Thank you for that. If you would,
open your Bibles to the book of John, and this morning we'll
go to John chapter 1. In many ways, the book of John
is unique It's certainly different from the other three gospel narratives,
those being Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Matthew, Mark, and Luke,
many are referred to as the synoptic gospels because there's quite
a bit of overlapping and a lot of the miracles and parables
are repeated in each of those. But the book of John, written
by John the Apostle, is different because 90% of the book of John
is unique just to him. The Spirit of God, as he did
with all of the writers of Scripture, about 40 different men, he led
those men exactly those things that they should write. Many
books have introductions to them. Matthew does, introduces us to
the genealogy of our Lord Jesus. Mark introduces us to the ministry
of the Lord Jesus. He goes out preaching the gospel.
Luke introduces us to that one who announced the coming of the
Lord Jesus, John the Baptist, his birth, and then our Lord's
birth. But John doesn't do that. It's
like the Spirit of God has him move very quickly to his subject
without any introductory remarks. His mission, The reason the Spirit of God
gave him to write this book, John's mission in writing this
is to tell us first that Jesus of Nazareth is God. He is the
very Son of God. And then secondly, he tells us
to believe on him. The word believe or a form of
believe is used multiple times in the book of John. John tells
us that Jesus of Nazareth is divine. He is the perfect mixture
of God and man, not God humanized and not man deified, but rather
totally God and totally man. He is the God man. And John would have us to know
right from the beginning that this one who he labels in verse
one, the word. the Word of God. He wants us
to know this is the Son of God. This is that Divine One who came
into the world to seek and to save that which was lost to save
by the very grace of God. Now we have John's message kind
of encapsulated or summarized over in, hold your place in John
1, over in John chapter 20. Several of you, this will be
nothing unusual to you, but it bears reading again and we need
to be constantly reminded of the identity of Jesus of Nazareth
and the reason that he came into the world and that which is our
responsibility to believe it. Are you there? John chapter 20
verse 30. John chapter 20 and verse 30,
and many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his
disciples, which are not written in this book. Now the last verse
of John chapter 20, but these are written, the Spirit of God
wants us to know this. All that John has written, Right
from the very beginning until the end, all that He has written,
these are written that you might believe. Well, believe what? You know, people say, do you
believe? Well, what is it that I'm to believe? Or who is it
that I'm to believe? People say, are you a believer?
You say, yes, I am. Well, thank the Lord. Well, believer
in who? We believe in many things. But
John identifies exactly who it is that we must believe. These are written, everything
that John has written, these are written that she might, or
in order that is a better word than might, in order that you
believe that Jesus, that's his earthly name, Jesus, we call
him Jesus Christ because the scripture speaks of him that
way. Jesus is his name, Christ is his office. He is the anointed
one. That Jesus is the Christ. Well, who is that? He's the Son
of God. That is, He is deity. And that believing, don't leave
this out, that believing you might have life through His name. I call upon you and God calls
upon you to believe the Lord Jesus Christ. We must believe
Him. Don't ever discount faith as
being unimportant. In every message, every time
we speak from the pulpit, we must address people as sinful
people and say, believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And who is this one who we believe? He's God. He's no one less than
God incarnate, God made flesh. God robed in flesh. He's fully
God, having all the attributes of God. He has all the names
of God. He has all the power of God.
He has all the might of God. He has all the wisdom of God. He has all of the knowledge of
God. But God came down here and joined
Himself once and forever unto our flesh. and all who believe Him." Now
let's just stop right here. Do you believe Him? And the word
believe goes right along with the word that's used down in
John 1, 12, receive. I'll be addressing that tonight,
but it's a word that means to take hold of. You need Him. The Spirit of God makes you realize
you need someone to save you, to rescue you, to do for you
what you can't do for yourself. Oh God, save me! Do something for me! I believe
that you're able to, if you will. John calls on us to believe.
Jesus of Nazareth therefore is God manifest in the flesh and
all who believe him if you believe him Not some things about him
there aren't some things you have to believe about him, but
You must believe him You must rest in him You must know him You must believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. You see, here is the way of salvation. Say, preacher, I really want
to be saved. I really want to be saved. I
want to be rescued. I'm a miserable sinner. I know
that. Not because you preached it to
me. And not only because the Word of God states it, but the
Spirit of God has convinced me of it. and I want to be rescued. I'm
in bad shape. I need help. I need divine rescue. I say to you, believe on the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. I'm
not going to make this complicated. It's two things a preacher doesn't
want to do. Oh, this. First of all, I don't
want to make the way of salvation cheap. But I don't want to complicate
it either. This is not a cheap salvation.
