Well, having sung about him,
let's turn in our Bibles to John chapter 3. I just wanted to look at these
first few verses before we have John's answer, because they set
a context, of course, which is so incredibly significant. It
says in verse 22 of John 3, after these things came Jesus and his
disciples into the land of Judea. And there he tarried with them
and baptized. And of course this is after his
time with Nicodemus and after his proclamations of what it
is to be saved. To be saved is to be not condemned
by God. No condemnation right now, no
condemnation and no separation. It is to believe in the name. Salvation is believing in the
name of the only begotten Son of God and as you'll see John
the Baptist goes on to describe the name of the only begotten
Son of God. The first thing I want us to
notice, of course, is that to find Christ and to find a prophet
from the Old Testament in the days of the Lord Jesus Christ,
you didn't go to Jerusalem. You didn't go to organised, man-made,
legalistic, works religion. You went into the wilderness.
And the Lord Jesus Christ went to Jerusalem, and in Jerusalem
he went three times a year to all the feast days. He kept the
law of God absolutely perfectly, and soon as those days had finished,
he's gone. He's gone into the wilderness.
To find the Lord Jesus Christ, you need to go into the wilderness,
not into Jerusalem. As he said of Jerusalem, he said,
this place is left unto you desolate. It was desolate. and his disciples were there
and baptized. And of course, if you go down
to chapter 4 verse 2, you'll see that John makes a clarifying
statement there that Jesus himself baptized not but his disciples. But the point is very, very clear,
of course, isn't it? That what's done under Christ's
authority is done by him. It's done by him. Where he is preached under his
authority, where he makes his preachers and causes his witness
to be raised up, he is speaking. He is speaking. What's done by the serpents of
the Lord Jesus Christ is done by him. I do love, and I love
quoting it to you in John chapter 12, he speaks of the servant. He said, I just love how the
Lord explains these things, makes it so clear. If any man serve
me, let him follow me and then he says just a john 12 26 and
where i am there shall also my servant be who's there first
who goes first there's no separation from us between us and the lord
jesus christ Where I am, there shall also my servant be, if
any man serve me. Him will my Father honour. As he said when he set out those
disciples, he said in Luke chapter 10 verse 16, He that heareth
you, heareth me. So we're here to hear the words
of God. You're not here to hear the words of a farmer from Tererah.
You're here to hear the words of God. I want to hear the words
of God spoken. I don't want anyone else's opinion
or my opinions. I couldn't care less about my
opinions. But listen to what he says. He that heareth you,
heareth me. And he that despiseth you, despises me. And he that
despises me, despises him that sent me. Men love the darkness. So to find the Lord Jesus Christ
and to find his people you have to go outside. You have to go
outside of what looks like organised religion. You have to go to the
wilderness. That was the situation for the three and a half years
of the Lord's ministry, the situation for all of John the Baptist's
ministry. That doesn't mean that he didn't do remarkable things
in Jerusalem and claim that temple of his own. Verse 23, John 3. And John also was baptizing in
Anan near Salem, because there was much water there. And they
came and were baptized. Now the only reason we have baptism
as a word in our language is because the translators in those
early days were embarrassed about having to get rid of their infant
baptism. And so what they did is they
took a Greek word and just transliterated it into English, just used the
Greek word became an English word. But the Greek word means
to immerse, to plunge or to dip. There is no such thing as baptism
if it's not believed as baptism. There's no such thing as baptism
if it's not in response to believing in the gospel. There's no such
thing as baptism if it's baptising of babies. It's just not baptism,
it's believed as baptism. That's why he went where there
was much water. He went where there was much
water, because you need much water to baptise someone. And
the Lord Jesus Christ himself in John 3, you'll note at his
baptism, Jesus went up out of the water. You can't go up out
of a sprinkling. can't go up out of a pouring
baptism baptism is a declaration of the gospel isn't it it's a
declaration of our union with the Lord Jesus Christ that we
are buried with him that we are raised with him it's our confession
of the Lord Jesus Christ publicly so there was baptism there was
much water But of course the other thing I want us to note
is that here we have this remarkable situation of the Lord Jesus Christ's
disciples baptising and John baptising and we don't know where
these two towns are. The best guess is that they are
in southern Samaria at the southern side of the southern end of the
Lake of Galilee and they were probably about 10 possibly about
10 miles apart. But the point of course is that
the Lord Jesus Christ is honoring John's baptism and honoring John's
ministry and he always does. John had a ministry that came
from God. John didn't assume his place
because of something that he did. He assumed his place and
his right to call people to repentance and to baptism and to faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ and to declare behold the Lamb of God.
