John chapter one, we'll continue
our Christ is series. And today we'll look at Christ
is the truth, the truth. Now, if you turn to John chapter
one, let's look at the very first verse. It says in the beginning
was the word and the word was with God and the word was God
to preface this message. I'd like us to look at verse
14 and we're going to do a few comparisons here from verse one
to verse 14, just to preface the message here. So verse one
says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. And then verse 14, it says, and
the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory,
the glories of the only begotten Father, full of grace and truth. Now put these two verses together.
Look at verse one, it says, in the beginning was the Word. So
this verse proclaims right away the eternality of Jesus Christ. He's God. He's the second person
of the Trinity. Jesus is eternal. He's eternal
God. He's the word, the second person. And then look at verse 14, and
the word was made flesh. Right there, it proclaims in
the scriptures that God himself became a man. The second person
of the Trinity, the word, became a man. And then John 1.1, it
says, and the word was with God. Now here we see the blessedness
of the Trinity. The Father, Son, and the Holy
Spirit. He's the second person of the Trinity. And he was with
God, always with God, in eternity. He is God. And then look at verse
14. And he dwelt among us. God tabernacled
among men. God tabernacled among men, becoming
Christ as one of us, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.
Yet he is the God-man. He's perfect. He's sinless. He's
spotless. See, these verses proclaim the
absolute deity of Christ and the absolute humanity. He's human,
too. Christ is fully God and fully
man. In the Word was God, verse 1,
in every attribute, He's God. He's as much God as the Father,
and He's as much God as the Spirit. The Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, the three are one, and they're all God. They're
all God. And then look at verse 14, and
we beheld his glory. He that has seen Christ has seen
God. They beheld him. They saw, like
you and I see each other, they saw him. They saw him. God incarnate in the flesh. Now
let's continue down from verses 2 to verse 18. The same was in
the beginning with God. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. So the Word
of God, the One who became flesh, made all things. All things. And there's nothing that we see
that was not made by Him. In him was life, and the life
was the light of man. And the light shineth in darkness,
and the darkness comprehendeth not. No man, Romans says, seeks
God. No man understands God. Why? Because we're in darkness.
We come into this world in darkness, dead in trespasses and sins.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same
came for a witness to bear witness of the light, that all men through
him might believe. He was not that light, but was
sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light,
which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." And this
is speaking of Christ, of course, who is the true light. He was
in the world, and the world was made by Him. And the world knew
him not. You ever heard people make this
silly statement? I remember in religion I heard this all the
time. It's one of the silliest statements that you'd ever want
to hear. They say, well, the only Jesus that the world's going
to see is in you. The scriptures have just declared
that Christ was in the world and the world didn't know him. They didn't know him. They did not know him. The world
was made by him and the world knew him not. He must be revealed. He must be revealed. He came
unto his own and his own received him not. But as many as received
him, look at this, And now people will take this verse in 12 and
say, well, that's free willism, because they received him, but
they forget the rest of the verse. To him gave he power to become
sons of God. He gives us power. He makes us
willing. He makes the unwilling willing.
Even to them that believe on his name. And we know faith is
a gift from God, and repentance as well. Which were born not
of blood, so it's not by your ancestry, nor nor the will of
the flesh, nor the will of man, so it's
not by your works, it's not by your supposed free will, which
is actually bound to your nature, but of God. Salvation is of the
Lord. And the word was made flesh and
dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. The glory is of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John
bear witness of him and cried, saying, he of whom I spake, he
that cometh after me is preferred before me." John the Baptist here is referring
to the eternal existence and glory and deity of Christ. And
when he says, he that cometh after me is preferred before
me, for he was before me, he's speaking of his eternality. That
he's God. 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. No man has seen God at
any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." Now, there's
two Johns who speak in our text here, John the Baptist and John
the Apostle. And these words were written
by John the Apostle, being inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. Now,
the words spoken of in verse 15, John bear witness of him
and cried, This was he of whom I spake. He that cometh after
me is preferred before me, for he was before me. Those are the
words of John the Baptist. And we know from Scripture that
John the Baptist is the forerunner of Christ. His messenger to tell
the world that he's coming. That he's coming. Now the words
recorded in verses 16 to 18 are that of John the Apostle. And
he also bears witness that the Lord Jesus Christ is full of
grace and truth. Look at verse 14. Verse 14. And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. The glory is of the
Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." He's
bearing witness. Bearing witness of who Christ
is. Who Christ is. And we know that grace only comes
to we who believe from God. It only comes from Him. And it
is only in and through the Lord Jesus Christ that it comes to
us. God is the author of grace. And God is the giver of grace.
