Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program. I'm glad
you could join us today. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'll be preaching from the book of John, the gospel
of John chapter one. And I'm going to backtrack a
little bit from the message that I preached last week. I preached
two messages concerning John's testimony of Christ and concluded
around verse 29 of John chapter one and a few other passages
there. But let's begin in verse 29.
And the title of the message today is Behold the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God. And this
is where John the Baptist was in the wilderness baptizing.
And then at this point in time, Jesus of Nazareth, the Lord Jesus
Christ, appeared upon the scene and John baptized him. And then
it says, the next day, verse 29 of John chapter one, the next
day John seeth Jesus coming unto him and saith, behold the Lamb
of God which taketh away or beareth away the sin of the world. And
I dealt with that issue of bearing away the sin of the world. That's
not saying that Jesus died for every individual that has ever
been born, ever will be born. The world there doesn't mean
all people without exception. It does mean people without distinction,
but not all without exception. Because one of the most basic
truths of Scripture that you need to understand when you read
the Bible, and this goes from Genesis to Revelation, is that
if Christ died for my sins, then I will be saved. If He bore my
sins away, that means He redeemed me. That means that He paid the
ransom price and satisfied the justice of God. That means that
my sins were actually imputed to Him before the foundation
of the world as He was made my surety. A surety is one who takes
responsibility to pay the debt of another. And that was a legal
transaction whereupon the Father charged, accounted, imputed the
sins of His chosen people to the account of Christ, who voluntarily
became the surety of God's people. And He calls them in John chapter
6, for example, He says, all that the Father giveth Me shall
come to Me. He prayed for them in John 17.
He said that I should give eternal life to as many as thou hast
given me. And they were given to him before
the foundation of the world. before the world began, it's
the covenant of grace. And in order for him to pay that
debt that was charged to his account, imputed to him, he had
to become man. He had to become flesh without
sin. The word made flesh dwelt among
us, as we read over in John one and verse 14. And he had to keep
the law and he had to go to the cross under the wrath of his
father to pay the debt. of their sins. And that's what
happened here when he bore the sins away. That's a metaphorical
language that means that Christ took all the sins upon himself
by legal transaction called imputation, died for those sins, paid that
debt, wiped it out, and bore it away. And the result of that
is that their sins cannot be charged to them. The book of
Romans chapter eight and verse 33 says, who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect, it's God that justify. In other words,
the elect, the sheep, that's one of the names for God's people,
the church, God's kingdom. The elect, they're the church
of the living God that Christ redeemed with his blood. They're
his bride, his wife, his kingdom, his people, his brethren. All
of those things are descriptions of the conglomerate of the people
of God in Christ. And they cannot be charged with
their sins. The Bible says in Romans four
and verse six, blessed are those to whom the Lord imputes righteousness
without works. And that means that they have
a righteousness imputed to them. That's the merit of the obedience
unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when John says
here, behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of
the world, he's making sure that these Jews, these Israelites
understand that salvation is not just for Jews, it's for Gentiles
too. God has a remnant of people out
of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. And that's set throughout
the scriptures. So the Lamb of God. But now this
idea of the Lamb is so precious. As you know, back in the Old
Testament, under the Old Covenant, they had animal sacrifices of
lambs and bullocks and goats and all of that. The lamb was
one of the first animals that was set up by God to picture
and typify the Lord Jesus Christ, whom John calls here the Lamb
of God. Now, animal blood could never
accomplish what the blood of Christ accomplished. Animal blood could never bear
away sins. It was all symbolic. It was all
a picture. It was all ceremonial. But they
pictured the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And you remember
back in Genesis chapter 3, after the fall, when God began pronouncing
the curses, the three curses, He pronounced a curse upon the
serpent, who was Satan. He pronounced a curse upon the
woman, and that's where He gave the Prophecy and the declaration
of the seed of woman. He would bruise Satan's head.
Satan would bruise his heel and he would bruise Satan's head.
