for us to leave here this morning
overjoyed at the bondage that God's people have been delivered
from. It's comforting to me to sit
in my study and as I search for the message that the Lord will
have us to hear, that it's not incumbent upon me to motivate
you to do something. Lay out a bunch of rules and
regulations and get you to follow those things so that you'll be
saved. That would be bondage that is
so sorrowful that most people gathered together in buildings
we call churches this morning in this country, that's what
they're hearing. And that's so sad. But I want
us to leave here this morning rejoicing that we're delivered
from the bondage of this law. The Lord Jesus Christ is preferred
above everything, in all things. He has the preeminence. Now other
people and places and things, they certainly have some value.
We need to give our attention to those things in their place.
But none of those things can be compared with the value of
knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is preferred above all
things. because the value of Christ is
beyond comparison. In our text this morning, here
in John 1, beginning in verse 15, John the Baptist gives us
four ways that Christ is preferred. The first one is this, Christ
is preferred above any of his servants. Verse 15, John bear
witness of him and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake.
He that cometh after me is preferred before me. where he was before
me. John the Baptist, the last of
the Old Testament prophets. And we esteem John the Baptist
highly. For his message, the way he conducted
himself, we esteem him highly. Just like we esteem highly our
pastors and teachers today. We're thankful for them. But
now listen to me. We will die and go to hell if
all we ever see is a man. If all we ever see is a preacher,
we will die and go to hell. You will die and go to hell if
the only words you ever hear are my words. God help you if
all you ever hear is me. The best preachers preach Christ
and get out of the way. They don't get in the way. They
don't get their personalities and their quirks in the way.
They get out of the way so that you see the Lord Jesus Christ. We're thankful for the pastor
who wants us to see Christ and not him. Bro. Todd Nyberg tells
us so frequently, he's so thankful he had a pastor that cared more
that Todd knew the name of Christ than he did Henry's name. I'm
so thankful for that. And John the Baptist was a great
prophet. But look at Luke chapter 7. John
said, Christ is preferred before me. Now we're not just, this is not
just somebody's opinion that John the Baptist was a great
prophet. Look in Luke 7 verse 28. This is what our Lord says. For I
say unto you, among those that are born of women, there's not
a greater prophet. There's not a greater prophet
that's ever lived than John the Baptist. But he that is least
in the kingdom of God is greater than he. That's why John says
Christ is preferred before me. He's preferred before me because
he's better than me in every way. John was a great man, but
ain't just a man. Christ is the Son of God. John is a servant. Christ is
the master. John's the prophet. Christ is
the Savior. John's the forerunner who points
men to Christ. Now the forerunner He may have
got there first. He might have got to the city
first. But he's not the champion. He's not the victor. The forerunner
runs ahead of the champion. And he tells people, get ready. I'm not the main attraction.
But the main attraction is coming. Get ready to see something great. Get ready to see someone great.
That's the forerunner's function. And John came to be the forerunner
of Christ. To tell people, not only is the
Messiah coming, John was the last of the Old Testament prophets.
John had the honor to say, here he is. Not only is he coming,
this is the Messiah. That was John's message. He bore
witness of Christ. John was able to tell people
how Christ is preferred above all. And a good reason that Christ
is preferred above the preacher is that Christ is eternal. John
said, He was before me. John the Baptist was born under
this earth six months before the Lord Jesus was. But John
says, He was before me. He's talking about the eternality
of Christ. This is the Savior that's been
ordained from all of eternity. I just got here yesterday. Christ
is from eternity. His goings forth have been of
old, from everlasting. And John was the forerunner.
And since John's time, God's given us apostles. He's given
us pastors and teachers. But all those men, just like
John, had a temporary ministry. Those men had a beginning and
an ending. Their ministry had a beginning
and an ending. Christ is eternal. And the message
of Christ is eternal. I don't care how long it is,
God keeps this globe spinning. The message of salvation will
be unchanged. Christ is the ordained Savior
from all of eternity in this God-man, the one that John pointed
out. And preachers today are just
like John the Baptist. We're just messengers. But Christ
is the message. And the message is always preferred
above the messenger. Now that's not to say preaching
is not important. Of course preaching is important.
It's very important. As long as we preach Christ.