All you've got to do is make your decision. You're good for
heaven, now just go do as you please. No. You believe Him. You rest your
soul upon Him. Brother Ron read that passage
to us out of 2 Timothy 1. Paul says he's made a commitment
to the Lord Christ. What did he commit? What did
he commit to the Lord as the treasure that the Lord could
keep safely? His soul. His soul. Therefore, he said, I know whom
I have believed. He didn't say, I know when I
believed, though he could go back. And he didn't say the reason
that he believed, though he could, as a man who knew doctrine thoroughly,
he could tell you the reason that he believed. But he says,
I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded. that He is
able, He is able to keep that which I've committed unto Him
against that day. Why do you know He's able? Why
do you believe He's able, Paul? Because He's God manifest in
the flesh. That's why He's God. I say here's the way of salvation.
And secondly, here's the way of the assurance of salvation. You want assurance of salvation? He that hath the Son hath life. That's what the Scripture said.
Do you have the Son of God? It's time to ask yourself some
questions. Do you have the Son of God? Do
you believe Him? Do you rest in Him? Is He your
only hope? God's absolutely holy. You're
absolutely sinful. Who's going to bring you into
the presence of God? Will your works get you there?
No. Will your good deeds get you
there? No. Will being baptized get you there?
No. Will taking the Lord's Supper,
will that make you accepted before God? No. There's only one in
whose person you must be accepted and will be accepted. That's
Christ Jesus the Lord. Believe Him. Believe Him. There must be belief that He
is the Son of God. And there must be a reception
of Him, a belief on Him. Don't tell me belief in Christ
is unnecessary. I could get up here and set forth
true doctrine for you, and I do. It is also my responsibility
to save you. Believe on the Son of God. And I have the very authority
of God's Word. If you believe on the name of
the Son of God, God will save you. God will save you. There are all sorts of opinions.
You can go back to John 1. There are all sorts of opinions
as to who Jesus of Nazareth was. Lots of different ideas about
who He was when He was on this earth. What do you have to say
about it? You know, many said he was a
good man. A lot of people said he was a prophet or one of the
prophets. A lot of people said, boy, he's
a powerful preacher. Others said he is a tremendous
miracle worker. The Pharisees said he did all
of his miracles by the power of the devil. Was he a puppet
of Satan? Was he, as Mormonism says and
some other religions say, was he a son of God in the same sense
that Lucifer was a son of God? Or is he more than all of those
things? And you see, John removes all
doubt. He clearly sets forth in this
book that he's God. He's God. You must tell me from
the Word of God who He is. I don't want to read you catechisms.
I don't want to read you confessions of faith. I don't want to go
back to what the old church fathers had to say about Jesus of Nazareth. I want to know what does God
say. Does God tell me who His Son
is? Yes. then whatever God says about
him, it has to be true. This is the only lasting source
of faith and practice we have is the Word of God. And we read
here in John chapter 1 of the deity of Jesus of Nazareth. You say, well, he was a man who
lived his life on earth and then died on a cross. Well, you're
right, he did that. But the life that he lived, was
it any different than the life that any other man lived? And
the death that he died, was his death any different from the
deaths of all other men? What makes this man so different? It's because He's the God-man. That's why this is so different. You see, His life and His death
was only of value, first of all, to God, and then to us. His life and His death is only
vital and important to God and to us if He is Himself God. You see, it's going to take more
than a mere man to save us. Why, the Scripture pictures us
as being like worms on a dunghill, and we're all in the same boat
together. There's no use in one worm or
literally maggot bragging about how he's better than another
maggot. I've seen maggots on dead chicken carcass that I've
thrown out and the garbage hadn't been picked up and go out there
and look at it and you see all these little things crawling
around. I don't think they're fussing about who's the greatest.
