Tonight our scripture reading is taken from the Gospel of John, John chapter 1. So we'll be returning there together in our Bibles to read verses 1 through 18 of John chapter 1. It's on page 1,127. 1,127 in your pew Bibles. We'll be reading this together, and then we'll be looking as well at the Belgian Confession, Article 10, coming to our confession of the deity of Christ. confession has spoken of our triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in Articles 8 and 9, and then it turns and takes two more articles to especially underscore the divinity of Christ and the divinity of the Holy Spirit. And so we'll be looking this week, then, at the deity of Christ, and Lord willing, in the week to come, the deity of the Holy Spirit, to see that they, along with the Father, are fully divine. So, reading from John chapter 1, and then as well from Article 10 of the Belgic Confession, this is the holy and infallible Word of the Lord our God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 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 have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness about Him and cried out, This was He of whom I said, He who comes after me ranks before me because He was before me. For from His fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father's side. He has made Him known. This ends our reading from God's Word tonight. Again, we're looking at this in connection with Article 10 of the Ballad to Confession. It's page 162 in your Forms and Prayers book. Page 162, Article 10. There we confess that we believe that Jesus Christ, according to His divine nature, is the only Son of God, eternally begotten, not made nor created, for then He would be a creature. He is one in essence with the Father, co-eternal, the exact image of the person of the Father and the reflection of His glory being in all things like Him. He is the Son of God, not only from the time He assumed our nature, but from all eternity, as the following testimonies teach us when they are taken together. Moses says that God created the world, and John says that all things were created by the Word, which he calls God. The letter to the Hebrews says that God made the world by His Son. Paul says that God created all things by Jesus Christ, and so it must follow that He who is called God, the Word, the Son, and Jesus Christ already existed when all things were created by Him. Therefore, the prophet Micah says that His origin is from ancient times, from eternity, and Hebrews says that He is neither beginning of days nor end of life. So then, He is the true, eternal God, the Almighty, whom we invoke, worship, and serve. And this ends our reading from Article 10 of the Belt Confession here tonight. Brothers and sisters, in our Lord Jesus Christ, in Matthew chapter 16, Jesus happens to be passing through the city or the town of Caesarea Philippi, and He turns and He asks His disciples a very important question. A question that needs to be answered and a question that very much has to be answered correctly. He turns to his disciples and he asks, who do men say that I am? And after asking that question, he falls up with a similar one. Who do you say that I am? And by means of those two questions, Jesus reveals that there are a lot of different answers that people give as to who He is. There are many different ideas that people have about His identity, who look at Him and see one thing or another. They see a prophet. They see a good teacher. They see a good example. They see a very helpful person for their life. Or they see the Christ, the Son of God. Christ reveals that already, when He was walking the earth, there were many different ideas about who He is. And ever since Christ ascended to heaven, there's grown even more ideas about who Jesus is. You can look at many different groups that claim to be Christians. And since the beginning of these cults or sects, as we refer to them, they have always fought to be recognized as Christians. For instance, Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons themselves fight very strongly. They claim the right to refer to themselves as Christians. But can just anyone claim to be a Christian? Are there any boundaries to what it means to be a Christian? Or to put it in terms of Christ's own question, is there something we absolutely must say about Him in order to be a genuine Christian? Are we free to think whatever we want about Jesus? Are we free to create a Jesus out of our own imagination? Or is there certain non-negotiable truths that have to be confessed, that have to be believed about Him? Do we decide who Jesus is for ourselves? Or does God say what the truth is about Jesus and urge us to believe that? And are we then truly making that confession and showing ourselves to be genuine Christians? Well, as I can imagine you already would guess, the latter is the case, that God reveals the truth about Jesus and calls us to make that true confession as to His true identity. Not to have our own version of Jesus, but to have a belief in Christ that the Word proclaims, that the Word reveals. And that true Christians echo the declaration of Scripture about Christ. our own Athanasian creed, one