He had that as a gift from God. He was full of the Holy Spirit
from his mother's womb. So the Lord Jesus Christ's baptism
in his ministry and John the Baptist's baptism in his ministry
are as one. They are as one. The Lord honors it. And there is no harm, and no
harm come to any who had the baptism of John the Baptist.
For John was not yet cast into prison. A little later on, not in John's
Gospel so much, but in the other Gospels, we hear of what happened
to John, and you know it. He was cast into prison because
he spoke the truth to Herod about Herod's sins. He spoke the truth
to everyone about their sin and their need of repentance. And then there arose a question
between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying. isn't it extraordinary? John's
ministry was a ministry of reconciliation, isn't it? God's ministers are
always in the business and they have one thing at their heart,
haven't they, always? The reconciliation of men to
God, the reconciliation of God to men. Satan and his ministers
of righteousness They're here to raise these questions. Just
look at the sneaky way they do it. They don't go and see John
and they don't go and see the Lord Jesus. They go to John's
disciples. They always, like Satan did in
the garden, they find the most soft and easy target. But Satan
and all of his ministers of righteousness, rather than wanting to reconcile
people to each other and reconcile people to God, they're always
seeking to divide God's people from each other, aren't they?
They're always wanting to say, well, this ministry is better
than that ministry, and look what he's doing, and look at
all the people going over to him. And John, you ought to be
jealous of what's happening. All these people are flocking
to him. And they came, verse 26, And they came unto John and said
unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond the Jordan,
to whom thou bearest witness, behold, the same baptiseth, and
all men come to him. All disputation, all disputation
is always, it's always carnal, it's always ungodly. We proclaim the gospel and then
leave God to do his work. I love how Paul, in his last
letter to Timothy, explained to Timothy what he ought to do
in all of these situations, and it's a good thing for us to remember,
isn't it? And 2 Timothy 2 verse 24, And
the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto
all men. We're wanting reconciliation.
We're always wanting people to be reconciled. Come, come and
believe. Come and be reconciled. Be gentle
unto all men, apt to teach, and patient, in meekness instructing
those who oppose themselves. People who are opposed to the
gospel and opposed to God's sermons are always opposing themselves,
aren't they? They are their own worst enemies. We're always our
own worst enemies. They pose themselves, if God
perventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth,
and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil,
who are taken captive by him at his will. The Pharisees' questions and
accusations, if you go back through the rest of the New Testament,
you'll see that their questions and accusations are all to do
about purification. They're really always to do about
purification. Purification and authority. Only those who see themselves
as righteous will come to God's servants, those that are God's
witnesses, and want to raise issues of controversy. Only the
righteous. These Pharisees were self-righteous. These Pharisees are the same
group, aren't they? This Jew, or the Jews, were the
same group that had been to John the Baptist earlier, hadn't they?
They'd been sent by Nicodemus and that religious crowd in Jerusalem. They'd been sent all the way
down to Jordan to examine John the Baptist, and they examined
him. And they said, this guy's nothing. He lives out in the
desert. He's eating locusts and wild honey. And he's dressed. He's dressed like a pauper. fur
of a camel. And they looked at the Lord Jesus
Christ and they said, He's just nothing. He's nothing to look
at. He's despised and rejected of men. So what is it that causes
men to be judgmental and causes men to be disputation? It's always
their own righteousness. It's always their own self-righteousness. There's a great truth isn't it?
All The truly righteous before God see themselves as nothing
but unrighteous. All the truly righteous see themselves
as nothing but unrighteous. And all the unrighteous see themselves
as righteous. It's on the basis of their righteousness
that they come and judge. Again, it needs to be said again
and again and again. It's not your sins which keep
you from Christ. It's your righteousness that
keeps you from the Lord Jesus Christ. And only a new creation,
only a new creation from God himself. That's why he said to
Nicodemus, you must be born again. There was probably no more moral
and righteous and upright man in all of Jerusalem. And Nicodemus
needed to be born again. His first birth was not sufficient
to enter the kingdom of heaven. But it wasn't even sufficient
to see what the Kingdom of Heaven was. He didn't have a clue who
the Kingdom of Heaven was. The Kingdom of Heaven is a person.
