Let's go to the first chapter
of the Gospel of John. All right, John chapter 1. And we're going to begin this evening
at verse 6. And at least on the surface,
it seems to be a rather abrupt change of subjects. Because in
the first five verses, the subject has been the word. That is Christ
Jesus, the everlasting word, that one who is the second person
of the Trinity. And indeed, the first 18 verses
do deal with the Word. Let me look this over just briefly,
the first 18 verses, and I'm going to come back and focus
on the 6th verse. Let me give you a breakdown of
the first 18 verses of John. chapter 1, and actually a bit
of an outline of these verses. First of all, we see the eternal
Word. Here is the eternal Word. In the beginning was the Word. Here's His pre-existence from
everything that's made. In the beginning was the Word.
The Word was with God. He was co-existent with God. And the Word was God. He is the
self-existent God. And then he says, the same was
in the beginning with God. Here is the eternal Word of God. Secondly, here is the creating
Word. Look at the third verse. All
things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything
made that was made. He's the One who created everything
merely by the Word of His power. Thirdly, we see the self-existing
Word. Verse 4, in Him was life, and
the life was the light of man. He is Himself the self-existing
Word. Fourthly, we see the glory of
the Word. Look at verse 5. The light shineth
in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. Here's the
light of the Word shining in His glory, in His brilliance. And though He is unrecognized,
which brings us, which will take us to another section of this,
though He is unrecognized as the glory of God and as the Word
of God, that nevertheless, that doesn't change the fact that
He is the Word and is the Word who is all glorious. Whether
we see His glory or not, He's still glorious. Whether we see
His beauty or not, He's still beautiful. Whether we see Him
as the necessary Savior, that doesn't change the fact He's
the necessary Savior. Oh, that the Spirit of grace
would give us eyes to see His glory. And then we get, fifthly,
to the messenger of the Word. That's verses 6 through 8. There
was a man, literally there came into being a man from God, whose
name was John. The same came for a witness.
Notice the use of the word witness. This man came for a witness,
to bear witness of the light, that all men through him might
believe. He was not the light. But he was sent to bear witness
of the light. This is the messenger of the
word. And we'll focus on this in just a few moments. Fifthly,
we see the unrecognized word. Verses 9, 10, and 11. That was
the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the
world. He was in the world. The world
was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. The world didn't
recognize Him. Verse 11, He came unto His own,
and His own received Him not. He is the unrecognized Word. And then sixthly, we see the
received Word. That's verses 12 and 13. But as many as received Him,
To them gave he power, or authority, to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name, which were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God. He is the received Word. Seventh,
here is the incarnate Word. Verse 14, 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."
Then eighth, we see the gracious word. Verses 15, 16, and 17. Notice again, it says, and John
bare witness of Him. John bare witness of Him, and
this is what he cried out. 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
we all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given
by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And then
ninth, here's the God-revealing Word. Verse 18, No man hath seen
God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him, or He hath
revealed Him, or He hath manifested Him. You see, God is invisible. And as such, God cannot be seen. But God has veiled His deity. Indeed, He has joined His deity
with humanity. And in the Lord Jesus Christ,
we see God. And He manifests God. He reveals
God. He declared God. And everything
God is, and everything God has always been, and everything that
God always will be is in the man Christ Jesus because He is
Himself the God-man. He is the Word Himself. And so in the first 18 verses
of John chapter 1, the emphasis is absolutely on the Word. Now when we get to the 6th verse,
it almost seems like John is making an abrupt change of subjects. But really, he isn't. He's just
introducing the man who would be the spokesman, who would be
the forerunner of Messiah, or of the Word. And he introduces
him this way. There was a man sent from God,
whose name was John. He is the messenger of the Word,
and that's the title of the message. The messenger of the Word. of the Word. Now these verses
bring us face to face with a sinful man. A man like to ourselves, John
the Baptist. Now before this and the first
five verses, the focus has been on that one who is perfection
itself. That one who is God manifest
in the flesh. That one who is himself the eternal
Word of God. And now, John is led by the Spirit
to introduce us to a sinful man. But this sinful man has a reason
for his existence in the world. And his reason for existing really
is just a singular reason. He exists to set forth Messiah. He is the forerunner of the Son
of God. We noted several things about
the Word, and now we face John the Baptist. What a difference
between these two. Christ Jesus was from all eternity,
but John came into the world. In other words, John was born.
