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[0:00] Morning. Good morning. Good morning. The Gospel of John is born in the first chapter. A couple of weeks ago, we began hopefully going all the way through the Gospel of John.

[0:18] That's my intentions anyway. Honestly, if I had planned it better, I would have probably began it this week, but I forgot that we weren't having Sunday school last weekend.

[0:31] But that's neither here nor there. We started two weeks ago, got through the first five verses of the first chapter of the Gospel of John. Those of you that were here, if you remember, those five verses that we went through that Sunday school session, we talked about how the first verse in the beginning was the Word in the Word, it was with God, the Word was God.

[1:00] This was a strong allusion to the deity of Jesus Christ. We went through those five verses and we read how all things were made by Him.

[1:13] Anyway, the last couple of verses we read in Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in darkness and the darkness and we didn't comprehend it at night.

[1:26] We spent quite a bit of time on that verse five there, how the darkness didn't comprehend the light or apprehend or overcome the light as the literal meaning of that. Not only did it not understand it, which would be what we would consider comprehending something or not comprehending something, for that matter, but it could not overtake the light that came in to the world.

[1:50] Or will that light ever be overtaken? That light has been eternal for all time and it will be eternal for all time. The darkness cannot snuff out that light.

[2:01] We spoke about it last week, talking about how darkness is simply the absence of light. Darkness is not a thing in and of itself, however light is.

[2:15] All the darkness is is the absence of light. You've got different grades or different shades of darkness and those shades or grades of darkness depend upon how much light is getting in to somewhere or something or someone if you're speaking spiritually.

[2:33] So that's just a real quick brief in a nutshell recap of verses one through five. And we'll pick up verse six. How far we'll get this morning?

[2:46] I got intentions to get through verse 14. Don't know if we'll get that far though. So verse six says, there was a man sent from God whose name was John. We'll stop right there.

[2:58] John here, the writer John, switches gears. He switches gears in a very abrupt fashion. As I just stated, their first session in this, we stated that verse one is indicating and showing us and telling us that Jesus Christ is indeed God.

[3:20] And that's what the first five verses are all about, is God coming into this world, this world of darkness. And the first five verses is concentrating on God and how Jesus is God.

[3:33] Jesus is God coming to flesh. Jesus is the Son of God. Yes, I realized this. But Jesus was and is God manifest in the flesh. And now we read, there was a man sent by God whose name was John.

[3:48] So we've gone from God to a man here on planet earth. John very abruptly switches gears here, speaking about this man John.

[3:59] Verse seven says, the same came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. So we've gone from talking about man, or talking about God to talking about a man, but he states here in verse seven, the same came for a witness to the light, or for the light.

[4:16] The same came as a witness about this light that had come into this darkened world that was dark 2000 years ago, and it's dark nowadays.

[4:28] But this verse speaks volumes. It speaks volumes not just about John, John the Baptist. It not only speaks volumes about that, but it says he came as a witness to the light.

[4:42] And this is a particularly, in my opinion, it's a disturbing verse in the scripture. Why is that? Because it talks about what John came to do, what John was sent to do, I should say.

[4:54] What John the Baptist was sent to do, to bear witness of the light. Who needs to be told that there's light? I mean, you know, when the sun shining and all of its fullness and all of its radiance, there's only one type of person that needs to be told that the sun's out, and that's a blind person.

[5:17] So John was sent to be a witness to the light that had come into the world. He was sent to tell people the light is here, and we read on down, we're not going to get into it just yet, but on down in this same chapter, we read about how he came into the world, and we read about he came into his own, his own received and nodded.

[5:39] We read about all these things, but he came to tell everyone, not just the Jews, he came to tell everyone that light has indeed entered into the world. A.W.Pink described this as a pathetic statement about the condition of the world, about the condition of humankind in general.

[5:59] And folks, it is no different now. It's still a dark world, and there are still a small people out there that are proclaiming that light has indeed come into the world, that light being Jesus Christ, and that light has come into the world, it has penetrated the darkness, it has done what it's going to do, the light did what it was going to do while it was here, and that light now sits to the right hand of glory.

[6:25] It sits to the right hand of the Father now, that very light does, but it has already been here, that light has already been crucified, that light has already been buried, he's already resurrected, he's already ascended unto the Father, and there's still a handful of people left on this planet that are proclaiming that light to the world.

