As we continue to grow as a people,
there's several things that we can be certain to experience. You wanna hear them? We can experience
a deeper worship, a deeper intimacy with the word of God, with Christ
himself, spiritually, supernaturally through the spirit. We will experience
a deeper worship through the comprehension of the word, through
the living out the word of God, knowing that it's not just something
we've learned today, but it's something that we can live today. We'll experience a greater intimacy
with each other. We're no longer are we coming
to church because there's no such thing. That's a lot of the
devil. But the church comes together. We come as the assembly, we come
as the body, we come as the bride. And as we come, our intimacy
grows, which with it creates uneasiness. It creates an attitude
sometimes of people tending to my business. It creates a mindset
that the devil can feed, that we hear the whisper, usually
through someone else. Because after all, did not Satan
speak to Jesus through Peter? And he said, surely you do not
have to die. And Jesus says, get behind me, Satan. We hear others say, well, you
don't need to subject yourself to such things. You don't need
to worry about those things. You don't need to be in that
type of environment. We will see spiritual warfare
peak and peak and peak temptations come and come and come. And sometimes we feel as though
we are getting worse. We're getting worse. We're fighting
more inside of our own minds against our flesh. Do you not
think that's the testimony of Paul, who lived such a moral
life that he actually proclaims in the Word of God that he was
sinless in the violation of the law? That he was perfect in the obedience
to the law, but yet then toward the end of his ministry, he calls
himself the chief of sinners. But see, Paul didn't listen to
the lie of the devil. Because as we begin to see the
sin in our lives, the idolatry, the legalism, the selfishness,
the pride, the obscurity or trying to be invisible and be our own
self as a Christian. This is my faith. Well, your
faith is personal, but it is not private. Your life is yours,
but it is not for your sake, for the sake of others. But Paul
didn't listen to the lie of the devil. He recognized who he was
in his flesh. He recognized the center of his
being, which was depravity. He knew that it was only by the
grace of God that he stood justified before God, and that there was
nothing that he could have done in all of his righteousness,
in all of his morality, in all of his obedience, in all of his
right living that could have set himself perfect before the
Lord, and that none of it would be counted toward anything on
his behalf, but yet that all the good works that he'd ever
done would be counted against him in judgment. See, you don't realize that.
The good works we do in our flesh and the sin we do in our flesh
are counted equally against us in judgment, for they are all
not righteousness. Wow! You see? But Paul did not
wallow in the guiltiness of that. He stood up against it. He says,
we come bold before the throne of grace. Why? Because our righteousness
is counted in Christ. So therefore now there is, what
does he say in Romans 8, 1? No condemnation for those who
are in Christ Jesus. See, that which is the love of
God perfected in us is what motivates us to walk in a manner worthy
of the gospel. It's not about getting control of our lives.
It's not about overcoming our sin. It's about Christ who is
the victor. You see. And we rest in Him,
not in our cleanliness, not in our morality, not in the formalism
of our liturgy or our application of our faith. And it started, people said,
well, where do we come? Where do we get to this place?
It's the same lie that was in the garden at the dawn of creation. The lie that says you will not
die. Surely you will not die. It's the same lie that's being
given to us today. And so we approach intimacy as
a church, as a thing rather than an existence. We approach assembling
together as a body, as something we just put on our calendar rather
than the core of everything else, of centering everything else
around it. We look at what we struggle with
in life and we hide it from people as if they're going to pass judgment
on us when God has declared us innocent because Christ took
judgment. And it's often interesting to
hear anthropologists and psychologists and philosophers and so-called
quotes, theologians who come to the table of this discussion
and they said, well, this is where it took place. It's in
the fourth century or the fifth century or the 12th century.
It was this person. It was that person. Or it's the
lies of this theology or it's the problem with the culture
or it's the American dream and so on and so on and so on. Friends,
it was the garden. And it was in eternity past prior
to the garden, whenever it was in time, there was no time in
this point, but wherever it was in time that we see the fall
of Satan, the fall of Lucifer, the angel of light, the most
beautiful, most glorious of all the created beings in the heavenly
realm. When he looked at himself and
he saw the reflection of his creator and he considered himself
worthy, to share in the glory of the one who he reflected.
So therefore he boldly proclaimed that he would. Nothing's changed
since then. The devil is the father of lies.
He's been lying from the beginning and he continues to lie. And
beloved, if you don't believe he's lying to you this very moment,
this very second, you are not aware. He's lying to some of us who
say, well, we don't really need, we know this, we know this, move on,
yada, yada, yada, come on. And we approach things that we
know as if we're the Peanuts children. And we're just trying
to get to that word that we haven't heard before. Oh, now I'll pay
attention. And some of us approach this as though, okay, we've overcome
this battle. No, beloved, we've not overcome
this battle. The more mature we become in Christ, the greater
the battle is, the harder it is, the more difficult the fight,
the more tenacious the enemy becomes, the more evil and wicked
we see our flesh. We're not to look for the day
in this life when we are sinless. We're not to look back at the
quarters of the last 10 years, much less the last 10 minutes
and say, man, I've been really doing good because it is that
moment that God will allow you to trip over your own flesh,
turn it around from the mirror and curse his name before you
hit the ground. The devil's been lying from the
beginning. And friends, if we want to see where things turned,
it was already turned against the gospel when the Baptist came
on the scene as the first evangelist, when Jesus was announced to the
world as the son of God, as we'll see this morning, the testimony
of God's people have always has always been counterintuitive
and contrary to the culture in which it is proclaimed. There
is no culturally relative gospel. There is no gospel that paves
itself into the crevices of a society and fits perfectly within the
confines of a people's lives and theories and worldviews.
