Let's open the scriptures to
the third chapter of the Gospel of John. John, the third chapter. I'm thankful for those of you
who were able to make it yesterday over to the funeral for Brother
Eccles. It was most encouraging to not
only the family members, but it was to me as I looked out
over the congregation to see so many faces with which I'm
familiar, people who love the gospel of God's grace. I didn't feel so good yesterday. I've had a sore throat for a
couple of days. I've still got a sore throat.
And after this evening, I can rest for a few days until the
Lord's Day, and maybe I'll get over this sore throat. But I
hope that God will bless the word that went forth yesterday
in spite of my infirmities. I had some interesting comments,
and then I had some interesting non-comments as well. But I'm thankful that when the
gospel goes forth, God will bless it to those to whom he sends
it. It'll do its work. So we give
thanks for that. I appreciate you being there.
All right, let's look at the third chapter of John. And this
evening, we're going to begin to look at John's last testimony. And this would be, of course,
the testimony of John the Baptist. Our Lord Jesus, He came into
this world about, oh, six months after John the Baptist. And at age 30, John the Baptist
began his ministry. He's the one who prepared the
way of the Lord. He came preaching Christ Jesus,
and he said, Behold the Lamb of God. After John had been speaking,
preaching for roughly six months, That's when the Lord Jesus began
his public ministry. And indeed, his ministry began
with his baptism by John the Baptist. And then their ministries
overlapped about six more months. Our Lord Jesus, he preached,
John preached, their ministries overlapped about six months,
and then, of course, John was arrested. And the historians
say that he remained in prison about a year before he died. So it kind of gives you an idea
of a time frame there. But in John chapter 3, verse
22, it says, after these things came Jesus and his disciples
into the land of Judea. And there he tarried with them
and baptized. After these things. After these things. After what
things? Well, after our Lord had been
in Jerusalem, after He had gone to the Passover, our Savior,
He attended in His public ministry, He attended four Passovers. This
is the first one. He goes there as God's Passover
Lamb. He goes there as the one whose
blood will be shed for the remission of sins. He goes there as that
one who is the sacrifice for all of his people. So he goes
to the Passover. And after these things, after
he had driven out the buyers and the sellers out of the temple,
and after these things, after he had performed many miracles
in and around Jerusalem, everyone of course, testifying as to His
deity. And we know that that's the reason
John the Apostle wrote the book of John, was to attest to the
deity of the Lord Jesus, that He is the Son of God. Well, after
these things, after He had performed all of these miracles, and then
after His interview with Nicodemus, In that meeting with Nicodemus,
the ruler of the Jews, this Pharisee, in that meeting, our Lord Jesus
instructed him on the necessity of regeneration. Why does a man
have to be regenerated? Well, it's because he's dead.
He's dead in trespasses and in sin. There will be no saving
interest in the gospel. There will be no belief in the
Lord Jesus. There will be no realization
of our lost condition and of our need of righteousness, of
our need of forgiveness, of our need of a mediator, of our need
of a great high priest. There will be no awareness of
our sinful condition and our need of Christ Jesus until the
Spirit of grace works a work of grace within the heart. He
does that in regeneration. He uses the Word of the Gospel
and He brings about life within the soul. Then our Lord Jesus said before
this man the necessity of the Savior's substitutionary work. He said, as you know, in verse
14, the Savior said, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Our Lord Jesus must be lifted
up. After these things, after He
had said to Nicodemus, I must be lifted up. Now we know why
He had to be lifted up. He had to be lifted up in order
to keep His covenant obligations. The Savior is the great surety
of His people. Our Father, God the Father, gave
us to the Son in covenant grace. We were the gift that God gave
Him. And in that covenant of grace,
in that election of grace, our Savior accepted all the responsibility
for our salvation. And therefore He must be lifted
up because He's the Lamb that was slain from before the foundation
of the world. He must be lifted up because
that's the only way sin can be put away. He must be lifted up
because that's the only way everlasting righteousness can be brought
in. He must lifted up, otherwise God in His justice He cannot
justify us unless Jesus Christ offers up Himself, unless Jesus
Christ is lifted up to die in our stead. We read in the book
of Job, and Job is the oldest book in the Bible. In the book
of Job, we read this age-old question, that is, how can God
be just and justify the ungodly? How then can man be justified
with God, or how can He be clean that is born of a woman? And
the answer is, the Son of Man must be lifted up. That's the
answer. That's the answer. It's the only
way. And our Lord Jesus, He said to Nicodemus, the Son of Man
must be lifted up. After these things, after He
had instructed him on regeneration, after He had instructed him on
substitution, and after He had instructed him on the very origin
of God's eternal salvation, that is the love of God. God so loved the world of His
elect that He gave His only begotten Son. He gave Him up to die. He gave Him up to be the offering. He gave Him up to be the sacrifice
for our sins. And all who look to Him, and
who will look to Him, all those who are born of the Spirit, whosoever
believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. And
I say to you this evening, if you look to the Lord Jesus Christ
as your all in all, in that look there is evidence of the grace
of God at work within you. And when you look to the Lord
Jesus Christ, you shall be saved. and you shall have everlasting
life. And then in the Savior's, in
his remarks and as he concluded his remarks to Nicodemus, the
Lord Jesus stressed the necessity of faith in him. And so after
these things, after these things the Lord Jesus goes into the
land of Judea. Now up until this, up until leaving
Jerusalem, he's been in Jerusalem and as we've already gone through
the Passover and the miracles and then this interview with
Nicodemus. But now he takes his disciples
out into the rural area of Judea. And it says there, next to the
last statement of the verse says, and there he tarried with them.