we don't really speak all that often or potentially read for ourselves, but one of those three creeds we do confess and do hold to, that Athanasian creed itself says, this is the Catholic faith about the Trinity and about Jesus. And it says, one cannot be saved without believing it firmly and faithfully. This is the Catholic faith, it says, and if you do not believe this, firmly and faithfully, you cannot be saved. So we would do well to take those words to our hearts and understand the seriousness of truly knowing and confessing Christ, that we may find great comfort and assurance for ourselves of salvation. And that's what we hope to accomplish here in our time together tonight by looking at this passage from John's Gospel where he gloriously proclaims that Jesus is the eternally begotten Son of God. Jesus is the eternally begotten Son of God. Now, these are a number of verses that are so incredibly deep. There is so much to see here. So, we can't really do justice to it all. We instead want to focus on three different bits, you might say, three different teachings that are found here in these verses. First of all, there's a focus here on Jesus' being. Second, on His work, and then third, on His salvation. We want to look at those different facets here from our passage. Jesus being, His work, and His salvation. Now, in the first case, it might sound weird to talk about Jesus being, but it's simply another way of talking about who Jesus is. Who is Jesus? That's really the basic question that has to be answered, that Jesus himself urged his disciples to answer. Well, you see, John was an apostle of Christ. He was one who saw Jesus. He heard Jesus. He was part of Christ's earthly ministry. He worked alongside of him. He witnessed all that he had done. In fact, John was even part of Christ's inner circle. Right? He was one of those three men that were taken with Jesus into the most private of moments, while the other nine were sort of left or put behind and so forth. John was there for everything, you might say. And John, for his part, wants us to understand what the Spirit of God has given him to know. that Jesus truly is the eternally begotten Son of God. And the way that John goes about revealing this to us is by directing our eyes to the beginning of all things, or even behind the beginning of all things. You'll notice that the beginning of his book here echoes Genesis 1 verse 1. And he doesn't echo Genesis 1 verse 1 to take our eyes, first of all, to creation itself, but to take our eyes to the God behind creation. What do you expect? What are you anticipating will be said when you hear the words, in the beginning? If you had to give me the rest, and I say, in the beginning, what are you expecting to hear, and what do you think should follow it? Well, those who know our Bibles, we would expect to hear, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. In the beginning, God. Yet, notice what John does, what he writes. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In the beginning was the Word. A lot of people wonder why John speaks of the Word when it comes to the Son of God. There may be a number of reasons for that, but one reason is to stress the idea of God's self-revelation. When you speak, it's a revelation of who you are and what's inside of you, right? Jesus himself said that in his ministry, that out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. What we say is a revelation of who we are inside. And John is likely taking up that idea and stressing the self-revelation of God, that in the beginning, there was this self-revelation of God. There, before the creation of the world, there was God, and there was the self-revelation of God, and that, as it were, self-revelation was with God, and that self-revelation was God. What John's doing here is showing that it wasn't only God the Father there before the creation of all things, but there was God and there was this Other. There was the Word, this One who is a reflection of the very essence and being of the Father, even as our article puts it in Article 10, that He is the express image of the Lord our God, the Father. And you have there that there was with the Father this Word. And the Word that was with God is itself God. So John is teaching us here that there is one God, of course, but there is this distinction within the being of God. There is God, the Father, and there's also the Word who is with Him. And the word with stresses close, intimate fellowship. That there is this relation of harmony and love and peace and unity. But it wasn't just that the Word was with God, but again, that the Word was God. Now, Jehovah's Witnesses, if they come to your door and they sit down and talk to you, they'll try to convince you that John says here that the Word was a God. A God. But that's not at all what it actually says here in the Greek. It says the Word was God. You see, whatever John writes, John would never say the Word was a God. John is a Jew. John knows his Bible. He knows that there's only one God. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. There is one God. John would never, ever say there's more than one God. That would be the last thing he would ever write. There's no way John would ever be intending to say that the Word was a God. No, he's saying the Word was God. The Word itself was God. The Word is fully divine. The Word is one with the Father. In the words of the Belgium Confession, the Word is one in essence with the Father, co-eternal, the exact image of the person of the Father being in all things like Him. Now, what John does with that is remarkable. Because he goes on to say in verse 14 then, the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory. Glory is of the only son or the only begotten son from the father full of grace and truth. You see what John's doing here? What's John doing at the beginning of his gospel? He takes us first to the beginning of all things, even before the beginning of all things. He takes us to eternity before creation, and He shows us that in eternity, there was God and the Word. And then as he moves on through the verses, he's wanting us to realize that that Word that is eternal, that Word that is everlasting, that Word that has always existed and that is enjoying oneness with the Father, that Word is no one other than Jesus. The whole burden of John 1, 14 through 17, is to identify this eternal, everlasting Word with no one other than Jesus. to impress upon our minds and hearts that the Jesus we find in his gospel, the Jesus that we see walk and talk and heal and do miracles, the Jesus who preaches, the Jesus who is denied and rejected, the Jesus who goes to the cross, the Jesus who dies and is buried in the ground is none other than the eternal word, the Son of God. This one who is with the Father, but who came to dwell among us." John's whole goal is to not only say there is this Son of God, this Word who always existed, but that Son of God came and took on flesh and entered our world. And I know we've come through Christmas and we've just heard all about this recently, and we hear it all the time, but the Jesus you meet on the pages of Scriptures is the eternal Son of God. From everlasting to everlasting, the Son of God. And John stresses the glory of that, that this Jesus is the Son of God when he speaks there of how the Word took on flesh and dwelled among us. As you may have heard before, the word dwelled there is to tabernacle. You know, you think of the Old Testament, right? God tabernacles among His people. His glory, His glory is in the tabernacle. His glory, right? Israel saw the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, and then the tabernacle is covered with a cloud. God's glory descends upon it. And God's glory descends upon the temple. And God's glory in Ezekiel leaves the temple and then comes back to the temple. And John is saying, don't you realize you look at Jesus and there you behold, there you see, there you find eternal everlasting God. You see God in the flesh, the Son of God in our flesh. And you see, that's why the church has always, and I mean that, always, the church has always confessed that Jesus is God, the eternal Son of God. Jesus is not the Father putting on a different mask or the Father putting on a different hat. It's not as if the Father takes on flesh. No, John says, there was God and there was the Word, and the Word took on flesh. that Jesus is the eternal Word of God, distinct from, but yet one with the Father. And that's the glory of Jesus. The glory of Jesus, the glory of what the Scriptures teach, is that Jesus is truly God. And that's why John will say in chapter 20, these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. John looks at us at the end of his gospel and he says, do you know why I wrote you this book? Do you know why I gave you this gospel that details the work of Jesus and the ministry of Jesus and the words of Jesus? Do you know why I've given you all this? I've given you this exactly so that you would come to know and believe that Jesus is not just the Christ who was promised throughout the Old Testament, not just the Christ who would save you from your sins, but that Jesus is the Son of God. that you would confess that He is fully divine, the eternally begotten Son of God in the flesh, written so that you would confess a divine Jesus. And what John then does at the beginning of his gospel is to also prove that, to prove that. Not just to assert it, but to prove it. And one of the ways John seeks to prove that Jesus is divine, that He is the Son of God, is by speaking of His work. What do we find as we turn to verse 3? John says, It's about the work of the Word. The Word that was in the beginning with God and that was God. And John says the work of the Word was creating. You know, when you look at the stars in the night sky, when you take a look at the beauty of creation all around you, who do you think made it? You see the complexity of the human body. You discover these tiny cells and bacteria that are all around us. You learn about how vast the universe is. And you can only say that God made this. God has to have made this, you know? I think you feel it too. It's amazing that more people don't see this, isn't it? I mean, it's amazing that people can look at the complexity of human life and the vastness of the universe, and they can save themselves, and