in the history of Israel. They had one day during the year called the Day of Atonement. Nowadays that's called Yom Kippur, which was celebrated by the Jewish community back in October. It's the Day of Atonement. If you care to look that up in the dictionary or Look it up on Google. You'll find that Google gives it the definition a day of atonement when people make atonement for their sins. Well, we can't make atonement for sins. Only the Lord Jesus could do that and did that by his substitutionary sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary.

But in the Old Testament, if you want to read about this, you can read the book of Leviticus chapter 16. That was a day of atonement. And on that day, special things happened. You know, if you've studied about the high priest of Israel, Aaron being the very first one, and then the regular priesthood, You'll know that Aaron had garments that were gorgeous. I mean, he had bejeweled garments. And he had a mitre that he wore on his head, a turban. He didn't wear a fish hat like the Pope wears. That comes from the god of the Philistines, the fish god. That's where that comes from. No, Aaron the high priest wore a turban. called a mitre. And across the front of it, this gold plate saying, Holiness to the Lord.

And the priest had all these beautiful garments, the high priest had these beautiful garments that he wore. But on the Day of Atonement, he took those off. And he put on the garments of an ordinary priest. so that he was only clothed from head to foot with white linen. And then he would go and he would select a couple of goats, a ram, and a bullock for sacrifices unto God. Of the goats, he cast lots for the goats and one was to be the Lord's. That is, that goat must die. The other goat was called the scapegoat. And as these two goats were selected by lots, Aaron killed the first one. Remember, he doesn't have his high priestly garments on. He only has the garments of an ordinary priest.

So the blood was shed, and then the bullock was killed for his own sins and sins of his family, and then a bullock. And the blood was caught in a basin. And the high priest, and we'll say Aaron because he was the first one, he would go back into the Holy of Holies. He could only go back there one time a year, and that was on the Day of Atonement. He'd go back and he'd put some hyssop in a bowl and he would sprinkle blood on the mercy seat. And then he'd go back out and one goat had died and the scapegoat, it would be brought to him and he'd lay his hands on the head of the scapegoat and he would confess the sins of all of Israel for the last year.

Now this great ceremony or ritual didn't put anybody's sins away, but it only covered their sins for a year. So he confessed the sins of all of Israel, having his hands on the head of the goat, and there is a symbolic, not a real, but a symbolic transference of guilt over to the scapegoat. And then he would pick out a fit man and the fit man would lead that goat out into the wilderness completely out of sight of all of the Israelites and everybody would wait until that man came back without the goat. And they knew then our sins are covered for the next year.

And then Aaron would go into the holy place, he'd take off those bloody garments, and he'd put back on his high priestly garments, all of them. And then he would go out before the children of Israel, the sins having been taken away symbolically, and will raise his hands and bless the children of Israel. He would pronounce that blessing out of Numbers chapter 6. The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious to thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace. And so he would pronounce the blessing upon the children of Israel.

Let's fast forward hundreds of years into the future from that event. remembering that that day of atonement, Yom Kippur, as it's called today, that day of atonement happened every year like clockwork. But the sins of Israel were never put away. They were only covered for a year.

Like I say now, fast forward in your minds to the coming of our Lord Jesus. He who is the Son of God, the riches of all glory belong to Him. He's the great Creator. He's the great Sustainer. He's the very Majesty from on high.

He, when He came to this earth, as it were, took off His royal garments. Think about that high priest now. Because that high priest on the Day of Atonement, everything he did pictured our Lord Jesus Christ. When He took off the gorgeous garments of His high priestly office, and put on the regular apparel of a normal priest. That pictured what our Lord was going to do.

In His incarnation, when He left heaven's glory, He, as it were, took off His royal mitre, took off His royal garments, and He clothed Himself with flesh just like you and me. Only his garments, when he came, in a figurative sense, were absolutely white. He was the sinless one, right? So his garments were white. And all through his life, he lived a perfect life. Nobody else could ever do that.