Preaching is only important as long as we preach Christ. John
was a voice crying in the wilderness. Crying to be heard. It was important
that his message be heard. Because his message was Christ.
That's the importance of preaching. It's the importance of what Dale
did earlier this morning. It's what I'm doing here right
now. John is doing in Kingsport right now with those different
men that have gathered together in Rocky Mountain to do this
weekend to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because
Christ has all preeminence. He's preferred above the server.
Second, Christ is preferred above anything that we can earn. Because
He's the fountain of grace. Look at verse 16. And of His
fullness, Have all we received, and grace for grace." Now this
word, fullness, it means full. You know, like if this glass
of water was full to the brim, there's a little space there,
so it's not full. But if it was just right up there
to the brim, we'd say that glass is full. And that's part of what
this means. It's less full now. It means full. It means complete. Look over in Colossians chapter
1. This is the same word that Paul uses here in Colossians
chapter 1. Full or complete. Colossians 1 verse 17. And he is before all things,
and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things He might have the preeminence. For it pleased
the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. This is completeness. All fullness dwells in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now what's that got to do with
me? Look in Colossians 2 verse 9. For in Him, in Christ, dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete
in Him. We're complete because of the
fullness of Christ. Every believer is complete. It's
a finished work in the Lord Jesus Christ. Finished. Full. Out of
His fullness. We are everything that God requires
in Christ. Made complete in His fullness. And this word fullness also means
abundance. And that shows us that Christ
is the fountain of grace. It's not just that the glass
is full. It's overflowing. And we're filled out of the overflow. He is the fountain of grace.
There is plenty of grace to meet the need of every sinner because
Christ is the abundant fountain of grace. Now, how does a sinner
get this grace? How does a sinner lay hold of
this fullness? Well, we don't earn it and we
don't deserve it. The wages of sin is death. What
we can earn is death. So we don't receive grace as
wages, as something that we earn. I thought about this yesterday.
Luke, Friday night, you walked across that stage, you got that
diploma. I guarantee you, as he walked across that stage,
he went, boy, I hope that dean gives that to me. It would be
nice if that dean gives it to me. No, I'm going to go across
that, I'm going to take that. You earned it through hard work. I'm going to go take that. I
earned it. We don't receive God's grace that way. It's a free gift. that God gives to a beggar, not
somebody that earns it. Well, that'll fix her attitude
on it. That'll make us humble. That'll make us thankful. Well,
what have believers received from Christ? We've received all,
John says. We've received all. What have
believers received from Christ? Everything. Everything. What
do you have you didn't receive? We've received everything from
Him. We've received salvation. We've
received pardon for our sin. We've received wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification and redemption. We've received life from Christ. We've received peace from Christ.
We've received joy from Him. We've received all from His fullness
that overflows us. But now remember this. The only
way that we can receive grace from Christ is if we're empty. He only fills empty vessels. I mean, they've got to be bone
dry empty. There can't be a single drop
of goodness left in us if we're going to receive God's grace.
We've got to be empty. Empty of anything that deserves
mercy and grace. Grace, by definition, must be
freely given. If you aren't it, if you deserve
it, it can't be grace. Grace must be freely given. And God gives it out of the fullness
of His Son. And grace is for sinners. Now, the only people who need
grace are sinners. If you're not a sinner, you're
not interested in what I'm saying about this grace. Grace is for
sinners. And in Christ, now this is going
to comfort your heart if you're a sinner. In Christ, there is
an abundant supply of grace. of His fullness, of His fullness
have we all received. And grace for grace have we all
received. We've received everything from
His fullness. Whatever grace it is we have, it came from His
fullness. It came from the overflow of
this fountain of grace. Every believer hasn't received
the same amount of grace, have we? But every believer has received
something. varying degrees, but it's all
the same grace from the same fountain. Every believer receives
from the fullness of Christ. The greatest believer cannot
live without Christ. And the newest, weakest believer
can only live in Christ. Their life is equally dependent
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, where's boasting then?
It's excluded. By the law of faith. By the law
of faith and belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. What about our
fears? What about the weaknesses of
that brand new believer? Well, those are excluded too.
By the same law of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have no
reason to fear when we're looking to Christ. When we believe Him.