That's a picture of Christ who is the seed of woman, not the
seed of man. Christ was not born of man in
sin. He was conceived in the womb
of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit. and conceived and born
of her womb. So he's the seed of woman. So
that's the glorious person of Christ, the Messiah, the Lamb
of God. And then over in Genesis 3, and then he pronounced the
curse upon man. And then over in Genesis 3, 21, it says that
God removed the fig leaf aprons that Adam and Eve had made to
cover their shame, their nakedness. And nakedness in the Bible is
a symbol of lack of righteousness. And so, he removed those fig
leaf aprons, the Lord did, and he slew an animal and made coats
of skin. And that's where the sacrificial
system of worship was established for the Old Testament. And that
system of worship was to stay in effect up until the time of
the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, who would fulfill all those types
and pictures. He would abolish them by way
of fulfillment. That's why we don't sacrifice
lambs and bullocks and he goats and all of that today. Because
if we're believers, we have the Lamb of God. We have Christ who
fulfilled it all. And the book of Hebrews chapter
10 and verse 14 says, by his one offering, he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. So that's a done deal. So when
Christ died, he fulfilled all of that. Well, you know, later
on in the book of Exodus, God established the Passover lamb. And the blood, he said, when
I see the blood, I will pass over you. That blood signifies
justice satisfied. You see, the wages of sin is
death. And so that's what justice demands. The soul that sinneth must surely
die. That's why our only hope of being
saved, we're sinners, you see. All the sin that comes short
of the glory of God. We all deserve death and hell. All of us, by
nature and by works. And that's why salvation is by
grace through the righteousness of the Lamb, the Lamb of God. Well, under the Old Covenant,
many lambs were slain, and they had to be lambs without blemish
and without spot because they pictured the perfect, sinless
humanity of Christ. who died for the sins of his
people. So here's John the Baptist standing there and Jesus of Nazareth
comes and he says, behold the Lamb of God which taketh away
the sin of the world. Look at verse 30 of John chapter
one. He says, this is he of whom I
said, after me cometh a man which is preferred before me for he
was before me. Now this was stated earlier.
But what is John saying? He said, listen, Christ has the
preeminence in salvation. I don't have the preeminence,
you don't have the preeminence, Christ does. Christ, all of the
salvation of God's people was conditioned on the Lord Jesus
Christ alone. None of it was conditioned on
you or me. If it had been, it would be a
failure. There'd be none saved. Christ
did not come down here and die to make salvation a possibility. If we would cooperate or believe
or do this or do that. No, that's not what the Bible
teaches. Now we must believe, that's true. It's like I always use the example
of a baby when that baby is born and then it breathes. The baby
is not alive because it breathes, it breathes because it's alive. The breath is the evidence of
life already present. That baby was alive in the womb.
And that's the way it is with faith. Faith doesn't give us
life. Faith is the evidence of life
that has already been given in the new birth. And that's spiritual
sight, spiritual hearing, spiritual believing, repenting, all of
that are the evidences of salvation by the grace of God in Christ.
You see, in order for us to live eternally, in order for us to
believe and repent, we must have a righteousness that answers
the demands of God's perfect justice. And faith is, my believing
is not my righteousness, Christ is. With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. How do you do that? We believe
in Christ. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. So understand
this, that Christ has the preeminence. He fulfilled all righteousness. That's what he said when he told
John to baptize him as recorded over in Matthew chapter 3. He
said, thus it behoove us to fulfill all righteousness. And what was
he talking about? He was talking about what his
baptism pictured. His death, his burial, his resurrection. He had to die and he had to be
raised again because he established righteousness. And the Bible
says in Romans chapter eight and verse 10 that the body is
dead because of sin, that's his physical body. But the spirit
is life because of righteousness. Now where am I gonna find righteousness?
The Bible says amongst men and women, there's none righteous,
no, not one. You can try, listen. You can
try to be the best person you could ever be, and you should,
but that is not going to make you righteous in God's sight.
