The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bear witness
of Him and cried, saying, This was He of whom I speak. He that
cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before
me. And of his fullness have all
we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses,
but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at
any time. The only begotten Son which is
in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him grace and truth."
That's the Lord Jesus Christ described by John, full of grace
and truth. What a subject. As I was studying
this, As I just read those lines, I could say with Paul the Apostle,
who is sufficient for these things? I'm not sufficient to tell it,
and you don't have the sufficiency to hear it and receive it. Grace
and truth. This is a clear, and I hope to
make it clear, and concise or short declaration of the gospel
of salvation. It's by grace through a knowledge
of the truth. And all of that is in Jesus Christ. Grace and truth. And when you
see these words throughout the Scripture, grace, you can substitute
every time, you can substitute the name Christ for by Grace,
you say. By Christ, you say. Christ said
of the truth, I am the truth. So you can put His name there.
Verse 18 says now, well, He's been writing of the Word made
flesh. God manifest in the flesh. We
have to begin where He began in order to appreciate grace
and truth. Okay? The Word was made flesh. was manifest in the flesh. Verse
18, no man hath seen God at any time. The only begotten, the
only image of God, which was with the Father in the beginning,
He hath declared Him, the Son, express image of God. And Paul wrote, all the fullness
of the Godhead in a body, in a man, in a human being. All the fullness of the Godhead
in a body. Now, I'm not going to strive
with any pot sherds. I don't believe there are any
in here this morning. I'm not going to argue about
the fact that Jesus Christ is God. He is, okay? And this is
to you who believe that He is. All of God's disciples like John
know they behold His glory. Verse 14, are you with me? Verse
14, And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld
His glory. Oh, that we would behold His
glory this morning. This is salvation. This is a blessing. This is peace
and comfort. The glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. He says this is His
glory. This, John said, we beheld His
glory and this is it, full, He's full of grace and truth. Salvation is by grace when you
hear the Word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, which is Christ. Alright, as I said, to appreciate
this, His grace and the truth, go back with me, verse 4. says,
"...in him was life, and the life was the light of men." Verse
5, "...and the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness
comprehended it not." He came. Light came in this dark world. And they didn't comprehend Him,
they didn't understand Him, because their understanding, Romans 1
says, was darkened. But worse than that, This is
what our Lord said in chapter 3 of John. He said, this is condemnation,
that light came into the world, and men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds are evil. Now, appreciate His
grace that He came into this place, darkness, like Sodom. He calls it this present evil
world. To appreciate the grace of God,
you have to understand who it was that came and where He came. For us to become a worm is not
the condescension that it was for Christ to become a man. He came to this world, and not
only did we not comprehend Him, but it says they despised and rejected Him. He came to His own, verse 11,
and people, this is all of us, there was a time when all of
us in here had nothing to do with Him, did not receive Him,
did not believe Him. But by the grace of God, this
is what he's going to say, as many as received him. Why? That's what we heard on the radio
this morning. My mistake, it didn't get a new message on the
radio for this morning, but I'm glad it didn't, because we're
going to go back and read Exodus 33 in a minute, which he read and spoke of, preached
on. Verse 11 says, He came unto His
own, His own received Him up. He came to His own creatures,
the recipients of His blessings, the recipients of His grace,
those He feeds and clothes and protects and came to His own. Don't want Him. He came to His
own people, the Jews. Our Lord became a Jew. These
were the most The Lord said, I didn't choose you because you
were more than the other people, but because you were fewer. This
is a great display of God's grace. He didn't
come to the Egyptians. He came to the Jews. Slaves. And they didn't receive Him.
They said they did. They said they believed God.
Their leaders, their Pharisees and the scribes said they were
waiting on the Christ. The very men who were writing
down His Word, He came. The author of that Word came.
And they said, get out of here, you Jew. We don't believe you.
He came to His own. They're supposed to be looking
for Him. They're not looking for Him. Our Lord said, they
draw near with their lips, their hearts are far from Him. He called
them a bunch of hypocrites. This is all flesh. Our Lord looked
down to see if there were any that He'd understand. None of
the understandings of the Lord. If there were any that He'd seek
Him, any that He'd call Him, He said, none. Do we understand
salvation is by grace? that He came to this despicable
place for such wretches as we are. We hear that all the time. Oh, I believe that. Oh, my. Romans 1. Go over to Romans 1.