He stayed with them. He sat down with them. He taught
them. He spent time with them. What
a delightful time that would have been for them. Here's the
Lord Jesus. He tarried with them. It reminds
me of those couple of disciples on the road to Emmaus after our
Lord's resurrection. And they said, abide with us. Tarry with us. Stay with us. Don't leave us. And isn't that
what we ask every time we gather together? Lord, tarry with us.
Lord, remain with us. Lord, abide with us. We don't
ever take his presence for granted. I know what his promises are.
He says where two or three are gathered together. in my name. We've been gathered together
in his name. He said, I'll be in the midst.
And we thank God for his promise of being with us. But when we
enter into this building, we don't just assume that he's going
to be here. We don't just take for granted,
well, when we meet together, the Lord is going to be with
us. We say, oh God, the Spirit, oh Spirit of Christ Jesus, please
come and tarry with us for a while. Oh, come and spend some time
with us. And if he spends time with us,
it'll be quality time. It'll be time on our part well
spent when he spends time with us. So he tarried with them.
And then notice this. And baptized. Literally, this
is the imperfect tense. So it's he was baptizing or they
were baptizing. Now look at verse 23. John also
was baptizing. Now remember I said their ministries
overlapped by about six months. John also was baptizing in Ammon. And that's near to Salem, because
there was much water there. And they that came to Him, they
were baptized. John's busy baptizing. Our Lord
Jesus is baptizing. And really not the Lord Jesus
Himself, but His disciples under His authority. And we know that
from chapter 4 and the second verse. And look at this. Though
Jesus Himself baptized not, but His disciples. Well you say, well why does it
say that, and baptized there at the end of verse 22? Because
these men, they baptized under His authority. Our Lord Jesus
didn't baptize anybody. And you can very well imagine
what it would have been like if the Lord had baptized some
people while they would have gone around and said, hey, you
were baptized by John the Baptist? That's nothing. I was baptized
by the Lord Jesus Himself. So He didn't do that. He didn't
baptize. They baptized under His authority. Which leads us to say this. When
the Lord's servants go forth, when we're commissioned by the
Master in His name and by His power, that which God's servants
do is as if the Lord Himself had done it. That's what we learn
from this. I'll give you a verse on that.
Look over Luke chapter 10. Look at Luke chapter number 10
and verse 16. Luke 10 verse 16. Here is what the Lord says to
his disciples. Now these are the 70 that he
sent out two by two. 35 pairs. 70 evangelists. Look at Luke
chapter 10 verse 16. He that heareth you, heareth
me. And he that despiseth you, despiseth
me. And he that despiseth me, despiseth
him that sent me. The Savior is saying as you men
go forth sounding forth the gospel of free grace, the message of
redemption, the message that salvation is of the Lord. Those
that listen to you, those that give you a hearing, those that
rejoice in the message that comes across to them, they are rejoicing
in my message. They are rejoicing in what I
say. They are rejoicing in my gospel. Those that despise what
you say, those who despise the gospel that you proclaim, they
are not despising you, they are despising me. And in despising
me, they are despising my heavenly Father who sent me. So over here
in John chapter 3, when it says that He tarried with them and
baptized, the disciples were baptizing under the authority
of the Lord Jesus. Now again in verse 23, John was
baptizing and notice there in the middle of the verse it says
he was baptizing there because there was much water there. There
was much water there. Now they were, John was somewhere
on the west side of the Jordan River and he was baptizing. Now, if baptism can be performed
by, you know, sprinkling a little bit of water on the head, you
wouldn't need much water. You just need a little water
for sprinkling. You see, immersion is not a mode
of baptism. It is baptism. Immersion is not
one of several ways of baptism. It is baptism. The Lord willing,
this coming Sunday evening, we're going to have baptismal service. A man came and talked to me Monday
in the office and I believe God has saved him by His grace and
he wants to confess his faith in the Lord Jesus in the waters
of baptism this coming Sunday evening. I'm going to immerse
him. I'm not going to sprinkle him.
