Let's open the scripture this
evening to the third chapter of the Gospel of John. John,
third chapter. This is the last testimony of
the Baptist, of John the Baptist. He speaks of the greatness of
the Savior. And this is indeed the ministry
and the duty of every minister of the Gospels to set forth Christ
Jesus and to exalt Him and to lift Him up and to admonish each
of us to believe on the blessed Savior. Now in John chapter 3
we have this last testimony of John and it begins really at
verse 27. and goes down through the end
of the third chapter. Now, look at verse, let's look
at verse 26 first of all. They came to John, these are
the Jews, those that, they had went to
John's disciples and the head which there endeavoring to do
is to stir up jealousy or envy between the disciples of John
the Baptist and the disciples of our Lord Jesus, and even to
stir up envy and jealousy in the heart of John the Baptist
toward the Savior. You'll notice there in the 26th
verse, they came to John. They said to John, Rabbi, he
that was with thee beyond Jordan, that is the one whom thou bearest
witness to, behold the same that thou bearest witness, behold
the same baptizeth, and all men come to him. And then this is
what John said to them. This is his response to them. He answered and said, he said,
a man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven. We know that John was used greatly
of the Lord. He was a mighty preacher of the
gospel, but that success that God gave him It wasn't a source
of arrogance to him. He didn't become proud of it. You know, he's the last of the
Old Testament prophets. The Savior said, of those born
to women, there's none greater than John the Baptist. He's spoken
of in the Old Testament as being the one who would announce the
coming of the great Messiah. And indeed, he was very effective
in the kingdom of God. God used him in a mighty way.
God quickened sinners through his ministry. Many people were
baptized of John the Baptist. And yet, this man, he had no
room for self-glory. There is no room in his own ministry,
he said, for him to be exalted. He is a real servant of the Lord.
He recognized this, that every gift that God gives to his servants,
every ministerial gift, and ability that God gives to those that
preach the Gospel, those gifts have got to come from God. He
didn't get a big head about His ministry. You don't hear Him
saying anything like, do you men know who I am? Do you men
understand my ministry? I'm spoken of in the book of
Isaiah. And of course, all of the Israelites,
Isaiah was one of the main prophets of the Old Testament. And Isaiah
spoke of John the Baptist, but John the Baptist, he never bragged
about the fact that he was the object of Old Testament prophecies. He never spoke about his own
greatness. He's always speaking of the greatness
of the Lord Jesus. He's always speaking of God's
Lamb, the Lamb of God that came to take away the sin of the world
of God's elect. And when these men, they come
to him and they're trying to stir up something. They're endeavoring
to make some trouble between John the Baptist and the Lord
Jesus, and John just says this, listen, we can't receive anything
unless God gives it to us. And this is not only ministerial
gifts, this is not only the ability to stand before a congregation
and preach the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus, but this is
all spiritual things. We can't receive the gospel unless
it's given to us from God. Here's the message of redemption.
Here's the message of salvation by grace. This is the message
of our Lord Jesus who has come into the world to save the lost. It's a wonderful message. It
is full of good news. It's full of forgiveness. It's
full of the righteousness that God demands. This message of
the gospel meets the needs of great sinners like you and me,
and those who don't think they're such great sinners. It meets
their need too when God makes them to realize how needy they
are. But the ability to deliver the
message with whatever gifts, whatever abilities that God gives,
the Lord has to give the gifts. He has to give the gift. And
the reception of the gospel, He's got to give the gift of
faith. It's a wonderful message. It's full of good news, but nobody
can believe the gospel unless God gives them faith to believe
it. This is a great miracle. We ought to believe the Gospel.
We should believe the Gospel. We should embrace the Son of
God. We should see Him in the Scriptures
and say, listen, this is the one I must have. This is the
Savior I need. I need somebody to do business
with God for me. It's the only reasonable message
that there is. Because it's a message all of
grace. It's a message all of God. It's
a message all of Jesus Christ. It's the most reasonable message
there is, but not to the natural man. And we'll only believe the gospel,
we'll only embrace the gospel, if God gifts us to embrace the
gospel. He's got to bless us with the
knowledge of Christ Jesus. Otherwise, we won't believe Him.
