Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of John. We've just started on our study. I'd like to go through this book,
John chapter 1. Let's read verses 6 to 9, and
then we'll have a word of prayer. There was a man sent from God
whose name was John. The same came for a witness to
bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe.
He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that
light. That was the true light which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world." Let's pray together. Our Father, how good it is to
be able to approach You and to know that our approach is only
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, that we believe this morning
is by Your grace by faith that is from above. We ask you to
help us. Help us to worship. Help us to
hear. Help us, Lord, to truly see and
comfort our hearts. Teach us, we pray, for Christ's
sake. Amen. Last week we considered the Deity. the eternality, the power, the life of the Word,
the Word of God. Whenever God speaks, it is Christ Himself speaking. No matter the means, When I say that, I mean this.
I stand this morning as a preacher. Paul says we beseech you in Christ's
stead. His voice. His Word. It's the Word Himself. The Word
of Almighty God. Now this morning, we want to
begin as we look at the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
know how there are Scriptures that you're going to read, and
when you read them concerning Christ, I mean, it's going to
be at times when you read that and you say, that's His deity. That's setting forth the deity
of Christ. Then you'll read one, That's
the humanity of Christ, and there only as you realize God-man,
deity-perfect manhood. We're going to look at the manhood
and the announcement of He who is God Himself made flesh. We'll look at that made flesh,
Lord willing, next time. But Almighty God, under the inspiration
by His blessed Holy Spirit, penned these words through John. And he says in verse 6, there
was a man sent from God whose name was John. I want you to
turn back to Luke chapter 1, Luke 1. Luke 1 and beginning in verse
5, this is what the Scripture says.
Luke 1, 5, There was in the days of Herod the king of Judea a
certain priest named Zacharias of the course of Abiah, and his
wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous
before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of
the Lord blameless. And they had no child because
that Elizabeth was barren. And they both were now well stricken
in years. It came to pass that while he
executed the priest's office before God in the order of his
course, according to the custom of the priest's office, his lot
was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.
And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at
the time of incense. And there appeared unto him an
angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of
incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he
was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto
him, Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard. And thy
wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his
name John." Now look at verse 57. of that same chapter, Luke
1. Now Elizabeth's full time came
that she should be delivered, and she brought forth a son.
And her neighbors and her cousins heard how the Lord had showed
great mercy upon her, and they rejoiced with her. And it came
to pass that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child,
and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father.
And his mother answered and said, Not so, but he shall be called
John. And they said unto her, There
is none of thy kindred that is called by this name. And they
made signs to his father how he would have him called. And
he asked for a writing table and wrote, saying, His name is
John. And they marveled all." Now,
the first thing I notice about this one John, John the Baptist,
in naming him John, obedience. Obedience on the part of Zacharias
and Elizabeth. Call his name John. Now the reason they called his
name John is because that's what the Lord told them to name him.
Not Zacharias. Obedience. Can you imagine? You think, well,
that's just a name. Faithful in little things? It must be. Little things. That was not a little thing.
All the pressure from the others. It says, well, nobody in your
family named that. Well, name him after his daddy.
His daddy's a priest. His name is John. There's nobody
in that lineage. His name is John. Obedience. But look at the faithfulness
of Almighty God. The faithfulness for God to send
one who would be the forerunner, the witness, the announcer. A lot of folks considered John
the Baptist to be the Christ. Turn over to Matthew 3.11. Matthew
3.11. You know, man by nature Boy, he loves for people to pat
him on the back and say great swelling words about him. Whenever
Almighty God gives a man or woman a new heart, they long after
one. That old nature is still there,
believe me, that wants glory and honor heaped on them. But
that new nature, there's a holy nature that is imparted. There's a new nature that the
Scripture reveals sins not. That's the great discrepancy
right now with many people. They don't believe that there
is within a believer a new nature that doesn't sin. That which
is born of God sinneth not. They say, now how can that be?
