But he wrote some wonderful,
wonderful hymns that we all cherish. John chapter 1. Let's read verses 35 through 39 again. John
chapter 1, 35 through 39. The next day after John stood, Two of his disciples, looking
upon, saw the Lord walking past, and he saith, and I'm sure he
shouted this out for all to hear loud and clear, he said, Behold
the Lamb of God. And the two disciples that were
with him heard him speak. They heard that. The Lamb of
God. And they followed Jesus. And Jesus turned and saw them
following. And He saith unto them, What
seek ye? And they said unto Him, Rabbi,
Master, where dwellest thou? Where do you abide? And He saith
unto them, Come and see. And they came and they saw. where he dwelt. And they abode
with him. They stayed with him that day. And I believe they stayed with
him for the next three and a half years. They're with him now. It was about the tenth hour.
Verse 38 is the text, really, and the question of all questions. The Lord said to these two men
that were following him, What seek ye? or turned to them, they
were following Him. He asked them a searching question. That's a question to all of the
Lord's disciples, all who claim to be disciples, followers of
the Lord Jesus Christ, a heart-searching, vital, life or death question. What seek ye? What are you looking
for? It reminds me of 1 Kings 19. You may remember the story of
Elijah running and the Lord came to him. Remember the Lord said,
What doest thou here, Elijah? He asked him that twice. Why
are you here? What are you doing here? What
are you looking for? What are you waiting for? The
Lord asked them, What seek ye? Now our Lord said this, and it
is true of everything in this life. Seek and you shall find. If you seek hard enough, Diligently
enough. If you are ambitious enough and
work hard at it, generally you will find exactly what you're
seeking for. If someone is industrious, ambitious,
and diligent and wants to be rich and famous, you can be that. You can be that. If you want
to go after whatever it is, if you give it your all. These people
that are so talented in whatever it is, music or sports or whatever,
some of them were very ordinary people, but they just gave it
their all and they became very good at it. Seek and you shall
find. So all the more important is
this question, what seek? What are you looking for? What
am I looking for? Now, most people come to religious
services the first time, and many continue to come for the
wrong reasons. Most everyone comes for the wrong
reasons, and some continue to do so. Many people come because
they get in trouble, and they think religion is going to get
them out of their trouble, whatever they may be. think that if they
can reform, they can get out of this trouble, right? Many
people come for social reasons. They want the society of other
people. They want to meet people, see
people. For many people, that's all it's
about. What are they seeking? Why do
they come? to see other people. They come
to seek a mate or something like that, or just friendship. For
some, they come for advantage. When I was a young man, I just
realized that if I didn't clean up my act and cut my hair and
start acting civil, I wasn't going to get a good job. And
I knew that there were men of means in the church where I grew
up, so I started coming. I needed a good job, and I got
one. One of the men graciously gave
me a job in his company, construction. Some people do that. They come
to religious services for advantage of what they can get out of whomever
by being religious. Some come out of duty. Obligation. Some come out of habit, grow
up in church. It's all you've ever done, so
you just go to church. Some people do it to please other
people. Please other people. Please their
parents. Please their children. Please
their mates. A husband or wife wants her husband
to go, so he goes with her to please her. Right? Happens all
the time. Some people go to be entertained.
Some people go to salve their conscience. They think, I'll
just be religious and do this duty and, you know, then I'll
be okay with God. What seek you? That's what the Lord is asking.
What are you looking for? What are you looking for? You know, I ask that to every
person. I tell every person that comes here, or I try to get to
come here. There's one thing. If you come here, there's only
one reason for you to come here. Because we do one thing here.
One thing. Preach the Word of God. Preach
Christ. If you're looking for anything
else, you won't find it here. You will not find it here. If
you're looking for the truth, you'll find it. You'll hear it.
But very little else goes on here, right? Very little else.
