In the sermon titled 'The Fulness of Jesus Christ,' Jason Dohm expounds on the exaltation of Jesus Christ as presented in John chapter 1. He emphasizes the significance of the incarnation, stating that Jesus being fully God and fully man is essential for salvation. The sermon reflects on the dual nature of Christ, necessary for Him to be an acceptable sacrifice. Dohm highlights John the Baptist's role as a forerunner to Jesus, proclaiming His coming and establishing Jesus' preeminence. The sermon stresses the continuous and abundant grace available from Jesus' fullness, which believers receive as ongoing grace upon grace. Dohm encourages believers to prioritize Jesus in their lives and to let this awareness of His infinite resources drive a revival in their prayer lives, emphasizing that Jesus must hold the utmost priority in discourse, preaching, and personal devotion.

The title of the sermon this morning is The Fullness of Jesus Christ. I hope there's a sense that week upon week as we work through John chapter 1, that John the Gospel writer is just piling up the exaltation of Jesus Christ. To me it's like he's searching for a way to lift up Jesus a little higher so that he would be exalted in the view of everyone who comes to this gospel and studies. This week is no different than that. Jesus Christ has lifted up higher than He has been in any week that's gone before us here in this first chapter.

So this is about the fullness of Jesus so that we would worship Jesus in all of His fullness. Last week we only looked at one little verse. It wasn't that little, actually. It was verse 14, and it was explicitly about the wonder of the incarnation. There have been some hints at it earlier in the chapter, but now the Gospel writer John stops hinting and he says it outright, the Word was made flesh.

God took on human flesh. God the Son, Jesus, took on human flesh. He really lived a human life, not for a few days, but for a generation, for 33 years. He came and He dwelt among us. And for me, out of that one verse, verse 14, there were two big takeaways.

The first is this, is that this is really required for our salvation. If God doesn't take on flesh as a sinner, I can't be saved. There's no way. Because when the Word became flesh when God took on humanity he became human he didn't stop being God but he started being human I don't really fully understand that but that's what the Bible teaches He was fully God and he was fully man, and both of those are required for me to be saved. If he's fully God, but he's not fully man, then he can't be a sacrifice in my place because I'm a man.

If someone's going to stand in my place and get what I deserve for my sins, it's going to have to be a man. He must be fully manned for that. But if he's just fully manned, then he'll have the problems I have. He'll have the defilements that I have. He must be fully God so that he has the purity that is required of a sacrifice that could be acceptable.

He must be fully God. He must be fully man. And so these are the things that are required for me to be saved as a sinner. Secondly, the second big takeaway from that verse was that God desires to dwell with us. You shouldn't miss that in this verse.

He dwelt among us. And we saw in Revelation 21, that same exact language, Revelation 21 being the second to the last chapter of the whole Bible, it's right at the end of the Bible, it's how the Bible ends, the same language being used. Out of heaven comes a new Jerusalem and it's going to be the tabernacle of God with men and we're going to dwell with Him face to face. So this is Jesus coming and living a life on earth is just a sign and a foreshadowing of what God desires for all eternity and that is to dwell face to face with His children. This is a marvel and a wonder.

This should be sweet to our souls that not only does God not want to leave us in our sins getting what we deserve But he actually wants to be with us He wants to dwell with us it is wonderful that he wants to save us But But our salvation is not the end that God has in mind. It is a means. It is a highway to what God has in mind. What is that? That He will dwell with us face to face throughout all eternity.

Praise the Lord for that. This week we're back to John the Baptist. John the Baptist has already been introduced earlier in the chapter. We're back to John the Baptist and his testimony. And then John the Gospel writer is going to give us the theological truth that flows from John the Baptist's testimony.

So I'm going to try to keep the Johns straight and make sure that you know which one I'm talking about because we have John the Baptist And we have John the Gospel writer who's given us this Gospel of John. And John the Baptist is going to give a testimony in these two verses, and then in the second verse John the Gospel writer is going to say, here's what this means for you. And he's going to tell us what it means for us. As we come to this text of Scripture, let's come to the text in prayer. Our God, we thank you for the forerunner, John the Baptist, that you promised to send a man and then did send a man to make the people ready to receive the Savior that you had also promised to send.

