The Logos of Life | 1 John 1:1

ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:02

So today's sermon is called, The Logos of Life. We're going to cover the same passages, 1

00:10

John 1 verses 1 -4. Last week

00:16

I introduced the letter of 1 John and talked a little bit about verse 1.

00:23

And because of the complexity of the passage, it's probably going to take me the entire sermon just to get through the first verse.

00:29

There's a lot of good stuff here to unpack that I don't want to miss.

00:36

So in the last sermon, last week,

00:41

I left you all with a question about what

00:48

John means in the first verse. The question was, is

00:57

John using sense perception, touching, feeling, hearing, as a metaphorical language to refer to the word of life to something more than simply

01:08

Christ in the flesh, Christ incarnate? Are there other passages that shed light on what

01:14

John means in this passage? What is John emphasizing? What does he mean? And I talked about how there are theological principles and methods that we use to help us understand the word of God.

01:28

The first one being the Analogia Scripturae, which is the analogy of scripture, which is to see if going to clear passages in the

01:43

Bible in order to help make sense of ambiguous or unclear or difficult passages.

01:49

And likewise, the Analogia Fide, the analogy of faith, that's a similar principle where we take the meaning of passages that are clear.

02:05

The theology and the meaning of clear passages helps us to inform unclear or ambiguous passages.

02:14

And this is exactly what 1 John does. 1 John actually makes use of this theological principle because it assumes and affirms other teachings of the

02:25

Bible to be true without necessarily explaining them or going into detail. So that is the task before us today.

02:34

We're going to go and examine the scriptures to see if there are other places where this is happening in the

02:41

Bible. Now, before we dive into that, let's reread the passages, verses 1 through 4.

02:52

So starting in verse 1. So this points us back to the phrase, that which.

03:35

And I want to get a little bit into the Greek here because it's important. The phrase, that which, in the

03:42

Greek is actually a neuter pronoun, meaning it doesn't have a gender. It's not male.

03:47

It's not female. It's neuter. And it's not masculine. But the object that that which refers to, which is the word of life, that has a masculine gender.

04:00

So word of life is masculine. But that which is neuter. And in the word of life, literally in the

04:09

Greek, is Logos, that's why the sermon is called the

04:16

Logos of life. It's the Logos. But it's masculine. Therefore, this suggests that it's referring primarily to the gospel message, primarily, rather than to Christ incarnate.

04:32

Because Christ incarnate, obviously, he is masculine. And so it wouldn't make sense grammatically for it to refer primarily to Christ incarnate.

04:43

So that's why, again, however, the neuter pronoun can actually refer to both genders.

04:51

It can include both, which is also very significant and very important in this passage.

04:57

The masculine cannot. The masculine really does not fit with a neuter pronoun.

05:04

So it doesn't really make sense to see it that way. And if that were the case, if that which were masculine, then it perhaps would only point specifically to Christ incarnate.

05:15

But here, it's not the case. And so this is where we see, we're going to get into this a little bit more now.

05:28

Now, in light of this, let's consult and sample the whole counsel of God, as Paul instructs us to do.

05:37

Let's turn to Acts 15, 7. In Acts 15, 7. So in Acts chapter 15, verse 7, here we see

06:01

Peter and the apostles having a discussion about the

06:06

Gentiles, about whether the Gentiles should be placed under the Jewish law. And so verse 7 says,

06:13

And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, Brothers, you know that in the early days

06:18

God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.

06:26

The word of the gospel and believe. Very similar phrase there to the word of life, right?

06:34

So the Greek there is logon to evangelio.

06:40

So same word, logos, the logos of the gospel. These two phrases are basically synonymous.

06:49

They are synonymous in the Bible, and it makes sense. And so because the message itself does not have a gender, that's why it's neuter.

06:59

And so a message is neither masculine nor feminine. Grammatically speaking.

07:05

Now, this also leads us to another important point.

07:13

That this is why it's very important to have Christian scholarship. Because it is vital and necessary for the church.

07:21

This is very important. If you don't know Greek, you might have missed this. And, you know, there's a popular mentality today that there's no creed but Christ.

07:33

I don't need any creed but Christ. Or that it's just me and my Bible. I don't need any outside help. I don't need any commentaries.

07:39

I don't need any books or theology or men. I don't need to learn from men. I can just learn from God directly through the

07:44

Bible. This kind of thinking is wrong and it's actually unbiblical.

