 Again, our sermon title this morning is Behold His Glory, Behold His Glory, and we are in John chapter one, and we are coming today to the end of the prologue section here in John chapter one, John's introduction to this gospel. His introduction goes from verse one to verse eighteen. We've been working verse by verse through this, and as John works through the prologue, what he's doing is he's setting up the structure, if you will, for the rest of the gospel. As we work through the gospel of John, we're going to be putting meat on this skeleton, so to speak, brick and mortar around this structure. And so we come today to verse fourteen and close out John's prologue. It's a glorious set of passages, a set of scripture here, a glorious statement of John about Christ and a profound statement of John about the debravity of man. We've seen all that as we work through these verses. Coming today to verse fourteen, we see the Bible read, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, this was He of whom I said, He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me. And of His fullness we have all received in grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the father, He has declared Him. This is a staggering claim. The Word that was with God, the Word that was God that we see in verse one, that Word in verse fourteen became flesh and dwelt among us. It's a staggering thought, a staggering claim. At the climactic conclusion here of John's introduction to his Gospel, John goes back into the Old Testament, alludes to the Old Testament, in order to properly place now Jesus Christ at the end of God's progressive revelation to us, His progressive self-disclosure of Himself to sinful man. And He does that here in these last few verses of the prologue. These are powerful and profound truths. And these powerful, profound truths form the basis of our Christian faith. Now, many of you may have grown up in church, may have grown up familiar with Scripture. I was reading Boyce this week, and Boyce was making the statement that as profound as these truths are, as staggering as they are, as just mind-blowing as they are, we can often, because we have grown up hearing them, grown up reading this passage of Scripture, grown up in church, we can often hear them ourselves, and as Boyce said, become ourselves strangely unmoved by them. That's something we need to overcome in our flesh. We need to be amazed anew. Every time we come to the Bible, the Scripture declares the glory of God. And we're to come to these passages of Scripture and be amazed at who Christ is and what He's done, what God has done for us in Christ. And we're not to be strangely unmoved by these profound truths. So I want to encourage you this morning, you know, put on your thinking caps, work with me as we go through these verses and allow yourself to be moved by God with the truths that He teaches here. All of that, not to say that this is just a truth in and of itself, this is a truth that we are to live by. This is a truth that should shake us, wake us up from lethargy, wake us up from apathy or indifference, wake us up to live for the Lord. These are truths that we should be charged up about such that it changes our lives, changes how we live, should move us. And so today, as we look at who Christ is in these verses and what He's done, we are to behold His glory. The Word became flesh, dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. Now we're going to behold the glory of Christ from three different perspectives as we work through these verses. One, we're going to behold His glory in His presence. Behold His glory in His presence. He came to this earth fully God and yet fully man. As Philippians says, He made Himself of no reputation. He took the form of a bond servant and He came in the likeness of men. And we behold His glory in His condescension to dwell among us. We behold His glory in His perfect obedience to the Father among us. And we certainly behold His glory in the supreme act of His glory at the cross. So we behold His glory in His presence among us. Number two, we behold His glory in His person. We behold His glory in His person. We see His glory in who He is and in what He has done. The one and only, unique Son of God who is full of grace and truth. We behold His glory in His person. And then third, we behold His glory in His preeminence. Christ, in His revelation of God, is far superior to any other revelation that we have. We can learn a lot of God from creation, from general revelation, but Jesus Christ is the preeminent disclosure of who God is, the preeminent revelation. In that, Jesus Christ is far superior to Moses, far superior to the law. And in Christ, we have grace upon grace, grace replacing grace and grace abounding upon grace. He is preeminent in God's self-disclosure. So we behold His glory in His presence, in His person, and in His preeminence. And we're going to see all these points together. As we look at these points, they all tend to overlap. There's no way that you can talk about the preeminence of Christ without talking about His person, or no way that you can discuss the person of Christ without talking about His presence, His incarnation. So we see these points consistently overlapping. And