The story here is of a preacher named John. A man sent by God
named John. Started with a preacher. That's
why these two men were seekers. They became disciples of this
man, this preacher. A man sent from God. He was sent
from God to do one thing. Most people would have thought,
and you would think so now, that John wasn't very sociable. Guarantee
you'd think he was maybe a little rude and inconsiderate and not
very sociable. He was certainly not as Hollywood
depicts him as a wild man. As a maniac. No, no, no. John
was very loving, tender-hearted, I know, and gracious and merciful
and kind and loving. But his mission in life was one
thing. So was Paul. So is every true
preacher of the gospel. One thing. Years ago I heard
my preacher say, I didn't come to socialize, I didn't come to
politicize, I didn't come to reform, I came to preach the
gospel. That's what Paul said. I'm determined
not to know anything among you. Be taken up with anything. John's
mission was one thing, preach Christ. And it's the same with
every true God sent man. It's the same. If he's worth
his salt, he's full of salt. His speech is seasoned with salt. He's conversant with many things,
but he's not much interested in conversing about anything
but Christ. He's not much interested in you
knowing or being anything but knowing Christ and being like
Him. Paul said, My little children
to the Galatians, of whom I travail again in birth until Christ be
formed in you. That's what he said. That's the
whole mission. John, verse 35, had two disciples. Someone may say, you're not supposed
to follow a man. Is that right? No, it's not right. Look with me at 1 Corinthians
4. 1 Corinthians 4. Our Lord said in Jeremiah chapter
3, I will give you pastors. after my own heart." What is
a pastor? The word means shepherd. The word means a shepherd. The
fact of the matter is, if we don't have a shepherd, we're
not a sheep. If we don't follow His shepherd, we're not a sheep. There must be leaders. There
must be followers in all walks of life. Right? Romans 13 says
every power is of God. They're ordained of God. Rulers
are not a terror to good work. And there are rulers in all walks
of life, and there are rulers in the church. It must be so. And God has raised them up. They're
not lords. They're not popes. Nevertheless,
they have oversight. They're leaders and they're rulers.
Look at 1 Corinthians 4, verse 16. Paul said, I beseech you. Wherefore, I beseech you, be
ye followers of me. Look at chapter 11. Verse 1,
chapter 11, verse 1. Be ye followers of me. As Paul pointed to them, to himself,
no one, no way. Not like John. There were two
disciples of John. John preached Christ. That's
all he did was preach Christ, didn't he? Behold, the Lamb of
God has come, comes One who's preferred before me, before He
was before me. He must increase, I must decrease.
But these men were following John until Christ came along.
And there wasn't anything wrong with that. It was the right thing
to do. Read on. Follow me even as I also am of
Christ. Look at Hebrews 13. Hebrews chapter
13. Quickly. Hebrews 13, it says
here in verse 7, Remember them, I think you have it, Hebrews
13, 7, Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken
unto you the word of God, whose faith follow. Someone may say,
well, that was Paul speaking. Well, but he says here, whoever
it is God has put over you, whose faith follow, considering the
end of their conversation. Verse 17, Obey them that have
the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch for
your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do
it with joy and not with grief. For that is unprofitable for
you. And so he says, pray for us. We trust we have a good conscience
in all things. Go back to our text. So these
two disciples. Now, here's the comfort and the
peace and the safety of God's people. And in the same, well,
in another place, He said, know them that have the rule over
you. Get to know them. And what you
do, if you know that God has sent them and they're men whom
God has sent, then you can Comfortably follow them. Here's the comfort
and peace and safety of the believer, because there's so many false
prophets out there, because there's so many evil men, seducers, they
wax worse and worse, and they disguise themselves, angels of
light, ministers of righteousness, Satan's minister. Here's the
comfort. Our Lord said, I will give you
pastors after my own heart. That's a fact. He's not left
himself without a witness. And our Lord said in John chapter
10, He said, My sheep won't follow a stranger. No. They won't do it. They may. Now
it says they'll flee from Him. They'll flee from a stranger.
Well, how do you know? These two men followed John.