07:51

And I mentioned last time, taking a look at the back of your bulletins, gives a good explanation of why that is wrong.

07:58

And why it's important to get the testimony of the church to see what they have said and taught before us.

08:10

So, the reason is because God has gifted other men in the church who are pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the

08:29

Son of God, to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.

08:44

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped.

09:00

When each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

09:08

In other words, this is Ephesians 4, verses 12 through 16. Very important passage here, shedding light on this, refuting this mentality, basically.

09:18

The issue here is that we are a part of a body, so we are not a solo enterprise.

09:28

Christianity is not about going solo and going off on your own and figuring things out on your own. That's not how this works.

09:34

The Bible clearly teaches that we are part of Christ's body, which is the church. It is a spiritual body composed of many believers, including us here.

09:47

Those of us who are believers. And we are all called to function the way

09:56

God intended us to function as a body. Some of us may be an arm, some of us may be a leg, some of us may be the brain, the heart, so on and so forth.

10:04

So we all have a part to play, and we all need to rely on the pastors and teachers of the church to help us understand the word properly.

10:13

So, that is why I mentioned last week that we should absolutely consult other good commentaries, books, and wise believers to help us grasp the word properly.

10:25

That is what God uses. He uses means to help us understand his word. However, of course, we must submit and test everything by the word of God.

10:37

That's always the case. The word of God is the final, ultimate standard for the truth.

10:42

We do not rely on men to determine the truth, or they are not the final authority.

10:48

The books and the other teachings of other men are not the final authority. It is the scripture that is the final authority.

10:55

And that is how we must determine the truth and understand the truth. So, of course, we must always submit ourselves to the word of God.

11:02

And everything we read, we must check and refer back to and compare with the word of God like the

11:08

Bereans did to check its veracity, to check its truth, to confirm it or disprove it.

11:17

And so, with that said, now let's turn to another very important passage that sheds light on this in Matthew 16, verses 15 through 17.

11:29

Matthew 16, verses 15 through 17. The Gospel of Matthew.

11:46

So here, Matthew 16, starting in verse 15, Jesus said to them,

11:52

But who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, You are the Christ, the Son of the living

11:58

God. And Jesus answered him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my

12:06

Father who is in heaven. So this passage here is clearly showing us something, that we do not learn from sense perception or what philosophy calls empiricism.

12:22

We do not learn by sensing things. Seeing, hearing, touching is not how we learn.

12:30

God is the one who reveals knowledge to us. Very important thing to understand.

12:37

This is why, again, we have to, when we interpret Scripture, we need to interpret it in light of not just the immediate context of the passage, but also in light of the whole counsel of God, the whole word of God, because it sheds light on other passages, like this one.

12:53

And so, the triune God is the one who reveals all knowledge to every one of us, including unbelievers, through various means.

13:04

Various means. So, means such as the Bible, preaching, teaching, the innate knowledge, our conscience that God has given us, all of those things are means by which

13:17

God uses to reveal to us knowledge. Now, in John 1 .9,

13:25

John 1 .9 has also a very important point to make here. So, in John's Gospel, chapter 1 .9,

13:35

it says, The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

13:43

The light here, the true light, is obviously referring to Christ. Christ Jesus, right?

13:50

So, Christ is that true light which enlightens everyone, gives light to everyone.

13:55

Light here is a metaphor for knowledge, for truth. So, you can see how the

14:04

Bible very often uses metaphor to express something literally.

14:10

Light is knowledge, and Christ is the one that enlightens every single person.

14:16

And again, in Colossians, it also says, In Him, in Christ, are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, all of them.

14:24

Everything that is true, whether it's from mathematics or science, it doesn't matter what the domain of knowledge is.

14:31

Everything that is true is hidden in Christ. And it's only if Christ gives it to us and teaches it to us and enlightens us with it, do we know it to be true.

14:42

So, that is another very important passage again. So, the point here that I'm making about sensing is that John is saying, that which we have seen, that which we have heard, that which we have touched.

14:55

The point there is not so much what he saw and felt and sensed. He's getting to something deeper here, and we don't want to miss that.

15:04

We don't want to overlook that. And also, in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 7, it says,

15:11

For we walk by faith and not by sight, right? We walk by faith, not by sight.

