Turn back to John chapter 1. John chapter 1. What an inexhaustible subject
I have this morning. God's Lamb. God's Lamb. That's the title of the message.
God's Lamb. John's purpose was fulfilled
when he said, behold. And we can take that word and
just translate it, look. That's what he's saying. God
said, the Lord said in Isaiah, look unto me, be ye saved, all
the ends of the earth, for I'm God and there's none else. John
is saying, behold, or look, the Lamb of God. which taketh away
the sin of the world." John's purpose was to bear witness of
the light. And now that he has done so,
he must decrease, and the Lord Jesus Christ must increase. And I know as a preacher of the
gospel, that the longer I preach, if I'm preaching in the power
of God's Spirit, and with the right spirit, which if I'm preaching
in the power of God's Spirit, I'm preaching in the right spirit,
I must decrease. I must decrease. The longer I
preach, the more I must decrease, and the more Christ must increase. He must increase. I often pray. that the Lord will enable us
as a body of believers here to grow in grace and the knowledge
of Christ. I pray that often for us. But I also know in doing
so that I must preach Christ in order for us to grow in Christ.
I must preach Him. He's the message. He's the lesson. And I must hold forth the Lord
Jesus Christ if you and I are to grow in grace and in the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is a responsibility I have,
and I pray God enable us to do it. Our preaching is all about
Him. It's all about Him. This whole
book is a Him book. The Bible is a Him book. It's
all about Him. All about Him. Now, there are
several things suggested in verse 29. And one of the things that
stood out to me is this, before God's preacher can preach, he does not go to a seminary
to learn how to preach first. He doesn't go to a seminary to
learn about preaching. Before God's preacher can preach,
he must first behold the Lamb of God himself. Christ has to
be revealed to me. I'm not going to learn Christ
out of a commentary. I'm not going to do it. I've
got some good commentaries I read, but I'm not going to learn Christ
and be able to stand here and preach Him to you by just reading
commentaries. There's got to be a revelation.
Have you seen Him whom my soul loveth? Over in the Song of Solomon,
they said, what is your beloved more than any of the other beloveds?
She said, well, now, let me tell you. I said, you asked the question.
And then she goes on to describe him from head to toe. I mean,
from head to toe. And at the end of it, she said,
he's altogether lovely. If you have seen him, and if
I have seen him, he is altogether lovely. Altogether. There's nothing about him that
is unlovely. Nothing about him you and I would
not change. Now you know you and I would
change things about, Vicki changed things about me. I know that.
But that's all right. That's all right. But there's
nothing we would change about Christ, is there? He's altogether
lovely. Altogether lovely. There's got to be a revelation
of Christ in my heart before I can speak to your heart. We
can't preach someone we don't know. But boy, I tell you this,
you let a man, you let a man see him, see God's glory in the
face of Jesus Christ and God called him to preach. Now he's
got something to say. Until then, he has nothing to
say. Then in preaching Christ here and beholding the Lamb of
God, we must continually point men and women to Christ. And I don't mean believers too.