even as they overlap, we need to understand something very important. There's much to understand here. As you look at these verses, they are loaded down with scriptural truth. We could spend weeks going through these verses. There's much to understand. We need to understand these things. We need to be able to explain these things and understand what they mean. But then the very important part of that comes, we need to be able to apply what they mean to life. We need to understand why they matter. And listen, these truths matter to your Christian life. So as we work through, understand the meaning, but then ask yourself, why does this matter to me? How is this going to impact my life? How should this impact my life? This matters to the Christian life. So first, point one on your notes, let us behold His glory in His presence. In John chapter 1, verse 14, the Bible says, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. So in His presence among us, we behold His glory. We have His presence among us, don't we, in His word. His life, what He did, who He is, described to us in the Scriptures, and we can still, in the pages of Scripture, behold His glory. In first, foremost, we go back to verse 1, considering that He was the word. John picks up again in verse 1 this concept of Jesus Christ being the word, and he repeats it here in verse 14, and the word became flesh. Christ was God's self-disclosure, a self-expression of the Godhead in that He was God's word, so to speak, and He uses that here in verse 14. It's almost like a book ends on the prologue, on these first 18 verses. He began with the word, He ends with the word, it's an inclusio, if you're familiar with that term, and the word again is God's self-expression, God's revelation of Himself to us. One of the reasons that He's called the word is because you really can't get to know someone unless you use words to disclose them or to reveal them. If you imagine, maybe in your courting days, when you court a young lady, how difficult it would it be to court a young lady if she never talked to you, right? If she doesn't use words, it's going to be hard to get to know her. Many of you may have a teenager at home. How's your day today? Good. How was school? Fine. What are you doing? Nothing. Unless they speak to you, you don't know what's going on. They need to use words to reveal themselves to you. That's one of the reasons that Jesus Christ is called the word. He discloses or reveals Himself so that we can know more about who God is and what God has done to redeem sinners to Himself. In thinking about it that way, we are entirely dependent upon God for that revelation. We've got to have it. We see general revelation, what we know of God in creation, but we need God's word to us to understand, to know who God is and to be saved, to love Him, to obey Him, to follow Him, to worship Him, to praise Him. We're dependent upon God for His word. And Jesus Christ is the consummate word of God, the supreme, the preeminent word of God. But God, also in giving His word and revealing Himself by His word, also creates by His word. In Psalm 33, verse 6 says this, by the word of the Lord, the heavens were made and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. It's by the word of the Lord. By the word of the Lord, He rules and reigns. All things are decreed by Him and by His word the Bible says all things are established. And we can't know God in any adequate way apart from His revealed word. Therefore, now thinking about that, it's fitting then that Christ should be known as God's word, the word, a supreme revelation of God. Jesus Christ, if you think about it that way, is also a saving revelation of God, isn't He? And that is glorious. We can behold the glory of God in Christ, the word, in His word, in His revelation of Himself. We can behold the glory of God in Christ in creation. We can behold the glory of God in Christ in His rule and reign. And we can behold the glory of God in Christ in redeeming fallen man. It's glorious. The author of Hebrews says it best in chapter one when he said, God who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets has in these last days spoken to us by His, by His Son, the word, the word made flesh who dwelt among us. So all this revelation that God has given us. It's a grace of God. It is displaying God's glory in His revelation of Himself through the word. God glorifies Himself and we behold His glory, all right? Then we enter the Israelites did, the children of Israel entered an inter-testamental period, the 400 years between Malachi and Matthew where God was silent. And you can almost see, can't you, the children of Israel stretching out their ears to hear from God, wanting to hear a word from God, wanting to listen. When would God speak again? When will God reveal Himself again, waiting for another word from God? And then finally, John the Baptist comes. We've already taken a look at John the Baptist, but John the Baptist prepares the way. The word came and the word made His dwelling among us. People do the same thing today, right? They say to themselves, I want God to speak to me. God has spoken and God has spoken through His word and we through the word of God are to behold His glory. So as the old