15:19

So, very important once again to understand how very frequently in the

15:29

Bible, and we're going to see this right now even more. Sense perception is very often used metaphorically to refer to something else, to understanding, to knowledge, and things like that.

15:41

So, now let's turn to another passage here in Mark chapter 8.

15:47

Mark chapter 8, verses 17 through 26. We're going to go through a passage here, where Christ is explaining some things in a very particular fashion.

16:01

Mark chapter 8, verses 17 through 26. So, in Mark chapter 8, verses 17 through 26.

16:20

So, verse 17, But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, Why do you reason because you have no bread?

16:26

They had just left the miracle of feeding the 5 ,000. Do you not perceive nor understand?

16:34

Is your heart still hardened? Having eyes, do you not see? Having ears, do you not hear?

16:41

And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the 5 ,000, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?

16:48

They said to Him, Twelve. Also, when I broke the seven for the 4 ,000, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?

16:56

And they said, Seven. So He said to them, How is it you do not understand? Then He came to Bethsaida, and He brought a blind man to Him and begged

17:07

Him to touch him. So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town.

17:14

And when he had spit on his eyes and put his hands on him, He asked him if he saw anything. And he looked up and said,

17:21

I see men like trees walking. Then He put His hands on his eyes again and made him look up, and he was restored and saw everyone clearly.

17:31

Then He sent him away to his house, saying, Neither go into this town nor tell anyone in the town.

17:37

So this is another passage where Jesus clearly uses sense perception in this passage to expose the disciples' lack of understanding.

17:51

It's not that they were literally blind or that they literally couldn't see. It's that they didn't understand what

17:57

Christ was saying, what Christ was teaching. It's used as a metaphor.

18:04

And what's fascinating about this passage is that Jesus turns this into an object lesson.

18:09

He takes a literal blind man, and He partially heals him. He heals him partially because he can only see fuzzy.

18:17

He sees fuzzy, and He says, I see men, but they're walking. They look like they're trees, walking trees. So He wasn't able to see clearly yet, just like the disciples.

18:28

They couldn't clearly understand what Christ was teaching. And so it wasn't until the disciples understood who

18:35

Christ really was, what He was teaching, that they could understand properly and therefore see properly.

18:44

And yet in the following passage, right after this, Peter confesses that Jesus is the

18:49

Christ, the Son of the living God. So that's showing us right there.

18:54

Now he sees clearly. Now he understands that Jesus is the

19:00

Christ, the Son of the living God. That's the first passage we read, where he says, flesh and blood did not reveal this to you.

19:08

So literally, Jesus is making the point. It's not about what you see. It's not about what you hear. That's not the point.

19:14

That's just a metaphor. It's an analogy for understanding what God is teaching us, what

19:20

God is telling us. So, and again, it's not to say that whenever the

19:26

Bible talks about seeing and believing or hearing, that it's talking about understanding only.

19:32

Sometimes it's used in both senses. Sometimes it's used primarily in the sense of actually hearing or seeing something.

19:38

The context helps to determine what the phrase means.

19:47

So, now here we see some more metaphors as well. We've already referred to.

19:54

Blindness and darkness are often metaphors in the Bible for ignorance and unbelief, right?

20:04

Blindness and darkness, ignorance and unbelief. Light and sight are used as metaphors for knowledge, faith, truth.

20:19

That's what they are used for. They are metaphors. The Bible uses metaphorical language.

20:24

This is very important. And metaphors, we have to be careful to interpret properly, because if we don't, we can misinterpret a passage and come to a false conclusion about a doctrine or a teaching that Christ is saying.

20:38

This is very common sometimes with theologians and pastors and teachers who misinterpret parables or misinterpret passages that are ambiguous or difficult, like 1

20:50

John 1, verse 1. That is one in which people jump to the conclusion that the verse is referring to Christ as a person, as a human person, as incarnation, when it's really referring to something beyond that.

21:06

So, now let's turn to Mark 4. Mark 4, verses 10 through 20.

21:15

Mark 4, verses 10 through 20. I'm not going to read the whole passage, but skip a few verses in between.

21:26

So, Mark 4, verses 10, starting at verse 10. But when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parable.

21:36

And he said to them, To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God. But to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that seeing they may see and not perceive or understand.

21:51

Right? Walk by faith and not by sight. And hearing they may hear and not understand, lest they should turn and their sins be forgiven them.

