I mentioned a lot, I said something
about this a little bit last week, but I do mention a lot
about how we feel when we come to worship together. And if we were all to take turns
this morning and say how many of us feel tired, many would
raise our hands. How many of us feel frustrated,
some more fearful? We'd have hands all over the
place. If we talked about our feelings, even if we all shared
what fear was, we would conflict with each other. Well, I'm scared
and this is what causes me fear. And others would say, no, no,
no, you shouldn't have fear because of that. That's just silly. This
is what you should fear. Anxiety, doubt, self-worth, self-esteem. We often even look at those types
of things in our walk with Christ. We even sometimes don't even
know what that means. Well, what does it mean to walk
with Christ? So I've got to act a certain way and speak a certain
language, carry a certain Bible, be in a certain place in a certain
time in a certain church. And then there's others that
say, well, you know, my walk with the Lord is just me and myself and
I and Jesus. The self trinity with Jesus on
the edge and everything is well. And it is well with my soul and
others who would be the picture of piety and the picture of faith
would turn and say to those, well, I'm the most wretched of
sinners. And I can never overcome the sin of my life. And I never
feel like I'm good enough or worthy enough. And there's a
whole gambit of different thoughts and responses that come when
we consider ourselves in light of righteousness, in light of
the cultural dictation of what Christianity is, in light of
our own experiences. We all come here every time we
gather together with different fears and different thoughts
and different feelings. And the only constant in this, where
there's several constants. The only constants that we see
is that number one, we gather together. And we gather together,
we gather together with our garbage piled upon our hearts and minds
and shoulders. And we all come and we all look at each other
and go, man, I wish I didn't have burdens like they don't
have burdens. And that's a lie. Each of us
has a burden or 12. or 40, or 1,000. That's beyond
our scope of ability. It's beyond in our own minds,
whether I share with you some of the burdens I had, and you
went, you know what? Why does that bother you? You shouldn't be bothered
by that. And you share burdens with me, and I'm thinking, man,
I could handle that all day. Well, we cannot handle our own, can we?
But we seem sometimes to be able to see through the problems of
each other. Beloved, God has established
the local assembly so that we can do that. And let me share
something with you here. is that if we are not intimate
in our conversation, if we are not intimate in our investment
in each other's lives, if we're not honest, there's never ministry. There's never ministry. How are
you doing? Oh, I am great, praise the Lord.
God is good all the time, all the time. God is good, woo-hoo!
I mean, you know. When inside, we really are dead. When in the
depths of our mind, we're just worried about tomorrow and what
it will bring. We don't want people to figure out who we really
are because we put up these fronts and we think that there's a solidity
in that and there's a strength in that. But friends, when we
hide the truth, we are weak. We are frail, we are broken,
and we are in a place where we might just one turn or one sneeze
or one wail, fall off the cliff, never to climb back up. When we look at the word of God
together, church, it is through the hearing of this word that
we are encouraged, that we are supported, that we are undergirded.
It is through the teaching of scripture that God, the Holy
Spirit moves in our lives. There's no place where we can
come to find God for he does not exist in a place. There is no particular people
who are gifted above other people to have some spiritual essence
about them. The apostles are no more. They
are gone. We have their words and through
their words is how God works. No man is more holy or spiritual
than any other man. There's not a rapist in prison that's any more wicked than I
am. Friends, there is no place to
find the Lord except through Scripture. And God uses the natural
means of language written on these pages through which His
Holy Spirit brings to life a dead man who cannot see His glory.
to which He takes a people who could never get along, who could
never love each other, who could never be honest, who could never
invest in each other's lives. And boom! By the power of His
grace, He gives us some supernatural spontaneous affection that overrides
all the wisdom and common sense of the world. And friends, we are looking,
if we're looking, apart from the Word of God and outside the
assembly of God's people, if we're looking for hope and joy
and peace, we will never find it. If we're thinking that we're
going to have a firm foundation in anything but the Word of God,
the Bible itself says that it's sinking sand. That's it. It's sinking sand. Nothing else
can we stand upon except the rock of our salvation, who is
not Peter, for the love of God. It is not Grace Truth Church.
It is not the right hymns or the right doctrinal historical
position. It is Jesus Christ alone. He
is the rock of salvation. He is the glory of God revealed
perfectly to us. He is. The I am. And that's what this text teaches
us. This morning, I pray that as
the word of God is read to you, that the Lord would give hearing
to your ears. Let's do the prologue one more
time together. In the beginning was the word
and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the
beginning with God. All things are made through Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. And in Him
was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines
in the darkness, and the darkness is not overcoming. There was
a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness
to bear witness about the light that all might believe through
Him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the
light, the true light. The true light, which gives light
to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world,
and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know
Him. He came to His own, and His own
people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him,
those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children
of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became
flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen His glory. Glory
as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John
bore witness about Him and cried out, This was He of whom I said,
He who comes after me ranks before me, because He was before me.