You see, immersion, it is a picture of death. It is a picture of
the death of our Lord Jesus. God has left to his church two
ordinances. Both of those ordinances illustrate
the gospel of free grace, the gospel of sacrifice and substitution
and satisfaction. There's the Lord's Supper. as
we partook of just a few weeks ago. The bread and the wine speaks
of our Lord's death. This do in remembrance of me.
In doing this we remember His death until He comes again. And
baptism is also a declaration to us of the death of our Lord
Jesus. As the candidate for baptism
is taken into the water, and as I immerse him into the water,
so our Lord Jesus was immersed into death. immersed into death. He really died. He really died. He didn't go to sleep. He didn't
go into a coma. He died. Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures. He gave up the ghost. Baptism
is a picture of our Savior's death, which was necessary, absolutely
necessary, for the satisfaction of God's offended justice. And when birthed that candidate
up out of the water, That picture's the resurrection of our Lord
Jesus. He arose again because he had accomplished justification
and the removal of our sins by his death. Now, those who would
sprinkle, and that's Methodists and Catholics and Presbyterians
and Episcopalians and whoever else, all those folks are absolutely
wrong. That's not baptism. And most of those who have been
sprinkled, they were sprinkled as infants. And that's absolutely
wrong. You see, in the Bible, those
who are baptized, number one, they were immersed. Number two,
they were immersed because they were believers. And I should
say believing first. They're brought to faith in the
Lord Jesus and then baptism is an acknowledgment of your faith.
It is confession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Baptism
as I explained to this young man who met with me Monday. I
told him, it's a confession of faith in Christ Jesus, and it
is an outward testimony to those who give witness of that act,
that you believe God's gospel of grace, you are glad to identify
with the sovereign Savior, you're glad to identify with the preacher
of the gospel, and you're glad to identify with the people of
God. Sprinkling doesn't do that. And
if you were sprinkled, and I'll tell you right now, you haven't
been baptized. And if you're a believer, if
you're a believer, if you believe this gospel, you need to just
throw off that false baptism Because that's what it is, that
sprinkling you need to toss it aside and be rid of it and then
submit to believer's baptism. There's a reason we say it's
believer's baptism because it's for believers. It's like the
Lord's Supper is for believers. John baptized there because there
was much water. Much water. Philip went and he
ministered to the Ethiopian eunuch, and you remember that passage
there in the book of Acts. Philip had been over in Samaria,
and God had blessed, and many people were converted, and then
the Lord said, I'm going to use you out here in the desert. And
so he took him out to a desert, and there was an Ethiopian eunuch
who had been to Jerusalem. He had been to the Bible conferences,
so-called, and he had attended the festivals, and he didn't
get anything. And he's going back, and he's
reading in his chariot from Isaiah chapter 53. And God sent him
a preacher. How shall they hear without a
preacher? Philip goes out there, and he said, where are you reading
from? And the man said, I'm reading
from Isaiah 53. And it's recorded where he was
reading there in the book of Acts. And Philip said, do you
understand what you're reading? And he said, how can I except
some man show me? And Philip began at the same
place in the scriptures and preached unto him Jesus. And then when
they came to a body of water, The Ethiopian eunuch said, here's
water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? Now, baptism is by sprinkling. They could have just stopped
as soon as he believed the gospel that he could have got out his
bag of water, his leather bag of water. And Philip could have
got a little in his hand, just splashed it on his face and said,
OK, you're baptized. Now, he didn't do that. He waited
till there was much water, much water. So John's out there baptizing. People were confessing and acknowledging
their sinfulness, that they needed the Savior. Christ Jesus, the
Messiah, was that Savior. And you'll notice in the verse
24, it says, for John was not yet cast into prison. So again,
I remind you, John had about one year of ministry. One year
of ministry. You think about that. He's a
subject of Old Testament prophecies. Our Lord said, among men there's
not a greater born than John the Baptist. It's been 400 years
since God had a prophet in the world. And now John the Baptist
is that prophet. And John comes as God's prophet
in order to announce the arrival of Messiah? And he doesn't have
a very long ministry. I wonder how long John pastored?
