If you turn back with me in John's
Gospel, I want us to be reminded that John leaves us in absolutely
no doubt about why he is written in this 31 of chapter 20 says, these things
are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God, and that believing you might have life in His name. To believe is to have life, and
it's all in His name, in the glorious name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. John is given this testimony
by John in John chapter 10. He says, speaks of John, the
Lord Jesus went away beyond Jordan into the place where John at
first baptized and there he abode. And many resorted unto him and
said, John did no miracle. John didn't perform one miracle,
but all things John spake of this man, the Lord Jesus Christ,
were true, and many believed on his name. It's extraordinary, isn't it?
In this world we demand truth, In so many places, don't we,
if we go to the doctor, we demand truth. If we go to our mechanics,
we demand truth. If we go to our accountants,
we expect them to tell us the truth. We stand in court and
we expect the truth to be seen. In every area of life, we expect
truth, except the one place where it seems people have the least
interest in truth. is when it comes to their eternal
souls, the one thing that matters most. What a picture of the depravity
of man, what a picture of man taken captive by Satan to do
his will. There is such a thing, and John
is an example of it, and Paul is an example, and the other
apostles are an example of it, there is such a thing as a man
sent from God, a messenger sent from God, And such is God's commissioning
and making of such people. As the Lord said in Luke chapter
10, when he sent out those 70s, he said, if you hear them, if
they hear you, you'll hear me. Remarkable, isn't it? If you
hear these men that I sent, these very ordinary fishermen, these
very ordinary men from Galilee, if you hear these men, you'll
hear me. And if you receive them, you
receive me. There is a truth. Salvation is belief of the truth. Sanctification is through the
truth. It's the truth that's in the
Lord Jesus Christ. So serious is telling the truth
about God that Isaiah chapter 8 verse 20, among many, many,
many, many other places in the scriptures, God says to the law
and the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, The Word is both the Word of
God and the Word of God incarnate. If they speak not according to
this Word, it is because there is no light in them. It's not
as if they have an absence of a lot of light. He says there
is no light in them. God's Word is true. He commands us in Proverbs to
buy the truth and sell it not. Buy the truth. Lord Jesus Himself
is that faithful witness in Revelation 19, our glorious description
of the Lord Jesus riding triumphant And the heavens were opened,
and behold, a white horse, and he that sat on the horse sat
on him was called Faithful and True. And in righteousness does
he judge and make law. He is, it goes on to say in that
same passage, he's King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And the truth, according to the
Lord Jesus in John chapter eight, verse 32, the truth shall make
you free. The truth shall make you free.
Lies bind people. Free. Free to own what we are
before God. Free to confess what we really
are. of our righteousness is in him.
All of my hope of salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ. We
want, as a church, to bear witness. You might recall that it's not
just me who declares the truth of God here. All that join with
us declare the same truth. The truth that you believe is
the truth that your brothers and sisters joined with you believe,
and the truth that you believe is the truth ultimately that
I believe, and you'll stand before God on that account. The blind lead the blind, says
our God, and he doesn't say, that the lead blind are going
to be okay. The blind lead the blind and
they both fall into the ditch. These Jews were a representative
group of people, weren't they? We'll talk more about them as
time goes on, Lord willing, but they actually were people who
had the most extraordinary witness of who the Lord Jesus Christ
was. They had it from John the Baptist before the Lord began
his ministry and they had it throughout the ministry of the
Lord Jesus Christ. They had a testimony which was
the most remarkable testimony. And yet, and yet, the overwhelming
majority of those Jews in the days of the Lord Jesus Christ
have now spent the last 2,000 years in hell. It's a horrifying
thing to think that we think that giving people evidence will
make the difference. There is one thing that makes
a difference, and it's a new creation. It's God manifesting
himself to you, and he manifests himself to people through the
preaching of the gospel. How can they hear? Faith comes
by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Faith cometh by
hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. And whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. And the name of the Lord
is the description of his character. And that's how John speaks, doesn't
it? To all that received him, to
those that believed on his name, they're born of God. How shall
they hear? And how shall they call on him
whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in
him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent as it are written, how beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings
of good things? Faith comes by hearing. The call
on the name of the Lord is to know what the name of the Lord
is, is to have His character revealed to you. And I can say
it in words, and John was a voice, John was a voice, rejected by
so many in his day. John was a voice. There is such a thing, according
to God's Word, as people who were sent of God, and John the
Baptist is laid out before us as a glorious example of what
it is to be sent of God to proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ. So he has our blessed Saviour
appointed this man to be the one that bears witness to him.