You will still fall short. Why? Because you're a sinner.
The same is true with me. I ought to try to be the best
person that I can be in every way. I ought to strive that way. But all of my strivings, even
at my best moments, will not make me righteous in God's sight. That's why grace reigns through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. So
Christ has the preeminence. And that's what John is saying
here in verse 30. He's a man which is preferred
before me. because he was before me. He's
the eternal son of God. He has no beginning and no end.
I can tell you what my birthday was the day and the year, but
he had no birthday as far as his deity. Now he had a birthday
in his humanity. We don't know when it is. People
talk about Christmas and December 20th. That's not when it was,
but it doesn't matter. In the fullness of the time,
God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, that's His sinless
humanity. God sent forth His Son, that's
His deity. Made of a woman, that's His sinless humanity. and made
under the law, that was all of salvation, conditioned on His
law-keeping, His satisfying justice, to redeem them that were under
the law, to pay the price and gain them. He redeemed them,
He bought them back, and He will have them. And what I'm telling
you is this, here's how preeminent Christ is in his person and work
and salvation. Not one person for whom Christ
died on that cross and was buried and arose again the third day
will perish in damnation. They will not do it because he
fulfilled all conditions. Behold the Lamb of God. Well,
John says in verse 31, he says, and I knew him not, but that
he should be manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing
with water. John knew him with the eye of
faith, just like all the Old Testament prophets knew Christ.
But he didn't know the humanity of Christ yet. He had not met
him face to face in his incarnate glory until Christ arrived on
the scene when John was baptizing. And what John is actually saying
here, this is the main reason I was baptizing with water. because
I was to usher in the actual appearance of the Messiah, coming
into the world. And he says in verse 32, he said,
John bear record saying, I saw the spirit descending from heaven
like a dove and it abode upon him. You remember after Christ's
baptism, the voice from heaven, this is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased, hear ye him. And that's the father's testimony.
The son's testimony was his baptism. He was to die, be buried, and
raised again the third day in fulfilling all righteousness
to ensure the salvation of his people. The father's testimony
from heaven, this is my beloved son. And the spirit's testimony
descending in the form of a dove, the emblem of peace, because
Christ is the peace of his people. He brought peace by the blood
of his cross. And that's another thing people
need to understand. Christ didn't usher in peace on earth by his
birth, even though it was proclaimed peace on earth and goodwill toward
men. This was the goal of his birth,
his life, and his death. And it wasn't peace among people
on earth, like among nations or even among individuals. It's
peace between God and sinners reconciliation based upon his
righteousness imputed to his people and From that he'll give
them life and bring them to be at peace with God So that's what
that's all about well He said John said he bore record in verse
33. He emphasizes and I knew him not and 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
is that is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. Remember
John said, we read about that earlier in Matthew three, he
said, I baptize with water. That's all I can do. That's a
ceremony. But he said, there's one coming
after me who baptizes with power, with the Holy Spirit, with fire. And that's Christ. And what he's
saying there is this, and I'll say this about myself. I can
baptize people in the ordinance of believer's baptism. I can
put them down in physical water and bring them back up. But I
cannot give them life, spiritual life. I cannot give them a new
heart. I cannot give them eyes to see
and ears to hear and hearts and minds to understand and embrace
and love Christ and His truth. I can't even give myself those
things. That's the work of God. The new birth, we read that over
in John chapter one, how it talks about in verse 12. But as many
as received Him, that is received Him in faith, in power, to them
gave He power or the right or the privilege to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on His name, which were born,
not of blood, not of physical birth, nor the will of the flesh,
or the works of the flesh, nor the will of man. It wasn't by
a decision, a free will decision that man makes. That's not gonna
do it. Man will not receive Him. It's not by the will of man,
but it's by the will of God. The will and power of God. Do
you realize a sinner who is saved by grace, A sinner who truly
believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and is brought to repentance
is a miracle of God's power and grace. That person is not the
