John chapter 1. We'll start in verse 1. John chapter
1, start of verse 1. Read through verse 5. and then
to verse 14, which verse 14 will be our text this morning. John
chapter 1. 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 was not anything made that was made. In Him was
life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines
in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. Verse 14. 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 full of truth. This is what we're going to look
at in verse 14. And after you read that, the
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld His glory. After you settle down of the absolute wonder and amazement
of that verse, or these verses actually in 1 John, God made
manifest in the flesh. The three are one and yet individual. All for God's glory. The Word was made flesh. This
is above us. Beholding His glory. I can't
imagine, it doesn't change unbelief, it doesn't change our sin nature
from Adam, but being there with Christ and beholding Him and
looking at Him and listening to what He says. Even then, faith
comes by hearing and hearing what He had to say. And I know there are those who
say, well, if they were there, they wouldn't have crucified
Him. If they were there, it would be easier to believe. That's
not how it works. Faith comes by hearing, hearing
by the Word of God. Faith is outside of us. It must
be implanted in us. The Godhead, the mystery of the
Godhead, In that word, in verse 14, the glory as the only begotten
of the Father. That is literally the soul born. The soul born of the Father. There has not been anyone born
of God like this man. He is the soul one. He is the
only begotten of the Father. Full. Complete. The Word is finished. Absolute. Finalized. Accomplished. Perfect. Full of grace and full of truth. We're going to glean just three
things. Christ, the only begotten of
the Father. Christ, full of grace. And Christ,
full of truth. Just a simple outline. The first
thing, let's look at this together. Christ, the only begotten of
the Father. As I said, He is the soul born
of God. Is He to us? Is He to us? There's no other Redeemer. There's
no other man. There's no other name given among
men. Under heaven, whereby we must
be saved. This verses one through five
and this verse, verse 14, it speaks that Christ is divine.
Is he divine to us? This is an important question
because people, they just, and I heard Henry preach a long time
ago, made a comment about the Godhead of Christ, God incarnate
in the flesh. He said, people today, he said,
and this was probably 15 years ago at least, He said, you talk
to them and they're like, what are you talking about? What strange
doctrine? He is divine. Is He to us? When we read this book, we read
it with the anticipation, the expectation, and the wonder and
amazement that it's divine in origin, as Christ is. He is sinless. Is He so and more to us? Because our sins are numerous
and many, and they all deserve hell from birth, from nature
and practice. Christ must be sinless. He must be sinless. Whatever
He is to others, we trust that He put away our sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. Has He become our glorious High
Priest? The One who could take all the
wrath and the punishment and do us, that transfer, the High Priest
putting His hand on the goat's head, on the head of Christ as
a priest after the order of Melchizedek. Is He that to us? God incarnate
in the flesh, the only One in whom truly was no guile, no fault,
are no spot of sin on him. And I made this comment to somebody
years ago and they didn't understand it and they disagreed. If the
moment Christ is literally, became literally a sinner, and I don't
understand all of Corinthians 5.21, I'm not saying that, but
I'm saying as soon as He became sin, He ceased to be my Savior. Think about it first. I'm not saying that Christ did
not substitute. He did not swap places with me.
For He made him to be sin who knew no sin. What I'm saying
is that Christ There's no guile in him. And Daniel says he died
but not for himself. He had no sin. He had to be the
pure, immaculate Son of God or he could take nobody's sin. That's what I'm saying. Now all
this other stuff and all these controversies of years gone by,
I'm not going to get into that because to me, we're finite looking
into the infinite. It's above our pay grade. There
are certain things that God does not owe an explanation to even
us, even His elect. All's I know is that the Son
of God, the immaculate, pure, holy, harmless, undefiled Son
of God took my place. And if you know Him, He took
your place. If you're one of His, He took your place. Somebody said, and I don't like
this term, he was the greatest sinner that ever lived. I don't
agree with that. Again, as soon as he became a
sinner, he ceased to be my substitute. And I need a perfect holy substitute
because all I am is sin. All we are is sin. So I'll just
let that go because again, it's beyond me. Maybe when I word
it, I word it clumsily, forgive me. All's I know is there's one
seated at the right hand of God on my behalf. He was wounded,
smitten, afflicted, bruised of God for the accomplishment of
our iniquities. Has He made us to realize that
He has done for us what we could never do for ourselves, subdue
our will, melt the heart of stone, snapped the chains asunder and
set us free. He had to do that. We could not
do it ourselves. He's the only begotten, the soul
born of God. All man, all God. Has he touched, or turned, excuse
me, has he turned our mourning into laughter? Our desolation
into joy? And has he said to us specifically,
be thou clean, and our leprous condition is gone? If so, praise
his glorious and just name forever. He's the only begotten of the
Father. Secondly, in our text, He is
full of grace. Complete grace. Finished grace. This word, full of grace, it
means there's nothing for us to do to fulfill it. It's like
a cup. You go as high as you can go and you can't go any further.
That's why there's no works in salvation. He's done it all.
There's no room. in this Bible for our works on
the salvation. I'm not saying we don't do good
works after salvation. After that new creature in Christ,
we walk in newness of life is what we saw in Galatians last
week. But there's nothing for us to
do. It's complete. It's finished. We cannot add
anything or cannot take anything away. Leave it alone. Christ
died on the cross. It is Christ that has died. Yea
rather is risen. If Christ is not full of grace,
then we are, of most men, miserable. We are, of most people, miserable.
There's no salvation to be had. He can be the only begotten of
the Father, but if he's not full of grace and full of truth, it's
not going to do us any good. He fetched us with his seeking
and finding grace, like the parable of the 99, That sheep was lost,
wandered. He went and got it, threw it.