22:04

And he said to them, Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all parables?

22:11

Now, skipping down to verse 20. But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it and bear fruit.

22:22

Some 30 fold, some 60 and some 100 fold. Those who hear the word, they understand the word, accept it, they assent it or agree to it and bear fruit.

22:37

Here, once again, Christ is using language of sense perception to refer to something deeper than that.

22:46

Bare sensation is not the point. It's never the goal. Bare sensation is not the issue.

22:52

It's not the point. Understanding and accepting the truth is. That is the goal, which is also the definition for faith.

23:01

That is what faith is. You understand the truth and you agree with it. You assent to it, which is exactly what

23:09

Jesus says. Those who hear the word, they hear it. In other words, they understand it and they accept it.

23:16

They accept it as true. So and of course, here's another thing to think about.

23:28

You cannot literally see what Christ is teaching. Does that make sense?

23:34

You cannot literally see what Christ Christ is teaching. Teaching cannot be seen. Words cannot be seen.

23:42

They can be seen on paper. Yes, but when he's teaching, you cannot see what he is teaching. And so that's why sense perception here.

23:49

It's not referring to literally seeing. It's referring to a. It's a metaphor for understanding and believing what he is teaching.

24:00

You can, however. So that's why you can. But you can metaphorically see what

24:07

Christ taught and perceive it. If you understand and agree with it and you assent to it, which is what

24:14

Christ was saying. That's what he was teaching. Christ, therefore, taught in parables to confuse them.

24:22

So that even though they saw and heard, they saw and heard physically.

24:30

But they were still confused and could not understand. And therefore not believe and therefore not have their sins forgiven.

24:39

Because in order for us to be saved, we must understand and believe the gospel. Right. So that's where.

24:48

Very important to understand, to see how the Bible uses language metaphorically, especially since perception language.

24:57

Now, another very important axiom that I would want to lay down right now.

25:03

Christ always taught from God's word, which was the

25:09

Old Testament at the time. There was New Testament when Christ was alive on Earth. Either explicitly or by deducing sound doctrine from it, by good and necessary consequence.

25:23

This is how Christ taught. He always taught the word. He never came up with his own thing.

25:29

He never went off on a tangent somewhere and not ever go back to the word somehow, either directly or indirectly.

25:39

Because he is the master interpreter, the master theologian and the master teacher. Now, why am

25:47

I saying this? Because in the parable of the sower, he actually quotes

25:53

Isaiah. In Isaiah chapter six, if we turn there, Isaiah chapter six, verses nine through ten.

26:04

Isaiah chapter six, verses nine through ten. Here we see the passage that Christ and the apostles as well, the biblical authors refer to in different circumstances.

26:22

Isaiah chapter six, starting in verse nine. And he said, go and say to this people, keep on hearing, but do not understand.

26:31

Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy and blind their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn and be healed.

26:48

So this is God pronouncing judgment on somebody. He is pronouncing judgment by blinding them to the truth, by keeping them from believing the truth or understanding it.

27:01

That is a form of judgment. And that is why Christ taught in parables and certain situations. It was a judgment on the people listening.

27:10

And it wasn't until he properly interpreted the parable that you could actually know what he meant.

27:17

So again, sense perception here is once again used as a metaphor for understanding. And that is exactly how

27:25

Christ used it in this parable in Mark. Now, I'm going to jump to a few other passages quickly here.

27:35

Proverbs 317 says, be not wise in your own eyes.

27:42

Be not wise in your own eyes. Now, is it literally saying physically seeing with your eyes?

27:51

No, it's not talking about physical eyesight, literal eyesight. It's talking about understanding.

27:58

Do not think yourself wise. Do not think yourself to be wise because those who do so may fall.

28:09

So that is another way the Bible uses language metaphorical sense perception metaphorically.

28:16

Here's another positive example. Some of you, many of you may be familiar with this passage. Oh, taste and see that the

28:24

Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusts in him.

28:31

That's Psalms 34 verse 8, right? So who can taste and see

28:38

God? That's not what he's literally talking about, right? You cannot taste and see

28:45

God because God does not even have a body. God is spirit, right? He does not have a body.

28:51

And therefore, tasting and seeing is a metaphor for understanding the word, understanding

28:59

Christ, God and his word and trusting in it, believing it, agreeing with it and applying it to your life.