And he was standing there before him, proclaiming himself to be
the Kingdom of Heaven, and Nicodemus was as blind as a bat. And thankfully,
according to John's Gospel, it appears that Nicodemus was recovered.
He was recovered, he was brought into the presence of the Lord
Jesus Christ. There is a passage in Mark's
Gospel I'd like us to just look at very briefly and I'd like,
if the Lord allows for you to go home and study it more closely. But this is exactly what the
self-righteous do all the time and I want us just, I'm not going
to read all of it, I just want us to go through the verses and
I want you to note the progression of self-righteousness. the dangerous
progression of self-righteousness. Verse one, then came together
unto him the Pharisees and certain of the scribes which came from
Jerusalem. They'd come out to examine him again. And what's
the first thing they do? In verse two, chapter seven of
Mark's gospel in verse two, I'm sorry. I'll let you get there, because
I'd love you to see this. I've got them underlined in my Bible.
I don't know whether you like marking your Bible, but some
things need to be put before us again and again and again.
The first thing they do when they come with their self-righteous
eyes, isn't it, is they soar. Some of these disciples eat bread
with defile, that is to say, unwashing hands. That doesn't
mean their hands were unclean, it just means they hadn't gone
through the extraordinary Jewish ritual, if you go and look it
up on Wikipedia. They had to go through this extraordinary
ritual of holding their hands up and the water had to drip
off their palm, drip off their elbows, and they had to do it
several times again. Anyway, it was all just ritual.
It wasn't about hygiene. And so what do they do? When
they see, when they look, when you look through the eyes of
flesh, you'll find fault, the end of that verse. You find fault. If you look through the eyes
of flesh at anyone, you will find fault. You look at me, look
at yourself, look at others, you'll always find fault. Verse five. Then the Pharisees
and the scribes asked him, why walk not thy disciples according
to the traditions of the elders? This had nothing to do with the
mosaic instructions about cleanliness and hygiene in your house and
around your house. It's a tradition of the elders. And then he answered, this is
a solemn, solemn charge, isn't it? Well, Osiris, well hath Osiris
prophesied of you hypocrites. So hypocrite is someone who wears
a mask. That's what the word means, isn't
it? It means to wear a mask, that here I am righteous. And
behind, they were just, listen to them, listen to the Lord's
description of them. This people honoureth me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me. Don't forget it started with
a look. It started with a look and it started with a finding.
This heart is far from me. Verse 7, how be it in vain do
they worship? Their worship of God is empty,
nothingness, meaningless it means. In vain do they worship me, teaching
for doctrines, the commandments of men. So they've overturned
the doctrines of Christ, the teachings of Christ, and now
it's just the commandments of men. Verse 8, they lay aside, put
to one side, if they have their human traditions, they'll put
to one side the commandment of God, and you hold the tradition
of men. So all they have is the tradition
of men. You hold the tradition of men. Verse 9, full will you
reject the commandment of God that you may keep your own tradition. So here they are now rejecting
the commandment of God. For want of time, we'll just
go down to verse 13. Look at the end result of it.
They make the Word of God of none effect. What a shocking,
shocking thing. It starts with a look. It starts
with a judgmental look. It starts with a judgmental assessment
of God and His people. You make the Word of God of none
effect through your tradition, which you have delivered, and
listen to the end of it all. If you start on that road, it
multiplies, doesn't it? And many such like things do
ye. Where does it start? It starts
with a look of self-righteousness. It starts with a judgmental look
of self-righteousness. What a shocking, shocking progression. And if we think that that was
something that just happened 2,000 years ago and isn't happening
today in this world of ours and in this religious world of ours,
then we have no notion of what the Scriptures are saying. The
Scriptures are living and active. They are as true now as they
were when the Lord Jesus spoke those words 2,000 years ago. And so listen to what happens. These people, when that dispute
has arose in verse 26, they come to John and they say, Rabbi.
