It's showing us a historical
point because if we see in verse 22, let's read there, it says, John also was baptizing at Anon
near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were
coming and being baptized. For John had not yet been put
in prison." Okay, so let's think about this. What is there to
preach in a text like this? What doctrine is there? Nothing,
except the doctrine of, next, this happened. Except we know
that this is a narrative of history. Except that we know that there
is some doctrinal practices going on like baptism. Except that
we know now all of a sudden here's a ministry of Jesus and a ministry
of John the Baptist and they're in the same area. There's a lot
to say here. So when you look at this text,
it may seem as though it's not important. that, you know, the
meat and the potatoes of most texts, most people want to say,
well, what's this great truth that's being taught? That's good.
Without the great truths, what would the adhesive be? What would
the sidelines be? What would the narrative be?
But you'll notice something about Scripture. It's not just a list
of doctrinal teachings. It's not just a page after page
of theologies. They're letters. They're stories. They're narratives. They're historical
records. their chronologies, their rebukes,
poetry, and everything in between. There are many different types
of literature found in what we call the Bible. The Bible in
itself is not one book, but 66 different literary pieces combined
together by the Lord to show us the full narrative of His
revelation to us. And so when we look at these
things, we know that Jesus was there talking to Nicodemus. And it was after or amongst the
same time of the Passover feast. And they were in Jerusalem at
the time, and so after this point, they left Jerusalem and go into
the countryside. And when we say they, we are
looking at Jesus and his disciples, his twelve. And they're doing
ministry as they have been doing. If you know the narrative of
Luke's gospel, you see Jesus' ministry starting there and moving
on out into other areas. Jesus himself said, I didn't
come to just preach here. I have to preach in every town,
in every synagogue, in every temple, in every place that I
can the good news of the Lord. And the message is what? Repent
and believe the good news of God. Believe the gospel. And
so then after these things took place, after Jesus was in Jerusalem,
after many believed in his name, after he had this conversation
with the Pharisee Nicodemus, sometime after that took place,
Jesus and his disciples were in the Judean countryside. They
were in the Judean countryside. And He, Jesus, remained there
with them and was baptizing. Now let me go ahead and get something
out of the way here. Jesus, historically, is never
recorded to have baptized anyone. Never did. But, what we see that
is that these people, and I'll get this little part out of the
way so we can get into verse 25, which is where some of the
actual doctrine comes in, but What people like to say, well
Jesus, you know, it says he was baptized and it says he remained
there with them and was baptized. Yes, Jesus by proxy, if I can,
was baptizing. He was baptizing because he administered
the group that he led. Jesus was the head of those apostles,
those soon to be apostles, disciples. Just as if we say We're feeding
the hungry, and there's the elders that are out there, and they're
doing some ministry over here to the side. Because look at
the elders of Grace Truth, man, they're feeding the hungry. And
people go, they're not feeding anybody. They're over there talking. They're over
there sharing the gospel with somebody. What in the world? They need
to be feeding. Jesus, in the same way, wasn't necessarily administering
baptism, but he was administrating those who administered baptism.
Imagine what it would be like to have been baptized by Jesus.
What a banner that would have been. It's the same thing we
see with the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul is very careful
not to baptize hardly anyone because people get this pride
about them. Oh wow, I was baptized by Paul.
Paul actually writes, I'm glad I didn't baptize any of you.
Because the way you Corinthians are talking, you think that because
you got saved under the preaching of Barnabas that you're something
else. You might think, well, what's the point in all this?
Well, the point in all this is that there was a lot going on
here. This did not go unnoticed. I mean, what are we, about 60
people in here today? We're shy of a full bunch. We've
got some families out. But if we all got up right now
and walked to McDonald's, it'd be a force. It'd be something
else. If we all got up and just walked
to the side of the highway and stood there and waved, I mean,
it'd probably make WTOC like there's some cult in Claxton
waving. I mean, there would be something happening that people
would take notice. Now, if we were downtown in Times
Square and 60 of us went out, it's like, okay, add another
ant to the mound. What matters? But if we were all walking around
singing songs of true doctrine, if we were walking around with
Bibles, we are walking in single file chanting some Gregorian
garbage, then we probably would be noticed. Well, imagine the
issue happening here in this first century where the only
people that have ever baptized historically throughout the whole
creation of humanity have been the Pharisees. And all semblance
or the Jews, the priests, and all semblance of baptism, all
sense of washing or purification, any idea at all that related
to baptism. They were the only ones doing
it. It is why they came to John the Baptist to start with, as
we saw over there in John 1, and said, who are you? Are you the Christ? And he says,
no, I'm not the Christ. Well, are you the prophet? No, I'm
not the prophet. Are you Elijah? No, I am the voice crying out
in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord. Then why
do you baptize? You see, that was their ultimate
problem. Why are you doing what only we are allowed to do? Why
are you doing, by what authority do you come? And he says, I'm
the voice of God. I've come to make the path straight.
I've come to demonstrate the coming of God, the coming of
the kingdom of God. I'm here to teach you about the
one who was here, who I'm not worthy to shake the dust off
his own sandals. I'm not worthy to untie his sandals. I'm not worthy to wash his feet.
I'm not worthy and He's among you. And I'm sitting here, I'm
wetting folks. He's going to baptize with fire.
He's going to do something miraculous that you can't wash off. He's
going to do something that lasts longer than just a dip in the
water. He's going to give you life. And He's going to do it
divinely and supernaturally. So this issue is not something
that went unnoticed. Many non-Christian historians
of that day talk about the massive crowds that follow Jesus around.
Now it wasn't normal. It wasn't normal. Yeah, there
are crowds, but man, everybody's at work, everybody's in the market,
everybody's doing laundry, everybody's training children, everybody's
doing whatever they do, cleaning horses, making candles, whatever. Everybody's busy. And when John
the Baptist came on the scene, and then Jesus came on the scene,
things were disrupted. Life was disrupted. Things were
changing. People stopped going to work.
People stopped going to school. People stopped going home. And
they just followed them around and listened to their teaching.
And so there was this observation as John the Baptist began to
get many disciples. And let me say this in that disciples,
he wasn't trying to get people to follow him or worship him.
