Now, John chapter 1, as I said earlier this morning
to the folks in the Bible study, this is a mighty good time to
be attending services here. We are studying through the Book
of Romans in a Bible study, which is just the foundation of all
Scripture teaching. The Gospel of John here is just
not the most glorious, but just absolutely a glorious book. It's a good time. I barely believe
if somebody, if anybody, would come here with
a desire to hear, to learn, and sit down with your Bible open, and you'd ask God to speak to
you, I barely believe he would speak
to you through these There is no more plain gospel
in all of the Bible than in here, and nothing more glorious than
what we have been studying. I hope God will cause you to do so from the heart.
Well, these verses right now that we are going to look at
here in John 1 are the making of Christ's disciples. You may
have noticed that as we read them. This is Christ making or calling
out his disciples. And for the sake of notes, if
you're taking notes, the three principal people here, there's
the preacher, there's the seeker, and then there's the Savior. Two minor characters, one major. Well, the preacher is John the
Baptizer. John the Baptizer. He is preaching here in these
verses, and Scripture says in Romans 10, How shall they hear
without a preacher? Christ said, My sheep will hear
my voice. And that is the gospel. All of
God's people will hear the gospel, and they'll hear it through a
man. Pleased God by the foolishness of preaching, they'll hear it
through a man. And the preacher here is John,
and he's not really important. He's not important. He's a mean,
he's like an old hoe or a rake in the hands of the gardener,
the master of the husband. It's not anything great. They
asked John, look at verse 22 in John chapter 1, verse 22 and
23. They asked him who he was. They
said, Who are you? What do you say of yourself?
What are your credentials? Where did you go to school? Tell
us of your degrees, and so forth. And John, he wouldn't even tell
them his name. He would not even mention his
name. It's not important. This is refreshing
in this day, isn't it, when men are obviously going about to
make a name for themselves. They've got their own names plastered
everywhere. Our Lord said, Let a man come
in his own name, and to him you will receive. And people flocked
by the thousands, and John wouldn't even give them his name. He said,
I'm just a voice, I'm just a paper boy, just a messenger. You see, the messenger is not
important, but the message is. It's salvation in the hearing
of the message. It's not the messenger. You see, it doesn't
matter who you hear the gospel from, but it sure does matter
if you hear the gospel. You must hear the gospel. It
doesn't matter who you hear it from, but you must hear the gospel. It's not the messenger, but it
is the message. In verse 26 and 27, John said,
You must know him. John 1, verse 26, John says,
I baptize with water, but there stands one among you whom you
know not. He it is. He's the preferred
one. I'm not worthy to unloose his
shoes. You need to know him, he said. He's worthy. I'm a nobody. He's somebody. I'm a nobody, John said. He's somebody. I once heard an
old black quartet on the radio singing a song one time. I heard,
jotted it down, it was so good. They said, they were singing,
I'm just a nobody, trying to tell everybody about somebody. who can save anybody. I'm just
a nobody trying to tell everybody about somebody who can save anybody. Now, John says, I'm just a nobody.
The message and the mission of John is a person, Jesus Christ. And every time John preached,
you notice that with me as we read and as we studied it together
every time he preached, same message. If a man is sent from God, he'll
have one message. It'll be the same message every
time. He'll be like . . . We read back
there, it says, This is the record of John, back there in verse
19. This is the record of John. It's
a broken record. It's like a broken record, you
know. You ever had a broken record? If you go to hear the preacher
of God, his preaching will sound like a broken record. Cries,
cries, cries. Is that all you know? Yep, yep. He went to Isaiah, wasn't he?
He said, line upon line, line upon line, precept upon precept,
precept upon precept. Isn't it? Line upon line. He
kept saying it over and over again, didn't he, Sherry? John,
three days. There's an account here of people
coming to hear him preach for three days, and each day, same
text, same message, same man. Look at it in verse 29. Verse
29, The next day, now he had just been preaching Christ. And
the next day, John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold,
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. And we looked at this last Sunday
morning, didn't we? And if I don't get past this
verse again, it'll be all right, won't it? This is the message. This is it. I maybe didn't preach it last
Sunday. I know I didn't preach it like it ought to be preached.
