He says here in verse 10, we
went from verse 1 through 9 in the Bible class, He, the Word,
the Word of God, God Himself, the Creator, was in the world. He came into this world. He walked
among us, taught, He ate. He was in the world, and the
world was made by him, this world, this world here that was made
by him. Every particle of dust was made by him. He was in the
world, the world was made by him, and we see in this verse,
in verse eleven, the extent of the fall. We see depravity. We see deadness. the deadness
of human nature. He came unto his own, and his
own received him not." How bad is that? The Creator,
the giver of life, came into this world that he made, and
it didn't even recognize him. Apart from a work of grace, Apart
from the work of the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ would walk
through those doors and you wouldn't know Him. You would not recognize
Him, no more than they recognized Him. You know, we have in this... First of all, we have to get
this picture out of our mind that's hanging on everybody's
wall. The first thing you do is look at it and say, well,
that doesn't look like that picture. But without a work of the Spirit
of God, We would not recognize him. He came into this world,
the world that he made, and the world didn't recognize him. He
came into his own and it didn't recognize him. But now listen,
the one who came into this world was his creator. And when he
came into this world, he did not come into this world to destroy
it. He came into this world to redeem. He came to redeem sinners. He didn't come as a lion to destroy,
but as a lamb to die. He came as the Lamb of God. That's
what John the Baptist says here later on. He says, Behold, the
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. That's
what He came to do. There was a world of people that
He came to save, to redeem, that He represented. And He came to
put away their sins. to put them completely away,
wipe them out. That's what he came for. He came not to be ministered
unto, he said, but to minister and to give his life a ransom
for many. But when he came, when he came,
no one knew him. They didn't know him. It says
in verse 11, he came unto his own. This refers here to Israel. You see, He came to the world
that He made and didn't recognize Him. None of the Gentiles recognized
Him. And then He came unto His own people, His chosen people,
Israel. They had the priesthood. They
had the temple. They had the sacrifices. They
had the Word of God. They had Isaiah 53. They read
Isaiah 53. They had Genesis. They had all
of those. They read about the seed of the
woman. He came to his own. And his own, listen, they didn't
just not recognize him. They received him not. They wanted
nothing to do with him. They said, we will not have this
man to reign over us. They turned thumbs down on him.
When they looked at him, he was not what they thought the Messiah
would look like. The Messiah would not look like
a poor carpenter's son. He wouldn't be poor. They were
looking for someone who had this brilliance about them, like Saul,
head and shoulders above the people. That's what they were
looking for. They were not looking for this
common-looking man. This common person and the way
he dressed was common, and they considered him to be poor. How
knoweth this man letters, have he never learned? They were offended
by his education. They would not receive him. They
wanted nothing to do with this man. He didn't look like what
they thought a Messiah would look like. He didn't have any
halo over his head. We know you. You are the carpenter's
son. We know you're brothers and sisters.
They named him off. No, they didn't know him. He's
the Word of God. He's the Word. He's the King.
He's the Messiah. He's the Savior. That's who he
is. He came to his own, and his own
received him not. He came to his own, and he didn't
even have a place to lay his head. His Mary had to go to a
stable to give birth. That's the kind of reception
he received. Born in a barn. That's where
he was at. Born in a barn. And they shouted
out, crucify him! Crucify him! We have no king
but Caesar. Well, that's what you think.
No, he's the king whether you like it or not. He's the ruler
whether you like it or not. Whether you believe him or not
doesn't change who he is. Whether you believe him or not
has no effect on his power. My believing or not believing
has no effect on him. He is who he is. He's God. He's
the Word of God. He came unto his own and his
own received him not. But, aren't you glad for that? Are
you not glad? But God, who is rich in mercy,
says over in Ephesians, aren't you glad for that? But all is
not lost. And the reason all is not lost
is none of it's left up to us. If it were left up to us, it
would all still be lost. But it's not left up to us. God
is a God of infinite wisdom. And He did not design this and
purpose this, all of this, and let it fail. My servant shall
not fail. He shall not fail to do what
he was sent to do. He shall not fail to save whom
he was sent to save. If one is lost, he failed, for
whom he died. If one for whom he died winds
up lost, he failed. I don't care if he saved the
whole world. I don't care if he saved everyone in the world.
