and makes a contrast. These verses,
the first 18 verses of the book of John, they surely rank as
among the most profound that anybody ever wrote. Who can ever
plumb the depths of these words that the eternal God, the one
who is the source of all life and consciousness and our being
and everything that we see and touch, the one who is the source
of all of these things, the great the awesome, the mysterious God
should become man, that we might know Him, that we might see Him,
that we might see in a person all of those things that are
hidden from the natural man, that are hidden because of sin
we can't see, we can't commune, but in the Lord Jesus Christ
we see the eternal God. These are glorious, glorious
thoughts. These are deep thoughts. This
is food for our souls. This is meat. This is sustenance. We have an immortal soul. We
have a soul that will never die. And we must face our Maker in
judgment. And to know these things in the
Lord Jesus Christ. To know peace with God in Him.
Oh, what a blessing. What a blessing. That the God
who is holy should become man that He might redeem. That He
might buy. That He might pay a price. That's
what redeem means. that he might pay a price for
his people. And who are his people? Revelation
5, 9 tells us. A people out of every tribe and
kindred and tongue in all ages. He has his people. Not just Jews. People in all ages. An innumerable
number. A number that no man can number,
can count. But known to him. A definite
number. Chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
And he came in the person of his Son 2,900 years ago the Word
was made flesh and dwelt among us, and He came that He might
redeem His people. He came to speak the words of
God to us. The Son of God is the Word of
God. John's Gospel begins with that,
in the beginning was the Word. As Genesis begins with, in the
beginning God said, John's Gospel begins with, in the beginning
was the Word. The Word. The Word, capital W. The Word, the second person of
the Trinity. the manifestation of God, the showing, the displaying,
the making known, God. And how can I explain it? Well,
I can't. No man can ever explain these
things, but perhaps this will help you without in any way being
blasphemous. As speech is to thought, you
know, I think something in there, I can't get hold of it, I can't
touch it, but I can mouth it, I can turn it into speech. As
thought becomes speech, So the unknowable God is manifested
in Christ, the Word of God. The unknowable God is manifested
in Him. We cannot see God. Exodus tells
us, various places in the Old Testament tell us, no man can
see God. Verse 18 of this Gospel tells
us, no man has seen God at any time. No man has seen God. God
said to Moses when He asked to see His glory, you cannot see
My face. A sinner cannot, a sinner in
his own sinfulness cannot see the face of the Living God. You
can only see, struggling for words to explain this, but in
Exodus 33, 18 to 23, you can only see the backward parts.
You can't look into the face of the Holy Living God. But John
1, verse 18, no man has seen God at any time but the only
begotten Son. This Word of God which is in
the bosom of the Father, which is part and parcel and of the
same essence and nature as God, He has declared Him. He has announced
Him. He has made Him known. What did
Jesus bring with Him? We saw last week, 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 truth. When He came, when the fullness
of the time was come, Galatians 4 verse 4, when the fullness
of the time was come and God sent forth His Son made of a
woman, made under the law to redeem those who are under the
law, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod
the king, that baby, that person, that man brought with him grace
and truth. The grace and the truth of God. And the disciples and the apostles
and those who believingly were around him, not the Pharisees,
not the religious folks, not the rulers, not the Romans in
general, but those to whom was given that spiritual sight, they
saw it firsthand. They looked on a man. What does
he look like? You know, there's always artists
have been making pictures purporting to be Jesus. Well, of course,
nobody knows. Nobody knows at all. But they looked on a man
that didn't look different to any other man. He didn't have
any particularly holy appearance. To the unbelieving eye, they
just saw somebody who, as Isaiah says, has no comeliness that
we should desire him. But in John's epistle, his first
epistle, in the first verse of his first epistle, he says this,
that which was in the beginning we have heard. We heard him speak. We heard a man speak and this
was the word who was speaking. And we saw him with our eyes. physically we saw him and we
looked upon him and we touched him with our hands we handled
him John sort of rested on rested on Jesus bosom it says at the
last supper at the table he rested upon he lent upon him he handled
him he touched the living God in human form he came and was
seen and was beheld and they saw it full of grace and truth
a man without anything to attract him to other people in terms
of physical appearance, but to enlightened eyes, a man who was
full of the grace and the truth of God. That's what he brought.