They were following after him and learning from him. That's
a disciple. You follow after someone and
you learn from them, you are a disciple. And John the Baptist was what?
What did he say about Jesus? Behold the Lamb of God that takes
away the sin of the world. There is the one of whom I said,
I am not worthy to untie his sandals. Remember that? Now,
after he left, talking with Nicodemus, and I've told you this often,
I would love to see the notes of the letters that pass through
the Sanhedrin. or had been a fly on the wall
that could have dictated and printed this somewhere of the
conversations that took place with the Jews once Nicodemus
went back and said, he told me we couldn't see the kingdom of
God unless God birthed us anew and made us new. Can you believe
that? Can you believe he used Moses
lifting the serpent as the illustration of how we would be born again
by trusting in a snake? I mean, could you imagine? This man said the Son of Man's
gonna be a snake on a pole. And that's how we're gonna have
eternal life. What an idiot! I mean, can you hear this conversation?
But people were listening, people were watching, people were gleaning
and following after what John was doing and what Jesus was
doing. And it says that they were baptizing
there, and Jesus' disciples were baptizing, and John and his disciples
were baptizing. So there's this ministry taking
place separately, each of his own. There were the people who
followed after Jesus, and there were the people who were devoted
to John. Now imagine how this works in our culture. And this
text is about removing ourselves from the equation completely.
This text teaches us about the humility of John the Baptist.
This text teaches us about the sovereignty of God in all of
humanity, over all the history of humanity, over the will of
man. You might think, well, we've already learned that, haven't
we? In John 1, yes, but isn't John 1 the illustration? Isn't
John 1 the outline of everything we'll see illustrated from this
point forward? I already know that God is sovereign
over the will of man. Do we really know that? Do we know that in
the context of believing it and trusting in it, trusting in Christ,
trusting in Him who is sovereign? If so, why do we worry so much?
If so, why are we so fearful? If so, why do we bother ourselves
with wondering if the Lord's got these problems, or got these
successes, or got these issues? Oh my gosh, I can't afford to
buy new tires. Do you know that God can hold your tires together?
You know that God is sovereignly ordained when your tire might
pop? And God's also put in your mind, if you've got the money
to buy tires, and you see a nail sticking in it, to go get it
fixed. And if you can't, then maybe He'll let it ride a little
longer, and maybe He won't. But why do we fear on the smallest
things? And why do we fear when we get
bad news? And why do we fear when we have no news, in case
we get bad news? We're more scared of the fact
that we might get bad news, than if the bad news actually came.
You ever been that way? We talk to ourselves in our minds,
we have little conversations with others in our mind, and
we think, and we get mad at each other, and we're not even talking.
We're just mad at what might happen. And for those of you
who don't understand what I'm saying, I'm not schizophrenic
all the time. Just a little bit, sometimes.
But I mean, you can go through, and oh, this is gonna happen,
and then this is gonna happen, and then this is gonna happen,
and the next thing you know, we're in a tizzy, like my wife
always said, honey, quit borrowing trouble. Don't borrow trouble. The point of it is that God is
sovereign. This text is going to show us
just how sovereign God is, just how amazingly sovereign God is
over every circumstance, especially ministry, especially the point
of Him, Jesus, saving His people, and He, Jesus, securing His church. Beloved, you're in the body of
Christ because God has ordained you to be in the body of Christ.
You're in the body of Christ because by faith you have believed
on Christ. You're in the body of Christ because Christ died
for you and bought you with His own blood. You're in the body
of Christ. And then we gather together as His body as the local
church. And it is the most, I want you
to hear these words, and it sounds really off because our culture
hates the gospel. But the local church is the most
important people in the entire world to you. Because here's a news flash.
Not every family is going to all be saved. Not every relationship
is always going to be a relationship that's found in Christ. Those
relationships are temporal. Those relationships are not going
to last. Because even if we stay together
our entire lives in harmony, We are going to die in this body
or one day Christ will appear and put it all under His feet.
And those relationships will cease. I will no longer have
earthly brothers, and earthly sisters, and earthly wife, and
earthly children. They will no longer, those relationships
do not matter anymore because they are temporary. Like when
you put training wheels on a bicycle, they come off. And when you get
your driver's license, the bike rusts in the yard. And then you get to a certain
age and then your kids take your driver's license from you and
you get your bike back. And you come out of training
pants, into big boy pants, back into diapers. Nothing's lasting
in this world. We're all gonna go downhill.
The relationships are no different. It doesn't matter how much we
think we're staying young, we're getting older. It doesn't matter
how much we want our children not to grow, they're growing.
prayerfully. And the only thing that lasts
is the relationship that we have in Christ. And the relationships
that we have in Christ is the local church. And the local church
is an eternal body. When we store up our treasure
for this life, we store up our treasure for moths and rust and
thieves. We must be good stewards of what
God has given us in ministry. We must be practical in our understanding
of what we've been called to. But friends, the local church
is the point of it all. We don't come to a service. We
are the people of God and we're together. And if you don't think
the devil wants to do something with that, look at what the devil
did with John the Baptist this morning. The devil sent John
the Baptist on people who were standing there watching what
Jesus was doing. Who were standing there and they
loved John. And they esteemed him greatly.
And look at verse 25. And now a discussion arose between
some of John's disciples and a Jew. Now why was the Jew there? Now, weren't John's disciples
Jewish? Yes. But my thoughts on this is when
you see a Jew in John's writing, he's not talking about somebody
that just is ethnic Israeli or Jewish. He's talking about somebody
that's a Pharisee. He's talking about somebody who's
something. in the context of Jewish life. He's talking about
maybe some of Nicodemus' cronies that came out there and said,
you know what, I don't like what Nicodemus told me, so we're going
to follow these guys out to the countryside and we're going to
look and observe and we're going to find this. It already started
right there. We're going to find a way to charge these people
with a crime. So what's the greatest way to
charge somebody with a crime? If you want to charge somebody with
treason, you've got to catch them into saying something wrong
against the government, right? I mean, it's a crime to say things
wrongly now in some aspects. You threaten somebody, it's terroristic
threats. If you cause them to fear, that's
a terroristic threat. It's a crime in the state of
Georgia. You can be incarcerated for threatening with your mouth,
I'm gonna whip your behind. So all parents are terrorists.