We preach in part. Well, they came to John the next
day, and John says, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away
the sin of the world. Do you know why John said that? Do you know why we need a Lamb?
Huh? We need a Lamb. We need a Lamb. It's because the Scripture says
without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.
All have sinned that come short of the glory of God. Everybody
in here is a sinner before a thrice-holy God who will have nothing to
do with sin in themselves. He won't have anything to do
with sin. They can only come to him one way, and that's through
a blood sacrifice. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sin, because God is holy. He can't have anything to do
with sin. Because God is just, he will by no means clear the
guilty. Every sin has got to be paid for, or he wouldn't be
holy. He wouldn't be just. God is righteous. God is pure.
He can't have anything to do with sin, or he wouldn't be holy. And the scripture says the soul
that sinneth must surely die without the shedding of blood.
That's what blood typifies. When you shed, when you pour
out your blood, you die. And God said the soul that sinned
must surely die. John, you and I have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. God said you must die for your
sin. You must pay for those sins.
I'm holy. I'm just. I will by no means
clear the guilty. You're guilty. You sinned against
me. You deserve to die. Old-fashioned
as it may be, this is the foundation of Scripture. This is what happened
in the garden. God said to Adam, the first man,
he said, This will make me die, and he's been saying it ever
since. Sin, die. Die. And we've got to die, be
punished for our sin. Unless we have a substitute. Unless somebody dies for us. And it can't just be anybody.
Sherry can't die for me. She's no better than I am. She's
sinner. Sinful blood won't get it. It's
got to be holy blood. It's got to be somebody holy.
Unless we have a substitute. Somebody's got to live for us.
Two words. Two words to explain the gospel.
Do you know what these two words are? You've got to know. Substitution and satisfaction. Young people, do you know this?
Hannah. Our young people have been taught this. Andrew. Substitution
and satisfaction. You've got to have them to be
saved. The world doesn't care about these things. But we must
know, we must have substitution and satisfaction. There was a
young boy named Isaac who went up one day to worship with his
dad, named Abraham. And they knew, God has been saying
from the beginning, you've got to have a lamb, you've got to
have a blood sacrifice to worship me. Without the shade of blood,
no remission. Well, they went up the mountain
one day to worship God. And Isaac was carrying the means.
He was carrying the wood. He was carrying the fire. And
they were walking up that mountain, and he said, Wait, Dad. He said, Wait. Here's the wood. Here's the fire. But we've got
to have the lamb. Where's the lamb, Dad? Do you
remember what Abraham said to him? This is the gospel. He said,
My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt altar. A lamb. Isaac may not have understood
that. He did a little while. But they
went up there, and Isaac was bound on that. Abraham took his
son and bound him up and put him on that altar, which we deserve
to and took the knife, which was a picture of God's justice
plunging in us, in our soul, and started to slay his son.
And God said, Abraham, Abraham, hold on. Look. Wait, Abraham. Look. Behold, Bram. He turned around and there was
a male sheep caught in a thicket. by his horns, in the thorns,
by his horns. And Abraham took that lamb, that
male sheep, that ram, and laid hold on that lamb, cut his son
loose, turned him loose, Doesn't have to kill him now. And the
scripture says he offered up that lamb, that male sheep, that
ram, in the stead of his son. Substitution. And he took that
knife and plunged it in the heart of that lamb, and his blood was
shed and Isaac went free. And Isaac and Abraham went running,
skipping down the mountain, saying, We've seen the Lamb. We've seen
God's Lamb. God has provided himself a Lamb. Do you see? Some of you do. You're looking at me now with
tears in your eyes, because that was you. We need a Lamb. We need
a substitute. Well, that was Jesus Christ.
That was Jesus Christ who is the substitute. And satisfaction. I said something about satisfaction,
didn't I? We must have blood that pay for our sins. But Christ
has got to satisfy the law of God. It's not enough that we
pay for our sins. We've got to be holy like God.
