Good evening. I invite your attention
tonight to the book of John chapter 3. John chapter 3. We'll begin in verse 22. John
3, 22. After these things came Jesus
and his disciples into the land of Judea, and there he tarried
with them and baptized. And John also was baptizing in
Anon near to Salem, because there was much water there. And they
came and were baptized, for John was not yet cast into prison."
In Luke chapter one, we read that the angel said concerning
John the Baptist that he shall be great in the sight of the
Lord. And we read the same thing about
Christ, that he shall be great. Two different kinds of greatnesses.
The angel went on to say this about John. He said, many of
the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. You saw this morning that God
used John the Baptist greatly. He used him greatly to declare
the gospel, to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. John was a faithful
minister of God. And right here we read in verse
24 about John not yet being cast into prison. Do you know, much
like Paul and several other gospel preachers of old, John was cast
into prison, and the reason was for preaching God's Word. Amazing. Anytime I really enter into that,
it amazes me just how easy we have it in our day. And not only
was John thrown into prison, he was eventually beheaded for
simply declaring the truth. You know, we think how sad, don't
we? We think, well, I hope that doesn't
happen to us. I hope it doesn't. But nonetheless, that's our brother
John, okay? Greatly used of God to preach
the gospel, thrown into prison for preaching the gospel, and
beheaded for that very reason, all right? Now look here in verse
25. Then there arose a question between some of John's disciples
and the Jews about purifying. I'll go ahead and tell you, I
don't know exactly what that question is, all right? But I
do know this. When it comes to our purification,
It's Christ. I can't purify myself. Scriptures
talk about having clean hands, a pure heart. I might have it
backwards. We need to have those things. I can't do it. Christ
can. He is the only purification that
there is before God. Look at verse 26. And they came
to John and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond
Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness, behold, the same baptizeth,
and all men come Now, this sets up our message right here. So
what's going on is John the Baptist, he had, it says disciples or
followers, some men that you could just say they were in his
assembly, so to speak. They followed John, John was
their minister, and it comes to their attention that some
men are going to the Lord Jesus Christ and to his disciples and
being baptized of them. They're not coming to John the
Baptist. It just didn't make any sense to them. You want to
be baptized, why are you not coming to John the Baptist? They
were very confused. Now, I mentioned the question.
I'm not sure exactly what the question was about, but I know
this. They clearly put too much emphasis on John, and perhaps
on water baptism itself. Now, I know this was recently
dealt with here. Our Lord commands baptism for those who believe.
Believe and be baptized, right? We know that. But we must remember,
water baptism don't save us. Christ saves us. We must be baptized
in the Spirit of Christ. I love, and this is what our
whole message is gonna consist of, I love John's response. The
last, I think, 10 verses of this text are John's response to his
disciples being concerned and troubled about what they found
out about men coming to Christ, not to John, all right? First
thing we see John say here is in verse 27, John answered and
said, a man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven. When they came to John and they
told him this, I can just see them being all torn up, just
so upset. And they tell John that, honestly, I can just see
a smile light up across his face. He wasn't upset at all. John
rejoiced and was glad to hear this. John, he said, a man can
receive nothing. I mentioned John's disciples,
no doubt, were getting caught away glorying in John. John knew
he was just a man, I'm just a man, who has received nothing that
hasn't come from heaven. Everything he had, his life,
his salvation, his ministry, John knew it all came from God.
It all came from above. And as God's minister, and this
is true of all God's ministers and all God's people, John's
utmost sincere desire was that all men might come not to him. Well, look at my following, that's
irrelevant. His desire was that all men might
come to Christ. That's why, no doubt, John was
thrilled to hear this news. Look at verse 27 again. John
answered and said, a man can receive nothing except it be
given him from heaven. What do we have that we have
not received? The answer is absolutely nothing. Nothing. Let's not glory in ourselves.
God forbid. We saw that this morning. Glory
in Christ. Everything we have came from God. All right? That's
the first thing John tells them here. And look next, verse 28.
He said, ye yourselves bear me witness that I said I am not
the Christ, but that I am sent before him. John reiterates the
fact that he's not the Christ. Our brother just read it to us
in John chapter 1. He said, I'm not the Christ.
