Remember those who requested
prayer don't have any news on anybody, so that's what this
prayer is. We'll begin our worship service
tonight with a handout, Christ on the Cross. On a hill far away, like a Christ
on the cross, the ill became suffering and death. I will. For He is the King I must crown! For the Christ of the Cross is
so despised by the world as the one who wills to transcend to
me! In the dear name of God, let
His glory abound! to bear all my sin on the tree. So I'll cherish the Christ on
the cross, and before He's thrown out of hell, I will For He is the King I must crown! In Christ the cross and His blood
so divine, our marvelous beauty For He opened my eyes, as long
as I've been blind, He'll open mine. I will. For He is the King I must crown
To the price of the cost I must ever be true His shame and guilt
let me bear For in love He comes to reign Till all shall be gained
His glory forever I'll share So I'll cherish the price of
the cross And before His throne I'll bow down I will cling to
the Christ of the cross, for He is the King I must crown. Great, fainting church, behold,
Jesus is mine! Great, every tender died, Jesus
is mine! Dark is the wilderness, Jesus is mine. Tempt not my soul
away. Jesus is mine. Here would I ever
stay. Jesus is mine. Perishing things of clay. Born but for one brief day. From my heart away, Jesus is
mine! Farewell, deep dreams of night,
Jesus is mine! Lost in this dark and bright,
Jesus is mine! All that my soul has tried, Left
on abysmal void, Jesus has satisfied, Jesus is mine! Farewell mortality,
Jesus is mine! Welcome eternity, Jesus is mine! I'm going to read verses 25 through
30. Then there arose a question between
some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying. They
came to John and said, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond
Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizes, and
all men come to him. John answered and said, A man
cannot receive. A man can receive nothing, except
it be given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness.
And I said, I am not the Christ. but that I am sent before him.
He that hath the bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of
the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly
because of the bridegroom's voice. This is my joy, therefore, is
fulfilled. He must increase, but I must
decrease. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven,
blessed sovereign Lord, ruler of this world and this universe, owner and proprietor of all that
is therein. We praise you for who you are
and thank you for what you have done for your children. We know, Father, by daily experience,
the frailty and weakness and sinfulness in our flesh. And we know that in us dwelleth
no good thing. And we also know, Father, because
you have revealed it to us by your Spirit through the Word,
that we have life in Jesus Christ. May we have peace that passes
knowledge. We stand before you righteous, holy, just, perfect because of his one sacrifice
whereby he perfected forever them that are sanctified. We thank you, Father, that we
can come into your presence and knew that you are our Father.
We know that thou art the potter and we are the clay. We thank you. We're in the process
of your salvation. You are going to mold us into
the image of your son, Jesus Christ, that he be the firstborn
of many brethren. Father, we pray for those who
are sick, those who are going through trial and trouble. Pray
for those who are away from us for whatever reason. Ask Lord
you to be with them. For those who have lost loved
ones, especially Wanda. She's endeavoring to live in
this world without Sam. Pray also for the others who've
lost loved ones, for those who have sorrow in their hearts,
for those who are brokenhearted, for those who are fighting temptations. We ask, Lord, that you'd be with
them. Help us now, Father, as we look
at your word. Give us a sense and an understanding
of what is before us in this passage of scripture. We thank
you for your word. We thank you that you didn't
leave yourself without a witness. That you gave us this glorious
book, this wondrous book, wherein we find the glories of Jesus
Christ. Help us now to worship you. We
pray to Christ's holy and precious name. Now this passage reveals
the heart and attitude of one who has been brought to see his
proper place or station in the economy of God. John is an example
for every preacher and every member of the body of Christ.
His words and attitude are mirrored by many in scripture. The heart
of the true child of God is that he or she is nothing and God
alone is everything. That God alone is worthy of glory. Moses, when he was told that
he was to deliver Israel from Egypt, he cried to the Lord,
who am I? Who am I? I'm not an eloquent
speaker. David, upon considering the handiwork
of God, said, What is man, that thou art mindful of him, and
son of man, that thou should visit him? Isaiah, after seeing
the Lord in his glory, said, Woe is me, I am undone, and I
dwell among a people of unclean lips. After setting forth the
mercy and grace of God in Ezekiel 36, the Lord said that the result
would be that his people would afford themselves Job said, I have heard of thee
with the hearing of the ear, and now mine eye seeth thee,
and I adore myself. The words of John in this passage
are a textbook on the traits of humility. That's something
none of us know a great deal about. I've made this statement
many times before. When I think I'm humble, I know
I'm not. And when I say I'm not humble,
I think that is an humble statement. So it's been kind of a tough
road to hoe. You're humble before God if God
has humbled you before Him. And John exhibits true humility,
true humility. And this humility is not religious
affectation. It is not a sacred posture. This
humility is born of knowing and understanding who Jesus Christ
is, who He is, what He has done, and where He is now. This is
what is wrong in every sinner when he's born from above. his
view and his perspective is forever changed as his affection is set
on things above and not on things of the earth looking to Jesus
Christ as John was baptizing where there was much water it
says previously that this is the passage he was approached
by some of his disciples and someone who had questions concerning
baptism who was baptizing them because there was much water
now when they approached this was probably about Jewish questions
concerning baptism. Jewish laws concerning cleansing.