In verse 7 we read, there came for a witness. There was a man,
verse 6, John 1, 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. John was not that light, verse
8, but he was said to bear witness of that light. That was the true light which
lighteth every man that came into the world. Verse 15 it says,
And John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This is he
of her most babe, he that cometh after me is preferred before
me, for he was before me. of the Lord Jesus Christ in terms
of his eternal deity. He was born the Lord Jesus six
months after John, but John the Baptist has no doubt that this
is God incarnate. He was preferred before me. God
has preferred people. He prefers his Son and he prefers
everyone in his Son. This is the record. This is the
record. To bear witness is the record.
So the man sent from God has one priority and he has one purpose. He just has a purpose to bear
witness of that light, to bear witness of the record. We read
it earlier, but in John 1.32 it says, John bear record, saying,
I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and a bird
on him. in verse 34, and I saw and bear record that this is
the Son of God. So John is a man sent from God,
a man sent from God is not seeking a following. He has one task
and one purpose, he's sent from God, he has to bear witness to
God. He wasn't seeking a following. In verse 19 it says, and who
are you? As I said earlier, John could
have given the most remarkable testimony of his character, and
his lineage, and his history, and who he was. He could have
said, Isaiah wrote about me in chapter 40. He could have said,
Malachi wrote about me personally in Malachi chapter 3 and 4. He
could have said, I'm in the scriptures, personally promised, and here
I am standing before you. And what does he say? John wasn't covetous of man's
recognition. He didn't need the applause of
men. If you seek the applause of men,
you cannot be God's servant. That's what Paul says of himself,
isn't it? He's received it. he received
his commission directly from God. And he says, for now do
I persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For
if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ. Christ's servants have one master,
they have one task, and that's to bear witness. And whether
people follow or not is not the point. Preachers included want to be
thought well of. But that's not the issue. I don't
want to live in this world in any way that brings dishonor
to the Lord Jesus Christ. But there's only one issue, isn't
it? There's only one issue. God's servants, having met the
Lord Jesus Christ, are humbled. Hugh, look at what he says of
himself in verse 27. He says, he's coming after me,
he's preferred before me, his shoe latchet I am not worthy
to unloose. See John is saying, isn't he? He says, I am not worthy to take
the place of the lowest servant before him. The lowest servant. there is in all that meet God
a humility about who they are. And we might be horrified by
the strength of some of the statements that the Lord Jesus Christ makes
about his apostles, and at the end of the day they say, Amen.
He says they're evil. And they say, Amen. He says you're
unprofitable servants in Luke 17. You're unprofitable servers. Worthless. Precious in God's sight, but
humbled before Him. lowest place, don't they? They
willingly take the lowest place. I'm not worthy to take anything
other than the lowest place. I'm not worthy to be that slave.
Amongst all the slaves, the ones that got down on their hands
and knees and dealt with the feet of those people that came
into the house would have been the lowest of the low. I would
have thought there would have been all sorts of other places
you'd like to be. That's John the Baptist, isn't
he? And he says in John 3, he says, he must increase and I
must decrease. What do you say of yourself?
What do you say? I'm just a voice. I'm a voice
crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the
Lord. See, he was identified, John
was identified by the work God sent him to do. That's how I
identified him. He's the word, he's just a voice.
He just brings the voice, the words of God. And you can hear
a voice without seeing the bringer of the voice. And at the end
of the day, all of God's servants want you to hear from God. I
want God to speak. I want it to be God himself who
speaks to the hearts of his people. And when he speaks to the hearts
of his people, he's going to say, Jesus Christ. Behold him. Behold him. He was identified
by the work that God sent him to do. And the word, it's a ministry
of the word, isn't it? He's always going to come. God's
servants are always going to come with a message from the
holy scriptures. Always. I just want you to say,
this is what God says. This is what God says. Believe
Him. People talk about believing in
Him, but to really believe in Him is just to believe Him. To
take Him at His word. the command of the scriptures,
isn't it? You just preach the word. You
just preach. You preach the living word. You
preach the word who was with God and who was God. You preach
the word and you preach the word in a wilderness. What a wilderness
this world is. What a wilderness. And I want us to see that they
want to dislodge him from his path. They want the path to be
a little bit more crooked, don't they, when you get to talk about
what people are doing. They ask him in verse 25, they say unto
him, Why baptisest thou? If you are not the Christ, and
you're not Elijah, and you're not the prophet, you're not the
ones that we think you are, you're not claiming to be any of them, And what's John's response? To
their questions, his response is Jesus Christ again, isn't
he? And John answered them, saying, I baptise of water, but there
be a standeth one among you, whom you know not. He won't be
sidetracked. And even though they come from
Jerusalem, this Congregation of these Jews sent from the Sanhedrin
to question him and to test him. He's not afraid to tell people
of what they are. He says, you don't know him. You don't know him. You know
him not. He's saying to those religious
leaders, you are ignorant of who God is. You are ignorant
of God's Christ. You might recall the Saul of
Tarsus on the road to Damascus. Extremely highly educated religious
man, extremely moral, extremely zealous. A man who could say
that he kept the law of God and none of the Pharisees could accuse
him of not keeping it. And then on that momentous occasion
when he meets the Lord Jesus Christ, the first words that
come out of his mouth is, who are you? All of his learning
and all of his religion and all of his heritage and all of the
traditions had done nothing in terms of teaching John the Baptist
a single thing about who the Lord Jesus Christ was. Who are
you? God standing in front of him,
God revealing himself to him. I don't know who you are. Now
John points these men straight to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
sent to bear witness. He says, I'm just here to bear
witness of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is just one issue, isn't
it? What think you of Christ? What do you think of the Lord
Jesus Christ? It is the question that determines
everything in this world for us. What think ye of Christ? It is also an extraordinarily
accurate reflection. What do you think of his son?