John says, listen, a man can receive nothing. He can receive
nothing except it be given to him from heaven. That is from
God. And this is what this does. It
backs us up in a corner. The proverbial corner. And it
leaves us right here. If anything is to be done for
us spiritually and eternally, God's got to do it. God's got
to do it. This is not in the hands of the
sinner. This is not up to you. It's not
up to me. It's not up to our will. It's
not up to us making a decision for Jesus. It's up to the Lord
God of glory to give us life. to give us forgiveness, to give
us righteousness, and to give us the ability to receive the
gospel, to believe the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what John says. Whatever gifts he had, God gave
them to him. The scripture says he was filled
with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. Well, I ask you,
who filled him? He didn't feel himself. It wasn't
Zacharias, his father. It wasn't Elizabeth, his mother. It's the Lord who filled him
with the Holy Ghost. It's the Lord who gifted him.
It's the Lord who qualified him. It's the Lord who taught him
the Gospel. It's the Lord who revealed to
him the Lamb of God who came as the substitute for sinners
and to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. He says a man can
receive nothing except it be given to him from heaven. spiritual, spiritual things. There can be no discernment.
There can be no understanding, unless God gives it to us. Now
that's why we begin the service, by asking God to bless, by asking
God to speak. Because we know if the only words
you hear are the words coming out of my mouth, If the only
message you hear is the message of the preacher, you won't be
any better off spiritually. You've got to hear from Him who
speaks from heaven. You've got to hear from Him who
speaks with a voice that wakes up the dead. It's like when our
Lord went to the tomb of Lazarus. There have been lots of weeping
at the tomb of Lazarus, but all the weeping at the tomb of Lazarus
from Mary and Martha and all the other relatives and friends
that were dear to Him, people who loved Him, all of their weeping
and all of their sobbing and all of their begging, I wish
you hadn't have died, that didn't change anything. It took the
voice of the Son of God to raise Him back to life. And it takes
the voice of the Son of God to raise us to spiritual life. A
man can receive nothing except it be given to him from heaven.
Look at the 28th verse. He says, you yourselves bear
me witness. Now he's speaking to the Jews.
To the Jews. He says, you bear me witness.
You know what I said. I said to you, I am not the Christ. But I am sent before him. Go back to the first chapter
of John again. Look at verse 19. And we looked
at this briefly last week. But I'd like to visit again.
And this is the record of John. When the Jews sent priests and
Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? We want to
know who you are. You're out here in the wilderness
and you're preaching. And you're baptizing. And great
crowds are flocking to hear you. Well, we want to know who you
are. And he confessed and denied not, but confessed, I'm not the
Christ. I'm not the Messiah. I'm not
the Savior. And they asked him, well, what
then? Are you Elijah? He said, I'm
not. Art thou that prophet? That prophet
spoken of in Deuteronomy by Moses? And he answered, no. Then said
they unto him, well, who art thou? That we may give an answer
to them that sent us, watch this, He asks this question, What sayest
thou of thyself? What do you have to say of yourself? You go out here preaching and
you are baptized, what do you have to say about yourself? What
are your credentials? And he said, I am the voice. and the voice of one cry in the
wilderness make straight the way of the Lord as said the prophet
Isaiah. I was thinking that if this had
been some of the preachers of our day who are apparently they don't
mind promoting themselves If John the Baptist had been like
them and they said, who are you? Well, they'd be quick to tell
them. I'll tell you, here are my credentials. I went to this
and such seminary and I've been preaching for this many years
and I've done this and I've built churches and I've got this many
followers. John says, I'm just a voice.
I'm just a voice. He doesn't take any credit at
all. He was not a self-promoter. He genuinely sought to extol
and to exalt God's Son only. Only the Lamb of God. And really,
this is so of every preacher of the Gospel. We're not self-promoters. I tell you what we will do, Whenever
you find a real servant of the Lord, he will promote other servants
of the Lord. He'll say, listen to brother
so and so, he'll tell you the truth. And he'll build up another
man's ministry, but he doesn't promote himself. God's preachers,
God has made them to be humble men. John the Baptist, he never
set forth himself. He didn't even tell them his
name. I'm just a voice. You don't need to know me. You
need to know the one of whom I speak. You need to know the
Lamb of God. You need to know the one who
sent me with my message. But you don't need to know me.