It says, as many as received Him. Why does anybody receive
Him? By sovereign grace? By electing
grace? by the power of God, by a new
birth, made willing in the day of His power. Romans 1, here's
what our Lord says about mankind. Romans 1 verse 29 says, being
filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness,
maliciousness, on and on it goes. Verse 30, back biters, haters
of God being filled And it says, He's full of grace. What are
we full of? Sin. An obvious fullness of all
we receive. Grace for grace. Not because
we were gracious, not because we received Him, but we received
this from Him. He emptied Himself. and gave us His righteousness
and took our sin upon Him and in Him. Of His fulness have we
received, what did He receive? Our fulness. Sin. Look at chapter 3. As I said,
we can't appreciate, nobody can appreciate the gospel of God's
sovereign mercy and electing grace without knowing something
of man's utter, their own utter sinfulness. Chapter 3, verse
1. No, my, we could read all of
this, but verse 10 says there's none righteous, not one, none
that understand it. They've all gone out of the way.
Verse 14, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Keep
talking about what we're full of. What we're full of. And this chapter, we're going
to hold this here, chapter 3, it goes on down to say, verse
18, no fear of God. And what the law says, it says
to every person guilty, verse 20, by the deeds of the law,
no flesh justified, but now. You heard me say so many times,
you can't preach the gospel without saying, but God. This sounds
just like Ephesians 2, doesn't it? And you, who were dead and
trespassed and sinned, full of all of this. But God, who is
rich in mercy, sent His Son in mercy, love, grace, the goodness
of God, loved mankind. God loved mankind. Not every single individual,
but man as a species. This is what it means, God so
loved the world, but He redeemed a people out of the world, out
of every tribe. Does somebody complain? Out of
every nation, people, tongue, tribe of people, many people,
He loved His creation, mankind. Determined to save. And to save
them from sin, and here's God's glory. Go to Exodus 33. Keep
Romans 3. Keep Romans 3. Go to Exodus 33. And this is God's glory in the
person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. To come to this earth
to save us from sin. Save us from destroying us. Save us from destroying us. God
not only put up with Adam and Eve after they shook their fist
in God's face in the garden, ungrateful rebels that they were. That was mercy enough, wasn't
it? Wasn't that grace enough that He allowed a whole Millions upon zillions of sons
of Adam to sin with both hands, the Scripture says. Put up with
all that to save a remnant. Exodus 33, 13. Now here's, we're
talking about grace, aren't we? Grace and truth. Moses said,
Lord, now therefore I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy
sight, show me now. This can't wait. Show me now
thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy
sight. Verse 14, and the Lord said,
My presence shall go with thee, I will give thee rest. And he said unto me, Moses said
unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up
hence. Wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have
found grace in thy sight? Isn't this it? We're talking
about grace. How is it known if we've found
grace, unmerited favor? How is it known that we're saved
by grace? Is it not this, that He goes
with us, God with us? If He is, who can be against
Him? So shall we be separated, sanctified, set apart, I and
thy people, from all the people that are on the face of the earth.
How's that? God's with us. People quote Romans 8.31 all
the time. It's on the back of 18-wheel
truck trailers. If God be for us, who can be
against us? No, that's not for everybody.
That is true. If God be for us. That's a big
if, isn't it? How do you know He's with you?
Because you know something about Him. And you've experienced saving
grace. In love of the truth, you know
who Christ is. You know what He's done. Read
on. Verse 17, the Lord said, I will do this thing that thou
hast spoken, for thou hast found grace in my sight. I know thee
by name. Didn't Christ say, I know my
sheep and have known of them? And He said, I beseech thee.
Moses said, show me thy glory. John said, we beheld His glory.
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."
Verse 19, the Lord said, here it is, I will make all my goodness. God is good. There's none good
but one, God. He said, I'm going to make it,
all of it. All that I am passed before you. Do you know what that is? The
world does it. They say, well, give me a house,
give me a car, give me all that's a goodness. Verse 19, I will proclaim the
name of the Lord before thee, and I will be gracious. Here
it is, His glory, that He will be gracious. Sovereign grace,
to whom I will be gracious. That He will be gracious. And
I will show mercy. Oh, sovereign mercy. undeserved
favor and grace, on whom I will show mercy. She says, you can't
see my face. No man shall see me and live.
Didn't John just say that? Didn't John just say that? No
man has seen God at any time. But Job said, I shall, and so
shall we. And John said, we have. We beheld
Him. Who is it? Jesus Christ. God manifest in the flesh. Oh my, I've got to get out of
Exodus 33. But it says in verse 21, the
Lord said, Behold, there's a place by me. It's a rock. A cleft of the rock, verse 22.
Rock of ages. Cleft for me. I'm going to put
you in the... Not, would you like to get in
the cleft? Would you accept this rock as
your personal No, no, no. I'm going to put you in the rock.
