The sermon by Jason Dohm, titled 'The Revelation of God: Then and Now', explores the themes presented in John 1:17-18, discussing the contrast and continuity between the law given through Moses and the grace and truth that came through Jesus Christ. The speaker emphasizes that while the law served as an important revelation of God's righteousness, it was not complete. The coming of Jesus represents the fullest revelation of God available to humanity, as He embodies grace and truth. The sermon highlights that Jesus, being in the bosom of the Father, is uniquely qualified to reveal God to humanity, surpassing previous revelations. The speaker uses the analogy of the law as a candle and Jesus as the sun at noon to illustrate the greater clarity and completeness of revelation in Christ. The sermon concludes with practical applications, urging believers not to undervalue the law but to recognize the surpassing value of Christ and to make it a lifelong aim to know God by studying Jesus.

The sermon text is John 1, 17-18. I'm going to start reading in verse 6. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him.

He came to his own, and his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became 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. 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, and 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." The title of the sermon this morning is The Revelation of God, Then and Now. We're looking at verses 17 and 18 of John chapter 1. And we have the revelation of God in the law, which was good, but not full.

And we have the revelation of God through the Lord Jesus Christ which was just as full as we are going to get this side of heaven. And they are really both set before us in our text. And this is just the continuation of the exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ. John the Gospel writer just keeps lifting up Jesus higher and higher every week. So this is just More of the same of where we've been and hopefully where we're going.

Last week in verses 16 and 17 we had the witness of John the Baptist and the fullness of Jesus Christ. The witness of John the Baptist was that Jesus is the pre-existent eternal God. That He's fully God and that the grace that we receive bubbles up out of that. It's really out of His fullness that we receive grace. Our hope is that Jesus is God and that of His fullness there is a bottomless ocean from which to draw grace upon grace upon grace upon grace for us so that His mercies are new every morning.

This week, John the Gospel writer develops the glory of Jesus compared with everything that came before Jesus. In other words, the glory of God is revealed before Jesus. There was a revelation of God before Jesus. The glory of God could be known in a sense in some ways before Jesus, but nothing compares to the revelation of that glory in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's really the central truth in our text this morning.

So as we go to the text, let's ask the Lord to help us. Our God and Father, we thank you for sending your Son Jesus so that your glory would be more fully displayed. We could see you in your fullness, not just as a shadow, but as a blazing light. I pray that the Lord Jesus Christ would be lifted up and exalted and loved in the preaching of your word this morning. Thank you for your word which fixes our thoughts on Jesus and raises our affections for him.

May it be so. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well let's begin by looking at verse 17. So hopefully you have your Bibles open to John chapter 1.

And I'd like to read 17. Follow along as I read. And then I'll speak about it. John 1 verse 17, For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Here in this verse, it's a very short verse, here in this verse we have the revelation of God before Jesus Christ.

And then in verse 18, when we get to 18, I'm going to say we have the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. Right now it's really the comparison, putting side by side what came before the giving of the law as a revelation of God, what came before Jesus Christ. John, the Gospel writer has just been speaking of the fullness and the grace of Jesus. The grace bubbling up out of the fullness. And now he's really elaborating on that.

Verses 17 and 18 aren't a change of subject at all. It's an elaboration. He is unfolding. He is sort of preaching on what he just gave us in the last two verses and talking about the fullness and the grace of Jesus. Now he just unfolds that for us.

And he says that the law was given through Moses. Now let's be clear. Moses is not the author of the law. The law was given through Moses. Moses was the channel for the law, not the author of the law.

The law was given through Moses. Moses was the channel for the law, not the author of the law. Listen to Exodus 20, verse 1. Exodus chapter 20 is a really consequential chapter even among all the consequential chapters of the Bible. Exodus is a special chapter in that it's the first giving of the law.

The Ten Commandments first appear in the Bible in Exodus chapter 20. And that chapter begins this way in Exodus chapter 20 verse 1. And God spoke all these words saying, and then you have the Ten Commandments. Ten Commandments, The law of God does not originate with Moses. The law was given through Moses.