I aim to continually point you who believe. I aim to continually
point you to Christ. John says in verse 29, let me
get back here. Look in verse 29. The next day
John sees Jesus coming to him and said, Behold the Lamb of
God. Look down at verse 35. The next day, after John stood
and two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus as he walked,
he saith the same thing. The message doesn't change, does
it? From day to day, the message does not change. The next day,
it'll be, Behold the Lamb of God. We may behold Him one day
as the King-Priest. We may behold Him one day as
the Sacrifice. We may behold Him one day as
the Lord God of heaven and earth. But it is constantly beholding
the Lamb of God. Constantly. Now let me make some
observations here concerning God's Lamb. First and foremost,
Christ is God's Lamb. He's God's Lamb. I want to say this, and I want
us to understand this. God, and I don't like to use
the word need with God. I don't like to use that. But
I'm going to use it here. God needed this Lamb as much
as you and I need this Lamb. In order for God to be a just
God and a Savior, He needs the blood of this Lamb as much as
you and I need the blood of this Lamb. Or He can't be a just God
and a Savior. is made very clear throughout
the Old Testament that there has to be the shedding of blood
if we are to have forgiveness of sins. Listen to Hebrews 9.22,
And almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and
without shedding of blood there is no remission. There is no
forgiveness. Apart from the blood, there is
no forgiveness. Repentance Repentance does not
put away sin. It's the evidence of a work of
grace in your heart. Where there's faith, where there's
a gift of faith, face the gift of God, you're going to find
repentance. They go together, faith and repentance. Repentance
toward God, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But you can cry
your heart out, you can cry until you can't cry no more, it will
not put away sin. You can do something and feel
so guilty about it that you can cry and cry and cry. Oh, I would
to God I hadn't done that. Why did I do that? But that won't
put that away. It won't put it away. You know
what will? The blood of Christ. The blood
of Christ washes us, it says, whiter than snow. Through the
blood of Christ, my sins are gone. They're literally gone. That's how effectual His blood
is. But we'll get to that in a minute.
And being God's Lamb, we know He is perfect. Perfect. It was stressed throughout the
Old Testament that it had to be perfect to be accepted. No
lamb, no lamb that was offered, never could it be offered if
it had a blemish. In the least, I mean in the least,
It could not have a blemish in any way, shape, or form. Well now, here's God's Lamb.
And He's telling us He's perfect. If this is God's Lamb, He's perfect.
Because God won't accept anything less than perfect. He said it
must be perfect to be accepted. This is good news to a bunch
of sinners. It's good news. We have a perfect
land that's offered up unto God and God provided. I think Scott
Richardson made this statement. It has stuck with me all these
years. What God has provided, God must
accept. Take that with you. You come
before God for forgiveness. You come before God for forgiveness
of your sins. You come before God for forgiveness
of your sins through the Lamb of God that was provided by God. And what He's provided, He will
accept. And nothing else, nothing else. Listen, being the Lamb tells
us of His personal character. Now we know He is called in the
Scriptures the Lion of the tribe of Judah. But when He comes on
the scene, He comes in His sacrificial character, He comes as a Lamb.
Is there anything, listen, is there anything more gentle than
a Lamb? I don't know of anything more gentle than a Lamb. Is there anything more harmless
than a Lamb? It wouldn't harm anything. He was without sin, He was harmless. The Scripture says He was harmless. This speaks of His character.
He said to come to Him, He said, For I am meek and lowly of heart.
Meek and lowly of heart. And then it speaks of His sacrificial
characters. The Jews knew what the Lamb was
for. When John said, Behold the Lamb
of God, They knew what the lamb was for, it was for sacrificing.
You know they had the Passover that was established in Egypt,
the Passover lamb, but you know that every morning and every
evening a lamb was sacrificed? You know how many thousands,
if not millions of lambs had to be sacrificed until the Lord
came and put an end to that? Every morning, every evening,
a lamb was sacrificed. This speaks of his sacrificial
character. He came to die. He didn't come to live. Not on
this earth. He came into this world to die.
He said, for this hour came I into the world. He came to suffer,
he came to die, and he came to do it on purpose. He said, no
man takes my life from me, I lay it down of myself. Here is God's
Lamb, laying down his life of himself. No man's taking it from
me. No man has the ability to take
the life from me. He said, I lay it down of myself.
