Good morning. Sorry for the disappointment. Todd, we'll be back. Let's look in the gospel of John
again, chapter one. I'd like to bring from the life
of John the Baptist. Five marks of a faithful witness
this morning. I found these quite helpful as
I've studied them and I hope they're helpful to you this morning.
Let's just read the passage, first of all, from verse 19. And this is the record of John
when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask
him, who are you? And he confessed and denied not,
but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, what then?
Are you Elijah? And he says, I am not. Are you
that prophet? And he answered, no. Then said
they unto him, who are you, that we may give an answer to those
who sent us? What sayest thou thyself? He said, I am the voice
of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the
Lord, said the prophet, as said the prophet Isaiah. And they,
which were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him and said unto
him, why do you baptize then if you be not that Christ nor
Elijah, neither that prophet? John answered them, saying, I
baptize with water. But there stands one among you
whom you know not. He it is who coming after me
is preferred before me, whose shoes latched I'm not worthy
to unloose. These things were done in Bethabara,
beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day, John
sees Jesus coming unto him and says, behold, the Lamb of God,
which takes away the sin of the world, This is he of whom I said,
after me comes a man who is preferred before me, for he was before
me. And I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest to
Israel. Therefore, am I come baptizing with water. And John
bore 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 you shall see the spirit
descending and remaining upon him. The same is he who baptizes
with the Holy ghost. And I saw and bore record that
this is the son of God. Let's pray. Father, what a wonderful passage
you sent your spirit to reveal to John, the old writer. We pray,
Lord, that the same spirit who revealed it to him, and I'm sure
he was absolutely overwhelmed when you gave him that message.
Lord, I pray that the same spirit who revealed it to John would
reveal it to us this morning, that he might walk among us,
visit in our hearts and in our minds, causing us, Lord, to see
the essence of this passage, which is the very essence of
God himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I pray, Lord, this morning
that you might be pleased to override all my errors, my lack
of knowledge, my lack of understanding. And Lord, that you'll bless those
my hearers whose similar lacks caused them not to hear well
either. Lord, we rely upon you this morning. For Christ's sake,
amen. The vast majority, as you well
know, of what goes on under the name of witnessing for Jesus
has nothing whatsoever to do with being a faithful witness
of the truth of the gospel. They're false witnesses, and
let me give you a few reasons why. They bear witness, first
of all, to a false Christ. They bear witness to that Christ
who supposedly made salvation possible for everyone, but can't
guarantee it for a single person. They not only bear witness to
a false Christ, they present a perverted gospel. They teach
sinners to do their part so God can do his. instead of preaching the true
message of Christ, which is God just raises dead sinners to life. They seek to glorify themselves
in the eyes of others. The Apostle Paul's view on that
particular practice was this, but as we have been approved
by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak. That's just all we got to talk
about, nothing else. Not as pleasing men, but God. Finally, they're more interested,
I know this because I have been around a bunch of them, they're
far more interested in their soul winning statistics than
the truth of Christ. Paul speaks of such people as
grievous wolves, grievous wolves whose aim is to drag away disciples
unto themselves. The Christian, the true believer,
someone that God has actually done a work of grace in their
hearts, only has one true desire. We desire to see Christ glorified
and we're just thankful that He glorifies Himself through
the salvation of stupid sinners like us. And that's the witness
right there. That's the essence of our witness.
Now let's work down through these verses we just read. Let me see
if I can bring out five brief things about five marks of a
faithful witness. First of all, you know, a faithful
witness is one who knows that it's not about him or her. It's not about us. That's the
first mark of a faithful witness. Look back at verse 19. And this is the record of John.