I've had people tell me, I'm living above sin. That is incorrect. Because we're all sinners. I don't care who you are, what's your position, or what you think. We all sin numerous times every day. You say, well, I confess all my sins. I hope you do. But you can't name them all. Because there are sins of omission, there are sins of commission, there are sins of thought, there are sins of word, there are sins of motive. If your motive in doing everything is not the glory of God, that's sin. And if we'd be honest, we're all covered with sin, but not the Savior.

And he went through his life, white garments, the sinless one. And then his garments were stripped from him and he died upon the cross of Calvary. But he was the sacrifice himself that was perfect and sinless and pure. He died for sinners. He didn't die for good people. You say, well, I'm a good person. Well, you're just saying, well, he didn't die for me then. He died for the guilty. He died for rebels. He died for all of the people God gave him in the covenant of grace in divine election.

And he shed his blood. His body was covered with blood. It was a gory sight. And when he had suffered the wrath of God and all that men could do to him, he said, it is finished. He suffered all of the vengeance of God for his people. And you remember this, everybody in whose stead he died, he redeemed, he reconciled, he saved. It cannot be that he died for somebody whose sins are still upon that person and divine vengeance is gonna catch up with him. That cannot be.

Twice payment God will not demand. You ever sing Rock of Ages? Of course you do. Augustus' top lady said, twice payment God will not demand, first at my bleeding surety's hand and then again at mine. All for whom he died had been reconciled to God. The sins had been put away. He died. And his body was buried. His soul went back to glory. But his soul was joined back to his body. On the third day, he arose. And as it were, he put back on his high priestly garments. Because you see, when he came back from the grave, he had been glorified. And there is our high priest in his royalty, in his majesty, in his glory. He appeared to his disciples and to, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15, above 500 people at one time.

And I want you to look, you still in John 1? I want you to back up a little bit. I want you to back up into Luke chapter 24 and verse 50. In my Bible, it's all on the same page. Look at verse 50 of Luke 24. And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands. That's what the high priest did. And bless them. Here is our royal, regal, great high priest blessing His disciples. And they worshipped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen. I can almost see that setting, can't you? As our Master raises His hands and He blesses them.

Well, here's a good question that needs to be asked and answered. By what authority does He bless them? Upon what basis does He bless them? I got to thinking yesterday. You know, the position of the four Gospels goes all the way back to one of the early church fathers, Augustine. And he put the four Gospels in this order according to the providence of God. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and then John. And Luke ends his gospel narrative with the Savior pronouncing a blessing upon his disciples. Well, the question that ought to arise in our minds, by what authority does he pronounce a blessing? Is his blessing valid? Does he have the power to bless? Yes, he does. And so John goes right into the fact that the one who pronounced the blessing at the end of Luke is God of very God. In the beginning was the Word. That's the Son of God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

By what authority did the Lord Jesus, forty days after His resurrection and before He ascended to heaven, by what authority could He raise His hands His nail scarred hands, by the way, by what authority could he pronounce a blessing upon his disciples or for that matter, a blessing upon us? Because he is the eternal God. Nobody else can pronounce a blessing upon us. I can't pronounce a blessing upon you. I don't have that kind of authority.

But you see, the Spirit of God, when the books of the New Testament, and the Old as well, but especially when the books of the New Testament were arranged, some of them not in chronological order, not in the order in which they were written, the Spirit of God was very particular in arranging these books so that Matthew presents Jesus as the King. And Mark presents Him as Jesus the servant. And Luke presents Him as the Son of Man, that One whose real flesh and blood, in flesh and blood He dwelt on this earth. And then John, John's purpose in writing was to show us that Jesus of Nazareth is, was, and always shall be the Son of God.