phrase goes and I like it, if you want to hear God speak to you, read your Bible. God speaks to His word. If you want to hear God speak audibly to you, well, read your Bible out loud. It's God speaking to us through His word. And in His word today, we're to see the glories of Christ, we're to see the glory of God. So we behold His glory even today in His presence. That's not all. We consider the word, but secondly, this word became flesh. He was the God man. In verse 14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. The word, God's self-expression, who in verse one was eternally with God. In verse one, He was God. That word became flesh. In other words, He took upon Himself our humanity. He never ceased being God. It's important to understand. He never ceased being God, but He added to Himself being human. God was not made into a man in the sense that He left His deity behind and became a human. God didn't simply appear as a man as if there were no distinction between God the Father and God the Son. And God didn't simply appear as a man as if He wasn't fully human. The word, the Son of God, He became fully man without ceasing to be fully God. Fully God and fully man, very God and very man. When the word became flesh, God became man. That's why the angel, can say to Mary in Matthew 1.23, behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which is translated God with us. God became man. God chose this to reveal Himself, finally, preeminently, in a real historical person, Jesus Christ our Lord. And if you don't believe this, you've got a problem on your hands. First John chapter 4 verse 2 says this, by this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. I've met those, witnessed to people before, who believe that Jesus was God, but He wasn't man. That He was God, He just appeared in a man-like form. That He was sometimes just a good teacher, or that sometimes He was just a prophet, or just a friendly guy. You can't say that about Jesus Christ. You don't believe that Jesus Christ was an actual man, that's heresy, and you are not, as John says, of God. The word for flesh there, there are several words that could have been chosen, but the word chosen here for flesh is the word sarks in Greek. He could have chosen a word that meant He became a man, and that would have been it. He could have chosen a word that said He came and received a body, but instead He chooses His word sarks. And that word carries the sense of all of our frailty, all of our creatureliness as being distinct from God. The weakness of our flesh, the creatureliness of our flesh is represented by that word sarks. But in becoming man now, although He took on our frailty, if you will, took on human flesh, if you will, He did not take on sin. Jesus Christ was sinless. Jesus Christ was perfect, never sinned. Hebrew says that He was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. So this union, fully God, and yet fully man, is one of the mysteries of our faith. It's called the hypostatic union by theologians. Paul says to Timothy, great is the mystery of godliness that God was manifest in the flesh. It's a great mystery. We don't fully understand it, but God, fully God, and yet fully man. And in all that, isn't that glorious? Such condescension for the Lord to step out of glory, and as we say, to take on the mud of our humanity, the dirt of our flesh, so to speak, and to dwell among us, it's glorious, and in His dwelling among us, we behold His glory. And God in the flesh, we behold His glory and the power of His word. Jesus Christ, as He walked among us with His word, right, back to that issue of Jesus Christ being the word, with His word, He calms the storm, doesn't He? He doesn't have to lay hands on Lazarus to raise Lazarus from the dead in John 11. With a word, He calls Lazarus to life from the tomb. With a word in John 4, He heals the nobleman's son. Doesn't have to go to him? Doesn't have to lay hands on him? Just with His word, He heals them. There are times when Jesus Christ touches. In all the miracles of Christ, we see various ways that Christ does this. All He needs is the power of His word to do it. And we see the word at work in Christ Jesus. But that's not all. It was the God-man. He came and became flesh, but He dwelt among us. This word, this God-man, who was God's self-revelation to man, came and He dwelt among us. And it's in this context of His revelation to us and His dwelling among us that we behold His glory. He dwelt among us. When you imagine the scene, you've seen this in movies before or you've heard the scene where, let's say, a couple, husband and a wife, and the husband is called off to war. He goes off and he's gone on assignment for a long time, and the husband, loving his wife, sends back letters. And the wife at home, thinking about him and loving him, she receives those letters. Aren't those letters precious to her? You see her reading them over and over again. Maybe several nights in a row, several weeks in a row. He comes back, she's still reading them. It's just precious to her, that letter. What does she want? She wants the presence of her husband back, wants him there with her. As precious as the letters are, and they're precious, it's that presence that we long for. If