For from his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through
Moses, grace and truth through Jesus Christ. No one has ever
seen God. The only God who was at his father's
side, he has made him known. Let's pray. Father, please. Lord, we pray that your will
be done, but Lord, We ask of you this day to give light and
hope to those who are lost among us. Father, to secure your children
with the power of your gospel, to help us see that it is not
in us to hold ourselves and save our souls, to help us see that
it is not any part of us. There is no part of us, Father,
that can come into your presence and behold your glory. But you
brought yourself down. God, you brought yourself down.
Jesus Christ, the Son, who is the God-man, came to dwell among
us. You have sent your glory to dwell among your people as
a person. Father, you've revealed yourself
to us through Jesus Christ in this word this morning. And I
pray, Lord, that you would give us the hope and the peace and
the security that we all long for every moment. Father, as
we grow as a church, as a gathered people, as a family of faith,
Lord, You know what the enemy is doing. You know how he is
coming against our homes, our minds, our bodies. Lord, You
know how he is coming against our consciences and we are just
thinking differently in some aspects of our assembly. Father,
there are many of us who feel overwhelmed with sin, overwhelmed
with addiction, overwhelmed with anger, overwhelmed, Lord, with
whatever it may be. Father, you are the God of heaven.
Who by your word created all things and by your word, Lord,
you will give us a way of escape. Father, it is not in us, but
it is in Jesus Christ whose life is worthy of praise, whose life
as a human being you call your righteousness. And Father, whose
death satisfied your justice, may we believe on Christ this
day for the answer to all of life and most assuredly to eternal
life. And it's in his name we pray.
Amen. The Word became flesh and dwelt
among us. We've spent several weeks on this, looking at the
glory of God. Glory as of the only Son from
the Father, full of grace and truth. And while I would love
to spend six or seven weeks dealing with that, we will spend the
next few years showing what the Scripture teaches about the glory
of God in Christ. So this morning I want to move
into these next verses, but I want to skip some and then go back
and then I'm going to come back. So it's going to be a little
off for us in sequence, but I want us to look now at verse 17. You see there is the word for,
for the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through
Jesus Christ. So we have now the word became
flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen the glory of God.
Glory is the only son for the father, full of grace and truth.
John the Baptist bore witness and said he was from before,
came after me, came before me because he was before me. For
from the fullness of Jesus Christ, who is the word of God, who is
God, who was in the beginning that came to be a man, we have
received all the visible glory of God. We have seen all the
revelation of God in every piece and all perfection. There is
no mystery hidden from us about God that will ever be revealed
to us. That's not revealed in Jesus
Christ. And from all of his fullness we receive grace upon grace.
Four, the law was given through Moses. You see this contrast.
I want to focus on that for a second so that we have the right understanding
of the law in our minds as we back up and then go through this
text. The law was given by God to Moses for his people. You
know the story. We see how God brought them out
of Egypt through the hands of a murderer as his spokesperson.
Moses, a murderer, who was hiding because he murdered an Egyptian.
Though he grew up in the palace arms, if you will, of Egypt,
he was a criminal. He murdered an Egyptian. And
God called Moses, who could not speak very well at all, to go
back into Egypt and to walk into the throne room of the king the
Pharaoh and to just say with bold words, actually he would
have his brother Aaron say them because he couldn't speak as
eloquently or as clearly as he should. That was his excuse when
God called him. He says, well, here's a stick
and take your brother. And that's the way God works, right? We
give an excuse and God gives us a nonsensical object. Here's a stick. Oh, you're scared.
Take a stick. You're alone, take your brother.
Who do you think I am? I'm God. I created the world.
I created the voice that you can't use. Here's a stick. I can do more with this stick
than you can do with your entire life. Something to think about. And
Aaron and Moses stood before Pharaoh, and Moses, guilty of
murder, possibly could have been killed at any moment and arrested.