He was the channel for the law. So don't dare pit Moses against God the Father. Don't dare pit Moses against God the Holy Spirit. Don't dare pit Moses against God the Word, Jesus the Son. You see that done in some circles now.

It's not right. In fact, it's incredibly wrong to act as if the law was something that didn't really originate with God. That came through Moses, but now we have the good in Christ. No. The triune God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, gave us the law through Moses.

And Paul says in Romans 7.21, the law is holy and the commandment holy and just and good. Do you believe that? I believe that. Paul says that. It's part of scripture.

The law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. The law is good. So John the Gospel writer isn't saying the law is bad, Jesus is good. John the Gospel writer would fully embrace what Paul says, the law is good, Jesus is better. This is not to demean the law, This is to exalt Jesus.

It is not a diminishing of the law. It is an exalting, a lifting up, a magnifying of the Lord Jesus Christ. We should see a blessing and goodness in the law. And then we should say, Jesus is so much more of a blessing. Jesus is so much more good than the law.

It brings us to our next point, which would be that it's wrong to think that John the Gospel writer is saying that the law and grace and truth as if they are enemies. They are to be compared. The Gospel writer is comparing them. But they are not mutually exclusive. Here's what I mean by that.

Was there any grace in the law? Yes! Yes, there is grace in the law. Think of the day of atonement. Think of the Passover.

Think of the morning and the evening sacrifices where the law gives a way for the people to think about being reconciled to God, even though their sins, in spite of their sins, are sacrificed. The innocent dying for the guilty so that the guilty people don't have to stay in that condition but can be cleansed through the shedding of blood. But it was just a pointing to future grace. The book of Hebrews makes it clear that all that blood that was shed never cleansed one sin. It only pointed forward to the future grace to be revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The blood to be shed by the Lord Jesus Christ. So there was lots of grace in the law. Lots of grace in the law. Yes. There were judgments in the law.

There was condemnation in the law. There were curses in the law. But there was grace in the law too. Was there truth in the law? Yes!

The law is full of truth. We should praise God for the truth. It is a revelation of the righteousness of God. It tells us what God is like and what God loves. You wouldn't know what God is like and what God loves unless we had the law.

It is a revelation of God. Not the fullest revelation of God, but it is a revelation of God. We should give thanks for it. Now on the other side, is there any law from Jesus? Are these things mutually exclusive?

Did Jesus ever get any law? Well, we're going to come in many months, maybe more than a year or two. John chapter 13 verse 34, Jesus is going to say, A new commandment I give to you, that you love each other like I love you. So love wasn't a new command but loving like Jesus loves his people is a new command. And the truth is that the New Testament has over a thousand commandments in it while the Old Testament has over 600.

Did you know that? That's surprising to me. Is that surprising to you? That the New Testament, even though it's shorter in the amount of content that it has, has not quite double the commands, but something like that, a thousand, over a thousand commands in the New Testament. While there are 600 in the Old Testament.

You would never guess that. So the New Testament is the new covenant. It's sealed in the blood of Jesus Christ. That's Jesus Christ's covenant. So you can't say that the Old Testament knows nothing of grace and truth.

Of course it does, but Jesus is a fuller revelation of grace and truth. You can't say that Jesus and what He is and what he says has nothing to do with law, there are commandments all over the New Testament. So these things are not being set up as mutually exclusive as though they are enemies that can't be reconciled somehow. They have a very different function. So what is John saying?

John is saying that the fullness of God and the grace that comes from the endless overflow of that fullness is best understood and most fully understood when you look at Jesus Christ. I'll say it again because the content of the whole sermon is wrapped up in this statement. This is what John is saying. The fullness of God and the grace that comes from that endless flow of fullness, meaning we get our grace from Him being fully God and all the resources that entails. The fullness of God is best understood and most fully understood by gazing upon Jesus.

