I want us this morning to look
at the Gospel of John chapter 1 verse 19 through 29. Title of the message, The Record
of John the Baptist. Now John the Baptist was the
forerunner of Christ. His life and ministry were foretold
in Isaiah 40. Our Lord said that there was
none greater among men than John the Baptist. He was filled with
the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb. You can read that in Luke
chapter 1 verse 15. And this is the record, it says
in verse 19 of John chapter 1. This is the record of John. When
the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask, who art
thou? John caused quite a stir among
the people. Many were baptized by him. So
the Jews, that is those who belong to the Sanhedrin court, sent
some of their priests and Levites to find out who this man was. Some thought that he might be
the Christ. Some thought that he might be that prophet. Many
people of Judea and Jerusalem went out to hear him and were
baptized of him. But John, being a true minister
of the Lord Jesus Christ, would not mislead them as to who he
was. He was not after a following
as many are today. And he confessed and denied not,
but confessed, I am not the Christ. John was no pretender, as false
prophets are who would have taken advantage of the situation to
gain recognition. John confessed, he admitted,
I am not the Christ. His ministry and his message
were so powerful that they thought he might be the Messiah or he
might be that prophet. And they asked him in verse 21,
What then? Art thou Elias? And he said,
I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he
answered, No. The reason they asked him if
he were Elijah is because the Jews expected Elijah to appear
again on the earth because it is written in the scriptures
over Malachi 4 verses 5 and 6. They ask him if he were that
prophet that is spoken of in Deuteronomy chapter 18 verses
15 through 18. And he said, no, I'm not that
prophet. John disowns himself to be anyone
great He will not draw attention to himself. All of God's true
servants will not draw attention to themselves. As John said,
He must increase and I must decrease. That is the heart of every believer. This is a good lesson for us.
In all that we do, I'm talking to believers now. In all that
we do, Christ is to have the glory. Christ is to have the
preeminence in all that we do. In verse 22, Then said they unto
him, Who art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent
us? What sayest thou of thyself?
John could have impressed them with who he was, the son of a
priest, the forerunner, and he was a prophet. But he said, I'm
just a voice. That's all I am. I'm just a voice.
It says there in verse 23. He said, I am the voice of one
crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the
Lord as said the prophet Isaiah. He says. John claimed to be just
a voice of one. He gives himself no title. He does not call himself Dr. John. He calls himself just a
voice. A voice is something you hear
and not see. And that's all we need to be.
All who preach the gospel, all who witness for Christ, we just
need to be a voice. Our walk and our talk should
be one that does not draw attention to ourselves. What humility John
shows here. He says just a voice. A voice
is used to communicate words and thoughts. And all we need
to be is a voice to communicate the word of God, the written
word and the living word. And he says he's just a voice
in the wilderness, not in the temple, not in Jerusalem, but
in the wilderness. The only thing left in the temple
was false religion. Lies. and hypocrisy. That's all that was left in that
temple. There was no true worship going on. Very little true worship
is going on in our day. Most of the religious meetings
in our day are nothing but emotionalism. It's just emotionalism. That's
all it is. Lying on God. But John wouldn't
do that. John stood out in the desert
calling sinners out of that false religion, out of that mess. I
tell you this, if God is pleased to save sinners, if he's pleased
to save you, he's going to have to call you out of this religious
mess that we are in this day. And he called them out of that
false religion and that temple and all connected with it was
about to meet its end. It was about to meet its fulfillment
in Christ and all those things were going to be done away with. And it says in verse 24, And
they which were sent were of the Pharisees, the most religious
people of that day. That's who came and that's who's
questioning him. And they asked him, these Pharisees
asked him and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou
be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet? They challenged
John's authority. If you are none of these, then
why are you baptizing? For we did not give you this
authority. We didn't give you the authority
to baptize. You did not graduate from our
school of theology, so why are you doing these things? John
was not identified with any of them. And John answered them,
saying, I baptize with water, and that's all I baptize with
is water. But there standeth one among you whom you know not. John stands his ground, and he
does not deny baptizing with water, because he was told to
do that. But he turns their attention
to the Lord Jesus Christ. He gets it off of baptism because
baptism is not the point. Baptism is not the issue. Baptism
is not the center of attention. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. There
stands one among you whom you know not. Let's talk about him.