29:08

It's talking about trust, understanding and trusting. Now, another negative example, briefly here in Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 43.

29:18

So I spoke to you and you would not listen, but you rebelled against the command of the

29:26

Lord and presumptuously went up into the hill country. Here we see again, literally pun intended.

29:33

Here we see again, you would not listen. Listen here is a metaphor for obeying.

29:42

You would not obey. Why? But you rebelled, right?

29:47

He's explaining, you did not obey me, you rebelled. You did not listen because you did not obey and you rebelled instead.

29:57

Now, this one I would like us to turn to Deuteronomy 29. In Deuteronomy 29 verses 2 through 4, another very important passage.

30:09

We're going to see a different side of this, another side of this sense perception.

30:18

Deuteronomy 29 verses 2 through 4. Deuteronomy 29, so starting in verse 2.

30:24

And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, you have seen all that the

30:31

Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs and those great wonders.

30:42

But to this day, the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.

30:52

This is very fascinating in this passage. You need to understand this properly because if you don't, you will completely miss this in this passage as well.

31:05

Here, God is using sense perception in both senses.

31:10

He is using it in a literal sense and in a metaphorical sense.

31:17

Do you see that? In the first part, he is saying, you witnessed all of these things in Israel, the plagues, all of the miraculous stuff that God did through the

31:31

Egyptians and his spirit, the parting of the sea through Moses and all of those miracles and signs and all of these things.

31:39

They witnessed all of these things with their own eyes. They saw these things, right?

31:46

But in verse four, it says, God has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.

31:54

Now, in this verse, the second part of the passage, obviously, he's not referring to physical eyes and physical ears to see and hear with.

32:06

Why? Because they already had them. They already have eyes and ears, right?

32:12

They didn't lose them. He was referring, therefore, metaphorically to something else.

32:19

They did not have eyes to see because they did not understand. They did not believe.

32:26

So that is what verse four is teaching. God did not give them metaphorically eyes and ears to see and understand and a heart to understand.

32:36

That's a fascinating passage there used in both senses, right?

32:42

So he can use it in both senses or in one sense. Now, let's continue with John.

32:52

John, the apostle, also uses sense perception as metaphors, not surprisingly because it's all throughout the scripture.

33:02

Let's turn now to John chapter six, verses 44 through 47.

33:08

John chapter six, verses 44 through 47. All right.

33:17

So here in this passage, we see

33:22

John six, starting verse 44.

33:28

It is written in the prophets, and they shall all be taught by God. Therefore, everyone who has heard and learned from the father comes to me.

33:39

Not that anyone has seen the father, except he who is from God. He has seen the father.

33:47

Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me has everlasting life. Now, similar to what we've already referred to previously.

33:57

Here, Christ is saying, you've heard and learned from the father, and therefore come to me.

34:04

Not that anyone has seen the father. So we cannot see

34:09

God literally, because God is spirit. Remember, so in fact, in John chapter four, so if we go back a few chapters in chapter four, verse 23, we see why.

34:27

In John four, starting in verse 23. But the hour is coming and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and truth.

34:37

For the father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

34:48

There you see again, pun intended, seeing and hearing.

34:53

So in this passage, in John chapter six, seeing and hearing and coming are used as metaphors to refer to understanding and believing, agreeing with what

35:06

God teaches, right? Because that is what the passage is about. And they shall all be taught by God.

35:13

And it uses the metaphors to hear, to see, to come or believe. All of these are metaphors.

35:20

And in order to understand the metaphor, you need to understand the literal meaning of that passage, the metaphor.

35:26

Which is what it means literally. To understand and believe what God teaches us.

35:32

John also uses Isaiah's metaphors of sense perception. So if we stay in the gospel of John, but turn to chapter 12.

35:42

In John chapter 12, 39 -41. John chapter 12, verses 39 -41.

35:51

In this passage, we will see that God says, Therefore, they could not believe.

35:58

For again, Isaiah said, He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.

36:08

Isaiah saw these things because he saw, I'm sorry. Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.

36:16

Same thing, same exact teaching, just about, and same emphasis.

36:23

The language here is metaphorical to refer to knowledge, to understanding, and to believing. In fact, in John 1 -18, it says,

36:31

No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the

36:38

Father's side, he has made him known. Okay? So, John 1 -18, even that passage itself uses seeing in the sense of understanding as well.

