for all of these people. The
next time you come to action, I want you to speak. So you let
me know. We all want to hear you, OK? So that's public record. Whoever takes a minute, take
a note of that. Yeah. I'll tell you what, you
better be glad I'm not doing it right now. From verses 19 through 37 gives
us a three-day diary of John the Baptist. It's a brief diary. It doesn't tell us everything
that he did for these three days, but it sort of condenses his
ministry and what he did in three days. On day one, that would
be verses 19 through 28, John speaks. He speaks to a delegation
that was sent to him from Jerusalem. And his message is simply this. If we condensed his message of
the first day, of these three days that are set before us here,
If we condensed it down, his message is, Messiah has come. He has come. He's here. He's
here. Unspoken of in the Old Testament,
he's arrived at verses 19 through 28. Second day begins at verse 29,
and it says, the next day, the next day goes verses 29 John is still the speaker, and
remember, in the book, in the Gospel of John, every time you
see the name of John, we're talking about John the Baptist. Because
John the Apostle never refers to himself with his own name. He's the one whom Jesus loved. He's the one who laid his head
on the Savior's breast. So whenever John the Apostle
uses the name John, he's speaking of John the Baptist. And on the
second day, verses 29 through 34, John speaks. Those who listen
to him are just people in general. And his message is this. Now
the first day, his message is, Messiah has come. His message
the second day is condensed into this. Behold the Lamb of God. Focus on Him. Look to Him. Give all your attention to the
Lamb. That's second day. Third day
starts at verse 35. Again, the next day, that goes
to verse 37. Actually, this third day also
includes some of the things that the Savior did. But we're focusing
right now on John's ministry. And in verses 35 to 37, John's
message basically is, follow him. Follow him. He says to his two disciples,
in essence, what are you still standing here with me for? I
told you yesterday, behold the Lamb of God. And here you are
with me, and there he is. Behold the Lamb of God. Follow
him. Follow him. Now the words of John during
these three days, they deserve our attention. First day, Messiah
has come. That one who's spoken of throughout
the Old Testament. That one who's prophesied. That
one who is set before us in picture and in shadow. And in typology,
John says he's here. He's here. We know the scriptures
speak of Christ Jesus. All the prophets wrote of him.
The typologies are of him. Go to a couple of scriptures,
John chapter five. John chapter five. John is saying
he has arrived. The one the prophets wrote about. The one they spoke of. The one
that they said as Malachi summed up all the words of the prophets,
he shall come. And John the Baptist, who is
the last of the prophets, remember there's been 400 years of silence,
and now God sends one last prophet. All the prophets before him were
saying, somebody is coming. Every last one of them. They
all pointed to Jesus Christ coming. And now John the Baptist, he's
the last of the prophets, and in essence he's saying what all
of my brethren have been saying for all these years. That one they spoke about. That
one they prophesied of. That one that they always pointed
to. John said, He has come. All of the Old Testament prophets
speak of it. Look at John 5 and 39. The Savior
said, search the Scriptures. Search the Scriptures. John 5,
39. For in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they
which testify of me. Now remember, in John chapter
1, the apostle John is giving the witness of John the Baptist. John the Baptist is giving his
testimony as to who Jesus of Nazareth is. And so John the
Baptist being the very last of the prophets, we're not at all
shocked to find out that he's testifying of the same one all
the other prophets testified. He's giving witness of him. Over in the book of Acts, we
won't look at this, but in Acts chapter 10, This is what Peter
said concerning the Savior. He said, to him give all the
prophets witness. And we've noticed in John chapter
1 in the studies so far how frequently the word witness is used. Listen,
every preacher of the gospel has the same witness. We all
have the same testimony. We all set forth the same same
gospel, which is the Lord Jesus Christ in salvation by His blood
and righteousness. And every prophet in the Old
Testament, they said, He is coming. And now John the Baptist, the
last of the prophets, he says, He has come. Go back to Luke
chapter 24. Luke chapter 24. We know all
the scriptures speak of the Lord Jesus. in a certain passage of Scripture.
It isn't because he isn't there. It's just because we haven't
been given eyes to see him there yet. But he's everywhere. He's
everywhere in his person. He's everywhere in his work.