Well, there are many laws in the law that had to do with cleansing,
like a woman after she's had a baby had to go through a cleansing. They call that a baptism. Certain
types of sin, you touch the dead thing, it's like you had to be
cleansed. And these were called baptisms. And so that's probably
the reason, because it was a Jew who asked this question to John
the Baptist's disciples. The law that involved many cleansing
ceremonies were often referred to as baptism. Probably, John's
disciples saw some sort of connection between John's baptism and these
legal ceremonies. Remember, these were all Jewish
men that followed him. However, when they came to John,
they did not address that subject of purification. but rather that
there was a competition, or in their own minds, a competition
between John and the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 26, it says
that he came to John and said, Rabbi, he that was with thee
beyond Jordan, that's speaking of Jesus Christ, to whom thou
bearest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come
to him. Now, some people have suggested
that questions involved had to do with how far away Jesus was
from John when he was teaching, because there was a strange little
Jewish law that said that if a man had a following, a Jewish
teacher, a rabbi had a following, another rabbi could not teach
anybody within a 12-mile radius of that man. Don't know why that
is, maybe it was to be a piss fight or something at the assemblies.
But the context suggests that John's disciples might have been
a bit jealous, or at least concerned, The fact that Jesus was gaining
more followers than John, for it says, Behold, all men come
to Him. That's what it says in the last phrase of verse 22,
Behold, all men come to Him. And we know all men weren't coming
to Him, but they were saying everybody's showing up. His meetings,
not near as many are showing up at your meetings. The number of followers is what
he was talking about. It was tallied by those who were
baptized. It speaks of Jesus baptizing more than him. But
Jesus actually didn't baptize many. In chapter 4, verse 2,
it says, So Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples. So Jesus
never actually baptized anyone. His disciples baptized him. That's the picture of the church
today. disciples of the Church of God, and that's where men
submit themselves to baptism in the Church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The issue with John's disciples
was that with the news of the Lord's popularity, they saw their
leaders following them, diminishing. And they were upset about that,
they wondered about that. They knew John was sent from
God, and no doubt about that, this man came from the wilderness,
when he preached, people listened. Things happened, people submitted
to baptism. And you know John was sent from God and he didn't
follow in their own minds and probably wasn't in mine either.
So I'd been following John and he talked about Jesus Christ
and pointed me into Christ and I was still following him. He
was baptizing and they said, well, Jesus is now getting more
people than you are. I might have a question about
that. I'm a human being and so are you. But they were wondering,
he didn't follow that a man from God, that his ministry decreased
while another was increasing. And John's answer sets the tone
for everything. John's answers to these disciples
are very important for us to understand. His words are found
in verse 27. John answered and said, a man
can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven. What's he saying? He's saying
whatever's happening with the Lord Jesus Christ came from heaven. That's where it came from. It
didn't come down, it didn't even get this here on earth. What
he's saying is that by man can receive nothing from
heaven. He's saying that God did this. God's in this. Our Lord gave the same answer
to Pilate in John 19, when Pilate said, don't you know I have the
power to put you to death, put you to prison? He said, you can't
have any power except it come from heaven. That's where all
power comes out. The Lord gave the same answer.
Old Levi said, it is the Lord who let him do what seemed good
in his sight. John is declaring that God is
sovereign in these things. God is sovereign in these things.
And when John reminds his disciples that this was what he was saying
all along. You see, all along, his ministry
was about a single thing. John only preached for about
six months. He was just six months older
than the Lord Jesus Christ. He was born six months before
the Lord Jesus Christ was. He was born for this thing. And
he reached the age of 30. That's when a man was considered
a priest or was old enough to be a man. When he reached the
age of 30, he began to preach. The kingdom of God is at hand.
The kingdom of God is at hand. And he told that to everybody. And what he was saying there,
the sovereign rule of the Lord is coming. He was talking about
that new covenant. They didn't understand it. And he gave forth
the principles of baptism. And then he baptized me. And
then one day he saw this Jesus Christ walking down the road.
He said, that's why I'm here. That's why I'm here. Here comes
the man. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. This is why I'm here. For six
months, that's what he did. And then he lost his head. So
this man's minister, who was prophesied in the Old Testament
in Isaiah prophesied in Malachi as Elijah, who would come back
again. And the Lord said, if you believe Malachi, you'll see
John the Baptist as Elijah come back again. That's what our Lord
said. He was prophesying. In Malachi, he said he's the
forerunner of Christ. He's going to come before Christ.
