Thank you, sir. All right, good
morning, everybody. Let's turn in our Bibles to John
1. John 1. Our text this morning is a very
important passage. It shows the very beginning of
the church in this gospel age. The very beginning. From verses
35 to 51, we see five of the very first apostles called to
Christ. Now today, we're just gonna deal
with two. It's Andrew, and we think John. He doesn't say his name, but
that makes us think it's probably John because he doesn't mention
his name in his letter. What we read here in verse 35,
it says, again the next day, after John stood, that's John
the Baptist, and two of his disciples. These two that stood with him
were his disciples. They were disciples of John the
Baptist. That mean they were students. They would hear John
preach. They would study the scripture,
study what he preached. They were students that followed
John. They were disciples of John. And it says, verse 36, and looking
upon Jesus as he walked, Our Lord had come to that area. He'd come there to where John
was preaching. And looking upon Jesus as he walked, John the
Baptist said, behold the Lamb of God. John preached Christ
and Him crucified. He preached whatever true God
sent preacher declared, Christ and Him crucified. He declared
that Christ is superior over all sinners, himself included. He said there in verse 27, his
shoes latch it, I'm not worthy to unloose. Christ creates a
broken heart, a contrite heart, a humble heart in his children
so that we see him high and lifted up. We see him as superior to
all and especially to our own selves. We see ourselves as not
deserving of the least of his mercies. And John declared that
Christ is the eternal son of God. He said there in verse 30,
he said, who's coming after me, he was born after the flesh,
he was born six months after John the Baptist. But John said,
he's preferred before me for he was before me. The Lord Jesus
Christ has always been the eternal Son of God. He's always been
God the Son, and he's always been the Christ from eternity.
He began to be a man when he took flesh and came forth like
unto his brethren, but he's always been, he's always existed. He's
always been the Christ. He's always been the Son of God. So he's eternally before us.
He said, Abraham saw my day. He's the one that all the Old
Testament saints worshiped. They worshiped looking forward
to him just like we worshiped looking forward to his return.
But it was him. He's the one who appeared to
Moses in the burning bush. He's the one who's the cloud
and the pillar who led the children of Israel. He's the rock, Paul
said, in the wilderness. He's always existed. And John declared that he's God's
perfect servant. He's a perfect servant of God,
the one on whom the Spirit of God abode. He said there in verse
32, John bear record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from
heaven like a dove and it abode upon him. As this declares, this
is the one God promised. This is the one God promised
throughout the law and the prophets. This is he. The Spirit of God
descended on him like a dove. You remember at Pentecost, the
Spirit came like fire. But with him, it came like a
dove. It says something of what his
nature is, holy, and his meekness, and his gentleness, and the fact
he's the holy, perfect servant of God. And the Spirit was upon
him without measure. He served God perfectly. He walked
before God perfectly as the representative head of his people. John declared
Christ is the only one who can quicken and save effectually.
He does it through the Spirit of God. It's the Spirit of Christ
that enters in. And he's the only one that can
do this effectually. He said there in verse 33, and
I knew him not, John the Baptist. He said, I did not know him.
But he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto
me, upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining
on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.
And I saw. And I bear record that this is
the son of God. John didn't know the Lord Jesus
by face. It was his cousin, according
to the flesh, but he didn't know him by, you know, he had not
seen him. They lived apart. But John had to have Christ revealed
to him, just like every other sinner has to have Christ revealed
to us. And he says here, I saw the spirit
descend upon him at his baptism. He heard God speak from heaven
saying, this is my beloved son. This is my only begotten son
in whom I'm well pleased. Hear him. And John heard him. And the word was made effectual
in John. And John knew this is the Christ. And he declared, this is the
son of God. And what John is describing here
that happened to him is what he said, Christ is able to do.
He's the quickening spirit. He's the one who baptizes in
the Holy Ghost. He's the one who must make this
word effectual in the heart. He's the power of God and the
wisdom of God. And he preached the same message
that he preached from the beginning. That day when Christ came, he
said, behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the
world. That was his message. Just like Paul who said, I was
determined to know nothing among you, but Christ him crucified.
John the Baptist message was, behold the lamb. This is the
lamb of God. He's God's lamb. He's the lamb
God provided. He's the lamb who is God. He's
the spotless lamb. And he had to be the spotless
lamb who became the sin-bearing lamb. That was the purpose of
a spotless lamb under the law. That's what he was picturing.