But by God's providence, through the murder of Hebrew children,
Moses was spared generations before. Where his own mother
hid him in a basket and put him out on a waterway. And he was
found by a member of the king's court. A member of the royal
family. And then he was given back to
his mother, a Jewish slave, to raise. Because God, in the midst of
all horror, has a perfect and sovereign plan and nothing can
stop it. And Moses grew and murdered and
left and returned. And he said, let the people of
God go. You see? And Pharaoh went, not
going to happen. And God poured wrath and justice
upon Egypt. And when justice and wrath and
judgment was poured upon Egypt, Pharaoh's heart relented and
repented. When punishment came his way,
he's like, I'm sorry, I quit, I give up. And then when God
says, I will be gracious and he took the plagues away and
things got back to normal, Pharaoh changed his mind. And the grace
of God hardened the heart of Pharaoh against God. And the
Bible teaches us in Romans, that God raised up Pharaoh for the
exact purpose to be an instrument of destruction, an object of
wrath, that he may show his glory and his justice. No, he's not
talking about Egypt. He's talking about Pharaoh, the
man. And Esau, the man that he hated. God delivered Israel out of the
hands of slavery, out of the hands and the powerful grip of
Egypt through miracle after miracle after miracle after miracle after
miracle. And when they got to safety,
they encamped around the base of Mount Sinai and the tempest
formed and God's glory appeared through cloud and smoke and lightning
and thunder and it frightened them. And Moses had to go up
into the midst of God's holiness and God's glory. And God spoke
to Moses and with His hand He wrote the law of His righteous
requirements and His demands upon the tablets. And Moses came
down after hearing the voice of God and spending time in the
presence of the glory of God's righteousness. And he finds that his brother
Aaron had melted all the gold and created a calf and worshipped
it with the whole number of Israel. And God swallowed them up and
disemboweled their bodies by the sword. Because they deserved it. But
He did not do that to all of them. He just did a portion.
He'd have been just and righteous and loving and good and pleasant
and worthy of all praise and honor had he swallowed every
Israelite and even Moses himself hurled him into the abyss and
brought him into everlasting judgment. But God had made a
covenant. to create a people for Himself. And He showed them
that the only way they could stand before Him righteous was
to know His law and obey it with absolute perfection. And before
they even heard it, they were guilty of violating the very
first one, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, to have
no other gods before you, and they worshiped a golden calf.
And in anger, Moses throws and breaks those tablets and has
to go back again and see, hear the voice of God, give the law
one more time. And when he goes to leave, Moses
asks one question of God. He says, can I see your glory? And God says, no one can see
me and live. I will show you as I walk by.
the back of the train of my robe." The presence of God is so mighty
and glorious that Moses' physical face glowed. And all throughout the instruction,
these people hearing, they begged, they begged that no more words
come from the mountain. We don't want to hear it anymore.
And when Moses came down from the mountain, they said, hide
your face. For you have been with God and we can't bear to
see your glory, the glory of God reflecting from your face.
Hide your face. You see the problem we have here?
We can't look upon God, y'all. We cannot gaze into His face.
We cannot see His glory. We cannot behold Him and embrace
Him and be in intimate relationship with Him because we are sinners
and we are worthy of His righteousness. We are worthy of His justice.
We are worthy of His condemnation because we do not stand holy
and perfect before Him. So the law came through Moses. And the law is what is required
of every man. Every woman and every child with
absolute perfection. And there's a little bit of an
irony here as the way Israel took the law. After all, they
had already violated it. Friends, if you have broken the
law, are you ever not a lawbreaker? No. You may have a long run of obedience. But if you've broken the law
of God, you are guilty thereof of breaking all the law of God. God did not give 10. He gave
his law. And the law is right and required
of all men. The law is based on the works
of men. To follow perfectly after the
righteousness of God. To be as God is in complete pattern. To follow after Him in absolute
lockstep. Not looking to the left or the
right, much less stepping there. Not considering other options.
To follow the law of God is to be God Himself, beloved. and stand perfectly aligned and
say, I am God. That's what it means to obey
the law of God. And only one man has ever obeyed the law of
God, and he was God himself. But the Israelites could not
see it. They were just looking to the temporal. They were looking
to the temporal like Nicodemus in John 3, how can I be born
again? go back into my mother's womb
and return. They're like the temporal mindset
of the Samaritan woman from Sychar in John 4 that says, how are
you to give me living water when you have no bucket to dip it
with? Or like his disciples at the
end of that discourse where they come and they say, eat, master.
He says, I have food that you know not of. And they thought,
who gave him something to eat? And he says, my food is to do
the will of the one who sent me. Or when he says in John six,
do not labor for the bread that perishes, but labor for the food
that endures to eternal life. I am the bread that comes down
from heaven to give life to all men. And they have the audacity
to say, what sign do you bring that we might believe? Israelites saw the law as an
opportunity to make themselves right before God. Israelites
saw the law as a man-hoped, centered ability to follow after God and
thus appease the righteousness of God and the justice of God.