So thank you for John the Baptist and his work to prepare us for Jesus. But God, thank you so much more for the Lord Jesus Christ, whose life and death makes a way for us to be at peace with you. You're so holy, we're so full of sin, there's no way to have peace with you unless one stands in our place to get what we deserve. Thank you for sending your son Jesus for that great purpose. That we might dwell with you face to face throughout all eternity, free from sin, free from the penalty of our sin, free from the stain of sin, completely reconciled to you throughout all eternity.

Thank you Lord in Jesus name. Amen. We have two verses I'd just like to look at them one at a time so I'll be reading John chapter 1 verse 15 and then talking about it. Follow along as I read. John chapter 1 verse 15.

John, this is John the Baptist, bore witness of him, Jesus, and cried out saying, This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me is preferred before me because he was before me." So here in this verse we have the witness of John the Baptist. There's a note-taking page on the back of the handout, so if you're actually taking your notes there and you're filling in the blanks, the blank is witness, the witness of John the Baptist. That's what we have in verse 15. John the Gospel writer, we're studying the Gospel of John, has already introduced us to John the Baptist. And so I want to remind us of what John the Gospel writer has already said about John the Baptist.

Look back to verses 6 through 8. Same chapter, John chapter 1, verses 6-8. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This is John the Baptist. This man came for a witness to bear witness of the light, the light is Jesus, that all through him might believe.

He was not that light but was sent to bear witness of that light. So this is John the Gospel writer's introduction to John the Baptist. He puts before us the one that God sent to make the people ready to receive the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. So John the Gospel writer has already said he was sent to be a witness of the light of Jesus. And here in our text he begins doing what God sent him to do.

He begins witnessing. I said when I was preaching on that earlier text that John the Baptist's mission was his message. In other words, his whole purpose for coming was to declare that Jesus Christ was the Savior that God had promised to send. Now here he is, he's doing that. Let's tie this in with last week's verse.

The Word became flesh and he dwelt among us." And now John the Gospel writer points back to John the Baptist who is the forerunner. He's the one to come before the Lord Jesus Christ. Just like a human king would have a herald coming before him, clearing the streets saying, make way, make way, the king is coming. So the king of kings, the Lord Jesus Christ, has a herald coming before him, making ready for him saying, make way the king is coming. And God had promised that he would send a savior into the world, but he also promised that he would send someone, he would send a man into the world to declare that this Savior had arrived.

And so all of what we're seeing this week is a fulfillment of prophecy. There's Old Testament prophecy, yes, of the Messiah, the Christ, the Savior that God would send to set us free from the penalty of our sins, but He also declared through the prophets that one would come before the Messiah, one would come before this Savior to declare that time is now, he's here, and this is John the Baptist. So in our text, John The Baptist is crying out. This is not language that we normally use. We speak of things much more conversationally.

Crying out is sort of a strange phrase, but really it's being used as a kind of technical term, meaning a prophetic proclamation. John the Baptist is a prophet, and he's declaring what God has told him to declare. So when we see he's crying out, you should think of this in terms of a prophetic proclamation. The prophet that God sent is declaring in a loud voice what God has told him to declare. There are three things that I'd like to say about this.

Number one, let me quote John Calvin. Here's what John Calvin says about John the Baptist and his crying out. Number one, Calvin says, he did not mutter among a few men but openly and with a loud voice preached Christ." So John the Baptist knew what the people didn't know and he's not muttering this secret, the things that he knows that the people don't know, to a few men over in a corner. He's out in public crying out, declaring What God has told him to declare. The Gospel accounts say that multitudes of people, streams of people were coming out of Jerusalem in order to hear John preach and to be baptized by him.

He's not muttering to just a few in a corner. He's crying out. It is a public declaration that the Messiah, the Savior that God had promised to send, has been sent, and it is His time. Number two, Secondly, about John the Baptist crying out, it had been about 400 years since the last canonical utterance. I'm being careful about how I speak about this.

You probably never heard the phrase, canonical utterance, at all. This is a canonical utterance, meaning the scripture or the Bible is sometimes referred to as the canon, meaning all the things that God wanted His people to have, all the truth that God wanted His people to have is here. And the canon is closed, meaning don't expect any books after the book of Revelation. God is done revealing in this way the truths that he's intended for us to have in black and white on paper he's done the cannon is full and it is it is closed Well that wasn't true at the time of John the Baptist and Jesus. God was still speaking and giving Scripture.