I'm gonna whip you, boy. The FBI's coming to get us. I
mean, we're all going to prison, kids. If you call the cops when
we get out, we're gonna whip you again. or put you in time
out, or take away your Xbox, or whatever it is that you don't
like. They're going to threaten you. But, this is what happened. They got into this argument over,
or this discussion over purification. Imagine this Jew walking up,
seeing people being baptized, not understanding at all what
baptism really was. They thought it actually cleansed
you of something. They thought it was something that had some
supernatural benefit. They thought it was something that would actually
please God that you got wet. It is why Jesus used the purification
jars at the wedding for His first miracle. He showed them that
they weren't for cleansing. He was the one who would give
the pure joy. He was the one who was the better
bridegroom. He was the one. If you don't
remember that, go back and listen to John chapter 2, the first
few sermons in that text. You'll be reminded of that. So
here are these Jews, and I tell you what we'll do, we'll get
them to say something stupid about purification. That way
they're speaking against Moses, who gave us the law of purification.
Then, we can have some ammunition against them. Well, these guys
didn't even know what they were talking about. Evidence, by the
way, they responded when they saw Jesus baptizing. But here
they are, apologists and polemicists, arguing with a Pharisee about
purification. That's like arguing with a neurosurgeon
about how to make an incision in the brain. That's just silly. And these guys were out there,
and John the Baptist is out there, and Jesus is out there, and so
now you get a picture. But let me give you a better
picture. Before Jesus came on the scene, John the Baptist was
somebody. John the Baptist, because he was so different, because
he was so radical, this sounds like something in our own culture.
Because he was saying things that nobody had ever said, whether
you agreed with it or understood it or not, people are drawn,
people are drawn to different. I heard an old pastor say one
time, he said sometime, it's something about this nature,
he was trying to quote somebody else, but he said it a little
off, but he said it this way, he said, some of you young aspiring
preachers just need to learn how to hit, hoot, and holler,
and set the pulpit on fire, and if you do that well enough, people
will come to watch you burn. It doesn't matter what you're
saying. If you do it well enough, they'll come watch. And that's
true. It doesn't matter most of the time what's going on in
our culture. We look at it in social media. Some of us have
come... As a matter of fact, I had a conversation with several people this week
about how social media can bring the devil out in us. You're talking
about flesh. It's like you think, man, I'm
walking in the spirit. I'm walking in the spirit. I'm walking in
the... And the Facebook thing goes, ding! And it's like the horns come
out. And it's not even Halloween yet. Fangs come out. I mean,
we just, we've got to engage. Because somebody, somewhere in
the seven billion people on the earth is wrong. We must fix all
the wrong that we see. And it just brings us to a boiling
point. We cannot let it go. Oh no, he
said Jesus wasn't God. I'll show him. You know, 700
comments later, we're still in the same place, angry. And we've
yet to present the true gospel. And we've been spending three
hours with somebody we've never even met, rather than our children
who are at the house, or our husbands, or our wives, or our
friends, or our church family. And we wonder why we are just
so frazzled all the time. Because we're trying to fix stupid.
And you can't fix stupid. We can't fix wrong. We can't
fix error. The Lord is going to do that.
John the Baptist, heaven help him, if he were in our day, he
would have all the followers on Twitter. He would have the
most Facebook friends that they would allow, which is 5,000,
and somebody would start him a fan page, which has unlimited
likeability. Do you know how ridiculous it
is that psychologists have actually proven, and neurologists have
actually proven, that when someone sees someone like something they
post on a social media platform, that it gives them the same endorphin
response as physical intimacy and cocaine. It's a fact. Because we are such idolaters
and self-worshipping narcissistic wannabes in our flesh that we
love it when somebody just goes like, you know what I use the
like button for? Sometimes I want to pray for that person because
they're stupid. You see? Sometimes I want to pray for
that person because they're acting stupid. Sometimes I want to engage
that person, I just go, I like it so I'll remember it later.
But now they've got the save post option. I have like 7,000 save
posts I've never gone back and looked at. I get the reminder,
you have like 435 saved posts from last week. Well, I'll never
look at those. Moving right along. But it keeps
me out of the conversation. And maybe one day when they remind
me six years from now that I like something or that I saved it.
When you say that, then I'll realize just how silly it was
and I shouldn't have engaged it. What's the point? I'm rambling.
John the Baptist was popular. And he was not only popular,
but it was a popular thing to be in his circle. It was amazing. It's like some people that I
know and they brag because John Piper was their pastor. Or they
brag because their kin or their friendship, friends with a grandchild
of Charles Spurgeon. Or, you know, they shook Obama's
secretary's husband's hand at a cocktail party. And you ought
to see it. They never wash it. It was nasty.
I mean, you know how silly that is? Well, I know so-and-so. I
don't care. I know Mrs. Butterworth. Do you know who
that is? Does that make me a pancake? I don't think it matters. So
what if we know John the Baptist, or we're hanging out with John
the Baptist, or Paul is our apostle, or Barnabas is our apostle? So
what if we're in Grace Truth Church? or Bethlehem Church or
Sovereign Grace Church. So what? What's the point? Are we trying to be famous? Are
we trying to have esteem? Try not to lose my voice. Are
we trying to garner up some self-worth because of where we attach and
to whom we are attached? What's happening here is that
John the Baptist was very famous. The Gospel of Matthew and Mark
both talked about his fame. He was so popular that Herod,
a ruler, feared him. He was so popular and had so
much following. Could you imagine being like a king of a small
location? It's a puppet king. Herod was
a puppet king. And Herod was just feared John because so many
people loved John. So like churches in my history,
where they would love to throw me out on my head, but too many
people liked me. Well, you throw him out on his
head, we're leaving. I'm like, wait a minute. That
doesn't add up. We don't want you all to leave,
so we'll just tolerate this guy. It happens. We don't see exactly
the ramifications of it, but friends, in the first century,
to be that popular is dangerous politically. The Bible says that
Jerusalem and all of Judea and all the region about the Jordan
were going out to John the Baptist. So it wasn't just a water cooler
discussion. People were following after him.