I asked, are you Elijah? He said, nope. Nope, I'm not. John's not the Christ, and he's
not in competition with Christ. He wasn't Christ's rival. Well,
we have John, and then we have this man, Jesus Christ. They
were on the same side. They weren't in competition with
one another. John was simply sent to declare Christ. We saw this morning. What was
Paul sent to declare? Christ. Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. We didn't read this in John 1,
but in there, a couple of things it says, I want to point out.
John spoke of Christ the light, just one light. He said, He's
that true light that lights every man that cometh into the world.
He's the light of the world. He's the light of His people.
He's the light. He said, he that cometh after
me, you remember John, John was born shortly before the Lord.
He was sent to prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight.
But he said, he that cometh after me, he's preferred before me,
for he was before me. He's, I am, that's who he is.
John said, behold the Lamb of God. He saw him coming. He said,
behold him. who takes away the sin of the
world, the sin of all his people. And I love the last verse. Our
brother read John 1.34. He said, this is the Son of God. John
didn't have any doubt about it. He knew exactly who he was, and
that's who he came to declare. And I love this too. John, he
declared Christ, but what did he declare concerning himself?
I love it. He said, I'm just the voice of
one crying in the wilderness. That's a good description of
every, minister of God, or all God's people. We're just a voice.
He didn't even say his name. They kept asking, who are you?
He didn't even give himself a name. He just said I'm a voice, a voice
crying in the wilderness. That's what this world is. It's
a wilderness. But praise God for sending voices to cry. Thus
saith the Lord, declaring Christ. By the grace of God, and that's
the only way, John was a humble, faithful servant of Christ. And I'm so thankful God has given
Him for us to read about and learn from. Verse 28, He said,
This is a beautiful verse right here, verse 29. 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 my joy therefore is fulfilled."
Like we just saw, John wasn't upset. This was his joy. John, what he's saying here is,
I'm the friend of the bridegroom. Christ is the bridegroom. I'm
his friend. When I read this, I couldn't
help but think about a wedding. We've all been to a wedding.
Some of us have had our own wedding. And I thought about that best
man that the groom has asked to stand right beside him. And
you, I've never been a best man, some of you may have. And if
you have, I can't help but imagine what a blessing and a privilege
that must be to get to stand right there beside your friend.
who has chosen you as their best friend, and you get to stand
there and hear His voice. You get to hear Him profess His
love to His bride. Again, that's a good illustration
of gospel preachers. We are, by God's grace and by
what Christ has done for us, we get to call Him our friend.
He made us to be His friends, and we get to hear His voice.
That's how God speaks to us, is through His word, through
the preaching of it. We hear His voice, we get to hear Him
declare what He's done for His bride. Amazing. Lovely. Hearing his voice, our joy is
fulfilled. Do we know who he is? Have we
heard his voice? And I love this, who is he? Look how he prefaced verse 29. He said, he that hath the bride,
that's who the bridegroom is. He's not trying to get his bride. You know, for years, in my mind,
I was, well, trying to find my bride. Finally, the Lord gave
me my bride. Now, he has, that word hath,
he has had, he does have, he forever will have his bride. Don't you love that? He that
hath the bride. I love that. He has her. How
does he have her? Well, the Father chose her for
him. He sent him here to die for her. to humble himself for
her. He redeemed her by pouring out
on purpose, willingly, his own precious blood for her. He did
that for her, gave himself completely. You know, when we enter into
the covenant of marriage, we vow to give ourselves entirely
for our bride. And we, at least I, struggle
mightily in doing so. Not Christ. He has his bride. He gave himself completely for
her, and she's his. He said, I'm hers, she's mine. I'm my beloved's, my beloved's
mine. He married us, he bought us. Wonderful. If we ever hear
his voice, we can say like John, my joy is fulfilled. Pray he'll
allow us to hear his voice. Look at verse 30. He went on
to say, he must increase, but I must decrease. This was the
prayer of John's heart. You know, in preaching the gospel,
our ultimate desire ought to be that He must increase. You know, this flesh likes the
glory in itself. Just be honest with you, it does.
It still does. I'd be lying if I said it didn't.