The purpose of a spotless lamb under the law was, he's spotless,
he has no blemish, so he's fit to be the substitute. And then,
with the priest putting his hands on the head of the lamb, a picture
of the sins of Israel put on the lamb. He becomes the sin-bearing
lamb. Only then is he fit to be sacrificed. And when John said, behold the
lamb of God, he's saying this is him who taketh the sin. He
first took it upon himself. That's how he takes it away.
He took it upon himself. There were two lambs on the Day
of Atonement. One, the sin went on him and that lamb was slain.
The other is called the scapegoat. And he was some species of a
lamb too, but he, the scapegoat, they put sins on the scapegoat
and the scapegoat took away those sins into a land not inhabited.
And that two of those pictured Christ, just the one Lord Jesus
who took our sin and by death took the sin of his people completely
away forever. And he accomplished that. He
took you the sin of his people away. When he comes and he quickens
you, and the Spirit of Christ enters into you, think of that,
the Holy Spirit. He's called the Holy One of Israel. When he enters in, He makes the
place holy. He makes you holy. He creates a new holy man. That new man is described as
being created. He wasn't there and he's described
as being created in righteousness and true holiness. It's not a
righteousness and true holiness that came from us, it's him. He is the one who worked out
the perfect righteousness with which he clothes his people.
And he is the holy one of his people who is the holiness of
heart. He's the holiness of the new
man. And so when he enters in and he brings you to see now,
He's removed the whole curse of Adam from you. He's removed
the old covenant of works from you. And he's made you holy so
holy God can receive you and have communion with you. He's
made you righteous so no charge can be laid against you. No law
can be against you. And he reveals in his child,
he's made you fit. to be a partaker with the spirits
of just men in heaven who are already made perfect and complete
because our completion's Him. Our completion's Him. Behold
the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. You mean,
did John declare all that by that statement? That's exactly
what he declared. And you know he's preached more
than just that statement. John the Apostle's given us,
like you would give the outline to somebody of what you heard
in a message. He's given us the outline of what John declared.
But John preached Christ. He said this is him, this is
him. And that day as John was preaching,
now this was the, we have three days spoken of there, and this
is the third day. He's preaching and he looks up
and here comes the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus appeared as he's
preaching. Verse 36 says, and looking upon Jesus as he walked,
he saith, behold the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard
John speak, and they followed Jesus. That's what happens. That's what happens. When the
gospel's going forth, Christ appears. He appears in the heart. He appears in spirit. You that
know this, you know he does, he does, he appears. Not in a
visible form, not in a physical form, he appears in your heart. You know his presence. And when
he appears, the word preached, that you hear preached, the word
points to Christ, points to him. And the scripture points you
to him and you hear in power the word say, behold the Lamb
of God. Not an audible voice, but as
you're hearing it, the word turns you and you see Christ. You behold
the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God. And when he appears, he quickens
us by his presence. That's what he did the first
time. That's what made you, for the first time in your life,
is what made you start actually hearing the truth of the gospel. And he does it continually for
us. We come here because he has the words of eternal life. When
he says behold him, you behold him. And he quickens you. And you just forget whatever
it was that was troubling you. It puts everything in your life
in perspective. He does. Because you see him. You see he's God. You see he's
sovereign. You see he's ruling everything
in your life. You see this one has done everything
he's done. He's created everything he's
created. He's moving and orchestrating everything in this world and
everything in your life for one reason. Just one. It's this simple. One reason. to make you behold
the Lamb of God. That's it. That's it. To make us behold the Lamb of
God. And when He does that, all is
right with the world. You see Him. You see your purpose. And you're fine. You're comforted.
You're secure. You know you've been saved and
are being saved and shall be saved. You behold the Lamb. And
this is what he does when the gospel is being preached. The
result of that was they followed the Lord Jesus. That's what John
wanted. He didn't want them following
him. Any true preacher doesn't want, he's not trying to create
a following for himself. John wanted them following the
Lord. And I guarantee you, it thrilled
John the Baptist in his heart when he preached and said, behold
the Lamb of God, and Andrew and John just turned their backs
on John and started following Christ. That thrilled John. That's
exactly what he wanted them to do. That's what he wanted them
to do. How is it we hear, how do we
seek him? They started seeking the Lord.