If they just follow the rules, they'll be right. Beloved, that
is a lie. You cannot follow the rules and
be right. And that's the conflict that
John is imposing here. Be careful when you hear and
you listen to sermons on John's gospel, where people have a project
in mind and they have a position that they want to impose upon
the scripture. And they make it sound right, but in context,
it's stupid. People will twist scripture to
fill the coffers of their offerings. They will twist Scripture to
get a following and say, oh, look at pastor, wow, what a great
guy. They will twist Scripture to
build themselves an empire, to have a following after their
ideals and principles. And anyone who says that they
follow after Christ and they worship a man and they worship
a ministry and they worship the fruits thereof, have not seen
Christ. Because the law is works. And
no man can establish works that are righteous before God. As
a matter of fact, the prophet of old said that the righteous
works of men are filthy rags before a holy God. Jesus imposes
the same reality through the parable where He talks about
the slaves that are owned by their masters, who are working
for their food and clothing. And if they do not work, they
will not have clothes. And if they do not work, they
will not eat. And he says, does the slave work hard all day in
the field? And when we come into dinner,
do I say, oh slave, you've worked so hard. Sit, recline, put your
feet up and dine with me. He says, no slave, where's my
supper? That's Jesus. That is exactly
out of the mouth of Jesus. What's the point? That's mean.
Jesus wasn't endorsing slavery. He was just saying that a slave
was not rewarded for doing what a slave was required to do. Beloved,
we are not rewarded for obeying the law of God. We cannot earn
salvation. We cannot earn righteousness.
We cannot earn good favor. We cannot earn the glance of
God's affection. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds
of New Testament passages. Every letter of the New Testament.
Every gospel writer in John's Apocalypse. Every letter teaches
us that God has saved the people in spite of them for the sake
of His glorious name, that He may be glorified in the grace
given to them. And grace, by definition, is
an unmerited gift. not an offer, not an opportunity,
not a privilege, but is a gift that no one can earn, and no
one can grasp, and no one can take for themselves. You see
the difference in the God of the world that's worshipped for
what man can do, and the God of Scripture, who is the God
of heaven, that is worshipped for what He has done? The law brings death. Paul would say to the Philippians,
according to the law of Moses, I am blameless. Do you know that? In other words, he said, if you
follow me around my whole life, since I was a boy, eight days
old, and circumcised, given the name of Israel's first king,
Saul, the Jew of all Jews, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee
of Pharisees, according to the law, blameless, you would have
walked in my entire life and heard every thought that I had,
and I never sinned against the law of God. And he was right,
according to the way he followed it. But yet, he said, when the
law came and his eyes were opened, he saw that it brought death.
For even in all of his staunch piety and all of his perfect
pursuit of following the rules, it did not merit him righteous
salvation. Could not merit him righteous
salvation. The word became flesh. The law
was given through Moses. The law is a witness to righteousness,
according to Romans 3. Come on Wednesday nights if you
want to learn more about this doctrine. Romans 3 says that
the righteousness of God is manifested apart from the law. Though the
law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God
is manifested apart. That means it's established and
visible. It exists apart from the law. in Jesus Christ. That the righteousness of God
is manifested through the putting of Jesus on the cross. That the
Bible says that God the Father put Jesus on the cross in order
to be a noun propitiation. Jesus is the satisfaction of
God's judgment against his people to be received by faith. God is a maniacal God. No, he's
not. He's a righteous God, perfect
in all his ways and glorious and worthy of all praise. The
law is a witness to righteousness because it displays and depicts
holiness. It requires holiness. It demands
justice. It indicts sinners and it convicts
the guilty. And beloved, all of us are guilty.
Every one of us are guilty before God. So what are we to do? John is showing what God has
done. What has God done? The law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through
Jesus Christ. And I'm not saying anything else
about that to the end of the sermon. The righteousness of God manifested
apart from the law. is that no man can be righteous
by the works of the law, and no man can put stock and security
in his works, and no man can have faith in the fruit of his
faith and have security of his eternal life. Let's go back to
verse 15. Verse 15, John, not the gospel
writer, not the evangelist here, but John the Baptist, whose head
was taken from his body at the command of Herod's wife. John bore witness about him. What is this talking about? As
you'll see John the Baptist in just a few verses. We'll see
a little bit of him next week. John the Baptist was born as
the precursor to Christ. As the one who's the forerunner
of Christ. To come and declare, make straight
the paths of the Lord. The kingdom of God is at hand. And then he says, as we'll see
in a minute, behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins
of the world. And here is a foreshadowing of
the rest of this narrative that John bore witness. That means he cried out, this
was he of whom I said, he who comes after me. Because Jesus
was born after John. Jesus showed up on his public
ministry after John's public ministry had started. He comes after me, he ranks before
me. because he was before me. You
see that? Jesus Christ is what? In the
beginning was the word. Jesus Christ is the God of eternity.
Jesus Christ is before all things and the creator of all. He's
just reminding us that John bore witness to what he's writing.