But the Spirit, the new man in me, desires that right there,
for the Lord Jesus Christ to increase and increase and increase,
for Him to be glorified and glorified above all else, forever and ever. And He will be. And I pray God
would make that our desire. You know, in the context here,
John's disciples, his followers, were upset that essentially some
men were being taken from John and given to Christ. That's basically
what was going on here. And John is making it very clear
to them, look, this is not about me. This isn't even my ministry. It's his. You may be following
me, but you follow me as I follow Christ. You follow me in the
Lord. We're all followers of Christ.
Do you see that? That's what John's making very
clear right here, okay? He must increase, not me. He
must be exalted. What about me? I must be abased. Even so, right here in John 3,
must the Son of Man be lifted up. He must be lifted up and
praised and glorified, worshiped, honored, and extolled, Him alone.
After all, He's worthy to be. The only one who's worthy is
the Lamb of God, which was slain. He is worthy to be. Verse 31 says, He that cometh
from above is above all. He that is of the earth is earthly
and speaketh of the earth. He that cometh from heaven is
above all. I love that too. John acknowledges,
I am of the earth, I'm earthly, he's not. You know, earthly speaking,
John was his cousin. And yet John knew, I'm carnal,
sold under sin, he's the holy Lord of heaven and earth. Job
put it this way, he said, God is greater than man. Now that's
an understatement, ain't it? It's a true statement, but an
understatement. John knew it too, he said, he's
above all. You think of the greatest thing you can think of and just
think how much greater He is. There's some things in this life
that really amazed me. Pray we'll always remember He's greater.
He's higher. He's more excellent than whatever
it is that we can imagine. He's God. He's on His throne. Heaven's His throne. The heavens
aren't cleaning His sight. This earth is just His footstool.
The clouds of the sky, you know, sometimes you get up in the clouds
in an airplane, that's to dust His feet. We need to remember
that's who He is. That's how high and holy He is.
We're of the earth. You know, we tend to get so high
and mighty and puffed up and lifted up in pride and vanity.
We need to remember what we are. We're dust. Dust we are. To dust we shall return. Verse
32. And what he hath seen and heard,
speaking of Christ, that he testifieth, and no man receiveth his testimony. In the book of Revelation, we're
told that the Lord Jesus Christ is the faithful and true witness. He told Pilate, he said, for
this cause came I into the world, that I might bear witness unto
the truth. That's exactly what he did. That's
what He did every day He walked this earth. That's what He did
at the cross. Mercy and truth met together. Righteousness and
peace kissed each other. It all happened in Christ. He
came to bear witness to the truth, to manifest the truth of God.
And though that's what He did, though He is the faithful and
true witness, though He is truth itself. Here we read the sad
truth about you and me. The end of verse 32, no man receiveth
his testimony. How sad, and yet how true. We
must acknowledge this to be true concerning ourselves. Look down
here at verse seven. In chapter 3, talking to Nicodemus,
who he just told him must be born again. Nicodemus was confused. Verse 7. Marvel not that I said
unto thee, ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto
him, How can these things be? Verse 10, Jesus answered and
said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel? Nicodemus was a Pharisee.
He was a religious man. He had so much religious knowledge,
knowledge of the scriptures. And I love what our Lord said
here. He said, Art thou a master of Israel? And knowest not these
things? Look at verse 11. Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen, and
ye receive not our witness." We don't receive His witness.
We don't receive... We receive a lot of witnesses.
We believe just about anything we hear. You see it online. Well,
I believe it. And yet we don't believe His faithful and true
witness. What a sad testament to us. And
I want to show you this. Look at verse 19. This is the
condemnation that light, and that's Christ, is coming to the
world. And men, all men, loved darkness rather than light because
their deeds were evil. Brethren, that's us. We have
no boasting. We have no glory, but in Him.
You see what John's saying? Now look at verse 32 again, he
that hath, I'm sorry, and what he hath seen and heard that he
testifieth, and no man receiveth his testimony. Now look at verse
33. He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal
that God is true. I thought no man receives his
testimony. You know, there's people that believe that the
scriptures contradict itself. Maybe that's one they'll say,
no man receives it, he that receiveth. There are some, praise the Lord,
who receive God's testimony, and the verse I'll quote is Isaiah
53 verse 1, who hath believed I report, who hath believed God's
word, the gospel of God's grace. He said, to whom hath the almighty
Lord been revealed. That's who believes it. That's who receives
God's testimony, those to whom God has been pleased to reveal,
to make known, the arm, the strength of the Lord, and that's a person.