Of God are you in Christ Jesus. Who of God is made unto us? The
cleft of the rock. And I'm going to cover you. The
blood of Jesus Christ covers, cleanseth, covers you. Well, go back to John 1. Now it says in John 1, Verse
17. There's just not enough time.
This is the message. This is no first Bible study
message. This is a second hour message.
This is the Gospel. Verse 17. The law was given by
Moses. The grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. Romans 3. Do you still have it?
Remember he said in verse 19, Whatever things the law sayeth,
it says to them under the law, and that's everyone born on the
earth, that every mouth may be stopped, all the world guilty
before God. The law says, and all through
Romans, this is the law, do this and live. Thou shalt not, thou
shalt not, thou shalt not, not only that, but thou shalt love
God with all your mind, heart, soul, and strength, your neighbor
as yourself, and keep every jot and every tip of the law. That's
what the law says. Leviticus 22 says, and it shall
be perfect to be accepted. In thought, in motive, not only
in deed, but in motive and in thought, you've got to have a
pure heart in doing it. Not out of legal, not just doing
it because you're supposed to. Doing it because you love to,
because you want to. Clean hands, pure heart. Never
lifted up his soul unto vanity or sworn deceitfully. That's what the law says. Well, Paul goes on to say, Verse
20, "...by the deeds of the law no flesh be justified." That's
clear, isn't it? It's clear to all God's people.
Do you know how many people don't understand that? Do you know
how many people actually think they're keeping the moral law? And even some people, they're
trying to keep the Mosaic law. Do you know how ignorant that
is? That's what Paul said in Romans 10 then. They're ignorant
of the righteousness of God and going about to establish their
own righteousness. He said, Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness. That's why He came. Made of a
woman, made under the law to redeem them who are under the
law. The law is a curse. That's what this whole book is
about. The law is a curse. He came to be made a curse for
us. But man, this is impossible. And all through the Scriptures,
I was going to read to you Isaiah 1 and on and on it goes, we're
full of sin, wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. How then
can we be saved? God is holy. God is just. How
can He be just? This is the question. The religion's not asking it,
the people of the world's not asking it, God's people all know
the answer. They know the question and they
know the answer. How can God be just, holy, and
justify? How can he be clean that's born
of woman? How can God allow sinners into
his holy presence? One way. And this is the truth. And this
is eternal life. That you know Him. Jesus Christ. Look at verse 24 here in Romans
3. Being justified freely, how? By His grace. Here's what you've done. You've
broken every law. You have, you do, and you shall. Good news for those that believe,
for those that know their guilt and loathe themselves. Here's
the gospel. God hath made him to be sin for
you. Who knew no sin, that you might
be made the righteousness of God in him. By grace are you
saved. And in the ages to come, he says,
he's going to show unto us the exceeding riches of his grace. What's that? Chiefly, that God
came down to this cesspool to save a bunch of people that didn't
want him. And become what he became. Of
his fullness. Oh my. Go back to John 1 again. Of his fullness. Have we received
grace for grace? I had so many scriptures, Romans
5, oh my, Romans 7, on and on. We were going to go with that.
But of His fullness, we've received wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
redemption. We've received through Christ
full righteousness. Not a partial one, a full one.
We've received a full pardon, paid in full. Full acceptance. Scripture says, an abundant entrance. And sons, not just that, we receive
the Lord's hand double for all our iniquity. He received double,
didn't He? Full pardon, full acceptance,
a full redemption. Full. Paid in full. All right? Of His fullness have we received
grace and truth. Grace for grace. All right? The
truth. You can't be saved without the
truth. Everything I've just been saying is the truth as it is
in Jesus Christ. It is the gospel. You can't be
saved without knowing the truth of who God is. If you don't know
who God is, you won't know what you are. If you don't know what
you are, you won't have any need of Jesus Christ. That's a fact. I'm not splitting hairs. This
is not a matter of semantics. It's knowing God, the true God,
holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts. It's knowing yourself. Paul said, in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. And every single child of God
knows that. And so they need, they want,
they believe with all their heart. They cast their soul upon Jesus
Christ. Behold, John preached, there's
the Lamb. You need a Lamb. The only way. The Lamb of God that taketh away
sin. This is a faithful save and worthy
of all acceptation. Everybody's sinner. It's worthy
of everybody receiving it. But they don't. But as many as
received Him. Here it is. Christ Jesus came
into the world to do what? Save sinners. Sinners. Isaiah 1 sinners. Romans 3 sinners. Romans 1 sinners. Romans 7 sinners. Sinners. That's why He came,
not good people. He died for the ungodly. Is that you? I've got good news
for you. Of His fullness. This is
the truth. The truth, the truth, the truth,
there's no salvation apart from it. The truth as it is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Mercy and truth meet together. Righteousness and peace kiss
one another. This is the gospel. There is
no gospel without it. Let God be true and every man
a liar. Satan is the father of lies.