John himself was, he came into being. He had no previous existence. On the other hand, the Word of
God, he existed before everything. In fact, he's the one who made
everything. And to go even a step further,
he's the one who made John. John the Baptist is going to
announce Him, and yet our Lord Jesus preceded John, and John
lives by the power of the everlasting Word of God. What a difference! Christ is the Word. John is a
mere man. The Word is Himself, God Almighty. John was commissioned to speak
of the Word. Christ Jesus is the light. He is the object of our trust. On the other hand, John the Baptist
was an agent through whose testimony men are brought to Christ Jesus. Now we know this from the end
of the fourth chapter of the book of Malachi, till we get
to the first chapter of the book of Matthew, There was a period
of 400 years. That's when you get to the split
of the Testaments. It's 400 years. And for 400 years,
God remained silent. No one on earth received any
word from God. For 400 years, no prophet of
the Lord had been inspired to write one word of Scripture. For 400 years, no angel had been
sent from heaven to earth with a message from God to men. No revelation had been given. No message had been conveyed. No vision had been granted. No word from God had come for
400 years. The last miracle that is recorded
in the Old Testament happened 500 years before this. It was 500 years before this
that the last miracle was recorded and that is when Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego were spared while in the fiery furnace they were
miraculously preserved by the presence of the Lord Jesus. So
for 500 years, no miracle. For 400 years, no message. You got it? 500 years, no miracle. 400 years, no message. And to just further kind of drive
this home, it's been about a couple of thousand years since Abraham.
So from Abraham to the split of the Testaments, and actually
to the beginning of the New Testament, 2,000 years. From Adam to Abraham,
2,000 years. So you got from Adam to Abraham,
there's 2,000. Abraham to Malachi, that's 1,600. 3,600 years. And then 400 years
of silence. And all through those millenniums,
throughout all those centuries, God's servants had been saying,
somebody's coming. He's the seed of the woman. He's
like Abel's lamb. He's like Noah's ark. And go
all the way through the Old Testament. That's been their message for
3600 years. That message went forth. That
God would send His Son. And every Old Testament sacrifice
directed the attention of all those people to the Son of God
who would come to be the Savior of sinners. From Adam to Abraham,
2,000 years went by, no Messiah. From Abraham to the last writing
prophet who was Malachi, 1600 years, no Messiah. And after
Malachi, 400 years went by, no miracle, no message, no word,
no savior. But now, now the time has arrived. That time marked out in old eternity. That time ordained by God Himself,
when His Son would come forth into the world, born of a virgin,
made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were
under the law. That time marked out when He
would take away our sins, remove our iniquities, and bring in
everlasting righteousness. That very time when God ordained
that His law and justice would be satisfied in the death of
His Son. It has now arrived. Now, before Malachi finished
writing his prophecy, he was led to make a couple of interesting
statements here that I want us to look at. Go back to Malachi
chapter 4. We know that Malachi spoke of
the coming of Messiah, of Christ Jesus. Look at Malachi chapter
4. Malachi chapter 4 and the second
verse. But unto you that fear My name,
this is the last book of the Old Testament. And remember,
this is 400 years before Matthew. Malachi 4.2, But unto you that
fear my name shall the Son of Righteousness arise with healing
in his wings, and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of
the stall. The Son of Righteousness is going
to arise. That's what he says. Well, who
is the Son of Righteousness? He's the Word. He's the Word. He's the Son of God. He is the
Son of Righteousness, because as the Son is the fountain of
all life, so Christ Jesus is the fountain of all righteousness. As we get our light from the
Son, so we get our righteousness from the Lord Jesus Christ. We
must be righteous. We've got to be righteous. God's
not going to have anything to do with us if we're not righteous.
And all of us, all of us fall into one of two camps. We're
either righteous or we're unrighteous. Isn't that correct? We're either
righteous or we're unrighteous. We're either holy or we're not
holy. There is no in between. Thankfully,
God has made Christ Jesus to be our wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification, and that's holiness, and redemption. In other words, He's everything.
That according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. This is the Son of Righteousness.