Peter would say the same thing. Paul would say the same thing
to the church of Colossae, to the church of Rome, to the church
of Galatia. the church of Philippi, the church
of Thessalonica. In John 8, 56, Jesus has the
audacity, 56, 57, 58, he says, Abraham rejoiced to look forward
to my day, this is a paraphrase, and in my day he was glad he
saw it. And they said, what are you talking
about? Verse 57 of John 8, what are you talking about? You are
not yet 50, yet you say you've seen Abraham. And he says, before
Abraham was, I am. He ranks before us because He
is eternal. He is the God of heaven. Beloved, this is not
just some narrative showing us about the historical excellencies
of the work of Jesus and the ministry of the apostles. This
is an exposition. This is an expository reality. This is a supernatural revelation
of Jesus Christ divine. Jesus Christ is God. In all attributes,
He is God fully, eternally. Isaiah 6, you know that text.
It's referenced several times in John. John chapter 12 specifically.
But it says, I see the Lord. And it is what? It is what? His glory fills the temple. I
see the Lord and He's high and lifted up. That's Isaiah chapter
6 verses 1 through 3. I see the Lord high and lifted
up. Jesus, in John chapter 12 verse 41, He says, Isaiah saw
my glory and wrote of it. and spoke of it. Now we see the glory of God.
We see the glory of God as Jesus Christ as depicted just in the
gospel. He's the word. He's the light. He's the true
light. He's the light of the world. He's the son of man. He's teacher.
He's prophet. He's God. He's the son of God. He's God's one and only son.
He's the Son of God who is coming to the world, according to Martha. He is the Lord. He is the great
I Am. As a matter of fact, there are
seven I Am statements that Jesus makes about Himself. 20, 28. What is Thomas saying? The Lord of me and the God of
me. He is my Lord. He is my God. He is the Holy
One of God. Chapter 6, verse 68, 69. The Messiah, the King of Israel,
the Broadgroom, the One who comes in the name of the Lord, Jesus
Christ, is the One who comes from heaven, the One who comes
from above, the One who God has sent. He is the Bread of Life.
He is the Bread of God. He comes down. He is the Giver
of Life. He is the Living Water. He is
the One that the Father has sent apart from Him into the world.
He is the Lamb. He is the Savior. What other
title do we need? He's the resurrection. He's the
door. He's the gate. He's the great
shepherd. He's the true vine. He is the
truth. He's the way. He's the life.
And it goes on and on and on throughout 20 some odd. I don't
know how many hundreds or thousands of words are in here, but this
gospel, everything in it shows that Jesus ranks before all things. And in verse 15, it's to remind
us that the writers of this text are not writing of their own
accord. They're not writing so that we can just say, OK, we
put together this plan to create this historical figure who we
can say now is God. It's a consistent testimony. It has a stream, a thread, a
single line that runs through the Old Testament to the New
Testament, as far as texts. But most assuredly, that God
has given testimony of His Son. As we'll see in John 5, in verse 16. From His fullness, we've all
received grace upon grace. I'm going to tag this at the
end again too. What does this mean? Well, if we were to take
it literally, grace that replaces grace that replaces grace that
replaces grace. You might say, well, what is
the grace? Now, I like the ingenuity, of some Bible scholars who determine
their understanding and interpretation of Scripture outside of Scripture.
So they go, well, that's really neat. This is what's on the page.
Let's come up with our own idea. And they create a schematic.
And they go, well, this is pretty neat. So that must mean that
the grace of God through the law was one grace. Now there's
another grace that replaces that. Friends, the grace of God in
the law is not grace. It's a holy requirement. Now
it's gracious that God should show us the law, but without
the knowledge of the law, there is no knowledge of sin, according
to Paul. So the law is a teacher to show
us our inability to follow it. The law is a teacher to reveal
to us the righteousness of God. The law is a teacher to show
us our guilt before God. Romans 3 and other places. Romans one and two basically
establishes God's judgment in his guilt. I mean, in the guilt,
excuse me, the guilt that all humanity has. The grace here upon grace, upon
grace, grace that comes continually replacing itself most abundantly. This is not the law and other
covenants and now Christ. That's a farce. It is supposed
to impose the absolute efficacy that grace through Jesus Christ
is sufficient for all things. That grace is given through God
and that He has accomplished it by the means of grace. Everything
is in the hand of God. Every step is in the hand of
God. Every action. Every reaction. Everything. is in the hand of God by grace.
What in the world is so important about grace? It is by grace alone
that you are saved through faith. What is faith? Faith is trusting
in the grace of God, who is Jesus Christ. What do you mean trusting? I'm helpless, help me God. Oh
Jesus, you're my only hope. That's the mindset of grace.