The gospel melts the worldviews of society. The gospel is like
the acid running over the biological material that puts it to nothing. The gospel is a noise so harsh
and so powerful when it's proclaimed that it drowns out the entertainment
ear of culture. The gospel. is, as we've learned
on Wednesdays, the power of God unto salvation. It is not the
potential of God's salvation. It is not the promise of God's
salvation. It is the power of God in His
salvation. So it is the fire of cleansing. It is the power of God's creation,
whereby He makes a people for Himself to the praise of His
glory. And we have come so far in this world But if we look
so closely at where we are, we will forget that which we should
be. And that is why scripture is
so important for the church. Because it would be interesting
if I were to take the next 30, 40 minutes and just talk about
worldviews and talk about philosophy and talk about psychology. Many
of us would find that very appealing, but it would do nothing for us.
It would do nothing for us because we would come to a place of emptiness.
We would begin to put our mind and our heart and our focus on
that which is temporal, not eternal. We would have a great understanding
of something that is falling away. Who cares how meat rots
in the garbage can? Who cares about a compost pile
and what's actually used to be there? This used to be banana
peels and rats and All sorts of things. That's neat. Now,
it's a pile of compost. It's dirty manure. When we focus
on the things of this world, even in the light of the relation
that they have with the gospel of Christ, we've taken our eyes
off of Christ. We've taken our eyes off the
Word. We've taken our eyes off of that which is glorious, and
we put it on something else. We put it on the creation. We
put it on the creation of man's wisdom. And I'm here to suggest
this morning as we look at the testimony, continuation of the
testimony of John the Baptist in John chapter one, that we
need to come ready to see just how far we've come and to see
what is expected of us as a people to bear witness to the light
because we are not the light. Let's look at the word of God
this morning. Look at verse six, chapter one of John's gospel. Verse 6 and following, I'll read
a few and then we're going to skip down. It says, There was
a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness
to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through
him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the
light. The true light, verse 9, which
gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. Now, skip
on down. Verse 19, and this is the testimony
of John the Baptist, not John the gospel writer, John the Baptist. When the Jews sent priests and
Levites from Jerusalem to ask, who are you? He confessed and
did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they
asked him, then what? Are you Elijah? He said, I am
not. Are you the prophet? And he answered, no. So they
said to him, who are you? We need to give an answer to
those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?
He said, I am the voice of the one crying out in the wilderness.
Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said.
Now, verse 24, they had been sent from the Pharisees. They
asked him, then why are you baptizing if you are neither the Christ,
nor Elijah, nor the prophet? John answered them, I baptize
with water. But among you stands one you do not know, even he
who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy
to untie. These things took place in Bethany,
across the Jordan, where John was baptizing. Verse 29, The
next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold,
the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. This is
he of whom I said, After me comes a man who ranks before me, because
he was before me. I myself did not know him, but
for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be
revealed to Israel. And John bore witness. I saw
the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained
on Him. I myself did not know Him, but
He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, He on whom
you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is He who baptizes
with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and have borne
witness that this is the Son of God." Let's pray. Father, Loosely, this testimony
can be taken. How critically we can receive
it and wonder and dig into things that are not there. The father,
I pray that this morning we read and understand and see this spiritually. Through eyes that are given by
you. Because we are sealed and indwelt by your spirit. so that
all the fullness of understanding would be ours as it is your will. Father, that the application
of this text would not be a burden to us, but Father, be a glorious
gift that we would stand and be ready,
that we would speak the truth. that we would proclaim the greatness
of your mercy as we teach the people of this world about the
person of Jesus Christ. And Lord, I love you because
you've loved me. We love you because you've loved
us. Let us be a people. Not like
the world in our ministry or a mind or a message. But let
us be a people that gives praise to your name, that glorifies
your grace, and that speaks of a heavenly message, not an earthly
one. In Jesus' name, amen. A little biography. I don't even know at the exact
moment, time, or day that I was born again. I don't know, because
I can't remember all the details of every interaction I had with
the gospel as a young child, toddler, youth, teenager. But I know that as long as I
can remember, by the grace of God, I've had a passion for His
Word, a passion for the gospel, a passion for the Lord Jesus.
And that passion, though well-suited for ministry, has not always
been my desire. My desire was to be a surgeon,
to fix the brokenness of a body. But chemistry is my, what is
it called? Nemesis. Why do I have to remember things
that I have so many volumes to look up, was my answer. Well,
shall not do chemistry. Well, you shall not be a doctor.
Okay. What's next? Let's just go play saxophone.