Just like we have no reason to boast when we look at Him. You
think about the greatest believer you've ever known. Picture in
your mind the greatest believer in your estimation you've ever
known. Think of the wisdom that they had. Think of the grace
that they had. Think of the kindness that they
had. Think of the faith that they showed. That believer is
just as dependent upon the fullness of Christ as you are. Whether
you're weak or whether you're strong, every believer is completely
dependent upon the fullness of Christ that we receive. Every
believer, whether they're weak or they're strong, lives by Christ,
by His fullness. And whatever grace it is we've
received. Now I say, everybody doesn't
receive the same amount of grace. Whatever grace we've received,
it's enough. It is absolutely enough. Grace
for grace. Now when we say, Every believer
hasn't received the same amount of grace. That's true. But that
doesn't mean ever that some believer just gets a little bit of grace.
No, sir. Every believer gets grace for grace. And that phrase
means grace. Heaped upon grace. Heaped upon. Every believer can say, my cup
runneth over. My cup runneth over of his fullness. that he's given me. Every believer
has fresh supplies of grace every new day. Every believer has new
grace for every situation that we face. Grace, heaped upon grace,
heaping supplies of grace of his fullness. Third Christ is
preferred above the law because he brought grace and truth. Look
at verse for the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth
came by Jesus Christ. Now verse 14 where we ended the
message last week, 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. This is his fullness,
grace and truth. Well, it's obvious, it should
be obvious to us that grace and truth came by Christ because
he's full of it. that he's got all grace and all
truth. And grace and truth are preferred
much more than the law which was given by Moses. Now we say
the law, we refer to the law of Moses. Well, it's not really
the law of Moses, you know that. It's the law of God. But it was
given by Moses. God gave that law to Moses and
Moses gave it to the people. Moses just recited what God gave
him. It wasn't his law. He didn't
come up with this. This is God's law, and Moses
recited it. Moses, God put those tables of
stone in his hand. After, with God's finger, he
wrote that law on those tables of stone, he gave it to Moses.
Moses came down from the mountain and gave it to the people. Well,
at first they broke, so they had to go put it in that Ark
of the Covenant to keep it safe. Moses gave that law to the people,
but it's the law that he received from God. Well, grace and truth
were not given by Christ. Grace and truth came by Christ. They came by Christ because Christ
is grace and truth. Look over in Hebrews chapter
three. Not only is Christ preferred above John the Baptist. He's
preferred above Moses and he's preferred above the law that
came that by Moses. Hebrews 3, verse 1. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers
of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of
our profession, Christ Jesus, who is faithful to him that appointed
him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this man
was worthy of more glory than Moses, insomuch as he that builded
the house hath more honor than the house. Christ is preferred
above Moses and he's preferred above the law that was given
by Moses. You see, the law was just made
known by Moses or made known through Moses. But the only way
a man can know that grace and truth even exist is in Christ. You can't know grace and truth
exist by reading the law. The only way you can know grace
and truth exist is in the Lord Jesus Christ, because grace and
truth came by Christ. And God's grace is truth. You cannot have the truth of
God without grace. Not the whole truth you can.
So someone will say, well, wasn't there truth before Christ came
incarnate? Wasn't the law truth? Yes, it was. But only to a degree,
only to a degree. The law did not reveal the truth
of God. The law didn't reveal every attribute
of God. The law did not reveal the will of God. The law revealed
nothing about God's grace. All the law showed of God is
that He's holy and just. The law showed that God will
punish sin. The law showed God demands perfect
righteousness. But the law never told us anything
about how to keep that law. The law never told us anything
about it being perfect. It just told us God demands that
we be perfect. He demands perfection. If you
look over in Deuteronomy 5, what that law produced was fear. If anyone really heard the law,
what it produced was fear, was terror. Deuteronomy 5. These words the Lord spake unto
all your assembly in the mount, out of the midst of the fire,
and of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great
voice. And he added, No more. Then he wrote them in two tables
of stone, and delivered them unto me. And it came to pass,
when ye heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, for
the mountain did burn with fire, that ye came near unto me. even
all the heads of your tribes and your elders. And you said,
Behold, the Lord our God has showed us His glory and His greatness. We've heard His voice out of
the midst of the fire. We've seen this day that God
doth talk with man, and He liveth. Now therefore, why should we
die? For this great fire is going
to consume us. If we hear the voice of the Lord
our God any more, we shall die. For who is there of all flesh
that have heard the voice of the living God speaking out of
the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived. Paul said in
Hebrews 12, they who heard the law, they who heard the words
of the law, God speaking from that mountain, they entreated
that the word not be spoken to them anymore, for they could
not endure that which was spoken. It brought them fear. They knew
they couldn't endure it. They couldn't live up to that.
