I invite your attention to the
gospel according to John chapter 1. The gospel according to John
chapter 1. My text will be found in verses
11 through 13. My message is titled, Christ
Rejected. and received by men. But before we read our text in
verses 11, 12, and 13, I need to begin at verse number
one. And if you do not have a Bible, there are Bibles on that table
on the back, and help yourself to them. The black-covered Bibles,
help yourself to them. You can follow along with us. John's Gospel chapter one and
in verse number one. We read, in the beginning. What beginning? The beginning. The beginning of beginnings.
The beginning of all things. In the beginning, when Everything
that came into existence began, we read, was the Word. Already here, or I should say
already there. In the beginning, already was the Word. He existed before
all things else were made. He was in existence when everything
else began. Huh. He must be eternal. He is. He is eternal. He existed in old eternity, in
eternity past. When this world came into existence,
He already was here. In fact, he brought this all
into existence. In the beginning was the word. What is a word? A word is a vehicle
of communication. I've got something on my mind
right now. In fact, I have something in
my heart that I want you to know. Can you tell me what it is? You say, no, we cannot read your
mind. Speak some words to describe
it. That's what a word does. You're
going to know what's on my mind and in my heart by the words
that I speak. I can tell you what's on my mind
and in my heart. How do I do it? I use words.
These are vehicles of communication. In the beginning was the word. It's a person. It's a person. The word. God's got something on his mind. and in His heart. And He wants
us to know what it is. Can you read God's mind? No. God will have to let you know
what's on His mind. How will He do it? He does it
with His Word. Who is His Word? It's Jesus Christ. If you want to know what's on
God's mind, And what's in God's heart? Listen to Jesus Christ. He not only speaks the words,
He is the Word. If you look at Jesus Christ and
if you see Him, you're going to see what God is thinking.
You're going to see what is on God's mind. In the beginning
was the Word. And the Word was with God. Huh. There were two persons in existence before the world came into creation.
Two persons. There's one called the Word,
and he was with God, the second person. There's a third person
there too, but we don't need to talk about him today. You
know who he is, I'm sure. Anyway, it's the Holy Spirit.
But the emphasis here is that in the beginning, already in
existence was the Word, and the Word was with God. That word with is a Greek pronoun
pros, and it means face-to-face. And it means that the Word and
His Father were like this, as close together as they could
be. The Word was face to face in
sweet communion with God. Are you with me thus far? You
don't have a problem with anything I've said thus far, have you?
Okay. Does this give you a problem?
And the word was God. Anybody got a problem with that? Oh, there's a lot of people got
a problem with that. Lot of people. They come to your neighborhood
with their parasols and briefcases and want to come talk to you.
Ask them about this verse. Ask him, does it say, in the
beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word
was God? No, that's not what it says.
Folks, you just read it. Did you not? Did you not just
read it? They're gonna say, no, no, no.
It means, don't tell me what it means. I can read what it
says. It says what it means. No, no, no, they say. The Word
was a God. Oh. So the word was not God. He was a God with God. Folks, that begs a question. That begs a question. Just how
many gods do you have? I mean, if there is a God and
another God with God, how many gods do you have? You don't believe
there's only one. Because you say the Word was
a God with God. That's more than one God. Listen,
folks. It means what it says. In the
beginning, this One called the Word was with God, and He was
God, and there's only one God. Now, preacher, I don't understand
that. God does. God does. The Word does. And He came into
the world to tell us these things. He was in the beginning. Just
in case you did not catch it the first time. It's repeated. He was in the beginning with
God. Who was? The Word was. The Word who was
God, was with God. All things were made through
Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. Some people say, well, Jesus Christ is not God because
He was created. Really? He was created. Yep. They say the Bible says
he was the first creation of God. Really? That's what they
say. That's what they say. So God created Jesus Christ. Yes. Yes. Did Jesus Christ create himself? Oh no, that's impossible. That's
impossible. That's true. And yet, what did
you read? All things were made through
or by Him. Without Him, nothing was made
that was made. Everything you see, these mountains, these oceans,
trees, the grass, the rocks, everything you see, Jesus Christ
made it. He is the Word. All things were
made by him, without him or apart from him. Nothing, absolutely
nothing was made. All right, now I have taken you
now to eternity past, when there was in existence from eternity
and eternally the word who was God with God. I have brought
you to the creation when the word, the divine word, the eternal
word made the heavens and the earth. All things were made by
him. Now we're going to skip a few
thousand years and we're going to go back to a point in time
about 2,000 years ago. And you'll read about this In verse number 14. And the Word became flesh. Now do you understand that? That's
easy to understand. It really is. The Word. Who is God? That means He does
not have a body. God does not have a body. God
has no bone, no sinew, no skin, no muscle. He has none of those
things because he's spirit, pure spirit. The Word was God with God. The Word was pure spirit, divine
just like his Father. He's going to come into the world.