Now he's done but then he wasn't done. And so God kept giving revelation through time. He gave Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus and numbers and Deuteronomy to Moses. Moses is the author of those those five books and then he gave additional revelation, additional truth to prophets And so he's adding scripture and then 400 years, nothing. For over 400 years there was no new truth revealed by God and John the Baptist breaks the silence.

Actually, technically that's not true. It was actually his father, Zechariah, who was given prophecy, truth directly from God about John the Baptist, his son, and about the Lord Jesus Christ, and you'll find it in Luke chapter 1 where Zacharias has given this prophecy and it makes its way into Scripture. But John is really where the floodgates open and here comes divine truth from God that God intends for all of his people to have in the Bible. That hadn't happened for 400 years. Thirdly, Number three about John the Baptist crying out.

The New King James, the translation that we're using, doesn't bring over the verb tenses with precision. So the translation's fine, it's telling us basically what the Greek says, but if our translation had brought over the verb tenses with precision, very literally, we would see that the first verb is in the present tense. John bears witness, not John bore witness. So it would be present tense. It's happening now.

John bears witness to Jesus, and that the second verb tense is the perfect tense which has the force of a present tense. So just think of it like present tense. Cries out, not cried out. Present tense not passed. So John bears witness, present tense, here and now, he bears witness and John cries out, present tense, here and now, he's crying out.

The difference is subtle but it's significant. And what is being communicated by John the Gospel writer is that John the Baptist's testimony is Ongoing John is crying out today Isn't he are we here are we studying these words Is John's testimony being declared and relevant today? John the Baptist's testimony hasn't gone anywhere in the present tense. John the Baptist is crying out that Jesus is the Christ, the promised Savior. Why?

Well, we were already told why in verse 7, that all through him might believe, that through his testimony, John the Baptist's testimony, you might believe because you can't be saved unless you believe. You might believe and in believing in God's Christ, God's Savior, God's Son, that you might have life. So what John is saying is this, this one that I've been speaking of, he's pointing to his past testimony, John the Baptist is pointing to his past testimony, He's saying, I've been speaking to you about one, and you don't know him yet. He's unknown to all of you, but I've been talking to you about him. I've been preaching about him.

I've been crying out about this one. He's coming after me and he is of the first rank. He ranks higher than me. When we see in our text that he is preferred before me, The Greek word that our translators have translated to preferred before me is talking about rank. Okay, rank, military language.

You have generals at the top and you have privates down here at the bottom. The privates don't have authority over anyone. The generals have authority over everyone. Jesus outranks me. Jesus is a higher rank than me.

Jesus is the first rank is what John is crying out. He's proclaiming. And again it was essential that John the Baptist make this distinction clear, that he say, Jesus is a higher rank than me. No, no, no, why is that? Well, it's because John the Baptist was a really, really, really, really, really big deal in his day.

Because his ministry was so short, it was probably a six-month public ministry only and then he's imprisoned by Herod and then he's beheaded. Okay so he lives his life to make it to become ready for a six month ministry only. He was only on the scene for a very short period of time, but what a period of time it was. Everyone was going to him. John the Baptist was the buzz during his time.

During his time, it was a really big deal. So much so, listen to this. This is Luke chapter three verses 15 and 16. You probably won't have time to turn there before I'm done. So you can just listen.

Luke chapter 3 verses 15 and 16. And now as the people were in expectation and all reasoned in their hearts about John the Baptist, whether he was the Christ or not, John answered saying to all, I indeed baptize you with water, but one mightier than I is coming whose sandal strap I am not worthy to lose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." So this is that time. We don't think of John the Baptist as much because he's only mentioned in certain spots and he only had a six month window of ministry and so he is sort of faded into the background in the Gospels but during his time understand that all the hubbub all the buzz was about John the Baptist, so much so that the people were reasoning in their hearts, is this the Christ? Is John the Baptist the Savior that God had promised to send and John the Baptist settles that matter himself.

He declares to everyone that there's one who's coming after him. He's paving the way for this one who will come after him. And John the Baptist, even though people think this might be the Christ, John the Baptist assures them, I'm not even worthy to stoop down and unstrap the sandal of the Christ. I'm just making his way ready. So it's very important that John actually proclaimed the distinction between him and Christ and to say the Christ, the promised Savior, is not me and He's the first rank.

I'm not even worthy to stoop down and undo his sandals. In fact, when Jesus, in the other Gospel accounts that give an account of Jesus' baptism, Jesus submitted himself to John the Baptist's baptism. When he came to be baptized by John the Baptist, John the Baptist says, are you going to be baptized by me? You should baptize me instead. You should be baptizing me, not me baptizing you.