This is his witness. When the Jews sent priests and
Levi's to him from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you? Verse
20. And he confessed and denied not,
but confessed. I'm not the Christ. It's not
about me. And then they ask him, are you Elijah? He says, I'm
not. Are you the prophet that was spoken about by Moses? No. Are you Elijah? No. They went back to that old
verse in Malachi 4, 5, where he said, behold, I'll send you
Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful
day of the Lord. Now it's true. It's true in the
gospels that it says that John the Baptist came in the spirit
and power of Elijah, but he wasn't a reincarnated Elijah. He said,
true, I'm not Elijah, that's not me. Are you that prophet,
that one that Moses spoke about in Deuteronomy 18.15 when he
said, the Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the
midst of thee of thy brethren like unto me. Unto him shall
you hearken. Are you the one that Moses spoke
about and John was very faithful? No, I'm not that one. Philip
understood who that was. He got it right a little later
on in the John 145 when he comes to Nathanael and he says we found
him of whom Moses wrote and it wasn't John It was the Lord Jesus
Christ. We have found him he understood
They said therefore Who are you? We've got to give an answer to
these people who sent us We need something to say we can't go
back with an empty with an empty sheet here I've got to have some
information to present to my superiors. Would you help me
out a little bit here? I'm on a mission. I've got to have something. Could you give us, could you
say just something about yourself?" And I love so much what he said.
He took that whole thought of our witness and our testimony
and our work in propagating the gospel and speaking to our loved
ones and addressing our friends about Christ. He spoiled that
all the way down and he said, well, all I can say is I'm a
voice. Now, when he said that, when
he said that, he didn't talk about my ministry. He didn't
talk about my credentials. He didn't talk about where he
went to Bible college or what books he had in his library.
He didn't talk about any of that. He just said, I'm just a voice.
I'm just a guy out here in the wilderness who's hollering. And
that word crying out is exactly that. I'm just hollering. Must
have been an old-fashioned preacher, I guess. I'm just hollering.
I'm just a voice, and I'm just giving this message. I'm the
voice of one crying in the wilderness that's got one thing to say,
make straight the way of the Lord, as Isaiah the prophet said. The first sign, then, of a faithful
witness is one who just recognizes that it's not about them. We
have a message about a glorious Savior. What more do we need
to say? You can't add to that. You can't
embellish that with anything you have to say about yourself.
Just preach the word. Speak the message. Tell of Christ. You'll be a faithful witness.
Now secondly, second mark of a faithful witness in this passage
is one who knows that it's not about religion. Look at verse
24 again. And he said, I'm the voice of
one, I'm sorry. And they, which were sent were
the Pharisees, those who were interested in works, those who
were interested in being seen. And they asked him and said unto
him, Oh, why do you baptize then? If you're not that Christ nor
Elijah, nor the prophet. Now their problem with him baptizing
was that that was a brand new thing. They, that was a ritual
they weren't familiar with, and since those of the Sanhedrin
had sent them out, you need to find out by what authority they're
doing that. They've not been authorized to do this. They're
doing stuff that, did you authorize them? No, did the other committee
authorize them? No, who told them they could do this? That
was their issue. And by the way, what's it all
mean? What is this dunking people under the water about anyway?
What's it, what's the purpose of it? What's it for? They were
all torn up about that thing. They were greatly confused. It
was brand new and they didn't know what to do with it. And
so they sent these guys out. They said, why are you doing
this? Well, I like what he said. Hold your finger there and John,
turn back over to Mark chapter one. Mark records the answer
in very clear terms. Mark chapter one, let's begin
with verse four. John did baptize in the wilderness
and preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And
let's look at that last phrase. Most people read that and understand
that he preached that if you'll be baptized, your sins will be
remitted. That's not what that says. He
preached a baptism of, that is, of repentance. That is, he preached
a baptism that reflected, you know what repentance is. Repentance
is not saying, I'm sorry. Repentance is a change, change
of mind, change of understanding, change of heart, change of everything
about you. It's a new nature. It's a change
from the old man to the new man. He said, I'm baptizing as a public
proclamation, a public testimony that you've had a change of mind.