And the Word became flesh. Became flesh. What does that
mean? By the miracle of His incarnation. Paul says God was manifested
in the flesh. That is stupendous. That's beyond
my comprehension. And when I say stupendous, it
has nothing to do with stupid. It simply means it's marvelous. It's awesome that in one moment,
this One who is the Word is pure Spirit, And in the next moment, he's in his mother's womb. Just
like you were. And the word became flesh. God was manifested in the flesh. Flesh! Had skin like ours, muscles,
sinew, blood, bone, In fact, he looked so much like
everybody else. There was nothing about him that
made you say, there walks God. Notice in verse number 10. He
was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world
did not know him. God manifested in the flesh, could walk into a synagogue and sit down with the rest of
the people, and they did not know that was God sitting there.
They did not know. The world did not recognize him.
God is walking on this earth, manifested in the flesh, And they do not know it. They
do not know who He is. He just looks like another person.
That's our Lord. That's our Lord, Jesus Christ. He dwelt among us. By the way, why should God want
to live with us anyway? Sinners? Wicked? Evil? Why would he want to live
with us? That's the kind of people he
loves. He came to save that kind of people. And we beheld his
glory. Not everybody, not everybody,
but some did. Who beheld his glory? Only those
to whom he revealed himself. We beheld his glory. The glory
is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The glory is of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. When he revealed himself to men,
they realized who he is. He had to reveal himself or they
never would know. We have a veil over our faces,
over our eyes. We're spiritually blind. We can't see. You know, we can
see him, You know, but as to who He is, there's a veil on
our eyes. He must reveal Himself before
we can see Him and know who He is. John says, we beheld Him. Who beheld Him? Those to whom
He revealed Himself. Unless Jesus Christ reveals Himself
to you, you'll never understand Him. By the way, You do know,
do you not, that the last book in the Bible is called the Revelation
of Jesus Christ. People say, I read that book
and I don't understand it. I'm not surprised. You will not
understand that book unless Christ reveals it to you. It's His revelation. But if you ever see Christ and
He's in the book, look for Him in that book. You'll understand
that book. He's in there all the way through. And He reveals the book. And
so that when children of God read this book, we say, now it
makes sense. I've heard my wife say that many
occasions. As we studied the book of Revelation
on Tuesday nights, I've heard my wife on many occasions, after
the lesson, or maybe a day or two after the lesson, say, you
know what? I never understood that before. But now, it's being
revealed. We beheld His glory. When men
look at Jesus Christ, when sinners look at Jesus Christ, when He
is beheld by the wicked and evil people, what do they see? Nothing,
but that man looks very attractive to me. Especially when they behold him
on the tree, mangled, bruised, beaten, whipped. That's what the world sees. When
we look at him, what do we see? When Christ is revealed to him,
what do you say? I did not know you were so glorious. We beheld His glory. The glory
as of the only begotten of the Father. The only Son, the only
begotten Son, the Father has. You say, when was He born? Jehovah
told us. In Psalm number 2, He said, This
day I have begotten you. What was that day? That was in
eternity. Which means, there never was
a time when He came into existence. He has always been God's only
begotten Son, but He always has been God's Son. Or else, there
was a time when The father was not the father. You cannot be
a father without having a son or a daughter. You must have
one begotten. There always has been God the
father. And there always has been God
the son. And he is God's only begotten
son. In Proverbs 8, Jesus Christ speaks
as the divine wisdom. And he speaks of what it was
like before the foundation of the world, before the world was
created. And he says, I was daily his delight. Daily his delight. It's like a little child. A little
child, they're so delightful. I just got to spend some time
with my grandchildren, my grandson, my granddaughter, have one of
each. And from the time, from the first time I saw them, I
was delighted with everything they did and everything they
said. Just loved to be in their presence. That was the relationship between
the father and the son before the foundation of the world.
I was daily his delight. Now, We beheld his glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father. You ever heard the expression,
like father, like son? Sometimes you can tell, sometimes
you can tell Who the father of a boy is by
the way the boy acts. He acts just like his father.
That can be good and that can be bad. We beheld his glory. What kind of glory? The glory
as of the only begotten of the father. Do you want to know what
God the father is like? Look at Christ. He's just like
him. He's just like his father. Jesus talks like his father.
walks like His Father, acts like His Father. The Only Begotten
has the glory of His Father. If you want to see the glory
of God the Father, look at Jesus Christ. He shows it. The glory
as of the Only Begotten of the Father, notice this, full of
grace and truth. Full of grace and truth. What's grace? Can mean a number
of things. Can mean beauty of form and beauty
of movement. You may look at, you may look
at a beautiful woman and you say, she's got grace. And she
acts gracefully. But it can also mean something
else. It can mean unmerited favor. Man, I love that definition. I'm glad there is unmerited favor. People say, some people say,
I want God to give me what I deserve.