He is the author and He is the giver. And we see that Christ
Himself is full of grace and truth. Verse 14. And then it
even says in verse 17, For the law was given by Moses, but grace
and truth came by Jesus Christ. came by Jesus Christ. And we
who are redeemed, we should give much thanks to God for the great
grace which we have received in and through Christ and Him
alone. And we should take great comfort also in the free and
sovereign grace of God and Christ. Great comfort can be drawn from
this precious truth. Now look in verse 17 where our
text is found. We see in our text that the law
came by Moses. It was given to him by God. and
brought to the nation of Israel. For the law was given by Moses,
but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Now, John Gill brings
out that in this verse, by grace and truth is meant the gospel,
in opposition to the law. Because look at what the text
says. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came
by Jesus Christ. So the gospel is the gospel of
God's free and sovereign grace. And it's a declaration of the
love that God has for his people, and the grace that he bestows
upon his people in Christ, in Christ. The law, what does the
law do? Well, the law comes, and the
law slays us, doesn't it? It absolutely destroys us, because
we know we have no hope. When the law's before us, we're
like, oh my goodness, I have no hope, because we've broken
not just one of God's law, but all of them, all of them. And the soul that sinneth, it
must die, right? But grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. And grace and truth, the gospel
proclaims salvation in Christ alone. By free grace and the
favor of God alone. You can't be earned. You can't
work it. You can't work to gain it. It
must be given. It's a gift. It's a gift. Usually a gift is something you
receive that you never ever worked for. Someone just wants to give
you a gift. Salvation's a gift from God to
His people. As I say, you can't earn it,
but yet there's millions of people trying to gain merit and favor
with God. But basically what they're doing, we know from Scripture,
they are just weaving their own coat of righteousness, which
is gonna just, is like filthy rag, Scripture's declared, in
the eyes of the Lord. No, we want the perfect, spotless
righteousness of Christ. And we who are redeemed, again,
should give much thanks. So the scriptures proclaim that
truth here comes by Christ. And the gospel is truth. The
gospel is truth. Truth proclaimed. Truth proclaimed. That the one who is called truth
has come from God. Is that not what we say when
we preach the gospel? We preach it. We tell you. We
tell ourselves that Christ came from God. We saw that in the
Scriptures, didn't we? The Word became flesh. He was
sent, too, from God. God sent Him. He came to redeem
His people from their sins. And the Gospel is truth not only
because it contains and proclaims truth, but because it comes from
the God of all truth. It comes from the God of all
truth. And Christ Himself is sent here by the God of all truth
to die upon the cross for sinners like you and I. And this is a
truth that we proclaim. And the Spirit, now think of
this, the God of all truth sends Christ who is full of grace and
truth, and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. The Spirit
of truth. And He is the one who reveals
Christ to us. To His people. And we're born
again and granted faith and repentance to believe upon the Lord Jesus
Christ who is truth incarnate. He is truth incarnate. Think of this. All the Old Testament
sacrifices, all those Old Testament sacrifices and types, who did
they point to? They pointed right to Christ,
didn't they? They pointed right to Christ. They were shadows.
We know that from our study in Colossians. They were shadows.
But He's the substance. He's the substance. He is the
truth of the types. He's the truth of the types.