We've got to be just like God. Well, how can we? We've got to
be righteous like God. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness.
How can we? Our righteousness is a filthy
rag. Christ did that too. He satisfied the law of God.
He worked out a life as a man, and he gave it to all those people
he died for. And now they're righteous before
God. Substitution satisfaction. Substitution satisfaction. And
that's what John said, Behold the Lamb of God, Christ's Lamb,
the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, who satisfied and
was our substitute. Now look at verse 35 on down
there. Well, the next day, another day later, John's going to stand
up and preach. He'd been preaching two days
in a row. He held a three-day meeting here. He's going to preach
the third day. Here they come back. People come
back to hear him preach. What's he preaching? What's John
preaching? look at it. The third day, the
next day, after John stood and two of his disciples looked upon
Jesus as he walked, he said, Behold, the Lamb! Oh, God! There he is again. You didn't see him yesterday,
you've got to see him today. You didn't see him the first
day, you've got to see him today. If you haven't seen him, you've
got to see him. Why does a preacher keep preaching the same message?
Why do we keep preaching Christ? Because he that hath the Son
hath life. He that hath not the Son hath
not life. There's life for a look at Christ,
and he that hath not looked upon Christ is going to die from being
bent by sin, etc. But he said, look, and how are
you going to look at Christ said, if I be lifted up, I'll draw
men to mine. A preacher is only as good as
long as he lifts up Christ. He's like that pole that that
serpent was on that Moses held up. What good is that pole if
it doesn't hold up a serpent? Huh? What if it held up the pole
and everybody said, look at the pole! Why? It's just a pole. Huh? You look at a man, but if
you see Christ through that man's preaching of salvation, that's
all he's good for, like a pole, as long as he holds Christ up.
Otherwise, he's nothing but a fit for the burning, wood, hay, and
stubble. Right? Look at verse 36, "'Behold,
the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the Now, that's
the preacher. Look at verse 37. Now, here's
the seekers. Verse 37. Two of John's disciples
heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. They heard John speak, and they
followed Christ. Would to God that people would hear me preach.
would follow Christ. Most preachers, honestly, you
know this, you know it's a fact, most people, most preachers draw
away disciples after themselves. They want people to follow them.
John wanted them to follow Christ. I said this before, John had
two members of his church. And he lost them both. And he
said, we've got revival. John had two members. He had
two disciples. And he was preaching one day,
and they quit following him, and they went to following Christ.
And he said, praise God. Revival is here. How many did
you baptize today? None. They all left. God was
with us today. Everybody left. Yeah, they started following
Christ. They quit following me and went to following Christ.
Oh, my. Oh, my. Look at verse 38. Our Lord turned and saw them
following and said unto him, What seek ye? What seek ye? What are you looking for? Why
are you following me? Huh? What are you looking for?
And this is really the title of this message, What Seek Ye?
What are you looking for? What are you looking for? What are
you seeking? Look what they said to him. This
is their answer. They said unto him, Rabbi, Master,
Teacher, where dwellest thou? What are you seeking? Now, where are you dwelling? We're
seeking you, the Christ. We want to learn of you. We want
to learn from you. We seek to know the true God
and the true Christ and be truly saved. Well, look at verse 39.