If one is lost for whom he died for, he's a failure. Because
God can't lose in any way, in any shape or form, and still
be God. You and I can do that. You know,
I can fail at things and still be me. But God can't fail, if
anything, still be God. As many as received Him, to them,
what is it to receive Christ? Have I received Christ? Have
I? I will love Him. Have I received? To receive Christ is to truly,
listen now, is to truly believe on Him. It's to truly embrace
Him. It's to truly fall in love with
Him. It is to have my affections go to Him before all others,
to as many as received Him. Philip said, my Lord and my God. That's how, I don't receive Him
as my personal Savior. We fall down and receive Him
as Lord, my Lord and my God, and He's my Savior because He's
my Lord and my God. And because He is Lord and He
is God. Because many as received Him,
gave Him power, or over the margin, says, the right or the privilege
to become the sons of God. Through the Lord Jesus Christ,
I have the right of sonship. I have every privilege of sonship. I can go to my Father through
Christ as His Son and cast all my cares upon Him, knowing that
my Heavenly Father cares for me. I know that. I'm His Son. I'm preaching to
sons of God, sons and daughters of God. You talk about responsibility. Every now and then I wake up
to it, and I realize I'm coming over here to preach to some blood-bought
I'm coming over here to preach to God's children. You're careful. You're careful who you put your
children under, aren't you? You're very careful who teaches
your children. You want to know what they're teaching you. I
have the responsibility of instructing, teaching, preaching to God's
children, sons of God. You're not just anybody. You
are a peculiar people. You are blood-bought, special
people. And I have the responsibility
of declaring Christ to you, your Father to you, my Father, every
week. Every week. But you have the
right, the privilege to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name. We are not sons of God apart
from believing God. The marks of sonship is faith. Abraham believed God. And all
those who are born of God, all those who are sons of God, are
evidenced by believing God, following Him, taking Him at His word.
I said to you this morning, we can't comprehend the Trinity,
but I believe it. I say, I believe it. You know why I believe it? Because I can't help from believing
it. You cannot help but believe the
gospel. You cannot help but believe the
truth when it's preached to you. You can't help it because you're
sons of God and your father is speaking to you. He's revealing
the truth to you. That doesn't happen to everybody.
It happens to his sons and his daughters, which were born, you
see. Now he's going to bring in the
new birth. He's going to bring in the new
birth. which were born, but he clarifies
it. He clarifies it. My first birth
was all flesh. That which is born flesh is flesh,
and it can be nothing else. It cannot be changed into spirit
or spiritual. It can't be improved. It's flesh. God is, listen, in salvation
God is not improving the flesh. It's not improvement of the old
man. It's not the old man waking up and coming to a knowledge
of the gospel. It's a new man, born of God,
who receives it. Which we're born, not of blood,
not through the lineage of my parents or my grandparents and
all back there. I didn't inherit this. I think
it was last Sunday I dealt with this, that the Jews said we'd
be Abraham's seed. They just, they held on to that. In hell, right now, they're still
saying, we're the Abraham seed. And that's the truth. There's
a whole multitude of Abraham's natural seed in the Torah. But not the spiritual seed. Not
the sons of faith. Not those who believe. Born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh. No one taught me
into being saved and that I was saved. Before I ever heard the
gospel, I attended a place where they would beg them down the
aisle, beg them to come down the front, talk them into a profession,
and they'd get up and they'd say they were saved. That's not
salvation. The pressure from the preacher,
the pressure from the soul winners does not bring about salvation. It does not bring about the salvation
of the soul. It's not of the will which were
born, not of blood, nor of the will. I, listen, I will. It is my will, my wish, my will,
my desire that my whole family be saved. I've got brothers and
sisters, several. I've got a big family, but that's
not going to save anybody. It's not my will. nor of the
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. I was not saved
by my will. God made me willing in the day
of His power. I was saved in everyone whom
God saves. Everyone here this morning that
is saved is saved by the will and purpose of God in Christ.