That's why we celebrate. I know Christmas has completely
lost its meaning. It's just a materialistic party. It's just society throwing off
the darkness of the northern hemisphere winter and just having
a party for a couple of weeks. but to the believing mind it
is this profound truth that God became a real man a real man
that he might buy us back that he might pay the price of our
sins he might pay our debts under the terms of strict legal justice
and accountancy he might do those things for us we read of John
the Baptist in these verses John the Apostle is speaking of John
the Baptist and in verse 15 it says that John bore witness of
him John's message was Christ. John bore witness of Him and
he cried saying, this is He, this Christ is He, this word
is He, this light of life is He of whom I spoke. He that comes
after me, because he was born after John. John the Baptist
was born six months before Jesus was born. Remember his mother
Elizabeth was pregnant with John the Baptist and when Mary came
to see her to say that she was pregnant with with Jesus the
baby John the Baptist leapt in the womb of his mother Elizabeth
he was he was before him he came before him he came before him
in time but he says this is he of whom I speak he that cometh
after me is born after me is preferred before me is of greater
honor than me for he was before me he was before me this Jesus
was before all what did he say to the Jews You could turn on
eight chapters, John chapter 8 and verse 58. They were talking
to him and they said to him, though he was only 33 years old,
32, 33 years old. They said to him, and this says
how his form was marred and he wasn't looking youthful and holy
with halos around him. They said to him, you're not
yet 50 years old. And he was only 30. Do you know Abraham? and he said before Abraham was
I am the Word of God the name of God before Abraham was he
was before Abraham never mind before John and of his fullness
have we all received you see John the Baptist didn't come
as so many people like to think to reestablish legalistic obedience
to the law of God in order to prepare for Messiah now that
wasn't his message you hear some people and they say That was
the message of John the Baptist, was to get people to morally
rearm themselves, to morally reform themselves. Well, yes,
there was an element of moral reformation in it, of moral preparation,
but that wasn't the message of John the Baptist. Look in verse
7. Verse 6, there was a man sent from God whose name was John,
John the Baptist. The same came for a witness,
to bear witness of the light that all men might believe in
him. The message of John the Baptist was Christ. was Christ
the Lord, was God the Messiah coming to save his people from
this. That was the message of John the Baptist. It wasn't you
need to start obeying law, though no doubt there was moral transformation,
there was repentance involved, there was a baptism of repentance
that was involved, but his message was the Christ who was coming
to pay for the sins of his people. That's it. That's what he came.
He was the voice, Isaiah 40 and verse 3, the voice of one crying
in the wilderness saying, prepare the way of the Lord. Get ready,
the Messiah is coming to redeem his people. He came with that
message and we have no other message. What do you do for your
children? We preach Christ to them. What
do you do for this group? We preach Christ to them. What
sort of outings do you go on? Well, we do social things together,
but we preach Christ. That's the message that we have.
We have no other message because it's only in Christ do we find
what we need to be right with God. And what do we need to be
right with God? We need the grace and the truth
that is in Him alone. That's why we preach Him. That's
why the message of this book is Him from cover to cover. We
have no other message than Christ and the grace and the truth that
is in Him and the fullness that is in Him. Look in verse 16,
of His fullness have all we received and grace for grace of the fullness
of Christ have we all received what is this fullness of Christ
that we have all received and who are the all that have received
it well let's deal with the all first the all are his believing
people all of his believing people without exception if you're in
Christ you have this fullness that is in Christ but what is
this fullness it's all of the gracious attributes of God All
of the gracious attributes of the unknowable God are in Christ. And if you're a believer, if
you're in Him, then you have these things because they are
in Him. And you have them in Him. You know God's person in
Him. As He said to Philip, when Philip
said, Show us the Father. I want to know God. Philip, have
I been so long with you? And yet you have not known me.
He who has seen me has seen the Father. In Christ we see the
person of God. We see the grace of God. That
absolutely selfless giving that is in God. The grace of God.
The life of God. Because He is the light of life.
