Turn back to the first chapter
of John's Gospel again tonight. Tonight we'll come to one of the most amazing, most important, most instructive, and I can go
on and on and on, verses in all of the Bible. And it is that 14th verse here
in chapter 1 of John. John continues, having already
said some amazing and glorious things about Christ. But here he says, "...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. I thought about it today as archaeologists dig through the
remains of past civilizations What they reveal, the things
that they find, reveal the fact that man has a desire for a visible
God. But not only does it reveal that
fact, it reveals also how blinded he is to the true God. You look at all the statues and
all, they show that men desire a visible God. But if you notice
in most of them, you look at their faces and they're all grimaced
and all frowny faces because in the conscience of most folks
still, there is that knowledge that there is a God, and that
because I'm a sinner, He's probably angry at me. It shows how men desire it, and
it shows also how foolish they imagine Him to be. When the truth is, as this verse
states so clearly among a host of other verses, Jesus Christ
is the visible God. He is not simply a visible God. He is THE visible God. He is God the Eternal Son. And He is the one that is spoken
of by the prophets who foretold His very coming in humanity. Listen to Isaiah chapter 9 and
verse 6. You remember this verse. He says,
For unto us a child is born. But then he follows this, saying,
Unto us a son is given. The child that is born is the
son that is given. And the government shall be upon
his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father the Prince of Peace. And then another of the prophets,
the prophet Zechariah, was led by the Spirit to set forth this
message in prophecy in chapter 2. He says, Sing and rejoice,
O daughter of Zion. Now this is God the Son speaking
through this prophet. Sing and rejoice, O daughter
of Zion, for lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of
thee, saith the Lord. And many nations shall be joined
to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people. And I will
dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the Lord
of hosts has sent me unto thee." Not talking about another prophet
like himself. or not even an earthly king such
as Israel had. But this is a unique personage. And what we read in that verse,
what we read throughout this chapter, and what we read many
places in Scripture, can never be explained to the satisfaction
of a fallen sinner's mind. We are finite creatures with
finite capacities, polluted by sin, and we have no ability of
ourselves to comprehend most anything about God, especially
the thought of Him coming in human flesh. But rather than explaining it,
it can only be received, it can only be believed by God-given
faith. It isn't that we are believing
something that God hasn't said. But rather, we are enabled of
God, by the faith that He gives, to believe what He says in His
Word. In other words, what the apostle
is saying to us. is that the Son of God became
what He was not without ceasing to be what He already was. Can that be? We only know that this is true
because the God of truth has told us that in His Word. We have no other standard, we
have no other proof except this written Word of God. And in it, speaking of Christ,
and in this chapter, He says, the Word was God. And then he says in our verse
tonight, "...and the Word was made, or became flesh." And this is exactly what Isaiah
had said in other ways in his prophecies. In Isaiah 7 he says,
"...therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign, Behold, a virgin shall conceive,
and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." Now that
was the prophet, and that was the foretold sign. So turn back
over in that first chapter of Matthew's gospel and listen to
Matthew's recording in verse 21 of Matthew chapter 1. And she shall bring forth a son,
and thou shalt call his name Jesus. This has to do with what
He would do. That name meaning Savior, or
Jehovah the Savior. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. What an awesome
task! But now listen what follows,
"...Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall
be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call
his name Immanuel." And it is a wonderful thing. that He did
not leave it in the hands of word specialists or theologians
to tell us what that glorious Word means. He translates it
here, the Spirit of God does, saying, He shall be called Immanuel,
which being interpreted is God with us. God with us." In other
words, what we are called upon to believe, what we are taught
in the Scriptures and nowhere else, but what we are brought
by God to believe is that there was a man walking on this earth
and he in that humanity is God. God manifests in flesh. And some people say, why is it
necessary? Or why should we believe or have
to believe what the Bible says concerning Christ being God? Christ being God in human flesh. Well, it is essential for us
to believe what the Scriptures say that He was. if we are to believe what the
Scripture says that He did for us. I personally believe that
this is one of the most important, elementary, and yet glorious
doctrines in all of Scripture. And that is all of these scriptures
that show us the divinity and the humanity of the Lord Jesus
Christ all in that one unique person. Only such a person could do what
the Bible says that he did and do it for a multitude of sinners
like we are to the satisfaction of and to the glory of God. Now, we don't have to search
out Study from cover to cover, nitpick, try to find, make a
verse, say, we don't have to do that to find out about Christ
being God in the flesh. He is Emmanuel, God with us. But not only that, the Apostle
Paul, oftentimes, in attributing the authority of the gospel that
he preached, he often brings into his statements and writings
this fact as to who this gospel is about. Now listen to him when
he begins in that glorious doctrinal book, the book of Romans. And
he talks about the gospel and he says that the gospel is concerning
God's Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of
David according to the flesh. made of the seed of David according
to the flesh, as the prophets had foretold." But he continues
