John chapter 1, and the text
is verse 30-39. I asked Brother Tony to begin
with verse 29. We looked at verse 29 last Sunday
night, and our text is verse 30-39. I want to read it one more time,
okay? 30 to 39. This is He of whom
I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me,
for he was before me. And I knew him not, but that
he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing
with water. And John bear record saying,
I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode
upon him. And I knew him not, 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 bear
record that this is the Son of God. Again, the next day after,
John stood, and 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. Then Jesus turned and
saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye?" That's the title of the message
today. What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, which
is to say, being interpreted, Master, where dwellest thou? He saith unto them, Come and
see. They came and saw where he dwelt,
and abode with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. Verse 30 says, This is he of
whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before
me, for he was before me. That sounds familiar, doesn't
it? That's the third time He has
said that. That's the third time. We looked
at it together on a Sunday night, and then we looked at it again
together on a Sunday night, and this is the third time He said
it. Look at verse 15. It says, John,
bear witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I
spake. He that cometh after me is preferred
before me, for he was before me. Look at verse 27. It says, He it is who coming
after me is preferred before me, whose shoes latch it. I'm
not worthy to unloose. And verse 30 says, This is He
of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before
me, for he was before me. Look at verse 29. The next day
John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb
of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Now look at
verse 36. And looking upon Jesus as He
walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God, It's almost like John only has
one thing to say. Bless his heart. It's almost
like he only has one thing to say. And he keeps saying the
same thing over and over. It's like he only has one message. He does. There is one message. In everything that we see in
Scripture, if the Lord God tarries, and He gives us, I'm 36, so if
He gives us, you know, 50 years together, I'm 86 and Brother
Dwight will be 114. Everything we see, every story,
every parable, everything, there's only one message. There's just
one message. I am low and vile and He is higher
than the heavens. He's the great I am. He was before
me. He always has been. He always will be. He's holy
and I'm not even worthy to tie the man's shoes. That's the message. I'm lower than the dust under
His feet. Don't look to Me. Behold the
Lamb of God. The Lamb that was slain from
the foundation of the world, behold the Lamb of God. That
is our message every time. Verse 31 says, And I knew Him
not, but that He should be made manifest to Israel, Therefore
am I come baptizing with water. I knew him not." Well, John,
I thought the two of you were cousins. Y'all were cousins. Mary came to your mom's house. I thought you boys grew up together.
Same family. John would say, you're already
thinking wrong about this man. That's why I said this three
times. That's why I say it over and
over and over. This is God. This is no mere
man. This is God manifest in the flesh
and no man knows Him. Nobody knows Him. Isn't it interesting when our
Lord came back and appeared unto His apostles? They didn't know
Him. Not until He revealed Himself
again. And we lose sight of Him and
we come to this place and we say, Lord, reveal Yourself to
us again. Reveal Yourself to us again.
No man knows Him except who He reveals Himself to. It says in
verse 31, I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest
to Israel, therefore am I come, baptizing with water. John was
sent to prepare the way for him. And what that means is, John
was sent to prepare men and women for him. John was sent to prepare men
and women for his coming. And this is how he was commanded
to do it. Luke 1. You can turn or listen. Luke 1. Verse 76 says, and this is concerning
John. Luke 1.76 says, And thou, child,
shalt be called the prophet of the highest. For thou shalt go
before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways. to give knowledge
of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sins. That's how you're going to prepare
the way. John was commanded to convince men and women they were
sinners. That's what I want you to do. That is my commandment too. We're
about to be on the radio. And I want to, with love and
with compassion, convince this community that
they're sinners. That's what they need. That's how you prepare the way
for salvation. I am a sinner. And you are a
sinner. We're sinners. Somebody's coming
who we're not worthy to tie the man's shoes. We're just sinners. That's why John baptized in the
river Jordan. It's the river of death. It's
the river of sin. He told every person who came,
you're going to have to go down under that water right there.
You see that nasty water right there? You've got to get under
that water. You've got to acknowledge to
everybody, I deserve to die in my sins. I'm a sinner. We've
got to get honest with ourselves. We've got to be honest with ourselves.
I'm thinking a lot about this radio program. When people listen
to it, they're going to be in the privacy of their own home
or the privacy of their own car. They need to get honest with
themselves. They need to get honest. I deserve to go all the way under. Every person who came to John,
they all confessed. He baptized and they confessed,
I'm a sinner. That's what I'm confessing. The
next person came and they baptized, I'm a sinner. There was an old preacher who
said, is trying to get everybody saved. Religion is trying to get everybody
saved. Y'all come on in here and we'll get you saved. He said, I'm trying to get somebody
lost. That's all I'm trying to do,
is get somebody lost. Instead of hearing a person say,
I got saved. I got saved. My boy last night, he got saved. I'd a whole lot rather hear somebody
say, I got lost. My son came to the worship service
last night. He heard the gospel preached.