They were walking with him. It disrupted social life. It
disrupted political life. It disrupted the economy. Because
John was so popular and people wanted to hear what he had to
say. And you might think, well that's ridiculous. Oh, really?
How many of you were alive during the Civil Rights Movement? You
don't have to raise your hand. But, I mean, Civil Rights Movement
in the 60s. I know my parents were. And I know talking with them
and even my grandparents and my great-grandparents who have
all passed away now. But, I mean, it's amazing. They
never thought somebody would follow a guy by the millions
to Washington or down through the streets of Mississippi. and
stand for anything, people will follow." Imagine all of Judea
and all the regions of this area following after John the Baptist,
listen to what he had to say, because you couldn't stream it,
you couldn't record it, you couldn't read it, you had to go. Herod feared John, knowing that
he was a righteous and holy man, and so because of that, he kept
him safe. And when he heard John the Baptist,
the Bible says that Herod was perplexed greatly, but yet he
loved to listen to him preach and teach. So the fame of John
the Baptist is really at the precipice here, is really at
the point of this. And now all of a sudden in verse
22, I mean, excuse me, in verse 25, with this discussion, they're
debating this stuff about purification, and this shows us that these
men still didn't see the point of baptism. Neither did the Jews.
This also teaches us that these men were eager to argue and debate
doctrine that they had no business doing. It wasn't the point of
their ministry. But when they looked across the river, and
they saw Jesus And they saw people being baptized under his authority.
Guess what happened? This debate stopped. This deep,
important doctrinal fight quit. This discussion about purity
and purification through the water just arrested. And then they ran immediately
to John. Why? Because they saw some competition
in the ministry. I pray none of you can relate
to what I'm about to say, but friends, competition in ministry
is as fierce as if we were vying for a free agent in the NFL when
you're a megachurch. You got people's resumes and
private phone numbers and emails and you court them like a scout. We got to sometime in the next
two years get this guy from that church because man, he would
do wonders for us. And that's how you do it. You
go after him. We're going to try to get a different budget
line here as a bonus to get this man to move churches. It happens. Or if we can just,
if we can't hire this guy, maybe we can pay him to come for three
weeks. Maybe we can have a conference
and have him come and man, just imagine what it would do if we
could get his name on our billing. And I hope that that's as deplorable
to you as it is to God, because that's deplorable. And just as
a side note, it is exactly what was taught by Charles Finney,
that was adopted by D.L. Moody, who had the money to do
it, from whom the Graham's learned everything. You want to have a crowd? Get
Beyonce. Well, she's too secular. They get, she used to sing gospel
in church, let's build that. Let's get this guy, let's get
this guy. Let's get the Smith guy that sings and plays piano,
runs around with an American flag on stage. Boy, that'll really
get the older crowd. God bless America. Oh, they're
all here, let's pass an offering plate, let's give an altar call.
Wait a minute, we haven't given an altar call yet, but everybody's
coming down. What's going on? Oh, that's right, we train them
to do that. Now, I beat up on that stuff because that's the
outward result. Competition in ministry is real.
I mean, if we were like most other churches, we'd be doing
some things this time of year that would help, that would compete
with, not intentionally, but would compete with other congregations.
Summer is a great example of that, with a thing called Vacation
Bible School. It's not a vacation. And it's
not necessarily a school, and I don't know where the Bible
fits in, except we sing the B-I-B-L-E. Yes, that's the, okay, we got
it. I stand alone in the word of
God, but I lie to all thee. I mean, you know. Sorry, it comes
too easy. This ministry competition, man,
they were upset, just like these other churches. You know what
we see at Vacation Bible Schools most of the time? The same kids. every week at different churches.
So these churches never schedule. In this town, churches never
schedule their VBSes together. Because it's not for their kids. It's for them to try to get other
kids. And I'm not going to stand here and lie to you. I have shipped
my kids off to three weeks of VBS with the same program before
in years past. Hot dog, three weeks of freedom.
I mean, you know, at least till noon. That's what you do. Free daycare.
Don't cost a dime. They feed them, too. What? Saving
some lunch money. But guess what? This church over
here is going to have Barney. Barney? Who's that? Is that like
the Bible Barney? No, that's the dinosaur Barney.
I mean, you know. You think, what? Are you making
this stuff up? No, because I got Barney to come one time to a
VBS. And the junior high kids didn't
like Barney because they were bigger than that, so we Kung-Fu'd Barney
in that grade level. It was great. And we had 600,
800, 900 kids. And their parents loved us because
we fed them and kept them while they could rest and sleep on
the couch. Competition. These people were aghast. John,
John, look, look, look, look, look. What in the world are we
going to do? Our numbers are getting smaller. Jesus' numbers are getting bigger.
Look, they're leaving and they're going to you. They even say it. They honor Him. Rabbi, He who
was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness. You
see how they did that? Look, He is baptizing and all,
you know how defeated it is when we get upset, all are going to
Him. You know, they hadn't gone to
Him, but all are going to Him. All are going. Our ministry's
over. Our life is over. We've worked
so hard and now everything's going downhill, going down the
drain, going down the pot, whatever you want to say. It's bad and
we need to do something about it. John, what are you going
to do? You know what they did? They tempted Him. The devil spoke through
these people. Yes, it kills me. It kills me. If somebody walked by while I'm
teaching today and peered into the window, I sort of wish I
had one of those FBI things I could go, Jesse, go outside now. Because
it kills me to think somebody might peek in, even though they're
looking for hoodies, but they peeked into here. We need to
get them inside. And once they come inside, they're
already on the road to membership. In my mind, Oh, you're not saved? We can fix that problem. I mean,
that's what pastors do. They want every person that's
ever touched the sea to stay. And it hurts when it happens,
especially when you find out they're going to some other congregation.