He is the source of life. He is the very essence of life. The mercy that is in God. The
fullness of it is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Peace with God
is only in the Lord Jesus Christ. For how can a God who is holy
look upon those who are sinners except in His Son? the Lord Jesus
Christ by whom he has made peace through the blood of his cross
that's what his word says Colossians and chapter 1 verse 19 says that
it pleased the Father God the Father that in Christ should
all fullness dwell that all the attributes of the living God
should be manifested to us in the Lord Jesus Christ in him
he says in chapter 2 of Colossians and verse 9 For in Him dwelt
the fullness of the Godhead bodily. How can anybody deny that Christ
is indeed God? The fullness of the Godhead,
the power, the grace, the mercy, the peace of God, in Him, in
a bodily form. This is a mystery. Great is the
mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
Who can understand it? we can't understand it but the
spirit gives us the grace and the faith to believe the truth
of it that in Christ dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily
and then in verse 17 we see this contrast this tremendous contrast
that there is he says for the law was given by Moses but grace
and truth came by Jesus Christ law given by Moses The law was
given to Moses. The law of God was written in
the heart of Adam at creation. The moral requirements of God
were written there and the law was laid down, perfect obedience. And the soul that sins, it shall
die. And in the day that you eat thereof,
you shall surely die. That's where it was written.
The law of God was given and written there. It was written
in the heart of Adam at creation. and of course society went on
and became more and more sinful and God judged the world and
he flooded the world and he destroyed that creation apart from eight
souls who were in the ark and so it went on and then it came
to the time of Moses and the law was so forgotten and was
so corrupted in the heart of man that God gave it written
on tablets of stone with the finger of God he gave that that
absolute standard of what he required and that was given to
Moses for man and through the writings of Moses and the books
of Moses that law was given for man that we might know what it
is that the God of the universe requires it defines the absolutely
righteous demands of God for mankind but grace and truth were
given by Jesus Christ grace and truth weren't given to him grace
and truth were already in him they were his very attributes
He had grace and truth. He was grace and truth. Grace
and truth came to us by Him. The law of God given by Moses
defined the righteous demands of God. And what are those righteous
demands? You see, don't think for one
moment that we're saying that the law is bad. Not at all. The
law is good. The law of God is good. The law
of God is the perfect demand of God. To be right with Him,
this is what must be done. Paul, when he's writing to the
Romans, says in chapter 7, he consents to the law of God that
it is good. There's no suggestion that the
law is bad. The law is good. But the law
is very, very strict in its penalty. The law is very inflexible in
its penalty. It cannot yield at all. The soul
that sins, it shall die. The soul that sins, it shall
die. Cursed is everyone that does not continue this is Galatians
3.10 quoting Deuteronomy cursed is everyone everyone that does
not continue that means go on continuing that means minute
by minute continuing absolutely go on continuing in all things
that are written in the book of the law to do them everything
so you know you can you can keep keep keep keep keep and just
failing one point says James you're just failing one point
and you're guilty of all As far as the law's judgment is concerned,
you're guilty. You're a lawbreaker. And the
penalty is death. Law can never justify a sinner. The law just can tell us what
God justly demands. It can never justify a sinner.
Not even a little sinner, if there is such a thing. Not even
one who has only broken a little bit of the law can never justify.
The law can never answer Job's question. You know Job's question?
How can a man be just with God? This is it. Job chapter 9 verse
2. How can a man be just with God? Not by the law. For we're
all condemned. For all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God. All are sinners under the law
of God. All of us. The law is terrifying. Look at, we could look at Exodus
chapter 20 but let's turn where it's quoted in Hebrews chapter
12. What we read right at the start. You've got it on the back
of the the bulletin Hebrews chapter 12 verses 18 to 21 it's terrifying
the law was terrifying you are not come to the mount that might
be touched this is Mount Sinai where the law was given and that
burned with fire nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest and
the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words which voice they
that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to
them anymore you could see that in Exodus chapter 20 at the end
of the giving of the Ten Commandments the people say please don't let
God speak to us speak through Moses but don't let God speak
to us it's too terrifying we cannot bear it it's absolutely
terrifying they could not endure that which was commanded and
this was what was commanded if so much as a beast touch the
mountain never mind a person it shall be stoned even a beast
that has no consciousness of right or wrong it shall be stoned
or thrust through with a dart so terrible was the sight that
Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake the law is terrifying
to whom is it terrifying you see some people think it's a
wonderful glorious thing look at Galatians chapter 4 Galatians
chapter 4 and verse 21 where Paul's talking about those that
are trying to bring believers back under the yoke of bondage
of the law of legal responsibility for themselves of personal responsibility
to the law and he says in verse 21 of chapter 4 tell me you that
desire to be under the law you that desire to put everybody
under the law do you not hear the law? surely you can't be
hearing it right you couldn't possibly desire to be under it
and put everybody under it, if you could hear it properly. It's
too terrifying. It's absolutely too strict. You
cannot bear it. You cannot stand it. How on earth
do you want to put people under that law? Don't you hear what
it's really saying? This is what Paul's saying at
that point. You see, the law shows us God's holiness. It shows
us His justice. These are great characteristics
of God. God is holy. God is holy. Don't ever think that the God
of the universe is not absolutely pure and morally holy in all
of his ways. But that's not the whole character
of God. The whole character of God is not summed up in the fact
that he's a God of holiness and of justice. Oh, he is a God of
holiness. He is a God of justice. If he
were not just, he would fail, he would cease to be God. But
that's not his whole character. You see, the law doesn't show
us the love of God, but the Bible tells us God is love. The law
doesn't show us the grace of God, how merciful He is, the
mercy of God. It doesn't show us those things.