A year. A year. And then he's put in prison. But now look at verse 25 and
26. Then there arose a question. between some of John's disciples
and the Jews about purifying. You know, the Jews, they had
several washings which were for purification. And some of those
did indeed picture the gospel. And our need of being cleansed
by the blood of the Lord Jesus and the washing of water by the
Word of God, but they added other rites and ceremonies for purification. And this kind of a dispute arose. John's disciples and the Jews,
the Jews. And they came unto John in verse
26, and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond
Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness, behold, the same baptizeth,
and all come unto him. The word man is italicized. Here's
the meaning. There are lots of people who
are now following him who used to follow you. Now here's a question that naturally
should be raised in your mind at the beginning of verse 26.
Who does the they refer to? Well, I don't think it refers
to the disciples of John the Baptist. The they would be the
Jews. Because the they, the Jews, they're
trying to stir up strife. They're trying to create envy.
These are troublemakers. They're troublemakers. And I
know that's who they're talking about. I know this is who's being
referred to is because of what John says in verse 28. Let me
get a drink of water and I'll read verse 28. He said to them, ye yourselves bear me witness
that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before Him."
Now go back to chapter 1. Look at chapter 1 verse 19. And this is the record of John
when the Jews, when they sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem
to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed and denied not,
but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then?
Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he
answered, No. Then said they unto him, Who
art thou? That we may give an answer to
them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one
crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the
Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah. So back over here in chapter
number 3. And verse 26, it says, And they
came to John. This is not John's disciples.
And I recognize that among some of the commentators, and if you
are into reading commentators on this, various commentaries,
they'll say this is referring to John's disciples. I don't
think it's John's disciples at all. It's the Jews. And this is what they're trying
to do. And this is what religious folks often try to do. Lots of times they try to do
this. They try to cause divisions and strife among the people of
God. That's exactly what they try
to do. You see, these men were being used in an evil way. In
an effort to divide John and his disciples from the Lord Jesus
and his disciples. And you can rest assured that
when these Jews went to John's disciples and said to them, I
tell you, the one your master preaches, he's now got more followers than
John's got. That was just an ungodly effort
to divide the people of God. And I'll give you this advice,
always beware of those who are trying to divide. You beware
of them. They're up to no good. They're
up to no good. I made this statement to somebody
not too long ago. I said, of course, I'm not going
to compromise the gospel for the truth. or for peace rather,
I'm not going to compromise the truth for peace, but I said this
to them, I don't want to be a peace breaker, I want to be a peacemaker,
don't you? As much as possible, I want to
be a peacemaker. Let's beware of those who, they
try to plant seeds of doubt, little innuendos about a preacher,
or about a congregation, Beware of those who are sowing discord,
seeds of discord among the brethren. Go over to the book of Proverbs
chapter 6. And I really think that to some
degree, this has been practiced by some
folks in our day. And it's very sad. It seems that
rather than wanting to have unity within the body of Christ, there
are some who would divide over maybe just one word, and one
pit churches against each other, and even pit preachers against
each other. And I'll tell you, brethren,
that's vile. That's evil. It's just what the enemies of
our Lord did. And look here in Proverbs chapter 6, look at verse
12. A naughty person, you know what
that word naughty means? An ungodly person. I tell you,
those who would sow discord among the brethren, they're the very
opposite of God. They're trying to divide. A naughty person, the word is
belial, belial. A naughty person, a wicked man
walketh with a froward mouth. In other words, a crooked mouth. He lies or he twists the truth. He winketh with his eyes, that's
kind of a, shows he's got a secret design. He speaketh with his
feet, he teacheth with his fingers. His actions show he has evil
designs. What's the problem? Frowardness
is in his heart. He deviseth mischief continually. He soweth discord, contention. Therefore shall his calamity
come suddenly, and suddenly shall he be broken without remedy.