So that's what I did. But it was not without continual
evangelism, teaching, outreach, sharing the gospel, teachers,
professors, peers, street corners, laundromats, good place to preach
back in those days. And many times in my life, I
have shared the gospel. But do you know what I remember
in my life? Not all the times I've shared the gospel. Not all
the sermons that I've preached. I remember specifically and clearly
throughout my entire life, the times when I knew I should have
shared the gospel and didn't. And I can count them. I can count
them on my hands. And I would say that if there
were just one, it would be bad enough. But because there are
about four, It's awful. Because in every one of those
circumstances, those people perished from this life, not weeks later. You might say, wow, you know,
you ought to share the gospel with people who are dying. These
weren't people who were dying. One of them was 15 years old and
took his own life. One of them was 53 years old
and was expected back to work the next day, but died on the
way home that afternoon from a heart attack. And the stories
go on and on and on. And for the longest time, I suspected
that I was just a failure for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.
And so though these failings would motivate me not to forsake
the sharing of the gospel, it also put on me a burden and a
guilt that was not mine to bear, as we've spoken already about
the guilt of sin. It surely was a sin to not share
the gospel, especially when the urge to do so, possibly by the
Holy Spirit, was there. But what I learned through the
grace of God and through his word is that though, yes, my
disobedience is mine to bear, the guilt and the punishment
of that disobedience was put on Christ. Now, ask yourself
this question. Have you ever considered what
it must have been like for Jesus to bear the burden of the sin
of disobedience, of failure to proclaim the glory of God in
his grace? Think about that for a second.
Jesus, the God of heaven who created all things, the Word
that was in the beginning with God and was God and became flesh
and dwelt among us, and all things exist through Him and for Him
and by Him and nothing exists that He did not make, was guilty
of me not proclaiming His glory. And He died and suffered the
wrath of God the Father for that. See, we often think about sin
as this bad stuff we do, bad things we say, bad thoughts we
think, bad places we go, bad stuff we hear, bad stuff we see,
and the list goes on. But what about the good things
we do not do? As the gospel, as the letter
from James would say, to him who knows to do right and does
not, it is sin. So that in the best of our days, we're not fully
aware of all the great things we should be doing for the sake
of glory of Christ, for the sake of the name of God, but yet we
don't do them, and even in that sin, Christ bore the punishment
and the guilt of that sin that He did not commit. When every
time we see in the Gospel of John, Jesus, every breath, was
to give glory to the Father, to proclaim the Word, to proclaim
the truth. I did not come for my own glory,
he would say, but to give glory to the one who sent me. I do
not speak of my own, but as the Father speaks, I now speak. I
do not do the works that I want to do, but as the Father was
doing, now I do. And I can't wait till we get
to those tasks. It's going to blow your mind. It's going to
blow your mind. You're going to just squirm with
joy. Never did Jesus not give glory
to the Father. Never did Jesus take glory for
himself. Never did he ever do anything
that was warranted failure ever. But yet he took my failure on
the cross when I knew to share and proclaim
the gospel and did not. Now, the crazy thing is, is that
there's a lot of excuses that I could give. There's a lot of
excuses that we could give. The good thing is, is that we,
none of us, are not guilty of that sin, are we? Even if we're
not aware of it, every one of us in the room right now has
not shared the gospel when we should have shared the gospel.
And guess what, beloved? We will do it again, probably,
before we die, unless we die right now. So we have to look at this thing
as we get into this testimony and say, where are you going
with this? I promise you it makes sense. Because in our day, some
of the excuses that I've heard, some of the excuses that I've
been told, some of the excuses that I've had professors stand
in front of me and say, we've got to assimilate our people
and teach them to share the gospel. OK, good. Let's do it. and my
tweet that's gotten a little bit of, Brother Jim can attest
to, a little bit of heat this week. It is my personal notebook,
by the way, Twitter. I'm not trying to be divisive,
just so that I don't forget. But when we formalize ministry
to such a degree, for example, we need to teach people how to
share the gospel, so let's create an incredible outline of how
to share the gospel. Let's come to the table with
all these interesting pneumatic devices, and hydraulic devices,
and battery powered devices, and plans, and tracks, and books,
and all these things. Let's teach them to spell a word
on their fingers. Let's teach them to do some kind of explosive
evangelism. Let's do some stuff. Let's start
the beanie weenie gospel. And I'm sure for those of you
who have been in evangelical life for any over 15, 20 years,
you caught the reference to several of those. But where is that in scripture?