Is he altogether lovely? Do you think God's thoughts about
his son? So John was wanting just to be
a faithful witness, he was the one, he bore this record didn't
he? that there is, there is standing
one among you and you don't know who he is. And he's far greater
than me and I'm the greatest that's ever lived of a man born
of a woman. I could claim all of these remarkable
things about myself, but I'm here to tell you about who the
Lord Jesus Christ is. The man that sent from God, the
man who bears record, the record of John and the record of all
of God's people, is able to discern the difference between the symbol
and the reality. In verse 26 he says, I baptise
with water, but there standeth one among you whom you know not.
Is he who's coming after me his preferred performer, his shoe
latches on, not worthy to unloose? He is coming baptising with water. I knew him not, but he that sent
me to baptise with water, the same said unto me, upon whom
thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, he is the
same. The same is He which baptises with the Holy Spirit. Water baptism
is incredibly important, isn't it? In water baptism we are confessing
and declaring our union with the Lord Jesus Christ. That all
of my salvation is tied up in my union with Him. That I am
one with Him. That when He died, I died. When He was raised, I was raised. We're crucified with the Lord
Jesus Christ. We're buried with the Lord Jesus
Christ. In baptism, you are hidden from
this world. And in Holy Spirit baptism, you
are hidden from this world in the Lord Jesus Christ. I was one with him. I was crucified
with him. I was raised with him. I'm seated
in heavenly places with him now. My only hope, my only hope of
being in the presence of God is that the Lord Jesus Christ
has done it all. It's all his work. And so John
begins, as we've seen in this last few weeks, John begins with
a declaration of who the Lord Jesus Christ is and John the
Baptist comes and declares both who he is and what he does. And so the water baptism is a
picture, it's a symbol It's a shadow. It's a shadow of the baptism
of the Holy Spirit. John came to declare Him who
baptises with the Holy Spirit. It's a picture of regeneration. That's what Holy Spirit baptism
is. The Holy Spirit doesn't bear
witness of Himself. He doesn't speak about Himself.
The Holy Spirit speaks about the Lord Jesus Christ. So John,
as we see, was a man sent from God. John was a man who had one
purpose and one message. John was the one who spoke from
the scriptures. John was not going to be sidelined. He didn't need to talk about
himself and raise his credentials. He was there as God's servant,
and nothing better and nothing greater can be for any of us
to be in this world as children of God, to be in this world as
witnesses to the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything else matters not. Everything else matters not,
which is why John wasn't going to be one who pleased
men, as we saw earlier. You'll only know him, John says,
when he's revealed to you. To know in the scriptures means
much more than having some intellectual knowledge. It's actually to have
an intimate knowledge, an intimate perception and understanding.
It speaks of love and it speaks of relationship. He's here, says
John to these people, and you don't know who he is. He's here,
and you don't know why he came. He's here, and you are in darkness
unless he comes with the light as he did to the apostle Paul. See, he addresses men as dead
in trespasses and sins. He addresses men such that their
greatest need would be seen. They need life from heaven. They
need God to do something for them because they can't do anything
to help themselves. So you don't know Him. You don't
know Him. You behold no beauty in Him. You see no glory in Christ. Only those who have met God have
met themselves. Only those who have met God have
met themselves as sinners. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
the world to save sinners. That man, that publican, hated
traitor of his nation, he goes up to the temple and he stands
a long way off. And he beats upon his heart,
doesn't he? And he says, God, be merciful
to me, the sinner. He has no interest in anyone
else in all of the world. He just has. It's between him
and God. He must do business with God.