Matthew chapter 18, don't turn there. He threw it on his shoulders,
brought it back. That's how bad we are. We've
got to be brought back to the fold. In Samuel chapter 9, Mephibosheth. He was lame on both feet. He
couldn't go anywhere. And David says, is there any
left of the household of Saul? that I may show him the kindness
for Jonathan's sake. Now that's a beautiful picture
of the father and the son. For Christ's sake, he has mercy
on us. And they said, fetch him. And
Maurice Hatton Montgomery always used to talk about fetching grace.
That's what he's talking about. Fetch him. He went and got him.
Brought him. And it says he was at the king's
table continually, feasting. That's what we do. We gather
together here. Someone said, Stu was lame on
both feet, but the feet were under the table. You couldn't
necessarily see him. Until everybody got up and he's
still sitting there. Sin has its effects. And he preps us with the old
timers used to say, prevenient grace. That's grace before conversion. We see that in Psalms 110 verse
3. He'll make his people willing
in the day of his power. The prodigal. He was doing his
own thing, sinning to the max, spent all his money. He's working
with the pigs. And then he came to himself.
Now, why didn't he come to himself before that? God's grace pricked
his heart and opened his eyes. And he said, you know what? My
servants have it better than I have. Servants of my dad, of
my father. Are we, have we been empty before
we've been filled? Things rough before smooth, low
before raised up? Look at the Ethiopian eunuch
in Acts chapter 8, same thing, same thing. Are you talking about, is the
prophet talking about himself or someone else? He's talking
about someone else. We were here not too long ago,
Romans chapter 5, I'll read it to you, verse 20 and 21. Moreover the law entered that
the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. Why? Because Jesus Christ is
full. the zenith of grace, that as
sin hath reign unto death, even so my grace reign through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. If you want to find
grace, go to Christ. Everything God has, I've said
this many times, everything God has for a sinner is found in
Christ. Why? He's the only begotten,
he's divine, and he's full of grace and truth. He who is grace
itself shouts, as we see in Zechariah, grace, grace unto it. And since
there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning in him, what
he does will be forever. Ecclesiastes chapter 3, I know
this, that what God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can
be taken from it. are put to it what a beautiful
phrase of sovereign grace of this one the Lord Jesus Christ
because he is all-powerful he draws and we shall come we shall
be reclaimed we shall be forgiven he's full of grace he's perfect
it's finished He is such a suitable Savior. Nothing lacking, nothing
insufficient, and nothing inadequate. Well, in our text here, go down
a couple verses, it says, and of His fullness have we all received
grace for grace. Struggling? I was sitting there
thinking about this when we were driving down to my mom's and
driving back. There's really no excuse that
a believer has to not seek God in everything, because everything
we deal with is, I'm thinking, man, how do I deal with that?
All of a sudden, James pops up. If any man lacks wisdom, let
him ask God. Who gives to all men liberally
and upbraideth not? I'm thinking, okay, I don't know
how to deal with this situation. I don't know how to deal with
this person or that person. Ask God wisdom. Ask Him for grace. He's made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification. He's made unto us all these things.
So we usually just are dumbfounded or stupefied and we just sit
there and like, oh, our problem, we go to the checkbook, we go
to our brain, our knowledge, our physical strength, all these
things to get us out. But the arm of the strength,
it may work for a little while, but it's not gonna work. It's
not gonna glorify God. We go to Christ because He is
full. I love that phrase, full of grace. Emmanuel, God with us, God for
us, and He is the same today, yesterday, and forever. He doesn't
change. That's something that Melinda
and I have been talking about, His immutability. He doesn't change.
Oh, the Bible, you know, it's old. No, He doesn't change. He
doesn't change. If He's saved by works, He's
going to continue to save by works. If He's saved by grace,
it's grace, grace, grace, to the end of time and then some.
But secondly, our text says here, or thirdly, that not only is
He full of grace, but He's full of truth, unerring, unfailing,
uncompromising truth. And there are churches who would
rather compromise For the sake of love, they say, the truth. No, because mercy and truth,
as I think it's Proverbs, maybe Psalms, says they gotta meet
together in Christ. So Christ is full, perfect truth. Full, complete, perfect. Therefore,
his promises. Now here we go, a little more
application. His promises are always true. God be true to every man a liar.
You can't believe a lot of stuff that you hear. You couldn't believe
it back in the 1700s, the 1600s. There's nothing new under the
sun. But this book, this book, it's got exceeding great precious
promises. And if they're in Christ, all
the promises in Christ are yea and amen. He's the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and complete of truth. Never
has such servants as we are had such an honorable master. Never
has such brothers and sisters as we are had such a near kinsman. Never has such spouse, such a
husband as Christ. Never centered a better savior
and friend than Christ. Never mourner had a better comforter
than Christ. We want and need none other but
Him who loved us at all times, under every circumstance, in
every situation. He is our life, our liberty,
our lily of the valley. He's the bright morning star.
In poverty, He's our riches. In sickness, He makes our bed.
It may not get any better. It may not get any better, but
He'll make our bed. In darkness, He's our light and
He makes us to lie down in green pastures. He's the manna in the
wilderness and He makes both honey and water to flow from
the rock on which we rest. Let me re-read this in closing,
verse 14. 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 full of truth." Again, this
Immaculate One, this Son of the Most High, is to those who believe
all grace and all truth, that means no wrath and no falsehood. no wrath and no falsehood. And
this only begotten of the Father is full of grace and full of
truth. I ask you and I ask myself, is
he so to you and is he so to me? He is, the Bible plainly
declares, is he so to you and is he so to me? God be glorified. Thank you very much.