What kind of a change of mind? I'm going to try to do better.
I'm going to try to stop lying. I'm going to try to stop cheating.
No. I've had a change of mind regarding
repentance, regarding the way sins are remitted. He said, this
is a baptism regarding a change of understanding about how sins
are put away. Does baptism put sins away? Not
one. Never has. No. What is baptism then? It's our
testimony. It's our testimony. Let me into
the water. I want people to know that God
has done a work in me and I know that if my sins have been remitted,
if my sins have been put away, they've been put away by someone
else. That's why we're put under the
water. It's a great illustration. It's a divine, divinely inspired
illustration of union with Christ. Just put right down into him
and you see me no more. Not me anymore, I'm found in
Christ. Why are you baptizing? We're
baptizing because we have this testimony. Christ is all, I'm
in him, and that's the only place I want to be. Now, third of all, what is it
to be a faithful witness? A faithful witness is one who
knows then that it's all about Christ. Folks who stand around
on street corners and who call our people here and there and
claim to be testifying for the Lord Jesus and witnessing for
Christ are just out trying to show their credentials. They're
just showing off their credentials. They're showing off their boldness.
They're showing off that they can get out there and face the
crowd and tell them the truth anyway, how strong they are,
how great they are, how they're outstanding people. God should
be glad to have them on his staff. No, no, a faithful witness is
one that knows it's all about Christ. Faithful witnesses don't
know of anything else to talk about. They have no one else
to speak of. They have nothing else to say.
We speak of Christ, the one who put sin away. We speak of Christ,
the one whom God sent to save his people. That's all we know
to say. Have nothing else to tell about it. Look there in
verse 26. Back in John, I'm sorry, John
one. John answered him saying, I baptize
with water. I put people all the way under.
I'm. I'm giving them the image of being found one with Christ,
but there stands one among you whom you know not. He it is who
coming after me in time is preferred before me. Now back in that day,
back in that day, the elder served the younger or the younger served
the elder. The one who came first, the older
was far more valued than the younger ones who came after He
said, the one who coming after me, it's true, I'm older than
him. John was indeed. He was born
before the Lord Jesus Christ was born. The one who is younger
than me, the one who came after me is preferred before me. He's the one that suddenly he's
turning the cultural pattern around. He came late. I came early. I was first. He
was after me. And yet he has now taken the
first place. He's preferred before me. Verse, I'm sorry, coming at it
is preferred before me. And one, uh, one translation
says, because he was before me, indeed, he was verse 28. These
things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was
baptizing. And the next day, the very next day, John sees
Jesus coming unto him and says, behold the lamb of God. who takes away the sin of the
world. A true, a true witness is one
who knows that it's not about us. It's all about Christ. And it's about preaching who
he is. He's the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,
the sin of all the world, the sin of all the world. That's
what most people are saying this morning, that he takes away the
sin of all the world. And I can tell you this. If indeed
the Lord Jesus Christ and bore every sin of every man, woman,
boy, and girl in this world, that there won't be a single
soul in hell. There's not any there right now because he is
the one who's preferred before us all. He's higher than every
one of us put together. His blood is all it takes to
put sin away before God the Father forever and ever. He put away
the sin of a great number of people. The Bible says a number
so big no man can count them. That gives me hope. I could see
myself being on the end of that list. Can you? One that wasn't
on the list. I could see myself finding no
reason to be found amongst those for whom Christ died. But I can
guarantee you this. If you're on the list, if you
were in his heart, If you were, if you're united with Christ
now, you were not united with Christ on that cross. And if
he bore your sins as his own before God, the father, and God
killed him for your sins and mine, you have nothing to worry
about. Nothing whatsoever. He takes
away the sin of the world. It's all about Christ. That's
what, that's the very essence of our message. We don't teach
people to try to do things, try to go to church a little more
often, try to be a little better people, don't lie, don't cheat,
be nice to your fellow workers and things like that. We don't
teach people to do that. Did you know, though, that every
time that we are successful by the grace of God and giving our
little puny, paltry witness of the Lord Jesus Christ and trying
to exalt Him in people's eyes and God, by some stretch of grace,
takes that faulty, failing witness and He reveals Christ in somebody
else and saves them, He takes away the sin of the world. And
we say, I don't know how that happened. I messed that one up.