The law doesn't show us what we read in Psalm 130, how He
delights in mercy and how He's put the sins of His people as
far as the East is from the West, so far has He separated our sins
from us. It doesn't show us that. That's
not the law that came by Moses, doesn't show us that. It just
shows us that strict, strict holiness and justice of God. What is the law for? By the law,
says Romans 3 verse 20, by the law is the knowledge of sin.
That's how we know what sin is. The purpose of the law is that
we might know what sin is. It's the knowledge of sin that
comes by the law, not the knowledge of God. Not the knowledge of
God. The people were terrified when
they heard the law. But in this verse 17, the law
was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Grace and truth came in Him. These two things are inseparable. Grace and truth. Note it isn't
just grace that came by Christ. It's grace and truth. Grace and
truth. You can't separate them. You
see you can only have grace truly if it comes with sovereign grace
and particular redemption. If it comes with the electing
will of God to save a particular people chosen in Christ from
before the foundation of the world. There's no grace outside
of that. People say, oh, I love the grace
of God that it's open to all. No, the grace of God is for His
people. The grace of God is for His people
in Christ. You cannot separate the grace
of God from the truth of God. They go together. that you cannot
separate, but so many people try to separate them and dilute
the gospel and have the grace without the particular redemption.
You can't. The two go together. It's only
really grace if it accomplishes the salvation of a specific people. Because a grace that's an open
invitation accomplishes the salvation of absolutely nobody and is therefore
not grace. It's only grace if it's combined
with the truth of sovereign grace, of the electing grace of God.
and the particular redemption that is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And this is another thing. What is grace and truth? So many
people portray it as sentimental compromise. You know, like we
might sentimentally compromise. We're weak. We might sentimentally
compromise about a strict point of law. Oh, let's just... How
on earth would society work? How would business work? How
would families get on if we didn't sentimentally compromise from
time to time? You have to do it. It's what
makes society work. But in the justice of God there
is no space for sentimental compromise. And grace and truth is not how
God sentimentally compromises his law and his justice. It doesn't
happen. How does he do it then? Turn
to Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3 this clearest
of all summaries of the gospel of sovereign grace and of substitution
verse 23 for all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God all his people have sinned and come short of the glory of
God but they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus through the substitution repayment of
a perfect substitute of another whom God set forth, verse 25,
to be a propitiation that's a mercy seat that's a turning away of
anger that's in the situation where there is sin and anger
for sin the propitiation is the turning away of anger through
faith in his blood only by blood only by that payment was that
propitiation accomplished through faith in His blood, to declare
His righteousness for the remission of the sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God." Now, I'll just interject here that
if you ever get confused as if it's the gospel is only for sins
that you committed before you believed it, because of those
words sins that are passed, if you compare it with Hebrews chapter
9 and verse 15, there's no need to turn it up now, but if you
compare it with that, Hebrews 9.15 talks about sins committed
under the First Testament. What was the First Testament?