And He only can bless you. I can't. No preacher can. No pope can. No so-called earthly cardinal or priest can. The only one who can pronounce a blessing upon you and upon me, he's got to be God. And so right on the heels of Luke having written that just before He ascended, He pronounced a blessing upon His disciples, then John follows up and he shows us, here are the credentials of the One who pronounced the blessings. He's the eternal God. He is the Word of God. And by Word of God, He means that He is God incarnate. He is the one who reveals God to us. He is all of God's alphabet.

How can you know what my will is? How can you know what my thoughts are? Unless I vocalize them through words. We say a word is a definition of a word. It's a vehicle of thought. You want to know what God's like? Do you want to know God's will? Do you want to know God's purpose? Do you want to know how holy God is? Christ is God told out.

Look in verse 18 here of John chapter 1. No man hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him," or literally, He hath told Him out. Everything you need to know about God, you learn from the Lord Jesus Christ. He is God incarnate. And as we have often said, He is all of God you'll ever see. You won't see the Father as the Father. You won't see the Spirit as the Spirit. You'll see the second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ, and in Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead. The Godhead is what? Father, Son, and Spirit. In Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And He is the eternal God.

You see that elaborate ceremony on the Day of Atonement. It wasn't just merely to take up some time or be a religious event. That pictured something very important. I hope you can see that. That's a picture of our Lord Jesus laying His glory aside and coming to this earth looking like all the rest of us. And in that body, He went to the cross of Calvary, and He purchased His people with His own bloody death. And when He was raised from the dead, When he came back in his soul, his soul came back from heaven to inhabit that body. The glory of God dwells in him. In fact, Paul talks about seeing the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. He is royalty. He is the king priest. And John goes on to talk about Him. He says in verse 3 that He made all things. By what authority could He pronounce a blessing upon the disciples? Because He created everything. He made you. He provides for you. He's the King over all of His creation.

In Him was life. He had life inherently. You were given life. I was given life. And when it comes to spiritual life, we have to be given that. The Bible way of speaking of that is, you must be born again. You must have life that's from above, the life of God in the soul, which you cannot produce. One of the devil's favorite Lies. And preachers tell this all the time. Believe on Jesus and get born again. That is a lie. If you can believe on Jesus, you wouldn't need to be born again. You see, we're spiritually dead. The only way we can believe is to be given spiritual life.

In Him was life, in Christ is life. He gave you physical life. And He may give you spiritual life, but that's His business. He doesn't have to give it to any of us. But if He gives us spiritual life, that life is eternal. And that's a life that cannot die. Christ is the life giver. And the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, Him who is life, it lightens us, that is, it gives us understanding, If you can put two thoughts together, if you can reason, that light of understanding, He gave it to you. Don't boast of how much you know. You wouldn't know anything were it not for the fact that Christ, who is our life, has enlightened you to natural things.

I know we all have different aspects of life that we're attracted to or that we... I know in school, Nancy was the math and the sciences. For me, it was literature and grammar. I didn't do too good in math. I was glad preachers didn't have to have a lot of math classes. But I did need some grammar classes, even though I ain't used to using it all the time. But that's the way my mind goes.

But he has given us different kinds of mental life, of abilities, knowledge, and so forth and so on. He gives us understanding, and he has to give us spiritual understanding, too. You cannot understand this book and the way of salvation by God's free and sovereign grace apart from God giving you an understanding. That light, that enlightenment has to be given by the Lord. Thank God He does give it.

In verse 5 it says, the light shineth in darkness. The darkness comprehended it not. The darkness doesn't receive him as the light, as the sovereign savior. It's almost like in verse 6, it's almost like you kind of think, well, John the apostle is now, he's changing his subject. No, he's not changing his subject, he's just elaborating upon it. Remember, he's talking about the Word. He's talking about our great high priest who humbled himself and then took his glory back.

