Our scripture reading for this morning is taken from Psalm 107 verses 1 through 20.

Psalm 107. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy. and gathered them out of the lands from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way. They found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.

Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men. For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron, because they rebelled against the words of God, and contend the counsel of the Most High. Therefore, he brought down their heart with labor. They fell down, and there was none to help. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and break their bands in sunder.

Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men. For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder. Fools, because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities are afflicted. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat, and they draw near the gates of death. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses. He sent his word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions.

Listen to the words that our brother just read for us from God's Word. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Let us speak. When God is pleased to bring people into our lives, we want them to know who our God is by our actions, and by our words.

Now if you followed me around 24 hours a day, you would say, that's just not happening with you, John. There may be a little here, a little there, but you're not doing it very well, because I don't. But like our brother Gabe said, everything that my Lord wants me to do, now I'm not using the right words, I'm sorry, our Lord does not want, everything that our Lord tells us to do, In His Word, we will do perfectly when we leave this world. Until then, we will continue to fight that battle between the flesh and the spirit.

In my spirit, I want to walk perfectly, Mike. I want to cry out I want to say so as one who has been redeemed of God, one who has seen the mercy of my God in sending His Son to be my substitute. Here is the just one, justifying this one who needs to be justified. I want so badly to to speak, to say, whom he hath redeemed in the hand of his mercy.

Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. Isn't that what we want our message to be? Isn't that how we want the world to see us? I know, we've heard people say, I just want people to see Jesus in me. And then our response to that is, wait a minute, Christ walked this earth right in front of thousands of people and people didn't see Jesus in Himself. They didn't see the Lord Jesus Christ. They didn't see the Son of God, the Son of the living God. You can't see Him as our Lord. Lord of all things, unless the Holy Spirit does a work in you.

We've looked at that, haven't we? That's the fruit of the Spirit. That's one of the fruits of the Spirit. It says, goodness and righteousness and longsuffering. That's the Lord Jesus. There's no righteousness in this flesh. What I'm doing, I hope what you see is that I'm pointing you to Christ.

Turn to John chapter 1 if you would. I ask the Lord for a message, and I pray he's given me one. As it has always been, and will be until the second coming of our Lord, the people of God will be charged. Will be charged by the religious of the world. I never want to skip. I want to make sure my words are clear. If you hear me pause for a moment to think about how I say this, it's because I want to be very, very clear about this. I don't want any misunderstandings.

We are to bring the counsel of God before God's people. The whole counsel. I've been speaking on the subject of the fruit of the Spirit in recent services and recent messages. The difference, it all started with this, when I was asked, aren't we supposed to be something different now than we were? And I brought out, from God's words, the things that I believe that we are different about. Well, that's upset some folks. because I didn't include things like the fruit of the Spirit. So then when I addressed the fruit of the Spirit and brought out how the fruit of the Spirit brings us to Christ, that brought the upsetness even further. And now I'm declared to be an antinomian, lawless, one who If they really meant that I was antinomian, it would mean that I'm encouraging people to go out and sin, and that's just not the truth of it all. I pointed this out. I pointed that out. I said, you've never heard John Reeves ever, from this pulpit, encourage anyone to sin. In fact, just the opposite. Quoting scriptures that we've looked at several times, be ye holy, for our God is holy. Go out and do good unto your brethren. Not once has anyone of God's ministers ever encouraged the people to be unholy. Yet because we point them to Christ and His grace and His grace alone, and we refuse to encourage you to look at the results of the law or the results of God's commandments, because we refuse to point you to that, we're lawless.

Our Lord tells us, and I'm going to repeat what I said a couple of weeks ago about this very thing. tells us not to let the left hand know what the right hand is doing. Or it might be the other way around. I don't remember which one. But he tells us not to let us know. Why? Because he knows we're weak. He knows what we are in the flesh. He knows that John Reed will start to boast about it within the blink of an eye.

I don't need to point you to what goodness there is to do in the world. You know good from evil. We all come into this world with that. When we steal something as a child, or we take something that we know we're not supposed to, or we say something we're not supposed to, and you're caught about it, what do you do? You cower. Why? Because you know you did something wrong. It is in our nature to know what

What I need to do, and what my job is, is the same thing as all of God's preachers, and that is to point you to Christ. That's my job. That's the job I told you I would take on when you guys asked me to be your pastor. I said, I'm not going to come here and tell you how to live. I'm going to point you to Christ when you can't. When you can't live the way you want to. When you can't live the way God tells us in His Word.