you're in Christ, you long for God's presence. God's people long for His presence. We long for the day that we'll be in glory with Him, seeing Him as He is and worshiping and praising Him. And so this presence of God is a profound understanding, and we can get this from Scripture. Verse 14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. That word dwelt there is the word scanao. Literally it means that he pitched his tabernacle among us, or he pitched his tent among us. This is rich throughout Scripture. There's so much here that could be said. This specific word brings flooding into the mind of the Israelites. The tabernacle, or the tent in Israel's wilderness wanderings. In those days where God tabernacled with his people in the wilderness. That's that word tabernacled among us. And we see the tabernacle. If you looked at Exodus 25, 26, 27, you see how God instructed the tabernacle to be built. The tabernacle was the most important object to the Israelites in the desert. It was the center of their camp. It was the center of their worship. It was the center of their connection with God. So the tabernacle was extremely important, and this was where God chose to, in a very symbolic way, but also in a very real way, display his presence among the people. God tabernacled with him. The tabernacle was a rectangular shaped structure that the Israelites built. It was about 45 feet long. It was about 15 feet wide. There was a front section of the tabernacle that was the holy place. It was twice as long as it was wide, where you had the work of the temple going on. Then you had a 15 by 15 by 15 cubicle place called the holy of holies at the back of the tabernacle where the Ark of the Covenant was kept, where it was said that God's presence dwelt between the cherubim at the top of the mercy seat at the top of the Ark of the Covenant. Very, very important. This was all surrounded by boards of acacia wood that were covered in curtains. The tabernacle itself surrounded by an outer courtyard that was about 187 feet long by about 45 feet wide, covered in curtains made with linen curtains, sorry, about 87 feet wide, 175 feet long, and all of this, again, the center of the Israelites' camp. The tabernacle, one, was the place where God said that he would meet face to face with Moses, or that he would talk with men, where God's presence dwelt between the cherubim. We find that in Exodus 33, where he met with God. The tabernacle was also the place where sacrifices were made. If you were coming into the outer court toward the tabernacle and you were going to enter the courtyard, the very first thing that your eyes would lay upon would be the bronze laver, where on the bronze laver there were continuous sacrifices being made. Now, this is interesting, and it's important to note. One of the reasons that that is the case is so that anyone making their approach to the tabernacle, anyone in that sense making their approach to God would understand and see by an object lesson that approach to God is not possible without sacrifice. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission for sins. There is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood. So the tabernacle was a place where the sacrifices were made. The tabernacle was the place where God came to take residence among his people in a visible way, in an audible way, certainly symbolic. If you read Exodus 25, 26, and 27, you look at the way the tabernacle was built, within that we see all kinds of imagery, and all of that had a spiritual significance to the children of Israel. And we see that throughout Scripture. We see that imagery referenced throughout the Bible. Very, very important. And all this was to display the glory of God, the shekinah glory. That shekinah glory refers to light, but often that light shrouded in smoke. We've got several examples in Scripture. We don't have time to go there. I want you to look at one very quickly with me, and that's Exodus chapter 40. Exodus chapter 40. Several examples of this where God displayed his presence, the shekinah glory, displayed his presence among the people, and we see that one exemplified in Exodus chapter 40 in verse 34. And here Exodus 40, 34, the Bible says in the cloud, cover the tabernacle of meeting. Now they had set up the tabernacle, everything was arranged, everything was built, the priests had been cleansed, prepared for their service in the temple, and then God displays his presence. The cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. That word tabernacle for meeting, it was also called tent of meeting, was because that's where God met with his people. Moses went into the Holy of Holies. The priests went into the Holy of Holies and, you know, met with God one time a year. The tabernacle, the tent of meeting, the tabernacle of meeting. Verse 35, and Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting because the cloud rested above it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would go onward in all their journeys. But if the cloud was not taken up, they did not journey till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was above the tabernacle by day, and fire was over it by night in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys. So in the sight