The Lord hath made bare His holy arm to the nations. All the ends
of the earth are gonna see the salvation of our God, of Christ. If Christ has been revealed to
us, then we won't be able to help but to receive, believe
God's testimony, His witness. And if we do find ourselves believing
it, believing what God has recorded, what He's written, let's remember
what John said in verse 27, a man can receive nothing except it
be given him from heaven. Faith, we must have faith. Without faith it's impossible
to please God, but faith's the gift of God. God works it in
us, performs it in us. If God has given us faith, we
can do what verse 33 says, and that's set to our seal that God
is true. I love how it's worded, I believe,
in Ephesians where Paul tells us we've been sealed with that
Holy Spirit of promise. God's given us the earnest of
His inheritance, the Spirit that bears witness to the things that
we've heard, bears witness to Christ. We know it's true. We
know whom we have believed. We're persuaded of it, that He's
able to keep that which God has caused us to commit unto Him
against that day. We know. We don't have to wonder if, well,
is He really the Son of God? Is all this really true, what
the Scriptures say? We don't have to wonder. because
God's given us faith to believe it. And I'm so thankful that
he has and that he does. Look at verse 34. He went on to say, for he whom
God hath sent speaketh the words of God. Jesus Christ is the one
whom God hath sent. God sent forth his son, made
of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under
the law. And I thought about this. Every
time Christ spoke, he spoke the truth. He spoke the words of
God, because He is the Word of God. He is God, and He's the
Word of God, and He's the truth. every time he spoke. You just
imagine that. You imagine all the people that got to hear him
speak. You know, this morning with the
kids, we looked at the rich young ruler. There at first, he went
away sorrowful because he had all these riches. He had all
that goodness in himself. He got to hear the Lord of Glory
speak to him face to face. He heard the words of God. And he went away sorrowful. I'm glad to know that the Lord
beholding him loved him, because at first, I believe we all go
away sorrowful. No need, no lack. You said one
thing you lack. No desire of Christ, the one
thing needful. Christ is the word of God, and
verse 34, he whom God has sent speaketh the words of God. All
God's messengers, what do they speak? The words of God. That's it. That's it, I have
to add a few words here and there to make it, you know, what we
call preaching. I'd be content just to read it
and may God bless it as He will. But he that speaketh the words
of God, if God sent a man, that's what He's gonna speak. I like,
well, you know, in Hebrews chapter one, verse two, you know how
it says, God hath spoken unto us by His Son? We must hear Him
speak. You hear my voice right now,
and I'm sorry. I pray you'll hear His voice. I pray I'll hear His voice. I
like what the Lord told Jeremiah. A lot of times before I stand
to speak, I will read this. It's very comforting to me, and
if you're ever asked to speak, I encourage you to read it as
well. I'll just read you a portion of it. The Lord told Jeremiah,
first he said, before I formed you in the belly, I knew you,
I sanctified you, I ordained you a prophet to the nations.
Jeremiah, he was just scared to death, and I understand that
a little bit. He said, oh Lord, I can't speak. I'm just a child.