He understood that the Lord Jesus was the promised Savior. He understood exactly what his ministry was and that Jesus had the place of first rank. So what does Jesus say about John the Baptist in the gospels. Well, in Matthew, I think it was chapter 11, but in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus says of John the Baptist, of those born of women, there's no one greater than John the Baptist. No wonder people were buzzing about John the Baptist if that's true.

Jesus said it, so it's true. But what does John the Baptist say about Jesus? I'm not even worthy to stoop down and undo his sandal. Now John gives the basis for Jesus' preeminence. Preeminence is just a word that means the place of highest honor or the place of highest rank.

What's the basis of that? How come Jesus is preferred before John the Baptist? John the Baptist tells us. John the Baptist says, for he was before me. Now, John was Jesus was born after John.

John the Baptist was born first. So how can it be that Jesus was before John the Baptist? And John began his public ministry first. His whole ministry was to go before Jesus before anyone even knew who Jesus was and what he had come to do. John the Baptist was to make the people ready.

His public ministry was engaged first. So how can he say, Jesus was before me? John the Baptist is acknowledging not only is Jesus fully man, the Word was made flesh, but that He is also the pre-existent eternal God. That's the only thing this can mean. When John the Baptist says that a younger man who's not in public ministry yet was before him it can only mean that he understands that Jesus Christ is man but also pre-existent from eternity past existing eternal God.

And this teaching is going to become clearer and clearer and clearer and clearer as We work through the Gospel of John. In John chapter 8, I don't know how many months it's going to take us to get to John chapter 8. At this pace it will be forever, but we're going to pick up the pace. In any event, in John chapter 8, The Jews are going to start to get nervous about what Jesus is saying about himself. The Jews are thinking Jesus is a little full of himself, and they actually ask him, are you greater than our father Abraham?

Listen to what Jesus says. Listen to what Jesus says. John 8.58, Jesus said to them, most assuredly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. So in John 8, he's going to say of himself, Jesus is going to say of himself, I'm before Abraham. Now, you know, John The Baptist was born probably six months before Jesus.

And he says, Jesus was before me even though I'm older than him. Now Abraham was 2200 years before Jesus. So John the Baptist you might be able to attribute it to, oh there's just a timing, they're not really clear on the timing. You can't make that mistake in John 8 when Jesus says before Abraham was, I am. This man who lived 2200 years ago, you know him, the father of the nation, I was before him.

And did the Jews understand What he was trying to communicate, what he was teaching about himself, that he was the pre-existent eternal God, well they took up stones to stone him. There was no misunderstanding there. They knew exactly what he was claiming to be, and it made them think, He's saying blasphemy, he's claiming to be God and they took up stones, they wanted to stone him. But it wasn't his time yet, so he wasn't killed by them at this time. The point of all this is that John the Baptist understands his place.

He understands his mission. That it is not to draw attention to himself, but it is to go before the one who is worthy of all the attention, the Lord Jesus Christ. Before moving on, I'd like to make this one observation. The Gospel of John, particularly the very earliest chapters of the Gospel of John, make clear how much was known right away. Meaning if you have a thought in your mind that the declaration, the understanding of who Jesus really was developed over time and it was known sometime before the cross banished that from your mind.

John the Baptist understood and was declaring that Jesus was the pre-existent eternal God before Jesus ever preached a sermon. Now This wasn't broadly known and it wasn't understood. So I'm not saying people understood what was being taught. I'm just saying it was being taught and actually with significant clarity. Before we get out of John chapter 1, John the Baptist is going to declare that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

He's going to declare that Jesus is the Son of God. There's going to be a declaration by Nathaniel that He is the Christ. So these things were known from the very earliest days of John the Baptist and then Jesus' ministry. We'll also see that the disciples are struggling to understand all of this, what is clearly taught, but they don't really understand it even after the resurrection. Because they don't confuse those two things.

Because the disciples had a hard time grasping what exactly it meant, doesn't mean it wasn't taught with clarity. We'll see both of those things as we work through John. But just be noticed and be astounded by the clarity with which the true and full identity of Jesus Christ was being taught from the earliest days of John the Baptist ministry and then Jesus' ministry. Next verse, We're back in John chapter 1 and we're in the second verse of our text, verse 16. And of His fullness and of Jesus' fullness we have all received and grace for grace." Here in this verse we have the fullness of Jesus Christ.