36:53

The only one who understands who God truly is, and who sees him for who he truly is, is

37:00

Christ, the Trinity, the Son. He is the only one who knows who he truly is.

37:07

That's why, in the other verse, John also says,

37:12

Christ is that light, that true light that enlightens every man. He is the one that has to teach us because he is the one who has made him known.

37:20

That word, in fact, for made known is exegesato.

37:27

That is the word from which we get the English word exegesis. Exegesis is to draw out the meaning of the passage from the text, as opposed to eisegesis, where you try to impose a foreign meaning into the passage.

37:44

So, exegesis. God, Christ, is the one who exegetes, who makes the

37:49

Father known, and therefore sees him because he knows him. So, here, to summarize a little bit, we see now that Scripture, in both the

38:02

Old and New Testaments, frequently uses sense perception to refer primarily to understanding, or receiving by faith, accepting it as true.

38:15

So, let's go back now to 1 John. In 1

38:21

John 1, I want to reread those passages and tie things together.

38:37

Alright, so going back to 1 John 1, verse 1. Let's read it again now with new eyes, pun intended.

38:46

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life, the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testified to it, and proclaimed to you the eternal life, which was with the

39:06

Father, and was made manifest to us. Here now, hopefully we have a better understanding of what

39:13

John is expressing in this passage. Here, he is talking about Christ in two different senses, at least.

39:26

When I mentioned earlier, that which is a neuter pronoun.

39:31

Therefore, it's referring to the word of life in the sense of a message, because logos means message.

39:39

Logos means many things. It could mean Christ, wisdom, message, reasoning, a lot of different things.

39:46

But here, it means the message that was proclaimed in the beginning of Christ's ministry, which we talked about last week.

39:55

The message. But also, we need to be careful here not to necessarily separate

40:04

Christ as a human person from Christ's teaching. That's also dangerous, and we don't want to go there.

40:11

And that is why it is perfectly sound and safe to say that this passage is referring to both senses.

40:19

To Christ as an incarnate human person and to his message, the gospel.

40:27

Christ is his teaching, and Christ is the incarnate God -man.

40:34

So, now how does this work? How does this all work? This is something that's very misunderstood these days.

40:44

And we need to, again, seek the whole counsel of God to put this together properly, because this passage is very clearly saying something to us.

40:53

It's being used in two senses here. You can clearly see in which it's used in both ways.

41:01

It's Christ as a human person and Christ as his message. So, how do we make sense of this?

41:08

Let's turn to Proverbs 23, verse 7. Proverbs 23, verse 7.

41:18

Here we see a critical...

41:24

And the translations vary. This verse gets translated in different ways, but they all mean the same thing.

41:33

Some are just a little bit more obscure. But I'm going to read the New King James.

41:39

It's a little bit more clear. And so Proverbs 23, verse 7 says,

41:51

This is very important to understand.

41:57

In other words, you are what you think. You as a person are the thoughts that you think.

42:05

You are what you think. Very important. And what we think are thoughts.

42:11

They are words. They are propositions. And it's like Christ said, Out of the heart proceeds all of these things, these thoughts, these sins, these wicked thoughts and things like that.

42:24

That is extremely important to understand. It's going to help us to understand how we tie together the passage referring to Christ as both a human person,

42:34

God incarnate, and as his message. Now, John 5.

42:41

Let's jump over to the gospel again. John 5, verses 38 -40 and 45 -7.

42:51

So we're going to start with verse 38. So I'm going to read

42:58

John 5, verses 38 -40 and then 45 -47.

43:06

God says, And you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent.

43:13

You search the scriptures because you think that in them, that you have eternal life. And it is they that bear witness about me.

43:22

Yet you refuse to come to me, that you may have life. And then verse 45.

43:29

Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, Moses, on whom you have set your hope.

43:36

For if you believed Moses, you would believe me. For he wrote of me.

43:43

But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?

43:53

You could preach a whole series just on this passage. Did you catch the significance of what

44:00

Christ is saying here? He is literally saying, the scriptures bear witness about me.

44:09

So going to the scriptures and believing the scriptures is the same thing as coming to Christ.

44:16

That's what he literally says. You refuse to come to me because you think that in the scriptures, you have eternal life.