Where, pray tell, did John the Baptist go to school to become
a professional evangelist? What message is there of professional
evangelism? What is the evangel in its Essence. Is it the Romans road? No, as
a matter of fact, I would say that that actually steers people
away from the gospel of grace. Oh no, you've just attacked a
sacred cow. Exactly. It's a cow. You shouldn't
worship cows. You should worship Christ. And cows are slow. You don't
want to ride them anywhere. And you certainly don't want to send
someone to Rome. There's no professionalism in
the sense of sharing the gospel. There's no professionalism that
we need to carry with us. There's no formalism that we
say, oh, that's more spiritual. And the reason so many people
fail to share the gospel is because they bought the lie that they
must have some type of formal training in order to do so. But
what is formal training anyway? Informal training that you pay
for. informal training that someone
else takes your money and prints you out a nice piece of paper. You'd be surprised some of the
best theologians in the world never went to school. But they went in the Word. You'd be surprised some of the
most Hillbilly, redneck, lowdown, country folks that don't even
know how to pronounce certain words in the Bible can preach
as good a gospel as some of the greatest PhDs in theological
studies ever lived. And they sound dumb, but they're
not. John the Baptist was a dumb, uneducated, ridiculous, crazy,
homeless man. And then along comes Jesus. who
is exactly the same. See, what people were looking
for in the Christ is that he would establish himself in the
hierarchy of the formalism of Judaism. They would become a
rabbi, become a priest, and ultimately become a king. What people were
looking for in the Messiah and the gospel is that there would
be this grand presentation, an opportunity to feel God move
and to orchestrate this, this, this, this, this door whereby
you could walk into and find that what you've been looking
for. The Holy of Holies never brought you into the presence
of God. The Ark of the Covenant really did not contain God's
spirit. It was just a picture. If you can put God's spirit in
a box, I'm an atheist because I'm not worshiping a God like
that. If you can put God's spirit in a room and he's contained
there, that's just demonic. God is everywhere. God is not
confined to a space or formal liturgy. God was not confined
to the precepts of Judaism. As a matter of fact, God worked
among the Gentiles in the Old Testament as well as in the New
Testament. We see this. But we've come to grasp this
idea of being a witness for Jesus must be this incredible formal
thing that lays out all these good opportunities for people
to have no questions. And then they respond to some
way by checking a box or saying a prayer or raising their hand
and in that they are found to be, I guess, saved. And if we were to look back at
everything we do in the name of church, in the name of Christianity,
in the name of the gospel, we probably have to really recant
and say that most of it is just tradition. It's not formal. It's
not spiritual. It has no bearing in the first
century. These people organized themselves under the confines
of scripture that was given by the apostles. And they operated
with boundaries and principles that was regulated by the word
of God. And the elders of those congregations
oversaw the regulation and the formality, if you will, of the
assembly when they got together, that they were in order, that
they did what was required. But outside just the oversight
of those things, there is no formalism that's required. And
there is no formalism required for you to share the gospel of
grace. The first evangelist, John the
Baptist, did it very well. Last week we saw that he said
he was not the Christ. He was not the prophet. He was
not Elijah. He was not the light. He was
not the light, but what does John say in his prologue? He
came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which
has come into the world, is who brings life to men. The life
in him was life and the life was the light of men. So the
outcome of the witness of John the Baptist is that people would
come to faith. And next week we're going to
start seeing people come to faith and follow after Christ. Why? Because John the Baptist proclaimed
the gospel. And he did not take it upon himself
to be looked upon. The image of professionalism
and formalism, in my opinion today, seems to supersede the
authority and the raw simplicity of the Word of God. John the
Baptist was not a professional evangelist. He took no glory. He took no title. He took no
fame and he took no favor. We've come a long ways, beloved,
even though we are always reforming. trying to get back to the nature
of the New Testament church and practice and purpose and passion
and presence, I believe we've come too far in a culture. And at the Church of Jesus Christ,
even those with the right doctrine, with the right gospel, we've
become more of a monument than we have a unified witness
to majesty. We've become a memorial. Now
look what we are. Look what we leave behind. When
what we need to leave behind is not James Tiffin's on the
pages of history. Not Grace Truth Church on the
pages of history. Who cares? Who cares if a hundred years
from now that the name of Grace Truth Baptist Church has any
significance? What matters is that Jesus Christ preached through
us has significance. It is one of the most recognizable
apostasies. When you go into a community
and they have memorials for men of God, memorials for ministry
that's done a great thing. You know why? Because it points
to men, not Jesus. That's why. It is wicked and
it is demonic and it is satanic when the world loves and venerates
humanity. John the Baptist says, I'm nothing.
I'm not the Christ. I'm not Elijah. I'm not the prophet. I am not the light. Stop looking
at me. Look at Him. Behold the Lamb
of God. Behold the Lamb of God. See, this is the point. This
is why this is recorded right here. So that we can grasp this
truth. That the Church of Jesus Christ
is not about Herself, but is about the One who made Her. Jesus. And friends, we all do it. I
am a master at marketing a church, master at marketing a plan and
a program. I could put together a program
and get a thousand people guaranteed. Guaranteed, none of them would
come and see Christ. We could not have church next
Sunday and promote a festival where we just get along and sing
and hand out food and play games and 500 people could come and
we can engage with them and share the faith with them and do all
sorts of things. But Christ would not mean a thing
to them. We can market all sorts of things. I mean, what is it that you love
the most? You ever talk anybody into buying something that they
never thought about buying before? Because you bought it and loved
it, and they're like, what's that? And you tell them, I gotta get
me one of those. That's what we do in our culture. Hey, how
did you baptize 300 people last year? Well, what we did, and
this is exactly what we did, is that we spent $450,000 and
we created a whole city of Jerusalem on the property. And then with
200 people trained, we created an entire crucifixion resurrection
weekend event. 300 people got saved. were baptized
and never showed back up in church. It was a grand time. John the
Baptist never, ever made himself into anything. Matter of fact,
I would suggest to you that if his name were not written in
the Gospels, we would not even know he existed. He did not come and answer the
Pharisees' posse this way. You don't know me? I'm John of
Zechariah and Elizabeth. You didn't know my dad? He was
a priest. You don't remember the prophecies about me? How
dare you question what I'm doing? You don't know who I am. I'm
the child of promise, remember? He could have said all that.
