Sermon
Grace And Truth
April 23, 2000 (5 PM)
Pastor Donald Sheley

I'm going to ask you to take your Bibles and join with me. A couple of weeks ago I was unable to preach the sermon that I have the notes for tonight, and I had that stomach flu so the notes got set aside and tonight I want you to take the notes that we prepared. There are two pages. One is a little blurred and the reason for that is because I could not find the original copy, and I had to copy my personal notes that have all of their writings and smearings on. And so yours is going to be just a little maybe in areas difficult to read. If you're new with us tonight, and I see that many of you are, what we're doing on Sunday morning is working our way through the book of John. Over the years it has been our approach to scripture that we take a book of the Bible and just take it chapter after chapter, verse after verse, and sometimes we have been in books of the Bible, we were in the book of James for almost two years. We were in the book of Revelation for almost a year, and we were in the book of Acts for a little over in a year. And for each one of these lessons, each one of these series, I have written lessons that go along with each of the chapters. And we're now in the process this summer we'll be publishing a number of those books. And now we're in the process of writing our commentary on the book of John. It's going to be a mammoth commentary; probably we'll have to put it in two or three volumes because already we have about 500 pages to the commentary. And what we do on Sunday morning is I provide for you my personal notes that I use as I study and make preparation. We don't always, on Sunday morning as you know, have the time to go to all of the notes, but it gives you the opportunity to take home and have for your Bible study and for your devotions for the week the comments on the passage that we have studied.

So tonight I'm going to ask you to turn in your Bible, its page 714 if you're using the pew Bible, and if you're using your own Bible, it's John chapter 1 and we're going to discuss briefly verses 14 through 18. This is what John writes. And what I've done for this particular lesson, I've put most of the Scripture passages right in the notes themselves. So if you want just follow along and you'll not have to use your Bible. 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 anytime. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

Our Lord Jesus Christ. Ah, what wondrous things of Thee are spoken. Paul writes, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn overall creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell. That's the Colossians passage. Then in the Philippians passage, Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and giving Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

And without controversy, he writes to Timothy, great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and was received up into glory. And John writes, And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

King of all that’s kingly, King of life and light,
Lord of all that's lovely, robed in raiment white;
Highest of the lofty, grandest of the great,
Gentlest of the gracious, perfect is Thy state.
Prince of all that's princely, strongest in Thy might,
Boundless in Thy bounty, brightest of the bright!

Kindest of the kindly, wisest of the wise;
Morning Star most brilliant, Monarch of the skies:
Richest of the wealthy, of mankind the Head,
Fairest of the friendly, First-born from the dead.
Famous in Thy victory, foremost in renown,
Righteous in Thy justice, matchless is Thy crown!

God of all that's godly, truly good and just,
Noblest of the worthy, worthy of our trust.
Choicest of the comely, mighty, Thou, and strong,
Gorgeous in Thy glory, valiant all along.
Wondrous in Thy wisdom, changeless in Thy love,
Ageless in Thy goodness, so like God above!

Power, riches, and wisdom unto Thee belong,
Hosts proclaim Thee worthy, in an endless song;
Every lip is praiseful, every voice upraised,
Christ is Lord triumphant, and forever praised!

It's a beautiful, beautiful poem. I have a series of books written by Mr. Charles J. Rolls, an Englishman, and these five books over 1200 pages, what Dr. Rolls does is he takes all the names of Christ and he talks about just Jesus Christ for 1200 pages. It is immensely rich and this is one of the poems. Charles J. Rolls was a brother to the man who created the Rolls-Royce car, and he graduated from a very fine University, I think it was Oxford, but he chose the ministry. His brother chose building cars and in his ministry he wrote some of the most beautiful poems, and I have just read one for you.

Page 2, All that God is, all that God says, all that God desires--all is fully expressed in the Lord Jesus Christ. You see Jesus made some tremendous claims about His relationship to God Almighty. He said, I and My Father are one. Thomas said unto Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him."