So the Rabbi means master, our master. So they're acknowledging
John. And listen to what this has brought
these disciples to. It says he, he. Christ is reduced to just a he.
he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest
witness, behold the same baptises. The same baptises, and all men
come to him. And so that's the issue of contention,
isn't it? That's the issue that brings
about this Sermon at John's. And we don't have time to look
at it in enormous detail this morning, but I just want us to
listen to the response of God's servants to this sort of accusation. He gives, in response, his last
sermon. Don't you love the fact that
the wrath of men shall praise him and the remainder of wrath
he shall restrain? I love the fact that God, every
time, every time there comes an accusation against the Lord
Jesus Christ, every time there comes the wrath of men against
him, we're actually just given another opportunity for the Lord
to explain more of his glory and more of his wonder. He gives
his last sermon, it's the Old Testament, in 10 verses. What a great example John is. Here he is with this earthly
dispute before his eyes, and the first thing John says in
John 3.27, his answer, he just ignores them, doesn't he? The
Lord Jesus Christ didn't say a lot, he just ignores what they
were saying. And he says, a man can receive nothing. except it be given him from heaven. And I'll read the rest of it
because it's such a glorious sermon. I want us to see it in
total this morning and then we'll look at it in some detail as
the Lord allows. But he says, you yourselves bear
me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I am sent
before him. He that hath the bride is the
bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom,
John speaking himself, withstandeth and heareth him, rejoices greatly
because of the bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, and I must
decrease. He that cometh from above is
above all. He that is of the earth is earthy,
and speaketh of the earth. He that cometh from heaven is
above all. And what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth,
and no man receiveth his testimony. He that hath received his testimony
hath set to his seal that God is true. For he whom God has
sent speaks the words of God. For God giveth not the Spirit
by measure unto him. The Father loveth the Son, and
hath given all things into his hand. He that believeth on the
Son hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. So let's just look as quickly
as we can at these remarkable, remarkable verses. It is a question
about authority, isn't it? Who gave you the right? Who gave
you the right to claim this temple as your own? Who gave you the
right to say that you are God? Who gave you the right to do
these things? Who gave you the authority? Where
did you get your authority from, John? We get our authority from
our traditions and from all of our history. and our lineage
and other things. By what authority? When the Lord
Jesus Christ was asked that question, by what authority do you do these
things in Matthew? I love his response to them. He looks at our hearts, brothers
and sisters. He knows what lies behind all
the accusations. They asked him, by what authority
do you do these things? And who gave you this authority?
Matthew 21, 23. And Jesus answered and said unto
them, I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell me,
I in likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things.
The baptism of John, the baptism of John. They knew all about
it. They'd been out there examining
John, hadn't they? From whence was it? Did it come from heaven?
Or did it come from men? Now listen, they're reasoned
amongst themselves and the Lord was actually reading every single
word and thought of their heart and the intents of their heart.
He does it all the time to all of us. And they reasoned with
themselves. They might as well have been
screaming it out loud, saying, If we shall say from heaven,
he will say unto us, Why did you not then believe him? But
if we say of men, we fear the people. For all the whole John
is a prophet. Neither will I tell you. Neither
will I tell you. You can stay in your blindness
if you are going to question the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's look again back at our
text in John chapter 3. Verse 28, he says, You yourselves
bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I am
sent. See, John was a man sent. He
was a man under authority was sent from God with a message
from God. He was sent to baptize. And the
reason he was sent to baptize is told us earlier in John chapter
3, that by his process of baptism and by that call to repentance,
the Messiah was going to come. the Messiah was going to come.
That's why he was sent from heaven to reveal, to be the forerunner
of the Messiah. He says, so John takes them back
to the beginning. See the witness, the witnesses
of God's witnesses never changes. It's an everlasting gospel. It's
the eternal God. It never changes. I love what God says of himself
in Malachi chapter 3. He says, I'm the Lord. I change
not. I change not. He doesn't change. He doesn't change. Therefore
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. That's why the Proverbs, the
wise man tells us not to meddle with those that are given to
change. We live in a day of a changeable gospel, don't we? It's a changeable
message that people bring out. They say that God loves everyone,
but... He doesn't really love you unless
you do something in response, isn't it? They say that the Lord
Jesus Christ died for everyone, but His death for you is not
effective unless you do something to make it effective for you.
It's a changeable gospel, isn't it? They say the will of God
is that everyone must be saved. God wants everyone to be saved. The simple question that those
statements make cause us to ask again and again and again. If
the will of God doesn't secure the salvation of all of his people,
whose will does win? If the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ did not take away all of the sins of all of God's people
and take them away under the justice and judgment of God,
then there is no hope. There's no hope. It's not his
blood that saves you, it's your activities that save you. It's a changeable gospel, changeable
in a changeable world. We have an everlasting gospel.
