If the Lord was pleased, if he's
pleased to bless his word, that's enough without any of my comments.
If we just read his word this morning, and he's pleased to
bless that, to our understanding, to our nourishment, that's enough,
even without me making a comment. Because He has promised to bless
His Word. He said His Word will not return
unto Him void. When He sends forth His Word,
it will accomplish what He has sent it to do. And when the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Word of God, when He has sent it back to glory,
He accomplished what He set out to do. He's the living Word. We have the written word here,
and Christ the living word, and they cannot be separated. Therefore,
that makes this book a living book. That makes his words living
words. Now, each book in the Bible has
its theme. It has a dominant theme. You
go through each book in the Bible, and it will have its dominant
theme, and it will be concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. It will
be concerning him. In the book of Matthew, it speaks
of his kingship. We have the kingship of Christ
set forth. But here in the gospel of John,
it's the Lord's deity. It's his godhood. And he starts
out with his godhood, not his manhood, but with his godhood.
And that's the proper way to start out, isn't it? We start
out with God, then we come down to his manhood. We don't start
out with the man and then go up to God. We start out with
God and come down to man. They come down to his manhood,
and that's what he does here. Now, let me read these first
nine verses, and then we'll look at them. In the beginning was
the Word, and that's a capital W, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him.
And without him was not anything made that was made. Sounds like
we are reading Colossians chapter one, doesn't it? All things were
made by him. That's the same thing Paul tells
the Colossians. In him was life, and the life was the light of
men. Whatever light men have, they
have it from him. And the light shineth in darkness,
and the darkness comprehended it not. 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. John was not that light, but
was sent to bear witness of that light. God has never left himself
without a witness, ever. He's had a witness in every generation,
in every age. And that was the true light which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world. We find in the
beginning of this, the relationship of the Lord Jesus Christ to time.
It says, in the beginning. This shows his eternality. He
is the eternal God. That's who he is. That's who
walked among us. That's who tabernacled among
us. The eternal God. Then we have his relationship
to the Godhead. It says he was with God. He's
one of the Holy Trinity. He's the second person of the
Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And then
we have his relationship to the Trinity. He was God. He's not like God. He is God. He is God. And then we have his relationship
to the universe. It says all things were made
by him. All things. Nothing that's made,
nothing that exists exist by any other means except by the
Lord Jesus Christ. All things were made by Him.
He is the Creator. That means all are subject unto
Him. All men, all women, all angels,
all principalities, everything is subject to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Everything is subject, listen,
and this to me is comforting, to our Lord. Everything is subject
to my Lord. That means that nothing can happen
to me, nothing can happen to you, that He does not have to
get permission, that has to come to Him for permission. Nothing
can touch you. Absolutely nothing can touch
us, except He allow it. He allow it. He's the Creator. And then we have His relationship
to men. I read to you, he said, they're life and light. He is
the one who gives life. Life does not exist without him. I mean, in the broadest sense
of the word, all life is given by him. All light is given by
him. When a person is born into this
world, The law is written on their heart. They have an understanding. They have some life, and that
life that they have, even though it's in the natural realm, the
life they have is of Him. He gives it. He gives it. Now, John opens this book up,
as I said, setting forth the deity of the Son of God. He doesn't start with His manhood.
He starts with His Godhood. He says, in the beginning, in
the beginning of creation, in the beginning of time, as Moses
said in Genesis 1, in the beginning God, and that God is Christ. It's Christ. He was in the beginning. He's from the beginning. We can't
comprehend this. We believe it. We believe it
because it's written in God's word, but there is no way with
these with the mind that we have so limited in our thinking and
so limited in our understanding. There's no way we can imagine
the existence of Christ before anything else, that he's eternal. There was never a time he did
not exist. You can't comprehend that, but you can believe it. You can believe it. But now if
you sit down and try to think, How in the world is it that there
was never a time that God did not exist? That's what the scientists
do. That's the way the world looks
at it. And they say, that's just not possible. That's how human
intelligence, logically, human intelligence says, that's not
possible. Yes, it's possible. He's God. He's God. And he has no beginning of days,
no end of life. He's eternal. He's the eternal
son of God. And it says he was the word.