All of his ministers perpetuate these lies. And they tell people,
Everywhere, God loved you, Jesus died for you. You're basically
good people. Now it's up to you. That's all
a lie. Anybody that believes that is
lost. This is the truth. You're not
good people. You're bad people. You're hell
deserving people. I am. Woe is unto us, but God. This is the truth. Nobody loves
this gospel who doesn't love but God. And you. Yes, that's me. But God. Satan is the father of grace. He's the father of lies. And through his ministers, ministers
of righteousness, angels of light, they say, we have the keys of
understanding. And he perpetuates his lies and
he mixes grace with works. He knows this Bible is full of
grace, but he mixes grace and work, grace and law. He has his
preachers mix it. Yes, salvation is but grace. Yes, God is sovereign, but you
have a free will. It can't be both. It can't be
works and grace. It can't be law and grace. If
it's grace, it's grace. If it's works, it's works. It
can't be both. I was going to read Ephesians
1. Just go over there in closing.
Alright, let's go over there. Because it ends this way with
the truth. It ends with the truth. Nobody is saved apart from the
truth. Nobody is saved apart from the
truth. What is the truth? Well, I've been saying it. Basically,
the truth is who God is, what we are, who we are. And it's
salvation is completely and only through the Lord Jesus Christ.
God's will, God who works all things after His will, man who
doesn't have a will, he's dead, and Jesus Christ whom God sent
to bring it, give him life. There it is. There's the truth.
Look at Ephesians 1, it says, Oh, bless God. Verse 2, Grace
to you, peace from God our Father. It's all by grace, you see. Begins
with grace, ends with the truth here. Blessed be God, blessed
are all spiritual blessings and heavenly things in Christ according
as He hath chosen us in Him. Does anybody that knows the truth
doesn't believe God chose the people before the foundation
of the world? Anybody that believes the truth knows the truth and
believes that man chose God and He did? Are you kidding me? That's
the first truth in it. That's the first thing I understand. Bless God. That's why they bless
God. And He's chosen us to be holy and without blame, before
Him in love. Not chosen us because we're holy.
Chosen us to be holy. Are you still with me? If we don't get to the next hour,
folks, you're hearing the gospel. We might not. Hope we don't. Hope the Lord
comes. This is His glory. Predestinated, predestinates
anybody, anybody, that knows the truth, that doesn't believe,
that God has ordained all things, that worketh all things according
to His own will, and predestinates purpose, that God is God and
purpose is all things and nothing can stop Him. Nobody. There's
anybody that knows God that doesn't believe that. No. This is life
eternal, to know the true God. God's not want to be God, He
is God. And all of His people know that. And they love it. They love the
truth. They've received a love of the
truth. That such is love, by salvation
say, the Lord be magnified. They don't do it with their lips,
they do it from the bottom of their hearts. He hath saved me. He hath chosen me. He hath called
me. He hath made me righteous. He
shed His blood. He came to me. I didn't come
to Him. He drew me. This is grace, and this is the
truth. So help me God. Why are you hollering, preacher?
Because it's one and upon. Lift up your voice, he said to
Isaiah. Lift it up with strength. Tell
them. Behold your God, not let God
be God. Behold your God. Who is He? Jesus
Christ. Come to bestow grace, not offer
it. Look at verse 6, "...to the praise
of His glory, of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the
blood, in whom we have redemption." Not might have, have it. "...through
His blood, the forgiveness of sin." All things justified, John. I know you wanted to hear this
verse. Justified from all things by which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses. There are very few people who
know and understand or care We talk about justification,
sanctification. This is Christ. This is His work. Very few people know or care.
What's the point, preacher? Salvation. His glory. Read on. He's made known unto
us the mystery of His will. Verse 9, how He purposed it Himself. All of His people know this.
This is the truth. In the fullness of time, gather
together in one all things in Christ. Verse 11, there it is,
predestinate us again according to His purpose who works all
things. This is the truth. That we should be to the praise
of His glory who first trusted in Christ. Listen, here it is.
In whom you trusted after you heard the word of Truth, the gospel of your salvation. Not the offer of Jesus, but you
heard one day, by God's grace and mercy, you are a recipient
of the truth. And it redeemed your soul, purified
your heart, set you free from Satan's bondage itself, and from
his false preachers set you free. And like Martin Luther, you went
running out of there. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation
is not by works. It's by grace. That's the truth. It's all in Jesus Christ. Let's
just go home, okay? But there's a good one coming
up, Ezekiel 36. Oh, my. Same message. All right.