That's the expression of grace from a verbal point of view.
Saying those words does not make one saved. Trusting in Jesus
Christ. Believing in Jesus Christ. It's
a present reality, not a point in history. It's not a future
ability. It is an absolute, true promise
of God. It's a declaration of what God
has done because of His kindness. Because of His mercy. Because
of His love toward His people. In spite of them. They are objects
of mercy. Grace upon grace upon grace.
I mean, we could then say, well, there is some graciousness to
God in some actual ways, but we understand that when scripture
talks about grace from a salvific point of view, it is talking
about God's effectual grace that works salvation in the hearts
and lives of his people perfectly. that Jesus is an absolute Savior
who came to seek and save the lost and He did just that. And
He propitiated. He became the satisfaction of
God's wrath for people. He paid for the sins of certain
people. It's not a check that God wrote
through the blood of Christ that we have to go cash. It's a check
that God wrote through the blood of Christ that He paid the debt
with. The debt is paid. You can't go
pay a debt that is not owed. Beloved, we cannot pay our debt
to God. We cannot pay our debt to God.
Christ has paid it. Christ has paid it. We can say
that the grace of God upon grace upon grace is the very fact that
we exist for the glory of God. That is a work of grace. We can
say that grace is like the grace of sight, of being able to see
the glory of God and behold and understand. We can say that God's
grace is seen in the new birth of the dead man. So that when
we become believers we are made new to the glorious grace of
God and to the praise of His glory. We can say that grace
is found in eternal life. The proclamation of the power
of God through grace and the work of Jesus Christ for the
sake of his name. We can say all of these things.
But most importantly, we should say that the Scripture is teaching
us that there is no possible means through which we can know
and experience eternal life except by the grace of God that is continually
flowing from the person of Jesus, who is the giver of all grace
all the time, and there is nothing we can do to bend His hand or
heart toward anyone that He does not apply His grace to. How is
the grace applied? We hear the word of God and by
the grace of God, the ears are opened and the life is quickened.
And we believe it's called the new birth. And it precedes faith. It comes before faith, for if
my cognitive expression of truth and acceptance of the reality
of God is the causal agent of God's rebirth, then I'm the boss. Church, we come together to preach
to the church, to teach to the church, to learn as God's people. We're not here to cater to blind
and dead people. We are here to proclaim the good
news to the dead and to encourage each other through the good news
of Jesus Christ, that we might understand the depths of God's
love for us. It's not in giving us mansions
in good health because that all will pass away. Of course, he
gives them. All good gifts come from above
is what James says. We won't get into James 4 today,
but read that. But eternal life is of God. So
verse 16, grace upon grace, have that mindset. Now we're back
to where we started. Verse 17. For the law was given through
Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever
seen God, verse 18, the only God who was at the Father's side.
He has made him known. See, there's a contrast here
for the sake of clarity. There's a contrast between the
law that came through Moses that we've already discussed in the
beginning, so that we didn't have a wrong interpretation of
what the law is, and the grace that comes through Jesus Christ.
The law equals death. As Grace Truth Church, it's our
namesake, it comes from this text. It comes right from this
place, from this section of text. We exist as a people by the grace
of God, for the sake of His glory. We exist by grace and truth,
for the sake of grace and truth, for the glory of Jesus Christ,
our Lord. It is by grace and truth that you are saved, beloved.
So I see no other fitting name to call ourselves publicly. rather
than the Red Brick Baptist Church, or the Wig Shop Baptist Church,
or the Gas Station Baptist Church, or Park Avenue Baptist Church,
or whatever. Ugly bunch of folks, some of
us not Baptist Church. I mean, you know, us guys, gotta
be honest. Red Carpet Baptist Church, Green
Door Baptist Church, Blue Hymnal Baptist Church. These are real
names. Because of what's defined people, what defines you as a
believer in Jesus Christ? The grace and the truth of God
who is Christ. Moses gave the law. And most of the Jews loved Moses.