It scared him to death. And that boy got lost. Lost. I think I finally come to the
realization that I don't know anything. I think I'm lost. I'm not sure if I know who God
is. I thought I did, but I'm not sure anymore. I'm not sure
if I know what the way is. I think I'm lost. It's a good thing to be lost. The Lamb, the Word, the Christ
came to seek and to save that which was lost. It's a good place
to be. The song says, Amazing Grace,
how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was
lost. Now I'm found. I was blind. Now I see. John said in verse 31, I knew
him not, but that he should be made manifest to Israel. Therefore,
I might come baptizing with water. That he, the Lamb, should be
made manifest. That's why I'm telling everybody,
confess your sins. Confess your sins to God. Not to a priest. To God. Don't turn. Just listen to this.
Matthew chapter 4 verse 17 says, From that time, Jesus began to
preach. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine that? I'm a sinful
vessel. All of our brethren who preach
were sinners, were sinful vessels. We can't tell half of it. We
can't tell a tenth of it. We can't tell any of it, hardly.
God began to preach, and this is what He said, From that time,
Jesus began to preach and to say, repent, repent, repent,
repent. The kingdom of heaven is here.
The kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of heaven is standing
right in front of you. Repent. That's what he preached. That's
what John preached. By God's grace to this church,
by God's message, that's what I will preach. Our text, verse
32 says, And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending
from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew
him not. 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." John Bear Record. This record has been recorded since the foundation of the world.
This has been recorded since the days of Isaiah. Turn over
there with me. Go to Isaiah chapter 11. Isaiah 11, look at verse 1. And
there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and
a branch shall grow out of his roots. That's Jesus Christ. Verse 2 says, And the Spirit
of the Lord shall rest upon him. the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of
the fear of the Lord. The Spirit is going to rest on
this man. Go to Isaiah 42. Isaiah 42 verse 1, the Lord says,
Behold My servant, that's Jesus Christ, whom I uphold, mine elect,
in whom my soul delighteth, I have put my Spirit upon him. He shall
bring forth judgment to the Gentiles." John said, I'm bearing witness
of that record right now. I saw the invisible Spirit of
God. The Spirit is invisible. Spirit's invisible. It's invisible. You can't see
the Spirit. It's invisible. It's impossible. It's invisible. John said, I saw the Spirit. That's impossible, John. I saw
the Spirit. I thought about when the Lord
brought the Apostle Paul up to the third heaven. The Lord brought Paul into glory. Heaven. And he heard the Lord
preach in heaven. And when Paul came back, he said,
I heard things that are impossible for a man's mouth to say. It's
not possible for this mouth to move in a way to say the things
that I heard. It's impossible. How can these things be? How
can we know these things? Scripture says with God, all
things are possible. 2 Corinthians 4, let me just
turn there. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 18 says this, While we
look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which
are not seen. For the things which are seen
are temporal, But the things which are not seen are eternal. The things which are not seen.
We look at the things which are not seen. They're invisible. We see with the eyes of faith. That's what we see with. The
eyes of faith. We believe it. John said, I saw
the Spirit. It descended on Him and it stayed
there. It abode on Him. It's His Spirit. It belongs to
Him. It's His to give to whom He will.
Alright, our text, John 1 verse 34. John said, I saw and bear
record. John is a true witness. That's
all a true witness can do is just tell what he's seeing. He
said, this is the Son of God. This man came from God, and this
man is God. He is God. Verse 35 says, Again
the next day after, John stood, and 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. Now John just lost his two disciples. They just lost Him. They were
following John, and now they're following Him. The Apostle Paul said, Be ye
followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. He said, Follow
me as we all follow Him. We're all followers of Him. John, you know, these men were
following John, but they weren't really. They came to hear John
talk about this Messiah. We want to know about Him. And
finally, John said, men, there He is. There He is. Follow Him. Every true witness of the Lord
Jesus Christ will say, men and brethren and women, There He
is. Follow Him. Don't follow me. Don't follow what I think about
this. There He is. Follow Him. We're all following
Him together. Verse 37 says, And the two disciples
heard Him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and
saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? What seek ye? I wrote down a lot of notes about
that. We'll get through them. But as I stand here right now,
I'm thinking I wish I could get a hold of that. He looked at them and He said,
What seek ye? It's not that our Lord didn't
know what they wanted. He didn't ask them, Yes, what
is it? He knew the thoughts and He knew
the heart of every single person there. He asked them this question for
their own sake. What seek ye? He asked Adam after Adam sinned
and he was hiding from the Lord, hiding in his fig leaves. He
said, Adam, where are you? He knew where he was. Cain killed Abel. And right after
that, the Lord said, Cain, where is your brother? And now He's asking these two
men, what seek ye? What He's saying is, examine
yourself. Get to the heart. What seek ye? I want to examine myself. Why am I here? Why am I here? Why am I here,
Chris? Why do I do this? This is a hard
job. I've never done a job this hard
in my life. Why do I do this? What do I seek? Ask yourself, deep in your heart,
Deep in your heart, what do I seek? I go about this life, I wake
up in the morning, I do my thing, I go to sleep, I wake up, I live,
I go to sleep. What do I seek? What do I want? Everybody thinks about retirement.