they try to convince themselves that it came into existence by means of some big bang. Isn't it just ridiculous? It's unbelievable. How could you ever believe something like that? Does this this this bang and nothing creates everything? How could you imagine even trillions upon trillions of years given those years even if that were the case? How could this world ever come from trillions of years it never could it has to be the work of God? That's why the Bible says, the fool says in his heart there is no God. The fool. Fool is blind. He's blind. Time could never make this. Big explosion couldn't make this. Only God, who created in six days. It's very clear the universe has been made by God. Just as Genesis 1 tells us. But notice what John says. Genesis 1 speaks of God creating the heavens and the earth, but John tells us here that it was the Word that created the heavens and the earth. The Word was with God. The Word was God. All things were made through Him, through the Word, who made the universe. We cannot simply say God, but in a very real way, you can say Jesus. Jesus made the world. Jesus made the entire universe, because Jesus is the Son of God. This world, everything in it, the entire universe, was made by Jesus. When God said, let there be light, the eternal Son of God, who took on flesh, who we know and confess as Jesus, He's the one who made the light. Right? And that's what John is driving our attention to. The one who made the universe, specifically here, the light, the one who made the light was the Word. The Word made all light. That's why our confession links together Genesis and John. Moses says God created the world. John says things were created by the world. Hebrews then says God made the world by his Son. Paul says that God created all things by Jesus Christ. And our confession says you have to look at all these passages together and they lead us to the logical conclusion that the God who created everything is the Word, is the Son of God, is Jesus Christ. And you see, that's the same point John's making. He says, the Word made the light. But then he goes and he speaks of the work of the one we know as Jesus, the Word that took on flesh. He says in verse 4, the Word was life, the life was the light of men, the light shines in the darkness, the darkness has not overcome it. Right? What was the first thing Jesus made? The first thing he made was light. The first thing Jesus ever made was light. But then I'll ask you something else. What did Jesus bring when he entered the world? What did Jesus bring when he entered the world? What does John say in verse 9? He says, Jesus brought light. The Jesus who created the light or the word who created the light on the first day of creation is the Jesus who brings light into the world with his coming. See, what John is doing is he's connecting again the Word and Jesus. He's proving, look it, look at the work of the Word, look at the work of Jesus. Don't you realize it's the same person? The Word created the light. Jesus brought light into the world when he was born. It's the same person. The Word who made the light is the Jesus who entered the world. And what John is doing by that is, again, setting out to prove that Jesus is divine. Not only do his names prove that he is God, but his work does as well. And now you are likely wondering, why do I stress this? Why do I, you know, give so much time to this? Because This is what the Bible teaches. This is what the Bible wants us to see. It wants us to prove to our minds and hearts that Jesus really is God. That we're convinced in the very depths of our being, yes, when I look at Jesus, there's the eternal Son of God. It's not something I just say, but something I'm convinced of down to the very depths of my being. Look at his word, look at his work, look at all that he does. Don't you see that he is the eternal son of God in the flesh? This is what the church has confessed. You know, this is something Catholics believe, this is something Lutherans believe, this is something we believe has reformed. We're all together on this. This is what the Christian church has always proclaimed. You see, anyone who teaches you that Jesus is not God or that Jesus is less than God is denying the very Word of God and is not a Christian. You know, how does Peter answer Christ's question, who do you say that I am? He says, you are the Christ, the Son of God. And how does Jesus respond? He says, blessed are you. Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who's in heaven. What is Jesus saying? Jesus is saying the truth that God reveals, the truth that God proclaims, is that Jesus is the Son of the living God, and that only people who say such and believe such are standing in the truth. Only those people are blessed. Only those people are on the right pathway. Only those people are grounded in the word of God. If you in any way deny Jesus being the Son of God, if you in any way deny that He is divine, if you make Him less than the Father, if you make Him subservient to the Father, if you say He's on a different level than the Father, you are undermining the very deity and identity of Jesus Christ, and the Word of God says, no, He is one with the Father, equal with the Father, He is the eternal Son of God. Everybody who denies that, you see, is not a Christian. Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, no matter what they may say, and I know it's not politically correct, they are not Christian. They may say they're Christian, they may call themselves Christian, but they are not Christian because they deny the only true identity of Jesus Christ. We're not to create a Jesus of our own imagination, we're not to make him who we want him to be, but we are to confess what God's word says about him. And again, I know that sounds harsh, but we have no right to decide who Jesus is for ourselves. But we are called to humble ourselves to what the Lord's Word actually says. And God's Word says, these people are true Christians. Those who believe and declare that He is the Son of God. And our entire salvation rests, you see, on the identity of Jesus as the Son of God. And that's what we see finally here in our passage, the salvation of Jesus. Salvation rests on Christ's identity as the Son of God. Look at verse 10. John writes, He was in the world, the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. but to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God." You know, John is already sort of hinting at the way things are going to go with the rest of his Gospel. He's hinting that even though the Word of God took on flesh, we see Him, He is Jesus. The reality is that there are untold millions of people who do not receive Him and who do not acknowledge that He is the Word, that He is the eternal Son of God. That Jesus even came to God's own special people. He came to God's people who had the covenant, who had the promises, who had the privilege, who had the Word, and even those people rejected Him and refused to acknowledge that He was the Word who made the world. And still today, like I said, still today, there are millions of people who deny that Jesus is the Son of God. They deny that He is the eternally begotten Son of God, one with the Father. Jehovah's Witnesses, He's a God. Mormons, He's a God, another God. He's not one with the Father, three persons, one God, but He's something else. But what is John saying here? He's saying to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. Notice that. True confession of Jesus. Truly believing in His name, who He is, His identity as God, means you have the right to become children of God. Only those who truly confess the Christ and acknowledge Him to be the Son of God receive the right to become children of God. Right? Our salvation depends on truly knowing and confessing Jesus Christ. To put it simply, if you get Jesus wrong, you're not saved. If you don't believe in the Jesus whom the apostles declare, you are not saved. That's the seriousness of what we're talking about here. It's not that our faith itself saves us, it's not that our theology itself saves us, but you see, the faith that saves us has to be faith in the right person. Your faith in Jesus has to be in the right Jesus. If you believe in a different Jesus, if you believe in a strange Jesus, you cannot have salvation in him. You know, there's a lot of people who make a big fuss or who ask what the fuss was with the church. You know, why did the church have these meetings and they have to fight over this technical language essence and proceeding and generating and begotten and not made and created? I mean, what's with all this technical hullabaloo? And there are many people today even, you know, who say, who cares about the creeds and confessions? Who cares about what they say? Why bother with all that stuff? We care because the Word of God says that one of the great threats to our salvation is failing to know the true Jesus. Those who do not know the true Jesus, those who do not confess the true Jesus are not saved. But all those who do receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. And you think about it, if we're to become children of God, who do we need? We need the Son of God. How could we become sons if Jesus isn't the Son of God? How could we be adopted as sons and daughters if Jesus himself isn't the Son? No, our adoption hangs on the one who is himself the eternal begotten Son of God. And you see, the same idea is repeated in verses 16 through 18. John is out to show us more of what we receive when we make the good confession, when we confess that Jesus is the Son of God. He writes that from His fullness, we receive grace upon grace. We receive grace and truth through Jesus Christ. In Him, we come to see the Father, grace upon grace. It means fullness of grace. It means perfect grace. It means unending grace. absolutely abundant and sufficient grace. John says as you believe in Jesus, as you can make the good confession, do you know what you find? You find the overflowing infinite fountain of grace. Grace, the grace of forgiveness. the grace of adoption, the grace of wisdom, the grace of righteousness, the grace of everlasting life, the grace of preservation, the grace of God's providential care, the grace of His love, the grace of His compassion, the grace of salvation. Right, a grace that John makes clear you can't find in the