They're just feasting on dead things. And see, that's all of
us by nature. We're in bad shape. Who's going
to come to our rescue? Who's going to help us? And the answer is God who sent
his son into this world to live and die and be raised again for
sinners. And you see, this is the very
purpose of the Gospel of John. I have given you in my introduction
here the gist, a summarization of that which John sets forth
in this book. And over and over again, he uses,
with reference to Jesus of Nazareth, that expression that's first
set forth back in the book of Exodus, when the Lord appeared
to Moses out of the bush that burned but wasn't consumed. And
Moses said, who are you? He said, I am. That's my name,
I am. Well, what shall I tell the Israelites
when I go to them and say, well, I heard a voice speaking to me
out of this bush that it didn't burn up, it wasn't consumed,
and he sent me to tell you that I'm going to lead you to freedom.
Well, what's his name? His name is I Am. Not I Was or
not I Shall Be, but I Am. I Am that I Am. He's always in the present tense. He is not confined by time. And throughout the book of John,
John uses these two words to refer to our Savior. I am the bread of life. I am the water of life. I am
the way, the truth, and the life. I am the door. I am the resurrection
and the life. Over and over again, John keeps
those two little words, just three letters. I and AM. John keeps those three little
letters before us all the way through his book because his
purpose in writing is to show that Jesus of Nazareth is exactly
the same one who spoke to Moses back in Exodus chapter 3 from
the bush that burned but wasn't consumed. He is God. No wonder Hebrews says he's the
same yesterday, today, and forever. Someone said that the book of
John is like entering into the holy of holies of the books in
the New Testament. Well, they're all inspired and
they're all precious. And yet John, more than I think
any other gospel narrative, the gospel narratives being Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John, I think John is the most evangelical
of them all. He's the evangelistic gospel. That's the reason so many churches
and denominations have reprinted the gospel of John. Give the
gospel of John to somebody. What's the reason for that? Because
it's in the Gospel of John we learn who He is. He's God incarnate, and He's
the one we must believe. As you read through the Gospel
of John, which, and I agree to an extent that this is the Holy
of Holies. You remember in the Old Testament
in the tabernacle and then later in the temple, that the high
priest would go into the Holy of Holies, but just once a year.
That's under the old covenant. You can only go in there one
time. And such was the brilliance of the glory of God in the Holy
of Holies. that he had to have a censer
with smoking incense to sort of dull the brightness of the
glory of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ is himself
the very glory of God. And as John the apostle presents
him to us in this book, we're dazzled by his glory. We're just amazed at who he is. And you know, another thing about
the gospel of John, and I'll just give you this as well, John,
in presenting our Lord Jesus Christ, he doesn't tell us about
his birth. He doesn't tell us about his
early life. John doesn't tell us about his baptism. John doesn't
tell us about his transfiguration. John doesn't tell us about the
agonies in the Garden of Gethsemane where he sweat, as it were, great
drops of blood. John doesn't tell us of his ascension. That's not his message. You see,
to me, and this is, the bird's eye view of things, okay? To
me, Matthew, Mark, and Luke give kind of an earthly picture of
our Lord Jesus. You hear him speaking in parables,
telling stories. There are no parables in the
Gospel of John. You look at Matthew, Mark, and
Luke, and you see our Lord's itinerant ministry. I mean, He's
just hopscotching here and there. He's over in this area. He's
in that area. Now He's over there. John didn't
do that. Because John's goal, as led by
the Spirit of God, is to tell us of Jesus Christ more from
what I would call a heavenly viewpoint. And so he constantly keeps in
front of us the origin of Jesus of Nazareth. He's from above. He's from above. And he tells
us here in John 1, and let me read these verses, first five
verses. 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,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was
life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth
in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not." So here's
the message this morning. Three words. Who is Jesus of Nazareth? John
identifies Him, number one, as the Word. He identifies Him,
number two, as the Life. And He identifies Him, number
three, as the Light. Word, Life, Light. Here in the first three verses,
He's the Word. What is a word? It's a vehicle
of thought. My thoughts for this message,
I have some notes here that I try to keep by the roadmap. But unless