I don't skip over those points. I don't pass them by and don't read them like, oh, they're nothing. But you're not saved through that. If you're looking to what you're doing in this world in the flesh, you're missing the point. The point is grace. The point is looking to God, the Lamb.

Look what it says in John 1. 29, halfway through it there, what does John the Baptist, what does he say? He says, behold! Behold your good works! Behold what the Spirit does in you when the Spirit takes up room in your heart! No, that's not what he says at all, is it? Behold the Lamb of God! Which does what? Take us away. My sins, Roger. You know, I get a little emotional about that. I get a little emotional about it because I sin a lot and I need a great Savior. And Jesus Christ is a great, great Savior. I took a moment and I was marking my Bible because I want to read it exactly how it says. You don't need to turn it over, but over in Luke chapter 7 verse 28, this is what our Lord says. For I say unto you, among those that are born of a woman, there is not a greater prophet, preacher. There's not a greater preacher. This is the words of Christ Himself! There's not a greater preacher than John the Baptist, but he that is least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he.

It's not John the Baptist, folks, it's the message. John the Baptist We don't really know how long he was on this earth. It wasn't very long. He'd come along just about the same time as the Lord Jesus. I believe he was born either just before or just after. But he wasn't on this earth very long and his ministry was very short. But what was his message in that time? Was it what you do? Was it the results of the Spirit in you? It was, behold, the Lamb of God. Look at verses 6 and 7 of John chapter 1. There was a man sent from God. You know, one of the things I cannot argue with at all, and that is how God put me in this position. It was such, and I know, It's difficult for you folks to understand because you weren't there in that meeting that day with Michael Smith and Gene and Mike Loveless, but I'm telling you. I'm telling you. Am I right, brother? Yeah. That was just something. There's no doubt in my mind that the Lord sent me to be the pastor here. Thanks brother, I appreciate the words of encouragement.

But here our Lord says, there was a man sent from God, whose name was John, the same came for what? A witness. To bear witness of what? To bear witness of how good things the Spirit works in you? To bear witness of what kind of a new person you are? When the Lord takes up residence in your heart? No! To bear witness of the Light! Whoo! Who's the Light? Christ says, I am the Light of the world. That all men through Him might believe. This is the subject of God's ministries. There was a man sent of God whose name was John, the same, this man John, that was sent of God, came for a witness. He came to bear witness of the light. Notice that it says there in verse 7. Take a look at that. Notice what the word light, how it's written. Do you know when the Bible capitalizes something, it usually has something to do with God. When it speaks of God Almighty, the Creator of all that is, the very One who sent His Son to be that light, it uses the capital letter G. Anytime we see the Lord Jesus, it's the capital letter J. Notice that the light is the capital letter. You know, when he says the word I AM, when he says the words I AM, it's in capital letters. Who do I tell the people that sent me? I AM sent me, Roberta. I AM. Capital letters, I AM. The creator of all that is, the sovereign God.

Well, folks, that's our assurance. That's our assurance that everything he says is true. That's our assurance that when He promises that He shed His blood for a people, it's true and it will be, no matter what. When He says, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, we know that it will because He's God. And nothing can turn His hand. Nothing. We were talking about one of His characteristics today. He's unchangeable. He doesn't change. Aren't you thankful for that? If he left it up to John, I'd change, especially when it comes to me. I'd take one look at me and say, never mind, I'm changing my mind, I ain't saving him. I know I said that in kind of a humorous way, but that's true. Can we not all say that about ourselves?

John came for one reason. John the Baptist, no greater prophet, he says, has ever come from any woman. It didn't say he's the greatest. It said no greater. That means Moses wasn't any greater. Don't look to Moses and what he had to say. Don't look to Isaiah. Don't look to Paul. They're the same message as John the Baptist. Exact same message. They spoke about it in different ways. Just like we come together on Sundays and we look at things in different ways, from different parts of the scripture.

I was taken to Hebrews, where it talks about Abraham. He believed God, therefore he slept with his wife, even though she was beyond years. And the point was emphasized that Abraham did what he was supposed to do. did according to the fruit of the Spirit. He slept with his wife. That's not the point. The point is that he believed God. That's what it was all about. In other words, the point is Christ. It's not what we see It's looking to Him who is the author and the finisher. Isn't that what the Word of God says? The author and the finisher of our faith.