He's everywhere in his perfection. His blood is everywhere. His
righteousness is everywhere in this book. This is a bloody book. This is a book about somebody.
Christ Jesus the Lord and the work that he came into the world
to accomplish according to the Father's will. You'll notice
here in Luke chapter 24, look at verse 25. This is when the
Savior is speaking with these disciples on the road to Emmaus. Luke, excuse me, Luke chapter
24 and verse 25. Then he said unto them, O fools,
that's us. That's me. Such a fool. Old fool and slow of heart to
believe all that the prophets had spoken. I was thinking about
that verse today. We're so slow to believe. We're like molasses in the wintertime
to believe. We're so slow. Oh, he's such a fool. I tell
you, unbelief is foolish, isn't it? That's the most foolish thing,
because it's unbelief. It's sin against God. It's not
to believe His Word. And God is ever faithful. When
you don't believe God, you're calling into question His integrity,
His very truth. Oh, God, forgive us for our It's
sinful, isn't it? It's sinful not to believe God.
The Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Oh Lord, please
help me. Because He who gave me faith,
He must increase my faith. He must give me faith to believe
to begin with. Faith originates with the Lord. He must give more. I want to
believe Him more, don't you? And I do believe him, and I know
you believe him. We rest in him. But I want to
rest more fully, don't you? I have a peace, but I want to
have a more blessed peace. Old fools and slow-hearted believe
all that the prophets have spoken. And he said, ought not Christ
to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory?
The only way he's going to enter into glory was through suffering. The suffering first and then
the glory. First the cross and then the
crown. He got to the throne by way of a bloody tree. And he
earned the right by his obedience unto the Father, his obedience
unto death, he earned the right to sit upon the throne of absolute
universal sovereignty. Glory. To enter into his glory. And then beginning at Moses and
the prophets, beginning at Moses and the prophets, he expounded. What's that mean? He unfolded
and he explained unto them in all the scriptures, what scriptures? Old Testament scriptures. That's
all that is. The things concerning himself. They drew an eye into the village,
whether they went. And he made it as though he would
have gone further. He wasn't going to go further,
but he made like he would. But they constrained him, saying,
abide with us. For it's toward evening, the
day's far spent. And he went in to tarry with
them. And it came to pass as they set it meet with them, He
took bread and blessed it and gave it to them and their eyes
were opened. They knew Him. Their eyes were
opened. The eyes of their mind. The eyes
of the soul. The eyes of the heart were opened.
Who opened them? He did. And nobody could open
closed eyes but the Lord of Glory. And when He opens our eyes, we
will see the Lord of glory. That's what we'll see. We will
see His glory. John said, we beheld His glory. That happens when He opens your
eyes. Oh God, open my eyes even more that I might behold His
glory. His dazzling beauty. The glory of His substitutionary
sacrifice. The glory of who He is. The glory
of all of His perfection. The glory of His spotless righteousness. Oh, God, open my eyes to see
even more. I tell you, God's shown us a
lot. But I want to see more, don't
you? I tell you, Moses had seen a
lot. And he said, Lord, show me your
glory. Well, Moses, you've seen the
Red Sea open that he saw the Lord pour out all those plagues
upon Egypt and the Red Sea open, water from a rock, all of the
things that he would later see in addition to what he had seen.
He said, I want to see your glory. Show me your glory. And I tell
you, God's glory is his sovereign grace and mercy descends through
Jesus Christ the Lord. What if nothing gives God greater
glory than this salvation that is totally conditioned on Jesus
Christ the Lord? It's in glory. He opened their
eyes, and they knew Him, and then He vanished out of their
sight. And they said one to another, did not our hearts burn with
thanks? While He talked with us, by the
way, and while He, this is a key word in this passage, He opened
to us the Scriptures. They rose up at the same hour.
They went to Jerusalem. And then the Lord appears to
more disciples. And I'm going to skip down for
the sake of time. Go down to verse 44. And He said
unto these men, These are the words which I have spoken to
you while I was yet wicked. that all things must be fulfilled
which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets,
and in the Psalms concerning me. Then, here's this word again,
opened. Then opened he their understanding,
he opened their minds, that they might understand, that they might
be wise in the Scriptures. And he said unto them, thus it
is written, and thus it behooth Christ, to suffer and to rise
from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission
of sins should be preached in his name among all nations beginning
at Jerusalem and you're witnesses of these things. He opened unto
them the scriptures. Let me give you one other record.