He says, well, come and see. Come and see. Come and see. You seek me? and see me." They
came and they saw where he dwelt, and that's where they said, listen,
we've got no place further to go. Stay right here. Come and see. Oh, may men and
women come and see. May they come to this place and
see Christ high and lifted up. May they come here and see his
person and his work, not this man and not our work. as a church. Or they come to this place and
see his word made much of. They come and see his people
making much of him. Or they come and see a people
of the true circumcision and worshiping God in spirit, rejoicing
in Christ Jesus and putting no confidence in the faith. Or they
come and see the church where Christ dwells. Christ is in the
midst of a people, not all people. And it's not all, because there's
a great number doesn't mean he's there. That generally means he's
not there. And it could be a small number,
or two or three together. He said, that's in my name, gathered
in my name, to worship Christ, to exalt Christ, a people who've
come to know Christ, to behold the Lamb that they need for their
sin. To exalt Him, to worship God,
not to come to seek things from a sugar daddy, but to worship
Him for great things yet now. To sing His praises, to sit here
and sing, holy, because He is holy. Not because it's time to
sing it, but because they feel in their heart, holy, holy, like
the cherubs, they can't help but sing anything else. It's
their hearts are filled with holy, holy, holy, to worship,
to thank God. Let people come and see that
people are here to worship Christ. What do you all do today? Worship. We worship. Let it come and see
and abide by it. But I'm seeking God. I'm seeking. I get so tired. Truth seekers
don't seek a church. I get that so many times. I hear
that so many times I've grown sick of it. I had a man come
right down here one day not too long ago after the message, and
he said, I'm looking for a church. If I've heard that one time,
I've heard it a thousand times. And I told him, I said, if you're
looking for the gospel, then that's all we do here. If you're looking for a church,
there's another one down the road. Is that too hard? What seek ye? That's what they say. What seek
ye? I want a place for my kids to
go someplace else. They have softball teams, they
have basketball teams, they have this and that and the other,
but if you want your kids to know the scriptures, they're
able to make them wise unto salvation. Come and see. Oh, I want some entertainment,
I want to go to a place where there's a singles, a singles
ministry. Well, go someplace where, but
if you want to go someplace where there's one single ministry! One thing have I desired, and
that will I seek after, and that will every sinner seek after,
that I may know Him! dwell in the house of the Lord,
where his people are dwelling, to hold his duty, that I might
appear before him," the psalmist says, or that I might be just
in his righteousness and become like him. Somebody say, would somebody
say, we're looking for a place where God is preached, where
Christ is exalted? where a sinner can find a balm
for his soul, where a sinner can see the Lamb exalted and
look on Him and find peace and comfort and rest and remission
of sins, and worship God where he doesn't have to care about
what he looks like or how he appears to people. But is there
such a place? Come and see. Come and see. come and see. If you're looking for Christ,
you'll see and you'll dwell there. Wherever he is, that's where
his sheep like to dwell. That's where they are, that's
where they dwell. Wherever the carcass is, that's where the
eagles gather. Look at verse 40 and 41. And
one of the two which heard John speak, verse and followed him
was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. And he first found his own brother
Simon, and said unto him, We found the Messiah. I like that. Each one of them said, We found
him. They didn't find him. He found them. Right? But this is what, this
is a point I want you to notice. When they came, when John or
Andrew went to his brother Simon, what he said, well, here's what
he said. Andrew, what did he say? Andrew saw Christ. He saw him. So what did Andrew go to tell
his brother about? What was the subject? What was
on his heart? Out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speak. What did Andrew say? to his brother. Oh, he said, you should have
seen the choir this morning. Oh, they were dressed, the robe,
we got the new robes in. They were so pretty. They sung
a song that sent chills up my spine. And the children did a
skit. Oh, and mine was particularly
cute. You should have been What did he say? We found the
Christ. And we heard the gospel. We found
where Christ is exalted. That's what true disciples talk
about. That's who true disciples talk about. They don't talk about
themselves. They don't talk about their church. They don't talk
about the activities of their church. They don't talk about
the entertainment of their church. They talk about the Christ of
the church. That's what Paul said to the
Philippians. He said they don't hold the head. Many make much
of the body, not holding the head. But of the true body, all it
does is hold up the head. I wouldn't be nothing without
my head, would I? Not much with one. But you'd
think what I'd look like without the head. And without which I
could do nothing. I would be nothing. I'd be a
pile of bone, a bloody mess, without the head. The head is
made, right? And Christ is the Church. And
what does the Church... You know, we cover the body,
but we don't cover the head, do we? We adorn the head. You ladies spend a great, great
deal of time adorning the head. Do you want them to see your
head? Well, this is what the Church, the body does. Cover
the body, adorn the head. I want them to see the head,
to see the face, the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus.