I sacrifice myself for a whole multitude of sinners given to
me by the Father. I sacrifice myself for them. And listen, this lamb was provided
by God from the foundation of the world. That's why when Adam sinned,
there was not thunder and lightning like there was at Mount Sinai
when the law was given. And when the law was given, there
was thunder, lightning, the earth shook. Anything touched that
mountain died. But you know, when Adam fell, when he rebelled
against God, it says in Genesis, that he heard the voice of God
walking in the garden in the cool of the day." Doesn't that
sound so serene? I mean, there was such an awful
rebellion. The whole human race was brought
down. The whole human race. Every person
that has ever come into this world has died, even the Son
of God. He died, but he died on purpose. and for a purpose. But this Lamb, the reason why
there was no lightning and thunder and the earth shaking and all
this hellfire and brimstone was for this reason. Revelation 13,
8. It says, "...and all that dwell
upon the earth shall worship the beast, whose names are not
written in the Book of Life, of the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world." Here's a saying I heard years ago, and I'm gonna
keep on saying it because it's so good. Before there was a sinner,
there was a savior. God provided in Christ salvation
before Adam ever fell. You know that the fall did not
take God by surprise. God had already purposed the
end from the beginning. That's the word of God. You'd
have to contend with the Word of God to contend with that.
God Almighty, who is a God of order, He's a God of order. And He purposed the end of all
things from the beginning of all things. And He did so in
infinite wisdom. Do you know anybody wiser? You
know anybody better to do it than Him? Whose knowledge is
infinite? Whose wisdom is infinite? I'm glad he didn't leave it up
to us. I'm glad he didn't leave it up
to us. There'd nobody be saved. No, no, he's Christ as a lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. Here's what it means to be slain
from the foundation of the world. In the decree and purpose of
God, Jesus Christ was set forth to be the propitiation for sin
before the world began. He was foreordained before the
foundation of the world to redeem His people by His blood. Who
are His people? They're sinners, they're ungodly.
They were given to Him by the Father. Bring them home. Bring
him home. No one will be saved if he didn't. You know why all the angels did
not fall? You know, there was a third part of the heavenly
host. Satan fell and a whole multitude of angels fell. They
did not fall by representative. They fell one by one. But there
was a multitude that did not fall. You know why? They're called the elect angels.
God chose them to keep their first estate. God did not let
them fall. That's why. Or all of them would
have fallen. All of them would have. This Lamb was provided in the
covenant of grace. In time, He came to fulfill that
covenant. He lives to enforce that covenant
right now, and He's coming again to give the full blessings of
that covenant to a whole lot of sinners that He purchased. Now let's look here at the effectual
sacrifice of the Lamb of God. Did He get the job done? Did
He get the job done? Or did He try to get it done? Is this an attempt? or an atonement,
which is it? It's either an atonement or it's
an attempt, one or the other. It says here, "...which taketh
away the sin of the world." And this verse, like John 3.16, is
one of the most abused and misunderstood verses in the Scriptures. What
this speaks of is the efficacy of His sacrifice, of His blood. You see, all the blood of the
bulls and goats, it tells us over in Hebrews, could not take
away sin. If it did, the comers, it says
the ones who brought them, they would have had no more conscience
of sin and it would have been over. I mean, Christ would not
have needed to come. But they were offered year after
year. They were offered evening and
morning, evening and morning, evening and morning. And you
know what that's saying? It's saying this, they did not take
away the sin that morning. They offered that evening, it
didn't take away the sin that evening. Well, it's gotta be
offered again that morning. And it's offered and offered and offered
until the one sacrifice that they pointed to when he came,
they were putting into because by the one sacrifice, we are
sanctified. It says over in Hebrews, we are
sanctified, we are cleansed from all our sins by one sacrifice. He gave Himself as one sacrifice,
and that was enough. He's not going to come here and
be offered again. We fell in a representative,
we are saved in a representative. The Lord Jesus Christ. And this
word here, taketh away, means beareth away. He's the sin bearer.
Christ Jesus is the sin bearer. He took our sins, it says, in
His body on the tree. He bore them away. He took them
away. He removed the sin problem that
stood between me and God. What does this mean? Which taketh
away the sin of the world. But I do know this, it cannot
mean every individual person in the world, for some perished
in their sins. Some perished in their sins.