product of their decision that they made. They're not saved
because they made the right decision. Now, did they make the right
decision when they chose Christ? Yes. But you see, that's not
the source or the condition of salvation. The source is God
Almighty by His grace through Christ. The condition is what
Christ accomplished on the cross. And the fruit of that is that
which comes in faith. Ephesians 2, 8 through 10. Think
about that, those sets of verses. For by grace are you saved, Through
faith, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, not because of good works, and
that includes faith, unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. And so this is the power
of God unto salvation. It says in verse 34, that, and
I saw and bear record that this is the Son of God. This is the
Son of God, Christ is the Son of God. Verse 35, and again,
the next day after John stood and two of his disciples, and
that is two men who followed John's teaching, and looking
upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, behold the Lamb of God. There it is again, behold the
Lamb of God. And it says here in verse 37, I love this. This
is my prayer. As a preacher of the gospel,
this is what I want to see when I preach. It says in verse 37,
and the two disciples heard John speak, that's him, to him there's
John. They heard John speaking and they followed Jesus. That's
the goal of every God-sent gospel preacher. You're hearing my voice,
but I don't want you to follow me, I want you to follow Jesus,
follow Christ. I want you to sing the song of
the Lamb. You know what the song of the
Lamb over in Revelation chapter five is? The redeemed in glory,
in verse nine of Revelation five, listen to this. They sung a new
song saying, thou art worthy to take the book and to open
the seals thereof. Talking about the Lamb, the Lamb
of God. Thou art worthy to open the seals
thereof for thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy
blood out of every kindred, tongue and people and nation and has
made us under our God kings and priests and we shall reign on
earth. And I beheld and I heard the
voice of many angels round about the throne of the beast and the
elders, and the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands
of thousands, saying with a loud voice, now listen to this, here's
the song, worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power
and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. And Revelation 5.13 says, And
every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the
earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them,
heard I say, blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto
him that sitteth upon the throne, unto the Lamb forever and ever
and the four beasts said Amen and the four and twenty elders
fell down and worshiped him that liveth forever and ever. Worthy
is the Lamb that was slain. Behold." And so back here in
John chapter 1 these two disciples they listen to John but John
was pointing them away from himself and pointing them to Christ.
And that's what every God-sent gospel preacher is to do. Don't
look at me, don't look to me, don't trust in me. Look to Christ,
the one that I preach. I'm just a signpost pointing
you to Christ. John said, I'm a voice crying
in the wilderness. Worthy is the Lamb, behold the
Lamb of God. And it says in verse 38, then
Jesus turned and saw them following and saith unto them, what seek
ye? And they said unto him, Rabbi, which means, which is to say,
being interpreted, Master, where dwellest thou? Where you're going,
we want to go. And he saith unto them, come
and see. And they came and saw where he
dwelt and abode with him that day, for it was about the 10th
hour. So here we have, Christ, beginning
to call His disciples unto Himself, looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. And that's what salvation is.
It's beholding the Lamb of God with the eye of faith, with the
eye of knowledge, knowing who He is. Who is Jesus Christ? He's God manifest in the flesh. He's the word made flesh dwelling
among us. And what did he accomplish when
he died on the cross? He didn't make me savable. He
didn't bring a possibility of salvation if I would do what
I need to do or what I should do. But He saved His people from
their sins. Over in Matthew 1 and verse 21,
His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people
from their sins. Matthew 1, 23, His name shall
be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted as God with us. That's
who He is, that's what He accomplished, that's why He did it and where
He is now. He did it for the glory of God. He did it for the
good of His people. And he's now seated, he's resurrected
out from the dead, and he's seated at the right hand of the Father,
ever living to make intercession for his people. That's who he
is. Behold the Lamb of God, which
beareth away, taketh away the sins of the world. This is the
gospel message of the righteousness of God, wherein the glory of
God is found. Hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.