They endeared him to death. They followed God's law and thus
felt justified, but they were really dead. Jesus shows us that
in the New Testament. You are whitewashed tombs, you
are dogs, you are broods of vipers, you are wicked, you are dead. Your father is not Abraham, nor
is it Moses, it's Satan. These are the words of Jesus
to the Jews, to the most religious, most pious people, to the people
that Paul was a part of, who never disobeyed the Lord according
to the law of Moses. But yet in everything they did
right, they disobeyed the Lord more and more. because they did
it not by faith. They followed after the law because
they felt it would justify them before the Lord in such a way
that they deserved, get this, they deserved eternal life. They
deserved God's grace. They deserved God's mercy. They
deserved it. We deserve it. You hear me tell
the story about the young Hebrew man who came in his twenties
to our church in California and after had been converted by the
gospel, but his family was still staunch Orthodox Jews. And we talked for a long time
after service, and his words to me, as I said just a few weeks
ago, was that I have a problem with free grace. I have a problem
with sovereign grace. It bothers me in my mind, even
though I know it's necessary, because all of my family, and
holy as they are, they don't even light a stove on Saturday. They don't flip switches. Our whole house is automated
for the Sabbath. Because we don't want to violate
the law of God. We follow this and we follow that and we follow
this and we follow that. He said, it really hurts me that
my family can't see that all their good works does nothing,
but it's by the grace of God that I can see. He would confess. Moses gave the law, and this
law demands righteousness. What's the contrast? What's the
clarity about grace in contrast to the law? The law demands righteousness,
but grace gifts righteousness, you see. The law demands righteousness,
and if we don't have righteousness, then we suffer the consequence
of not having righteousness through the law. The law cannot give
us righteousness, even in our obedience to it. You might be
thinking now, well, why can't I obey the law of God? Have you
done it? Have you never sinned? Well,
you did just then, thinking that you were righteous because you've
never sinned. Well, then, if I was trained right as an infant,
some people would argue, and as I train right as an infant
and I walk in the statutes of God and I learn never to commit
sin, see, some people would tell you that man is guilty before
God only when they commit willful sin. All right, let's just for
the sake of funness, like we're trying to do a comedy show right
now, let's just say that's true. And let's all who have children
reflect back upon their birth and their first few months of
life. And this little bundle of joy is crying when it comes
out sometimes, and you're thinking, well, that's not sin, he's just
scared. Oh, is fear not sin? It is when we're not trusting
in Jesus. Well, he doesn't know, he's just not cognitively aware
that there's sin there, so he's not purposefully committing,
okay, let's just give that child a few more days. Take it home,
we bathe it, we nurse it, we feed it, you know, we sing it,
bounce it, read it in stories, we carry it around till the arthritic
symptoms start in. We don't sleep for like 70 years. We go broke. One of my kids asked
me yesterday, why do people have children if they're so expensive?
I said, I've been waiting to figure that out for 19 years. It's worth it. Here's the reality. When do you
first see children sin? Way before they can ever say
the word mine, they act on it. Way before when they've got that
pretty little dangly earring on auntie's ear or granny's ear,
and they're like three months old and they're pulling that,
and you say, no, no, and they scream and kick. What is that? That's sin. Oh man, now this
guy's crazy saying babies are sinners. Friends, we're all sinners. And it gets worse when we get
older, you know. Great, great, great Aunt Lucy who's 170. She's never said a bad word in
her life that we know of. She's outlived all of her children.
She's so sweet, she carries a Bible in both hands, laces them to
her feet. She's praising Jesus all the
time. She's not really praising, she's like, please come get me.
I mean, you know, why am I alive so long? And people go, well,
no, no, no, no, no. Oh, great, great, great Aunt
Lucy is never, she's a perfect person. And she's sitting there
thinking, you are crazy. She doesn't hear us saying it
because her ears are gone. No one is not a sinner. We all
fall short of the glory of God and we all deserve His justice.
Jesus Christ took the penalty of our sin on Himself so that
the justice of God is satisfied. Friends, we have a false view
of humanity. And any of us who would sit in
here and think that we're a better person than the person next to
us, we may be better at some things. Somebody may be able
to play the guitar, or the saxophone, or speak French, or whatever
may be better than somebody else. Or someone may be able to clean
the house better, or do landscaping better, or cook better, or maybe
even follow the rules a little bit better, or know the Bible
a little bit more. It doesn't make us more righteous. And even
the following after Christ and doing things that honor Christ
with our lives as believers, we can't sit there and go, you
know, I'm really growing in my faith, man. I'm really growing
in my faith. Look how well I'm obeying. And then three hours
later, you like cuss the guy out in front of you because he
pulled out in traffic. The problem is we think that that internal
profanity of our mind going rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, sound like
Yosemite Sam, you know that? Rah, rah, rah, rah, rah. That was actually
clouded profanity when we were children, teaching us to have
road rage. We're thinking that that invisible
sin of frustration and anger poured toward this person that
they don't know and nobody else knows, so the no harm, no foul.
Friends, it's a sin against God and it's deserving of eternal
punishment. There is no hope for us if Christ has not paid
for our sins. There is no hope for us if God
has not established some payment for our iniquities. And Jesus
Christ is the only one who has done that. The law demands righteousness. The grace of God gifts righteousness. The law pays the sinner for his
due violation. The grace of God satisfies God's
wrath through Jesus Christ. The law blesses perfection through
absolute obedience, which is impossible, but grace blesses
the violator with life. The law reveals God's judgment.