Oh, no. What was I mean? I don't care
if there's a hundred people sitting here. The one that left, you
know, and the devil will tell you, see, the one sheep, the
99, you leave the 99. So if I'm never here one Sunday, I'm hunting
somebody. It's no different here. They
were upset that their ministry was failing in their eyes. And
they were more than upset that it was happening to them. They
were extremely upset that John was the man who gave the light
to Jesus. See, that was their thoughts.
The one that you bore witness of. If you hadn't opened your
mouth, Jesus would have been a nobody. You're the one that
gave him his ministry. You're the one that got him started.
How dare he plant a church out from under you and take our members,
you see? This is what was happening here.
Now the good thing is that God is sovereign over these things.
This ministry competition didn't bother John at all. Why? Because
God had ordained John to declare the coming of Christ. His whole
ministry was to point to Christ. Brothers and sisters, our whole
ministry is to point to Christ. We're not here to purvey grace,
truth, church. We're here to preach the gospel
of Christ. Don't take pride. Be glad, but
don't take pride that we are this church or this type of church.
Just be glad and thankful that we are in Christ and that the
truth of the gospel and the truth of the Word is yours for the
taking. This church exists for your joy
and for your pleasure. There is much other things that
the world offers as an opportunity for all of us to do, but by the
grace of God, we come together as often as we can, so that you
can be taught the truth, and that we can, as a people, grow
intimately together. It is for you that Christ died
for the glory of God. It is for you that John the Baptist
preached and pointed to Jesus so that the gospel could come
to you. It is for that purpose that we assemble every time we
do so that Christ can be made much of. He is preeminent. He
best will be preeminent in every area of our lives. Competition
is not required in ministry. Why? Because here's the truth
of it. Jesus will tell us over there in John 10. I can't wait
till we get there. Every chapter is my favorite
chapter. Over in John 10 where Jesus says, my sheep know my
voice. My sheep know my voice and they hear it and they follow
after me. When people want to run to a
children's ministry or people want to run to a program or people
want to run because they want to do this. Listen, we can do
anything you want to do as long as it does not interrupt what
we do in our assembly. If y'all want to get together
and have a quartet, do it. Guess what? You can sing it on
Saturdays. You can do it on Thursday nights. You can do it after church
on Sunday. You can even sing outside on
the sidewalk before people come in. But once the Bible is open
and once we sit in here under obligation, we will do only that
which God has called us to do and commanded us to do. We call
that the regulative principle of worship. That the Word of
God commands and instructs what the church should do and only
those things that the church should do when it is obligatory
gathering. A compulsory gathering. If the
Bible commands you to be in assembly, and then I make you do something
that's not in the Word of God, I violated your conscience. And
that's when an elder ought to be told to skid on out. Nothing
wrong with anything. We do Kung Fu. For those of you
who don't know, I might get in trouble, but I teach Kung Fu
on Sunday nights up here. We move the chairs out of the
way, and any of you who want to get in shape, learn how to
fight off stray dogs, we'd love to have you. It's good. Some of our youth are gonna get
together today and play some games in here this afternoon. It's
just a building, but when we're here, this is what we do. And
we don't have to make everything a ministry of the church just
because we get together. We're gonna have a cookout ministry,
and a hot dog ministry, and a bicycle ministry, and a McDonald's ministry.
What's a McDonald's ministry? They got good coffee over there,
so we can sit over there and eat, drink coffee. And it's free refills
all day if you don't leave town. It's a little inside secret. And then this complaint, they
came to John and they said, look, He's administering this baptism.
The One who was with you, the One that you found, the One that
you pointed to, the One that you came after and said, this
is the One that I'm talking about. You shined the light on Jesus
and now He's taken away your light. Now He's put you in His
shadow. Do you ever feel like that? Do
you know I had somebody tell me, I won't tell you what year
it was. I had somebody tell me, a family
had visited the church, and I was instructed to go visit with the
family the next week, and I did, and I visited with the family.
We talked about the gospel, we talked about life, we prayed
together. The family had some children. One particular child
was a high school student. About three months after that,
that child, in a Bible study, in school came to the Lord. And the parents celebrated that
one day in a Sunday school class when one of the elders came to
me and sort of grabbed me by my arm and said, that salvation
should have been yours. I said, excuse me? If you'd have
done your job when you visited that family, you'd have let that
go to the Lord and we'd have got the credit. I didn't know what to think.
I mean, here's an elder, twice my age, telling me that I messed
up. Those of you who are not in the
ministry as your vocation, as your calling, don't realize how
demonic things can be. This right here was demonic. Look! Jesus is getting our people. Look! John the Baptist was not phased
by it. They had opportunity to hurt his feelings, they could
have hurt his ego, they could have hurt his pride. He could have
been all cool and humble about it, said, you know what, it's
okay. And then behind the scenes, got with a couple of his close
comrades and said, okay, guys, we've got to get a strategy.
What are we going to do? Jesus is knocking us out of the
park. He's taking our people. How silly would that be? We know
that that would be silly. How silly then is it to think
that way in our current culture? Do we not trust in the sovereignty
of God? He says, look, Jesus is baptizing. This was a comparative
look. This is a complaint about authority.
Who does he think he is? About what authority? You know
how the Jews came to you? John, and you told them by what
authority you baptized and they sort of left you alone. Now this
man's got his little posse baptizing. By what authority does he baptize?
So they were doing exactly what the Jews were doing to John.
Now they were doing in front of John about Jesus. Notice they
didn't go to Jesus. Right after they get through
arguing with the Jew about purification, about baptism. Who is this guy? And what does he think he's doing?
It's like seeing the other church doing the same thing we already
do. You know where people spend most of their money in churches?
On church staff? The worship leader. And if you
can get somebody off Bob Coughlin's team to come in here and play
the piano and sing and write a new song every week, man, you'd
probably draw a crowd. It works. I'm willing to bet
you that 20 to 30% of most large churches' budgets are spent on
worship ministry related things. I know for a fact that I have
been part of the team that, well, I know for a fact, I've been
part of the team that has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars
on lighting. Because the mood, you know. These lights were $8
and I spray painted them. You know what they are? Bruden
lights. Why are they up there? Because
I can't see right here. Got to have some light shining on things
we can see. Maybe we can get a fog machine next week and we'll
have the spirit usher in. No, we're not. And when we think about competition
in ministry, let me tell you something, guys. Every church
should look alike in its context. Every church
service should look like ours. I'm not saying they have to sing
the same songs or dress the same way. That's personal preference.