of the people, God displayed his glory, if you will, in the cloud, in the fire by night. It was God's presence among his people that they looked for, and they looked at that at the tent of meeting, at the tabernacle, God's presence among his people. But lest you think that God's glory, that all there is to it is simply the smoke or simply the fire, or simply the presence, there's much more to the glory of God than that. Look at Exodus chapter 33, back a few pages, Exodus chapter 33, and Moses himself asked God, very interesting question, he asked to see God's glory, and this is how God answers him. Look at chapter 33, beginning in verse 18. Moses said, please, God, show me your glory. And then God said, I'll show up in smoke. No, Moses had seen the smoke, right? He had witnessed God's glory in that way, but listen how God describes his glory. I'll make all my goodness pass before you. Praise the Lord that it wasn't that he made all his wrath pass before him. Praise the Lord that it wasn't his judgment, or even his justice that he made pass before him. And God displayed himself in his goodness. And he says, and I, God says, I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I'll be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. Lord, displace his grace, displace his goodness, displace his mercy, displace his compassion, and all of that, displace his sovereignty, and God is sovereign. And the Lord said, verse 21, here's the place by me, you shall stand on the rock, so it shall be when my glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand while I pass by, and then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen. If anyone sees God's face, he doesn't live. If Moses, in other words, God places Moses in the cleft of the rock, covers him with his hand, and it's as if Moses were just allowed to see the overglow of God's glory. God passed by, was allowed to see the passing of God's glory in a passing kind of way. If Moses were to see his glory fully displayed, Moses would have been consumed in a moment, would have been incinerated in a second. God's glory is so powerful, but God just gives him just a glimpse, but then look at what comes next in chapter 34. In light of the glory of God, the Lord said to Moses, cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I'll write on these tablets the words that were written on the first tablets, which you wrote. This was the law of God. Many people look at the law of God as something evil, as something wicked. The law of God displays the glory of God. It reveals his character, his righteousness, his holiness. It is a display of the glory of God. But not only that, drop down to verse 6, and the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, and listen to how God glorifies himself displaying his attributes, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgressions and sins, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation. There is great glory in God's glory, there's great depth to God's glory. Think about it, God's glory is just a display of everything that he is, and it is glorious. He is glorious. It's a display of his justice, a display of his righteousness, a display of his holiness, a display of his goodness, a display of his grace, a display of his mercy, a display of his compassion, here this gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abounding in goodness and truth. It's something that Jesus Christ in our passage in John chapter one is full of grace and truth. This is, here, has said God's loving kindness and Emmett, his truth, in the same way that grace and truth in Jesus Christ flowed from God's loving kindness, flowed from God's truth. In other words, this is the covenant-keeping faithfulness of a covenant-making, covenant-loving, grace-bestowing God. It's just the glory of God. It's amazing. We see this later, the glory of God in the temple. At first we see this in the tabernacle, and God tabernacled amongst his people, and he dwelt with them, but then beyond the tent we see God display himself or dwell amongst his people in the temple. And Solomon built a glorious temple to the Lord, and the Lord was said to have his presence there. The same thing happened. When Solomon consecrated the temple and the priests were prepared to do their service in the temple, the smoke, the God's kind of glory filled the temple, the priests were unable to work because the glory of God was filling the temple. We see that in 1 Kings chapter eight. Later, if you fast forward due to the people's grievous sin against God and all the abominations that were taking place in the temple, God actually removed himself from dwelling amongst the people in his temple. You can read that in Ezekiel 9, Ezekiel 10 and 11, where God removes himself from the people. The people were taken off into exile in Babylon because of their sin, and the glory of God departs from the temple. You can see that in Lamentations 2. Back from exile, all this just a summary for you. I pray you go back and look at this for yourself. Back from exile, in Ezra chapter three, in Haggai chapter two, you have the people rebuilding the temple. Let's turn together to Haggai chapter two. If you go to Matthew and just go three books to the left, Malachi, Zechariah, Haggai, Haggai