Look over in James chapter 1. Look at verse 18, of his own
will, of God's own will, not a cooperation of wills, it's
God's own will. This is where it starts now,
this is where it starts. Of God's own will begat he us with the
word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of
his creatures, but of his own will. Now everyone whom God saves,
He makes them willing. They are willing to receive Christ.
They are willing to bow to Christ. But my will does not precede
God's will. It does not overtake God's will.
It's not like God's sitting back to see what I will do. I will
love darkness rather than light. That's what I will do. Christ
said to those Pharisees, you will not. come to me that you
might have life. Here's your problem. Here's why
you won't come to me. It's your will. You will not
come to me that you might have life. Now, which were born, not
of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but of God. You're born of God. Then he says
here in verse 14, Just back to the Word. And the Word, speaking
here of God, the same one in the beginning was the Word and
the Word was with God and the Word was God. And the Word was
made flesh. The Word was made flesh. The
Word was made to be what it was not before. Flesh. Sinless flesh. Sinless flesh. A real man with a real soul was
made flesh and he tabernacled among us like that tabernacle
of old in the wilderness. It went with the Israelites wherever
they went. That tabernacle was humble in
its appearance. On the outside of that tent,
that tabernacle, it didn't look like any other tent. It looked
like all the tents. There was nothing about the appearance
of that tabernacle, that tent, that would catch your attention.
The glory of that tabernacle was on the inside. The Shekinah
glory was on the inside of that tabernacle. On the outside was
what? Badger skin, dyed red. That's what the outside looked
like. But on the inside, on the inside is where God was in Christ
reconciling the world to Himself. God is in that tabernacle. The
Word was with God, the Word was God, and that Word became flesh,
became a man. And He dwelt among us. And we
beheld His glory, the glory of His deity. They saw His omnipotence. They saw His power. When he cast out of demons, they
would go out. He would say, depart. And they
didn't argue with him. They didn't say, no, no, I'm
not. When he said, depart, they departed.
When he said, rise up, walk, those disciples, they saw crippled
people rise up and walk, deaf to hear, blind to see. They saw this. They beheld His
glory. They beheld the glory of His
holiness. There was no sin in Him. You
hang around me long enough, and you're going to be disappointed.
I promise you, you'll be disappointed. You'll say, I didn't think you
was like that. You're not like that church.
Not that I'd go out here and carry on. Not that I'm going
to have you doing something stupid. You and I hang around each other
long enough, sooner or later it comes out. You know, there's
a part of us that just jumps out and it's just ugly. But they
were with Christ for three years. They ate with Him. They slept out there in the garden with
Him. They slept out there with Him under the stars. They were with
Him for three years. And for three years, they beheld
the glory of His moral character. He never sinned one time. Never
spoke. a word, an off-color word. They beheld His glory. Look over
in John chapter 1, the Gospel of John chapter 1. That which
was from the beginning. What was from the beginning?
The Word. The Word. That which was from
the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with
our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled.
of the Word of Life. For the life was manifested,
and we've seen it. We looked at life. God gave it
a body. A body hath thou prepared me.
And when they looked at Jesus Christ, they looked at life.