By looking at Jesus, by knowing Jesus. This is the connection to the same phrase, the exact same phrase, grace and truth, that is used in verse 14. Grace and truth is in our text, but we are not being introduced to it for the first time. We were introduced to it in verse 14. Look at verse 14.

It's just a couple of verses prior. And the Word became 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." So the glory of God is on display in grace and truth, is on display in the Word made flesh. This is just a development. Verse 14 really begins the thought that John the Gospel writer is developing in our text. Grace and truth is a display of the glory of God.

Jesus is a display of the glory of God. Jesus is full of grace and truth. All these things go together hand in hand. So think of the law as a candle. Think of the law as a candle.

Think of the law as a candle. If you're in the dark, are you glad to have a candle? You better believe you're glad to have a candle. You could see a lot with a candle that Jesus is the sun at noon. That's the truth of our text.

The law is a candle. People in darkness should have been thankful for a candle. The Gentiles didn't even have the candle. You can see a lot with a candle. But how much better to have the sun at noon where everything is beneath the floodlight.

And the name says it all, Jesus Christ. We've not seen the name Jesus mentioned in our chapter yet. This is the first appearance of Jesus being called Jesus. He's been the Word, He's been the light. Now He's Jesus.

We get His name. Now he is Jesus. He is Jesus Christ. This name really tells the tale of Jesus, of grace and truth coming through this name, Jesus Christ. What does Jesus mean?

Jesus means Jehovah is salvation. Jehovah is the most holy name of God used in the Old Testament, in the former revelation of God. The most holy name used for God is Jehovah. Jesus' name literally means Jehovah is salvation. So when the angel appears to Joseph in Matthew 1 verse 21, the angel says, You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

Jesus is named Jesus for a very specific reason. Because Jehovah is salvation. Because Jesus was anointed. That's what Christ means. Christ simply means anointed.

Messiah means anointed. Christ means anointed. They are just two words from different languages that mean exactly the same thing. Anointed meaning commissioned to accomplish something. Jesus was commissioned to accomplish the salvation of His people.

Jehovah is salvation. Grace and truth come through Jesus Christ. Not given through, notice the Gospel writer changing the words that he uses. The law was given through Moses. Moses was just the channel for the law.

He wasn't the author of the law. He was the channel through which the law was given. It's not said that grace and truth were given through Jesus Christ, as if Jesus were only a channel. Jesus Christ is actually the source as God of the grace and truth. So he changes the word that he uses.

Grace and truth came through Jesus. He is the source and the channel of grace and truth. This is what the writer of Hebrews is trying to help us to understand in Hebrews 3 verse 3. Listen to Hebrews 3 verse 3 where the writer of Hebrews talks about the relationship of Moses to Jesus. You can see how this relates with our text.

Here's how Moses relates with Jesus. The writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 3.3 says, for this one, he's speaking of Jesus, for this one, Jesus, has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, in as much as he who built the house has more honor than the house." So he says, Jesus is to Moses as the builder is to the house. Jesus is worthy of more glory than Moses, even as the builder of a house is worthy of more glory than the house. You might say, hey nice house. Is that to give glory to the house?

Well, maybe in a way, in a sort of an indirect way, but really doesn't the glory belong to the builder of the house? Of course it does. Moses is what Jesus was building. Everything that was given through Moses is just what Jesus is building. He is the builder of the house, And as the builder of the house is worthy of all the glory, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

He's both the source of the grace and the truth, and the channel. Moses was just the channel. On to verse 18. We are back in John chapter 1. I don't think we ever left, did we?

John 1 verse 18. Follow along as I read. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared him. So I said that a summary of verse 18 was the revelation of God before Jesus Christ.

The law. God was revealed in the law in many ways but now in verse 18 We have the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. And it's so obvious how far our knowledge of God has advanced in the coming of Jesus Christ of the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us. Meaning, the people before Christ comparatively knew so little of God than we do. We talked about this a few weeks ago.