chapter two, you have, after the Babylonian exile, the people come back. They rebuild the wall in Emi and Ezra chapter three. They're rebuilding the temple, but the temple, we're starting to take on now a transition. This is a very important transition that we need to see, and this impacts our understanding of these things. The temple they were rebuilding in Ezra chapter three, under Haggai the prophet, Haggai chapter two, was not as glorious a building as Solomon's temple was. So while the people were rebuilding, you had those that were rejoicing, and they were rejoicing with loud applause and clapping and just rejoicing in the Lord, that the temple was being rebuilt. At the same time, you had those that were mourning, those that were weeping out loud, because the temple that was being rebuilt was not as glorious as the temple that was built before under Solomon. Here's the thing though, the glory of God is not in brick and mortar. The glory of God is in his presence among his people. God at one point was in a tent among them. Then God was in this glorious temple that Solomon built back from exile. He comes back to a temple now that's not as glorious a building, but listen to how God reassures them. Haggai chapter two, look at verse one. In the seventh month, on the 21st of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet saying, Speak now to the rubble, the son of Sheltiel, governor of Judah, to Joshua the son of Jehazadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people saying, Who has left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? In comparison with it, is this not in your eyes as nothing? In their eyes, they were looking at brick and mortar. Their eyes, they were looking at stones. Where should they have been looking? Their presence of God among them in exile when God's glory left the temple. God's presence departed, so to speak, should have been longing for the glory of God's return. But they're interested in buildings. Look at what God says in verse four. Yet now, and this is just the grace and mercy, compassion of God. Be strong, the rubble, says the Lord, and be strong, Joshua, the son of Jehazadak, the high priest, and be strong, all you people of the land, says the Lord, and work, for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts, according to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, and so my spirit remains among you, do not fear. We long for God's presence. You fast forward, and you come to John, chapter one, verse 14, and God, the word, became flesh, and he dwelt among us, and in his dwelling among us were to behold his glory. It's interesting that Christ replaces the tabernacle. Christ replaces the temple. Christ replaced the second temple. Christ is a more glorious temple. It's Christ that says, you destroy this temple, I'll rebuild it up in three days. The disciples remember it. He was talking about the temple of his body, his body, that Christ is the temple. No longer is worship concerned with the right place. Worship is concerned with the right person. In John chapter four, we don't have time to go there. We'll get there in our study through the gospel. When Jesus meets the Samaritan woman. The Samaritan woman mentions to Christ, well, our fathers say that it's right to worship on this mountain, yet the Jews say it's right to worship in Jerusalem, and how does Christ respond? A day is coming, and now is, where you'll neither worship on that mountain over there, you'll not worship in this place over here. What Christ is saying is that worship is not about a place. It's not about a location. It's about a person. Very interesting, another connection with God's dwelling among his people. In Genesis chapter 28, you have the story of Jacob's ladder, right? Jacob has the vision of the ladder, and angels ascending and descending upon the ladder, and Jacob says, behold, the house of God, and he looked at that place, called it Bethel, house of God, as being the house of God on the earth, so to speak. Then you have, we'll get to this passage very soon, in John chapter one, Jesus Christ talking to Nathaniel, and Nathaniel believed on Christ. Remember the story, because Christ had seen him under the fig tree, right? And Christ says, you believe, because I saw you under the fig tree? He says, listen, Nathaniel, the heavens will be opened, it's the glory of God. The heavens will be opened, and you'll see angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man. Christ comes, that which was the house of God to Jacob, is Christ Jesus himself. He becomes the object of our worship. He becomes the place of our worship. He becomes the center of our worship. He becomes the object of our worship. He becomes all about our worship. Jesus Christ is Bethel, in that sense, replaced that vision that Jacob had of the ladder. That's Jesus Christ. We're to behold his glory. You fast forward. Because of all that Christ is, and because of all that Christ is done, you can fast forward even more. In John chapter 14, Jesus Christ goes away and he sends his helper, the helper, the paraclete, the spirit of God. And what does the spirit of God do? He takes up his residence where? Within us, among his people. The spirit of God dwells within you