It would have been true. He could have said, do you remember when
I was dedicated in the temple? Do you remember these things?
And they'll be like, oh yeah, we know who you are now. Sorry
to bother you. He didn't do that. He says, I'm
nobody. Matter of fact, I'm just a voice
crying out in the wilderness to make straight the path of
the Lord. This week, we see that he was sent to bear witness.
Let's look at the witness of John. The next day, verse 29,
Jesus was coming toward him. And he said, behold, the Lamb
of God who takes away the sins of the world. So let's stop there,
let's take this piece by piece. John the Baptist, when he said,
Behold, I don't believe he was fully understanding the measure
of which he spoke. I don't believe he was speaking
with all comprehension of Jesus' substitutionary atonement. I
don't believe that he had all knowledge of the implications
of Jesus' death on the cross. But I know that He was given
by the Holy Spirit the reality of who Jesus was, and He tells
us exactly how He came to know who Jesus was, because God told
Him that when this person experienced this thing, that would be Messiah.
And we also know the culture of Israel during that day. They
considered Jesus to be a nationalistic Savior, a Savior of the nation,
a Savior of Judaism, rather than a Savior of, quote, the world. They didn't understand that they
needed salvation from their sin, but rather that they would just
need salvation from their captors. I'm not saying that John the
Baptist didn't have some insight, but he did not know as he saw
that Jesus was Messiah, and it was revealed to him, and now
his testimony is to reveal it to others. Behold, the Lamb of
God, the Lamb of God. Let's talk about that for a second.
What is the Lamb of God? Well, there's several places
in scripture we can look. We can look at the Lamb of the Passover
that we see, that provided safety and salvation
for the people of Israel. Maybe John the Baptist was in
some sense thinking of Jesus as the Passover Lamb. I don't
believe so, but I believe it applies because the Passover
Lamb was also what? A shadow of Christ, was a type.
And Jesus is the anti-type. Jesus is the answer to that thing.
We could also think if we look about the daily lamb of sacrifice,
that every single day the priest, the Levites, would go in and
sacrifice a lamb as a symbol of atonement, the shedding of
blood. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission
of sins. Maybe John the Baptist was considering that in his mind
as he looked at Jesus. Or maybe, maybe, John the Baptist
was considering Isaiah 53, maybe around verse 6 or so, where it
talked about the lamb being led to the slaughter. I would say
that if we supposed any of these three would be correct, and that
they all apply to Christ. But I'm not so sure, and the
writer doesn't give us the idea that John knew what he was talking
about, nor did he give any specifics of exactly what John was saying. But maybe John the Baptist was
speaking just like Caiaphas. The high priest, after John chapter
11, when Lazarus was raised from the dead, because of the proof
of Jesus as Messiah, because of the proof that Jesus had given
that he was the one that came from God, they decided it was
in the best interest of the nation for Jesus to die rather than
to allow him to live because he had proven himself powerful.
It's John 11. We hear these words, nor do you
understand that it is better, don't you understand, it's better
for one man, what does he say? One man to perish, to die for the
people, so that the whole nation would not perish. Don't you know
that it's better for Jesus to die, one man, for the sake of
the people, so that the nation doesn't perish? Why would the
nation perish? Because if Jesus kept on going, Rome would have
crushed Israel. Rome would have crushed Jerusalem, and eventually
did. Less than 20 years after the Ascension. But the Bible says that Caiaphas
didn't say this of his own accord. He did not say that. He said
it, but he didn't know what he was really saying. He was saying,
let's save our own butts. Let's save ourselves. Let this
man die, though he's a man from God. You know what? Blood's on
our hands, okay? But let him die for the people
rather than we all perish. Isn't it better for one than
for all? But he didn't understand that
Jesus, and in reality would die one for all. He did not realize
that Jesus would be dying for his own people, that Jesus would
lay down his life for his sheep, that Jesus would give up himself
to satisfy the judgment of God against the people of God. The Bible says, he did not say
this of his own accord, but being high priest that year, he prophesied
that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation
only, but also to gather into one, listen, the children of
God who were scattered abroad. Now that's John, the apostle
writing. So this Passover lamb, this daily
sacrificial lamb, the lamb of Isaiah 53, taken to the slaughter.
They surely point to Jesus, but I don't think, just like Caiaphas
did not really know, I don't think John the Baptist really
knew either. exactly what it meant for Jesus
to be the Lamb of God. But I do know that in John's
understanding of the Lamb and what it did, he knew that Jesus
would in some way and somehow satisfy God's judgment and save
people from their sins, because He said it. So then, the first
thing that we talk about, about giving a simple, non-formal message
of the Gospel, is that do we have to know all of the Christological
implications of everything that happens in the atonement? Or
can we just tell the world out there? Can we trust that the
Holy Spirit of God, in the preaching of the message of the cross,
says that Jesus died for sinners? Jesus paid for your sin. He satisfied the judgment of
sin. What else is there to preach?