John the Baptist is the giant in a valley. He was a giant. Of those born of women, there was no one greater than John the Baptist. That's what Jesus said. And yet Jesus says, Anyone in the kingdom is greater than John the Baptist.

What did he mean by that? Well, as Matthew Henry says, the midget on the mountaintop sees further than the giant in the valley. So you can be the least in the kingdom, you can be the shortest midget on the mountaintop, you still see further because of how much of God Jesus revealed. Things that John the Baptist never knew. And he died long before Jesus performed most of his public ministry.

Certainly before he died and was resurrected. You know things John the Baptist never did know until he got to heaven. I would like to direct our attention to several three very plain statements that say the same thing as John the Gospel writer is saying here that no one is seeing God at any time. First turn in your Bibles to Exodus 33. Exodus 33.

Exodus 33. Here is Moses in Exodus 33. And in Exodus 33 verse 18, here's Moses saying to God, please show me your glory. Moses asking God to display his glory so that Moses could see it. I would like to pick back up in verse 20.

So Exodus 33, I will be reading 20-33. Here is what God says in response to Moses asking God to see his glory. But he, God said, you cannot see my face, for no man shall see me and live. This is Moses. This is Moses.

Moses, you can't see me and live. 21. And the Lord said, Here is a place by me, and you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be while 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. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face you shall not see." Moses, even though you're a holy man by human standards, if you were to see my face it would kill you.

You didn't even know what you were asking when you said, see my glory. You were asking to be killed by a revelation of my glory. So, you are going to stand on the rock. I am going to hide you in the cleft of the rock. I am going to put my hand up so you are not killed by my glory while I pass by.

And then when all you can see is my back, we'll let you glimpse my back. You cannot see God and live. Not even Moses, not even Daniel, not even Elijah. The holiest man you can think of in the Old Testament or the New can see God and live. Now back to John, but this time John chapter 6.

We'll Fast forward briefly to John chapter 6 and see what Jesus says in John chapter 6 verses 45 and 46. John 6, 45 and 46. Jesus says, It is written in the prophets and they shall all be taught by God. Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God.

He has seen the Father. He is talking about himself. He is saying, not that anyone has seen the Father. No one has seen the Father, but I have seen the Father, is what Jesus is saying here. Now turn to 1 Timothy 6.

Follow along as I read I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things and before Christ Jesus who has witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate. I'm going to pause here and just draw your attention to the fact that he started with God and then he drew a distinction between God and Jesus. He is not teaching that Jesus isn't God, but he is teaching the distinction within the Godhead. This is the doctrine of the Trinity here. So when he says God, he's meaning God the Father, and then he mentions Jesus as distinct from God the Father.

Just exactly what we've been learning in John chapter 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. We have the same thing here. Back up to the beginning. This time I'll keep going.

Verse 13, I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep this commandment without spot blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ's appearing, which he, God the Father, will manifest in his own time, he who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who alone has immortality dwelling in inapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power." Here the Apostle Paul is teaching that it is God the Father who dwells in inapproachable light. You cannot approach it or you will die. Whom no man has seen or can see. No man has seen him. No man can see him.

So what God declares himself in Exodus 33, Jesus declares himself in John chapter 6 and Paul declares himself in 1 Timothy 6. So God and Jesus and the Apostle Paul and John the Gospel writer are on exactly the same page. So all the theophanies, theophany is just a word that theologians use for an appearance of God. All of the appearances of God, all of the theophanies, have to be understood within these very plain and clear statements. So for instance, in Daniel 7, when one like the Son of Man, doesn't that have to be Jesus?

When one like the Son of Man comes before the Ancient of Days who is seated on the throne, that cannot be Daniel seeing God. No man is seeing God. In fact, in verse 1 of Daniel chapter 7, we read this, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head while on his bed. Daniel had a dream. He was given a dream by God.