How do you seek the Lord? The scripture says, there's none
that understandeth, there's none that seeketh God. How are you
made to seek God? Here's how, go to Isaiah 65,
this is worth looking at. Isaiah 65, look here. Here's
how we're made to seek Him, right here. Plain, plain word from
our Lord. Look at this now. I am salt of
them that ask not for me. I am found of them that sought
me not. None of us were seeking the Lord
when we found him. How do you find somebody you're
not seeking? Here's how. The Lord said, I said, behold
me, behold me, to a nation that was not called by my name. He
came to us. You know how a sinner's made
to seek Christ? The Lord Jesus came to Andrew
and John, the apostle, and he said in their heart, behold me. That's how they became a disciple
of John. That's how come they started
hearing John preach and said this man's preaching the truth.
We're looking for the Messiah. He's the forerunner. He's telling
us the Messiah's coming. How'd they know that? Christ
spoke to their heart and said behold me. The reason they became Christ's
disciple is that day whenever John said, behold the Lamb. We
didn't see Christ say anything, did we? But he spoke. He spoke in their heart through
the Spirit and he said, behold me. John saying behold the Lamb
wouldn't do it. But Christ speaking that word,
behold me, they saw him. They said this is him. And they
followed him. So if you seek the Lord, Christ
gets all the glory. He's the head of the church,
he's the prophet, priest, and king. If we do anything that
he commands us to do, it's because he gave you the power by his
word of power to do what he commanded you to do. He gets the glory. So that's my introduction. Now
I want to get to my text, verse 38. Then Jesus turned and he
saw them following and he said unto them, what seek ye? And
they said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted,
master, where dwellest thou? And he said to them, come and
see. And they came, and they saw where he dwelt. And they
abode with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.
Here's the question, what seek ye? After speaking with John
at his baptism, you know our Lord said, when he was baptized,
he said, it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness. And he spoke
to John there. But after that, this right here
is the first recorded word we have of our Lord speaking in
his public ministry. This is the first word we have
recorded. And what an appropriate way to
begin, isn't it? He asked this question, what
seek you? What seek you? What a good question. That's a good question for us.
I pray he would make us hear him this morning, speak to each
of us personally, speak to you personally, and say into your
heart, hear the Lord Jesus ask you, what are you seeking? What
are you seeking? What is it in our heart that
we are really seeking? You think about all your life
now, we're gonna lay out our whole life here before us. What
is it you are seeking? Most go through life having a
heart only to seek the world. Worldly success, which is measured
in terms of a career and money and a home and cars and stuff,
that's how the world measures success, and that's what most
are seeking. Sadly, there's a big part of
us that's still seeking that. Others never have a clear object
of what they're seeking. They've never sat down and really
thought, what am I really seeking? What am I seeking in life? And
so their whole life is one of just reacting to circumstances. you know, are reacting to some
passion that comes. And so for one little while they
seek this, and the new wears off that, and something else
gets their attention. They seek that for a little while. It's
just like when you watch Elias in here, and he's attracted by
something over here for a little while. He goes over here to that,
and a little bit, something else gets his attention, he goes there.
Adult folks are the same way. And have no object that they're
seeking. It's just like bees buzzing. Just here and there and everywhere.
One day we're gonna face death. One of these days we're gonna
die. And when we die, we are going to stand before holy God. We're gonna stand before him.
This life's not, this is not it. There's a life coming. There's an eternity we have to
face. We're either going to spend that
with God or cast out from God's presence. But we're going to
face God. We're going to face God. And
in that day, there's only one thing that matters. It's being
found in Christ, having his righteousness. not trusting in any righteousness
of our own, not trusting in anything we've said or done, not trusting
in ourselves at all. Him alone, being robed in his
righteousness alone. That's the only way God will
accept us. That's the only way. And brethren,
I'm telling you this, and I'm telling you friends who've never
really sat down and done an inventory of what it is you're seeking.
That's all that matters right now. It's not that it's going
to matter in that day when you get there. That's all that matters
right now. Having Christ. Being found in
His righteousness. That's all that matters. Others become religious and they
do it seeking vain things. They want to win somebody they
love. That's a very common thing for folks to become religious
and take on the religion of the one they're trying to win because
that's what they're seeking. That's not seeking Christ, that's
seeking a person you love. Some do it for connections. connections
in the community, connections in business and in politics or
what have you. There was a church in Nashville
that really was established and people just went to it to try
to make connections in the music business. That's all it was about.