Nada. Nothing. Behold the Lamb of God
that takes away the sin of the world. Behold, that's the Lamb of God,
the Lamb of God. And we might think, well, what
in the world is he talking about there about the sin of the world? Well, we know what the Lamb actually
did throughout all of history. Did the Lamb actually take away
the sin of anybody? No. It reminded those sinners
that their sin required death. That's what it's that's what
it's about. The blood of goats, the blood of lambs, the blood
of nothing ever satisfied God's wrath. But rather, it was to
remind them that wrath was coming because of sin. I find it very
good that Romans and John's gospel go so close together. It's an
amazing thing. But then John says, behold, there
is the Lamb of God. And he identifies Jesus then
as the Lamb of God. And he says that takes away the
sin of the world. Now, I want you to understand
that there are people in this world living today who argue
passionately that Jesus paid for the sins of every human being
that ever lived. Let me ask you a question. If
you owe the bank money and I pay it off, can the bank sue you
for the balance? Yes? The bank can say, you still
owe money though they've been paid? No, they can't. They have
to release whatever it is they hold against you. If Jesus paid
for every sin of every person that ever lived, then every person
that ever lived stands right before God this very moment,
and there is nothing that can change that. Because Jesus did
not create an account to be issued, Jesus credited righteousness into the account
of all for whom he died. All who believe, he gave the right to become children
of God. Why? Not because the will, the decision of the mind,
the will of the man, or the blood, but the will of God. In John
10, Jesus says, I'm the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays
down his life for the sheep. Does Jesus lay His life down
for the goats? Did Jesus lay His life down for the wolves?
As a matter of fact, no. Jesus says in Matthew 25 that
in the day of judgment He will separate, here's all of humanity,
He will separate all of humanity into two piles. What are they?
The sheep on the right and the goats on the left. The sheep
on the right into everlasting life, the goats on the left into
hellfire. So if Jesus paid for the sins
of the goats, Then why is he going to punish them for a debt
that is already paid? He cannot punish them. He cannot
punish them. Jesus died for the sheep. Who
are the sheep? Do you believe on Jesus Christ
as your only hope? Is your trust in him? Then you're
a sheep. Jesus goes on to say in that
same chapter, the sheep know my voice and I know them and
they follow me. The very next verse, I give them, listen, those
for whom the shepherd lays down his life in John 10, or the sheep. And those who are the sheep have
been given eternal life. And they will, what? Never perish. These are the words of Jesus.
I give them eternal life, they will never perish, and no one
will snatch them out of My hand. So here is the imperative of
what Jesus came to do when the Scripture says He came to seek
and save the lost. He saved the lost. He saved His
people. He saved the elect, beloved.
He saved the sheep. gave them eternal life and they
will not perish and they cannot be snatched away. So there's
no such thing as a universal cross, a universal atonement,
a universal sacrifice for all human beings. Where is that? In the philosophy
of the demons? In the philosophy of men who
want to be the ruler of their own salvation? Rather than give
glory to God, they want to say, I chose rightly. I've had people
actually tell me that Imagio Dei, and that's the ancient phrase
for the image of God, that let us make man in our image, as
we see in Genesis, that the Imagio Dei is wrapped up in man's free
will. That God is good because he gave
man free will. Where is that? Number one, where
is that taught in Scripture? Number two, where is free will
taught in Scripture? Show it to me. God says, I'll
do what I please and no one can stop me. God says, I'll make
a bird fly from over here and a man walk from over here. The
very Scripture in John chapter 11 just said that Caiaphas spoke
without his knowledge. He prophesied that Christ would
die. He didn't even know what he was talking about. He was
saving his own behind, but yet prophesied the truth of the gospel
of Jesus Christ. Takes away the sin of the world.
What does world mean then? All those who are scattered abroad,
all the sheep that are not yet in the fold. But we'll get to
that. We'll get to that in weeks to
come. Jesus then removes the sin collectively of his people
from all of the world as we see John writing in this apocalypse
of every nation, of every tongue and of every tribe. Of every
nation, of every tongue and every tribe, Jesus pays. for the sins of His sheep amongst
the people of the world. John the Baptist goes on to say,
Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world,
and in the time we have left, I want you to see the rest of
His testimony pointing to the light who is Jesus Christ. He
says, This is He of whom I said. Now think about that for a second.
This isn't his first proclamation. John, everywhere he's been going,
has already been saying who Jesus was. He's already said who Jesus
was. Now he sees him and points him
out to the crowd that's following him and listening to his words.
He says, remember what I've been saying? Remember that which I
have said? This is He. This is the guy. This is Him of whom I said. So he's restating the testimony.
It's over and over and over again. What is it in us that makes us
think when we give the testimony of Christ that we give it once
and then we just work to argue and philosophize so that people
can see that it's true? What saves? The comprehension
of facts? What saves? The abstract becoming
solid? What saves? The argument of apologetics? No! They never can save. They
never can work past the flesh. If man's reason is at the precipice
of his eternity, he is damned therein. Let me say that again.