Visions of his head. Daniel wasn't physically present with God the Father, seeing God the Father. He was having visions of His head on His bed. He was given a dream by God. Daniel did not see God.

He was given an approximation that kept him alive. He was given a vision of God so he could live. John the Gospel writer says, the only begotten Son, the unique one of a kind Son, remember we talked about this, we've already come upon the language in John chapter 1 of the only begotten, it just means the unique Son of God, the one of a kind Son of God. It does not mean that he was begotten in the sense that he was created, he was not created. He has always been the Son.

There was never a time when he wasn't the Son. There was never a time when there was a father without the Son. He is as eternal as the Father is eternal. So when we see only begotten, we should just think one of a kind. The one of a kind Son.

The only begotten, the one of a kind son reveals the Father whom no man has seen. That's what John is saying here. The Son reveals the Father whom no man has seen. And John says, Jesus is in the bosom of the Father. Now what does that mean?

John has a very special connection to this term. Consider John 13, 23. So John 13 is almost certainly the Last Supper. It's so different than the Matthew, Mark, and Luke accounts of the Last Supper that it's hard to say for absolute sure, but it's almost certainly the Last Supper. John 13, 23 we read, Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of the disciples whom Jesus loved.

Do you remember that? About the account? It's John calling himself the disciple who Jesus loved. John is reclining on Jesus. He's reclining on the chest of Jesus.

We're in a culture where we don't do that. Does that make you a little squeamish hearing that? It makes me a little squeamish hearing that. I remember the first time I went to Malawi, Mala had dealt with squeamish Americans enough that he had to warn me before I ever saw it. On the street you're going to see two men holding hands as they walk down the street.

That is not homosexuality, that's Malawi. We're kind of a touching culture. And so, I've been around a lot of Americans and I know how disturbing it is to you Americans, but what is on display there is not appropriate. Two friends, two men who are friends can walk down the street hand in hand and no one here thinks a thing of it. Because it doesn't indicate anything inappropriate at all.

So our squeamishness comes from, we're in a culture that doesn't do reclining on the bosom of anybody. But their culture wasn't like that. And it was simply to indicate that Jesus loved this disciple and they had a closeness and affection that even extended to John reclining back on Jesus at the Last Supper. Not one thing inappropriate about it. It was just a manifestation of the closeness that Jesus had with this disciple that he loved.

And Jesus is that to the Father times a thousand. That with the Father times a thousand. He is in the bosom of the Father. They have the closest connection, fellowship, unity, affection that you can have. What is being communicated when John the Gospel writer says that Jesus is in the bosom of the Father is simply the state of closest fellowship and affection.

In John 14 and 11 Jesus will say, I am in the Father and the Father in me. Get closer than that. Here's the whole point. This is who should be revealing the Father. No one could be more appropriate to be the one anointed, the Christ, commissioned to reveal the Father than Jesus.

He is in the bosom of the Father. He is in the Father and the Father is in him. There is infinite closeness and fellowship between the two. Jesus is the perfect one to reveal the Father. The text actually says he has declared him.

Jesus Christ who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him. Jesus has declared God the Father. The Greek word here is exegiaeumai. I practiced that this morning so I could say it. You notice I paused.

I think I said it right. Exegaeomai is the Greek word. And it means to draw out a narrative, to unfold a teaching. Think about what that's saying. To draw out a narrative.

Meaning to explain something by telling of it fully. To unfold a teaching. We get our word exegesis from it. We believe in exegetical preaching. What does that mean?

Well that means that here the preacher's job is to take a text of scripture and to explain it, unfold it. But it's the text that's being explained. Exegesis, exegetical, preaching, that's where we get that word from. Exegaomai. Here's what Andreas Kastenberger, who teaches right here at the seminary, has written a great commentary on the Gospel of John that I'm really enjoying.

