Some hymns you just need to sing
standing up to get more air, more volume. If you will, let's
open our Bibles this evening to John, the Gospel of John chapter
1. It's good to see each one of
you here tonight. I appreciate so much your faithfulness
in attending the worship services. Two weeks ago tonight, we looked
at the first 14 verses in this chapter, and I mentioned the
fact that the Apostle John was a very aged man when he wrote
the gospel. We believe it's the last of the
four gospels which were written. And he tells in these first 14
verses that we looked at of the birth of the Lord Jesus. And he does so in five words. The Word was made flesh. We saw that in verse 14. The Word was made flesh. Now, we refer to this as his
incarnation. The Word Flesh is carine in Spanish,
and I know that comes from the Latin. So that's where that term
comes from, His incarnation, when the Word, the eternal Word,
became flesh. And we looked at four truths. Who was made flesh? First of
all, the Word. the word that was in the beginning
with God and is God. And then secondly, how was he
made flesh? He took into union with his person,
that body that was prepared him from the Virgin Mary by God the
Holy Spirit. We believe in the virgin birth
of our Savior, that God the Holy Spirit came upon her And the
angel told Mary, that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall
be called the Son of God. And then the third thing we looked
at was why. Why was he made flesh? He came
into this world to do the Father's will, to save his sheep, those
who were given to him in old eternity. And the last thing,
what He being made flesh means to us. And I close by bringing
the words of this hymn which Isaac Watts wrote. Till God and
human flesh I see, my thoughts no comfort find. The holy, just,
and sacred three are terrors to my mind. But if Emmanuel's
face appear, My hope, my joy begins. His name forbids my slavish
fear. His grace removes my sins. While some on their works rely,
and some of wisdom boast, I love the incarnate deity. And there I fixed my trust."
I love those words. And until a person sees God in
human flesh. You will never have any real
peace and assurance until you see that this one who we trust
in, the one that we believe in, who put away our sins and reconciled
us unto God, that he is God in flesh. Now, in the verses that
we looked at last time, these first 14 verses, the apostle
John mentioned a man by the name of John. If you notice in verse
6, he said, there was a man sent from God whose name was John.
John writes about John. This older man by the name of
John writes about a man named John who had died, actually had
been killed by a king, been decapitated by a king many, many years before. And he tells us that this man
sent from God, his name was John. And then he tells us that he
came, that God sent this man to bear witness. Notice that
in verse 7. The same came for a witness,
to bear witness of the light that all men through him might
believe. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
light of the world. But think about this, how blind,
how dark must we be because of our sin, because of the sinful
nature that we received from our father Adam, that we need
someone to testify to us and witness to us of the light. If I had a flashlight here tonight
and I turned it on and shined it out, I wouldn't need to say,
here's the light. Here's the light. See the light? You would all know. You would
all see. It's the light. But a person
who's blind, he needs someone to tell him, here's the light,
the light of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, John says
that he came to bear witness. He came to bear witness of the
light. It looks to me that in the remainder
of the chapter, that the apostle John divides the witness that
John the Baptist gave into these four times. I want you to notice
in verse 15, John bare witness of him and
cried, saying. This is one time that he gave
witness of Christ. And then look down to verse 19.
And this is the record of John when the Jews sent priests and
Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? That's the
second time that he gave witness to Christ. And then down in verse
29, Verse 29, the next day John seeth
Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world. That's his third witness that
the Apostle John tells us of in this chapter. And then in
verse 35, again the next day, the next day. after John stood, and two of
his disciples. And looking upon Jesus as he
walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God. Now tonight, we're
only going to look at this first witness that John the Baptist
bore to the Lord Jesus Christ, found in verses 15 through 18.
John bear witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of
whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before
me, for he was before me. And of his fullness have all
we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses,
and grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at
any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. You notice the text begins, John
bear witness of him and cried, cried. He lifted up his voice.
Remember that prophecy in Isaiah chapter 40 of Jehovah who was
coming, but before his coming there would be another one coming
who would be a voice crying in the wilderness. And so John begins
his ministry crying. And first of all, we notice that
he bears witness to Christ, the dignity of his person. The dignity
of his person. John says, this is he. This was he of whom I speak.
He that cometh after me is preferred before me because he was before
me. Now, from the beginning of John's
ministry, he just appears on the scene. And he was made manifest
to the nation of Israel, preaching out in the desert areas. And
from the very beginning of his ministry, he said this, There
cometh one, there cometh one mightier than I after me. The lachet of whose shoes I am
not worthy to stoop down and unloose. That had been his witness
from the very beginning of his ministry. He told people, there's
coming one. In fact, he stands among you.