But every sermon out of John's Gospel, whatever text it is,
ought to be identical to the one I preach in that man's own
language, in that man's own vernacular, in that man's own understanding
or approach to the particular text. But it shouldn't be something
new. It shouldn't be creative. It shouldn't have anything to
do with anything except for what it says it has to do with. And
yeah, it may be a real boring sound. Like some people would
say, Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones is boring. Go listen to him. Go listen to him. Some would
say, that's boring. Man, it's not boring. It is not
boring. It's not exciting in his presentation. Dr. Jones would have never in
his lifetime, you know, done like this. Would never move from
the podium. I used to walk all the time.
I mean, I still do have a headset, but the body pack died. I mean,
at 15 years old, it died. But I used to walk. But I found
better. I stay focused. I stand on this
podium. You know, it's like, well, you need to walk. You need
to learn to communicate more. You need to learn to do this. You need
to come down into the crowd with a microphone. Every church should have an identical
content Every church should have the same stuff. You should sing
hymns and songs and spiritual songs. We should pray. We should
see baptisms. We should see, by the way, some
of you who have been talking about being baptized, we need to get
that scheduled before the end of the year, please. We can do
it right here. Someone's loaning me a portable baptistry. So we
don't have to do it at 7 o'clock somewhere else. We do baptism,
we do the Lord's table, we fellowship together, we hear the preached
word, we hear the red word, and we pray. Those are the things.
We devote ourselves to the apostles' teaching. And anything else is
superfluous and it takes away from that which is most rewarding
to the church. It takes away from that which
is most effectual for the church. It takes away the grace of God
because it is the grace of God that comes through the continual
sending and preaching and singing and praying from the Word of
God. But John, they said, look, everybody's
going here, this frustrated fear of losing fame, losing ground,
losing people. Now look, you gave the testimony
about this guy and now he's out working you and everybody's leaving. John answered, verse 27, this
is the crux of this, I talk too much today, I'm sorry. A person
cannot receive one thing. A person cannot receive one thing
unless it is given Given him from heaven Let me let me read
that again a person cannot receive one thing Unless it is given
him from heaven. What does that mean? Well, it's
a real mystery let me break down the Greek for you a Person cannot
have one thing unless it's given him from heaven Literal translation
in English order not Greek order That's what it means. It's a
real mystery, right? What's the point of this? You
yourselves, see what he says in verse 28? You yourselves bear
witness, bear me witness. You heard what I said. You know
that I said these things, that I am not the Christ. I am not
the Holy, Anointed One of God. Think about that for a minute.
Sometimes we think by the way we act, and by the way we fear,
and by the way we address circumstances of life, that maybe we are Christ.
That maybe we've got the shoulder, we've got a burden and carry
the burden on our shoulders. We've got to be the one to get
it all fixed. And I know as a man, it's almost, I mean, we are like
the duct tape kings. Anything that's broke, the first
thing that pops into our mind is, how can I fix it? And who
do I have to kill to get it done? And we're willing to do that.
We're going to do anything it takes to fix a problem. One thing Robin's always been
real good about is that she's having trouble with something,
a device or a mechanism or a tool or something in the house, she
just asks me to do something with it. She can say it's broken all
the time, she asks me to do something with it and it's like, aw, heck
with this and I'll fix it. That's what we do, we fix it. We think
that we're Christ, we think that we're in charge, we think that
we have the authority, we think that we have the ability. And you
know what? We can do a lot of things. A lot of you ladies have
a lot of talents. A lot of you men have a lot of
talents. We're all gifted in different areas of life. Some
of us can build. Some of us can sew. Some of us can sing. Some
of us can't. Some of us can dress and some of us can decorate.
Some of us can do makeup and some of us can hunt. Some of
us can sell cars and sell tractors and everything in between. Some
of us are electricians. Some of us are good drywall guys.
Some of us can clean. Some of us are critical thinkers.
Some of us might be doctors or lawyers or whatever it may be. We may have a great skill. Some
of us are well-versed in nutrition. Some of us are good listeners. But none of that came from us. And the same is true with people
who sit at home today who do not believe the gospel. And they
have the same set of skills. They have the same set of abilities.
They have the same stuff. They may have the greatest job.
They may have a platform where they spew wrong teaching. They
may actually have a platform through which they are able to
defame Christ. But guess what? The platform
and everything around them came from God. What they do with it
is their problem. What they do with it is going
to bring their consequence. What we do with what we have
should never start out with, man, I am really good at this.
It should always be, thank you God for this. Whether it's patience or tiling. We should thank God for it because
everything comes from God. Everything. Everything the wicked
person has, God gave him. The house, the job, the money,
all of it. Everything the believer has,
God gave him. The cancer, the fear, or the
circumstances for the fear, all of it. God is sovereign over
it all. It's all decreed for His purpose.
We have nothing. to do but thank Him for it all.