Jesus said to him, "have I been with you so along, 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’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the work. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.

And so John began this great gospel with these startling words: "In the beginning was the Word (Jesus Christ), and the Word (Jesus Christ) was with God, and the Word (Jesus Christ) was God." For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell. And it's interesting the word that Paul uses in that Colossians passage is a Greek word. It means the fullness, the completeness and Jesus, he is saying, is not only, not simply a sketch of God or a summary and more than a lifeless portrait of Him. In Him there is nothing that is left out; He is the full revelation of God, and nothing more is necessary. Now that's why Paul says in Him dwells all the fullness.

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners, the Hebrew passage, spake in time past unto the Fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, and by whom also He made the worlds; Who being the brightness of His glory, and the expressed image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power; whom He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. Again, everything that God is, everything He wanted to say to fallen man, has its full expression in the person of Jesus Christ. And that's why John wrote, we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Jesus Christ alone brings to men and women the full revelation of God and that He alone enables them to enter into His very presence. Underwriter to the Hebrews which we have just quoted, uses two great picture is to describe what Jesus was. He says, and we use the Greek word, He is the fulfillment or the effulgence of God's glory. It means the light which shines forth, and it can also mean reflection, the light which is reflected, and here it probably means the effulgence. And so what the writer to the Hebrews is saying is Jesus Christ is the shining of God's glory among men. And he also is saying that Jesus is the character, so those two pictures are the one is the effulgence, the shining forth of the glory, and secondly he says Jesus is the character of God's very essence. The Greek, character, means two things. First it's a seal, and second, it's the impression that the seal leaves on the wax. And the impression has the exact form of the seal so when the writer to the Hebrews said that Jesus was the character of the being of God, he meant that He was the exact in of God. Just as when you look at the impression, you see exactly what the seal that was made was like, so when you look at Jesus you see exactly what God is like. I and My Father are one.

You say now Pastor, why did you lay such emphasis there? It's because we have learned that it's the person of Jesus Christ where cults attack first, and I've suggested to you and warned you always as a congregation, when somebody wants to talk to you about their belief, what they believe, the first question you always ask them is this; what do you believe about Jesus Christ? And it's here where the cults begin to mumble and change words and change meanings, and any effort to take away the fullness of the godhead of Christ is an effort in heresy. You can always find a heresy; you can always find a cult, when you ask the question, what do you believe about Jesus Christ?

Page 3, now John uses a term which needs some explanation...the glory as of the only begotten of the Father. And again, the emphasis I'm using here is because here's where cults really come in with all effort to explain away or to give their interpretation of this particular passage. Only begotten...This term is never applied by John to any other but to Jesus Christ, and he uses it on five different occasions, namely and we give the verses that he uses. And it means literally an only child. But this term, only begotten, has been much misunderstood and misinterpreted in past centuries. We have our first record in church history of a misinterpretation of this term. It was by Arius who was a Bishop in Alexandria whose views were condemned at the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325, and who died in A.D. 336. His views were known as Arianism. Arius taught that God the Son was at one point created by God the Father, and that before that time the Son did not exist, nor did the Holy Spirit, but the Father only. And thus, though the Son is a heavenly being, who existed before the rest of creation and who is far greater than all the rest of creation, Arius said he is still not equal to the Father in all of his attributes. He may even be said to be "like the Father" or "similar to the Father" in His nature, but Arius went on to say He cannot be said to be "the same nature" as the Father.

Now those who followed Arius, the Arians, depended heavily on texts that called Jesus Christ God's only begotten Son, and again I reference the passages. If Christ were begotten by God the Father, this is their reasoning, and you'll find this in the reasoning of some of the false teaching that is in our world today. They reasoned that it must mean that he was brought into existence by God the Father. For the word beget in human experience refers to the Father's role in conceiving a child. Further support for the Arian view was found in Colossians 1:15, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Now does not firstborn here imply that the Son was at some point brought into existence by the Father? And if this is true of the Son, it must necessarily be true of the Holy Spirit as well. Now that was the reasoning of Arius. But remember, he was considered a heretic, and at the great Council of Nicea 1700 years ago they said Arius, we condemn you as a heretic. You're saying that Jesus Christ was created by God, He is a created being and that is not what the Scriptures teach.