We have an everlasting gospel that speaks of an everlasting
God and it speaks of a God who has an eternal covenant that's
ordered in sure in every detail. He sent before him, he doesn't
change his message from the beginning to the end, John the Baptist.
Like all of God's people, he has no reason to change. Is there
a better gospel than the gospel we proclaim? If you can find
a better gospel, come and tell me all about it. But the one
we proclaim, the one that I love, speaks of the glory of God and
the wonder of his salvation, and it speaks of the character
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And listen to what John goes
on to say in verse 29. He that hath the bride the bridegroom is the bridegroom
he that hath the bride is the bridegroom he has a possession
Our great God and Savior, doesn't He? He has a possession, the
Bride. He hath the Bride. He hath the
Bride. It speaks of marriage, it speaks
of love, it speaks of union, it speaks of covenant, doesn't
it? That's what it's all about. He hath the Bride. She's betrothed to Him. The Bride is His, from before
the foundation of the world, as the gift of the Father to
the Son. And He gave the Bride into the
Son's hand before the foundation of the world. It's all through
the Scriptures it's written that way, isn't it? You read it in
Ephesians chapter 1, before the foundation of the world, before
the foundation, before there was a star to shine, before there
was a bird to sing, God had a people. chosen out of Adam's race, and
they are his. They are his as the gift of the
Father, that's how he hath the bride. They are his by creation,
he's created all things, he is the creator and the ruler of
all things. They are his by redemption, he bought them with his own blood. It's the church of God which
he has purchased with his own blood. They are his by regeneration. When the Blessed Holy Spirit
at the time of His love sends His ministers and servants with
His gospel and by the power of His grace, He brings them to
Himself. He brings them. He brings the
bride to see the Bridegroom. And she's amazed. She's amazed
at the glory and wonder of the Bridegroom. and they are his and they will
be his forever by resurrection when they'll be made to be exactly
like him we'll see him as he is that says john in john first
john chapter three because we will be made like him it's all
the creative activity of our great god see he loves his bride
He loves his Bride. He loves her everlastingly. He
loves her sovereignly. He loves her unchangeably. He
loves her with sympathy, doesn't he? He's touched with the feeling
of her infirmity. He nourishes his Bride. And he
cherishes his Bride. And he provides all the needs
of his Bride. And he clothes his Bride with
the very righteousness of God. He protects her. He refreshes
her. He takes absolute responsibility. for all of her sins before God
and he takes absolute responsibility for all of her righteousness
and he brings them home. That's his purpose isn't it?
Is to present them at that marriage and read it in Colossians chapter
1. It's just glorious how the Lord caused our dear apostle
to the Gentiles to speak of the redemptive and perfect and finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. You who were sometimes alienated
and enemies in your mind, just in your minds, not in his minds,
by wicked works he has now reconciled in the body of his flesh through
death to present you holy, this is his work, this is the work
of the Lord Jesus, to present his bride holy, unblameable,
unreprovable in God's sight. In the sight of men, the church
always looks very weak and pathetic. In the sight of us, it looks
very weak and pathetic. There's one sight that matters,
brothers and sisters. Someone sees with 20-20 vision all the
time. He sees perfectly all the time,
and he sees clearly. He brings them home, and then
he presents them to his father, and then he calls them his jewels.
He calls them his treasured possession. What a glorious, glorious bridegroom. You see, in the proclamation
of the Gospel, we must be declaring again and again, a successful
Saviour has a bride. You can't understand anything
of the Old Testament unless you understand the bride and the
bridegroom. Why didn't Adam and Eve, why
weren't Adam and Eve sent to hell the moment they sinned so
wickedly? Because the bride has a bridegroom. Why did Noah and his family survive
the devastation of the flood? Because he has a bridegroom.
Again and again, all the way through all of Old Testament
history, the answer to why is always the bride has a bridegroom.
Here's just giving us a summary of all the Old Testament. Why
did they survive through all of those wilderness wanderings?
