4 FEBRUARY 2007: John 1:14 - THE LIVING WORD: Truth Incarnate

SERMON SERIES: The Living Word

This message is the first of a 4-part series on the Word; I have selected an Old and New Testament Scripture as foundational texts for the series:

“The whole of Thy word is truth, and every one of Thy righteous judgments is ever lasting.”

Psalms 119:160

“So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’”

John 8:31-32

The Series is:

THE LIVING WORD: Truth Incarnate! [John 1:14]
THE VISIBLE WORD: Truth Revealed! [Romans 10:17]
THE DIVINE WORD: Truth Inspired! [2 Timothy 3:16]
THE RELIABLE WORD: Truth Applied! [James 1:22]

FOUNDATIONAL INQUIRY: Why is it important Truth came in the flesh?
CONCISE OUTLINE

BECAUSE WE NEED …

I. A FLESH AND BLOOD MEDIATOR/SAVIOR!

A. In Order to Fulfill the Law & the Prophets!
B. In Order to Save That Which Was Lost!

II. A DOOR INTO THE HOLY OF HOLIES!

A. In Order to Tear Down the Wall Between God and Man!
B. In Order to Open the Way In To The Promises of God!

TEXT: John 1:14

“... the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

TRUTH CLAIM: Our text is meaningless absent the following –

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

John 1:1

“... when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman ….”

Galatians 4:4

“... by common confession great is the mystery of godliness: God who was revealed in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, beheld by angels, proclaimed among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.”

1 Timothy 3:16

[GOLD RUSH] During California’s "Gold Rush" men from all over rushed to the western territories. They dropped everything, left everyone, forsaking all to achieve the impossible dream. GOLD! AH, GOLD!!

Search, search, search; traces, traces, traces; signs, signs, signs! They found traces (flakes and nuggets), they found small veins, and they heard rumors. And there was "fool's gold," and they bought into "salted" mines (fakes), they reopened old mines that had been mined many times before, and they followed every rumor ever spoken by the lips of man.

But search as they might, they never found the Mother Lode, the source of all the gold.

Likewise men from all over the world rush to and fro, here and there to this very day ... looking for the truth. TRUTH! OH, TRUTH!

Search, search, search; traces, traces, traces; signs, signs, signs! Oh, they find traces of truth, small nuggets, but most are flakes. But the Source of Truth evades the searching.

There are small veins found now and then, and from time someone happens on an eternal truth, but it’s called by another name. Romans 1:20 says …

since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

And then there are the rumors of truth seen here and there, and many are those who follow them.

"For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many."

Matthew 24:5

Jesus said, "Sanctify them by Your truth. Thy word is truth."

John 17:17

Christ is Truth and vice versa –

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."

John 8:31, 32

"So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”

John 8:36

It is insufficient for man to place his hope in a mere shadow of The Rock, it must be in The Rock Himself; and faith in an inanimate object is useless, it must be personal, relational, and reciprocal.

FOUNDATIONAL INQUIRY: Why is it important Truth came in the flesh?
EXPANDED OUTLINE

BECAUSE WE NEED A …

I. FLESH AND BLOOD MEDIATOR/SAVIOR!

A. In Order to Fulfill the Law & the Prophets!

“But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law”

Galatians 4:4

Philip found Nathaniel and brought him to the Lord,

"We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."

John 1:45

When God spoke of the Paschal Lamb He said,

“For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh”

Romans 8:3

“Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats.”

Exodus 12:5

The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

John 1:29

The Word says,

"God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

John 4:24

And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

Hebrews 9:22

Spirits don’t have blood

B. In Order to Save That Which Was Lost!

“Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil”

Hebrews 2:14

So we would then be literally united with His flesh so that Romans 6 would be real rather than hypothetical.

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

John 14:6

[LADDER] Any truth which is not all truth is NOT truth at all ... when you need a 24' ladder to rescue your family from a burning building and all you have is an 18' ladder ... well, you're short! You might as well have none at all!

I don’t know about you but I want a Savior who can reach me!

Those who reject His truth reject it to their own peril; they have what we call an “unfalsifiable bias against truth”.

II. A DOOR INTO THE HOLY OF HOLIES!

A. In Order to Tear Down the Wall Between God and Man!

“by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh”

Hebrews 10:20

B. In Order to Open the Way In To The Promises of God!

Beware, brethren, lest there should be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, while it is called "Today;" lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Hebrews 3:12-13

Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.

Hebrews 4:1-2

APPLICATION/CHALLENGE: It's our ministry to reach all people with the living truth …

You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ ... written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.

2 Corinthians 3:2-4

So, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. For we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

2 Corinthians 4:2-6

We are to break the bonds of bias against God's truth:

1. By being a mirror of His light ...
2. By being His tablet of flesh, written in the blood of the Lamb ...
3. By proclaiming the gospel of truth, and ...
4. By preaching Jesus – crucified, dead, buried, and resurrected.

Remember – He who died for your sins must have first been alive. I order to atone for those sins it must be sinless life which is sacrificed. Only Christ Jesus satisfied the Law and the Prophets and conquered sin and death,

“For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit”

1 Peter 3:18

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