Look over at Acts chapter 26. that the Apostle Paul's defense
before King Nebuchadnezzar, Acts chapter 26. Watch what he says. The Apostle stands before these
high-ranking officials, and basically he says this, this is not a new
message. I'm not saying anything new. Watch at verse 22, Acts 26, 22. Having therefore obtained help
of God, Acts 26, 22, I continue unto this day, witnessing both
the small and great, saying none other thing than those which
the prophets and Moses did say should come. I've got the same
message they've got. I preach them the same thing
they preach. I preach them the same person that they preach. Well, what did they preach? That
Christ should suffer and that He should be the first that should
rise from the dead and should show Himself, should show light
unto the people and to the Gentiles. It's not a new message. If it's
new, it isn't true. And if it's true, it isn't new. What we're saying tonight is
what the prophets said. And the prophets were all saying,
He's coming. He's coming. And the last prophet
said, he's here. He's here. That's John's message. All right, go back to John chapter
1. So that's the first day. That's the first day. He's here.
Well, why did he come? He came to save his people from
their sins. That's why he came. He didn't
come just to set an example for us as to how we ought to live.
He didn't come to start a new religion, start a new denomination. He came to save. He came to redeem. He came to reconcile. He came
to put away the sins of His people. He came to bring in everlasting
righteousness. He came to do everything that
Daniel said He would do and everything the rest of the prophets said He would do. Alright, look at
day 2. This begins at verse 29. Behold
the Lamb of God. That's John's message. John chapter
1 verse 29. That's John's message. on day
two and day three as well. Look. That's what behold means. Look. Go ahead and turn the eyes
of your soul toward Him. You've been looking to everything
else. You've been looking to the law. You've been looking
to Moses. You've been looking to morality. You've been looking
to your own righteousness. Behold. Look. Focus in. He's the only Redeemer. He's
the only Mediator. Behold the Lamb of God. That's
our message. Not behold the church. Not behold
the preacher. Not behold the baptistry. Not
behold your good works, but behold the Lamb of God. Behold His perfection. Behold His person. Behold His
work. Behold His blood. Behold His
righteousness. Behold Him. Behold the Lamb of
God. Then on the third day, the third
day, verse 35, and again the next day after John stood with
his disciples, looking upon Jesus as he walked, he said, Behold
the Lamb of God. Then they followed Jesus. I want
you to notice something. In verse 29, his message, to the people in general. These
are lost people. These are people that don't know
God, people who come out in the wilderness to hear him preach.
You know what his message was? Behold the Lamb of God. Now on
this third day, he's got a real small congregation. He's got
two men. They're his disciples. They're
believers. But you know what? He preached
the same message to them that he brings to the world. He doesn't
change it. You know, his way it is in most churches. Not true
churches, but maybe I should say religious establishments.
At least the kind I grew up in. Maybe Sunday morning he has more
of an evangelical type of sermon is what the preacher had. And
then Sunday night and Wednesday night, there's no evangelism
at all. There's no preaching. Of course,
he wasn't preaching the gospel anyway, but nothing along that
line. But our message, it doesn't change
from time to time. Our message is always the same. Behold the Lamb of God. It doesn't
matter who the congregation is. It may be we're preaching the
congregation of people that they never heard the gospel. I went
out and had that funeral up in Alma last week. And most of the
people, and it was probably the church building was, I'd say,
75% full, 75% to 80% full. Big crowd, biggest crowd I've
seen there in many, many years, since the last big funeral. But a few of them were church
folk, and they needed the gospel. But most of them, they didn't
know the gospel. They hold the Lamb of God. You
tell them who the Lamb is. You tell them what the Lamb did.
You tell them why the Lamb had to do it. And you tell them where
the Lamb is now. And then when the Lord's people
gather together, we still preach the same message. It doesn't
change. John's message didn't change.
It didn't change from the second day to the third day. It did
not change. He says, Behold the Lamb of God.
He said, Follow Him. They followed Him. Don't follow
me. I'm not the way of peace. Brother
Bill's not the way of peace. I'm not the way to God. He's
not the way to God. No preacher's the way to God.