[6:44] But that was John the Baptist, that was his main objective, that was the main reason that he was sent by God, was to proclaim that light had entered into the darkness.

[6:57] The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe, this doesn't mean John the Baptist saved people, no more than it means that when I preach that I save people, or when Vern preaches he saves people, I have no power to save anyone.

[7:12] The Bible says that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God, unto salvation, it has nothing to do with me, all I can do is proclaim the light, all I can do is tell people about the same light that penetrated into my dark soul, and into my dark heart, and I can tell people about that, I can bear witness of that.

[7:34] Preachers would do good to read this, to understand that they have no power to save. And haughty Christians would do well to read this, to understand that they have no power to save.

[7:49] All that power and all the saving comes from God, and only from God, but he was sent to bear witness of this light and all men through him might believe, how could all men through John believe by him bearing witness of the light?

[8:06] So I encourage you, if you're here and you're born again, share the gospel, testify of the light, bear witness of that light, bear witness of Jesus Christ who saved your soul, because unless people know about Jesus, they will never, ever, ever be saved.

[8:24] Even it's Jesus that is able to save, it is Jesus that was crucified, and it was Jesus who was resurrected, and it's his blood that is able to save. Verse 8, he was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light.

[8:40] This speaks volumes upon volumes of John the Baptist. John, you might hear me as we're going through the gospel, John referred to him as John the Revelator, which he was John the Revelator as well, but John the Ritter here, John the Disciple or Apostle of Jesus Christ.

[8:57] Speaking of John the Baptist, he says, he was not that light. This speaks volumes of John the Baptist. In other words, there were evidently people when John was writing this letter that thought that John the Baptist was the Messiah, and we know that John had followers, which was not an uncommon thing for rabbis or for teachers of the word of the Old Testament scriptures.

[9:22] It was not an uncommon thing for them to have disciples. In fact, in the gospels, we read about disciples of John the Baptist. In the book of Acts, we read that there were people that had heard of John but had not heard of Christ.

[9:35] So this speaks volumes about the life that John the Baptist lived. It speaks just oodles about how he lived and how he acted and how he presented himself as he was bearing witness of this light, because John the Ritter of the Gospel, the Apostle of Jesus Christ, John, had to tell people he was not that light.

[9:59] He was not that light but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light, which lighteth every man that come into the world. That was the true light.

[10:11] That was the real light. That was the original light. Jesus Christ being light himself. And we know this from verse four, we read it a couple of weeks ago, and him was the life, and the life was the light of men.

[10:25] The life of Jesus Christ is the light of men. That's not just talking about the life that he lived while he was here for 33 years. Jesus Christ is life, and he has always been life.

[10:36] Everything about the eternal Godhead has always been eternal. It has always been forever. It has always been immortal. So he has always been life.

[10:47] He is the very origin of life. He is the origin of light. And John the Ritter here says that he was the true light. He wasn't the false light.

[10:59] He wasn't a light. He wasn't like you and I who are saved and born again luminaries of some light. You and I have no light within ourselves. We reflect a lot of Jesus Christ in our life.

[11:12] When we sing that song, let my life be a light shining out through the night. When we sing that song, folks, we have no light within ourselves. Our light is a reflection of Jesus Christ.

[11:27] We are still sinful creatures here on this earth, but if we've been saved and we've been born again, we reflect a lot of Jesus Christ. It's no different than the moon. The moon emanates no light of its own.

[11:40] It breaks the light of the sun. It creates no light in and of itself. And we are just like the moon. Just like the moon now. There's a theological controversy, if you'd like to call it that, using this very verse of Scripture, as well as some Scripture that we find in the Gospel of John in chapter 5, where Jesus refers to John the Baptist as a bright and burning light.

[12:08] Well, if John the Baptist was a light, and the only light comes from Jesus Christ, how do we reconcile that? Well, the original Greek term is actually a lamp in chapter 5, not a light itself.

[12:25] And that fits very well with Jesus' description of that. What is a lamp? A lamp is something that, you know, it creates no light of its own, just like we were just talking about the moon.

[12:37] That light has to be lit from somewhere else. It has to be lit from without to within. And not only that though, a lamp will only burn for so long. Several hours later, that lamp's going to go out.