What is the word? You hear my words this morning,
you hear them. I'm expressing my thoughts. I'm
expressing what's going on in my mind, you know, within myself. I'm expressing it. And you are
listening to it. A word is an expression. In Christ,
the word of God is the expression of God. He's the expression of
deity. That's what he is. That's why
he's called the Word of God. He is deity expressing itself,
as one writer said. In Hebrews chapter 1 and 2, Christ
is said to be the final spokesman. In Revelation chapter 1 verse
8, turn over there. Let me let you look at this. chapter 1, verse 8. In Hebrews, he's the
final spokesman. In Revelations, chapter 1, verse
8, he's the alphabet. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
of all things. All things began with him. And
the ending, all things end with Him. All things begin with Him,
all things will end with Him. Sayeth the Lord, which is? There's
His eternality. Which was? You notice He doesn't
say that in reverse, does He? He doesn't say which was and
which is. He says which is. He's eternal. And then which
was, which is to come, the Almighty. I am the alphabet. I am A to
Z. That's who the Lord Jesus Christ
is. That's who he is. And then in John, in verse 18,
back here in chapter 1, look here, he is the one who has manifested,
declared who God is. No man has seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son, which, listen, is in the bosom of the
Father, which was in the bosom of the Father, and he left there
and he came here. No, listen, which is in the bosom
of the Father. This means this. This means while
he was on this earth, at the same time he was on this earth,
he was in the bosom of the Father also. He was still with his Father. I and my Father are one. They're
never separated. The only time there was a separation
was at the cross. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? That's the only time that there
was a separation. But here He declares. He declared
Him. He revealed Him. He told Him. Here's what He's saying. He told
Him forth. No one. No prophet, no man ever
throughout history has declared God fully except Jesus Christ. And he has declared him fully
and completely. And then it says, and the word
was with God. This shows us and tells us of his separate personality. He's not a different God. There's
only one God. But there are three persons in
the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He
says he was with God. He was God. He is God in every
way. He is God in every attribute. And there it says he's with God,
which shows us there is a separate personality. You know, back in
Genesis chapter one and two and three there during creation,
God said, let us make man in our image. He didn't say, let
me make man in my image. He said, let us. All three, all
three were involved in creation. Let us, because when one acts,
it's God acting. Whether it's the father choosing,
the son dying, or the Holy Spirit regenerating. It's still one
God acting in three distinct persons. Don't try to figure
that out. You can't do it. But you can
believe it. You can believe the Trinity.
You can believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
when we are baptized. We are baptized what? In the
name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They're
all equally important in our salvation. They are all equally
important in the existence from eternity to eternity. They are all equally important.
Yet it's one God. He was God, and he's with God. And the Word, it says, was God,
or God was the Word. And that's the name used for
the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit, one God. And then he says in verse 3,
after setting forth the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, his
Godhead, he says here in verse 3, all things were made by him. All things. Here creation is
ascribed to the Word of God. And none but God can create. I cannot create. I can take the
things that God has created. I can cut a tree down, saw it
up in lumber and build a house. But I didn't create the house.
I used the materials that God created out of nothing. Everything
that God has created, he created out of nothing. He spoke it into
existence. and all that we see on this earth,
in creation, in the universe, in the stars, in the galaxies,
and all that we do not see. And I tell you, there is a world
that we don't see that's unimaginable. He created it, this man, this
one, this one who is the God-man. He spoke it into existence. And
when I read these things and I realize these things, it always
comes back to me, this is my God. This is my Lord. You know, we don't have, we are
not serving, worshipping one among many gods. We're worshipping
the only one there is. We are worshipping the only one
who has the power over all things. We are worshipping the only sovereign
there is. He's our God. And He's the Creator,
and none but God can create. The whole creation is ascribed
to the Word of God. All things, it says. All things. Now, Christ created all things.
That means He's the fountain of life. That means He's the
giver of life. It says in verse 4, in Him was
life, and the life was the light of men. He's the fountain of
all life. He's the giver of life. And here,
life is used in its widest, broadest sense. We know this. We know that Christ is the spiritual
life of all who believe. He's one who gives us spiritual
life. He's one who makes us alive. He's one who gives us a new birth.
We know that. But all creature life is found
in Him. Paul said this in Acts 17. In
Him we live. and move and have our being. And he's talking about all of
creation. Our Lord said, not a bird falls
through the ground without your Father, without his will being
in it, without his purpose, without Christ here, the giver of life,
taking it. Not a bird. Not a bird. And the word like
speaks of a relationship which Christ sustains to all men. He
is their light. Whatever moral light men have,
listen, whatever moral light men have, and they have it because
it's written on the heart at birth. The law is written on
every man's heart. Every person, every man, every
woman that comes into this world and they grow up, they know,
I don't care if they live back in the darkest parts of this
world, They know it's wrong to kill. They know it's wrong to
steal. They know that. How do they know
that? The law is written on their hearts.