So we know it can't mean everyone. Was the animal world saved on
the ark? The animal world, the animal
kingdom we have right now, the animal world, was it saved on
the ark? But you know every animal in
the world wasn't saved on the ark, was it? It only went into
it by two. The animal world was saved, but
not every animal in the world was saved. There's a sense in
which God will save the world, but not everyone in it. That's
the truth. It can't mean that. It can't
mean that every individual person's sins are taken away because there's
some who perish in their sins. But here's what it means. It
means the Gentiles are included in salvation as well as the Jews.
They were not included at that time. They were in darkness.
God left them in darkness. Scripture teaches that. The Gentiles
were considered the world too. The Jews called them the world.
They were the world. The Old Testament. In the Old
Testament, the Passover lamb, as well as the lambs offered
every day, was offered for what? For who? Jews. They weren't offered for the
Gentiles. But now the Gentiles are included. The Gentiles, as
it says in Romans, they are engrafted into the vine. You and I have
been engrafted into the vine. For the most part, our ancestors
were left alone. They were left alone in darkness. If we understand, if we understand
who died on the cross, God's Lamb, God provided the Lamb,
and this is a very important statement, and God provided Himself
as the Lamb. If we understand who died on
the cross, no man takes my life from me, I give it up myself.
If we understand why He died, He died under the penalty of
what? Law. Jesus Christ died under the penalty
of law. Now if He died, if the Lamb of
God, if God who is the Lamb, if He died for my sins under
the penalty of the law that was against me and they are now gone,
guess what? Justice is satisfied. I can't
be condemned. It says in Romans 8, 1, there
is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.
Well, how did I end up in Him? Well, it says over in Ephesians
chapter 1 that you were chosen in Him before the foundation
of the world, right? Well, if I'm chosen in Him before
the foundation of the world, there's no condemnation to them
who are in Him. I'm free. I'm free. Justice satisfied. It'd be double
jeopardy. The law can't condemn me. It's impossible. It's an impossibility
for the law to condemn someone that it's satisfied with. That
justice has been paid. The debt's been paid. Christ
paid the sin debt. If we understand who died on
the cross, why he died, for whom he died, then we'll understand
what taketh away the sin of the world means. We won't be confused. Confusion comes when you really
don't know who he is, what he did, who he did it for, and where
he is now. And if we don't understand that, then we're going to go
out of here confused. We'll think he's trying to save
somebody. We think that he made it a possibility if we'll accept
him. That's not so. That's not so. It can't be. It can't be. Justice is satisfied, and therefore
God Almighty can come to me in grace and mercy. It's out of
the way. The law is out of the way. There's
nothing on the books. There is not one thing on the
books. You go from Revelation toward the end of Revelation,
you'll read that those names are written in that books and
all their works. And all their works are written in there. All
their deeds. You don't want to be judged out
of that. I'll tell you why I want to be
judged at Calvary. At Calvary. Because there is
the only place sin can be put away. You know why hell is eternal? I'll tell you, I can give you
one good reason. Hell is eternal. Nobody there
can satisfy God's justice. Those that are there hate God
as much there as, probably even more so, because it comes out
more so without restraint. They hate God as much there as
they did when he was on this earth. But when Jesus Christ
was suffering under the wrath of God, guess what? He loved
him with all his heart. He didn't hate God. He didn't
turn on God. You know, when my parents whipped me, there was
times it made me so mad, I could have... It did. It just made
me mad. They say, well, that was for
your good. I don't care if it's for my good or not. It hurt and
it made me mad. But here is Christ hanging on
a cross, suffering under the fire of God's wrath, suffering
the hell of God's wrath, the hell of men's hatred, and the
hell of Satan's hatred. And he loves God with all his
heart and soul, and looks and says, Father, forgive them. They
don't know what they're doing. And I'll tell you this, whoever he
asked that for, they're forgiven. Because if he says, forgive them,
they're forgiven. I don't believe he's talking
about everybody standing there. He's talking about those that are
there that are his. He said, "'Cause there was some there,
remember that soldier that stuck it?" He says, "'Surely, surely,
that's the Son of God.'" You know, if you go read about the
thieves on the cross, it says they cast the same in their teeth. It says they, and then something
happened, and that one on the right, He heard all those cries. He heard the Lord speak. He heard
the Lord calling upon the Father. He heard the Lord say, forgive
him. He heard Him. And it's like, you are the Son
of God. You are the Savior. And then
He said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. That's
called revelation. That's not education. That's
revelation. That's revelation. And I'm going to close here.