Oh God, never give me what I deserve. Never give me what I deserve.
If God gives me what I deserve, I'm going to hell right now.
That's what I deserve. Oh God, give me what I do not
deserve. I want unmerited favor. And here
comes Jesus and he's full of it. He's full of it. Jesus comes into this world.
And the Father says, here son, here's my favor, here are my
blessings, you take them into the world and give them away.
And here comes Jesus into the world, and He's full of grace,
full of unmerited favor. And I'm so glad, because if I
am ever to be saved, I need every bit of it. I need every grace that He can
give unto me. And you're just as bad a sinner
as I am. Are you not admitted? Be truthful.
Are you glad he's full of grace and truth? Some people say, well,
you know, I kind of think I'm good myself. Then you don't need
him, do you? If you think there's any goodness
in you, you don't need Christ. In fact, he might need you, you
might think, if you think you don't need him. No, no, no. When Jesus comes to me, I want
Him to bring every grace He's got because I need them all.
And He's full of it. Full of grace and full of truth. Full of truth. Full of truth. Did He not say, I am the way,
the truth? Not only is He true, not only
is He truthful, He is the truth. And in Him there is no lie. You may say, well now, Pastor,
are you a... When you speak, are you true?
I try to be. I try to be. But even the most truthful person
I know tells lies, sometimes without knowing it, especially
when somebody told you a lie and you repeat it to someone
else. You told a lie, although you thought you were speaking
truth, he never did so. He's full of truth. Every word
he spoke, every word he spoke. When I was a wee lad, My mother
could always spot me telling a lie. Of course, I have difficulty
telling a lie with a straight face. And we know when I lie, I have to
smile. I'm sorry, I can't help it. Of
course, you say, well, you're smiling now. Yeah, but I'm not
lying. Really, I'm not. But my mother could spot it every
time. Son, did you do this? No, no, no, no mama, I didn't
do that. You're lying again, alright?
He never told a lie. He never told a lie. I cannot
comprehend that. I sometimes tell lies when I
don't want to. In repeating things that are
not true. He never told a lie. He's full of truth. Well, I am
so glad. Because I am so full of falsehood,
I need every bit of truth I can get. And He's got it all. He
has it all. I'm not going to finish this
message today. Because I have not even gotten to the text yet.
But I'm going to take you there now. And then we'll close and
finish up next week, God willing. All right. Look in verse 10. He was in the world, and the
world was made by Him through Him, and the world did not recognize
Him. But it goes further than that.
Look in verse number 11. He came to His own countrymen. I tell you right now, folks, they were looking for Him. He
was prophesied. He came to them, and His own did not receive Him. What could be worse? for me than for me to go see my wife. And she say, don't want you around
anymore. It's devastating. Go see my children. And they say, we don't want you
around anymore. Can you imagine? What is more
devastating than your own kith and kin, your relatives, your
family, your siblings? That happened to Him. He came
to His own and they did not receive Him. Why did they not receive
Him? I mean, He's full of glory. He's full of grace. He's full
of truth. He's full of salvation. He's
full of everything you need. Why would you not want Him? Why
did they not receive Him? Because they rejected Him. They
rejected Him. Well, I would not leave you on
such a sad note as that. Look in verse number 12. but
as many as received Him." Some did. Some did. As many as received Him. You
know what He did for them? He gave to them the right to
become children of God. God's only begotten Son came to those who received Him
and said, I'm going to make you God's children too. Who are they? To those who believe
in His name. How do you receive Christ? Believing
in Him. Who were born? They were born. Born again. Because they were
born the first time. And then they either rejected
or received him after they were born. And if they received him,
it is because they were born the second time. And it was not
of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but born of God. And that My friend is the gospel. You will either reject it or
receive it. There's no middle ground. There's
no middle ground. You cannot look at Christ without
having an opinion. I preach the gospel today. You
will either believe it or disbelieve it. You will either receive Him
or reject Him. And I hope and pray that before
you walk out that door, you'll say, I'm one of those as many
as received Him. I believe Him. I believe He is
the eternal divine Word. I believe He was with God and
was God even from eternity. I believe that He created all
things and that He Himself is not a creature made by someone
else. I believe that He came into this
world as God manifested in the flesh. I believe that He revealed
His glory and I believe I have seen His glory. I know that He's
the only begotten of the Father. I know He's full of grace and
He's full of truth and I need every bit of it. And I believe
that and I want it. and I will receive it, and if
He will, He'll give it. Now, were you rejecting or receiving? O God, our Father, bless, we
pray this word to the glory of your Son, and though may none
of us here today be one who rejects your Son, Let all of us be found
among those who receive him, for whom he is and what he is,
gladly and with great welcome. To your glory in Jesus' name
we pray. Amen.