It's because God says it is. Now there's an old nature that,
believe me, There is, Paul says, in me, that is in my flesh, in
that old man, no good thing. It does nothing but sin. So you've got two opposing natures. There is a nature that is born
of God that doesn't sin. That new nature longs after,
loves, hungers, thirsts after Christ. People were looking at John the
Baptist as being the Christ. In Matthew 3.11, here's what
John says, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. But
he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not
worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the
Holy Ghost and with fire. A man or woman that God has called
out of darkness, they want Christ to be honored, magnified, set
forth. Back in John 1, there was a man
sent from God whose name was John. Notice this, that John
the Baptist is a man. There was a man sent from God. The Word was God made flesh. John was a man. God Himself was
truly made flesh, but you realize who was made flesh. John was
sent from God just like all God's preachers are. Verse 7 says the
same, that is, John came for a witness. The Lord is pleased to speak
by those who testify what they know by experience. He is a witness. John the Baptist was the one
that prophesied concerning the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Malachi, let me just read this
to you. Malachi 3, verse 1, Behold, I will send my messenger, and
he shall prepare the way before me. And the Lord, whom you seek,
shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant,
whom you delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith
the Lord of hosts." So God Almighty gave John the Baptist a mission
and He gave him a message. Set forth Him who comes. The one that the Lord taught
him, He said, You're not worthy to tie his shoelaces. John knew
it. The Lord Jesus Christ said, of
all that was born of women, there's not a greater than John the Baptist. The Lord said that. What do we
do? We bow to it. John said of himself,
I'm not worthy to tie his shoes. God Almighty is going to make
a man see something of himself. What the Lord says concerning
a man, concerning a woman, we bow to that in amazement. Lord,
can it be that You've made one such as I in You? to stand before
Almighty God in a perfect substitute in that which you say concerning
me, Lord, in me. I see no good thing. Lord, help
me. He came, the Scripture says,
verse 7, to bear witness of the light. About 400 years had passed
since God had sent a witness. You know, I thought about that.
What a marvel that we are able to meet. We talk about being
able to come and sit and listen and hear. That Almighty God would
allow us week after week after week to come and to hear. From Malachi until John the Baptist,
just historically, just You know, when they lived, there was no
witness. God didn't send a prophet. Four
hundred years. And oh, how the priesthood deteriorated. If you want to see the evidence
of it, while we go through this book, remember this statement.
Look at what the priesthood, the high priesthood, look at
how they act toward Christ. God didn't send a prophet for
almost 400 years. Oh, how desperately do we need
to sit and hear the gospel, hear the Word of God, listening to
the means of His grace, the preaching of Christ. He came to bear witness
of the light. You know, I said this last week,
light bears witness of itself in every area except right here.
You remember I told you, you walk into a dark room, turn on
the flashlight, immediately the darkness bows to it. Light, light,
darkness can't stop light in every instance except you find
a hard, cold, dead heart. I can remember talking to folks
when the Lord began to deal with me concerning the glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ. In my mind, I thought, you know,
surely there are some scriptures that people are just going to
hear. And they're going to bow to them.
Surely. Surely. One scripture that just means
so much concerning God's sovereignty, God's grace, 2 Thessalonians
2 verse 13. We're bound to give thanks to
you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the
beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit, being set apart by the Holy Spirit of God and belief
of the truth. God's chosen you at such a part,
given your heart, we're thankful for you. God Almighty sovereignly
did that. Man by nature looks at that and
just, I don't believe that. He came as a witness to bear
witness. of the light. This is God's way. This is the means. What we're
doing right here, this is the means of God's grace in calling
out God's people. Preaching. What else do we do except set
forth the Word of God? There's no other means. There's nothing else. Listen
to this. 1 Corinthians 121, for after that in the wisdom of God,
the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. That means that the
world that considers preaching foolish. That's what God's pleased to
use. Surely, surely we can have another
way, surely we can do this thing. Surely there's got to be some
gimmicks. There's got to be some methods. Surely we can have something. We can have bank sales and we
can get kids. Surely we can do preaching. Preaching. Preaching. And where you find
that Almighty God is pleased to raise up a preacher and bless
him and bless a church, there's where you find the blessing of
Almighty God. As I've said before, Katie Baptist
Church, the little bit that I know, this is a miracle of God's grace
that this church is still here. Gary, you told me something the
other day that I thought a lot about. Gary told me that Brother
Henry Mahan said years ago, he said, there's coming a time when
you'll drive by this. I don't know how long it is.