I don't know how it is with everybody else, but every time I stand
up here or try to preach out in the front, I sit down, I think,
why does he keep calling on me? I don't, I can't, I can't halfway
say what I need to say. I hardly ever get the message
out. Like I'd like to get it out. And yet someone comes up
and says, I saw that clearer than ever did before. And I say,
well, the Lord still does miracles. Thank God for his grace. Well,
fourthly. Actually, before I let me, before
I go on to that, let me talk about this thing of being all
about Christ. It's all about his sovereign
mercy. Let me read you a passage out of first Timothy chapter
two. First Timothy chapter two, verse
one, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the commandment of God, our savior and the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is our hope under Timothy. my own son in the faith, grace,
mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord,
as I besought you to abide still at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia,
that you might charge some that they teach no other doctrine,
neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister
questions rather than godly edifying, which is in faith, so do, do
what I ask you to do. Now the end of the commandment
is charity, love, out of a pure heart, out of a good conscience,
and of faith unfeigned, from which some, having swerved, have
turned aside unto vain jangling, desiring to be teachers of the
law, understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm,
that we know that the law is good, if men use it lawfully.
I've obviously picked up the wrong, I'm sorry, wrong chapter. I did that when I was studying
this, and I've done it twice now. Chapter two. Let's read
some more. I exhort, therefore, that first
of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of
thanks be made for all men. Notice the all men. This passage
explains God's sovereign mercy, and it keys on who is all men. For kings, they're among all
men, for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and
peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good
and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who will have
all men to be saved and to come into the knowledge of the truth.
You know, I was raised to understand that God was trying his best
to save everybody. Let's read on down. This is not
talking about all men inclusive for there is one God, one mediator
between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself
a ransom for all for all to be testified in due time. Where
into I'm ordained a preacher and an apostle. Speak the truth
in Christ and lie not. And here is the, here's the understanding
of all men, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity. Now you remember that at the
time that this was written, at the time that Christ came, there
were only two classes of people. There were Jews and there were
Gentiles and Jews understand them understood themselves to
be God's chosen people. The only race upon the planet
that God was willing to save anyone out of. And that he was
going to save all of them. And indeed he will save all of
Israel. He will save all Jews. All of those that the Bible defines
as Jews. Those who are God's elect among all men around this
world. It's about God's sovereign mercy.
God's not just saving Jews and God's not just saving people
who call themselves Christian. He's saving his people. And there's
some of us that are pretty low life people. And there's some
of us that are way out there yonder. And God saves us anyway. There's not an ounce, as far
as I know, not a drop of Jewish blood in these veins. And yet
I'm one of God's people by grace. No, this thing about witnessing
is about his sovereign mercy. And it's about his eternal glory.
He said back there in John 1 and verse 30, this is he concerning
whom I said, after me comes a man who's preferred before me because
he was before me. I like what Paul wrote in Colossians
chapter 1 verse 15, Christ who is the image, that's the word
from which we get our current word icon. He's the very image
of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, because in him
all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible
and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities,
all have been created. through him and unto him, and
he is before all things, and in him all things consist. It's about his eternal glory.