You think about your house and family, your kids. Come the end
of all this, what do I want? What do I seek? Why do I go to
church? I was driving one time from my
dad's house to Cottageville, West Virginia. It was 2 hours
and 15 minutes. And I passed so many people on
the road. I had spent the night at my dad's
house on a Saturday night. I was preaching in Cottageville
on a Sunday morning and I passed so many people pulling bass boats.
Sunday morning. Beautiful morning. And I looked
at all those people pulling bass boats and I thought, if I didn't
go to church on Sunday, you know how much more time I'd have on
my hands to do things? If I could work it so I could
get off a little early on Friday and work a little over four and
a half days a week, I could have a solid two and a half days off. Why do I come to church? What seek ye? Why aren't you
fishing right now? You know how much more money we could
make if we worked all day on Sunday too? Probably overtime. This is worth examining ourselves
over. Why do I come here? Why do I go? Why are you here
and not somebody else? Is it because I've always gone?
I have always gone. I was born into the house of
a preacher. I have always gone. We just went. That's what we
do. My friends wanted to do things on Wednesday night. I'd always
ask my parents and they'd always say no. Why? We go to church
on Wednesday night. That's just what we do. Am I here because that's just
what we do? Is it for a different reason? What seek ye? Look at John 2
verse 23. It says, now when He was in Jerusalem
at the Passover, in the feast day, many believed in His name. Now let me repeat that. Many
believed in His name. Many believed in His name. We're talking about, you know,
we want people to be saved. We want them to believe the truth. Alright, well it says, "...many
believed in His name when they saw the miracles He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself
unto them, because He knew all men, and needed not that any
should testify of man, for He knew what was in man." Am I here just looking for a
miracle? You know, we always talk about how we have a hard
life. You know, we work hard, we're grieved over our sin, we
have problems, we have afflictions. Am I here looking for a miracle?
Am I here just because I need something new in my life? I haven't
done things right? I need a change in my life. I'm going to go to church. Is
that why I'm here? Really? What seek ye? What do I seek? Look at John
6. Verse 26 says, Jesus answered
them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, you seek Me not
because you saw the miracles, but because you did eat of the
loaves and were filled. They came to Him saying, Lord,
we're followers of You. And He said, no, you're not.
No, you're not. The only reason you follow Me
is to get your belly filled. Oh, man! Think about that. Why am I here? Do I follow Him just for what
I can get out of Him? Do I give just so it will be
given unto Me? Am I here just to get my belly
filled? Do I go just because it makes
my conscience feel better? I did a lot of bad things on
Saturday night. I better get to church on Sunday morning. What seek ye? Look here in John
6 at verse 66. John 6, verse 66. From that time,
many of His disciples went back. We've known of a lot of people
who sat under the truth their whole life. and unbelievable,
at the very end, they turned back. I have some people in my
mind right now, and I don't point the finger, I say, oh Lord God,
help me. From that time, many of His disciples
went back and walked no more with Him. They had God in the
flesh and walked no more with Him. Then said Jesus unto the
twelve, he looked them right in the eye, and he said, Will
you also go away? What seek ye? Then Simon Peter answered him,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of life. Thou hast the words of eternal
life. Our text in John 1 verse 38 says,
Then Jesus turned and saw them following, and said unto them,
What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, which
is to say, being interpreted, Master, where dwellest thou? Lord, we want to know where you
live. We want to know where you stay. We want to know where you
dwell. We want to know where are you. Where are you? David said, As
the deer panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after
thee. Thee. Ask a true believer. A true follower, a true lover
of Jesus Christ. What seek ye? This will be his
answer. His or her answer. It's not a
what. I seek a who. I seek a who. I want Jesus Christ. I want Him. I love Him. I need Him. I want to be with
Him. I want to live with Him. I want to abide with Him. Wherever that is. Wherever He
is, is heaven. Wherever He is, is heaven. Heaven is not a place, it's a
person. Whether He's on a street of gold
or a dirt road, I need Him. Whether He's made me strong as
an ox or if I spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair, I
love Him. I need Him. It's not about health, it's not
about wealth, and it's not about happiness. I want Him. It's about
Him. I seek Him. Verse 38 says, Then
Jesus turned and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek
ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted,
Master, where dwellest thou? And he said unto them, Come and
see. Come and see. He said, Seek and
you will find. That is not a maybe. That's not a maybe. If you seek miracles, you'll
find them. Those TV evangelists, they can do some pretty amazing
things. They really can. If you seek self-satisfaction,
self-gratification, self-anything, you'll find it. You'll be so
proud of yourself. You'll find it. But if you seek Jesus Christ,
and you cut all that mess out, and you say, I just need Him,
I just need Him, you will find Him. You will. Verse 39, He saith
unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where He dwelt,
and abode with Him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.