So if you're taking notes on the handout and you're filling in blanks, fullness fills in the blank. The fullness of Jesus Christ. The first verse was the testimony of John the Baptist. The second verse is the fullness of Jesus Christ. These two things, the witness of John the Baptist and the fullness of Jesus Christ, are interrelated in this way.

In other words, how do these two things fit together? They fit together in this way. John the Baptist's testimony is the foundation for John the Gospel writer's conclusion. Verse 15 is the foundation upon which verse 16 is built. John the Baptist witnessed that Jesus is the pre-existent, eternal God is the foundation upon which John the Gospel writer draws his conclusion in verse 16 that Jesus' fullness is the fountainhead of our blessing.

Okay, so the foundation and then the foundation being John the Baptist witnessed that Jesus is the pre-existent, the eternal God. Now John the gospel writer comes and builds on that foundation. What does he build? That because that's true, Jesus is full in a way in which we all receive the blessing from it. He becomes an ever-bubbling fountain from which we are blessed.

All of our blessings flow from this truth that Jesus Christ is the pre-existent eternal God and because He is that, He is a fountain that can never be exhausted. John the Gospel writer has been building to this conclusion. Again, look back at verse 7. Verse 7, this man came for a witness, John the Baptist came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe. So John the Baptist came to cry out, to prophetically declare that Jesus, the promised Savior, is here so that you'd believe it.

And then verses 12, look at verse 12, but as many as received Jesus, to them he gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name." So John the Baptist came so that you would believe his testimony. And then in verse 12 it says, if you believe in his testimony, then you're given the right to become children of God. You can come into the family of God with all of its rights and privileges and blessings if you'll believe in His name. John the Gospel writer has already been establishing Jesus Christ as the fountainhead of every blessing that ever came to a Christian. So we, and of His fullness we have all received are all of those and only those who have received Jesus through believing in His name.

That's the we. Of His fullness we have all received. Okay, who's the we who's receiving out of the fullness of Jesus Christ? It is all those who have received Him by believing in His name. Again, believing in His name means you believe Him as He's revealed Himself to be.

That's what in His name means. You haven't invented a new Jesus and just said, I believe in my own invention. No, no, no. You have to believe in Jesus as He has revealed himself to be. If you do that then you have received him and you come into the family of God.

Now What is John the Gospel writer trying to communicate when he uses the term fullness? Of his fullness we have all received. Why not just say, We've received from Jesus. The things we get we've received from Jesus. What is this about His fullness that is communicating something important?

It's this. My needs, especially my spiritual needs, are satisfied according to the fullness of one who is fully God. Your needs, if you've received Him by believing in His name, by believing Him as He's revealed Himself to be, if that's true of you, then your needs, especially your spiritual needs, are satisfied according to the fullness of one who is fully God. God, and Jesus is God, if John 1 doesn't teach anything else it teaches that Jesus is God. God is omnipotent, he's omniscient, he's omnipresent.

Children, I'm saying these words that are familiar to your parents but aren't familiar to you. Learn these three words. The Bible teaches over and over and over again that these things are true about God, that these things are essential and fundamental to what it means for God to be God, okay? He is omnipotent. It means that He's all-powerful.

It means that there's nothing that He can't do. The Bible teaches that God called all things into existence by the power of his word. Meaning that he didn't take materials that already existed and fashion them into something. He spoke things out of nothing. There was nothing and He spoke and then there were things.

That's the kind of power that He has. There's nothing that He's ever wanted to do that He couldn't do. He is all powerful. He is able to do whatever He wants to do whenever He wants to do it. He is omnipotent.

The Bible teaches that God is omniscient. Your parents will tell you how to spell it later. Just make a note. God is omniscient. It means that he's all-knowing.

It means that there's nothing to know that can be known, that is to be known, that God doesn't know. In any corner of the universe, does the universe have corners? I don't know, but God knows because He's omniscient. He knows everything. Everywhere, everything that can be known, God knows it.

You cannot have a need that God doesn't know about because He's omniscient. He knows everything. You don't have needs that God doesn't know about. He knows Everything that could be known. Even if nothing's ever been spoken about it, even if it's just in your mind, He knows all of what's in your mind and mine and everyone who's alive or has ever lived.