You see? I want to see the body. What
did you see today? We saw a nice-looking church.
What did you see today? Christ was exalted. We found them silent. Verse 42, And he brought him
to Jesus, and when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon,
and thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation a
stone. He took a simple Simon and turned
him into a rock. He took a simple Simon, a sinful
man, and turned him into a rock-solid believer. He took a fisherman,
tossed about on the ocean, and made him a fisher of man, standing
on a rock. This is God's work. Verse 43,
With a day following, Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth
Philip, and sayeth unto him, I love this. He walked him through, and he
findeth And he says, follow me. That's all he said. Follow me. He didn't ask him. He didn't
ask Philip to accept him as his personal Savior, did he? He said, follow me. And he said his faith and walked.
And what did Philip do? He followed him. My sheep hear
my voice. I know them. follow me." Not my, they follow
him. He says, follow me. This is what
the good shepherd does. This is what the chief shepherd
does. According to his power, according to his power, this
is what the chief shepherd says. He says this to his sheep, he
says this to his dogs. This is what the good shepherd
says to his faithful dogs and his sheep. He says, come, what
do they do? They come. He says, follow. What do they do? They follow.
He says, lie down. What do they do? They lie down
in green pastures. He maketh us to lie down in green
pastures. He says, sit. What do they do? They sit at his feet. The world's
wanting everybody to stand up for Jesus. He says, sit. What
does his dog do? Sit at his feet and learn from
him. He says, speak, speak, speak.
What did they do? Look at verse 44. Philip
was of the city of Andrew, and he went and found it in the valley. And now what's he going to speak
of? There's another disciple now.
What's he going to talk about? Oh, he should have been at church
this morning. Look at it, verse 45. He said,
We have found him. of whom Moses in the Law and
the Prophets did write. Christ was set forth to us from
the Old Testament scripture. Our preacher preached from the
book of Isaiah this morning. He preached from Isaiah 6. He
should have been there. Wow, what's in Isaiah 6? Him!
We saw him high and lifted up in his train field in that temple
this morning. We saw him. Him of whom Moses
and the prophets did speak, the Messiah, we saw him. You need
to see him. Old brother, old cousin, Nathanael,
you need to see him. We've seen him." Well, in verse 46, Nathanael
said, and I'll wind this thing up, Nathanael said, Well, can
any good thing come out of Nazareth? And Philip said, Well, come and
see. Nathaniel said, But you go to the Baptist church. I'm
a Methodist. I've always been a Methodist.
You know that, Philip. I grew up a Methodist. You're
a Baptist. You don't go down there. I'm
in the choir. I can't miss." Philip said, We've
seen him. Come and see. You've got to come
and see. Doesn't that apply? Doesn't that
application apply? Can anything good come out of
it? Nathaniel, come and see. Come and see. We've found him. Come and see. Oh, how we want
folks to come and see Christ, don't we? Nathaniel was skeptical
here, and most people are skeptical, aren't they? Most people are
just not interested. They might be interested in what's
going on down at the church, but they're not interested in
the gospel. They're really not. Most people
are just not interested. And most people are satisfied where
they are, and generally it's a false refuge. Our Lord talks
about that over and over in the scripture, that they made a covenant
with lies. A false refuge? I'm happy where I'm at. But if
you're not in Christ now, you're lost. If the gospel you're hearing
is not the gospel, and there is another one the scriptures
talk about, if the gospel you're hearing is not the gospel, I
mean, the gospel, then you're believing the wrong gospel. If
the Jesus you believe in is not the Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ
of the scriptures, the right one, according to the scriptures,
And every jot and tittle that explains him. If the teaching,
the doctrine you believe is not exactly what this book says got
the wrong one, it's going to damage you. Isn't that what Paul
said? And many people, they're just
happy where they're at. Most who do come, they don't
see. We get lots of visitors who come in here, they don't
see. They don't see. But some do. Some come and they
see his glory. They see, they say, this is who
I've been looking for. That's what your dad said one
time to my dad, years and years and years and years ago. Religious, going to some big
social organization in town, the biggest giver there. Oh, the preacher, when he was
thinking about leaving, the Lord made him restless, he said. The
Lord made that man restless. One time he said, I don't know
what I'm not hearing. He went to the preacher and said,
I don't know what I'm not hearing, but I know I'm not hearing something.