That's vain seeking. That's seeking the flesh. Others
do it to soothe a guilty conscience. They're seeking to do what they
deem as good works, engaging in the activities of religion
to soothe their conscience, to hopefully make their good out
the way they're bad. That's not seeking anything of
any substance. Everything is vain except seeking
this one John and Andrew were seeking. You should look in here.
When you look at John and Andrew, These two men just exhibited
what is the wisest thing in the world to do. When they turned
and started following the Lord, there was so much involved in
that that we don't have recorded here. They left everything. They never stopped abiding with
him from that day. They left everything and they
followed him. What did John and Andrew seek? What were they really seeking?
Here's the answer they gave the Lord. They said, Rabbi, which
is to say, being interpreted, master, where dwellest thou? They sought Christ himself. They
wanted to be with him wherever he dwelt. That's what King David wanted.
He said in Psalm 27.4, one thing have I desired of the Lord, one
thing, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house
of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of
the Lord and to inquire in his temple. Job had this desire. Job 23.3, oh, that I knew where
I might find him, that I might come even to his seat. Do you know where to find Christ?
Do you know where he dwells? It's the desire of the church
spoken of in Song of Solomon. This is the desire of his people,
his church. She says, tell me, O thou whom
my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to
rest at noon, for why should I be as one that turneth aside
by the flocks of thy companions? John and Andrew called him master. Now this wasn't like some people
that called him master mockingly or just considering him a teacher,
just another man who was a great teacher. They meant what they
said. And what they were saying was
they wanted to be taught by the master. That's what they were
seeking. I'm sure that if we just talked
to John and Andrew, they would say we were trying to find out
where he lived so we could keep coming back there and sitting
and hearing him teach us. That's what we were looking for.
We wanna know where we could go sit down and hear him and
have him teach us. Mary sat at Jesus' feet and heard
his word. She sat at his feet and heard
his word. And you know what the Lord said
about that? He said, one thing is needful. Just one thing is
needful and Mary has chosen that good part. She's chosen that
one needful thing which shall not be taken away from her. You know, I think of all the
things that people are seeking in this world. And whatever you
seek and find in this world, there's coming a day when it's
gonna be taken from you. I promise you this. And listen
to me very carefully. Everything that brings you joy
in this life is going to make you sorrow before it's over with. That little joyful, beautiful
baby boy that Rob and Kristen just had is going to eventually
break their heart. It's everything you obtain in
this life is going to break your heart. Either you're gonna lose
it, or in some shape or form, it's gonna disappoint and hurt
and break your heart. This is the one thing that will
not be taken from you. This is the one thing that'll
never disappoint you, that'll never leave you confounded, that'll
never leave you ashamed. The Lord Jesus Christ, one thing. And why would we spend our time
seeking mirages? Why would we spend our time seeking
that which is going to perish? Have you ever sought Christ? Have you ever asked Christ where
he dwells? Have you ever, I'm serious, have
you ever asked Christ the Lord to teach you? There's no words
ever come out of my mouth, Lord teach me. I'll study and I'll get to looking
at all these commentaries and everything you read, a lot of
it's really good. But nothing, it's just ink on
paper. Nothing is speaking to the heart,
nothing. And you waste all this time reading
all this stuff and trying to find a message. And then finally,
the Lord makes you put everything away except his word, and you
look at a verse, and you just sit there and look at it, and
you say, Lord, teach me what this says. Give me, please, Lord,
give me a message for your people. And you find out how much time
you wasted with all that other stuff. Yeah, that's good, he
gave them that, but that's not the message he'd given to me.
Go to the Lord and ask him, Lord, will you teach me? He will open
the scriptures to you. He will teach you. If you come to him seeking him
and seeking wisdom of him and seeking to hear of him, he won't
turn you away. Men will say, well, I sought
him and I didn't find him. No, you didn't seek him. If He
sought you and really made you seek Him, He'll teach you. You'll
find Him. What do we really need? What
do we really, really need? We need wisdom. We need true
wisdom. Wisdom's life. We need true wisdom,
and He is that wisdom. Scripture says, in Him are hid
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Everything. Look at creation. We've never
created anything. We've put some things that were
already created together and made something, but even that,
he gave wisdom for men to invent things that had never been thought
of before. Where'd that wisdom come from? It came from him,
but he created everything that's made. And true wisdom, look at
God. Being so wise as to know how
he could uphold his justice and make mercy meet together at the
same time. You talk about wisdom. The first thing God's gotta do
is he's gotta teach us we are ignorant. That's the first thing.