[12:49] We're talking about oil lamps here that were used back in this day. I'm not talking about a lot. You can turn on your living room. They'll burn for days and weeks and months at a time using an LED bulb. We're talking about the oil lamps that they would have been using at this time.

[13:03] So that was a very fitting description of John the Baptist. Now, I'm not discounting John the Baptist. I'm not saying that he wasn't all that Jesus Christ said that he was.

[13:14] In fact, Jesus Christ says in the Gospels, that there was never a man greater than John the Baptist that had ever been born. So John the Baptist had his place. We know that John the Baptist leaked an Elizabeth's womb when Mary walked into the room because the Savior had come in.

[13:31] John the Baptist testified before he was ever even born that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that Jesus is the light of the world, and all these other things that we've been talking about.

[13:43] But if you ever come across that controversy where people try and use it, that's one of atheists and contenders of the Bible. That's one of their favorite things to use.

[13:55] And I can tell you that because I'm a former atheist. I didn't get saved until I was 33. And I've come across this scripture several times in atheist literature saying, you know, you can use this to disprove the Bible.

[14:09] But it's not disproving the Bible at all. You can't disprove the Bible, especially to a born-again child of God, because God has worked a miracle within their heart and within their soul and within their life.

[14:22] You cannot disprove the Bible to someone that's been saved and touched by God. But he was not the light that was sent to bear witness to the light. That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh in to the world.

[14:36] How does it light every man that cometh in to the world? There are so many lost people walking around. What is this light that we're talking about? Same as verse 4. We can go back to verse 4 once again. And it was life, and the life was the light of man.

[14:49] This is only through conscience that this is possible. Everybody, I don't care if you're born again. I don't care if you're lost. Everybody has a conscience. Everybody knows right from wrong.

[15:01] Everybody knows the difference between good and evil. Even when we were lost, even if you were ever a thief, if you were a perpetual liar, if you were an adulterer, whatever it was, you knew better than to be doing what you were doing.

[15:15] And yet you did it anyway. Just like I did. I ain't pointing a finger at you without one pointing back at me. Without two or three pointing back at me. So I'm not accusing you or anything like that.

[15:26] But our conscience is the light that has been given us. Our conscience condemns us. Our conscience can absolutely condemn us.

[15:39] That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him. And the world knew him not. He came into his own, and his own received him not.

[15:50] I know that's two verses, and we'll back up to verse 10. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. Once again, we can go back to verse one.

[16:02] In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God. One statement that Jesus Christ, being the word of God, was God himself, and is God himself.

[16:13] Verse 10, he was in the world, and the world was made by him. Once again, John, the writer here, the Apostle of Christ, stating the deity of Jesus Christ, saying he was not only in the world, but he made the world.

[16:29] Jesus Christ being co-creator of not only this earth that we live upon, but the entire universe that we live within. Jesus Christ is co-creator in that, along with God the Father and God the Spirit.

[16:43] He was in the world, the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came into his own, and his own received him not. I want you to realize here that we're talking about two separate groups of people in these two verses, and verses 10 and verse 11.

[16:58] It says he came into the world, and the world knew him not. Verse 11, he came into his own, and his own received him not. So when he came into the world, and the world knew him not, folks, that's exactly what it says, the world including the Gentiles, including you and I.

[17:17] And y'all have heard me say it plenty of times, I can look around, and I can tell they announce a Jewish blood, and anybody sitting in this congregation, not that I can tell anyway, not enough that it would really matter.

[17:31] So he came into the world, and the world knew him not, but then he came into his own, and his own received him not. He came into his own elect, his own chosen, the apple of God's eye, the Jewish people, Israel.

[17:45] He came unto them, and they received him not, but we've got two separate groups of people, and two different statements about those groups of people. He came into the world, the world knew him not.

[17:56] The world is charged with ignorance here. The world, it says that they knew him not. They wouldn't have recognized him because they didn't know what they were going to be looking for to begin with, if they even should be looking for anything to begin with.

[18:13] It's much like the same way that you read about Paul preaching to the different groups of people throughout the book of Acts, when Paul preaches to a mainly Jewish audience, what does he use?

[18:24] He uses the law to get through to them. He uses the Pentateuch and the Torah, he uses the Old Testament scriptures to show the Jewish people that Jesus Christ was indeed God, that Jesus Christ had come and died in their place.