Here's what Andreas Kastenberger says. John here does not use the more common term for to make it known and then he gives the Greek word and I haven't practiced the pronunciation of that so I'm not going to hazard it, but he gives the Greek word, but it's a Greek word that would be very common if you just wanted to say to make known. And Kastenberger is saying, John didn't pick that word. That's the word you would expect him to pick. But he uses the rare expression exeggaiomi found only here in this Gospel.

In its Lucan occurrences, meaning Luke does use this term both in the Gospel of Luke and in Acts, which Luke also wrote, and then he gives the places where Luke uses it. In its Lucan occurrences, the term regularly means to give a full account In the sense of telling the whole story, the probable meaning here also. Yes, yes. It's to give a full account. It's to tell the whole story.

Jesus, the Word made flesh who dwelt among us, gives us the fullest account of God the Father, of who God is, that we'll get this side of heaven. We're going to get a fuller account than even the Gospel accounts, as wonderful and full as they are. A better account is coming. Face to face is coming for believers. But this side of heaven, this is as good as it gets.

Jesus gives the full account of who God is, what He's like, what He does. He tells the whole story of God. He gives the exegesis of God. Here's what John MacArthur says in his study Bible. John meant that all Jesus is and does interprets and explains who God is and what he does.

I'll read it again. That's exactly what John the Gospel writer is saying here. John the Gospel writer meant that all Jesus is and does, so think of all that Jesus is and does in the Gospels, that interprets and explains who God is and what He does. Now let me give you five texts quickly. Five texts that explain Jesus as the ultimate explanation of God.

Jesus is the ultimate self-disclosure of God. God is disclosing Himself, telling who He is and what He is like by sending Jesus into the world to dwell among us, to take on flesh and dwell here. Number one, Matthew 11, 27. You might just want to jot these down in case you want to reference them later. Matthew 11, 27.

Jesus says, All things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal him." Jesus says that no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Jesus so clearly sets Himself forward is the key to understanding His Father. Jesus reveals the Father. Number two, John 12, 44-46. And Jesus cried out and said, He who believes in me, believes not in me, but in him who sent me.

And he who sees me, sees him who sent me. I have come as light into the world, whoever believes in me should not abide in darkness." Jesus in His coming wipes away the darkness about who God is, what He is like. He shines light to show us who God is and what He is like. He who sees me sees Him who sent me. If you want to see God who dwells in inapproachable light, who you can't even gaze upon Him and live, but you can see Christ and know what God is like.

3 John 14, verses 8 and 9. Philip said to him, Lord show us the Father and it is sufficient for us. Jesus said to him, have I been with you so long and yet you have not known me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. So how can you say, show us the Father?

4 Colossians 1 verse 15. Colossians 1 verse 15a. He, Jesus Christ, is the image of the invisible God. This is really getting at it here. The Apostle Paul says that Christ is the image of the invisible God.

God the Father dwells in inapproachable life. It would kill you to look upon Him, but He's the image that you can see and live and know. 5 Hebrews 1 verse 3. Hebrews 1 verse 3. Here the author of Hebrews is speaking of Jesus and he says, Who being the brightness of his glory and The express image of His person.

He is the brightness of the glory of God. We saw this in verse 14 in John 1, didn't we? And the Word became flesh, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. He, Jesus, is the brightness of God's glory, and the express image of His person. Here's the point.

God the Son, who took on flesh and dwelt among us reveals God the Father. He took on flesh. One reason, yes, was to die for sinners so that we can be reconciled to Him. But another reason is to reveal the Father. Listen to what J.C.

Ryle says. I was so close to ending without a Ryle quote, but I had to. Ryle says, his perfect wisdom, his almighty power, his unspeakable love to sinners, his incomparable holiness, his hatred of sin could never be represented to our eyes more clearly than we see them in Christ's life and death." So true. So true. How could you see God more fully than what we have revealed to us in the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Here's the conclusion, and then we'll have a couple of applications. The conclusion is this. The prologue is verses 1-18. A prologue is just an introductory section that sets up the rest of a work of literature. This is the prologue to John.