Because the bride has a bridegroom. Why? When in the passage in Numbers
21 that the Lord relates to before he speaks of John 3.16, there
is that devastation of those nations all around, and yet Moab
is destroyed, but not destroyed as those other nations were,
where there was acts of genocide. Moab was saved. Some of Moab
was left. Why? Because hundreds of years
later, there was a little girl to be born in Moab called Ruth. And she was brought to him, wasn't
she? How did Ruth get to be where she was? Because he has. The bride, the bridegroom hath
a bride. All the way through the Old Testament,
every story, every story that speaks of redemption speaks of
the bride, the bride belonging to the bridegroom. And the friend of the bridegroom.
This is what all the friends of the bridegroom speak. Every
minister speaks the same, doesn't he? All of God's made ministers
stand. They're not blown around like
a reed. As we read in Matthew chapter,
who'd you go out to see? You didn't go out to see someone
who was pushed this way and that way with every wind of doctrine.
He stands. He's listening and looking out.
John the Baptist, the greatest of all men, the greatest of all
these prophets, the one that finally said, there he is. All
the others said he's like this and he's like this. John the
Baptist comes and says, there he is. Behold the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world. And he heard his voice. He hears him. And what's he rejoicing
over? What's John the Baptist? What's
the Old Testament prophet? summary of all of that, isn't
it? He rejoices greatly because of
the Bridegroom's voice. That's how rejoicing, brothers
and sisters, we rejoice greatly because of the Bridegroom's voice.
This, my joy, therefore, is fulfilled. My joy is being brought to completion. My joy is perfected. You just
heard his voice. To hear the voice of the bridegroom
calling his bride to himself is the rejoicing of God's people.
We want to hear his voice. We don't want to hear the voice
of men. And then he makes this statement
which bears lots of meditation and is a promise, isn't it? I
love what he says. He must increase. He must increase
and I must decrease. He must increase in fame and
reputation and proclamation till he is all in all. And he must increase despite
all the opposition. He must increase despite all
the rejection of men. He must increase despite the
fact that no man receives his testimony, verse 32. He must
increase until we see him on Calvary's cross. We're on that
cross hanging naked with his hands. and his head and his feet
and his side marked, marked with the sinfulness of human sin. And on that cross he must increase
to show all of the glorious attributes of God. He must increase to show
the depth and the wonder of the love of God for his bride. He
has a bride. He has a bride, and on Calvary's
cross he bore all the bride's sin in his own body, and he was
made a curse. And the wrath of God fell from
heaven on the Lord Jesus Christ, and God was pleased to punish
his son. He was pleased to crush his son,
because he found sin in him. And the scriptures say, for the
joy that was set before him, he endured it and scorned the
shame of it. Why? and he must bring her to himself.
And if she's going to live in the company of someone who is
absolutely holy, then she has to be absolutely holy. If she's
going to live in the company of someone who is absolutely
perfect, she must be absolutely perfect. If she's going to live
in the company of someone who is perfectly clean, then she
must be perfectly clean as to be in his company. And that's
exactly what the bridegroom did. And in heaven's glory he must
increase. What a remarkable sight it must
be for those people looking and gazing upon him.
Increasing, increasing, he must increase. And on his return he
will increase and show all of this creation that he is God
over all and blessed forever. And he'll show all of this creation
that he's a bridegroom and he has a bride. It's all about he
and his bridegroom. And I must be decreasing. We
must be decreasing. Always. We must go on decreasing. The older I get and the longer
I live in this body of sin, the more and more I'm aware of the
truth and I love the fact that God has explained it 2,000 years
ago. I must be decreasing. I must
be decreasing in my own abilities and in my own righteousness and
all of what I might be able to do. I will, I will, I will is
reduced to, he's got to do it. He's got to do it all. We've
got to be decreasing in our ability to do what we think saves people
because salvation is of the Lord. I'll just read these next few
verses and I just wanted to close and look at his authority just
very briefly. And he speaks of the earth, he
that cometh from heaven is above all. What he has seen, what the
one from heaven has seen and heard, that he testified, and
no man receives his testimony. Who has believed our report,
says Isaiah 53? Who has believed our report?
And the answer, the answer is a remarkable answer in Isaiah
53. those to whom the arm of the Lord is revealed. The only
people who believe the report of the Lord Jesus Christ are
those that God has done a work in. But there are some, in verse
33, he that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal
that God is true. It can just as well be translated,
he's set, he's already sealed because God is true. They're
all sealed because the bridegroom has a bride. He has a bride. He's not trying to get a bride. He has a bride. For he whom God
has sent speaks the words of God. For God giveth not the spirit
by measure to him. The spirit is measured out to
all the rest of Adam's race. And where the Spirit is, the
Word is preached. And then verse 35, the Father
loveth the Son. What a remarkable inter-Trinitarian
love there is between the Father and the Son. And He's given all
things into His hand. He's given all things into His
hand. The Lord Jesus Christ has authority over absolutely everything.