Is this what he said? There's coming a time when you'll
drive by this and say, I remember there used to be A faithful witness
of truth. I thought, well, that we're here
today is by a miracle of God's grace. What if the Lord does
remove it? And He's going to remove it. But we've got today, and that's
all we've got, We don't know if there's going to be a Wednesday.
I don't know if there's going to be another Sunday. John the
Baptist was sent of God to bear witness of the light. May Almighty
God help us today to be faithful to that calling, to bear witness
of Christ. John the Baptist like the character
of all God's preachers, was a witness. I heard Brother Scott say this,
one who knows what he says and says what he knows. God's preachers are convinced
that salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is all of grace. Salvation is by the power of
Almighty God, a witness. This is what God has to say concerning
Himself. God chooses. God redeems. God quickens. God keeps. He is
a witness. And there is no glory in man. He came to bear witness of the
light that all men through Him might believe. Boy, now there
is one verse of Scripture. that an Arminian would love to
just get a hold of and just rest. W-R-E-S-T. Twist it. You see? There's right there. There you go. All men through
him might believe. Well, I know this. First of all,
I looked up the word all. It means Any or every, any or
every. But I do know this, that all are particular. All men given Him in electing
grace, I know that. I had somebody tell me one time,
they said, you know what you do? They said, I've noticed what
you do. They said, you take every Scripture that sets forth that salvation
is an offer. They said, you take every Scripture
that sets forth Salvation to be an offer given by God that
anybody, you try to take that and you always try to twist it
to make it come back to electing grace. I said the reason I do that is
because I know this, that Almighty God has set forth that salvation
is all of grace. It is by the electing grace of
God. And you have to look at every
Scripture in light of revealed truth that you know is so. You take John 6, 37. It says,
And if you want to remove, or try
to remove, that the Father giveth me, and read it like this, all
shall come to me. and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out." You can't do that. All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me
I will in no wise cast out. All is particular. All that believeth
shall be saved. All that come shall be saved. John 17, verse 2, "...as thou
hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given him." So all, in this passage
of Scripture, that all... well, men is in italics. "...that
all through him might believe." All kinds? all nations, all tribes,
all tongues, but all chosen in Him. All that the Father giveth
Me shall come to Me, and only those given Him shall come to
Him. He will in no wise cast out. Verse 8, He was not that light,
but was sent to bear witness of that light. John was not the source of the
light. The word light there means the
luminousness. He was not the luminousness himself. John was not that light, but
he was sent to bear witness of that light. Now, our Lord said
concerning John the Baptist, now listen to this scripture.
I'll just read it to you. If you want to turn to John 5.35, Speaking of John, the Lord said,
He was a burning and shining light. Now, this scripture here
says, verse 8, He was not that light. John was a burning and
shining light, and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in His
light. Now, the first word, light. He
was a burning and shining light. There's two different words in
that scripture. And we would do well to read those words and
make sure we understand. See, there's the problem is that
a lot of times we just don't understand what the word means. He was a burning and shining
light. That first word light there means
lamp. A lamp that needs something to
be supplied And without that something to be supplied, there's
no light there. John was a lamp. That's what
the Lord said. Every believer is a lamp. You're
the light of the world. Well, now, you know that we're
not the capital L here. When it says he was not that
light, ye are the light of the world. What does that mean? You're
the lamp. There's no light within you that emanates and starts
with you. You're not the source of it.