Let's talk about the one you don't know. The Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Paul said when he
went to Athens. They had many altars there. And there was one
altar that was built to the unknown God. Paul said this is the one
I want to talk to you about. The unknown God. The one you
don't know. The Messiah they looked for stood
among them and they didn't even know him. God Almighty stood
in their midst. The God of heaven and earth.
The God of creation stood right in the midst of those people. And they did not know him. The promised seed, the seed of
the woman, the fulfillment of all the types and pictures stands
among them and they did not recognize Him. The worst thing that can
happen is to have Christ among us and not know Him, miss Him. That to me has to be the worst. to perish under the sound of
the gospel. As I heard one preacher say,
why will you die when the water is so close by? But many do. Then he says in verse 27, he
it is who coming after me is preferred before me. Once again
John speaks of the deity of Christ. John is saying the one I'm talking
about is God manifested in the flesh. The Son of God incarnate. That's the one I'm talking to
you about. That's the one I'm preaching. He's my message. And
he says, whose shoe latchet I'm not worthy to unloose. I'm not
worthy. I'm not worthy in the least bit
to stoop down and untie his shoes. What true humility John shows
here. This is a work of God. This man
is a work of God. It's a work of grace. Grace causes
true humility. Nothing else will cause true
humility. Nothing else. But grace always does. It will
cause true humility. John said, I'm not worthy to
untie this one who stands among you. I'm not worthy to untie
his shoes. This is the heart of a true child
of God. Not worthy. Not worthy. We live in a day of where everybody's
trying to exalt themselves. Everybody's trying to feel good
about themselves. I tell you this, God has to make
you feel bad about yourself. He has to really make you understand,
know who you are if he ever saves you. Because he said, God said,
there's none good, no not one. And then he said in verse 28,
these things were done in Bethabara. beyond Jordan where John was
baptizing Bethabara means house of passage passing from darkness
to light from death to life and the next day in 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 they were
looking for a king They were looking for a king coming riding
into town on a white steed with his army. They wasn't looking
for a lamb. They were looking for a great
prophet, not a savior priest. Jesus Christ is God's lamb. He
is God's spotless lamb. He's the lamb of God's providing.
And what God provides, God will accept. He's the sin offering. His blood is the blood of atonement.
He's the sin bearer. He bears the sin of many. They fought because they were
Abraham's seed. They were automatically in the
kingdom of God and the rest were lost, but they were lost. They
were lost. They thought they had a corner
on God. They thought they had a corner
on salvation, but they were lost. It also says here that takes
away the sin of the world. Now what's that mean? That means
he takes away the sins of Gentiles as well as Jews. That there are
some Gentiles whom God is going to save as well as some Jews. Because in Christ we are all
one. In Christ there is neither Jew
nor Greek, barbarian or Scythian, bond or free. They are all one
in Christ. He's the Lamb, as I said, He's
the Lamb of God providing. Let me give you a few things
here about the Lamb and I'll close. In Genesis 4-4, we have
the Lamb typified. In Genesis 22-8, we have the
Lamb prophesied. In Exodus 12, verses 5-7, we
have the Lamb slain and the blood applied. In Isaiah 53, verse
1, we have the Lamb personified. In John 1 29 we have the Lamb
identified. In Revelation 5 verse 6 and verse
13 we have the Lamb magnified and glorified. And I say to every
one of you sinners who need mercy, who need forgiveness, behold
the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. May
God enable you to behold Him. Until next time, may God bless
His Word.