How do you know? Why did John preach? Not why. Who? Christ. He didn't preach
himself. Didn't Paul say, rather, we preach
not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. It's very clear to
you. It's very plain to you, men that preach themselves. Very
plain. They came to John. Oh, I'm having
a hard time getting out of this chapter. It's so wonderful. But remember, they came to John
and asked him who he was, and he wouldn't even tell them his
name. Our Lord said, let a man come
in his own name and men will receive him. They'll just fawn
all over and they'll receive him. What a great man. The true
men of God don't come in their own name. Don't do it. They're not interested
in you knowing their name. They're interested in you knowing
the one name under heaven given among men whereby we must be
saved. Knowing Him. Well, look at verses 35 and 36.
We need two disciples of John. That's why I dealt with that
in case you had a problem with it. He had many disciples. He was a true man. Verse 36,
looking upon Jesus as He walked, John said, Behold the Lamb of
God. Behold the Lamb of God. This man was a preacher. And
how you know God sent him was he preached God's Christ. And
a man sent from God, when God spoke out loud twice in the New
Testament, both times were concerning his son. Three times, one to
his son, two to men. One at his baptism, this is my
beloved son. and whom I am well pleased."
Another time that is transfiguration to those disciples. This is my
beloved Son whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him. And then once to
Christ who prayed, Father, glorify Thy name. He said, I have both
glorified it and will glorify it again. God has spoken once and twice
and men perceive it not. He has spoken concerning His
Son. So who do men that God sends speak about? Christ. That's how
you know. All these fellows that claim
to be sent from God, if they don't preach Christ, God didn't
send them. That's what Jeremiah 23 said.
I didn't send them. Speak a vision of their own heart,
not out of my Word. John preached Christ and Him
crucified. Paul did. Paul said, I'm determined
on nothing among you but Him. This is the message. This is
the gospel. The Gospel is this, how that
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures as the Lamb
of God. This is the message, the Lamb
of God. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. That's why Christ came into this
world, not to reform the world, not to change the world, but
to save His people out of the world from their sin. And we've
got to always be beholding the Lamb of God. Same old message. Look at Exodus 12 with me. Same
old message. We just looked at this a few
Wednesdays ago as we observed the Lord's Table. And to look
at the same things with you is not grievous to me. And it's
safe for you. It's salvation for you. There's
one thing lethal, one thing we must seek. When our Lord said,
what? Seek ye. There's one thing. One thing
lethal. Alright, look at this. Exodus
12, verse 3, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, his spokesmen,
He told them what to speak. He said in verse 3, "...speak
ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, in the tenth
day of this month I shall take to them every man a lamb according
to the house of their father." A lamb for a house. Verse 4. Every man, if the household be
too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto
his house take it according to the number of the soul. Every
man, according to his eating, shall make your count for the
lamb." Everyone must have a lamb. A lamb. Do you have a lamb? What seek
ye? Do you have a lamb? Look at this,
verse 5. Is this your lamb? Your lamb
shall be without blemish. A male of the first year, taken
out from the sheep or from the goats. You know, few people believe
that Christ was born of a virgin. Few preachers believe that these
days. Few people believe that. Few people even care. What does
it matter, they say. Your lamb must be without spot
and without blemish. Your lamb must be born of a virgin.
What about your Lamb? If He's your Lamb, He must be
without sin. If not, He's just a sinner like
you. He can't save you. When John
said, Behold the Lamb of God, he's talking about the sinless
Lamb, the Son of God. Verse 7, look at this. And they kept it up and observed
it. He is observed to be without sin. Take the blood and strike
it on the two side posts on the upper door posts of the houses
wherein they shall eat it. Verse 8, they shall eat that
flesh in that night. Have you eaten the flesh and
drunk the blood of the Son of God? I don't mean the Lord's table. I mean the gospel. Do you hunger
and thirst after Christ? Have you eaten? Have you found
Him to satisfy your need, satisfy your soul? He said, eat it. Verse 8, Thou shalt eat that
flesh with bitter herbs. Have you tasted the bitterness
of your own sin? And have you eaten that precious
body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and found that It's all
a synonym, have you? Look at verse 12 and 13. The
Lord says, I will pass through the land of Egypt this night.