He's the truth of the shadows. He's the truth. And He's full
of grace and truth. All those Old Testament types
and shadows, they find their fulfillment in He who is the
truth. Christ Jesus our Lord. He who
is full of grace and truth. And that's what the scriptures
declare in verse 14 and in verse 17. They declare, verse 14, full
of grace and truth, and verse 17, grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. So all those types and shadows
find their fulfillment in Him. They find their fulfillment in
Him. And this verse in 17 also shows the superior excellence
of Christ to Moses in the law. And to all men. Christ is superior
over all men, over angels, over Moses. Now remember, the Jews
lifted up Moses almost, boy, they lifted him up. And Abraham
too, they lifted them both up. They lifted those men up so high. They even said, well, we have
Abraham. We have Moses. But Moses was just a sinner like
you and I. Abraham was just a sinner like
you and I, highly favored by God. But the Lord Jesus Christ
is their Savior too. Is their Savior too. And Christ
is not a mere man. We saw that in our text. He's
not a mere man. He's the word incarnate, the
second person of the Trinity, has become flesh and dwelt among
us. And there's a reason why he came,
right? We know he came to save his people from their sins. That's
the only reason he came, to redeem us. That's full of grace and truth. So he's so superior over everyone
else. And the Lord Jesus Christ, again,
is truth incarnate. Look at John 14, 6. Scripture
declares this. Scripture declares this about
our Master, about our Savior. John 14, 6. Jesus saith unto
him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the way. Now he's not saying I might be
the way. He's saying I am the way. Notice the words too. The way,
the truth. The life. No man cometh unto
the Father, but by me. Now there are many ways to do
things, aren't there? And there's many truths. And
there's many lives, right? There's plant life, and there's
animal life, and there's truth out in the world. There's truth,
there's things that are true. And there's ways to do things
when you work on things. There's ways to do things. There's
many ways in that sense. But Christ has the preeminence
over all ways, over all truths, and over all lives. He is the
one way to the Father. There's no other way. No other
way. He's truth. Full of grace and
truth. And He is life. He is eternal
life. All of us here have life right
now, but we are going to die. He is eternal life. He is the
one who gives life. And He is the one who is eternal
life. And eternal life is only found in Christ and Him alone.
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man, now listen
to those words, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. That is so exclusive. That's
a proclamation from the Son of God, the second person of the
Trinity, the Word of God. With that statement, That means
Buddhism. That means all these other false
religions out there are absolutely wrong. And think of that. Millions of people are perishing,
following all these false religions. And I know I had one guy tell
me, I've told you guys before, I had one guy tell me, well,
that's awful narrow. Well, that's the word of the Son of God. He
proclaims that. And I believe it. And I trust
in it. And He's my hope. Is He yours?
Oh my. What a hope we have. What a hope
we have. My goodness. And Scripture declares
He's full of grace and truth. Turn, if you would, to John 18.
When our Lord appeared at Pilate's bar in John 18, He said, For
this cause I came into the world, that I should bear witness unto
the truth. The one who was and is the truth
was standing right before Pilate and he knew him not. Look at
John 18 verses 33 to 38. Then Pilate entered into the
judgment bar again and called Jesus and said unto them, Art
thou the king of the Jews? Jesus answered him, Sayest thou
this thing of thyself, or did others tell thee of me? Pilate
answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief
priests have delivered thee unto me. What hast thou done? Jesus
answered, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were
of this world, then would my servants fight that I should
not be delivered to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from
thence. Pilate therefore said unto him,
art thou a king then? Jesus answered, thou sayest that
I am a king. To this end was I born. Oh my. And for this cause came I into
the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every
one that is of the truth heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, What is
truth? And when he had said this, he
went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in
him no fault at all. He's perfect. He's sinless. He's
spotless. And Pilate asks Him, what is
truth? And He does not even know that truth incarnate is right
before Him. That the One who is full of grace
and truth is standing right before Him. The end of Christ being born
of a virgin by a miracle and His coming into this world by
His incarnation. And that He being Messiah and
the King that He bears witness to the
truth of the Old Testament saints. All those things, Him being born
of the Virgin, Him being the King and the Messiah, all bear
witness to the Old Testament. The Old Testament which proclaims
of Him. And all those Old Testament saints were looking to Christ. Turn, if you would, to Luke chapter
4. The Lord preached from the Old Testament and told people,
today this scripture is fulfilled in your ears. And think of this as we read
this. The one who the law and the prophets testify is the very
one who is reading this to them. The very one who is reading this
to them. Luke 4, verses 17-21. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach
deliverance to the captives, in recovery of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable
year of the Lord." And he closed the book, and he gave it again
to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all them that
were in the synagogue were fastened on him. They were all looking
to Christ. And He began to say unto them,
this day is the Scripture fulfilled into your ears. Shadows and pictures in the Old
Testament find their truth in Christ. All the figures and all
the types and all the shadows whereby He was held forth in
the Old Testament were all fulfilled in Christ. And therefore, when He, the Truth,
the Substance, was come, they were to all vanish away. Now think of this. When you're
walking, and say you're going to walk around the corner here,
I've done this before, walking down here, and I see my shadow.