If man's reason is at the precipice of his eternity, he is damned
therein. In other words, if it's about logic,
and being argued into believing, it's not of God. God saves supernaturally
through the proclamation of the gospel, which is who Christ is
and what Christ has done. And though we may go, well, that
doesn't make any sense to me. Beloved, it better make sense
to you. You better sit here this day by faith than believing in
who Christ is and what Christ has done on your behalf. You
better not have any other thing that you're holding on to. You
better not be holding on to your works, or to your obedience,
or to your morality, or to your dress, or to your music, or to
your church membership. You better not be holding on
to your baptism. or the Bible that you read. You better not
be holding on to your wisdom and your understanding of things.
You better not be holding on to the fact that you may know
Greek or Hebrew. You better not hold on to the fact of anything
except the person of Jesus who is everything. That's the only
hope you have. I've already said, there He is. Friends, we need to take away
our formalized philosophies, our structures, our manners,
our plans and our programs. the roads and all the other things
that we try to show people Christ that's not prescribed in Scripture.
I mean, you want to share the gospel of Jesus Christ? Just
go to John 3. Just go to John. Go to John 1. Read it. You've
shared the gospel. Go to John 3. Read it. Starting
in verse 14, 15. Start in verse 1 if you want
to. Read it all the way down. Tell people these things. Because
it is through hearing these things that the Spirit of God wakes
us up and brings us to life. That's how you were saved. You
weren't saved through any means of argument, evidence, formality,
experience. You were saved because somebody,
some person, somewhere, somehow, shared the Word of God with you. I said, well, no, I read it in
a hotel room. Somebody shared it. Some beloved
soul put that Bible in there. Because I've never seen a Bible
flying down the highway. And I've not seen a bush on fire
speaking in a long, long time. Never. We need to speak with our mouths
the truth of Jesus. He said, after me comes a man
who ranks before me because he was before me. This was the testimony
that he's already told them. He told the Pharisees possibly
the same thing, didn't he? The Jews and the Levites. He
told them, there's a man that you do not know that stands among
you, whose sandals I'm not worthy to untie as a slave. But he's
before me in rank because he's before me in existence. Yet Jesus
was younger than John. Jesus was still in the womb when
John was born. This testimony of John the Baptist
about Christ to many, even the leaders, he did not argue the
prophecy of his birth, as I've always mentioned, I already mentioned,
the miracle of his birth, the ins and outs of the details concerning
the pedigree and the plans of God. He did not argue these things. He just preached Jesus Christ.
He said, there's a man, And he's born, yet he's before me. He's
always existed. Jesus was baptized sometime before
this. God, the gospel of John does
not record the narrative of Jesus baptism. And so somewhere between. This situation before the situation,
John had baptized Jesus because it is the baptism of Jesus that
John points to as proof of who Jesus is. You might say, well, why does
the Gospel of John not record the baptism of Jesus? Because
faith without sight is true faith, number one. And faith is what the Spirit
gives. Man relies on what he can see. John's gospel was written
that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ and so believing
on his name, you may have eternal life. He's the son of God. What
better way to illustrate and to depict the teaching of the
historical fact of Jesus' baptism than to have someone give testimony
of it? See, that's the point. That's the point. Now we get
to hear the testimony of Jesus' baptism rather than see the narrative
of what happened. Let's hear the testimony. So
John the Baptist, the account of Jesus' baptism is here by
the testimony of the one who performed it, John. He says, I myself, verse 31,
did not know him, but for this purpose, but for this purpose
I came baptizing with water. What's the purpose? The very
next phrase, that he might be revealed to Israel. Are you hear
that? I came to baptize with water
so that Israel would see that Jesus is the Son of God, is Messiah,
is the Christ. In chapter, I mean, verse 32,
this is the testimony. And I saw, have seen, this is
a settled conviction. I know it. It's not just describing
what I saw in my eyes. I received it and acknowledge
it and believe it. I am convinced. Paul uses that
phrase a lot. I am convinced. I have seen. I saw, what does he say? The
Spirit descending from heaven, listen to this phrase, like a
dove. The descending was like a dove. It was not a dove. Okay? It was not a dove. It was the
Spirit and the way He described it, what is it? It floated down
like a dove would fly down and light on something. You ever
seen a dove? No, why not a blue jay? Because
they're mean. They probably don't have blue jays in Jerusalem.
I don't know. A crow. Who wants a crow? A dove. It seems sweet. It's what the
Scriptures illustrate. The dove didn't land on Jesus.