These are the last days, folks. The very last of the last days.
It's very clear from Scripture. The Lord has promised that He's
coming back. His death angel is coming through
this world. He's going to pass through this land called Egypt
and smite man and beast and everything. Verse 12, I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord of hope. But the blood, the blood of a
lamb shall be to you for a token upon the houses where you are.
And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. I will pass over you. Why do we come here tonight?
What if the Lord comes tonight? He might. What's important? Why do we come here? Let's seek
it. The story of Rahab. Those two
spies came to her. And they told her of a sure token
that Joshua was coming to destroy that land of Jericho. And they
told her, this scarlet line, you tie it in the window. We're
coming back. And when we see this scarlet
line, we're taking you with us. What was important to Rahab? What do you think she did every
day? She checked that scarlet line. They didn't tell her when
they were coming. She had no idea. It was months
later. But every day, she went seeking. She went looking. Is it there? Her life depends
upon it. Her family's life depends upon
it. Is it still there? My life. You think she was taken up with
politics? You think she's worried about the next election? Huh? Do you? She was worried about where she
was going to get her next rent payment? Is the blood there? Is it there? What? Seek ye. When you lie in
bed at night, David said, Commune with your heart upon your bed
and be still. What do you think about it? What do you think about this? Stocks and bonds? If you're like
me, you don't have any, so you don't think about that. But the
deceitfulness of riches? What about tomorrow's job? Tomorrow? Our Lord said, there may be no
tomorrow. There may be no tomorrow. One
thing, people. What's seeking? What's seeking? There may be no tomorrow. Go back to our text. This is
serious. We have one message. We have
one message. I'm not trying to be dramatic.
I'm trying to be truthful. John 1, verse 37, they heard
John speak and they followed Christ. Some do, by God's grace. Some hear the truth. Some have
given ears to hear and desire to seek Christ and faith to follow
Him. And the Lord asks every true
follower of Him, and this is a good question, For us to ask
ourselves at all times, every time we come here, honestly, what am I looking for? What am I looking for? Well,
look at their answer. I love this. They said unto him,
Rabbi, Master, where do you live? What they said was, I reckon,
was, we're seeking you. He came to seek you. He came
to seek you. You know, the Lord healed everyone
who had need of healing. Everyone that came to Him and
asked Him to do whatever, heal their blindness, heal their deafness,
heal their daughterhood, He did it. They asked this man, what
do you seek? And he may have given them whatever. And they sure gave the right
answer. We want you. He said, come and see. I love
that. Come and see. What did they say? Him. You know, most people don't see
anything in Him. Why? They're not seeking Him.
They don't come to Him. If you've come to Him, you know
why you came to Him? Because He said, David said, when thou
said, seek my face, that's when I said, thy face shall I seek.
And he said, come unto me. And you came, and you seek, don't
you? You see in Christ all your need.
They said unto him, Master. This is more than just saying,
you know, the Pharisees called him that. The Pharisees always
called him that, Master, or Jesus. His enemies all called him Jesus. His disciples called Him Lord
after they got to know Him. None of them ever called Him
Jesus. By the way, when the Scriptures keep referring to Him as Jesus,
that's the Holy Spirit distinguishing Him from the Father. If they called Him Lord, you
might not know which one they were talking about. They called
Him Jesus, alright? But His disciples never, ever,
ever called him Jesus. I called him Lord. And our Lord
one time says, you call me Lord and Master to His disciples.
You call me Lord and Master, He said. And you say, well, so
I am. But the Holy Spirit. I'll give
you a good illustration. Arthur Pinck was an Englishman.
He said back when King George was King of England, he said,
now the Queen of England can call him George. She can say
George this and George that, but the Suggies don't. So the
Spirit of God could call him Jesus, but you call him Lord. King of kings and Lord of lords.
At any rate, they said, Master, and this is more than the Pharisee,
they're saying, you're our teacher, we're your disciples. From here
on. John was teaching us, we need a greater teacher than he.
You teach us. We're hanging on your every word.