It says, John in verse 30 and 31, John bears witness to Christ
as being the one whom he has been preaching, the one he was
sent to be the forerunner of, he bears witness to him. And
he makes this statement here, I knew him not. And he's saying
this to show that they didn't scheme this up. They didn't get
together because they're cousins, by what we call natural birth,
they would be called cousins. They didn't know it. I mean,
he said, I didn't know him. I knew him not. I didn't know
he was the Savior. I didn't know he was the Messiah until he walked
into the scene and it was revealed to John, there's God's Lamb. This is the one you came to herald. This is the one. They didn't
get together and scheme it up. And the reason John came baptizing
was to identify the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, that's what
baptism is all about. You see, there's a three-fold
witness here going on. First of all, John bears witness
to Him. When the Holy Spirit bears witness,
when it comes down as a dove, John bears witness by baptizing
him. John bears witness by saying, behold the Lamb of God and by
baptizing him in the dove. And then, you know, the father
speaks from heaven and said, this is my beloved son, whom I'm well
pleased. Hear ye him. But baptism is for identification. He said, there's one stands among
you, he's gonna baptize you with the Holy Ghost. That's salvation. Baptism, water baptism is identification. It's what you do when you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. You follow his command. You're
his. I am his and he is mine. And I'm not ashamed to make it
known. I'm not ashamed. I want to identify. I remember when the Lord saved
my soul. I wanted to be baptized. I wanted
to be identified with Jesus Christ. I wasn't ashamed of it anymore.
There was a time I was ashamed. You wouldn't have caught me with
a Bible in my hand. You wouldn't have caught me with
one. But I'm not ashamed of him, and
I wanted to do what he said. He said, be baptized. Yes. Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. I want
to be identified with you and your people. John said, This is he of whom
I said, After me comes a man which is preferred before me,
for he was before me. He speaks of a deity here again.
But that he should be made manifest to Israel. I came baptizing. This is why I'm baptizing. I'm
not baptizing. This, what I'm doing right here,
doesn't save you. It doesn't save anybody. And then John there in verse
32 and 33, listen here. And John bare records saying,
I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode
upon him. It didn't visit him. He had the
Spirit without measure. And that dove, is there anything,
everything about him right here is gentle, isn't it? He comes,
he's called a lamb, he got a dove coming down on his shoulder. But it's also here the Holy Spirit
coming down, and John says, I'm witness to this, I saw this.
We have a witness here. If God's Word is true, and it
is, we have a witness here saying, I saw this with my own eyes. I saw it. And I knew Him not. I didn't know Him as the Messiah. But He that sent me to baptize
with water, the same said to me, upon whom thou shalt see
the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, the same as He was baptized
with the Holy Ghost. This is the one who... This is
the Savior. This is the one who saves. This
one is. And I saw and bear record that
this is the Son of God." This is God's Son. This is the Messiah. The Lamb of God is the Son of
God. And again, the next day after
John stood and two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus as he
walked, he saith, and he said this to his disciples, Behold,
look, the Lamb of God. And we'll pick up here next week.
But what did they do? They just, they left John and
followed him. Yeah, I tell you, there's nothing would thrill
my soul than this morning saying, look, look to the Lamb of God. And you would really and truly
follow Him from here on. The rest of your life on this
earth, that you would follow the Lord Jesus Christ. They followed
Him. And they went to him and said, where do you abide? He
said, come and see. Come and see. All right, that's
for next week.