That's what it says over in Romans. The law is written on their heart.
And they have some understanding of right and wrong. Who gave
them that understanding? Who gave them that moral light?
The Lord Jesus Christ did, the Word of God. In the broadest sense of the
word, He is the life of all and He is the light of all, even though men are lost. By
nature, men are dead in trespasses and sins, but they're still responsible
to God, and they're going to give account to God because of
this light. Because of this light that's
given to them, because of this moral light that's given to them,
the law that's written on the heart, they are accountable to
God. They'll be called into account. Then verse 5, And the light shineth in darkness,
and the darkness comprehended it not. Here we see how depraved
we are by nature, how dead we are by nature. The light shines
in darkness. And they couldn't even tell the
light was among them. He walked among his own people.
They couldn't tell who he was. The light shineth in darkness. The natural man disregards the
light that he's been given, and the light right now, the preaching
of the gospel, unless he gives spiritual light and illumination.
He'll be rejected. He will be despised. When he came unto his own, his
own received him not, it said. We'll look at that here in a
little bit. But then it changes here, and I'll close with this.
In verse 5, and the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness
comprehended it not. And then he changes. He changes
to the preacher, to the witness, to John the Baptist. Now, there
was a man sent from God whose name was John, John the Baptist. He's the forerunner. You see,
that forerunner was foretold. And he's saying this John, this
witness is the forerunner. That's what scripture speaks
of. And the same came for a witness to bear witness of the light.
Here's the ministry of every of every God called preacher. Here's our ministry. He came
and we come as a witness, to bear witness of the light,
not promote our programs. I couldn't tell you how many
times I have been asked, what kind of programs do you have
for the children? I couldn't tell you how many times I've
been asked that. When people find out I'm a pastor, It almost
always comes up, what kind of programs do you have going on
for the kids, you know, and that kind of stuff, like showing movies
or programs? I'll tell you what we have. We
have one program. It's the preaching of Christ and Him crucified.
This is not an entertainment center. We are not here to entertain
men on their way to hell. We are here to glorify Christ.
We are here to preach Christ. And in preaching Christ, God
is pleased to save sinners. That's how He saves sinners.
We're not trying to make this look real pleasurable to the
young, to the youth, like they would really enjoy being among
us, like we're not as old folks as you think we might be. We're
here to preach Christ. We're not here to try to entertain. He came to bear witness of the
light that all men through Him might believe, and that's how
men come to faith, by the preaching of the Word. by the preaching of Christ and
Him crucified, who is the Word of God. He was not that light. John is not that light. I'm not
that light. This John is not that light.
Men do not have light by themselves, spiritual light, and light doesn't
come from me. Light comes from Him. Illumination
comes from Him. Understanding comes from Him.
I can stand here and preach. So clearly, so plainly, God give
me the ability to preach the gospel so clearly, so plainly.
But you still go away lost and dead if He who is light does
not illuminate you. If He who commanded the light
in the beginning to shine, if He does not command the light
of the gospel to shine into your heart and you see the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ, you'll leave lost. He's the light. He's the light. But John was
not that light, but he was sent to bear witness of that light.
And I pray, I pray that every time I stand behind this pulpit,
or whoever stands behind this pulpit, that our main objective
is to bear witness to the light. It's not to get men to make a
decision. It's to bear witness of the light.
You know, God does the saving, we're called to do the preaching. He was sent to bear witness of
that light, that light which was the true light, which lights
every man, as it says here again, that comes into the world. To
bear witness of the true light, which is the Lord Jesus Christ,
and He is the light who gives every man life, He gives every man some moral
understanding. And John's witness is this. His
witness is this. That this man, Jesus Christ,
is God. He is the light and he's the
life. And if anybody's going to be
saved, it's going to be through this one here. This one. The Lord Jesus Christ. The Word
of God. The Word of God. In the beginning, was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him,
and without Him, without the Word, was not anything made that
was made. In Him was life, and the life
was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness,
and the darkness comprehended it not. It did not overcome it,
nor did it understand it. 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. Now listen, when he mentions John, they understood,
they knew what John preached. They knew John's message. They
knew John's message. He was not the light, John's
not the light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. It
was a true light, which lights every man that cometh into the
world, and this true light which is the Word of God has come among
us, tabernacled among us. All right, I'll pick up from
there in just a few minutes.