I don't know how old he was. Could have been very young. It
doesn't matter. The Lord told him, he said, Jeremiah,
listen, here's what he said. He said, thou shalt go to all
that I shall send thee. We must be sent. And he said,
whatever whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. Well,
what am I gonna speak? Well, if God sent us, we're gonna
speak the words of God. And that's what he's commanded
us to speak. And I like this too. He went on to tell Jeremiah,
behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. You see how that's comforting
to get up here and speak? He sends us, he sends us with his
word, he puts it in our mouth. and he'll bless it according
to his will. Praise the Lord. Verse 34, he whom God hath sent
speaketh the words of God, for God giveth not the spirit by
measure unto him. God gives the Spirit by measure
unto us. He giveth more grace. I don't
want to dwell on that, but He does not give the Spirit by measure
unto Christ. He has it in full. I like what
Matthew Henry said, an old commentator. He said, the Spirit was not in
Christ as in a vessel, but as in a fountain, as in a bottomless
ocean. I love it. We know all the fullness
of God dwells in Him, and we are complete in Him. So, though
the Spirit may be given by measure unto us, there's a verse that
mentions the measure of the gift of Christ. Well, in Christ, we
have it all. We have it all. Verse 35, the
Father loveth the Son. If we don't get anything else
out of this message, I pray we'll go home with that. The Father
loveth, now remember, it means he has, he does, and he always
will, the Son. There's one thing we take away
from this message. May God press that upon our hearts. He loves
the Son. He loves the Son. You remember
when the Father spoke from heaven, when Peter wanted to build a
tabernacle for Moses, Elijah, and the Lord. And the more I've
studied that, I really think Peter meant well. I really do. Remember what the father spoke
from heaven? He said, this is my beloved son, in whom I'm well
pleased. Hear ye him. And buddy, they
fell down sore afraid. And then they arose and they saw
no man save Jesus only. He came over and he touched them.
He said, be not afraid. God the Father loves the Son,
loves God the Son. God's love is in Christ, and
it's only in Christ. If God is going to love a sinner,
we know Christ came to save sinners. Well, God loves sinners. Well, we're all sinners. God loves the sinner who's been
washed in the blood of Christ. He loves that sinner who's robed
in the perfect, spotless, pure righteousness of His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. May our prayer be, Lord, give
me Christ. I have to have Christ. Verse
35 again, the Father loveth the Son and hath given all things
into His hand. I want to read you a few verses
here. John 17, 2 says, Thou hast given Him, as Christ, power over
all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou
hast given Him. All God's people are in Christ's
hand. John 5, 22 says, The Father judgeth
no man but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. We must
all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. All judgment,
we all must stand before the judge. All judgment is in Christ's
hand. And last one, Colossians 117
says, He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. You know what that means? All
things are in His hand. He is our sovereign God, our
Creator, our Ruler, our Maker, our Sustainer. He's our all in
all. Now, John 3.36, here's the conclusion
of John's message here. He said, He that believeth on
the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." That is one of the most sobering
verses of scripture that I know. This is life and death. Not this life and death. This
is eternal life and death. This is the most important thing
we could ever consider our puny brains could ever enter into.
Everything John has declared so far, remember, it stemmed
from his followers being concerned that something was being taken
from him and given to Christ. They were coming to Christ and
not to John. They were glorying in John, a man. And so John took
these 10 verses to tell them, very plainly, it's all about
Christ. We must have Christ. We must
believe on Christ. If we don't, God says the wrath
of God abides on us, and it always will. We must believe on Christ. Now, if we do, That's the evidence
that God has given unto us eternal life. And it literally reads
that way. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. If we believe on the Son, that's
the evidence that we have. We have had, we do have right
now, we will always have everlasting life. Now I want to close by
showing you a few verses that go with this in 1 John chapter
5. If you'll turn with me. 1 John chapter 5. 1 John 5 verse 9 says, If we receive the witness
of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness
of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth
on the Son of God hath a witness in himself. He that believeth
not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the
record that God gave of his Son." And let me say this, this whole
book, the whole Word of God, What this is is the record God
has given us of His Son. It's all about Christ, the Son. Now look at verse 11. And this
is the record that God hath given to us eternal life, and this
life is in His Son. Verse 12. He that hath the Son
hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto
you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may
know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the
name of the Son of God. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Speaking of John the Baptist,
he had one purpose in life, and do you know it wasn't to baptize? We call him John the Baptist.
His purpose wasn't to baptize. His purpose was to preach the
gospel, declare Christ, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. John
preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. He
preached Christ. The title of my message is Sent to Declare
Christ. That's what we've been sent to do. I'm so thankful God
has sent men to declare Christ as we heard it this morning.
I thank God for John. I thank God for the Apostle Paul
who by the grace of God was determined not to know anything, wasn't
interested in anything save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Pray
God would give us that same faith to believe in Christ and have
that same determination to know nothing save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. Amen.