law, that you can't find through the law, because no matter what the law says or what the law proclaims, it itself cannot save you. No, the only one who can save you and bring you the overflowing fountain of grace is the one who is himself the eternal son of God. As you look to Him, you find the hand and the arm of God working your salvation. As you look to Him, Jesus who is divine, you see a perfect divine work bringing redemption full and free. Again, only in confessing Jesus as the Son of God do you find true, complete, full salvation. Now what does John say again in John 20 verse 31? These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name. The faith that saves is a faith that confesses the true Jesus. Not just any Jesus. Not a Jesus of our own creation or our own imagination. but that Jesus the Gospels proclaim, the one who is the Word of God, the one who is the eternally begotten Son of God. And you know, it's as we have that confession and we make that confession that we can as well have assurance then, right? And John wants us to know that if this is the Jesus you believe in, if this is the Jesus you confess, you have received the right of adoption. If you confess this Jesus, if you believe in this Jesus, you have grace upon grace, you have the fullness of grace and mercy, you have received it, you know it, you have the Father as your own, you have relationship with the true and eternal God. As you come to this Jesus and believe in this Jesus, it's yours. And you see then, again, the practical value of knowing God's Word, understanding God's Word, and the value of good theology. Good theology feeds the soul. You know, as I was thinking about that this past week, it really drove home to me that part of my job or task or calling, you might better put it, my calling is not simply that you would love Jesus more, but my calling is that you would also love to know Him more, to, by God's grace, stir up within you a desire to know Him more, to know Him better, that you might have a hunger for theology. Yes, yes, for theology. I know that scares some of you, but really, as you discover these things, as you see these things, as you grow in your knowledge of who Jesus is, you find great food for your own heart and soul. You find the assurance that you're on the right path, that you're trusting in the right Jesus, and that all that he has done for you is truly known by you and received by you. No, it's not the people who know the true Christ who need to doubt. It's not the people who make the good confession of Jesus that need to be filled with fear and worry for the future. But those who know the true Jesus, who confess the true Jesus, they have every reason to be still, to be quiet, to be calm, to be confident, to be comforted. Again, not because their knowledge saves them, Not because their theology is all right. Because their faith is the biblical faith. It's in the true Jesus. And as they're connected to the true Jesus, that divine Son of God saves them, washes them, cleanses them, restores them, and makes them a son and daughter of the Lord our God. We need this hunger to know the Lord our God more. And I say that because the Scriptures are very clear that in the last days people will be deceivers and they will be deceived. The last days will be one of deception. of lies and leading people astray. And you see, if we're to survive as a church, if you're to survive as an individual by God's grace, it is only as we again keep before our minds and hearts the true confession of Christ, the true teachings of God's Word, as we grow in our knowledge, in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. So again, it's my prayer that you may know your Savior more, to make the good confession that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Because as you confess Christ truly, you come to receive His salvation truly. So may the Lord fill your hearts with a great hunger to know Him more, that your love for Him may ever be more sure as well, and your confidence of salvation. Amen. Let's pray together. O Lord, our God, as we come before you tonight, again, thank you for your Word, the Word that reveals Christ to our minds and hearts, the Word that shows us what to believe. And Lord, we do acknowledge that we have doubts and questions and fears in our own minds and hearts, and Lord, we struggle with our own frailty, our own limitation in terms of understanding. And Lord, we confess as well that we live in a world where there are many deceivers, where there are many lies, where there are many people who would lead us astray from Christ by preaching a different Jesus. And so may our minds and hearts be devoted ever more fully to Your Word, Lord, that we may know Christ truly, that we may understand who He is. And also find, as we come to know Christ more, a great confidence and assurance of our own salvation, a salvation that is built upon Christ, who is your Son. the eternally begotten Son of the Father, one with the Father and the Spirit, our triune God. So grant us the blessing of Your Word, we pray. Give our minds understanding. Lead us in the truth. Preserve us, O Father, in our faith, we pray, for the sake of Jesus Christ. Amen.