It says He shall arise with healing in His wings. In other words,
when He comes into this world, He will come to heal What kind of healing do we need?
We need healing of our spiritual diseases. We're a leprous people. We're sick. We're diseased. We're dying physically and we're
dead spiritually. We need this One who shall arise
with healing in His wings. And He will heal us by His substitutionary
death on the cross. For it says in Isaiah chapter
53, by His stripes we are healed. He heals us of our every spiritual
disease. Go back in Malachi chapter 3. Look at the first verse. Malachi
chapter 3. And these are the words of our
Lord and Savior. This One who is the Son of God.
This One who is the Word. This is Who is speaking. The
book of Malachi chapter 3 verse 1. Behold, I will send my messenger. This is not Malachi writing his
own thoughts. This is Malachi writing what
the Lord says to him. And the Lord of glory, the second
person of the Trinity, He says, Behold, I will send my messenger. And he shall prepare the way
before me. And the Lord whom ye seek shall
suddenly come to his temple as he did when he went to the temple
to be named in Luke the second chapter. Well, who is he? He's the messenger of the covenant. He's the mediator of the covenant. He's the angel of the covenant.
He's the son of God. this One whom ye delight in."
And notice these words, Behold, He shall come, saith the Lord
of hosts. He shall come. That's the message
of every prophet of the Old Testament. Every preacher in the Old Testament
had the same message, Behold, He shall come. They were all
saying the same thing. He shall come. Now, the Lord said, I send my
messenger. I send my messenger. Go back
to Malachi chapter 4. And just before Messiah's arrival, someone else will come upon the
scene. He's the forerunner of the Savior. Malachi chapter 4 verse 5. The
Lord says, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before
the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. What does the
word dreadful mean? Astonishing. Write that in your
Bible, in your margin. Astonishing. There would be an
astonishing day, the day of the Lord that would astonish multitudes. Now he says, I send you Elijah
the prophet. Now not Elijah the Tishbite,
who lived in the times of Ahab, king of Israel, but one who would
come in the very power of Elijah. One who would come with the spirit
of Elijah. One who would come with the same
kind of disposition as Elijah. The same kind of greatness as
Elijah. He would dress like Elijah. He
would eat like Elijah. He would have the same sort of
zeal as Elijah. And the same usefulness as Elijah. And his name will be John the
Baptist. John the Baptist. Go back to
our text in John chapter 1. So here he is. Here he is. The Lord said, I'll send my messenger. And now he's sent. John has one
purpose for existing. To speak of Messiah. And really,
that's the only purpose for any preacher of the gospel. That's
why we exist. That's why I'm here. That's why
I'm on this earth. I know there are several secondary
reasons But the main reason God sends forth His servants who
have His Word, to whom He has taught His Gospel, is to declare
the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why
we exist. It says, there was a man sent
from God. Oh God, send us a man with Your
Word. That's who we want our children
to listen to. That's who we want our grandchildren
to listen to, is a man who has the Word of God, and the man
who's been sent of God. He's been equipped by God. He's
been instructed by God. He's been commissioned by God.
And what he knows of the gospel is not what he learned from the
lips of others, though God may use secondary agents to teach
his servants, but what he knows and what he speaks is really
what God has taught him. You see, God's preachers are
not polyparents. They just don't repeat what other
preachers say. And I'm afraid that's what a
lot of preachers are doing. They're not even thinking through
their message. They're just polyparents. They
just repeat what some other preacher says. But not God's preachers. God's preachers are sent from
the Lord with the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And they will not go astray from
that message. was a man. There came into being
a man he sent from God, and his name was John. Now we know that
John the Baptist, he was the subject of Old Testament prophecy. Our brother read to us from Isaiah
chapter 40. It speaks of John the Baptist.