Now I don't know how that maybe applies to all of God's children. I'll leave that for God to rest in your hearts how that applies. But I do know this. I'm saying that when we preach, My job, God's preacher's jobs, are to do one thing, to carry the message, look to Christ. Don't look at what you're doing in the flesh. That angered somebody. When they heard me say that in recording, on a message recording, they stood up and I couldn't believe I said it.

Folks, our Lord knows how weak we are. I know I said that a moment ago, but I'm repeating it because it needs to be told over and over again. I don't pass by those things that God gives us in His Word. We read them, whether we understand them, no matter what. But when it comes right down to it, those are not the things we look at. What we do in this flesh is not what we look at. We look to whom? He did it perfectly. The one who fulfilled everything perfectly for us. The one who gives us and provides for us every single thing we need to be with God in heaven forever. That means right now. It says, by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.

I know we don't see it, Mike. I know we look in the mirror and we see what we are in this flesh, but we're looking at the wrong thing. That's what I was trying to say. Don't be looking at what the Spirit is doing in you. Look to what the Spirit points us to. To Christ, who's done it perfectly. This is what John the Baptist is doing. Paul says it this way, he says, I'm determined not to know anything among you save Christ and Him crucified. So if it's good enough for Paul, and it's good enough for John the Baptist, who there's no better prophet, shouldn't it be good enough for us? It is for me. I pray it is for you as well.

You see, that's the problem, is it's not good enough for some. Brother Norm Wells, by the way, Norm is going to be here the 25th of January. We'll have a Saturday morning message and we'll have a Sunday morning message. So plan on the 25th of January for a full-blown mini-conference. He was telling us in a study the other night In the book of Judges, talking about Samson and the falling away of Israel, Israel had gone off and not followed the ways of the Lord. And they just, they couldn't. Why? He said, because Christ is not sufficient enough. That's the problem. That's the problem that people will bring against God's people. Christ is not good enough. We need more. Christ is not good enough. I need to know how I'm supposed to act. You already know how you're supposed to act. No, I don't. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. What you don't know is that you need to look to Christ all the time. Not just for a moment here and a moment there, but all the time.

And that's what God's preachers, the one who God Himself, the one who the Lord Jesus said, none! Make sure I read that. Make sure I say that correctly. There is none greater, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist. If I could just preach Christ alone, with that. The one reason for John the Baptist, the one reason for his ministry was to be an ambassador for Jesus Christ. to be the one who is from the wilderness. It says here in verse 23, look at verse 23 with me. He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord.

Oh Lord, help me to just do that a little bit. Help me just a little bit stand before your people and cry out. Move everything out of the way. Make the path straight. You remember the story of the city of refuge? Remember that story? Remember how they had to go out? They would send men out to the road, on the road. Go out onto the roads. And all the roads that go from this city to there, to there, to there, to there, to there, to there. Go out and make everything out of the way. Move all the rock. Move all the stones. Get all those things that would impede one of God's people from running to Him. Because that's what the city of refuge is. He is our refuge. I want to move all the rocks out of the way. I want God to help me tell you to get it out of the way. Get your works out of the way. Get your feelings out of the way. Get everything out of the way and come to Christ. That's all we can do. That's what John did. He cried, make straight the way of the Lord. Isn't that what it says in verse 3? Guess what it says after that? The prophet Isaiah said the same thing. The same exact thing.

Oh, I want to be like John the Baptist. Charles Spurgeon said the very same thing. You know, he was 53 years old when he said this. He had been a pastor since he was 18. I want you to grasp that. That's a long time to be a pastor of a church. And he was 53 when he said these words. Listen to this. He said, Brethren, I desire to be like John the Baptist. I desire to have I have to have as many as everything Jesus Christ and His gospel. That's what John the Baptist did. He preached Christ. Behold! The Lamb of God! If that's all I can ever cry out before you for the next however long God gives me to stand here in this pulpit, then that's what I want to do. Behold! Look! Look to the brazen serpent. If you've been bitten by the fire of sin, look to Him and have life.

He goes on. He goes on to say this. He says, I desire to have my mind concentrated on Him. I want to be concentrated on His sacrifice. I want to look to my Savior and what He had done on the cross. I don't care about that piece of wood. I care about the one who's hanging on that wood. I want to be concentrated on his death. How can we understand the depth of his love for us if we don't understand the depth of what we deserve before God. You can't. You gotta know. That's what I deserve. That's what, that's the sin that is in me. The result is death and Christ died for me and you if he has loved you from before the foundation of the world.