But he says in verse 6, there was a man sent from God, that is, there came into being this man. Remember Christ, the Son of God, didn't come into being. He's always been. But as far as John the Baptist, he came into being, he was sent from God. His name was John. Malachi chapter 3. Hold your place here and look back at Malachi chapter 3. Last book of the Old Testament. Malachi chapter 3. Malachi the prophet, the last book of the Bible, next to the last chapter of the Bible, so you shouldn't have to look too hard for it, okay? Malachi chapter 3 verse 1. Behold, listen up is what that means. Pay attention now. The Lord says, Christ says, I will send my messenger. This is Christ speaking. And he shall prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple. And he did read in Luke chapter 2. when Mary and Joseph brought Him to the temple, and Simeon was there waiting to see the Lord's salvation, and Anna as well.

He shall suddenly come to whose temple? At His temple. Even the messenger of the covenant. What covenant? Most churches don't even know anything about a covenant. It's the covenant of grace. The covenant of mercy, when the Trinity convened to establish salvation in all the fine points of it. The messenger of the covenant, whom you say you delight in. Behold, he shall come. saith the Lord of hosts. And Christ says here, I will send my messenger. Behold, pay attention now, listen up, I will send my messenger.

And now in John chapter 1 and verse 6, here he comes, the messenger. Verse 7, the same came for a witness. Here's God's messenger, And here's his message, he's a witness. What is a witness? A witness is somebody that tells us what they know.

I don't know whether you've ever been to court or not. Perhaps you have and I hope you weren't the accused. But we won't get into that. Years ago I was summoned to subpoena, excuse me, I was subpoenaed to appear in court as a witness, as an expert witness of someone who had a thorough knowledge of the history of the Baptist denomination. It was in federal court. The only thing that they wanted to know, and even the federal court judge, who even asked me some questions himself, The only thing they wanted to know was, what do you know about this case? Why are you here? Well, I'm here because I was subpoenaed, because I've been a Baptist preacher for several years and I've studied Baptist history. I was only subpoenaed to tell what I know. That's all. Not what I think. Not what I guess. Not when I heard somebody say, what do you know? I remember the judge said, what do you know about this case? And what do you know about the scripture that's in question? You can ask me some other time. I can tell you the background about the whole case. I was a witness.

And you see, the reason the Lord chose John the Baptist is because he himself was a witness of the grace of God at work in his own heart, and he was a witness to the majesty and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who said, Behold the Lamb of God. that taketh away the sin of the world." He was a valid witness. He just told what he knew.

And I've had people say to me, you know, Jim, I don't know how to witness to people. I don't know how to talk to people. Well, has anything happened to you? Well, yeah. The Lord has awakened me, He has given me light to see who Christ is, what I am, that I'm a poor rotten sinner. And He has enlightened me as to the finality of the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ that was a victorious death. Our Lord Jesus did not die to try and save people. He died and saved people by His death. And the Spirit of God comes to us and convinces us that when He said, it is finished, it was finished.

Preachers may not say it's finished. They'll say, it's not finished till you let Him save you. That's another lie. You can't let Him do anything. He does as He pleases. And He saves whom He will. The messenger is John the Baptist. Scripture says he's filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. You say, well, how can you explain that theologically? I don't have to. I don't have to. I'm just told to believe it. God do what he wants to, and he always does. And he gave John a message concerning the Lamb of God, the Son of God. And John saw his glory. And he went forth as the forerunner of Christ. He went announcing that he had come.

Who is John the Baptist? He's God's messenger. That's who he was. And what was his message? The Lamb of God. The Lamb of God. And every true preacher really is just a witness who tells what he knows.

I'll give you one last reference and I want you to turn with me to 1 John 1. I want you to listen to the words of the Apostle John. Look at 1 John 1. Here's another witness. 1 John 1. Verse 1, That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life. For the life was manifested, and we have seen it and bear witness." and show or manifest unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye may also have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.

I come before you this morning as a witness, as a witness. I just tell what I know, what I've experienced, what God has taught me out of His book. And I hope that the same Spirit who witnessed the truth to me has witnessed within your heart that Christ is the only Redeemer and He was absolutely successful in His work.

Let's sing a closing song. Boom.