And I'm going to show you the fulfillment of that word. Look
at Matthew chapter 3. You'll remember what Joe read
to us from Isaiah 40. Look at Matthew chapter 3. In verse 1. In those days came
John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea. Matthew 3 and verse 2. And he
was saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
This is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah saying,
the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way
of the Lord, make his paths straight. He's the subject of Old Testament
prophecy. What do we know about John? Well,
we know this. Look at Luke chapter 1. He was
born to a couple who were descendants of Aaron. Look at Luke chapter
1. The Gospel of Luke chapter 1.
Look at verse 5. This man, John the Baptist, he
was born to a couple who were descendants of Aaron. Look at
verse 5. There was in the days of King
Herod, that is the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias. His name means, Zacharias, if
you want to make a note of this, remembered by God. Remembered
by God. God remembered him. File that
away in your memory banks. He was of the division, or the
chorus, or the group of Abiah. And his wife was of the daughters
of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth, which means oath of God. And whenever you hear of the
oath of God, you should think of the promises of God and the
purpose of God. Elizabeth. She was actually named
from Aaron's wife, Aaron the High Priest. Now, Zacharias,
he was a priest in Jerusalem. One of about 18,000 priests,
in fact. At this particular time in Israel's
history, There were about 18,000 priests who served in Jerusalem.
Now, they didn't all live in Jerusalem. Some of them lived
outside of Jerusalem, and they didn't serve all the time. But
there were 24 groups of the priests, and they all served two days
during the year because there were 750 in each group. Multiply
750 times 24 and you'll come up with the right answer. You'll
come up with 18,000. And what they did, they didn't
serve every day. But every priest served two weeks
during the year and in addition served at the three great feasts
which were Passover, Pentecost, Feast of Tabernacles. Just a
little bit of history there thrown in for good measure. So of the
18,000 priests in Jerusalem, this man Zacharias, he's one
of them. He's one of them. He was just
an ordinary priest. There wasn't anything extraordinary
about him. We read here in Luke chapter
1 and verse 5, he was a certain priest. It doesn't say he was
distinguished by anything other than the fact he was just a certain
priest. He wasn't a noble priest. He
wasn't a distinguished priest. He wasn't a famous priest. He
wasn't a renowned priest. He's just a certain priest. One
among 18,000. But this man and his wife, they
were distinguished by this. Verse 6, they were both righteous
before God. They were both righteous before
God. In other words, they are justified. These are justified
people. Now you got to remember back
in Israel's history, especially at this time, so much of the
religion was just strictly ceremonial. And even among the priesthood
of these 18,000 priests, there is no telling how many of them
were corrupt. Their service was ritualistic. They did not from their hearts
believe on the One that they professed to represent. But this
man was a believer, and his wife was a believer. They are righteous
before God through the imputed righteousness of the Son of God.
They are justified, they are righteous by grace, because grace
was given to them in Christ Jesus before the world began. They're
justified by blood. They'll be justified by the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Their son would be the forerunner
of their Savior. And they're justified by faith.
That is, they will receive this justification, or they receive
this justification by God-given faith. Verse 7 says, they had
no child. They had no child. Because Elizabeth
was barren. They were both now well stricken
in years. So John was born to parents who
couldn't have any children. And remember, the name Zacharias
means remembered by Jehovah. Psalm 8 verse 4, What is man
that thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man that thou visitest
him? Oh, here's something to remember
people of God that will help you. We're always on the Lord's
mind. Have you ever had somebody give
you a phone call, or maybe they'll see you here in the worship service,
before service or after service, and they'll come up to you and
say, you know, you've been on my mind lately. Or they'll call
you, I've had you on my mind lately. The Lord always has His
people on His mind. He always remembers us. When
that thief said, remember me when you come into your kingdom,
the Lord Jesus could have said this, I've always remembered
you. I've never forgotten you. Your mother and your father may
forget you, but I'll never forget you. Your name is written on
the palms of my hands. That's what the Lord says about
His people. This man Zacharias, his name
means remembered by God. The Lord remembered him. In his weakness, in his impotence,
the Lord remembered him. Elizabeth, her name means oath
of God. Remember God's promise and God's
purpose. Well, they had no child. Look at verse 8. It came to pass
that while he executed the priest's office, before God, in the order
of His course, he's in one of the 24 courses, 750 in each course
of the priesthood, according to the custom of the priest's
office, they drew lots to see who's going to burn incense. And he drew the lot that meant
he was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.