I share my thoughts with you, you don't know what I'm thinking. Contrary to what some people
think, we're not mind readers. We have to hear what a person
says to know what they're thinking. That's what a word is. If you want to know the mind
of God, the will of God, the purpose of God, if you want to
know what God is like and who God is, you must refer to the
Word, capital W, of God, that is Christ Jesus. He is the full
alphabet of God. Think of this, when you look
at the word Word, Think of this. This is God speaking. That's
what it means. This is God speaking. He is pre-existent with God. It says that here in these first
two, three verses. He's pre-existent with God. He
is co-existent with God. And he is self-existent with
God. And He is the way God communicates
with men. You say, I don't believe in Jesus,
but I love God. Impossible. That's impossible. You say, but there are a lot
of well-meaning religions, preacher, who don't believe that Jesus
is the Son of God, but they believe God. No, they don't believe God. If they believed God, they'd
believe His Word. If they believed God, they'd
believe His Son. There must be no error on this. There's no wiggle room on this. He is either God or He's the
biggest fraud who ever lived. That's one or the other. He's either God manifest in the
flesh or He's a tremendous deceiver. Now, which is it? Well, I'm going
to take the Word of God and believe what God says about Him. In the
beginning was the Word. When the beginning began, He was already there because
He began the beginning. Because it says in verse 3, all
things were made by Him. Now listen, if He made all things,
that means He existed before all things were made. And if
He existed before all things were made, that means He existed
before time. And if He existed before time,
that means He is eternal. He's God. As nobody else can
save us but God. Only the Lord. God has revealed Himself to us
in His Son. in His Son. And we know He's
God because it says all things were made by Him. Matthew presents Him as the King,
Mark presents Him as the Servant, Luke presents Him as the Son
of Man, but John presents Him as the Son of God. The eternal,
co-equal, almighty, God. Who is Jesus Christ? He's God
speaking to us. You want to learn something about
God? Study Christ Jesus. What did God do? God joined Himself
to our flesh. John's message is simply this.
That God who is eternal He has become one with us by joining
his deity to flesh. That's John's message. Now you
believe him. You believe him. The second word is life. Life. Look at verse four. In him was
life, or the word was means existed. In him, life existed. And the
life was the light of men. He's the fountain of life. He's
the source of life. He's the giver of life, and that
includes all kinds of life. Biological life. Physical life. Spiritual life. Eternal life. everlasting life. Now man can
do a lot of things and God has mercifully given to physicians
and biologists and scientists and so forth. He has mercifully
given them a great understanding of life. But man can't create life and man cannot preserve life. God gives life and God takes
life. I know there's the foolishness
of man coming from a speck of something a gazillion million
years ago. Well, there still had to be life. and
you don't get life from something that's dead. Life has to come forth from life. Where then did life originate? From Him who is life. From Him
who is life. I would like to ask those who
believe that salvation is dependent upon the sinner. Is the sinner
dead? Does he have any spiritual life? Well,
the Bible says he's dead in trespasses and sins. Well, then how can
a person who is dead perform an action? When I was in Bible
college, we were studying the book of Ephesians. And we got
to Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 1 says, And you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins. And I knew this man was
what we would call an Arminian who believed that salvation was
dependent upon man. I just raised my hand. He said,
Brother Bert, what can I do for you? And I said, Well, if man
is spiritually dead, as this passage of scripture says, how
is it that anybody can believe? Isn't belief an act of someone
who's living? He said, you don't understand,
Brother Byrd. Man is dead, but he's not that
dead. This is an educated man. Hey,
you're either dead or you're alive. As far as I know, there
is no in-between state. You know, you've seen on movies
where, you know, somebody, they think they're dead and they didn't
have stethoscope with them. Back in the westerns, you know,
like Matt Dillon's days, like you like to watch. And you know,
somebody gets shot and they put their ear down on their chest.
What do you think, Doc? He's dead. Or maybe they'd get
a mirror, you know, put it... Is there any breath there? No. Well, he's dead. What is death? It's the absence of life. It's
the absence of life. And this, you see, is another
one of our problems. We're dead spiritually. And repentance
is a spiritual act. And faith is a spiritual act.