44:27

But they didn't believe. They didn't believe them. Because later on, he says,

44:35

Moses accuses them. Moses accuses them. Why does

44:41

Moses accuse them? Because they set their hope on Moses. But then Moses is going to say, hey, I'm going to judge you as a false professor because you did not believe me.

44:51

And he says, if you believe Moses, you would believe me. For he wrote of me.

45:00

But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?

45:06

Again, look very carefully. He says, if you believe Moses, you would believe me.

45:13

Christ, the person, me. And then he says, if you do not believe Moses writings, how will you believe my words?

45:21

So you see, there's no distinction there that Christ is making between Christ's words and his person.

45:29

Fascinating. Man, I wish I could preach this for a whole month or something.

45:37

He's literally saying, my words are who I am because we are what we think, we are what we teach, we are what we say.

45:47

Every idle word will be used against you, will be judged. We are what we think, and that is what

45:52

Christ is saying. His words are on the same level as his person. If you still don't see it,

46:02

I'll raise you one. Let's turn to John chapter 6, verse 63. John chapter 6, verse 63.

46:14

And we're going to close out here shortly, but I really hope, I really hope that this makes sense and that you get the full brunt of this.

46:23

John chapter 6, verse 63. I'm going to read 63 and 67 through 69.

46:30

Verse 63. It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh is no help at all.

46:38

The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. So Jesus said to the twelve, do you want to go away as well?

46:48

Simon answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life and we have believed and I've come to know that you are the

46:58

Holy One of God. Fascinating. This is so fascinating because again, seeing and eating

47:06

Christ's flesh is of no benefit. It's not about literally touching or seeing or feeling

47:13

Christ. That doesn't benefit you. Judas did that. Right?

47:19

Judas did that. Did he go to heaven? No. He perished in sorrow before betraying

47:26

Christ. He didn't believe. What truly benefits you are chewing and eating the words of Christ and seeing them as understanding the words of Christ and chewing them, seeing them, hearing them, internalizing them.

47:43

That is what Jesus is talking about. His words are literally spirit and life.

47:49

His word is life. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation.

47:55

It is the message that saves and believing that message is the means that God has given us to save us.

48:03

They are life and Jesus clearly says,

48:15

I am the way, the truth, and the life. Again, there's no distinction there.

48:21

No distinction between Christ's words. They are spirit and they are life and Christ calls himself,

48:28

I am the way, the truth, and the life. The gospel is the truth. The gospel is eternal life.

48:34

I am those things. Right? John 14, 6. Same thing. Same doctrine that is being taught here.

48:44

Fascinating. Now John, skip over to John chapter 8 real quick and I think we'll be able to close out here.

48:52

John chapter 8, verse 52. John chapter 8, verse 52.

48:59

Here we see the Jews said to him,

49:04

Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, if anyone keeps my doctrine, he will never taste death.

49:15

That's what Jesus told them. If anyone keeps my word, my doctrine, he will never see or taste death.

49:22

Same exact doctrine. There is no distinction between Christ's words,

49:28

Christ's doctrine, and Christ as a person. You cannot separate those.

49:33

It is unbiblical to do so. We cannot separate those. And that's why, therefore, going back to 1

49:41

John, if we go back to 1 John, now we can see a little bit more clearly, I hope, that this passage is referring to Christ's message, but Christ's message is

49:53

Christ himself. It is Christ himself. It is

50:00

Christ in the flesh, Christ who proclaimed that message. It is the same person. There is no distinction.

50:08

There is no separation. Powerful stuff. This is incredibly fascinating stuff.

50:16

And we, hopefully, have a better grasp of this now. I'd like to close with that.

50:25

At least we managed to get through the first verse. So next week, Lord willing, we'll start on verse 2.

50:31

It's going to get even more amazing and fascinating. So I invite you to listen because it's going to be really good stuff.

50:41

Thank you for listening to the sermons of Thorn Crown Covenant Baptist Church, where the Bible alone and the

50:46

Bible in its entirety is applied to all of faith and life. We strive to be biblical, reformed, historic, confessional, loving, discerning

50:55

Christians who evangelize, stand firm in, and earnestly contend for the Christian faith.

51:00

If you're looking for a church in the El Paso, Texas area, or for more information about our church, sermons, and ministries, such as Semper Ephraim on the radio and Thorn Crown Network podcast, please contact us at thorncrownministries .com.