And his person is so great, I want you to know that I'm not worthy
to even bend down and unloose one of his sandals. He's so much
greater, so much higher in dignity, his person, than I am. The Lord Jesus came to be baptized
of him. So some might think that John
was to be preferred before Christ. That's not so. John's witness
was, he came after me as to the time of his birth. I was born
about six months. I'm speaking as John. I was born
about six months before he was born. He came after me as to
his birth. He came after me as to beginning
his public ministry. John began preaching first and
then sometime later the Lord Jesus Christ came to be baptized
of him. I believe it was six months later.
You might think, John says, that I'm to be preferred to him, because
I was born before he was born. I began my ministry before he
began preaching. He came after me, that's true,
but he's preferred before me. This was he of whom I spake,
he that cometh after me is preferred before me. Yes, I baptized him. Some might get the idea that
the one who did the baptizing was to be preferred above the
one being baptized. Not so. Not so, says John. He that cometh after me is preferred
before me. Now listen, for he was before
me. All of those things that I've
mentioned were true. John was born before the Lord
Jesus Christ came into this world. John began his ministry before
the Lord Jesus began his ministry. John baptized the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's all true. But John witnessed
to the dignity of his person. He is preferred before me far
because He was before me. He is the Word that was made
flesh. He is God before all things,
for all things that are were created by him. John witnessed
that he was before him as the eternal Son of God, who in the
fullness of the The Apostle Paul tells us, was come made of a
woman. He that was born after me, he
that cometh after me, is preferred before me, for he was before
me. He was before all things. If
you look back to verse 3, all things were made by him. And
without him was not anything made that was made. So first
of all, John bear witness to the dignity of his person. Now
second, John bear witness to Christ's fullness of grace, verse
16. And of his fullness have all
we received, and grace for grace. John witnessed of his fullness
And he testified to the fact that all men, because he includes
himself when he says we, and of his fullness have all we received. He testifies of his fullness
and in doing so, he testifies to the fact that all men, even
including his servants, are in ourselves empty. Empty of anything
that is good. Remember, in Romans chapter 3, the apostle wrote, and he's quoting
from an Old Testament text, there's none that doeth good, no, not
one. Now, a person might say, there's
none that does good. And someone might say, well,
I know someone. I know someone that does good.
No, not one. Now, that's a hard pill to swallow,
isn't it? That's a hard pill for us to
swallow. But our Lord said, there's none
good but God. I know we compare ourselves with
other people, and other people compare themselves with other
people, and one may be good compared to that person, but good, that
word good, is actually just a long form of God. God is good. There's none good but one. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. John says, of his fullness have
we all received, and grace for grace. Of his fullness, well
the scripture says, in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. And then We read when he became
incarnate that God the Holy Spirit was given unto him without measure. Now all through the scriptures,
all through the scriptures, sinners, you and I, that's what we are
by nature, sinners, all through the scriptures, sinners are exhorted
encouraged, invited to look to him as needy, as having nothing
to contribute. Now that's the way we are exhorted
and encouraged and invited to come to Christ as needy, as having
nothing. Of his fullness have we all received. Remember our Lord was in the
home of that man who was a Pharisee. And our Lord told the parable
to that man. And he told of two men, one owed
50 pence and one owed 500 pence. And then our Lord said this.