And he says, God, be merciful. God, be propitious. God, look
upon your sacrifice, the sacrifice of your son. God, look upon the
lamb. The Lamb slain, and be merciful
to me. You look upon me. Don't look
upon me, you look upon your Son. Look upon Him and be gracious
to me. God's children, in meeting God,
have met themselves and are humbled, and God has wondered that heart
of stone that's in the heart of every child of Adam, and the
wound remains a sore, and God through the rest of their days
touches it again and again, and they are humbled yet again. caused to look away from themselves
and look to the Lamb of God. Which is why John is just saying
it again and again, you behold the Lamb. So he's not interested
in pleasing men, this man sent from God, this man who bears
record of God. And the man that's sent from
God preaches the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. He has one
message. Preach Christ crucified. Christ, the power of God. Christ, the wisdom of God. Christ, the sin-bearing one. See, John preached the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He preached the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He says, he was before me. He has and is always the great
I Am. So John preached his deity and
John preached his humanity. They bear record, God's servants
just bear record, this one is both man and God. and they are astounded that he
was made flesh, the Word was made flesh, and he dwelt among
us. And he's astounded that we've beheld his glory, the glory of
the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. God's servant's prayer record
of the wonder of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has A declaration of the Lamb of
God. We spoke earlier of the Lamb
of God, but we need to keep speaking of the Lamb of God. I do love
that first picture. It's been interesting to go back
to Genesis chapter 3, isn't it, and think about what it must
have been for Adam and Eve to be dragged out of the darkness,
to be dragged out of their hiding place, and to be brought into
the very presence of God himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, called
them out of their hiding place. And he brings them to himself.
And he exposes them and exposes their sin and he promises them
what's going to befall. And he promises a saviour that
will come and crush the head of the serpent. And he calls
them to himself and having pronounced all of their sins before he sends
them out of that garden. We have a picture of the very
first death in this world. What it must have been like for
Adam and Eve to see that blood shed. The awfulness of seeing
scarlet blood. Some people are quite happy looking
at it, it horrifies me. The awfulness of seeing that
lamb breathing in agony as it died before them, the first death
in all of this creation, the first bloodshed in all of this
creation. And it was a bloodshed, wasn't
it? God called them to himself and
he made a coat and he clothed them. It's the Lamb of God. It's the
Lamb of God. A Lamb of God to cover their
shame, a Lamb of God that is put on by God himself, having
removed their their garments of their own works. What a picture
of salvation, what a picture of the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Death is required and blood is required to be shed.
It's the Lamb of God, the Lamb of God that takes away the sins
of the world. Takes it away by justice. He takes it away by sacrifice.
He takes it away as a substitute. Where's it gone? If he's taken
it away, where is it? He says he takes it away. He takes away the sin of all
of his people. Where is it? If you're like me,
you can see your own, can't you? And you're horrified by it. But he says he takes it away.
See, John, like all of God's servants, will never ever declare
a God who tries. They must declare, as the Scriptures
declare, a God who is successful. He's taken it away. God says
he remembers it no more. God says that he's wrapped it
up in a parcel and he's put it in the bottom of the sea. God
said he's removed it from us as far as the east is from the
west. He's removed it from us. It's
gone. It's gone. I'll tell you what,
brothers and sisters, that is only good news for sinners. It
is only good news for sinners. For sinners who know that all
their sin is all their own fault and they have no one to blame
but themselves. For sinners who've beheld the
Lamb of God. Because the only way you'll ever
see what sin is, is when you really see sin laid on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and Him hanging on Calvary's cross, and Him declaring
to God, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I can understand
why you'd forsake a whole lot of other people, why have you
forsaken me? And the answer from Psalm 22
is simple, isn't it? Because you're holy. God made
him who knew no sin to be sin for us. that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. That's exactly what the transaction
of the cross is all about. It's a declaration of the love
of God. It's a declaration of the holiness
of God. It's a declaration of the justice
of God. It's a declaration for mercy
of God. It's a declaration of every attribute
of God. exalted and magnified in the
Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. He took it away. He took it away. And it's gone. Gone. Gone. God says of all of his
children there is no sin in them. He doesn't behold perverseness in them. He says
in Jeremiah chapter 50 verse 20, they'll look for them and
they can't be found. On that great day they can't
be found. The Lord Jesus Christ has taken upon himself that glorious
task, isn't it? That he had from before the foundation
of the world to present these people holy, spotless, unblameable,
unapprovable in his sight. You see, the thing that matters
is God's sight. He says, when I see the blunt,
I'll pass over you. And that's what he says about
us being in his sight, children of God. Thou wast slain, Revelation
5, 9, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every
kindred and tongue and people and nation. And you have made
us. He's made us kings and priests
before our God. He has appeared once at the end
of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He
was manifested, John says in 1 John 3 verse 5, he was manifested
to take away sin and in him is no sin. All who are in him have
no sin before God. Sin cannot be on two places at
once. When my sin and all of the sins
of all God's people was put on the Lord Jesus Christ. it's no longer on us, he's put
away and in him is no sin. God sees them without sin because
he beholds the Lamb of God. God's children look and are encouraged
to look by God's servants in exactly the same place that God You know Isaiah 53 well, but
it's good to read what the Prophet said, isn't it? He said of the
Lord Jesus Christ, It says, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him, and he has put him to grief. And when thou, God, shall make
his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, and he
shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper
in his hand. He shall see the travail of his soul. God the
Father will see the travail of his soul. The Son will see the
travail of his soul. He shall see the travail of his
soul and be satisfied. be satisfied. By his knowledge
shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their
iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a
portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the
strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death, and
was numbered with the transgressors, and he bore the sin of many.