if you're in Christ. You fast forward even more. Paul in Ephesians chapter two. And Christ and his spirit taking up residence in the church, the bride of Christ. Fast forward. Revelation chapter 21, and you see in the new heavens and the new earth, God taking up his residence among his people, and you see a glorious new temple then, but God again dwelling among his people. This is an overarching theme of Scripture. God's desire to dwell among his people, and all that he did, and all that it cost him to secure that reality, and such a blessing for us, right, to know that despite the fact we were once enemies of God by our wicked works, that we could dwell with God, despite the fact that we were rebels against him, that we could enjoy the Lord's presence forever. It's an awesome thought when the Bible says that Jesus Christ came and made his dwelling among us. That's a powerful, profound statement. The glory of the first dwelt in the tabernacle, the glory first dwelt in the tabernacle, the glory then dwelt in the temple, finally the glory came to dwell in Jesus Christ. And so Jesus Christ replaces the tabernacle. He replaces the temple. As we said, he replaces Jacob's ladder, so to speak, and we behold the glory of God all because the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Why does all this matter? It matters because in Christ the greatest of all questions is answered. How can sinful man approach, be right with, a holy God? And God once dwelt behind the veil of the tabernacle, he once dwelt behind the veil in the temple, all depicting God's holiness, man's sinfulness, and now that veil has been rent into the necessary sacrifice has been made by Christ. And Christ provided that in himself in the tabernacle of his flesh that he offered as a freely offered sacrifice on Calvary for sinners like you and I. It is the glory of an infinite condescension. It's the glory of a matchless grace, a matchless mercy. It is the glory of a fathomless love all because Christ pitched his tent among us that we might behold his glory and believing in him might have life in his name. Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 18 of those who are in Christ that we with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord now are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as by the Spirit of the Lord. It's a glorious blessing. A glorious truth. Why wouldn't you want to give up everything to follow Christ? The next point too on your notes, we behold his glory in his person. The word became flesh dwelt among us, we beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. Only begotten is one and only. He was alongside the Father is how that's translated. He was the one and only alongside of the Father with God from verse 1, right? He is one of a kind, his unique Son, his unique one. He is one in substance with God the Father but distinct in person from God the Father. As Hebrews 1 says, the express image of his person. And this is very important. God, Jesus Christ must be fully man so that he can take our place, be our substitute, be our representative. He must be fully God so that he's able to pay the infinite price that it costs to redeem us. He must be sinless otherwise he'd have to pay for his own sin. So Jesus, very God, very man is the only one who could fit the bill, the only one who can save. That's why all those that come to the Father must come through Jesus Christ. If you were merely a God filled man rather than God in the flesh, then we shouldn't call him savior and we shouldn't worship him. But he is fully God, fully man. And this is a rock to take your stand on, so to speak. It is a rock that if you don't stand on it will crush you to powder. So we beheld his glory, the person in work of Jesus Christ. Also says there that he dwelt among us, we beheld his glory. The glory is the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Full of grace and truth. This is no cheap grace. This is costly grace. Grace is unmerited favor. The unmerited favor of God toward a sinful humanity. It's like Paul says to Titus, the kindness and love of God our savior toward man that has appeared. It's not only undeserved favor, it's the favor shown to the one who deserves the very opposite. Romans 5.8 says God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This is costly grace. And not just grace, it is according to truth. God is infinitely holy, will by no means acquit the guilty. God is infinitely righteous and every sin will be paid for. God was true to his own character and in being true, in addition to gracious, he becomes both just and the justifier of those who would come to faith in Christ. And that all flows out of an Old Testament context again, the goodness, the loving kindness and truth of God. And it says in verse 15 that John bears witness of this truth. All of that and we behold his glory point three in his preeminence. Because Christ is full of grace and truth, of his fullness we have all received. That fullness of grace, the fullness of truth we have all received. In other words, Christ is all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, as Paul says. And of his fullness we have all received. In other words, we have fullness of joy, fullness of peace, fullness of