Bible teaches that God is omnipresent, means He's present everywhere at the same time. Wow. I don't understand that either. I don't really understand omnipotent, all-powerful. I don't understand how you could be that.

But I believe that the Bible teaches it and that the Bible is true. I don't really understand omniscience, knowing everything that can be known. I don't understand how you could do that, but I do believe that the Bible teaches that and I know that the Bible is true. And I don't really understand omnipresence, how you could be everywhere all at once knowing the vastness of the universe. There's nowhere in all that vastness that he's not right now.

How many churches are meeting right now? He's in attendance at every one of them. He's there. He's hearing every sermon that's being preached right now. He's present everywhere all the time.

Now, this is true of God. He's all powerful. He's all knowing. He's present everywhere all at the same time. Now Jesus satisfies my needs out of that.

These are the resources of God. This is what it means. The fullness of Jesus is the fullness of God. And the fullness of God is an all-powerful fullness. It's an all-knowing fullness.

It's an always-present fullness. And Jesus is drawing out of that fullness to satisfy my needs and your needs. He's drawing from a bottomless ocean. There's no bottom to the ocean that he's drawing the bucketfuls that I need. I need a bucketful of the ocean today.

Well, he's drawing out of an ocean and it has no bottom so that he's not diminished no matter how many bucket fulls I need he's never less full I'm not draining the resources of God with my needs he's not like that He has no limitations to his power or his knowledge or his presence. When he dips out a bucket full, somehow he's not down a bucket full. It's a fullness that is always replenished as soon as he draws from it, he's never diminished. This is true of God. This is wonderful of God.

Now, what need do you have that he can't fill? Is it true? Is he really drawing from a bottomless ocean? Friends, it's true. It's true.

Do you know what that means for me? It means it's impossible for me to need something that he can't supply. That's not possible for me to need something that he can't supply. Listen to how Paul says this. I'll give you two verses out of Paul's writings that just drives the point home.

Ephesians 1 verse 7. Paul wrote this letter to the Ephesians chapter 1 verse 7. He says, in Him, in Christ, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. So my biggest need is I have sins and my sins separate me from this holy God and make me deserve the death penalty from this holy God. That's my biggest need.

Is that your biggest need? You better believe it is. This is the number one on your list of things you need is your sins require death. Paul says, we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. So do you have sins that God can't deal with?

He's drawing from the riches of His grace. He's drawing, He's taking bucketfuls out of the bottomless ocean so that He's not diminished when He takes all that you need. He's not diminished at all. It's according to the riches of His grace. So there's no sin that can't be dealt with if you'll repent and believe the gospel.

None. It doesn't matter what the story of your past is. It doesn't matter. Because it can't touch the resources of the bottomless ocean. It can't touch those resources.

Listen to Paul in Colossians 2 verses 9 and 10. Paul wrote a letter to the Colossians. Colossians chapter 2 verses 9 and 10. Paul writes, for in him, for in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." Now, this was thinking, John 1, the Word became flesh. In Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

There's nothing that God is that Jesus isn't. All the fullness of being God is dwelling in Jesus but in a body. And then he says this, and you are complete in Him. In other words, your completeness is guaranteed by His fullness. I can't be completed, that's just too big.

No, you don't even touch the resources of this bottomless ocean. In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. All of God's fullness is in Jesus Christ and you are complete in Him. How can you say God can't make me complete? What a comfort.

John, the Gospel writer, in our text, is trying to comfort us. We have so many discouragements in this life and most of them you trace them back to what you're like and you know you and all your sins and all your weaknesses, all the words that you never should have said, all the thoughts you never should have thought, all the things that you never should have done. John the Gospel writer wants you to know that all the need that that's created is satisfied by Jesus's fullness. He is a bottomless ocean and you just need some bucketfuls of what he has and he'll not be diminished at all by it. What an enticement to pray.

If you can come away from verse 16 and say, that doesn't make me want to pray you have a cold hard heart that makes me want to stop the sermon so we can all go pray because we're praying to a God who has this kind of infinite resources infinite resources no ends to them it's a but he's a bottomless ocean let's go ask him for what we need knowing that he has these kind of resources to draw upon. John, the Gospel writer says, and grace for grace. Look at that. And of his fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. Now what does that mean?

Well the commentators have many thoughts on what that means, but I think it is very simple. I think it means that the children of God, those who have faith in Jesus, receive ever replenishing supplies of grace out of Jesus's fullness. That's what it means. And grace for grace. And of His fullness we have all received and grace for grace.