[18:41] He used the law for that, but when he came to the world, the people that knew nothing about the law, the people that never read the Old Testament and could care less about it, the people that were polytheistic and worshiped many gods, when he came to them, he couldn't use the law because they knew nothing about it.

[18:58] So what did Paul use? He used creation. Every time you see Paul through the book of Acts speak to a mainly Gentile audience, he begins with creation.

[19:09] Why? Because these people lived upon part of the creation of God. They lived upon the earth. And that's what Paul would use. So here when it says, he was in the world, the world was made by him, the world knew him not, the world didn't know how to recognize Christ as a Messiah, because the world wasn't looking for a Messiah.

[19:33] The Gentile people weren't looking for a Messiah. They were looking to satisfy hundreds of gods, most of the Gentiles were. Once again, they were very polytheistic, but then he came into his own and his own received him not.

[19:49] So this would be mainly talking about the Jewish people. He came into his own. Not only was Jesus a Jew and he came into his own, the Jewish people, not only that, but they had the entire Old Testament that was testifying that Messiah was coming.

[20:10] But it says they received him not, not. It doesn't say they knew him not. It says they received him not. So when Messiah did come, the same Messiah that was prophesied in Genesis chapter 3, the same Messiah that was prophesied through the Psalms, the same Messiah that was prophesied in Isaiah 7 and Isaiah 9, and in Micah chapter 5, and in Psalms 16 and Psalms 22, my goodness, the same Messiah that was prophesied all throughout the Old Testament.

[20:38] These Jews should have recognized him. And what's so sad is the Bible here in the Gospel of John doesn't say that they didn't recognize him. It says that they didn't receive him.

[20:50] They didn't receive him. They didn't welcome him when Messiah finally came. Why was that? Because the Jews had been manipulated by their own hierarchy, by Pharisees and Sadducees, by some of the scribes, by some of the priests, the lawyers.

[21:12] They had been deceived and manipulated into believing that the Messiah that was going to come was going to just show up and take Rome off of the face of the map and was going to immediately set down.

[21:29] These Jews, they had done forgot about Isaiah 53. They had done forgot that there would be no form of cuddliness in him, there would be no beauty that they should desire him.

[21:40] That's exactly how Jesus Christ came. And therefore, they should have received him, but they didn't. They recognized him. Many of them recognized him as Messiah, but they didn't receive him.

[21:54] They didn't welcome him on to the very planet that he had created. They didn't welcome him into his own family. The people that he had chosen, the Jewish race that Abraham had begun by the choosing of God.

[22:14] So this is a very sad statement of Scripture in verses 10 and 11 that the world, they were just ignorant of Christ, but the Jews were not ignorant of Him. They just simply didn't welcome Him or receive Him.

[22:27] Verse 12, But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

[22:42] Back to verse 12, But as many as received him, and I want you to pay attention in this verse, there's two different tenses in this verse, but as many as received him, that's past tense, to them gave, that's past tense, he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe at present tense, even to them that believe on his name.

[23:05] So as many as received him, we're talking about who's John writing to. He's writing likely to a mainly Jewish audience at this time that he was writing.

[23:17] He says as many as received him, past tense, to them gave he power to become the sons of God. He gave them power past tense to become the sons of God.

[23:32] Then he goes on to say, even to them that believe present tense in his name, or on his name. So we go from past to present. So he's saying that as many as believe God gave them power to become the sons, or the children of God, if you read this in the original Greek, children is actually a better term than sons, is that includes everybody.

[24:00] So you women, you're not excluded from that, which I'm sure you realize that anyway, but it's not to have some confirmation sometimes. But to them gave he power to become the sons of children of God.

[24:15] But then it goes to present tense meaning that it continues on. It wasn't just for the people of John's day. It wasn't just for the people that heard Christ preach for three plus years.

[24:28] And it wasn't just for the apostles of Jesus Christ. It wasn't just for the first century church. It continues on and to this day it is presently, presently that even to them that believe on his name, to them that believe on the name of Jesus Christ, God Almighty gives them power to become the children of God.

[24:53] This speaks about the human side of salvation. Now don't you get me wrong, you've got nothing to do with you getting saved. That's a complete act of God has nothing to do with you.

[25:06] Had nothing to do with me when I got saved. It is a complete and total act of God. Y'all have heard me say it countless times. It took God to show me I was a sinner.