The first covenant, the covenant of law. The sins committed against
the law of God. These sins are all the sins committed
against the law of God. His righteousness for the remission
of the sins that are committed under the old covenant of law,
of works through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at
this time, His righteousness that He might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. God remains just, but
yet he justifies those whose faith is in Jesus, who believe
in him. You see, it isn't sentimental
compromise. God establishes, God maintains his justice through
a substitute, through an infinite substitute, through the only
one who is capable of being the substitute sinners the one who
was the substitute of sinners before the foundation of the
world for in Revelation 13 and verse 8 he is the lamb slain
from the foundation of the world he's always been the lamb slain
from the foundation of the world and when looking at the end when
John looks at that's when he sees a lamb as it had been slain
and then he sees a lion of the tribe of Judah he sees all of
these things but it speaks of the sin debt that is paid in
full paid in full by our substitute so that He can be just so that
He can remain the just God who in no wise can overlook sin who
in no wise can clear the guilty not at all He doesn't clear the
guilty He punishes the guilty in His Son He pays the price
of justice in His Son and therefore He is just and the justifier
of those who are in the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore in
this way look at verse 31 of Romans chapter 3 Does this make
the law void? Does it remove it? Do we then
make the law void through faith? God forbid. Yea, we establish
the law. It's only in the work of the
substitute, the Word become flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ, that the
law of God is truly established. For he kept it perfectly, so
that God said, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
In the bulletin, I quoted from Henry in his commentary on this,
where he says this, contrasting the law that came by Moses and
the grace and the truth that is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Henry says, the law shows the sin that is in man, but grace
shows the love that is in God. The law demands righteousness
from men But grace brings righteousness to men. It doesn't make the law
void through faith. It establishes it. It brings
righteousness to sinners and declares us to be righteous.
Righteousness that is imputed, credited to our account by the
Lord Jesus Christ. Righteousness that is a righteous
nature that is imparted by the new birth. Yes, there's still
an old man who sins every day and if we say we have no sin
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But he plants
a new man in, who cannot sin. Otherwise, John's epistle, first
epistle, is a great contradiction, where he says, if we say we have
no sin, we deceive ourselves, and then he says that the new
man cannot sin. There's the two natures in the
one man. He does this. This is what's
accomplished. He brings righteousness by his
grace to men. The law sentences men to death. This is justice. This is holiness. This is righteousness. The law
sentences men to death. It doesn't sweep it under the
carpet, but grace brings the spiritually dead to life. There's
life in the grace of God that came through the Lord Jesus Christ.
The law speaks of what man must do. Do this and you shall live. The rich young ruler who came
to Jesus, what must I do that I might have eternal life? You
know the law. Do all these things and you shall live. You know
those things. These things have I done from my birth. Right,
well what about this one? Ah, he went away sorrowful. No,
the law only speaks what man must do. But grace, grace tells
what Christ has done for sinners. Grace tells us what Christ has
already accomplished. The law gives the knowledge of
sin, Romans 3.20. But grace, grace puts away sin. Romans 6.14 says this, You are
not under law, but under grace. Are you not glad? Are you not
delighted that you are not under law? If you're in Christ, you
are not in that terrifying place. If you're in Christ, you are
not standing before that terrifying mountain that's smoking, that
has such strict legal justice around. You're in Christ where
justice, that strict legal justice has been accomplished. And so
we say that mercy and peace and truth and justice are all met
together in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the cross of Christ. We're
not under law, but we're under grace. Oh, bless God for this,
that we're under the grace of God. Exodus 33 and verse 23. We're only there when Moses asked
to see the glory of God. He was told that he couldn't
see the face of God. Just turn it up, Exodus 33. He
says, You cannot see my face. I beseech you, verse 18, show
me your glory. And he said, I will make all
my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before you, and will be gracious to whom I will be
gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And
he said, You can't see my face. There shall no man see me and
live. Not one. and the Lord said behold
there is a place by me and you shall stand upon a rock and it
shall come to pass while my glory passes by that I will put you
in the cleft of the rock the break the gap in the rock and
I will cover you with my hand while I pass by and I will take
away mine hand and you shall see my back parts but my face
shall not be seen this is speaking of the sinner who cannot see
the face of the living God but you know in 2nd Corinthians chapter
4 verse 6 Paul says this Paul says that that glory of God if
you want to see it it's seen in the face of Jesus Christ God
who caused light to shine out of the darkness has caused his
light to shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and so John says
this no man has seen God at any time. The Old Testament patriarchs,
the parents of Samson, who were terrified, they said, we've seen
God, therefore we must die. It's all up for us. We've seen
God, therefore we must die, because that was the law. No man can
see God and live. No man has seen God at any time,
but the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father,
He hath declared Him. The light of the knowledge of
the glory of God is seen. in the face of Jesus Christ.
When he came into the world, when the Word became flesh, what
did he bring? He brought grace and truth. All
that we need to approach God. What a cause for praise, for
worship, for service, for the bearing of fruit. Not the whip
of the law, but the grace and truth that is in the Lord Jesus
Christ.