The children of God received ever replenishing, meaning as soon as you've used the grace you needed, more grace is there. Ever replenishing supplies of grace out of Jesus' fullness. I think it's closely related to Lamentations 3, verses 22 and 23. We don't get to Lamentations very much. You probably don't even know where it is unless you're pretty familiar with your Bible.

It's right between Jeremiah and Ezekiel. It's not many pages, so it's easy to miss. It was written by Jeremiah. Listen to Lamentations 3, verses 22 and 23. Verses 22 and 23.

Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed. So why aren't Christians consumed? The Lord's mercies. Because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning, great is your faithfulness.

Jeremiah, the author of Lamentations, is saying when you wake up and When Christians wake up in the morning, there's a fresh supply of mercy waiting on them. And they're going to need it every day. What John the Gospel writer is teaching is a close cousin to that. It's so related. You wake up, it's a new day, you need new grace.

Why? Well, because I'm sinning against today. I'm sinning again today. It's a new day, I have new sins. I'm thinking things I shouldn't think.

I'm saying things I shouldn't say. I'm doing things I shouldn't do. Again today, I need a fresh supply of grace. I needed yesterday's grace and it was there, but as soon as I come to today I have fresh needs and there's fresh grace waiting. It's like the manna in the wilderness.

The manna in the wilderness in the Old Testament is such a good picture of this. Every day, they've done nothing for it. They didn't plant seeds, they didn't water, they didn't plow fields. They just wake up and there's bread on the ground. Supernatural bread on the ground.

What they need for the day, all that they need. And then they consume it that day, We don't have any food, but when they wake up in the morning, there's a fresh supply of bread. This is how it is with the grace of God and the children of God. You wake up in the morning, you have fresh needs, there's fresh grace for those needs. I hope this text is making you happy.

It's making me happy. Now listen again to verse 14. We're back in John chapter 1. I just want to go back and read last week's verse again and just listen to it through the lens of what we just learned in these two verses. Verse 14, and the Word became flesh.

This is speaking of Jesus, God taking on humanity, becoming human. 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. What characterized Jesus' 33 years on earth, but especially the three years of his public ministry, grace, grace, grace and truth of his fullness we have all received and grace for grace. Two of the translations NASB and ESB render it grace upon grace. It's kind of piling up grace.

Think of it that way. Okay, here's the conclusion. Here's the conclusion. John the Baptist testified that Jesus, though he is man, is also pre-existent and eternal God. He was before me even though I was born first and I came onto the scene first.

He was before me and he was before Abraham. Jesus as pre-existent eternal God was before Abraham who was 2200 years earlier than his lifetime. He was around long before then. And John the Gospel writer takes up that truth and says that that has enormous implications for you and me. It means that he has a bottomless ocean of grace to draw on to supply my needs.

So, the truth, the declaration of John the Baptist, Jesus is God and as God he is pre-existent, he is eternal. And then John the Gospel writer takes up that truth and he builds on it and he says, here's what it means to me. This Jesus, this Savior has a bottomless ocean of resources out of which to supply any need I could ever have. Praise the Lord. Two applications.

Two applications. One, Jesus must have the place of priority. He must, he must, he must, he must, he must have the place of priority. John the Baptist didn't even think he was worthy to stoop down and undo Jesus' sandal. John the Baptist was on the same plane as the greatest humans who have ever lived, and he didn't even think he was worthy to stoop down to handle Jesus's feet.

What is the place of Jesus Christ in your discourse? You talk to people, what is his place in your conversations with people? Does he ever have a place there? How could he not have a place there? John the Baptist is crying out, He has a public testimony.

Well you know what? John the Baptist isn't the only one with a public testimony. I have a public testimony when I talk to my neighbors, people in our community. So do you. You might not be crying out in the wilderness.

We might not be prophets. The name of Jesus Christ should be on our lips. He must have the place of priority in our discourse. My preaching. When we have men preaching at a nursing home on Monday nights.

We have men preaching at a nursing home on Tuesday nights. We're out at the abortion clinic. We're appealing to women as they go into the abortion clinic in Raleigh on Saturday mornings. Christ must have the place of honor, the place of priority in our preaching yes we should preach morality we should preach the law to drive people to Christ If you tell people you're a sinner period and you walk away Heaven help us It has to be You're a sinner comma not period That's not the end of the sentence. You have violated God's law.