Rejoice, and again I say what? Rejoice! Do all things without
complaining. Do all things without grumbling,
so that you may be seen as a light amidst a dark and crooked generation. Do all things without complaining,
so that, what? So that when people look at you,
they can't accuse you of wrongdoing. Walk in a manner worthy of the
calling that you've been called. Walk in a manner worthy of the
gospel. And even in those things, it's not our diligence, it's
not our ability, it's not our passion,
but it's the work of God in us. Everything comes from God. We have not received. Paul says
the same thing to the Corinthians. He says, for who sees anything
different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If you received it, then why
do you boast as though you did not receive it? See, so John's
life, his ministry, his knowledge, his sermons, his teaching was
all from God. Every person that came to John
in that ministry was from God. Every disciple that followed
him was from God. Every person that went into the
baptismal waters was from God. Just like every person that sits
under these seats every single week is from God. We don't recruit
people to come to church. God saves His sheep and He puts
it in our hearts to assemble together and to be the church
of Christ. It doesn't mean we can't invite our friends to be
in service with us. It doesn't mean that we can't
share the gospel. And when people want to grow, they get invited
into the fold of the church, to the family. of the church. Everything a man has, everything
a woman has, everything they accomplish comes from God. All
of it. God permits it, He purposes it, He decrees it. People actually
believe, though, that who they are and what they do and what
they have has come from them, but the Bible teaches that it
is not from their own hand and it is not in their own ability,
but it is by the mere mercy of God. And John knew this. He's not different. Remember
what I said? John said, verse 28, I am not
the Christ. I am not the holy, anointed one
of God. I have a lot of friends in town. When they see me, they call me
man of God. That's just what people say around
here. It's a cultural thing. I'm a man of God. How are you
doing? Jesse, you've heard that, right? And it makes me sick. I'm thinking, you don't know
me. It's not an error. Are you not men and women of
God? But what they do when they say that is they hold me to an
esteem because of my title, pastor, reverend. I spoke last week at
the, it's a great honor to speak and deliver the word at the Evans
County Cares Memorial Service, the dedication for the bricks
of those who have passed on with cancer or struggle and fight
cancer. And I was asked, I was very honored, and they asked
me ahead of time, you know, what title did I want reverend on
there? I said, just put pastor. Just
put pastor of Grace Truth Baptist Church. Just put that on there,
okay? I don't need reverend. It is the legal title of someone
who, but what in the world does that, what does that mean? Friends,
there are so many men that have come in and out of my life who
only wanted a title and credentials. They no more wanted to shepherd
the flock of Christ than they wanted to burn themselves alive
in a kitchen. They just wanted a title. They wanted an ordination
certificate. The cool thing about it, we don't
even give ordination certificates in here unless you need it for
the IRS. Everything that a man had was
from God. Let me ask you this. The way
John is content with his mission, the way John was content and
not looking for greater things, are you all content like that?
Are we content as a people to be exactly where we are? Pay
close attention to your heart right here. Are we content? The answer of course is no, not
all the time. But when our discontent, the
gospel of truth, this text right here should drive us back to
the center of what it's all about. And what it's all about is that
we should point to Christ. John is content because Christ
is the point. John is content and not looking
for greater things. John could have had whatever
he wanted. John could have toppled the Sanhedrin. He could have
taken all of Israel and all of Jerusalem and all of Judea. He
could have taken all the regions of the Jordan and walked them
out to the wilderness and started his own place. He could have
started his own cult. He could have started his own
people. Had his own government. Of course, Rome would have mowed
him over. But it could have been done. And sometimes, even in
ministry, pastors want their own federation. They want their
own. And we've got to have 25 locations. We're going to have, you know,
big preaching head on a screen. And I hate to say this because
friends of mine are going to hear this and go, man, you're talking
about me. I probably am. But I'm talking about me, mostly.
Because that was my M.O. for ministry and church planning.
Twenty years ago, it was, this is what we're going to do. We're
going to plant these churches. And man, we're going to have a big
preaching head on a big preaching screen. We're going to have ten
campuses, seven, eight million dollars a month in revenue. I
mean, it's going to be great. We're going to see people come
to Christ. We're going to see all this. And people are going to
be excited about church. Everybody's going to be assimilated and plugged
in. And they're going to be so bound up in it. See, this is
part of how we did it in the leadership team. We're going to be so bound
up in the work of the ministry that they can't leave. They can't
leave. You got to be here. You got to
be here. You know what? I don't have to be here. I am
not important for the health and the life of this church.
This, my person, my personality, it's not important. What if I'm dead tonight? Does
Grace Truth Church still function? Yes. Why? Because we got other
men in this church who have been training for years. who are well-equipped
to teach and to shepherd. We need to be content no matter
what changes in our lives. John's ministry was a good ministry,
and it was going. Now, I'm not scaring you. I'm
not leaving. Everybody's like, oh, my God, what is this, an
announcement of life? No, no, I'm not going anywhere, but I
could die. I mean, there's a lot that could
happen. There's an eight-year-old passed away Friday night, crossed the
street, got hit by a truck right here. It's gone. You know what? His parents had
plans yesterday for him. He had schoolwork due tomorrow.
It's not going to happen. Folks, when we make plans that
arrogantly, that we're going to do what we're going to do,
and we're going to go here, and we're going to make this, and this is our plan, if
we're not subjecting those things to the will of the Lord and His
sovereignty, we are failed already. Ambition is not wrong unless
it drives your joy. And that's what we see here. John the Baptist had ambition,
but he had ambition to point to one and not to himself. He
had ambition to point to Christ. Because John was a steward of
his life. Just like we are a steward of
our lives. We're a steward of our lives by the way we live.
We're a steward of our lives with what we do with our time.
We're a steward of our lives with what we do with our money.
Since we came up, I'll just... Push this out there. Many of
you need to pray about what God would have you give to help support
the ministry of the church. Many of you give faithfully and
I thank you for that. But over the summer we've had
several needs come up that we are in a deficit. I pray that
you all would pray about what God would have you give. We're
a steward. of that. It's not ours. It's
for the sake of others. It's for the sake of helping
our fellow man. It's for the sake of the ministers.
It's for the sake of Christ. Whether we're helping our neighbor
or we're giving to the church or we're buying our children
the clothes they need, we're stewards. We're spending our
time. Friends, I know what it's like
to binge on a movie or a show. And I can thank my brothers for
that. Have you ever seen this? No, I don't watch TV. Watch it.
If you don't like it, I'll never say it again. Of course you like
it. But is it a good use of time?
I know what it's like to be in my 20s and spend 14 hours in
one sitting playing an Xbox. And thinking, I could have mastered
Mandarin by now. Let me get me a Chinese game
where I can just at least learn something. I know what it's like
to collect stuff, and to look at it, and to polish it, and
to put it back in its container, and go lay down and go, wow,
I got a bunch of stuff I love. I know what it's like. I know
what it's like. But we're stewards of this life,
and we're stewards of the ministry that God's given us. And just
because you're not all a pastor here, you have a ministry here.