Now that's a big difference. A tenth, the man that owed 50
pence, a tenth of what the man owed who owed 500 pence. Big
difference, isn't it? But if you don't have anything
to pay, if it's 50,000 pence, or if it's one pence, if you
have nothing to pay, you can't pay. And our Lord said, he frankly,
that is the man to whom these two debtors owed the money, one
owed 50, one owed 500, but when they both had nothing to pay,
He frankly forgave them both. The point I'm making is that
all through the Scripture, John Berwick of his fullness have
we all received. In other words, we have nothing
in ourselves. And the way we are encouraged,
the way sinners are encouraged and invited and exhorted to look
to Christ is as needy, needy. Don't look to Christ thinking,
well, I can do 90% of it, or I can do 10% of it, or I can
do 1% of it. No, no, no, no. We must look
to Christ as needy, as empty of all righteousness and goodness
that God will accept. Of His fullness have we all received. All through the scriptures we
are encouraged and invited and exhorted to look to him as needy
and also as empty. As empty. I love that psalm,
the verse of the psalm that says, I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh on me. That's what I am. because of
my sin. I am poor and I'm needy, yet
the Lord thinketh on me. Aren't you so glad tonight if
you're one of his children that the Lord thought on you? And
your poverty, and your neediness, and your emptiness, not being
able to do anything to please God Almighty, that the Lord thinketh
on you, and I'm so thankful that he thinketh upon me. We are to look to him as needy,
we are to look to him as empty, to find in him a fullness. What is it that we need? We need
redemption. We need our sins to be washed
away, to be taken away. What is it that we need? We need
a righteousness in which to appear before God Almighty of His fullness,
have we all received. All believers, all of God's children,
we all receive from Him. And we receive everything from
Him. We receive His righteousness
imputed to us, we receive His blood to cleanse us. Remember
the scripture said, come now, let us reason together. And don't
understand that like you're going to argue with God and there's
going to be some kind of a conference between you and God. No, come
now, let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet,
and you do not have the ability to remove one sin, let us reason
together, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as
white as snow. You look to Christ, you turn
to me, look unto me, all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved.
For I am God, and there is no other. Of his fullness have we
all received. And you know this is so, but
let me remind us tonight that God's salvation, God's salvation,
he has planned it in such a way that we must keep coming to Christ. Don't be deceived by that idea
that a person looked to Christ one time and everything is taken
care of, now I don't need to look anymore. coming to Christ
one time. Yes, there's an initial coming
to Christ. There's an initial looking to
Christ, no doubt about that. But God has so planned His salvation
that we must continue coming to Christ. We must continue looking
to Christ. And of His fullness we receive. Think of it like this. When you were first converted,
when you first came to know the Lord, whenever it was, what if
God had just bundled up a bundle of grace and given that to you
and said, now that's all the grace you're going to need on
your journey to heaven. There it is. Take it and be gone. Do you know it would not have
been any time until we had lost that grace? It would have been
gone. You say, I don't know about that,
Preacher. I do. I do. Adam. Adam. He was holy, right? He came from
his Creator's hands, holy and righteous, and yet he lost all
the grace he had. And here you are as a child of
God. Yes, you have a new nature, but
you also have that old man. And Satan could easily, easily
trip you up. And that bundle of grace, you
could lose it. And then what would you do the
rest of your journey? No, God has planned salvation
in such a way that we continue to come to homecoming. We continue coming to Christ. We continue needing Christ and
looking to him. And there's such a fullness of
his fullness, John said. This is John's testimony. Of
his fullness have we all received. There's the fullness of all grace
in Christ so that we may come daily. As we walk along life's
way, we may come daily, and we draw out of His fullness. And there's such a fullness of
grace in Him that it can never be exhausted. It's never diminished. He's just as full of grace tonight
as He was when John bore witness of Him. When John the Apostle
wrote this, He's still just as full of grace. And he's full
of grace for his people. The grace of God is stored up
in him and is stored up in him for you and for me. Let us therefore
come boldly to the throne of grace, the writer of Hebrews
said, that we may find mercy and grace to help in the time
of need. There's a fullness. And notice
this. And I thought about the words
of a song that I've heard over the years. Though millions have
come. Speaking about the cross, isn't
it? Though millions have come, there's still room for one. There's
room at the cross for you. And I'd say the same thing about
His grace. Though millions, I mean millions,
I don't know. So many that John couldn't number
them. Though millions have come to
Christ for grace, there's still more grace. There's still room
for you, and there's room for me. When Joseph had that dream
down in Egypt, and he told Pharaoh, or Pharaoh had the dream rather,
he interpreted Pharaoh's dream. They had those seven years of
plenty, didn't they? And during those seven years,
I mean, the land was producing wheat and they were storing it
and storing it in the bins and had to make places to put the
food in and all of that. Do you think if there had been
one tiny mouse that had been privileged to go up to that storage
shed and eat all it's full, that that mouse would have ever exhausted
the storehouse that Joseph had? Of course not. And neither can
you or me exhaust the fullness that is in Christ, the grace
that is in Christ. And then notice that John witnessed
this, that all who receive from Christ receive everything they
receive by grace. Grace for grace. Everything you've ever received
from Christ, you received it for grace. Not because you deserved
it. Not because you merited it. No,
you receive grace for grace. That's the way it was at the
first, and that's the way it will be all along the way. Grace for grace. Grace on top
of grace. Grace and more grace. This was
John the Baptist's witness of Christ, of his fullness. Have all we received, and grace
for grace. It will continue to be grace
upon grace. Grace after grace and more grace
all along the way. Now here's the third thing that
John the Apostle tells us that John witnessed to, and that is
Christ's preference to Moses in verse 17. He said, For the
law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Now the religious leaders at
this time, among the Israelites, when the Lord Jesus Christ was
here in the flesh. Listen to what they confessed
one time. They confessed to be the disciples
of Moses. They confessed that. In fact,
they said, we know, we know that God spake by Moses, but as for
this fellow, talking about Christ, but as for this fellow, we know
not from whence he is. That's what the religious Pharisees
of that day said. John knew. John the Baptist knew
who he was and where he came from. And his witness was the
law was given by or through Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. So I looked at that verse. I thought about that verse in
the Hebrews. The letter of Hebrews, which
says, Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant. He was. He was faithful. The law was given to him on Mount
Sinai, and he brought it down, and he gave it to the Israelites.
Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant, but,
the verse goes on, but, Christ as the son over his own house. A lot of difference, isn't there,
between a servant in the house and the one who owns the house. Moses, yes, he was faithful.
He gave the law, and that law that he gave, it was given to
him. I say he gave it, but it was
given through him to the nation of Israel. But that law reveals
God's wrath against all sin. The very way that it was given
to Moses, remember the sound and the lightning and the smoke
and everything on Mount Sinai, it was all given in such a way
as to strike fear and dread into the hearts of those who hear
the law. Because by the deeds of the law
shall no flesh be justified in his sight. But grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. Compare the law given to Moses
with all of that that went on there. The voice getting louder
and louder, and the people, they couldn't even touch the mountain.
If they dared touch the mountain, they were to be slain. And grace and truth coming by
Jesus Christ. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ,
when I think about that, the comparison, I think about that
time he called a little child to him. They were not afraid,
little children, they were not afraid to approach unto Christ. Neither should we be. Grace and
truth came by Jesus Christ. He, that is Moses, was its minister,
the minister of the law, which revealed Christ and the gospel
in types and shadows, yes. But grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. It is only in Christ and through
his work of substitution that God is gracious to sinners. And he is gracious, isn't he? Aren't you thankful that grace
is free? You can't earn God's grace. You
can't merit God's grace. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. The wages
of sin is death. Yes, we can earn that eternal
death because of our sin, but the gift of God His eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. It is only in Christ and through
His work of substitution that God is gracious to sinners. Sinners
condemned by the law are made righteous through the imputed
righteousness of Christ. He is the truth or He is a substance
of all the types and the shadows and the law. The red heifer,
the scapegoat, the goat on the day of atonement, the two lambs
slain every day. You just go on and on through
all of those sacrifices. And he is the antitype of all
of those types. They were shadows. He's the substance. Grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. The law was given by Moses as
a messenger. He received it from God and brought
it to the people. But grace and truth came, was
made, and brought to pass by Jesus Christ. Now here's the
last. Fourth, John the Baptist's witness
to Christ's declaration of God. Notice in verse 18, we read,
No man has seen God at any time. God is spirit. We've seen the handiwork of God. When God gives us eyes to see,
we can go out and we see in nature. We see the handiwork of God,
yes. But no man has ever seen God.
Not with these physical eyes. God is spirit. Invisible. incomprehensible to all men. The only begotten Son of God
is the one exception. He's the one exception. He is
of the same essence of the Father. He is His only begotten Son. God has many sons. The angels,
the holy angels are referred to as the sons of God. They are
his by creation. And God has many sons, those
who are saved by the grace of God. We are his by adoption. But God has only one, only begotten
Son, who is in the bosom, this is what he said, which is in
the bosom of the Father. He hath declared him. It is only through Jesus Christ
that any man may see God and know God. He said this in his prayer, this
is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and
Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. John, he gave witness to Christ. He witnessed to the dignity of
his person. He witnessed to the fullness
of grace in him, he witnessed to the fact that he is above
Moses, and he witnessed to the fact that only in Christ may
we see God. One of the Beatitudes is, blessed
are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Does that mean
we'll see absolute God? I don't think so. We'll see Christ,
who is God. Remember when John was caught
up and saw into heaven? He saw the throne, didn't he?
But the only one he saw on that throne was the Lamb. It's the
throne of God and of the Lamb. But the only one John saw was
the Lamb. And my friends, when we see him,
we will know him. Because he still has the marks
in his hands. Let us sing a hymn before we're
dismissed. Let's all stand. Let's sing the
doxology. Sing through this twice.