You've got to remember, this is the highest honor any man
could ever have on this earth as a priest. And out of these 18,000 priests,
when the lots were drawn, It was his honor to burn the incense
at the morning sacrifice and the evening sacrifice. He had
two assistants. The three of them would go into
the altar of the incense. That's as far as he could go,
remember. He's just a certain priest. He's
not a high priest. He's a certain priest. He's just
an ordinary priest of an ordinary rank. He would have two assistants. One of them would bring the hot
coals from the brazen altar in and put it on the altar of incense. As the three of them stood there,
this one would put the hot coals, the other one would give to Zacharias
the incense. And then those two assistants
would leave. Nobody was in there in that holy
place but just Zacharias. This is the biggest thrill of
his life. He drew the lot to burn incense. And after he burned the incense,
he'd go back out. There'd be lots of people out
there because it's the morning sacrifice and the evening sacrifice. 9 a.m. and 3 a.m., people going
to work, people coming back from work, stop by and worship. And they'd see Zacharias
come back out. And as it was always the tradition,
he would read the blessing from Numbers chapter 6. The Lord bless
thee and keep thee. The Lord cause His face to shine
upon thee and be gracious to thee. That's what it says, verse
10. The whole multitude of the people
were praying without it at the time of incense. And there appeared
unto him the angel of the Lord on the right side of the altar
of incense, while he was in there burning incense. Nobody else
saw this angel. And when Zacharias saw him, he
was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto
him, Fear not, Zacharias. For thy prayer is heard, and
thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call
his name John." Now get John's name. Jehovah is a gracious giver. That's what John's name means.
And if there's a John in the house, or if there's a John in
your family, this is what John's name means. Jehovah is a gracious
giver. And the messenger of God, even
Gabriel, the man of God, says to Zacharias, you're going to
have a son. His name is going to be John.
And you'll have joy and gladness. Many shall rejoice at his birth.
For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall
drink neither wine nor strong drink. He shall be filled with
the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb." What does that
mean? Well, it doesn't mean he was regenerated from the mother's
womb. And it doesn't mean that we should
therefore sprinkle infants as soon as they come out of the
womb. It just means this, when it says you are filled with the
Holy Ghost, it means He was directed and led and guided by the Holy
Ghost. In fact, when He was being carried
in Elizabeth's womb, He heard the voice of Mary speaking, the
mother of our Savior's human nature. And he, led by the Spirit
of God, leapt in his mother's womb for joy. He's filled with the Holy Ghost. He's an unusual man, this man,
John. And you notice what he says in
verse 15, For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord. You
know, he wasn't great in the sight of people, not many people. There were a few people who thought
John was great, but there were a lot of people who didn't like
John. He wound up losing his head. But he would be great in the
eyes of the Lord. What do you want for your children?
What do you want for your grandchildren? And people say, I want my child
to be successful in the world. Well, that's reasonable. I want
them to get a good education. I want them to make good money
and all of that sort of thing. The real goal and the real desire
is that they be great in the eyes of the Lord. Oh, that God would esteem them
great in His Son. That's what we want for our children.
We want them to know the Lord. To be known of the Lord. To be
washed in the blood. To be robed in the righteousness
of the Son of God. This is what the Lord says to
Zacharias. And over here in John chapter
1, here He is. You see, God fulfilled His oath. What does Elizabeth's name mean?
The oath of the Lord. The Lord fulfilled His oath.
He fulfilled His promise. And He fulfilled His purpose.
And John the Baptist was born. And when he reached 30 years
of age, he begins preaching that the Lord has come. Look at verse 7 of John 1. I'm
going to have to quit. The same came for a witness. Why did He come? For a witness. To bear witness of the light.
That all through Him might believe. Not all men without exception. But all of those of the elect
of God who would hear Him would believe. That's what we want. We want
you to believe. We've already studied this from
the 20th chapter of John, the last verse. These things are
written that you might believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
We want you to believe. And verse 8 says, He wasn't the
light. And make no mistake, He's not the light. John's not the
light. He was a sinner saved by grace.
Every preacher who preaches the gospel is just a sinner saved
by grace. I'm not the light. John wasn't
the light. We reflect the light. We bear
witness of the light. We set forth him who is the light. Here's his commission. He's a
witness to bear witness of the light. And here's the purpose
of His commission, that all through Him might believe. And this is
the ministry of every preacher of the gospel, to bear witness
of the light, of the light. Well, let's sing a song and we'll
go home. What is it? 63. I like this.