He didn't even know what he was looking for. He just knew he
wasn't finding it wherever he was at. He said, I've got to
go somewhere. And one of the members where
I attended told him, you come hear the gospel. He came, he
sat, and he sat, and he sat, and he didn't see. He just didn't
see. He shook his head. He did know, though, that this
preacher was preaching from the scriptures. That's what he said
to his friend. He said, I don't understand what
this preacher is preaching, but I do know he's getting it from
the scriptures. He's opening up the scriptures, and he's preaching
verse by verse. He sat and he sat. He came, he
came. After a while, he saw. He came
and he saw. And my dad said he met him back
at the back door one day, and he said his whole countenance
was changed from a frown and puzzled to a smile and light. He said, I see. This, this gospel,
this Christ is just what I've been looking for. And where is
he now? Thirty years later, he's abiding
right there where Christ is. Right there. My sheep hear my voice, and they
follow me. Look at what the Lord said to
Nathanael. I love this, verses 47 through 49. He said to Nathanael,
He said, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no God. We
looked at that one verse once before, didn't we? Remember that?
Let's go on. Nathanael said unto him, How
do you know me? How do you know me? Before time began, before the foundations of the
world, I had the name Nathaniel written on my heart, engraved
on the palms of my hands. Before there was time recorded,
I knew you. But he says to him, he says,
Well, you were sitting over under the fig tree I saw you. And that
just blew poor Nathaniel's little mind, didn't it? That fig tree, wherever it was,
it wasn't in sight. It was down the road on some
farm, way out of sight. You know all things, you see
all things. Thou art the King of Israel. Oh my, oh my, the
Good Shepherd knows his sheep. He's got his eye on them every
day. Oh, I know some of you are one
of his. He's got his eye on you. He's
got his eye on you. When you go to the fig tree or
when you're down at Joe's barn or wherever you're sitting, he's
got his eye on you. And he sent a man to fetch it. Bring him
here. There ain't nothing good down
there I don't want to go with. Bring him!" And he brings him
a hair, and they come and they sit, and they say, after he speaks
to them, My King, my God, my Savior, my Church, my brethren. This is my gospel. Don't they? Every last one of them. I don't
want to go down there. There ain't nothing down there. Come and
see. And it's the good shepherd telling them, bring him. Bring
him. Catch him. Bring him. And they come and
they see. And they own him as their king. And look at verse
50 and 51. And Christ said, Because I sat under you, I saw you under
the fig tree, you believe? Oh, my, you're going to see greater
things than that. When you first heard the gospel,
Debra, what did you think? I mean, when you first heard
it, you thought, this is the greatest thing I've ever seen. And you may have heard it from
a man who doesn't even preach anymore. You thought, no man speaks like
this man. I've never heard anybody preach like this. I've never
heard them like this. This is just the most glorious
thing I've ever heard or seen in my life. But look what Christ
said. He said, I tell you, let me tell
you something. Hereafter, you're going to see
heaven come down. You don't see angels. It does get better. You think
that's the first, this is the greatest thing. And the next
message, that's what you do the first six years after you've
heard the gospel. You say, this is the message,
John, don't you? You say, this is the greatest
message I've ever heard. And then the next one comes along,
this is the greatest thing I've ever heard. You see, heaven comes
back. It becomes, this little place
here becomes a foretaste of glory to God. And what does heaven
do? What is heaven? What's all this
heavenly? Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Where is it? Where are these
heavenly places? How does heaven descend and ascend? How does it come down to us,
and how do we go up to it? On the Son of Man. On Christ. The preaching of Christ, that's
how. Well, it doesn't get any better than that, does it? It
just might tonight. All right, Joe, come and lead
us in a hymn.