Can you imagine how happy they were that day? Can you imagine
that? Think about this whole scenario.
He brought them into the place where He was staying. He brought them into His quarters,
into His inner chamber. He entertained them. Can you
imagine that? They've been listening to John
talk about Him, trying as hard as to describe Him, and you know
they weren't in there five minutes before they looked at each other
and said, the half was not told about this man. The half wasn't told. The song
says, He walks with me. They walked with Him. They talked
with Him. You know what He told them as
they were sitting there in His company? When they said, Lord,
we seek You. We want You. We want to know
where You are. We want to be where You are.
And He said, come on in. You know what He told them? You
belong to Me. You belong to Me. You're Mine.
The joy they shared as they tarried there, none other has ever known. They got to spend a whole day
with no interruptions talking with God. What seek ye? What if you could talk to God
Himself? What seek ye? Is there anything
you'd seek more than that? What do you want? Lord, we want
You. You have me. You've got me. I thought about Psalm 34. It
says, Taste and see that the Lord is good. He's so good. You want to know what salvation
is? People talk about getting saved. You want to know what salvation
really is? It's union with Jesus Christ.
That's salvation. It's abiding with Him. It's a
living union with Him. It's a dying union with Him. In His death, I died with Him. It's Him. Salvation is Him. It's Him. Salvation is a person. Salvation is a person. It's not
a thing. It's not an idea. It's not an
understanding. It's not a doctrine. It's a person. And it's the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 39, He said, Come and see. They came and saw where He dwelt
and abode with Him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.
I want to close with a poem. And this poem pretty well describes this difference
between seeking everything other than Him and seeking Him. And
it's written in Old English, so it's a little hard to follow
when you hear it. Maybe the Lord will let us enter
into it. This poem is called Himself.
Himself. Once it was the blessing, now
it is the Lord. And that's what this whole thing
is going to say. I used to want this, but now I want this. Once
it was the blessing, now it is the Lord. Once it was the feeling,
now it is His Word. That's what I want. Don't preach
to me anything other than His Word. Once His gifts I wanted,
now the Giver own. Once I sought for healing, now
Himself alone. I don't care if He heals me or
not. I want Jesus Christ. Once t'was painful trying, working,
now t'is perfect trust. Once a half salvation, now the
uttermost. Once t'was ceaseless holding,
what do I have to do to keep this? What do I have to do to
keep this? Now He holds me fast. Once t'was constant drifting,
now my anchor is cast. That anchor is Christ. Once t'was busy planning, Now,
to His trustful prayer. Once, to His anxious caring. Now, He has the care. It's all
in His hands. Once, to what I wanted. Now,
what Jesus says. Once, to His constant asking. Now, it's ceaseless praise. Once
it was my working, His it hence shall be. Once I tried to use
Him, now He uses me. Once the power I wanted, now
the Mighty One. Once for self I labored, now
for Him alone. Once I hoped in Jesus, now I
know He's mine. Once my lamps were dying, now
they brightly shine. Because it ain't my lamp, He
is my light. Once for death I waited. You
know that's what every single person on this earth is doing. Outside of Christ they're waiting
for death. What all can I get done before I die? Once for death
I waited, now His coming hail. That's what we're waiting on.
We're not waiting to die, we're waiting for Him to come. And my hopes are anchored, save
within the veil. What seek we? I pray the Lord would give us
a heart to say it's Christ. Christ alone. Christ alone. Stand together with me.