The law brings terror. Because we're sinful men and
women, we can't keep it. So there is truth in the law,
but it's not all the truth of God. The law has no grace for
the guilty. And God's gracious, but you never
see that in the law. So God sent his son. He sent Christ and Christ the
son brought grace and truth together. You can't have one without the
other. They always go hand in hand, grace and truth. Christ
brought truth that would satisfy his father and he brought grace
that would meet the need of sinful men and women and would satisfy
God's graciousness and love and mercy in Christ. So our fourth
point, Christ is preferred above the law because he fully declares
the Father. Look at verse 18. 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, no
man has seen God at any time. And that's more than just seeing
God, seeing His Spirit, seeing some vision of God in the heavens.
In our flesh, no man can see God. No man can understand God. In our flesh, no man can figure
out who God is. No man can figure out what God
requires. In our flesh, no man can even come to God. We can't
figure out a way to come to God. We don't even have any desire
to come to God. The nature of man makes it impossible
for us to understand God, to understand who He is, to understand
His will. Our nature makes it impossible
for us to find God or love God. We will never know God. No one will ever, unless the
Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, declares God to us. That's the
only way. The only way we'll ever know
God is if God the Son reveals God to us. And Christ is just
the one for this job of declaring the Father and revealing the
Father to His people. Christ is the only begotten of
the Father. Now, we generally think we hear
that word begotten. We generally think of that word
begotten as producing a child. Salmon begat Boaz. Boaz begat
Obed. Obed begat Jesse. Jesse begat
David. They produced sons. They produced
children. But this word begotten means
a whole lot more than just produced a child. It means unique. One of a kind. The only begotten. Christ is the only begotten of
the Father. He's the one of the kind. The
only representation of God we'll ever have. Christ is the only
revelation of the character of God. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ,
He is God. We looked at that last week.
The Word was God. So, He has the same nature as
the Father, doesn't He? He has the nature of deity. So,
Christ is the only one who can reveal the nature and character
of God. Because He has the nature and
character of God. And Christ was in the bosom of
the Father. Now try to get a hold of this.
Even though our Lord was a man on earth, John said we handled
Him. We saw Him. We were with Him.
He's a man on earth. The Son never left the bosom
of the Father. Here He was a man, but He never left the bosom of
the Father. That's a mystery. Now we say if we keep something
in our bosom, that's our most closely guarded secrets. The
most closely guarded secrets of our minds, we say we keep
those things in our bosom. Well, Christ knows the secret
counsels of God because He was in the bosom of the Father. He
knows all those things, the secret counsels of God. He knows them
because He was in the bosom of the Father. And Christ is just
the one to declare those secret counsels to men because He's
the Word of God. The Word of God used to communicate
to men came from the bosom of the Father to declare unto us
all the secret counsels of God, the secret counsels of His sovereign
will and salvation that the law could never declare. Christ declares
the Father. Now those Old Testament scriptures,
they gave some revelation of God, but it was a very imperfect
revelation because that revelation, the Old Testament scriptures,
is in type and picture. Now we understand those things
today. Because we have the fulfillment of all those types and pictures
in our Lord Jesus Christ. These people in John the Baptist,
they didn't have that. They just had this revelation
of God that was in dark shadows and pictures. But when Christ
came incarnate, the truth of God and the grace of God that
had been hidden in the bosom of God were brought to light
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ came. John said, behold,
the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. And our
eyes blew open. We said, now I see. Now I know
what that Passover lamb I've been killing all my life once
a year is about. Now I know. Now I see. John said,
behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.