It sets up the rest of the Gospel of John. It sets the stage for the rest of the Gospel of John. It begins in verse 1, The Word was made flesh. No, that's not verse 1. Excuse me.

I defaulted to that. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Think of how similar that is to this last section with Jesus being in the bosom of the Father revealing God in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He really begins and ends this introductory section to the Gospel of John in exactly the same way. That Jesus is the ultimate self-revelation of God.

If you want to know about God, you go to Jesus, you gaze upon Jesus, and now he gives us the rest of the gospel to gaze upon Jesus. Teach us about God. Now God is revealed through the life and the preaching and the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus. Applications three. Three of them.

Number one, be careful not to undervalue the law, but don't think you can ever overvalue Christ. A lot of people actually take this verse to diminish the law, to undervalue the law. The law is incredibly valuable as a standard of righteousness. It tells us what God loves. When you know what someone loves, you know what they are like.

You know a lot about what I like from the things that I love, what I am like by the things that I love. The law has tremendous values. Don't undervalue the law. John is not diminishing the law. He is exalting Christ.

And to that point, don't ever think that you can overvalue the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope that we gain a reputation for being scandalously fixated on Christ. Praise God for the privilege of living after our Lord Jesus Christ. So, human history, 6, 000 years, 4, 000 of those years was before Christ. If you had anything at all, you had the candle.

If you had anything at all, you had the candle. And most, the Gentiles, we're all Gentiles I think, We wouldn't have even had the candle. Now we're after Christ and you can have a Bible for $2 and know it all. Here we are. And the sun is up.

We're under the noonday sun. You know the privileges that go along with that? Just thank God you live after the time of Christ. That you can see all that we have the privilege of seeing and know all that we have the privilege of knowing by gazing upon Christ and really understanding God in a fundamentally different and fuller and better way than people for 4, 000 years could. Peter says all the prophets wanted to see this day.

They were greater than us in the way that they were raised up to be used by God, but they knew so much less than we have the privilege of knowing. We should thank God every day for that. For Gentiles, we wouldn't have even had the candle for two-thirds of human history to date. Number three. Make it your lifelong aim to know God by studying Christ.

We don't finish the fourth grade and move on to the fifth grade in this one. You're never done with this grade. Make it your lifelong aim. Till the day that you die, however many days that is, study Christ, all of them. If you want to know God, you look on Christ.

That does not mean, hey, don't worry about studying the law. People who have Christ can actually understand the law in a better and fuller and richer way than anyone who had the law before Christ could. So not only do we have Christ to look upon, we can actually understand the law in a richer, more fundamentally true way than they ever could. The law is more benefit to us than those who only had the law. So by all means, give yourself to a study of the law, but more so give yourself to study in Christ every day.

Never be long out of the gospels. Never be long out of the Gospels. It should be a regular part of our diet. The hymn, I Love to Tell the Story, has a verse that starts, I love to tell the story for those who know it best seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest. Isn't that true of the people you know who have really gone deep in their Christianity.

I'm not talking about shallow Christians, I'm talking about deep Christians. They're the ones who love to hear the most plain, basic gospel preaching. They can't get enough of it. Though they've been hearing plain gospel preaching about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the salvation of sinners. And it's like the first time they've ever heard it when they hear that preaching.

Mature Christians don't get tired of it. Their appetite for the plain, clear preaching of Christ crucified for sinners doesn't diminish. It grows. Their appetite grows for Christ. Those who know it best seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest.

May we be those people. Father, How could we know your grace fully without gazing on Christ? How could we know the unmerited favor of God without being able to gaze upon the cross. How could we know the truth of God, what you are like, what you love, who you are, unless the Word became flesh and dwelt among us so that we could behold His glory, the glory as of the only begotten. No one else could have a glory like that.

We thank you for Christ. We thank you for the leap forward in understanding who you are, O God, that came when Christ came into the world and lived and died and rose again. We praise you in Jesus name. Amen.