Let's go on. But these texts do not require us to believe the Arian position. Colossians 1:15, which calls Christ "the firstborn of all creation" is better understood to mean that Christ has the rights or privileges of the firstborn. That is, according to biblical usage and custom, the rights of leadership or authority in the family from one generation to another. It was known as the birthright, and always that oldest son received the larger portion.

In the Hebrews 12:16 we read, lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. His birthright was the privileges and the authority was accorded to the eldest son. Now what a Father simply did as you prepared your birthright, and this comes up in the story of the prodigal son, when the Father divided his estate he divided it down the middle and the first half always went to the oldest boy, that was his birthright. With that also came the responsibility of caring for the aged mother if she was still alive, and he was considered the patriarch of the family. That was his birthright. That's what old Esau sold for a little bowl of soup, half of his father's estate.

Now so when that phrase is used by Paul in the Colossians passage, he is simply speaking of that authority and that position in the universe that God afforded Christ. Let's go on. It means that Christ has the privileges and the authority and the rule, the privileges belonging to the firstborn, but with respect to the whole creation. And the NIV translates it, the first born overall creation. And what Paul is simply using is a human term to express that position of authority that Christ has over all of the world, over all creation. As for the texts that say that Christ was God's only begotten Son, the early church felt so strongly the force of many other texts showing that Christ was fully and completely God, that it concluded that what ever "only begotten" meant, it did not mean created. Therefore in the Nicene Creed, in which some of you with Catholic backgrounds you quoted the Nicene Creed when you went for worship, it affirmed that Christ was begotten not made. As we have studied these various areas in theology, we've come to realize that the early fathers, the great men of God, in the early years of the church realized that there were so many possibilities of misinterpretation and that's why they were having these councils, the Council of Trent, the Council of Nicea, the Council of Constantinople, the Athanasian Creed. These were efforts made by the early men of the church to be very precise, very specific, with words because one word can change theology.

Let me show you. I met a minister a few years ago. It wasn't very long ago. But he said to me he said Pastor, I'm a Neo-evangelical. So what's a Neo- evangelical? Well he said, I believe that the Bible contains the word of God. I said you're wrong. Because if you say the Bible contains the word of God then you put yourself in the position of judging in the contents what were God's words and what were not God's words. And yet if you listen to some new evangelicals they'll tell you, I believe that the Bible contains the word of God. That's heretical. We say, the Bible is the word of God! There's the world of difference in saying the Bible is the word of God. That leaves it without equivocation. Whatever God says it’s His words, and we do not have the right to judge and say this God said and this is what man said. So words are very important, and that's why when you study theology you watch the efforts of these great men of the past to be so precise, and when you quote various creeds as they become a part of our church and a part of our worship, they are precisely written so that no possibility of error could come into the church.

Here's what the Nicene Creed says: We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, the only begotten; that is, of the essence of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God (notice how precise). Now they just kept saying, very God of very God, He's Light of Light, He is begotten, not made, being of the same substance of the Father. The effort by the ancient men of the church to say, listen, this is what the Bible has said, this is what Christianity has always believed, and don't try to change it. Jesus Christ is not a created being. He has always been God.