You know, he can do whatever he wants to. He's already purposed,
it's been purposed since before eternity what he wants to do,
and that's exactly what he is doing. And I'm looking at people
that God has been pleased to save, and you're looking at one
that God has been pleased to save, and we look at each other
and say, how in the world can that be? Because he purposed
it. That's our witness. That's our
witness. Don't let people get you all
hung up if you have the opportunity to speak the gospel to someone
and they're talking about free will instead of free grace. Don't
let people get you all hung up about that. The end of that argument
is God does what he wants. He does what he pleases with
everybody. And is that not okay? He's God. We wouldn't even be here in a
body, breathing air. Have eyes that see and ears that
hear and bodies that find. We wouldn't be like this if God
hadn't just been pleased to do that. No, no, let's, let's be
faithful, faithful to the witness. He has the one who decides he's
the one who has the right to decide. Let's move on very quickly. He's
one of a faithful witnesses. One who knows that salvation
comes by divine revelation. Look back there in John one,
again, look at verse 31. I knew him not John said, but
he, that should be made, but that he should be made manifest
to Israel. Therefore I'm come baptizing with water. John bore
record saying, I saw the spirit descending from heaven, like
a dove and it abode upon him. And I knew him not. I knew him
not, but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto
me upon whom you shall see the spirit descending and remaining
on him. The same as he who baptizes with the Holy spirit. Salvation
is by divine revelation. And in that sense, as John says
here, we preach, we preach and we teach and we witness and we
talk about Christ to whoever will listen and God sorts them
out. God does what he's going to do
and he'll, he'll make them clear. He'll make them, he'll identify
his people and he'll always join them up with some more of his
people and they'll meet together and they'll worship Christ. They
always have the ones that don't come. The ones that don't stay
and know some of those people are dear to us, aren't they?
I have many that are very dear to me. They don't come, they
don't stay. And yet God is the one who determines that. He's
the one who decides that. Our witness is not to try to
get everybody in. We're not jerking them in for
Jesus. As I've heard them so vainly and profanely talk in
false religious churches, no, we're preaching the glory of
Christ. And the glory of Christ is what
God uses to call all of his people. I had never thought, I've been
many years in religion, but I never knew anything about the glory
of Christ till I heard, I heard a message on tape in Africa. from Henry Mahan, and I heard
that very simple little message. I'd never seen Christ like that
before, and I could not get away. Finally, a faithful witness is
one whose greatest joy is to speak of the Savior. Now, you
may speak haltingly like me. You may speak in a failing manner. You may not be dogmatic and dynamic
and all those things. You may just be a regular person.
But isn't it true in the heart of every believer to find someone
who will listen to you tell the story of salvation by free grace
in Christ? Does that not just thrill your
soul? Somebody's going to listen. Well, I'm going to tell them.
I'm going to do the best job I can. The next day, it said
there in verse 35, the next day, John stood and two of his disciples,
looking upon Jesus as he walked, he says, look at that. Behold,
the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him.
And they followed Jesus. Didn't speak about, well, that's
him, but my ministry is a great ministry. John said nothing about
himself, did he? He said, guys, I hate to give
you up, but I'm going to let you go to him if you want to.
No, no, no. He knew what he was doing. He
walked, Christ walked by and they just got up and they knew.
There must have been something about John's preaching. Something
about what he taught his disciples. They understood what to do when
the time came. Lord Jesus walked by and they got up and left.
And they split and they left John. Verse 38, then Jesus turned
and saw them following. And here is where all disciples
of Christ want to be. Saw them following and says unto
them, what are you looking for? They said unto him, Rabbi, which
is being interpreted master, where do you stay? Where do you
dwell? Where is it that we can find
you? He says unto them, come, come and see. They came and they
saw where he dwelt and they stayed there. They abode with him that
day. It was about the 10th hour. I
can tell you this. I'm sure there's been a lot of
people who down through time have testified that they believe
in the gospel of God's sovereign grace, that whoever Christ died
for must be saved, and that's what we believe. And there have
been a number of those who have later on decided it just wasn't
quite that cut and dried, and they walked away. But no one
who ever went to the dwelling place of God in Christ Jesus
has ever found a reason to leave. and we're staying right there
still. May God keep us there by his grace. All right, we're
finished.