But say, sometimes if you're at the side of a building and
someone's walking up to you, you see their shadow, don't you,
before you see them. You see the shadow, and then you look,
and then there's the substance. There's the person coming around
the corner. All those Old Testaments were just shadows, beloved. Just shadows. All those types
and pictures, but he is the truth. The substance was come, and that's
what he's saying here in Luke 4, 21. And he began to say unto
them, this day is a scripture fulfilled in your ears. He's
saying the substance is here. It's fulfilled right now. Hebrews 9.24 says this, For Christ
is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which
are figures of the true, figures, types, shadows, figures of the
true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence
of God for us. Hebrews 9.24. The law was a shadow
of good things to come, and we who believe on Christ are in
possession of the truth. Now think of this. The Passover
lamb was a shadow, wasn't it? It was a shadow. But we have
the substance. Christ who is our Passover. Christ
who was sacrificed for us. For us. The manna that fell was
a shadow. Was a shadow. And the Israelites
feasted upon that manna, right? We have Christ who is the bread
of life. Our manna from heaven. The rock that falled then, and
water poured forth through that. We have the springs of living
water that come forth in Christ Jesus our Lord for us. The mercy seat. Oh, the mercy
seat. What a picture of Christ who
is our mercy seat. And there's many other types
and shadows. Remember the promise made to
Adam and Eve in the garden? Turn if you would to Genesis
chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3. The promise that was made to
Adam and Eve in the garden. And I will put enmity, Genesis
3.15, and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between
thy seed and her seed, and it shall bruise thy head, and thou
shalt bruise his heel. For the Lord Jesus Christ is
the seed of the woman, born of a virgin. It finds its fulfillment. This promise finds its fulfillment
in Christ Jesus, our Lord. In Him. It's been fulfilled by Christ.
Turn if you will to Genesis 49. We looked at this one Wednesday
night about Shiloh. Shiloh. Genesis 49, verse 10. The scepter shall not depart
from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh
come. And unto him shall the gathering of the people be."
Who's Shiloh? The one who is full of grace
and truth, the Lord Jesus Christ, is Shiloh. Shiloh. That promise has been fulfilled
by the Lord Jesus Christ. Man, again, is a picture in the
Old Testament. round and white, which came down
in dew every morning." And this was Israel's food for 40 years.