Period. You just walk away. No, no. Comma. You must repent to be reconciled to this God.

You can be reconciled through Jesus Christ. That sentence always has to be finished. Christ must have the place of priority in our preaching. How about our calendars? You know what?

I'm going to talk about calendars and checkbooks. And I'm really just talking about time and money. Okay so we have what we say, chat chat chat chat chat chat chat chat chat chat, And then we have how we actually allocate our time and how we actually allocate our money. Which tells the truth about me? The talking head?

I don't think so. I think the calendar, and I'm not talking about what you actually write on your calendar, I'm saying if a precise investigation into how I allocate my time is said, what is that declaring about the priority or non-priority of Jesus Christ? What does the allocation of my time say? Now my checkbook. What does the allocation of my money say about the priority or non-priority of the Lord Jesus Christ?

One, Jesus must have the place, a priority. Here's a question. Do you think Jesus is begging you for it? He is the King of Kings. He is the Lord of Lords.

He has the bottomless ocean of resources. He's not begging you. He's not a beggar. You're the beggar. I'm the beggar.

Jesus is the king. When we withhold affection, devotion from Jesus, do you think He's diminished by that? Is God less because you don't love Him as you should love Him? Is God less because you're not devoted to Him as you should be devoted? No, you're robbed!

He's not robbed! Jesus Christ is not a beggar, He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. You're stealing from yourself, I'm stealing from myself. Not from Him. He must have the place of priority, not because he's needy but because he's worthy worthy.

Number two and finally let verse 16 drive a revival in your prayer life. Now listen to verse 16 again. And of His fullness we have all received and grace for grace, grace upon grace, grace piling up on top of grace, always a fresh replenishment of the grace that you need. Let that drive a revival of your prayer life. Do you need it?

I need a revival in my prayer life. Do you need a revival in your prayer life? Is your prayer life, did it used to be something that it isn't now? My prayer life used to be something that it isn't now. Verse 16 should drive us, just the thought of a bottomless ocean and He has what I need.

I have so many needs. There's so many things I can do nothing about. Go pray about those things that you can do nothing about you need. He's the bottomless ocean. Go to Him.

Let this drive a revival of your prayer life. Here's your homework. Pick something specific. The bigger the better. Make it something you have no control over and then go to the one who's dipping out of the bottomless ocean this week and pray repeatedly about this thing.

Fix this in your mind. Jot a note down soon, like within the hour, jot a note down. I'm praying about this this week. I don't have any control over this, but I'm going to open my Bible this week and multiple times I'm going to look at verse 16 and contemplate the fullness of Jesus Christ as pre-existent eternal God and the resources that that means that he has as the all-powerful all-knowing everywhere at the same time God and I'm going to pray for something big that is out of my control. I'm checking homework next week.

I'm going to close with this. It's a quote from Matthew Henry. It sums it up well. He uses a word that we use in a different way. So let me explain that before I read the quote or the quotes are going to make a lot of sense.

He's going to say meanest. He's going to use the term meanest. Now, when we use that word now, we're talking about the mistreatment of someone else. I'm mean to you, then I mistreat you in a certain way. When they used it during the time he was alive, 1700s, it meant the lowliest.

So when I read meanest, you think lowliest, not somebody being mistreated. Meanest equals lowliest. Now you're ready for the quote. Matthew Henry says, all true believers receive from Christ's fullness. The best and greatest saints cannot live without Him.

The meanest, lowliest, and weakest may live by Him." This excludes proud boasting that we have nothing but we have received it. Matthew Henry is saying this verse, verse 16, receiving of His fullness and grace for grace should just lay us low. He's saying the greatest, the best and greatest saints can't live without that. The best and greatest saints are nothing without the fullness of Jesus Christ and grace for grace. But he's also saying that the lowliest and the weakest have all that they need in the fullness of Jesus Christ.

So who has something to boast of? The best and the greatest? No, they're nothing without the fullness of Jesus Christ. And yet, even the weakest, the lowliest Christians have all that they need to sustain them to the end. Praise the Lord.

Father, thank you for your goodness. Thank you for your truth. Thank you for pressing gospel truths on us week by week, thank you for the exultation of your Son in our text. And we pray that you would use it in our lives to just cause us to love the Lord Jesus like we've never loved him. We pray in his name, Amen.