I'm just a voice. I'm just a voice. You notice
what he says, go back to the third chapter. He says in verse
29, He said, He that hath the bride is the bridegroom. You want to know who I am? I'm
the friend of the bridegroom. That's all I am. I'm the friend
of the bridegroom. And back in those days, that
one who was the friend of the bridegroom, well, he was sort
of like the best man at weddings today. But his job was to make
sure everything, everything pointed to the bridegroom. Because back in those days, the
weddings weren't like they are today. Today they're all about
the bride. I've had a lot of weddings and
I know the bridegroom, he's just, he's a necessary evil. It's the
bride. It's the bride's day. It's the
bride's gown. It's the bride who picks out,
okay, we're going to have this kind of cake, and here my bridesmaid's
going to have this kind of, these gowns and so forth. Here are
the colors I want, here are the flowers I want. Well, and she
says to the bridegroom, well, who do you think the photographer
ought to be? I don't care, honey, you just
pick out whoever you want. It's all about the bride today,
but it didn't used to be that way. It used to be the bridegroom. He stood front and center, the
bridegroom. Our Lord Jesus is the bridegroom
and he has a bride. Go with me to Ephesians. Look
in the book of Ephesians. I tell you, in this everlasting
marriage, this union of the Lord Jesus and His bride, it's about
the Savior. It's about the bridegroom, Ephesians
chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 25,
Husbands, love your wives. As Christ also loved the church
and gave Himself for it, that he might sanctify and he cleanse
it with the washing of water by the word, and he might present
it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing, but that he should be holy and without blemish.
And so ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He
that loveth his wife loveth himself. But no man ever yet hated his
own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord
the church. For we are members of his body,
of his flesh, and of his bones." Then he says, for this cause,
shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined
unto his wife, they too shall be one flesh. This is a great
mystery, but I speak, and this is what the Apostle Paul does,
He tells us what he's really talking about. I speak concerning
Christ and the church. Our Lord Jesus is the bridegroom. And he has a bride. He has a
bride. This is a bride the Father gave
him in old eternity. It was for the bride that he
came into this world. It was for the bride that He
gave Himself a ransom for us. And John says, John says, I'm
just a friend of the bridegroom. That's all I am. I'm not the
bridegroom. And what he's saying is, this
is not about me. It's not about me. It's not about
the preacher. Listen, we've got to have preachers. There's no question about that.
The Scripture says, how shall they hear without a preacher?
But it's not about the preacher. And I'm always worried that we
get, you know, we're men worshipers. And it's easy for people to be
that way, to become that way, and we get so wrapped up with
and so caught up with the preacher. Well, this is my favorite preacher,
or I really like the way he preaches, or I like his demeanor in the
pulpit. We all have our favorites. But
the thing of it is, no preacher of the gospel wants any recognition. He wants a recognition to go
to the Lord Jesus. He's the one we lift up. And
the fact of the matter is this, God gives different gifts and
different abilities to His different servants. And some are very,
very loud. Some are real quiet. But the all-endeavored has said
before you, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It's the message,
it's the message, not the messenger. I know we esteem preachers highly
for the gospel's sake, and we should do that, but it's not
about the preacher. It's never been about the preacher.
This is what John the Baptist is saying, it's not about me.
It's not about me. You bear me witness that I said
to you, I'm not the Christ. I'm not the Christ. I'm sent before Him. Well, who
are you? I'm the friend of the bridegroom.
That's all I am. I'm a friend of the bridegroom.
I'm down here preaching and I know he's got a bride. And the Spirit of God will bring
out the bride. He'll make them to be known.
He'll make them to know that they are the bride and they'll
fall in love with the bridegroom. And John says, when you come
to love the bridegroom, that's my joy is fulfilled in that. I want you to know Him, this
One whom to know His life everlasting. You don't need to know me. One
of the things you'll remember about brother Bill Clark and
his radio program that went out in French, He didn't introduce
himself. He didn't give his name. He didn't
give his name. And somebody asked him, Brother
Clark, why don't you give your name out? He said, because you
don't, people out there, they don't need to know me. We're not self-promoters. John
the Baptist was not a self-promoter. He promoted the Savior. He said,
I'm sent to bear witness of Him. I'm just a friend of the bridegroom.
And he said, this is what causes me to be happy. Look at verse
29. He that hath the bride is the
bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth
and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice.
This my joy therefore is fulfilled. My goal, he said, is for you
to follow the Lord Jesus. And I know this is so. As we get a greater knowledge
of the Lord Jesus and His greatness and His glory and His beauty,
and as we preach Him and as people fall in love with Him, oh, they're
still grateful for the preacher, but they'll be bragging on the
Savior. That's who they'll brag on. I'm thankful for the man
that God used to bring me to the gospel because God does use
men to preach the truth. But the man who said before me
the gospel of God's grace, he didn't save me. He didn't put
my sins away. He didn't die for me. He didn't make me righteous. I'm not accepted in him. I'm
thankful for him, but you know what? He's a sinful man. Those who preach the gospel to
us, we're sinful men. We're weak vessels. Over to the
book of 2 Corinthians. Look at 2 Corinthians. Oh, where
is that? Chapter 4? Yeah, chapter 4 of 2 Corinthians. Look at verse 5. 2 Corinthians 4, 5. For we preach
not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. It's not about me. For those of you who have been
here for many years, it wasn't about Henry Mahan. It wasn't
about Bill Parker. And it's not about me. We're
just messengers. That's all we are. We're just
messengers. We preach, not ourselves. We are not promoting ourselves.