eternity, fullness of an inheritance. We have the fullness of Christ that we've received. We've all received of his fullness. And when it says there and grace for grace, there are many ways to interpret this, but it all hinges on that preposition there. If you're reading the New King James, that preposition there is for and grace for grace. That's not the word there in the Greek for upon, as in grace upon grace, in other words as grace abounding to grace. It certainly could mean that, but it's the word for, which is most commonly translated as instead of or replacing. That points forward to verse 17, and I want to connect these two things for you. The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. And that is connected to this concept of grace for grace. The law is a grace of God. The law reveals God to man. In that sense, it was a grace. But the law displayed truth, right? Did the law display grace? No, the law displayed truth. The law is holy, the commandment holy Justin Good. The law displays the holiness and righteousness of God, however, the law demands obedience. The law says that anyone that despises it dies without mercy. And so did the law bring mercy? No, the law brought truth. The law could never justify the sinner. The law merely brought the truth that the man was a sinner. So the law brings truth. But then it says, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. In addition to truth, Jesus Christ brings grace. It was a grace that God sent Jesus Christ to dwell on us. The law revealed God's righteous hatred for sin. Grace made provision for sin. The law reveals God's holy intention to punish all sin. Grace justifies the sinner. This is by the grace of God. So Jesus Christ exhibits both grace and truth. In that sense, in verse 16, grace for grace, we've been given grace, but that grace, even that grace, has been replaced with a greater grace. It's grace substituted with a greater grace. It's grace with a more abounding grace. Grace replaced with grace, given more grace. It's just God in his progression through history revealing grace to men, sinful, wicked sinners, enemies of his, revealing grace to them. And in Christ, we see grace and truth. But lastly, we see Christ preeminent in the way that we see God by seeing him. Christ has revealed God. He says in verse 18, no one has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him. That word there declared is where we get our word exegesis from. In a sense, Christ, the word, the only, one and only Son of the Father, the unique Son of the Father, discloses, he explains, he interprets, he exegetes, so to speak, the Father, gives meaning to us, reveals, discloses the Father to us. And he does that from the bosom of the Father, a personal and intimate closeness with the Father that the Son enjoys, that all of his children in him will also enjoy. And Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God. So you can't come to this as you, as we close the prologue together, you can't come to the end of this with the notion that Jesus Christ is merely a man. You just can't do it. You can't come to the note, to the end of this prologue with the notion that Jesus Christ is a God, but he's not God. You simply cannot do it. If you have your Bible, you're gonna believe all that John says of him, that Jesus Christ is God, who came in the flesh and dwelt among him, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. If you'll believe that, if you'll trust him alone to save you, then believing in his name, you can have life in him. He writes this for the purpose that you might believe, you would behold his glory, that you would believe that he is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing in him, you might have life in his name. If you'll believe, then he gives you the right to become children of God. Do you believe that this morning? Will you trust him alone? Amen. Once you've seen this glory and believed, though, we've been given a glorious vision, a glorious vision of the glory of God, but that glorious vision comes with glorious responsibility. How can you receive that understanding? How can you witness that glory without then being a witness for him? We've been given a wonderful task also, we're called upon to bear witness of that glory to a lost world that needs a Savior. Amen? Amen. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, all praise, honor, and glory be to your name. We worship you, Lord, and thank you for all that you've done for us in Christ. It is astounding. There's so much here, God. We could spend so much time, and I'm always just grieved by our lack of time sometimes to go through these things. I pray, God, that you would just lay these truths in fertile soil of our hearts, God, and that you would cause them to bud and grow and glorify yourself, God, in transforming us into that glory day by day, finding us faithful to live in light of those truths day by day, glorifying you, Lord, in how we come to know you and understand you and then live fervently for you. We love you, Lord. May you glorify yourself, God, in our lives. May you glorify yourself, God, in our worship of you, our praise of you. God, glorify yourself and your people for your great namesake. It's in that name that we pray. Amen.