[25:17] It took God to convict my heart. It took God to save me and it'll take God to get me home. It is completely and utterly of God salvation is. But it says, as man has receded them to them, gave him power to become the sons of God, even to them to believe on his name.

[25:34] That's the human side of them that believe on his name. We must believe on the name of Jesus Christ. Then we have the divine side of it or the godly side of it, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

[25:51] This is the divine side of it. We have the human side, we must believe, yes. But what are we believing? We're believing in the very light. If you go back to verse 6 and verse 7, we're believing in the light that John the Baptist was witnessing of.

[26:07] We're believing in the light that John the Baptist was testifying of, that he was telling the world about. We're believing on the name of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ being light, which were born not of blood.

[26:20] In other words, it's not an inherited trait that we get just because my mama saved, don't mean that I'm going to heaven, just because your mama, your grandmother, your granddaddy was saved, or maybe you've got preachers all through your lineage.

[26:36] That doesn't mean that you're saved. It's an individual salvation. Amen. It's a God that wants a personal relationship with each individual creation that he has, each individual person that he has created.

[26:51] God wants an individual relationship with those people. Therefore, it's a personal and individual salvation that you possess, just as it is that I possess. So it's not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh.

[27:05] Praise God for that, because the Bible says there's none that seeketh after God. No, not one. There's none that seeketh after righteousness. It's not our nature to seek after God.

[27:17] It's not our nature to will that God save our souls. It's not in us to do that. So praise God that it's neither by blood, which the Jews thought that it was, and it's neither by the flesh, because nobody has it in them to will that God saves their souls, nor the will of man, but of God.

[27:41] Once again, it took God to make the plan to begin with. Before the world was ever created, when the entire universe sat in darkness, before it was ever spoken existence, God came up with the plan of salvation, because he knew what man would be.

[27:58] He knew what man would become. He knew how he would create man. He knew that he would create man in his own image, just as he did Adam in the garden. And folks, when he created Adam, he created him in his image.

[28:12] God created a perfect human being, but sin entered into the picture. God doesn't create anything imperfect. God created a perfect human being, and he created a perfect help me for Adam, out of Adam's rib, whom Adam named Eve.

[28:28] For she was the mother of all things living, but that's where we'll get into that. But God created perfect individuals when he did that.

[28:39] God knew that sin would creep in. God knew that man would make his own decision, man would rebel against God. But yet, yet, praise God, we read it here in just a little while, we won't get to it today.

[28:52] Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. It was pure grace. It was by pure grace that God didn't just sit in the heavens and say, you know what?

[29:06] I don't even think I'm going to create a world, because I know what's going to happen. I don't think I'm going to create man, because I know they're going to rebel against me. I don't think I'm going to do any of these things. I'll just sit here.

[29:17] I'll create as many angels as I want, and they'll worship me just as much as I want them to. Why? Because I'm God. God had none of those thoughts. God still said, I'm going to do this.

[29:30] I'm going to create the universe. I'm going to create the planet Earth. I'm going to create man, and yes, they're going to rebel against me, but I will go myself. Praise God. I will go myself and offer myself a perfect sacrifice.

[29:44] I'll offer myself as the redemption for a fallen man, and those that receive me to them, I will give them power to become the children or the sons of God.

[29:57] Listen, I ain't putting thoughts in God's head, but it had to be something along those lines, for not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

[30:12] Verse 14, And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as ought, the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

[30:29] Once again, you can go back to verse one, and the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. We know this was Jesus Christ. John has made that abundantly clear in his writing. We know that this was a direct reference to the deity of Jesus Christ, and here he says the Word was made flesh.

[30:47] So John has stated three very specific times, just in the first paragraph of his gospel, that Jesus Christ is indeed God.

[30:58] He didn't just come out and say that like Peter did when Jesus was asking the disciples about it. He didn't just come out and say, thou art the cross, the son of the living God, but he has made three very direct references to Jesus Christ being God himself.

[31:13] He says the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The Word of God was made flesh and dwelt among us, or he dwelt among us, being Jesus Christ.

[31:27] Now, there are some people that say that John would have been referring to specifically the Jewish people, and to an extent I would agree with that, because Jesus came.

[31:38] I mean, we know that the gospel was to the Jew first and then to the Greek, and when Jesus came, I mean, there was even a woman that came to Jesus in the gospels, a Gentile woman.