That's why we don't seek his wisdom. Seek him for wisdom. You know why? We think we know
something. We gotta be taught that all our thoughts about God
are wrong. We got to be made to ignore all
the baggage that we got from religion and unlearn that and
be taught of him. He's wisdom. It's written, I
will destroy the wisdom of the wise. I'll bring to nothing the
understanding of the prudent. The world by wisdom knew not
God. We're not going to get glory
for searching. We're not going to get glory for being wise and
coming to knowledge. That glory is his, because he's
wisdom. He must make us see ourselves
totally ignorant, and he does it by making Christ our wisdom.
When you start seeing and confessing and owning, I really don't know
anything. You know why you do it? Christ
made you. He's made wisdom to you. Blessed is the man that heareth
me. This is Christ, our wisdom speaking. Blessed is the man
that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts
of my doors. For whoso findeth me findeth
life, and shall obtain favor of the Lord. But he that sinneth
against me wrongeth his own soul. All they that hate me love death. What do we really need to seek? We need to seek righteousness.
We need to seek holiness. We need to seek redemption. We
need to seek pardon. We need to seek atonement. We
need to seek acceptance with God. It's all found in one, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Ask yourself if you died right
now. If you died this hour and stood before God, what would
be your case? We should ask ourselves that
question often. If you're his, you can rest knowing
you have his righteousness. But if you're not his, oh. The wicked through the pride
of his countenance will not seek after God. God's not in his thoughts.
Who's gonna see him? Who's gonna seek him? The humble
shall see and be glad. Your heart shall live that seek
God. We have to come down, we have to come to Christ like a
child. Just an ignorant child that just
needs to be taught of God. Y'all remember that, I just came
across this the other day when Will was about seven and he was
gonna ride his bike and we were walking to school and we got
out there and the helmet was wet. It'd been out in the rain
and I reached in there and I said, Will, the helmet's wet. And I
took his hand. I said, here, feel of it and
see. And he reached in there, and he felt of it. And we started
on the school, and we were walking along. And we're about halfway
to school. I totally forgot about it. And I was thinking about
other things. We walk along, and all of a sudden, Will goes,
Daddy, you didn't have to show me. And I says, what? You didn't have to show me the
helmet was wet. He said, I believe everything you tell me. That's how we have to come to
the Lord. And then he said, and I believe almost everything Emma
tells me. Oh, listen to me. Be it known
unto you, men and brethren, through this man is preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins, and by him, by him, all that believe
are justified from all things, from which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest that
come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets. He said,
behold, ye despisers in wonder and perish. I work a work in
your days, a work which you shall in no wise believe, though a
man declare it unto you. I don't want that to come upon
me. I don't want to be somebody that despises this word and doesn't
believe. Our Lord is passing by like he
did that day. When his gospel's preached, he's
passing by and he's saying to you, seek ye the Lord while he
may be found. Call upon him while he's near.
Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts
and let him run to the Lord and he'll have mercy and to our God
he will abundantly pardon. He said, if you seek me with
all your heart, you'll find me. You see what happened to John
and Andrew They sought his abode, he showed them where he dwelt,
and they never ceased dwelling with the Lord from that day.
And you won't either, you come to him, and you find him by his
grace, and you'll stay with him, and you'll live with him forever. He said, seek ye me, and you
shall live. He said, ask, and it shall be
given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be
opened to you for everyone that asketh by his grave. Really,
truly, everyone that asketh receiveth. And he that seeketh findeth,
and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. That's our Lord's
word. I pray he make us never stop
seeking him. Him. If we're in a busy day and
we're all Torn here and there, we ought to stop and ask ourselves,
what am I seeking? And turn and seek him. Lord,
help us. Let's stand together. Father, thank you for this word.
Lord, we pray that you would speak now and say, behold me.
Turn us to be true seekers. Make us seek you. We thank you
for this day. Thank you for this place, for
these brethren. Thank you for your gospel. Thank
you for Christ, our Redeemer. Lord, forgive us for seeking
perishing things. Lord, keep us seeking you. We
ask it in Christ's name, amen.