Like Peter, Andrew, his brother. He said, you have the words of
life. So what do you see? I need a teacher. I need an all-wise
teacher. I need someone who knows everything. I need that prophet. That's what
the woman at the well said. When Christ has come, He'll show
us all things. Yeah, He has. Master, you be
our master and we'll be your disciples, okay? Master. I can't
help but think of a master of a dog, like the Syrophoenician
woman, huh? She came to Him, didn't she?
And what do you see? He said, Crumbs. Dogs just want
a few crumbs. Master, if you'll just give me
a few crumbs, I'll follow you anywhere. A few crumbs of mercy. A few crumbs of grace. But our
Master doesn't give crumbs. You don't give your dog crumbs,
do you? I know you all. You take them to church suppers. I used to know a man who had
a dog down in Winston-Salem. He loved that dog. His wife had
died, and it was just him and his dog. And every day he'd take
that dog to McDonald's. And he'd buy him a Big Mac, and
he'd buy old Rover a Big Mac. Our Lord doesn't give His dogs
crumbs. No, our cup runneth over. They're
saying, You're our shepherd. We're sheep. Dumb, ignorant sheep. We need to follow You. We want
You to lead us. We want You to feed us. We need
You to protect us. You're our Lord. We're Your subjects. Do Thou reign over us. You're
our King. We're Your servants. They said,
Where dwellest Thou? Now, He doesn't dwell everywhere. He doesn't dwell everywhere.
We saw that in the Song of Solomon, didn't we? Where was the beloved
found? All the time. When she went looking
for him, couldn't find him, where was he? In the garden. Always finding him. The Lord
loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. That's where God is. That's where
Christ is. You'll always find Him where
two or three of His loved ones, His beloved, are found. You'll
always find Him there. You'll find Him there. They came,
verse 39. They came and they saw, and they
abode. They came, they saw, and they
abode. What did they see? Well, our
eyes haven't seen. We have seen by faith. But John
said this in 1 John 1, we beheld His glory. Peter said, we were
eyewitnesses of His majesty, His power and His coming. They
beheld His salvation like Simeon. Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.
Oh my. You come to Christ, if you're
looking for Him, you'll find Him. You come to Him, Where He
dwells, you'll see His glory. You'll see His honor. You'll
hear His voice. And you'll get His peace. He said, My peace I give unto
you. My peace I leave with you. This is significant. Verse 39.
It was about the tenth hour. Every word of our Lord is relevant. This story, these two men seeking
the Lord, because seeking the Lord is urgent. Time is short. Time is short. We're supposed
to redeem the time. It's not the tenth hour. It's
at least the eleventh hour in this world. Time is about over. It was almost midnight. That's
when the cry will come. Remember? Our Lord told the The
parable of the bridegroom, at midnight the cry came. It says,
tenth hour. Two hours left after then. Two
thousand years. He's at the door. The time to
come, seek him now. Today is the day of salvation.
What seek you? I look at this crowd and I look
at you. You come here and I see in your faces genuine interest,
genuine desire, genuine love for this message, for this gospel.
That's what I see. How I thank the Lord today. I
don't see people coming out of duty. I don't see you coming
for advantage. Who in here could you gain anything
from? I don't see anybody trying to
please anybody else here. That's so wonderful. What seek
ye? Oh, preacher, just preach Christ
to us. Just preach Christ. Okay, stand
with me. Our Lord, thank You for the simplest
of phrases, words that You spoke, words of life. As we examine
ourselves whether we are of the faith, like these disciples,
You ask us, Examine our hearts. Commune with our hearts. What
seek ye? Each of us ask ourselves, what
do I look for? What do I seek? What do I need?
Is Christ my all? Is He all I need? All I seek? O Lord, make it so in these last
days, in this last hour. Time is so short. Create an interest,
Lord. Create a desire, hunger and a
thirst in someone's heart has not yet had that. We pray for
your glory and honor for their salvation. We will rejoice. Thank
you for what you've done for these people, for us. In Christ's
name we pray. Amen. Thank you.