[31:52] She came to Jesus and said that her daughter was sorely vexed with the devil, and this is the same woman that Jesus said that he had come to the lost house of Israel first.

[32:03] He had come to the Jews first, and he said, I can't give that which is meant for the children to the dogs. Speaking of this Gentile woman this way, Jesus Christ came, yes, to save the Jews, but God, Him being omnipotent, Him being omniscient, Him being omnie everything, God knew that the Jews would reject Jesus Christ.

[32:26] Once again, we can go back a couple of verses. It's not that they didn't recognize Him, it is that they rejected Jesus Christ as Savior, and as Messiah, He knew that they would do that, and therefore Jesus would go to the sheep of another fold, as the gospels say that He did.

[32:46] He would go to the fold of the Gentiles. He would leave Israel sitting for a while, mind you. God is not finished with Israel, God's not done with the Jewish nation.

[32:58] The Jewish nation still has some promises that God made to them that have not been fulfilled yet, and God is not a man that he should lie nor that he could lie. God cannot lie, God will fulfill those promises unto Israel, but Israel has been put on the back burner for now because of the rejection of Messiah, and the torch has moved to the Gentile church for the time being, the time that we are in right now, the time that John was riding in at this time.

[33:28] The torch had been moved to the Gentile church because of the rejection of Messiah that the Jews showed Jesus Christ. The Word was made flesh and it dwelt among us.

[33:40] Yes, he very well could have been talking about only the Jewish people, but I believe personally that he was talking about the entire world. The world knew him not, and the Jews received him not.

[33:53] So I believe when he says us, that he was talking about the world in general. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.

[34:06] The glory is of the only begotten, of the Father. So we beheld his glory, some people will relate this only to the amount of transfiguration seen, if you'd like to call it that, but folks, that ain't what John was talking about.

[34:23] Yes, yes, they beheld his glory, the amount of transfiguration, don't get me wrong. But my goodness, the man lived a sinless life, the man lived a perfect life, and he healed people, and he done specific healings that Messiah was predicted to do in the Old Testament.

[34:41] The man wasn't afraid of lepers. He opened blind eyes, he unstopped the fear. He caused the lame people to walk. He done all of these things.

[34:53] Was this not beholding the glory of Jesus Christ? Was it not beholding the glory of Jesus Christ in the life that he lived, in pure, unriddled dedication to the Father and to the Father's business?

[35:07] That would have been beholding his glory as well. I'm not talking about the glory of God, that God would not allow Moses to view on except for his 100 parts.

[35:18] That's not the glory I'm talking about. I'm talking about the life that Christ lived. John beheld that, and the rest of the apostles beheld that. Keep in mind, just in case anybody here is lost, Judas Iscariot also beheld it.

[35:33] That's a whole other sermon or lesson in and of itself. He saw the same things, but we're not going to teach that. But John beheld the glory of Jesus Christ.

[35:45] Yes, his glory was shown on the Mount of Transfiguration between Elijah and Moses. Are those of you there familiar with that account?

[35:57] Yes, that was beholding the glory of Christ, but we can't just narrow it down to that. It was the entire time that John got to spend with Jesus Christ, but not only him, he says, we beheld his glory.

[36:17] Meaning everyone that was around him beheld his glory. Now he could have been talking about just the apostles, but everyone that was around Christ beheld the glory of Christ and beheld the life that he lived.

[36:30] The life that he lived in pure dedication to God. As the glory, we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.

[36:41] In other words, the only one that could live a life like that. The only one that could have that type of glory emanating from him. I'm not talking about a blinded life that blinded everybody, I'm talking about his life that he lived.

[36:54] They beheld this. He said, we beheld this as of the only begotten of the Father, as only he could have it, as only he could live it, as only he could do it, full of grace and truth, which is divine attributes of Almighty God, full of the life that Christ lived and the glory that he showed, the glory that John and the rest of them beheld.

[37:21] When he said, we beheld his glory, Jesus Christ was full of grace and of truth, and we're all going to catch more of that grace and truth next week. I've got $10 million right now, we've got five minutes.

[37:34] So we'll pick back up in verse 14 next week at the end of it there, and we'll stop for right now. Anybody got any questions or comments on any of that?

[37:46]  Alright, God bless you, I appreciate you.