and made intercession for the transgressors. Isn't it remarkable? He's borne our sins away and
now in heaven he declares, here are my hands and here are my
feet. The record on earth of God's
servants is the record in heaven. It's the record in heaven. God the Father finds satisfaction
in the perfect finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's
people look in the same place. Is the Gospel good news? The
Gospel is not good advice about what you must do. The Gospel
is good news about what God has done. The Gospel is good news
about a transaction between God the Father and God the Son and
God the Holy Spirit, recorded by God the Holy Spirit, testified
by God's servants throughout the Scriptures, and fulfilled
in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He shall not fail. Isn't that a lovely word? He
shall not fail. You can read about it in Isaiah
42. He preached the work of Christ
for us. He preached the character of
God. He preached the work of Christ for us. And just briefly,
in closing, let's turn down to verse 33. Because whatever God
does for you, He will do in you, and he'll do it at the time,
as the scriptures call it, the time of love. If he does something
for you, and if he did something for you in eternity, he did something
for you on Calvary Street, he'll do something in you. Verse 33,
and I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize with water,
that word with should be in water, the same said unto me, upon whom
thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same
is he which baptizes In, it should be, the Holy Spirit. To be baptised
in the Holy Spirit is to be immersed in Him. It's not this nonsense
that goes around the world today, where people end up doing all
sorts of silly things. It means regeneration. It talks
about the new birth. It's about being born again,
immersed in the Holy Spirit. You're no longer seen as a sinner.
You're immersed with Him. Only Christ is seen. You hide, don't you? We're hidden
with Christ in God, with God in Christ, we're hidden. And
what causes a person to believe that? If you go back to John,
earlier in John's Gospel, it says in verse 12, we've talked
about before, to be One of these people who are immersed in the
Holy Spirit, in verse 12 it says, to many as receive him. You have
to be a receiver, not a giver, a receiver. To them gave he power
to become the sons of God, to them that believe on his name. To believe on his name is to
believe all the character of God as it was revealed in the
Scriptures of God. So how do you come to believe?
You're born of God, which were born not of blood, nor of the
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but born of God. God's born-again children, they
have a new nature, a new creation, it's called Christ in you, the
hope of glory, a new heart that believes God, that truly believes
God. A new nature that causes the
sinner, causes his child to walk in his ways. He really is my
Lord. He really is my God. What Christ does for you, he
also does in you. Behold the Lamb of God. I'll close with just a couple
of verses in John's Gospel. I did remind you earlier that
John, the Lord, the Holy Spirit testifies that everything that
John said about this man is true. In John 2 verse 36, I'm sorry, in 1 verse 36 it says,
The next day, after John stood with two of his disciples, and
looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of
God! And the two disciples heard him
speak, and they followed Jesus. All
of God's sent servants, all that bear record of God, have this
one desire, isn't it? You hear them and you follow
Jesus. Follow Jesus. John Ball record. I believe the
record. I love the record. I trust that
God would cause us to be faithful in proclaiming the record and
delighting in the record. We're going to have the Lord's
Supper and it's called the Fellowship. It's called a communion with
Him for those who are in fellowship with Him. We'd love you to join
with us as we remember a broken body, we remember shed blood, As we have the Lord's Supper,
we are declaring Him and declaring His death until He comes again.