and he says, "...and declared to be the Son of God with power." declared to be the Son of God
with power. What's he talking about? Well,
listen. He says, according to the Spirit of holiness by the
resurrection from the dead. You have to have a human body
to die. And you have to have a glorious
Human body. For God to accept it as a sacrifice,
and then on the basis of that sacrifice received, be raised
from the dead. He went in His humanity as a
man to that cross. He went to that tomb for that
short time as a man with a body. And brethren, when he was raised
from the dead, When he was raised from that tomb, raised from the
dead according to the power of God, he was a resurrected man. The same resurrected man that
was in the tomb, that died on the cross, and that was born
of that virgin. And let me tell you this, he
still is. He still is. Paul again in Romans
9 talking about those Israelites after the flesh. He said, "...whose
are the fathers, speaking of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob such, and
of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all." God bless forever." And then
he said, Amen. Amen. This man who looked like a Jew
because he was Jewish, because God had purposed that that people
and that lineage be preserved until the coming of the Christ. The seed of David. The seed of Abraham. And here comes this woman, this
virgin woman, with nothing outstanding about her at all, with one exception. God purposed to use her body
to bear the Christ. She was a sinner herself, and
therefore referred to Him as her Savior. So there's nothing
otherwise special about her, or to be revered, or worshipped
certainly, or anything like that. And Paul continues to the Corinthians
and he says this so plain. He says, the first man is of
the earth, earthy. Talking about Adam. The second man is the Lord from
heaven. He's not just a good man. He's
not just a special man. He's not just a martyr or a teacher
or a fine example or anything like that. He is the Lord from
heaven. And then Paul writes to the Galatians
and he says this, he says, when the fullness of the time was
come, God sent forth His Son made of a woman, made under the
law. When Christ came into this world,
He came into this world as this one born of a woman. But he was born of a woman, and
also it says, made under the law, or to bear the responsibility
as this man that's born of a woman, to bear the responsibility for
his people under that law, which was the curse. He had to die. Turn over to Philippians chapter
2. Philippians chapter 2, here is
the humiliation of the Son of God. But it's a humiliation that's
followed by exaltation. Look down in verse 6. Paul has said, let this mind
be in you which also was in Christ. He says, who being in the form
of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. All we'd have to do really is
to just stop and read that slow and think a little bit. Equal
with God? There's only one who can be equal
with God. That's God Himself. "...but He
made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of
a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found
in fashion as a man. He humbled Himself and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." He humbled himself and took on
this body, took on this humanity. He became obedient unto this
death, which Paul says is the death of the cross. A unique death. God also hath highly exalted
him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at
the name of the Son of God..." That's not what it reads, is
it? No. In the name of His humanity. In the name That at the name
of Jesus, every knee should bow of things
in heaven, in earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, or the Lord, to the
glory of God the Father. That's pretty plain. Look over in 1 Timothy 3. And this is like verse 14 of
John 1. This is like a truckload of dynamite, what's
being said here. Look down at verse 16 of 1 Timothy
3. Paul says, and without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness. What is this mystery? In the
Bible, a mystery is not something that cannot ever be known. The word mystery in the Bible,
especially as we read it here in the epistles, has to do with
that which up to this point was not clearly and fully known and
understood, but it is now. What is the mystery of godliness? God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, scene
of angels preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received
up into glory. That's a lot. And that's why
I'm saying that nobody can sit down and by scientific reason
or historical record Any other kind of apologetics, whatever
it might be, can never convince a sinner of this unbelievable
fact, humanly speaking. But God convinces all His people
of it. We don't speak of Jesus Christ
as the subject of a movie, or a good buddy, or your old friend,
or this, that, and the other, with this light-hearted, irreverent
language that characterizes our day, especially in religion. No, He's the Son of God. He's
our God. I'll never forget hearing Something
someone said years ago about Brother Henry Mahan. They said,
you know, he's made a god out of Jesus Christ. No. No. He was already God. Already God. But John says that this Word
was made flesh. Now, that does not mean sinful
flesh. As a matter of fact, He is sinless,
perfect human flesh that the Bible says, knew no
sin. Why? Well, I should say, how? Could the man Jesus be born of
the Virgin Mary and not have sin? It wasn't because she didn't
have sin. It's because that body was that
body prepared by the Holy Spirit of God. the Holy Spirit would
overshadow her. And that which was born in her
was that holy thing. Why? Because of who His Father
was. He's the only one begotten of
the Father. The only begotten of the Father. This use of this word flesh is
a word that unites us with Him. He's said to be bone of our bone
and flesh of our flesh. He's a man who could come and
die for men. Man fell into sin and they must
be rescued and delivered by man. But not a sinful man. Not a man
who in any way of himself becomes a sinner or any such foolish
and blasphemous notions as that. A perfect man must die for sinful
men. But a sinful man cannot die for
a sinful man. A sinful man has to die among
sinful men. But it means something like we
read in Hebrews chapter 2, where the apostle says, for both he
that sanctifies, And they who are sanctified are
all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren."