These six things doth the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination
unto him. A proud look, pride is first. A lying tongue, hands that shed
innocent blood, a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations,
feet that be swift running to mischief, a false witness that
speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among the brethren. It's a vital thing. And over
here in John chapter 3, these Jews, these Jews, they sought
to divide the people of God. That is absolutely evil. It is an evil thing to do. So
these Jews are up to no good. They sought to divide the disciples
of John from our Lord Jesus and His disciples. And they apparently
thought that John's disciples would kind of, they would side
with him. So beginning in verse number
27, John responds. He responds. He's got an answer
for them. And this is John's last recorded
testimony. And we'll get into it more fully
next Wednesday night. But I want you to notice at least
the 27th verse. We'll get through this. John
answered and said, A man can receive nothing except it be
given him from heaven. Now God had mightily used John. But I'll tell you this, the great
success of John's ministry never went to his head. It didn't make
him arrogant. It didn't make him proud. His
office as the last of the Old Testament prophets and his usefulness
in the kingdom of God, they were all attributed by John to the
Lord who was with him, to the Lord who had quickened him, to
the Lord who had taught him the gospel, to the Lord who had gifted
him to make him a bold and faithful witness to Christ. And he says
a man can receive nothing, nothing, except it be given him from heaven. You can't receive salvation except
it be given you from heaven. You can't receive the Lord Jesus
as prophet, priest, and king except it be given you from heaven. And you can't receive, you won't
have any gifts to declare the gospel, to believe the gospel,
or declare the gospel, or embrace the gospel, or support the gospel,
except it be given to you from above. You see, here's the bottom line. We have absolutely got to have
the presence and the power of God with us. or else nothing
of any everlasting significance will be accomplished. I know John's ministry was effective,
and John had a great ministry. And now, in God's providence,
the ministry that John had, it is diminishing. And that's what John wanted.
Because you see, here's what John did. He said, Behold the
Lamb of God. And here's his disciples, and
we've already studied this earlier back in John chapter 1. John
had his disciples. He preached to them, Behold the
Lamb of God. And two of them said, Thank you,
John. Goodbye. We're following Him. We're following Him. John never
sought a following for himself. No, he's not trying to build
up a great big group of people that will follow him through
every town and out in the wilderness where he preached. No, his desire
was follow him. You follow Christ Jesus. And
so to these people who sought to divide the people of God,
John says to them, listen, a man could receive nothing except
to be given him from above. And I'll give you this, and I'll
quit. Every preacher of the gospel is like a star. Isn't that right? According to Revelation chapter
1, the Lord had stars. His preachers are stars. Now, when the night is dark,
the stars are very helpful. But when the sun begins to shine,
when it begins to glow in its brilliance and in its beauty
and in its strength, the stars fade away. You see, John's a
star. And in fact, doesn't it say in
John chapter 5, the Lord said, you are willing for a season
to rejoice in John. He was a shining, a bright and
a shining light. Isn't that what it said? That's
what the Savior said in John chapter 5. And He was, He shined
brightly. But then the Son of Righteousness
arose. Christ Jesus. He comes on the
scene. And He begins to preach. And
the more Christ preached, and the more John pointed people
to him, John, he began to fade. Why is that? Because the sun
was coming up. The Lord Jesus was there. You
see, here's what we desire to do. We want you to see Christ
Jesus. Now if you're in the dark, you
need a star, you need some help. We're like the star that the
wise men saw and led them to Christ Jesus. But after they found Christ Jesus,
then they saw that one who is the very son of God, the son
of righteousness. God's stars begin to fade. Doesn't
mean that they're insignificant. Because we do esteem preachers
high for the gospel's sake. But we see the glory of the Son,
don't we? We see the glory of the Son.
And then this, and now I'm going to turn this around. Here's what
happens, and this is what's happening in a lot of churches. It's happening
in most denominations. When we don't preach Christ and
Him crucified, the Son of righteousness, you know what happens? When the
sun isn't set forth in His glory
and in His beauty, you begin to see the stars. You begin to
see the stars, and then preachers start getting the glory. Preachers
start getting the credit. And you can look, what is a Catholic
church but that? You look at all the gaudy robes
and stuff like that, the priests and the bishops and the cardinals
and the pope. They're all shining. They're
the stars. The sun of righteousness is nowhere
to be seen. See, it works both ways. As we
preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified, the stars are seen less. The
sun is seen more. But if we stop preaching Jesus
Christ and Him crucified, That's when preachers start getting
exalted and we call them reverend so-and-so and doctor so-and-so. And as we exalt the preachers,
you just see the sun of righteousness setting over here in the sunset.
And then darkness comes. And isn't that, in religion today,
isn't it just darkness? It's just false religious darkness. And the only ones who shine are
the false preachers. They're the only ones who shine.
Oh God, keep us exalting Christ Jesus. And let us remember, let
every preacher of the gospel remember, like John the Baptist.
He said, who are you? He said, I'm just a voice. That's
all I am. I'm just a signpost. I'm pointing
you to Christ Jesus the Lord. This is John's last testimony,
and we'll pick up there next week, next Wednesday in our message.
OK.