We are not promoting a denomination. We are not even promoting this
church. We are not church promoters. We are Christ promoters. This
is what John is saying. He said, I don't set forth myself.
We preach, not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. If you want to know what we are,
we are your servants. That's what he says. That's what
Paul says. We're your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure, and
this gospel is a treasure. It is a treasure. But we have
it in earthen vessels. Just a weak, feeble, earthen
vessel. And it's that way in order that
the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. Not of us. John says, I'm just a friend
of the bridegroom. Notice what he says in verse
30 back in our text. In John chapter 3, he says, He
must increase, but I must decrease. He must
increase, but I must decrease. I'll give you two facts about
a God called, God taught preacher. First of all, he does preach
the true gospel. And not another gospel, but the
gospel of good news. The gospel of salvation conditioned
upon the obedience of our Lord Jesus even to his death. God's preachers declared salvation
by grace. God's preachers attribute the
salvation of a sinner from first to last to be of the Lord. He doesn't compromise at any
point. God's preachers tell us that
the lifting up of a sinner from the cesspool of sin, and the
raising him to the very heights of glory, it's all of God. Salvation is of the Lord. I'll
guarantee you this, God's servants will never give any sinner any
room or any reason to boast. And I know this about God's preachers,
secondly, God called, God taught preacher of the gospel. He knows
he's nothing and he knows Christ is everything. In other words, God's preachers,
they declare the truth in humility. John said, I'm just a voice.
I'm just somebody preaching about the Lamb of God. I'm just someone bragging about
the Savior. I'm just a clay pot. Just a clay
pot. You see, John was a man who preached
the truth, and he was a humble man. He was a great prophet. There hadn't been a prophet in
Israel for 400 years. But he said, I'm just a voice. Just a voice. I know how easy
it is to get caught up with preachers and we do esteem them highly
for the gospel's sake, but don't ever elevate a preacher
to a height that he has no right to occupy. Or if you do that, you put him
in a dangerous position because God's going to have to show you
he's just a man. And He will show you that. If
you esteem a preacher too highly, you lift him up to a position,
you kind of enthrone him, you lift him up to a position that
only Christ Jesus occupies, you put that preacher in a dangerous
position. Because God is going to show
you, now wait a minute. This is my beloved son. I just
have one beloved son. This man over here, he's my servant. He's my preacher. He's bragging
on my son, but he's not the Savior. He didn't redeem you. He didn't
reconcile you. And though he has the message,
he's just a sinner saved by grace, just like you are. Magnify the
Son of God. You see, we know this, the power
is not in the preacher, It's in the Lord and in His Word. Look at verse 31. He that cometh
from above is above all. He that is of the earth is earthy. He's earthly and speaketh of
the earth. He that cometh from heaven is above all. And beginning
in verse 31, I'll give these to you quickly. John gives four
reasons why Christ must increase and His preachers must decrease.
Number one, because of his origin. He's from heaven. John said,
I'm from the earth. I'm earthly. He's from heaven. He's heavenly. Here again, the
emphasis is on the deity of the Lord Jesus. I remind you of this. We learned this as we started
our studies in the Gospel of John, that John's purpose in
writing the book is to show us that Jesus of Nazareth is the
Son of God. He's the Son of God. He's divine.
He's deity. He is from heaven. He's the Son
of God. The emphasis again is on His
deity. He's from heaven, John says.
It's just like in John chapter 6. You ever notice, and I'm sure
you have, how many times the Savior said that the bread of
God is He which came down from above, He came down from heaven?
The Father sent Him. That's what He stresses. Here
in John chapter 3, it's already been stressed by the Savior Himself
that He came from above. Go back in John 3, look at verses
12 and 13. He says, If I have told you earthly
things, and you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell
you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to
heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of
Man which is in heaven. Where did you come from? I came
down from heaven, he says. He came from heaven. So four
reasons why Christ must increase and the preacher must decrease.