And coming to Christ is a spiritual act. And following Christ is
a spiritual act. But we're dead. Well, how is
it that anybody will ever believe Him, repent, exercise repentance
toward the Father? How is it that anybody will ever
follow Him Well, they have to be made alive. Now, that's not
deep theologically, is it? Got to be made alive. Well, who
can make Him alive? Can I? Well, I'm a preacher of
the Gospel. Can I make Him alive? Well, no. Can all the men of this church
and the ladies of this church, all of us praying over somebody,
can we make them spiritually alive? No, because we can't give
life. We had to have life given to
us. Over in the book of Ezekiel chapter
37, the valley of dry bones. You remember that story. The
Lord took Ezekiel out in a valley full of dry bones. There had
been a big battle out there, and a bunch of soldiers died,
and the flesh had been consumed by scorpions and buzzards and
whatnot, jackals, and all that's left is bones. And it's been
years, and the wind's blown the sand over, and the bones are
bleached. And the Lord took Ezekiel out
there and said, I've got a question for you. Can these bones live? It's just a pile of bones. He said, Lord, thou knowest. You know what the Lord said?
You start preaching to them. Start preaching to them. And
He did. Thus saith the Word of the Lord. By the way, when it
comes to the expression, the Word of God, the Word of the
Lord, As John uses it here in John, in the Gospel of John,
the Jews were very, very much acquainted with that expression,
the Word of the Lord. God communicated with them. Now
John uses the same sort of language. But anyway, John started preaching,
or Ezekiel started preaching, rather, out there in this desert,
and the bones started coming together. They just started joining
together. Man, first thing you know, here's
a skeleton here, and there's thousands of skeletons, and then
the Lord gave them muscles, and He gave them the organs, and
God gave them skin to cover all of that over, and they stood
up a mighty army. But you know what? There wasn't any life in them. What good is an army of dead
men? And Ezekiel said, oh Lord, breathe
on these bones. And he breathed into them just
like he did into Adam when he made Adam. He breathed into them
the breath of life. That's what's got to happen to
us spiritually. The Lord Jesus Christ has to
breathe into us the breath of life. There's a song in the psalm,
breathe on me, breath of God. Breathe on me, breathe life into
me. And then John in verse four,
he connects life with light, which brings us to the third
word, light. You can't separate life from
light. And Christ, who is the word of
life, He has to be the light as well. See, our problem is we have no
life, which means we're in darkness, which means we have no light.
We're in the dark spiritually. You watch Jeopardy. I watch Jeopardy
sometimes just to remind myself how little I know. And you know, here are these
brilliant people. Some of them are winning hundreds
of thousands of dollars. They've won all of these games.
And you know, the answer will be given and I'll say, what is? I'm in the dark. I don't know. I don't know. That's a problem
with all of us spiritually. We're in the dark. We're in the
dark. Who's got to turn the light on? the one who is light. And I'll
tell you, the things of the gospel, they may be dark to you, but
I'll tell you who can turn the light on. Him who is the Word,
Him who is the life, and Him who is the light. Now let me
give you one more thing in verse 5. and the light shineth in darkness. Christ is the light, and I'm
gonna show you that, because I'm gonna keep on going tonight.
I'll start with verse six, but the light shineth in darkness,
and the darkness, the darkness comprehended it not. What does
the word comprehended mean? Now, we have some educators here,
retired educators and current educators. What does the word
comprehended mean? Well, it means to know, to understand,
to grasp. So the light shineth in darkness
and the darkness doesn't grasp, doesn't grasp it. But really
the word, the word comprehended comes from the old English. Remember the King James Version
is translated back in the early 1600s. And there are many old
English words that are used in the Bible, but the meaning that
we're accustomed to using with those words is not the same as
they meant 400 plus years ago. And that is true of the word
comprehended. We usually think of it means
to perceive or to understand, but the meaning is really quite
different from that. The meaning of the word comprehended
is to extinguish, to overcome, and to overwhelm. In other words,
the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness, it can't overwhelm
it. It can't overcome the light. It can't extinguish the light.
That gives it a totally different meaning. You see, who is the
light? Verse 7, John came for a witness
to bear witness of the light. And when our Lord Jesus Christ
came, all the powers of darkness tried to overtake Him, tried
to extinguish Him, tried to do away with Him, tried to overwhelm
Him. Shortly after His birth, throughout
His life, All the powers of darkness converged against Jesus of Nazareth
to do away with Him. But they couldn't extinguish
the light. They couldn't overwhelm the light.
Why not? He's God. See? See how this all goes together?
The Word, the life, and the light. Oh God, help you to believe Him.
This is where salvation is found in Christ our Lord. Well, let's
sing a closing song before we go.