You're looking at me. You're looking at someone that's
alive. They looked at Him. They looked at life. Life. The life was manifested. And
we've seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal
life which was with the Father and was manifested, revealed
unto us. The Word was made flesh and we
beheld His glory. The glory like no other one has
ever had. Moses came down off that mountain,
and his face couldn't be looked upon because it shone. He was
in the presence of God, and he had to put a veil over it. That
is nothing. That is absolutely nothing compared
to the glory that is in the person, the face of Jesus Christ. And
listen, full, full of grace and truth. That's what he's full
of. He's full of everything I need. He's full of everything I don't
have, and I need it. He's full of it, and I need it. And if I have received him by
faith, I have everything he's full of. I have everything he's
full of. I was born into this world full
of everything my dad's full of. Everything he has, I have. the
hereditary diseases or sicknesses that he has, he's passed on to
me. But in that new birth, that new man, I have everything he's
for. Righteousness, grace, truth,
everything. In him, it says in Colossians,
in him ye are complete. And the reason you're complete
is because you're in him who's full of everything. who is the
fullness of God. The fullness of God, it says,
dwells in him in a bodily form. It's in him. He's full of grace
and truth. And it says, John, bear witness
of him. God sent a witness. And that's
what I'm doing this morning. I'm witnessing of him. And John,
bear witness of him. Christ saying, this was he whom
I spake. He's my message. The Lord Jesus
Christ is my message. He's not a part of it. He's not
a part of the message. He is the message. This was he
of whom I spake, he that comes after me. He was born six months
after John the Baptist was born. Naturally, in this world, as
far as a human nature and body is concerned. But he's preferred
before me. Why is he preferred before me?
Because he is before. He is before John. He's before
all of us. He's the eternal God. He's before
us all. And of His fullness have all
we received. He didn't give me what I'm lacking.
I'm lacking everything. You know, like I'm just lacking
some stuff. No, I lack everything. Of His fullness have all we,
all the sons of God, not just the ones who have great faith, all. You can take great faith,
and you can take weak faith, and both of them have all the
fullness of God in Christ. The same, the same, the same. I have the same fullness in Christ
that Abraham has. I have it, and you have it, in
Christ if you're in Christ. Of His fullness have all we received,
and what have we received? Grace for grace. Grace, favor,
God's favor heaped upon God's favor. Favor heaped upon favor. That's what we've received. Now
the law, he says, the law was given by Moses. It was given
to Moses, and Moses gave it to the Israelites, and that law
that was given by Moses revealed the inflexible justice of God.
It could not save any of those who were under it. It was not
given to save. You know, by the law is the knowledge
of what? Sin. By grace is the knowledge of
God in Christ. God as the judge is known by
the law. God as the Savior is known through
Christ. The law is inflexible. Grace brings us God's mercy,
God's favor. That's what it brings. The law
was given by Moses, but grace and truth. Did not truth come
by the law? Not all of it. You could not
know God's mercy and grace by the law. The law revealed only
one side, but Christ reveals the whole God. He reveals God
who's holy, God who's just, and yet God who's merciful, God who
delights to show mercy. Now, no man has seen God at any
time. No man has seen God at any time.
Moses said, let me see your glory. And he put him in the cleft of
the rock and he let him see his back parts. But my back parts
do not reveal who I am. My face reveals who I am. My face reveals me. You're not
going to know me by back parts. You'll know me by looking at
me face to face. And the glory of God is seen where? In the face of Jesus Christ. That's where it's seen. No man
has seen God at any time, but the only begotten Son, who is
the Word of God, who was made flesh, who dwelt among us. The only begotten Son of God,
which is in the bosom of the Father, never separated from
Him. Not even wise in this world, never, until that one time at
the cross, which is in the bosom of the Father. He has declared
Him. He told Him forth. He's revealing. The only one who can give you and me an understanding
of who God is, of how God can be a just God and a Savior, is
Jesus Christ. When you look unto the face of
Jesus Christ by faith, and God enables you to do that when He
commands the light of the gospel to shine into your heart, that's
when you see the glory of God and you begin to understand who
God is. He says, Don't let the rich man
glory in his riches or the strong man glory in his strength. Let
him the glory, glory in this, that he understands and knows
Me. And the only way you know God is in Christ. No man comes
unto the Father but by Me. The Word that was in the beginning,
that was God, was made flesh, dwelt among us, and has revealed
to us the Father. That hasn't happened to everyone.
That does not happen to every son of Adam. But it happens to his sons and
daughters. The ones whom He came to save, the ones whom He died
for. Now are ye the sons of God. It does not yet appear what we
shall be, but we know this, when He shall appear, we shall be
just like Him. We shall be just like Him. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. And you know what? He still dwells
among us. He's among us this morning in spirit. Okay, Mike.