I was talking with Mike and a couple of the folks during the Bible study. Don't we, especially as we get older, especially as we get closer to that day where we know the Lord's going to have to take us out of this world sometime soon. You know, at age 20 we're sitting there thinking, oh, we've got the whole rest of our lives ahead of us. age 65, 75, 85, we start thinking we ain't got that whole lifetime left. Time's coming pretty soon. Not many people go past where I'm at right now. We look forward to the return of our Lord because we know there'll be no more sin within us. I hate my sin. And we can't wait for the Lord to take us out of this world where we will sin no more.

Spurgeon says this, he says, during the little time that I may be allowed and spared to lift up my voice in the wilderness one more time, I would bear witness to the Lamb of God. That's our job, Mike. My pastor, Gene Harmon, still does that, even though he doesn't preach to a congregation. He still testifies as one crying in the wilderness of God Almighty, His Son, the Lord Jesus. The years may be short, he says, in which I may preach, to this congregation, but that is my desire." That was just five years before he died. He also said this, he says, "...around the cross shall be to me the place of green pastures, and from the sacrifice of my Lord shall flow the still waters. Now many others in our day are involved in other things, I leave them to do their best or their worst." but at least one determines to be separated unto the gospel of God. I know no salvation except by substitution, and I know no substitution except by Jesus Christ." This is my message. This is the sum of my ministry.

Henry Mahan put it this way, he puts it best, he says, the Old Testament The 39 books of the Old Testament say someone is coming. The four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John say somebody has come. And the epistles, written by Paul, Peter, and Jude, and John, say someone is coming again. You can sum the whole Bible up right there, just in those three things. It's all about Him. He's coming. He has come. He's coming again.

I want to think about this for just a moment, what time we have left. The Old Testament says someone is coming. And they talk about who it is that's coming. Let me go take you back to the story of Jonah. Remember, Jonah was told to start building, and it took him, I believe, just over 100 years from the time he started to the time he completed what we call the Ark. They tried to replicate that in that city back in Kentucky, but I don't think they did. I think it's something of man's imagination, because nobody knows for sure what it really was that he built. But we do know this, according to God's word, it was large enough to fit all of two of every kind of animal in it. And eight souls.

Have you ever noticed how many times it says salvation is in Christ, in the New Testament? In Christ. That's what the Ark is. This is the Old Testament saying someone is coming. Judgment is coming upon the world. That's what the flood is all about. It's a picture of judgment. The ark is a picture of our Lord and Savior, the Lord Jesus, of whom eight souls who were in the ark were saved. That's the Old Testament's way of telling us who it is that's coming. as it says. A man of sorrows, as it says in Isaiah 53. One who would bear our stripes upon him. One who we would be healed by his stripes. So we see the Old Testament pointing to this one who's coming.

And then in Matthew chapter 1, we read this. One has come, and guess what? He's come exactly how it has been spoken of in the Old Testament. He's come by a virgin. Listen to what it says here in Matthew chapter 1. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was this wise, when his mother Mary was espoused, married to Joseph, before they came together, she was engaged, or espoused, engaged, before they came together, she was found with a child of the Holy Ghost. She was a virgin. So we see how in Matthew, right off the bat, the very first thing we see is he's come. He's come!

And then they go through and tell us how He walked this earth. Did everything that pleased the Father. Isn't that what happened? Didn't God speak to the people? I think it's right here. John, as a matter of fact. Let's see where it says here. I was thinking of where he saw that. Here it is, right over here. No, that's not it. I was thinking of where he was baptized there. I know it's here somewhere. It's got to be right in front of my face. But when he was baptized and he came up out of the water, what did John see? They saw the dove fly on his shoulders and he said, behold, this is the one that was sent from God the Father. This is my son in whom I am well pleased.

So everything that we see that when he came, he pleased the Father. He did everything perfectly. This is so important to you and I because we don't do anything perfectly. And God requires perfection. I come up short, Roger. There's nothing for me there. I can't do it. Oh, how thankful we are for this Lamb of God, where He says, looking upon Jesus in verse 36, as He walked and He said, Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. That's in verse 29, sorry. Look what John says after that in verse 30. He says, This is He whom I said, After He cometh a man which is preferred before Me, for He was before Me, and I knew Him not, but that He should be made manifest to Israel. Therefore I might come baptizing in water. And John bared record, saying, I saw the Spirit... Here it is, right here in front of me. I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and an abode on Him.