The grace of God reveals God's mercy. The grace of God regenerates
the sinner and restores intimacy with God. So the question now
is what now? So what? So what? Friends, what
else is there? What else do you want to hear
this morning? My prayers is not an ansyness
in your spirit that this is an ill-timed sermon or an ill-pointed
message, and that there's something here that just doesn't quite
rest well with your soul, so you just want to dismiss the
rest of the text. Friends, listen to me. Don't fall prey to the
deception of the enemy. Because what I'm saying today,
though I know it is true, because of the Spirit of God that gives
testimony to it, that's not enough for you to believe me. You must
see it with your own eyes, and you must hear it with your own
ears, and you must believe it in your heart. And the Lord of
Heaven will do that for you as you come week after week to hear
the Scripture, as you take a Bible home with you, and as you read
it, and as you study it. And even by the Spirit of God
prompted to pray, Lord, show me the truth. I just don't like
what I'm hearing right now. And then all of a sudden it will
settle and be well with your soul. And you will see. So what's the outcome? Where's
the application, pastor, of all this incredible Christology?
Where's the application? Where's the rubber hit the road
for this kind of stuff? Well, how about this? Rejoice. That is the one, two, three home
run. That is the grand slam of most
cults that knock on your doors. Can I help you? Are you looking
for joy and peace? I've been looking for it forever.
Yes. Who's not? The liar? No. Go in here and sulk. We're all
looking for joy and peace. We're all looking for that place
where we're not enamored with life. So rejoice that Christ
has satisfied the wrath of God. Rejoice that God has come down.
He has condescended. Rejoice that we stand justified
before God because of the work of Jesus. Rejoice that we are
empowered by God to live together as a people for His glory. Rejoice
that we are forgiven and we can forgive each other no matter
how horrible the infraction. Rejoice that we are loved no
matter how well we obey or how well we disobey. Because if we're
honest, even in our obedience, it's not really all obedience. Rejoice that we have intimacy
with God. See? Verse 16, for from His fullness
we've all received grace upon grace. See, the coming of Jesus
Christ is knowing God. and knowing God is eternal life,
John 16, John 17. Three, John 17, three. And if
we look back up at 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among
us. Friends, the law was given through Moses. Catch this. Grace and truth came through
Jesus. You see that? God gave Moses the law and Moses
gave it to us. And we look at him and desperately
go, OK, I'm going to do my best. The best doesn't work and we
fail. So God, before the law was ever
given, before the world was ever created, purposed to send grace
in the person of Jesus Christ. Grace came down. I don't hear what I'm not saying,
Church. I'm not saying that the law doesn't have its place. The law is fulfilled in Jesus
Christ. And the commands of Scripture
that we see, the exhortation, the admonishment, the rebukes,
the training in righteousness that we see in the Scripture
is for us to take heed and to follow after and to do so together
collectively that we might encourage each other, lest we be disqualified. for the sake of the name of Christ.
But none of those things can take us to God. God came to us,
and He snatched us out of the domain of darkness. He snatched
us out of death, and He's brought us to the life of the light of
the life eternal in Jesus. Grace has come to you, beloved.
The grace of God is before you this day through the hearing
of the good news of Jesus, which we call the gospel. My prayer
is that you would see and hear and behold and that you would
believe by the grace and mercy of God. And church that as we
continue to traverse this incredibly painful place we call life. That we would have encouragement
through the work of Christ. and know that no matter how bad
it may seem to us, there are brothers and sisters across this
world, throughout history, who have suffered very, very deep
martyrdom and consequences for believing on Jesus Christ. And
they've done so with joy. Not to make light of our suffering,
but let's keep it in perspective. We are in a good place. Let us
not take for granted the light momentary affliction. that prepares
us for an eternal weight of glory that is beyond all comparison,
as we look to that which is unseen, not to that which is seen. Let's
look to Christ this morning. Let's pray. We love you, Father. We praise you, Lord. for your
ineffable glory and your absolute mercy, your effectual grace,
for your love toward us in Jesus Christ, that He satisfied the
burden of obedience. He lived the life that we are
required to live and never could. And He satisfied the penalty
of our disobedience on the cross so that you are pleased with
us for our debt is paid. We are not righteous. But you
count Christ's righteousness to us. Lord, we long for that
day when we will be like you. Sinless, never to be tempted
again as you put all things under the feet of Jesus Christ, your
son, who is the Lord of heaven and of earth and of the cosmos.
And it's in His name that we've worshipped this day. And by His
authority and His intimacy that He brought as He came to us to
bring us and to prepare us for you. In Jesus' name, Amen.