Number one, because of His origin. Number two, because of His authority. Look at the authority of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He says, He that cometh from
above, verse 31, is above all. He is above all. That is, He has all authority. Because He's God. There is none
higher than the Lord Jesus Christ. John draws a contrast between
himself and the Lord Jesus. He's from heaven. He has all
authority. Here's the third thing. Look
at verse 32. And what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth,
and no man receiveth his testimony. That is, here's what John is
saying here. This is another reason why Christ
must increase and the preacher must decrease. Number one, because
of his origin. Number two, because of his authority.
And number three, because of his infant knowledge. what He's
seen and heard, He testifies. Our Lord Jesus had an absolute
thorough knowledge of all things eternal. He has an exact knowledge
of all the secrets of God. He's been with the Father forever.
He knows the mind of God. He knows the will of God. He
knows the purpose of God. He knows the way of God. He knows
the promises of God. He has infinite knowledge. You notice there at the end of
verse 32, and no man received his testimony. As mentioned to Ron yesterday,
as I was looking down through here, look back at verse 26.
These are the disciples of the Jews. And the last statement
of verse 26, And behold, the same baptizeth, and all come
to Him. Here are the disciples of the
Jews, and they see all of these people flocking to Jesus of Nazareth. And they say to John's disciples,
All men go to Him! All men go to Him! But this is
what John says. John has a different perspective. John says at the end of verse
32, no man received his testimony. Well now, which is it? Which
is it? Here the Jews are saying, everybody
is following Him, everybody is believing Him. And John said,
nobody is believing Him. You see, the Jews saw the crowds. They saw the numbers. They saw
the multitudes. And let's face it, that's what
the natural man goes by. How does a natural man judge
the success of a preacher? Numbers. Great crowds. Well, the Lord must be blessing
over thus and so church because look, their parking lot is absolutely
filled. That's the way the natural man
thinks. And the Jews said, well look, Everybody's following Jesus of
Nazareth. They're deserting you, John.
They're following Him. And John says, Oh, this One who
came down from heaven, no man receiveth His testimony. Oh,
yeah, great crowds did follow Him, but relatively few really
believed Him. Relatively few. But those who do receive Him, look at verse 33. He that received
His testimony. So, in verse 32, John is not
saying, well, nobody believes Him. But what he's doing, he's
drawing a contrast. You folks think everybody's following
Him? No. No, just a few. But he says this, those that
receive his testimony hath set to his seal, God is true. God is true. Those who believe the Son of
God, they validate the Word of God. Not that God's Word needs
validating, but in their own heart, They give evidence God's
Word is true because they believe the Lord Jesus. They rest in
Him. Because this, look at verse 34,
and this is the fourth reason why He must increase and preachers
must decrease. The fourth reason is this, He's
God in the flesh. For he whom God hath sent speaketh
the words of God, for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto
him." He is divine. He is divine. He is the Lord
of glory. So he says in verse 35, The Father
loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand. That
is everything. Everything has been given to
the Son of God. And verse 36, John reaches the
climactic point. He that believeth on the Son,
the Son, the One who came from above, the One who has all authority,
the One who has infinite knowledge, That one who is the Son of God,
he that believeth on the Son, he hath everlasting life. Now, I ask you, do you believe
on the Son of God? Do you believe Him? And if you
do, the reason you do is because you have everlasting life. God's
given you life to believe Him, and the life that you have, that
God gave you, will never die. And he that believeth not the
Son, here's the flip side, he that believeth not the Son shall
not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. And now I leave it to the Spirit
of God to give you some discernment as to whether you believe the
Son of God or whether you don't believe the Son of God. I know
this, those who live and die in unbelief, the wrath of God
will always abide upon them. Oh, out of concern for your soul,
I admonish you, flee to Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Believe Him as He set forth in
the Word of God. But if you don't believe Him, if you die in your sins, the
Savior said, where I am, you can't come. You can't come. Oh, may God the Spirit work a
work within us. We've got to receive something
from heaven. We've got to receive life. God's
got to give us life to see and perceive and understand and grasp
the gospel of redemption, the gospel of substitution. He's
got to give us faith. He's got to give us repentance
to turn from our dead works, our dead religious works. He's
got to give us repentance to turn away from our idols, our
false notions of God. He's got to give us faith. to
believe the Lord Jesus. And as we believe the Lord Jesus
and as we grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus,
oh, we'll still be thankful for the preachers. We'll give thanks
to God for the preachers. But the emphasis will grow less
and less on the preachers and more and more on the Son of God. And that's the way God's preachers
want it. Because we're not seeking a following
for ourselves. We're preaching, like John, the
Lamb of God, the Lamb of God that came and took away the sins
of the world of His elect.