looked out upon all peoples
in all ages from the dawn of time to the end of time. And
what did he find? There was no man. No man. There was no man and he wondered
that there was no intercessor. Read on. Therefore, his own arm
brought salvation for him, and his own righteousness, it sustained
him. He brought salvation. Yes, he
looked out and there was no man, but he has a man. His own arm,
the Lord brought salvation. His arm and his righteousness
brought salvation for him. His righteousness, it sustained
him. Who is this man? Who is this
man? Look down at verse 20. The Redeemer
will come to Zion. That's who this man is. He's
the Redeemer. The Holy One of Israel. The Holy
One brought salvation. The Holy One brought His righteousness. God sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. Now, this is what John is saying.
This one was manifested to us. And we beheld His glory. And
we heard a message. And this is the message that
we have heard from Him. God is light, and in Him is no
darkness at all. how remarkable this statement
is when we consider the life which was revealed that John
is speaking of. The Lord Jesus Christ was persecuted
mercilessly by men. He was reviled and rejected,
mocked and maligned, despised and demonized, unjustly accused
and unmercifully murdered. The principalities, the powers,
the rulers of the darkness of this age relentlessly assaulted
the Lord Jesus Christ from the moment of His birth until His
death. He was wickedly tempted in the
most vile and blasphemous temptations of the Prince of Darkness. All
the world, we're told in the Psalms, aren't we? All the world
raged against Him. The kings of the earth set themselves
and the rulers took counsel together against the Lord and his anointed. He was hated without a cause."
If there's anything to generate antagonism and sin and revenge
and hate and all those hard feelings that you and I experience, it's
things like this, isn't it? But with him, what do we read? In all of this, God is light
and in him is no darkness at all. That's what John says. That's
what we saw in all of this. Every word he spoke, every action
he made was pure and perfect and right. Every thought of his
heart was only righteous continually. You remember, in the day of Noah,
God looked down. What did he see? What did he see of man? That
every thought of his heart was only evil continually. God looked
down upon this son. in whom he is well pleased, and
what did he find? Every thought of his heart was
clean, and pure, and holy, and righteous, and good. Every thought
of his heart. Every movement of his will was
full of grace, full of truth, full of kindness, full of goodness,
full of mercy, full of love. It's this above all. this holiness that qualifies
Him to accomplish this great work of atonement, isn't it? From eternity when God chose
a people like you and me. Who are we? We just read about
it in Isaiah 59, didn't we? That's who we are. And God in
eternity chose a people like that, like you and me. to be
holy and without blame before Him in love. And there was only ever one propitiation
for sin, this man. There could be no other. God
looked down as it were, figuratively speaking, before the world was
ever created and saw that there was no man. But His own arm brought
salvation for Him. No other could bear the mighty
burden of sin which was laid upon him. No other could weather
this storm of wrath that was poured out upon him on that great
day of atonement. No other could remove our guilt. No other could satisfy omnipotent
justice. There was no other of a pure
and spotless holiness. He was taken from prison and
from judgment. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter.
He opened not his mouth. No murmur. No complaint. He went in willing obedience
to the command of the Father. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
His soul was made an offering for sin. Turn over to Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 7. Now here's
the question. When Christ was made High Priest, what was He like? When Christ was made offering
for sin, what was He like? We know He came as both, don't
we? He came as High Priest, but as
He entered that holy place behind the veil, He entered as the High
Priest, He entered also as the offering, didn't He? The blood
sacrifice to take away sin. Well, what are we told about
Christ as the high priest as he performs this work that Rick
just read to us about? What was he like? What was he
like? Well, he wasn't like all these
high priests that preceded him, was he? Well, the writer of Hebrews is
telling us in verse 26, And he wants us to know this. For such
a high priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens. Well, what about the sacrifice?
He was the sacrifice too, wasn't he? He was the offering for sin.
Well, what was he like? What was he like, is this offering
for sin? Look over in Hebrews chapter
9, verse 13. Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 13,
For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer,
sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh,
how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit offered himself without spot to God? He offered himself without spot
to God. That's the offering, isn't it?
That's the offering that was offered. What was he like as
he himself became this offering for sin? He was an offering that was without
spot. God is light and in Him is no
darkness at all. Christ was made to be sin for
us, yet in Him there was no darkness. No darkness. No darkness at all. This is what John is telling
us. In His soul there was not one flicker of evil, not one
shadow of sin, not one stain of unrighteousness. Nothing. He's our substitute. This holy
substitute bearing all that we could never bear. He's our sacrifice,
offering a sacrifice that you and I could never offer. He's
our Great High Priest, entering into that place we could never
enter. He's our Redeemer, paying that
ransom price that we could never pay. all this and more, but in
Him, in His own person, all the purity and perfection of His
holiness." You know, the scriptures speak about His holiness in such
a wonderful way. The beauty of his holiness. And that's what John wants us
to know. He wants us to look at this person.
Who is this man? Look at him and the beauty of
his holiness as he carries out this matchless work of the redemption
of his people. The Lord Jesus Christ is God
made flesh. We know that. Yet God, in all His fullness,
He's not part God and part man. He's God, the fullness of God. He's man, the fullness of man. And here is the declaration which
spans His glory and His humiliation. It spans His divinity and His
humanity. It spans eternity to eternity. God is light, and in Him is no
darkness at all. Amen.