The same phrase was reaffirmed in the Council of Constantinople in 381. In addition to the phrase "before all ages" was added after "begotten of the Father" to show that His begetting was eternal. It never began to happen, but it was something that has been eternally true of the relationship between the Father and the Son. Page 4; However, the nature of the begetting has never been defined very clearly. What we have to always remember folks, when you study theology you come to a certain point where you must realize, and I have after preaching for 50 years (I preached my first sermon on Christmas Day 1950) so I've been in the pulpit 50 years, and I realize as a pastor I can only go so far with a theological concept and there I must stop, and from there I cannot go further. Because God's ways to are different than my ways and His thoughts are far different than my thoughts. And as a finite person with a finite mind I cannot move to some point of theology, once I get there I have to say, I do not know. I'll only know that when I arrive in God's eternal presence, and to try to explain it, to try to be dogmatic, preachers who have all the answers really bother me because we don't if we're honest. And I realize the more I study the more profound God's eternal word is, and there are times I come to points where I say God, I have to stop here because I don't know from this point on. A wonder of wonders when we arrive in His presence to realize how little we really did know.

This is an extremely important item of history and I note it here for you in the Christian church, and that's why I take time, much time with it. A further repudiation of the teaching Arius, the Nicene Creed insisted that Christ was "of the same substance as the Father". This dispute with Arius concerned two words that have become famous in history of Christian doctrine. The dispute, and I give you the words, same nature, and you'll notice that there's just a slight change with one letter, of similar nature. So in the Greek if you just take out and change one letter in the alphabet, it changes from "nature of", the same nature, to "similar nature". Now you see that changes, doesn't it?

If I say this is absolute and then I change one letter and say this is close to being absolute. So there is a difference between "same" and "similar". See what I'm saying? The technicality of words when you study the Scriptures is exceedingly important. Arius was happy to say that Christ was a supernatural heavenly being and that He was created by God before the creation of the rest of the universe, and even that He was "similar" to God in His nature. He wouldn't say He is of the exact nature.

Thus, Arius would agree to the word, and we give it here, but the Council of Nicea said and the Council of Constantinople realized that this did not go far enough, for if Christ is not exactly the same nature as the Father, then He is not fully God. So both councils insisted that Orthodox Christians confessed Jesus to be the same in nature as God the Father. And the difference between the two words was only one letter, the Greek letter iota, and some have criticized the church for allowing a doctrinal dispute over a single letter to consume so much attention for most of the fourth century. Some have wondered, "Could anything be more foolish than arguing over a single letter in word?"

Ladies and gentlemen, as a pastor, I warn you and admonish you that it's imperative that as you grow in your faith study deeply, think deeply, of the Scriptures because it's the heretics who come in and change one letter, change one word, change one verse, and when you get down the road two or three years you'll realize you believe something that's not taught in the Bible. And I say this because I've had experience. I had a lovely lady, her name was Velma, she lived over in West Winston Manor. This happened maybe 38 years ago. She just became new in her faith and so she opened up her home, and so we had Bible study and we had a lot of the ladies there. And yet she allowed one day the man with his little recorder and his Watchtower Magazine to come in and start conducting classes. And I watched that lady wrestle, and I tried desperately to show her the difference, but she was so new in her faith. The other side was giving her more attention, it seemed more attractive. I still remember that day when I went to her house, she said, you'll not need to come anymore. I said why? She said because I've chosen to believe the other point of view. Now that was 38 years ago.

Her son was a little boy and he grew up and that home of confusion, and in rebellion against all of that confusion he went down a pathway that led him into drugs. And yet somehow he was attracted to me and we would get together, and finally from time to time he would come to church. His mother disowned him because he preferred the basic orthodox Christian faith, and I remember it must have been now seven or eight years ago when the really sat down and had a heart to heart talk, he made his decision for Christ. He cut the strings from the past and today he's a marvelously solid wonderful Christian. He made his mind up; I'm going to believe that.

When I use the word "orthodox" we think of that sometimes as a denomination, but when you use the word orthodox as a theologian you're just simply saying this is the position, the theological position, that has been held by the Christian church for centuries. So when somebody says orthodox Christianity, you know that they're speaking of the teachings of our Christian faith which have been the basis for what we believed for centuries. And if one were to define our church we would say that we're an evangelical, we love the Bible, we sincerely seek to understand it in its orthodox teaching (that is, what has always been taught for centuries). That's the position we take, and I admit to you that there have been a lot of deviations in my years of ministry where, you know, people say Pastor, they this and they got this fad going over here, and they got this thing going on down here, and somebody’s doing this, and somebody’s doing this. And I say, I'm really not interested in that. Let's just stick to our Bible. Let's learn to love it, to know it, and the Scriptures say something very clear. I'll close tonight, and you can take your notes home and read them.