You have a ministry here to the person sitting next to you, to
the person sitting in front of you and behind you, to the persons
who are represented by these empty chairs, you have a ministry
here, at the minimum to pray. Because if we don't pray, we're
not being good stewards of our time, we're wasting our time.
Because if we're not praying with our minds, what's happening?
We are surely pondering how we can be the God of our own destiny. John was a steward of this life,
and he's content. And he did not have the need
to feel like somebody. In verse 29 and 30, he closes
it all out and says, the point of it all is this. I could have
just preached these two verses and saved a lot of time, but
brothers and sisters, this don't need preaching. They speak for
themselves. The one who has the bride... See, this is a little
parable that John does here. The one that has the bride, y'all
listen, is the bridegroom. Did you get that? The one that
has the bride is the bridegroom. I mean, you gentlemen show up
to your wedding, and your wife, or your wife-to-be comes down
the aisle, and whoever gives her away hands her to some other
jack, that's going to be a fight. What are you doing? I'm the groom. What are you doing? How silly
would that be? That would be a disaster. Treacherous. And
that's what was happening if John were to keep people from
going to Christ. The point is, the broad of Christ
belongs to Christ. The broad belongs to the groom. You belong to Christ, not to
me, not to Grace Truth Church. And yes, we belong to each other,
in that we belong to Christ. The friend of the bridegroom,
like the best man, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly
at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is
now complete. He must increase and I must decrease. The point of it all is that John's
life was occupied. Listen to this very carefully.
Kids, pay close attention. The point of life is that we
must be occupied in all our being with Christ Jesus. With Christ
Jesus. With all of our being, the person
of Jesus must be the center of it all. Everything we do should
be considered as to whether it honors and glorifies Christ.
And if it doesn't, it is better fitting for us not to do it.
And if it's one of those areas like neutrality, like people
like to argue, that's a neutral issue, it doesn't have anything
to do with the gospel. Oh really? I argue very clearly that we
can put on our socks and shoes for ourselves or we can put on
our socks and shoes for the glory of God. Why? Because I don't
put my shoes on just so I keep my feet worn. I put my shoes
on because I need my feet to go somewhere. I prepare my day because there's
plans upon it. Am I giving glory and honor to
Christ in all of them? By His mercy, yes. And by His
grace and mercy, when I don't, they are forgiven." Everything that was done by John
was for the sake of the bridegroom. Because the bridegroom gets the
bride. The best man helps prepare the wedding, but he steps to
the side, and the bride goes down. and takes her husband. Jesus Christ is the husband of
the church. Remember the relationships we
talked about earlier in the service? My wife is my wife until she
or I die. And that bond has served its
purpose. But she and I will forever be
brother and sister in Jesus. So the relationship that's most
vital in my household is our relationship as siblings in Christ.
It doesn't come second to my marriage. It's the point of it.
Because the marriage is a picture of Christ. That is the eternal
end of it. That the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus means that I can decrease, that my joy increases
when I decrease. that my joy is complete when
I see you. Listen, I'm almost done. When
I see you joyful in Christ, my joy is full. Not joyful with
me, though I really want it. Not joyful with the church. Not
joyful with the ministry. Not joyful with the temperature,
though that might be important. Joyful in Christ. I want to see
you love Christ. And the only way you'll love
Christ is that the Word of God does its work in you. is that
we stay focused, and we are accountable to one another, and we love each
other, even when we're unlovable. And we get to stand near the
voice of Christ, just like John did. And we get to hear His voice
when He calls His bride, and they leave our hands and they
go. Friends, our children, those
of you who have children, we are looking to work them into
the world. to be ambassadors for Christ.
As much as I'd like to have them with me forever, it's odd and
it doesn't work. And it's not the point. And no
matter what fear sets before my eyes as I watch them, I can
trust in the sovereignty of God to hold them. And then in that I can rejoice. John did not know what he was
saying when he says, I must decrease that he may increase. He knew
it in his heart that it had to happen. And what he thought is,
I'll be preaching less and less to gain disciples, but I will
continue to point more and more to Jesus. But what God had in
mind in His sovereignty is by the very man that loved Him and
loved to hear Him teach, who feared Him would take his head.
Would take his head. And by all estimation, even in
our times today, we see horror when we think about somebody
being martyred in the faith. Friends, that's not horrible.
That's heavenly. It's not horrible when someone
takes your life for the gospel. It is not an injustice. It is
glorious. But until the swords come out,
Can our lives just not be laid down for the gospel as it is? In every action, in every word,
in every deed, in every heart, in every affection, in every
thought, I pray that it would be a content spirit. And that we would consider each
other. And we would consider how we point each other to Christ.
A good listener is important. But what's more important than
someone who listens is the little bit that they might say when
the listening is done. Are we pointing each other to Christ?
Because I know our culture can't see Him. Our consciousness can't
see Him. Our conscience can't see Him. When calamity strikes out there,
it's hard for people to see Him. And God uses us to proclaim the
truth so that the world would be given sight to see. And I
pray that all of us would be part of that light-giving testimony. Behold the Lamb of God. Behold
the Lamb of God. Let's pray. Thank You, Father. Lord, I pray And though it may
seem ridiculous to consider the fact that children can hear what
we're saying when they're restless or loud, Father, You are mighty. You can speak to the heart of
a dead man and call him out of the tomb. You can speak to the
ears and the heart of a child who's not paying attention. You can speak to us when there's
many distractions, both internal and external. And Father, You
can pierce those things. And I pray that Your Word has
done that. And I pray that as we move on through this Gospel,
that we would continue to see Your sovereign hand over the
lives of these people. Even as much as how You, before
the world began, ordained Jesus to sit at a well with a woman
from Sychar. To talk to a man from the Pharisees. To reveal Himself to just a handful
of people at a wedding. Never taking the credit for Himself,
but giving the credit to You, Father. Just as John gave the
credit to Jesus, we do too. We praise You. And we pray that
we would point to Christ in our suffering. And we pray that we
would point to Christ in our celebration. Father, I pray that
we as a people would become more united in this faith. And Lord,
that it would not just be a venture of learning things and trivia
and academics, but it would be an adventure, Father, of growing
in unity and growing in maturity. And I pray these things in the
name of Christ. Amen.