The Spirit of God landed on Jesus. God, the Holy Spirit, landed
on Jesus. It's important. The Spirit of
God has no body. It's Spirit. The Spirit of God
does not take form. But in this baptism, John says,
I saw the Spirit descend like a dove. and it remained on Him. So that in God's mercy, God allowed
John the Baptist and those witnesses there to see some form, some
essence of the Holy Spirit of God descending and remaining
on Jesus. What did it look like? Nobody
knows. They could not describe it. Maybe it was a globe. Maybe it was a cloud. Maybe it
was something. But the Spirit of God descended
and remained on Jesus. You might say, well, what's the
big deal? How do we know? What if it was just foggy? What
if there was just like some kind of a natural phenomenon and like
somebody was grilling nearby and the flames sort of went over
that way and it looked like heat waves or something. What if it
was just a hot day? Well, that would have been okay
to suppose that it was just a natural phenomenon had not God spoken
out of heaven. Had not the Father said, this
is my Son with whom I am well pleased. Now, oh, I wonder what
this was. Oh, okay, we know now. God doesn't leave doubt. The
scripture doesn't leave doubt. In John 3, 34, it says that God For he whom God has sent utters
the word of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. Speaking
of Jesus Christ, the Father loves the Son and gives the Spirit
without measure, so that the fullness of the Spirit of God
dwells upon Christ permanently in His humanity. Listen to that,
church. Beloved, what is the guarantee
of our hope? What is the seal of our redemption? What does
the scripture say? Is it circumcision? No. Is it
baptism? The seal of our hope is the Spirit
of God. The seal of our eternity is the Spirit of God that remained
on Jesus that we now have in dwelling within us. And we'll get there in more depth
in future teaching. John was there, he performed
this baptism, he witnessed this work, he heard the word of God
at that moment. This is how John knew this was
the Christ. John says, I didn't know him,
but now I know him. I might have seen him, I might have knew his
name, Jesus of Nazareth. But now I know he's Jesus, the
Christ. Now I know he's Messiah. Now
I know he's the one come from God. Because I saw it and I heard
the Father speak. Verse 33, Myself did not know
Him, but He who sent Me to baptize with water said to Me, what did
He say? He on whom you see the Spirit
descend and remain, this is who baptized with the Holy Spirit.
So God sent John the Baptist to baptize with water in order
that through the baptism, Jesus would come on the scene and be
baptized. And that at the baptism of Jesus Christ, that God the
Holy Spirit would descend upon Jesus and the Father would proclaim
audibly, this is My Son, so that He would be known, so that there
would be no question that Jesus is the one who comes from God,
the Christ. Knowing Jesus is eternal life. And knowing Jesus is only possible
if the Father opens our eyes through the Spirit. You see the Spirit descend and
remain. See, God alone gives His Spirit. We can't command
it. We can't call it. It's not an it. It's a Him. It's
a person of the Trinity who is the one true God and only God.
God the Holy Spirit is the only God. God the Father is the only
God. God the Son is the only God.
We cannot manifest the Spirit. God is Spirit. So therefore,
all that God does and God is, He does through His Spirit. God gives the Spirit. Jesus gives
God the Spirit to those who are His, who those who hear the message
and then who hear the message with and by and through the Spirit
and by the will of God are born again and believe in that order. The scripture says that Jesus
is the giver of life. He's the creator of the universe
and the savior of sinners. The promise of the Spirit of
God was given through the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 36, where
he says, I'll sprinkle clean water on you, shall they clean
from all of your iniquities and uncleanness, from all of your
idols. I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and
a new spirit. I will put within you and I'll
remove the heart of stone and from your flesh and give you
a heart of flesh. This is salvation. Having the Holy Spirit of God
is salvation. How does one receive the Holy
Spirit? It blows where it wishes, John 3. But it does not blow
into the ears, into the heart, into the mind, into the life,
nor does it indwell anybody who has not heard the Word of God.
Who has not heard the testimony of the light. Who has not heard
the clear and simple and childish gospel. Childish meaning that
it's It's an easy, simple, childlike message. And it comes down to this in
verse 34 that John actually proclaims. This is it. I could teach for
three or four days on this. One verse. And I have seen and have borne witness that this
is the Son of God. I have seen and I have borne
witness that this is the Son of God. Dr. Luke says, and the Holy Spirit
descended on Him in bodily form like a dove and a voice came
from heaven, You are my beloved Son, with You I am well pleased. The purpose of John's gospel
is found in the 20th chapter, 31st verse. But these things
are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.
See, John the Baptist believed on Christ. And John the Baptist
professed Christ to others. What's so difficult about that? Nothing. Nothing. It is it's it's the easiest thing
we've ever been tasked to do. We've been commanded to be holy,
which we cannot. We've been commanded to love the Lord God with all
of our heart, my soul and strength, which we cannot. We've been commanded
to do all sorts of things, but we can clearly and simply say
Jesus Christ. Is the son of God. Who takes
away the sin of the world. Surely He is the Son of God. The question is, have you seen
Christ? Do you see Him now? And when
I say see, do you see Him by faith? Not just agree with the
lesson learned here in the testimony of John, but do you see by faith
that Jesus Christ is the giver of life? And that only in Christ
will you find life. Beloved, I know that most of
you do. But if you don't. Pray that God would show you.
That you would see through the hearing of this truth. And that
our zeal would become simple. Not formal, not professional,
not relational, but simple. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ takes
away sin. Let's pray. Lord, in our world of complex
thinking. It's easy for us to lose sight
of that, which is powerful in its simplicity. But God, you
are the giver of life. So embolden us and prepare us
to speak, not even boldly, weakly, to speak in frailty. Jesus is the Son of God who satisfies
your wrath against our sin. And that in hearing the message
of Christ, Lord, you will bring others to you. You will draw
them and snatch them out of death, snatch them out of darkness,
just as you dragged us. And you will put us into the
hands of Jesus Christ that no one can remove us from. We praise you for this in Jesus
name. Amen.