He that believeth on the Son, and may God give you faith that
comes from Him and from heaven, he that believeth into, it might
mean, him that believeth unto, he that believeth towards, he
that rests and relies on the Son entirely, has committed all
of his entire soul's salvation into the hands of God, he hath
everlasting life. And he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God. abideth on him. So the question, the question for
the witnesses is, and the question for all the hearers is, isn't
it, who speaks for God? These Pharisees that came from
Jerusalem thought that they were speaking from God. He seals to his own. So let's
define him. We began by looking at that verse
in John chapter 3 that said, he's believing in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And let's just briefly look at
what John the Baptist declared to be the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, his character. He's the Christ, he's the anointed
one of God. He's the prophet and priest and
king, the anointed prophet and priest and king. He speaks the
words of God, he takes his people into the presence of God by his
priesthood and he's a king that reigns over absolutely everything
and all people and all events at all times. He's a sovereign. He's the one who gives, doesn't
he? He said, man can receive nothing except it be given him
from above. There's a lot of giving in the
scriptures. And every time there's a giving, there's always a reception.
He doesn't offer something. He doesn't make something available
by his activity. He gives it. He's a sovereign
to give. And he's a sovereign to what
withhold blessing. He is the bridegroom that has
the bride. And his voice is the delight. of all of his own. Is this the
Christ that you believe in? And he increases, he increases
and he keeps on increasing and all of his own, all of those
that come to him, all of those that are touched by him are decreased.
Like Saul of Tarsus was a great man and he was decreased, decreased
to Paul the Apostle and at the end of his life he says, I'm
the chief of sinners, I'm the chief of sinners. God decreases
his people all the time. He comes from above. because he was beforehand. He
speaks, he bears a testimony from God. He bears a testimony
of heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ. Is the Christ that you know and
the Christ that you trust, is he rejected by men? Is he the
one that's rejected by this religious world? He was rejected by that
religious world. They hated him without a cause.
He came as meek and lowly and they hated him without a cause. But he comes to his own. John
is saying there is just a remnant that he is, a small remnant that
he is. And he seals to his own, he seals
himself to his own, he betroths him to himself. Is he the one
that's loved of the Father? Is he the one that is sovereign
over all? Is he the one that gives faith
to his own? Is he the one that has a righteous
wrath on all? Do you believe on Him? To believe
on Him is what John was wanting. He was wanting people to be reconciled
to God. You had to repent of all of your notions of God and
believe John's testimony about the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved.
You had to believe God's testimony about God. May God grant us the
faith. He says, the beginning of his ministry
says you behold you fix your eyes upon and you gaze upon this
lord jesus christ you behold the lamb of god you behold the
lamb of god I just want to close by reading
what he prayed on that last night. He says, Father, I will, this
is John 17 verse 20, I will that they also whom thou hast given
me be with me where I am. that they may behold my glory
which thou hast given me. For thou lovest me before the
foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world
has not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known
that thou hast sent me, and I have declared unto them thy name. He declares the very name and
the character of God and will declare it. He's declaring it
today and he keeps declaring it through all of his witnesses.
That the love, and this is the result of it all, that the love,
it's all about the bride and the bridegroom, that the love
wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them. There is so much that's so extraordinary
about the gospel that we just believe because God said it.
You try and plumb the depths of that. Paul tried, didn't he?
Thou hast loved me, wherewith thou hast loved me may be in
them. Now listen to this. This is his final prayer in that
upper room, and I in them. It's all about the bride and
the bridegroom. And for the bride, it's all about
the bridegroom. She has her eyes nowhere else.
May God, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that
you might bless your words to the hearts of your people and
that we might have our eyes beholding the Lamb of God, beholding the
bridegroom, Heavenly Father. and that we might be caused by
your blessed spirit to just simply believe on the name of your only
begotten son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Bless your words, Heavenly
Father, for you alone can make them spirit and life in the lives
of your people. We thank you again for your promises
being fulfilled in our very presence, yet again now, Father. Pray in
Jesus' name and for his glory. Amen.