He's going to tell about the Lord Jesus Christ. Then the Lord Jesus
Christ will appear suddenly in his temple. This was John's ministry. Six months. He preached, gathered
quite a following. He said, I told you this all
along. Look at verse 28. You yourself bear witness that
I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him. From the prophecy of Malachi,
John told him that he was the forerunner of the Messiah. He
was but a voice crying in the wilderness to prepare the way
of the coming of the Lord. He was not the Christ. He said,
you worried about him gathering more people than me? I'm not
the Christ. He's the Christ. He's the Christ. Back in John chapter 1 and verse
20, he says the same thing. He says, and he confessed and
denied not, but confessed, I am not the Christ. Because they
was asking him, are you the Christ? He said, I am not the Christ. Now, it explains what he means
in the next verse. He further answers in kind of
a metaphor or a metaphor of a bridegroom and a friend of the bridegroom
and the bride in the next sentence. He says, now, this is the reason
why men are gathering to Jesus Christ and are ceasing to gather
to me. This is the reason why. He that
hath the bride is the bridegroom. He that hath the bride is the
bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom, that's John,
which standeth and heareth him rejoiceth greatly because of
the bridegroom's voice. As the Lord say, my sheep hear
my voice and they follow me. This is, this, my joy therefore
is fulfilled. This is why I came. I'm as happy
as I can be. I'm as happy as I can be that things are diminishing
for me. and growing for Him. Because
He's the bridegroom, you see. And the bride belongs to Him. It's only fitting that the bride
would be grown to the bridegroom and not the friend of the bride.
Rather than being dismayed, the friend of the bridegroom rejoices
that Christ is being heard. John's joy from the beginning
was to point men to the Lord Jesus Christ. That was it. Isn't
that our ministry? I know men standing in pulpits,
and they try to tell people how to live, and how to act, and
what to be, and they preach about this sin, and that sin, all that.
But they fail to do the one thing that's absolutely, that distinguishes
a believer from a non-believer. A believer said, it's about him,
and not about me. It's about him. All false teachers
can look it up. cult after cult that began in
the 1830s through the 1860s in the United States, the cults
that are popping up every day, Jonestown, things like that,
David Koresh's place out there, all of them had the same thing.
Jim Jones finally said, I am Jesus. He finally said it. Now he led people and gathered
people and took a thousand people down to Ghana and started, I
mean, they followed him, but he finally said, I am the Messiah. David Goresh said the same thing,
I am the Messiah. This is what happens, this is
what happens. Men gather men to themselves. Believers point men to the Lord
Jesus Christ. The servant of God tells men
and women to follow Christ, to look to Christ and to Him alone. Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter
2 and verse 2 said, For I determined that of nothing among you say,
Jesus Christ of Him crucified. To the elect according to Ephesians
chapter 2 and chapter 3, He is all and in all. He's in all believers and in
everything to the believer. Everything to the believer. The
disciple of Christ knows that when He has done all His duty,
He's a most unprofitable servant. Whatever thing I ever do, even
if it's done for Christ, will never amount to anything. After
I've done all of my duty, I'm unprofitable. I'm a zero. Why? Because I don't count. The Lord
Jesus Christ is what counts. The words of verse 30 ought to
be a mantra for all of us. He must increase. I must decrease. spin on this? He must increase
and I must decrease. You understand that? And so does
anyone who reason. He knows, he knows, the believer
does. He's tasted that the Lord is
gracious and he knows that he exists for God's glory and is
continually humbled that God has been so merciful to him.
That's the language of every believer. He is continually reminded
that he is saved by grace in the presence of his flesh is
ever a reminder of how wondrous God's grace is. O to grace, he
sings, how great a debtor, daily, I'm constrained to be. This is
the song of the believer. He must increase. I must decrease. I must decrease. What can be
said that is not covered in these few words? What can be said? You can't add
to it. You can't take away from it.
It's just plain, simple language. He must be honored. He must be
glorified. He must be all of my salvation.
Isn't that what David said in 2 Samuel chapter 23 on his dying
bed? Verse 5 says, although my house
be not so with God, because all his good didn't love the Lord.
Although my house might not be so with God, verse 5 of chapter
23, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things, and sure. And this is all my salvation,
and all my desire, although it may make it not to grow among
my children. All my desire is what I want.
This is what John said. He must increase, I must decrease. Nothing of me, nothing from me,
nothing about me can enter into this singular glorious equation. He must increase, I must decrease. David said it something, who
am I in heaven but thee? And whom on earth do I desire
but thee? You're it. You're it. One way. One truth. One life. The Lord
Jesus Christ. He must increase and I must decrease.
As I was finishing up this message, I thought of that old story of
that old sinner. The Lord saved him and he began
to talk about Christ. Well, religion heard him and
he had a testimony that the Lord had saved him by grace and religion
wanted to get over him and find out some things. So they brought
him before a council in the church, and they said, what is your doctrine? He said, I don't know much about
that. He said, but I know that I'm just a poor sinner, nothing
at all, that Jesus Christ is my all in all. They said, well,
what church do you belong to? He said, I don't belong to one
yet. He said, but I know this, I'm just a poor sinner, nothing
at all, that Jesus Christ is my all in all. That's what John
said. home thinking about it, driving
home, you lay down in your bed tonight, close your eyes and
say, He must increase, I must decrease. That's true humility. It's about honoring and glorifying
Christ and diminishing your sin.