I want to show you verse that I think is very, very precious to me. It's very, very precious. Look in 1 John chapter 2. This really is a very precious verse and I believe this with all my heart. My Bible says, it begins at verse 18, the heading over my Bible says deceptions of the last hour. And here's what it says, Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. Well now what's an antichrist? Well let's quickly just move over to chapter 4 and find out what an antichrist is. Verse 3 says, and every spirit that does not confessed that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist. So if someone says to you that Jesus Christ was a created being, you know that they're speaking the message of the Antichrist. You know that because what they're saying is against the biblical teaching of who Christ is. And John warned them 2000 years ago. Now back to verse 18 of chapter 2. Verse 19, They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. John simply is saying that in the church over time you collect people who seem to be a part of you, but are really not. And we found that to be true over the years here. There are people that try to edge in and hold to a doctrinal position which is not orthodox. They seem to be of us. Soon they slip away because they know they cannot defend that position.

Verse 20 says, But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things. What's John saying? If you genuinely love Jesus Christ as your Savior, and you want with all of your heart to know truth, the Holy Spirit that dwells within you will teach you. Look at how it goes. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is the antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. Therefore let that abide in you which you have heard from the beginning. If what you have heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.

John has just simply said, if you'll stick to what you've been taught you don't have to worry about error. This is the promise that He has promised us--eternal life. These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. Now here's the verse. But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him. You have an anointing that to you've received. When you receive Jesus Christ His spirit comes to live within you, and if we're sensitive when misrepresentations and heresy comes to us, something inside says I don't know what it is, but it isn't hitting on all four.

I had a lovely lady just the other day, she brought me this book and she said, my friends have given me this book it's from their church. And she said it sounds so good. It's even got a good title. She said but as soon as I got in it something inside me just said look at there's something wrong. So she brought it to me, and she said Pastor, would you review this for me? She said something inside me tells me that this is error. So I read it. Got to page 18, underlined it, handed it back to her, and I said there’s the error. Throw the book away.

What's John saying? John says God gives to us His wonderful spirit, and we need not fear error. We need not fear to be deceived if we are sensitive to the Spirit of God within us, He will alert us and alarm us if there’s error. We come back to the passage we've studied, verse 14 says, And (Jesus Christ) the Word (that's LOGOS in the original), Jesus Christ became flesh and dwelt, that is He set up His earthly tent. The word is "tabernacled" here one earth. So what John is saying is Jesus Christ, God in the human flesh, came to this earth and set up the human tent who we know as Jesus Christ in human form. And old John says and we beheld this fact, He is God, the glory of the Father.

Lord Jesus, Your Word is so rich and we believe with all of our hearts that You, Lord Jesus, came to this world 2000 years ago. You are God in human form. We believe that with everything inside of us, and I pray that we as a congregation will always be sensitive to Your Word and the teaching that is so clear. And I pray Lord Jesus that Your Spirit will be very, very active within all of us in the sense that You alert us when we're being told theological falsehoods. Keep us as close to Your Word as we can possibly be so that never do we wonder away from truth. Lord Jesus it's been a wonderful day in Your house, and I thank you for all the blessings that we've enjoyed, and I thank you again for these wonderful folks on this very busy day who made their choice that Your house, Your Word, was a priority in their lives. And now as we go home may Your peace and may Your been addiction, and may Your joy be upon us and give us a good week. We need Your strength; we need the power of Your Holy Spirit to guide us. We just place our life in Your hands dear Lord and we want You to use us this week for Your eternal glory. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen. And for you to come out on an Easter Sunday evening you are to be commended, and God bless you very, very much. Have a good week.