The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, or tabernacled among
us. Tabernacle. You see, the Bible
speaks of us as being those who live in a tabernacle. This body. Well, the Word that
was God was made flesh and tabernacled among us. And that is an allusion, I believe,
to the tabernacle. Sometimes if you just kind of
stand back and think about things you read about, like in the Old
Testament book of Exodus and other places, and just imagine
for a minute that you're a Gentile person. Or even imagine that
you're one of those Hebrews. And here you are, you're dragging
this tent everywhere you go, or you're looking at this tent
pitched in the middle of this camp of these people, and on the outside of it, it
looks Just hideous, pretty much so. Just dried, bleached, old
badger skins. Weathered and ordinary and nothing
to be special or nothing to be recognized as a religious icon
or anything like that. Not appealing at all. I've got
such a good Good email this week from Brother Lee, and he's talking
about being in the midst of all the idolatry there in Rome, and
how intoxicating it is, almost, all the splendor and the gold
and everything like that, and being brought to thank God that
He had delivered him from that, that he might know the truth. That's the way false religion
is. Outwardly very appealing, glorious, glamorous. But here's
this tent made of badger skins. And you know who beheld the glory
of the tabernacle? Just a handful of those Hebrews. None of the Gentiles. That's what Paul, John is saying
here. And we, who's that? Believers. God's elect. Those that have been graced by
God. He's opened our eyes. He's shown us the glory and the
mystery. And we beheld His glory. Well, you say, oh, I bet Jesus
must have had a glory that just... He had a glow about Him. That's
why all the painters, you know, that are imagining Jesus, they're
going to put this halo, this aura around His head. But He didn't look that way at
all. He was a man. A Jewish man. He came out of a carpenter's
life. He didn't go for all the splendor
of earth. He had one garment, so it seemed,
and no place to lay his head. But the Lord causes His people
to see His glory. What is His glory? What was the
glory of the tabernacle? The glory of the tabernacle was
the one and His work that it represented. You ever go at the
county fair or something like that and the corny is out there
trying to hawk you and hustle you into one of the tents? He
says, it's all happening on the inside. That certainly was true
of the tabernacle. Because that's where God dwelt.
And that's where God would meet with sinners. That's where His
mercy was. That's where His forgiveness
was. That's where His righteousness
is. In Christ crucified. We beheld His glory. He's the
Savior come. He's the substitute come. He's
the one prophesied. He's the only begotten of the
Father. He dwelled among us, tabernacled
among us, and we see His glory, how His coming in human flesh
was necessary and essential to our salvation. He didn't just
come for a display of the Godhead, He came mighty to save. It's His redemptive glory. It's His redemptive glory. Because
it was necessary for Him to come in human flesh and do that thing
necessary to save us and at the same time satisfy divine justice
in doing so, which was to die for our sins. To die in our place. That's why Paul talks about the
glory of the cross. Not a lot of folks in this world
know anything about the glory of the cross. If they did, they'd
talk something about it. They'd talk about the one who
died. They'd talk about what he accomplished. Because what
he accomplished is his glory as the Redeemer and Mediator. He told those disciples in Luke
24 who were so fearful about Him having died, He said, "'Ought
not Christ to have suffered these things and enter into His glory?' He said unto them, "'Thus it
is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise
from the dead the third day.'" Paul went out preaching after
the Lord had revealed Himself to him. He went out opening and
alleging that Christ's needs must have suffered and risen
again from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preach unto
you, He is the Christ. Let me read you a couple of verses
out of Hebrews. Chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2. Speaking of Christ, it says,
"...thou hast put all things in subjection under His feet,
for in that He put all in subjection under Him, He left nothing that
was not put under Him. But now we see not yet all things
put under Him." But we see Jesus, who was made
a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned
with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, should taste
death for all. For every man in Christ. For all His people. For it became Him, for whom are
all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons
into glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings." Sufferings. Peter said, "'Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His
abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a living hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.'" His glory is in the people he
saves. In his success, Peter again,
he says, Those prophets searched, and they searched what and what
manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did
signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that should follow. How do believers behold Him? We beheld Him. as the only begotten of the Father,
Son of God, but also full of grace and truth." Full of grace
and truth. You see, the two are not reconcilable
to the natural mind. Grace and truth. Neither is it reconciled in the
schemes of false religion. But Christ crucified is grace
and truth. Christ crucified is a just God
and a Savior. Christ crucified is mercy and
truth meeting together, and righteousness and peace kissing each other,
is the psalm saying. We see him full of grace and
truth. Full of grace, never at the expense
of God's truth. Paul says that as sin hath reigned
unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto
eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. That's why Paul said,
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's God hanging on that cross. That's the God-man dying as the
substitute of his people. And there he is, declaring it
finished, which also means completed and successful. Going to that tomb, raised up
from the dead, ascended up on high, and seated in glory. The Word was made flesh. Father, tonight we thank You
for Your beloved Son, who cannot be explained. The half
has not been told of Him. But we thank You that You have
caused us to behold Him by grace. to look to Him by faith, to see
who He is in a measure, and to hear what He's done for us as
sinners. All glory be to Him. All glory
be to the Crucified One. We pray in His name, and thank
you. Amen.