There's one way to God, and Christ said, I'm the way. Man, oh man, we'd be in competition
with the Savior. We'd be in trouble, sure enough.
You know, I'm the way, follow me. No, I'm not the way. I'm
in the way of righteousness myself. Christ Jesus is my way and he
better be your way because he's the only way. He's the only way
to God. He's the only way to heaven.
He's the only way to life. He's the only way to forgiveness.
He's the only way to righteousness. He's the only way to know God.
It's through Jesus Christ the Lord. I'm not the way. I fear. During my ministry, there have
been some that only followed me. And that's the last thing
we wanted. We don't want that. And then
what happens? The preacher leaves. And you see folks just fizzle
out. Why? That just tears my heart
out. I had a couple. I preached to them. Years ago, in Rocky Mountain,
my first pasture was there in the 75. Been there a few years. I met this couple in the community,
and they've gone along and made a professional of they. And they
ran well till I left. And then they left. Well, that just kills me. because they weren't following
Christ Jesus. John said to his two disciples,
behold the Lamb of God that you may follow him. That's why John's
ministry was all about pointing people to Christ Jesus. These
men had sat under John's ministry. They had listened to John. They
had learned from John. And John had been preaching to
them about Messiah. And then Messiah has come. John
has baptized him. John sees him coming down the
road and John says to these two disciples, he said, now there
he is. There he is. Well, won't it hurt
your feelings if we leave you? No, it'll hurt my feelings if
you stay. I want you to go. I want you
to go. I want you to go to him. Learn from him. Sit at his feet. John says, I'm just a voice anyway. Right there's the one I'm preaching
about. In flesh and blood right there in front of me. I point you to Him. Behold the Lamb of God. The one
you still do is standing beside me. Go over there. Align yourself
with Jesus of Nazareth because He is the Christ. He's the Son
of God. These things were done in Bethsaida,
that is, on this first day of this three days that the Spirit
of God gives us. The things that John spoke, they
were done in Bethsaida. That was beyond Jordan where
John was baptized. John was in Bethsaida, next to
the Jordan River. He's baptizing those who came
to him. All who were troubled over their
sin. All who needed a savior. All
who wanted forgiveness. All who believed the message
of John the Baptist came to him and submitted to his baptism.
But you read in Luke chapter 7, the Pharisees would not submit
to his baptism. They wouldn't justify God. They
didn't believe the gospel of grace that honors God's justice
in the death of a suitable substitute. They didn't believe they wouldn't
submit to John's baptism. Well, John's out there in Bethabara
baptized. And multitudes of people came
to John and submitted to his baptism. This is where the delegation
from Jerusalem came. Remember we said John's not preaching
in the center of God. He's not preaching in the temple
in Jerusalem. He's preaching out in the wilderness.
He's preaching out in the desert. People came out to hear him.
Those who believed his message submitted his baptism, his baptizing
in the Jordan River. Now the Jordan River's a picture
of death. It's a picture of death. In fact, the word Jordan means
descender. Descender, going down, going
down into, as in going down into death. Jeremiah said, how wilt
thou do in the swelling of the Jordan? When you go down into
the Jordan, how will you do? Oh, that's something good to
think about, isn't it? How are you going to do when
you go into the Jordan? And you know what Bethaphra means?
It means a place of passage. place of passage. That's where
Gideon, Judges chapter 7, it's where Gideon led the men of Ephraim
against the Midianites. They passed over. The place of
passage was Bethaphat. That's where John's preaching.
John was led to baptize at Jordan because baptism pictures that
the believer has died with Jesus Christ. And we're raised again
in Jesus Christ. Isn't this fitting? That John
would be baptizing in the Jordan near Bethabara. Jordan means
going down into death and Bethabara means the place of passage through
death. And the one John is preaching,
he is the passage through death. There's life in Christ. Baptism. Believer's baptism. What does it signify? The death,
the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And I'll tell
you, when He died, we were buried. When He was raised again, we
were raised again. We're in Christ Jesus. When He
died to sin, guess what? We died to sin. We're dead to
sin. Read Romans chapter 6 again.