And our eyes blew open and said, I see. Now I know what that lamb
that sacrificed on the Day of Atonement means. Now I know what
that lamb a fit man takes out into the wilderness, never to
be seen again. I see! Because God brought His grace
and truth to light in the Lord Jesus Christ. The law reveals
sin. Grace reveals the truth of God. Christ declares truth of God
that came by him. The law, all it can do is reveal
sin. By the law is the knowledge of
sin. Not the knowledge of God. Scripture
never says by the law is the knowledge of God. By the law
is the knowledge of sin. So God sent his son to do what
the law never could do. Look at Romans chapter 8. All
the law can do is reveal our sin. Now there's nothing wrong
with the law. The law is holy and just and
good. The fault lies with our sinful flesh. Romans 8 verse
3. For what the law could not do,
and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, or for a
sacrifice for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit. Only Christ can reveal the righteousness
of God. Those scribes and those Pharisees,
I feel so sorry for them. They thought righteousness could
come by their obedience to the law. Only Christ reveals the
righteousness of God. Look back a few pages in Romans
3. Grace can only reign through righteousness. Grace can only
reign through truth, through righteousness, Romans 3 verse
19. Now we know, that what thing
soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law.
It points out our sin, that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds
of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For
by the law is the knowledge of sin, and that is as far as the
law can go. for by the laws and knowledge of sin. But now the
righteousness of God without the law, without your obedience
to the law, is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the
prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there
is no difference. For all the sin that comes short
of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace, through
the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth
to be a propitiation, to be a sin covering through faith in his
blood, to declare his righteousness. See, here's righteousness. It's
not our obedience to the law, is it? To declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance
of God. To declare, I say at this time,
his righteousness. To declare the righteousness
of Christ that he might be just and the justifier of him which
believeth in Jesus." The righteousness of God can only be revealed in
our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ reveals the wisdom of
God. He declares the wisdom of God.
Only in Christ can you see true wisdom, the true wisdom of God,
how he's just and justifier. There is substitute, the substitutionary
death of his Christ reveals the holiness of God. Now, we can
see something of God's holiness in the law, can't we? But that
holiness, what we see in the law, makes us afraid. If you
want to see the glory of God's holiness, look to Christ on Calvary
Street. There's holiness. There's the
glory of God's holiness. When we see Christ on the cross,
we see grace and truth. Now we see how God can be merciful
and gracious to sinners by fully punishing our substitute in truth. At the cross, we see truth. We see the truth of our sin. That's what my sin really is. We see it in the sacrifice of
Christ. We see the truth of our sin and
we see the truth of God's grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. God
must be gracious. Look what He did to His Son in
order to save His people. Oh, He's gracious. There can
be no doubt when we look at the Lord Jesus Christ. Now those
old Jews, they preferred Moses. They preferred the Law of Moses
to Christ. And the only reason they did that is they're dead
in sin. And the same thing is true of
people today. People don't want to hear about God's grace. Just
like Dale said, you start talking to them about religion, boy,
you go three steps and you've diverged. They don't want to
hear about grace. They want the law. They want
to do something for themselves. Why do they do that? They're
dead. Just the same way we were when
God found us. But Christ declares the Father
through grace like the law never could. Let me give you six things
in closing. Number one, the law reveals the
truth about man. Grace reveals the truth about
God. The law shows about man the truth,
shows us our sin. Grace reveals the truth of God. Grace reveals God's love for
sinners. Grace reveals God's mercy. Grace reveals God's wisdom. Grace reveals God's compassion
for sinners. The law never would do that.
Second, the law deals with men. The law deals with men under
condemnation of the first creation. God, in His grace, makes men
new creatures in Christ. Third, the law demands righteousness. It demands it. Grace makes men
righteous, makes us the righteousness of God in Him. Fourth, all the
law can do is sentence men to death. We have death through
the law. Grace gives men life in the Lord
Jesus Christ, eternal life, a life we can never lose. Fifth, the
law tells men what we must do for God. In order to please God,
in order to have fellowship with God, in order to be accepted
of God, the law tells man what we must do. Grace tells sinners
what God's done for them in His Son. I'd a whole lot rather have
that than law. The law, sixthly, gives the knowledge
of sin. Grace gives the knowledge of
salvation. Grace tells us how sin is put
away. in the sacrifice of our Lord
Jesus Christ. The law gives a knowledge of
sin. Grace gives a knowledge of righteousness. That's the value of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. If you want to know God, look
to Christ. We preach Christ and Him crucified
because Christ declares the Father. in grace and truth. All right. Well, I hope the Lord will bless
that to you.