Again, a figure, a shadow. Now the truth of this shadow
come by Jesus Christ. Again, who is the believer's
manna? The believer's manna. Turn, if you would, to John chapter
6. How do we know that? John chapter 6, verses 32 and
33. He finds the fulfillment in Christ.
That type, that picture, that shadow, finds its fulfillment
in Christ. In Him alone. The One who is
full of grace and truth. Christ who is the truth. The
truth. So we see that He is the fulfillment,
the truth of the Old Testament types and shadows. John chapter
6, verses 32 and 33. He is the true bread, the believer's
true manna. 32 and 33, Then Jesus said unto
them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that
bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from
heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from
heaven and giveth life unto the world. He's our heavenly manna. And
that picture in the Old Testament, has its fulfillment in Christ,
who is the truth. He's the truth of all those types
and pictures, beloved. The Israelites had a brazen serpent
hung upon a pole. Turn, if you would, to John chapter
3. Remember? They had rebelled and they were
being stung. They were being stung. And Moses
was told to put a serpent upon a pole and hold it up. It's a
type in a picture of Christ being held up. Because what happened
when those folks looked to that serpent? They were healed, weren't
they? They were healed. And they were
healed, think of this too, think of this. They were healed by
God's command because it was God who told Moses to do that. So they were healed by God's
command. When Christ came the truth of
this picture the truth of the brazen serpent being lifted up Is in Christ and remember this
because of our fallen Adam We've been bitten by sin right and
the poison the sin flows through our veins doesn't it it does
Pours through us below It's so infected us that it's fun that
we sin from the top of our head to the bottom of our feet We've
been bitten just like them Israelites. We come into this world dead
in trespasses and sins. Now with that in mind, look at
John 3, verses 14 and 15. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
Oh, here we go. Here's that fulfillment. Here's
the fulfillment of that picture in the Old Testament, beloved.
That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. My goodness! For God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For
God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but
that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on
Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned
already." Now look at that word there. Because He had not believed in
the name of the only begotten Son of God, And this is condemnation,
that light has come into the world, and men love darkness
rather than light. Why? Because their deeds were
evil. But now look at that picture
in the Old Testament. Moses is told to hold up that
serpent on a pole. And all who looked at that serpent
were saved, weren't they? There's the fulfillment, Christ
dying upon the cross. There's the truth of that picture.
Christ who is the truth, full of grace and truth. Look to Christ. Look to Christ to be saved. That's
that's our message, isn't it? Look and live. Look to Christ. Look to him. He's the only hope.
He's the only hope. And this looking is by faith.
Turn, if you would, one more scripture to Isaiah 45, verse
22. This this looking is by faith.
And we know we know from other scriptures that faith is a gift
from God. He gives us that gift, doesn't he? He gives us that
gift. Faith and repentance is a gift from God because therefore
salvation is of the Lord. It's all his doing. It's all
by him, all by his planning. all by his execution. Look at,
uh, look at Isaiah 45 22. Look unto me and be ye saved
all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else.
Now, where is that fulfilled at the cross? At the look unto
Christ dying upon the cross for sinners for sinners. Look in,
look in live now. Another picture quickly. We read
of a ladder that Jacob saw, and the feet were upon the earth
and the head in heaven. The truth of that ladder is Christ.
He came down from heaven to earth, and now he's back up into heaven
in glory. We read of a ram that was bought
to Abraham to sacrifice instead of Isaac. The truth of that ram
was Christ sacrificed for us as our substitute in our place.
We read of a lamb that was slain at Passover. And the blood sprinkled
whereunto the destroying angel passed by. When I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. O beloved, beloved of God, that
lamb was Christ. It was a pitcher. It finds its
fulfillment in Christ Jesus, our Lord, whose blood was shed
to redeem his people. And God is satisfied. He's satisfied. When I see the
blood, I'll pass over you. Oh, what a picture. I could preach
for years on that. I love that portion of Scripture.
It's so wonderful. Because that destroying angel,
if that blood's not there, he's got a claim on us, doesn't he?
But all were covered in the precious blood of Christ, and ye must
be born again. And the very one who said, ye
must be born again, is the one who is full of grace and truth,
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. Let's
go to the Lord in prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father, thank
Thee for this time that we've had together. to study your word
and to study that the Lord Jesus Christ, our great God and King
and Redeemer, is the truth. And all the Old Testament types
and shadows find their fulfillment in Him. Praise your mighty name,
Lord Jesus, for redeeming our souls. We love thee and praise
thee in Jesus' name. Amen.