So we see where the apostles, the four gospels, point us to the very one who is coming, or who had come. And then we see in the letters from Peter, Paul, and the rest of them, someone is coming again.

Folks, I'm telling you, it's true. I know it's been a long time since he walked this earth. But it's just a drop in the bucket to our God who has no time. Is it not better that he saves all of his people than come sooner? You know what I mean by that?

That means, I guess what I'm trying to say in a simpler form is this. Is it not better that all that the Father giveth him should come to him than him to come sooner? which means we just have to keep putting up with whatever God has us in this life so that all of his people will come to him.

That gives me hope for my children. People think that because, I'm sorry, I can't go there, never mind. Let's just say this, that I have as much hope for both of my children today as I ever have, because my God is capable of saving them to the uttermost from whatever they're in. I mean it.

Let me see if I can close with this. The epistles declare that someone is coming again. Look with me over at John chapter 17. Turn over to John chapter 17. We looked at this just recently, but I want to look at it again. This is going to be, as I was putting my note for us to turn to this, I thought, you know how Romans 8.28 is one of those pages? Ephesians chapter 1 is one of those pages. Ephesians chapter 2 is one of those pages that we just wear the heck out of. This is going to be one of those pages that I'm going to wear the heck out of. I'm going to have to get a new Bible after I wear these pages all the way out.

Look at verse 4 with me if you would. Our Lord says, and this is His prayer to God the Father for you and I, He says, I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do, and now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was, I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world, thine they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee, for I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me and they have received them, and have known..." You can replace that with believed. Faith. "...they have known, surely, that I came out of from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine, and all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them."

So, we see where the Lord is talking about those who were given to Him will believe. So the epistles declare that someone will come again.

Now after our Lord died on the cross and was buried and rose again, He gathered His disciples about Him and He blessed them. And as they watched Him, He was taken up into heaven. Remember, recall that? It's over in the book of Acts. He was taken up into heaven, ascending back to the Father. And while He went up to heaven, There was two men in white apparel, and they stood beside them. They were angels of God, and they said this. They said, ye men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing into heaven?

Now, I'm leading back to that, what is my job? What is the job of God's preachers? We've already looked at what John the Baptist has showed us, that our job is to point you to Christ. It doesn't change. It stays the same. Ye men of heaven, why are you gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, this same Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go. And then he said that to him before he was crucified. He said this, he said, let not your hearts be troubled. You believed in God, believe also in me. He says, I am God. He that has seen me has seen the Father. He says, I am my Father, or what? He says, I go and prepare a place for you, and I go to prepare a place. I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, ye may also be.

In Hebrews 9, it speaks of three appearances of Christ to believers. It says in verse 26, It says, once in the end of the world hath he appeared. In other words, in the flesh as a man tempted in all points under the law and all to these things, he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He appeared on earth in the flesh to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Secondly, in verse 24, it says Christ has now entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. While he's waiting, while he is purposing everything to come about as it should for that last person to come out and know who he is, he's making intercession for you and I. That's his part as our high priest. Christ is entered into heaven now to appear in the presence of God for us, as it says in verse 20. And then in verse 28, Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many unto them that look unto Him. For them that look for Him shall He appear a second time without sin unto salvation. He came the first time as a lamb to put away the sin. He'll return as a lion. I can't tell you when He's coming, but I can tell you He's coming again according to His Word. I know this, that when He comes, time will end. I know that when He comes, the dead will be raised. That's what it tells us. We which are alive and remain shall be changed immediately. We shall not all sleep, but we all shall be changed. There will be a new heaven and a new earth. I know that. wherein dwelleth righteousness.

Look at verses 29-24 of our text in John chapter 1. Here is a preacher with a message, and here is his message. The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and he saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said after he After me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before me, and I knew him not. But that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore I am come baptizing with water. And John bear record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him, and I knew him not. But he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same as he which baptizes with the Holy Ghost. And I saw and bear record that this is the Son of God."

My message My job, when I'm standing in San Diego next week, when I'm sitting in the building next door preaching on Sunday night for the Bible study Friday night, and Lord willing, every Sunday or Friday night after that, my message will be this. Behold the Lamb of God. Brothers, sisters, stand with me if you would. This One who taketh away the sin of the world is our Redeemer.