We're dead to sin. We're dead to sin because Christ
died to sin. And when he was raised to life,
we were raised to new life. He's the only safe passage through
death and new life. Let me tell you something. Every
other way is just another road of death. That's all it is. Behold
the Lamb of God. Safe passage for your soul. Safe
passage for your soul. Like John, I say, behold the
Lamb of God. Look to Him. The Israelites murmured
and murmured against God's good providence. The Lord sent them
fiery serpents to beat the people. Moses helped us. Moses went to
God. Moses then to Caesar. Moses the
Mediator, a picture of Christ Jesus. The Lord said, you put
up a serpent of brass on the pole. And whoever looks, whoever
beholds it, will live. And John says in John chapter
3, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth, whosoever
looketh, whosoever beholdeth Him hath eternal life. Amen. And I say we've been bitten
by the serpent of sin, and I've got a word for you tonight. Behold
the Lamb of God. Well, what do you do? John said,
behold the Lamb of God He doesn't say He took it away, although
that's true. That's true. He took it away
by His death. He took it away. He was manifested
to take it away, wasn't He? John says who take it away. He's going to make sure they're
gone forever. They're never going to come back.
They will never be raised again. Oh, I tell you, I was raised
in a church where I said that one of these days your life's
going to be like a motion picture at the judgment. And the Lord's
going to set the machine to go, the projector, that's what we
had back in those days. The projector's going to be going,
your life's going to be up on the screen. You're going to be
just squalling and crying in loss of reward. You're just barely
going to get in because you're going to be, all your sins and
all your, you didn't do enough good works like you ought to
have. Let me tell you something. That's so contrary to scripture
that it ain't even funny. They're gone. They're gone. Your sins are gone. Your childhood's
gone. You who believe on Christ Jesus,
you rest in Him. If you believe His blood and
His righteousness, He's your only hope of life and salvation. If He's your only hope of life
and salvation, on the authority of the Word of God, I say to
you, your sins are G-O-N-D, gone, and they're never coming back
again. They're never going to be raised up. There's no resurrection
for sin, because sin died when Jesus Christ died, and there's
no resurrection for the sin, but resurrection for the Savior,
God. Isn't that good news? Oh boy,
that ought to float your boat. That ought to put some wind in
your sails. For sure, for sure. Behold the
Lamb of God. Isaac said to his father, Father,
our brother read it awhile ago, behold the fire and the wood,
but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? My son, God will provide
himself a lamb. He did. He has come into the... The Lamb has come. That's what
John said day one. John said, He's here! He's here! He did just exactly what He came
to do. He didn't put everybody in a
savable state. He saved His people from their
sin. A world of sin. The world of His life. You know
this is not teaching universal redemption. Because everybody
isn't in heaven. If Jesus Christ died to everybody,
hell would be empty and heaven would be full of everybody. Amen. I think so. That's not going
to happen. He did save, He did redeem a
world, the world of Israel. A people from every, you read
it a while ago, nation, kindred, tribe, people from everywhere. He redeemed them. His spirit
in time causes them to have their path crossed by a gospel preacher,
a man who's got the sword of the spirit. And he preaches the
word of God. And all of a sudden, that sword
of the spirit is thrust into the heart of the sinner. And
he never gets over it. Have you ever gotten over that
love Christ has given to you? The love of God's shadow brought
in. Or you'll get over it because you see His glory. And you see
more of His glory. And the longer you live, and
this is what growing in grace is. Growing in grace, I don't
think it's growing better. It's a growth in you realizing
how desperately you need grace and how wonderfully God has given
you all of His grace in Christ Jesus. brings you to greater appreciation
of what the Lamb has done for you. The Lamb. Behold the Lamb. Behold the Lamb. He's here. He's come. Behold the Lamb. Follow Him. John says, the Apostle John says
in the book of Revelation, these are those who follow Him, whithersoever
He goeth. He said, my sheep hear my voice,
and I know them, and they what? They follow me. What are you doing following the preacher?
Follow Christ. Follow the lamb. Follow the lamb. All right, let's sing 216. All right, 216. Good to see you tonight. We didn't
have the internet. We're not on the internet. I'm sorry that this is out in
the world wide web. I'm sorry that they couldn't
hear us tonight, but I didn't feel the need to make an announcement. Okay, stay.