Light? A lamp? Yeah. You take a coal
oil lamp. What do you do? You put oil in
it. And it burns. But that light,
that lamp, that piece of glass, That light didn't start with
that lamp. It had to have oil. When the
oil is gone, the light's gone. Not with him. He's the light. John was not that light. John was a burning and shining
lamp. And ye were willing for a season
to rejoice in his light. Now that light there means the
luminousness. John was a lamp that bore witness
of the light itself, the true light. He was not that light,
but was sent to bear witness of that light. And verse 9 in
closing, that was the true light, which lighteth every man that
cometh into the world. That was that truthful light. When it says that was the true
light, he was the truthful light. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ
is the undeceiving light. Scripture says in 2 Corinthians
11 and 14 that Satan himself is transformed into an angel
of light. But do you know why he does that?
To deceive. to deceive. There is nothing
that is more evident of deception than religious deception. The heart is desperately wicked
and deceitful above all things. There is no liar like the human
heart. Satan transforms himself into
an angel of light And oh, the deception that is in this world,
religious deception under the guise of light. Lie to men, lie to women, and
tell them that they're okay. And it all comes back to man's
works. and man's ability and man's glory. The gospel is the only message
that glorifies God. It does so in the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ. What is wrong with giving God
all the glory? What's wrong with that? The world
hates it. The world hates That was the
true light, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, which lighteth every man that
cometh into the world. I dealt with this last week,
but I'm just going to make a quick statement about it so we'll understand
and remember. That was the true light that
lighteth every man that cometh into the world. And that does
mean every man. Jew and Gentile, bond and free,
male and female. Every person is born in this
world with a conscience. The Lord Jesus Christ has set
forth by His Spirit that every man comes into this world with some light. The light of
right and wrong. And you know what's right and
wrong. Remember when we looked at that Scripture, if the light
that is in you, and obviously there is light that's in someone,
or he would not have said that. If the light that's in you is
darkness, how great is that darkness? Men and women are sitting and
listening to a message that declares that they are walking in light.
If the light that they're walking in, the Lord has revealed, is
darkness, if it gives no glory, no honor, no praise, no consistency
to the gospel of God's grace, then it's darkness. If the light that is in thee
is darkness, How great is that darkness? But in light of what we do know
concerning God's sovereign will and particular redemption, irresistible calling, all that the Father has everlastingly
loved and given to Christ, Isn't that a wonderful message? I mean,
you know, when we talk about sovereign grace, just to a believer,
their heart rejoices when they speak of His honor, His choice,
His goodness. Isn't it wonderful to know that
Almighty God that has chosen to show mercy to His people,
that He keeps them, that He keeps them. that we're not kept by
ourselves. How could we? But you see, only a believer
understands that. Only a believer knows that he
can't keep himself. Only a believer is taught of
their need of Christ. All that are enlightened by the grace and power of Almighty
God. All that God Almighty has commanded
the light to shine in their hearts to give the knowledge of the
glory of God in Christ to them, God has taught them something
of themselves. A new nature is imparted. All men have got
some light. All men are born with a conscience. I guarantee you, I've made mention
before, down in Mexico, we'd go down and go to those Mayan
temples. And don't tell me that those
people didn't have a conscience. They knew. They would have sacrifice after
sacrifice after sacrifice. They would take captured warriors,
they'll take maidens, they'll take them. They knew that their
God was offended. They knew that. Well, if they
knew that their God was offended, they knew that they had offended
their God. And they were trying to appease
their God. Whatever that God was, sun God,
rain God, whatever God, He was angry. The God that kept down
the crops, And what they're going to do is they're going to appease
their God. And the heart was the issue.
That still amazes me. Brother Cody would say they'd
go and they'd cut the heart out. They'd take the heart. The blood,
the blood had to be spilt. And there was sacrifice and sacrifice,
and it never ended, never ended. Man's got a conscience. But when
Almighty God gives a man a new heart, he realizes there's one
that has put away my guilt. By His precious blood, He was
made what I am. And He put away before God Almighty
that which the law had me bound by. He saved me by His grace and
He keeps me by His power. That's what John bore witness
to. He bore witness to the light. May the Lord add His blessings
and teach us and keep us for Christ's sake. Amen. Let's take
about a ten minute break.