now to John chapter 1. In verse 6 of John 1, we're introduced to a man who is the object of the prophetic words of Isaiah and Malachi. And that man is John the Baptist. And I'm sure all of you are knowledgeable of what I'm going to say. We have in this two men by the name of John. John, who was one of the disciples of our Lord, is the inspired writer of this book. He also wrote 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John and the book of Revelation. But this man that John the apostle writes about is John the Baptist. John the Baptist. And you can read about the prophecy concerning his coming, especially in Isaiah chapter 40. This man, John the Baptist, was related to the Savior.

A cousin, perhaps. their mothers, Elizabeth, John the Baptist's mother, and Mary, the mother of the Lord Jesus, they were themselves related. So John and Jesus were related, perhaps distant cousins. We're not really sure because in Luke, the first chapter where it says that Elizabeth was a cousin of Mary, the word cousin there It's not like we would say first cousin, second cousin, third cousin, it just means a relative. So we don't know but exact what the relationship was, but Jesus and John the Baptist were related.

Both of them began their ministry when they were 30 years of age. but John being six months older than the Lord Jesus, he began his ministry first. It's interesting, and if you want to read about the birth of John the Baptist and the the promise of God regarding his birth to Elizabeth and to Zacharias, who was the father of John the Baptist. Read Luke, the first chapter, and you'll get a lot of historical background. But it's interesting at once John the Baptist was circumcised and named. That's when the little boys were circumcised at the same time they got their name.

From then on, we hear nothing about John the Baptist for 30 years. He dwelt in the wilderness, apparently in the desert. His family was, some of the Jewish writers say, nomads who just kind of wandered through the desert, wandered through the wilderness.

But we hear nothing of him until we get to Luke, the third chapter, and then we find him going forth preaching the gospel of grace. Now, our Lord was six months younger. And so our Lord didn't begin his ministry till 30 years of age also. And the only thing that we know of during those 30 years of his youth is what's recorded in Luke, the second chapter, when he was 12 years of age and he went to the temple in Jerusalem. But other than that, we don't have any history of our Lord's upbringing, though the Jews, the Jewish historians say that Joseph, who was, shall we call him the stepfather of our Lord, certainly God was his father, but he was under the tutelage and the authority of Joseph. The Jewish writers say that Joseph died sometime during that 30 years of our Lord's silence when he was in Nazareth, and we don't know anything about what happened then. But after 30 years had gone by, John the Baptist appeared, and you can read about it in Luke, the third chapter in verse three, but I'll read it to you.

He came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance. That is the baptism because, or for the reason of repentance, that is because of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as a testimony of the remission of sin. and he predicted that the Messiah was coming. He was, after all, the forerunner. Isaiah 40 tells us this. He was the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so John goes forth preaching him. Now, as we get to John, the first chapter, we find in the sixth verse, there was a man sent from God whose name was John. John the Baptist. So thus John the disciple introduces us to John the Baptist. And you will have several things to say about the ministry of John the Baptist in this chapter and then also in the third chapter as well. Now, remember the writer is John the disciple. And he's led by the Holy Spirit to kind of summarize the ministry of John the Baptist, and he identifies John the Baptist as being the witness.

He's a witness of the Lord Jesus. Look at verse 7. John 1, 7. The same came for a witness. to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe. What was John's ministry? To bear witness of the light. Look again at verse eight. He was not that light. The one who is the light of the world was God incarnate. John was not that light, but he was sent to bear witness. of that light. This was his ministry.

This was his reason for being sent on a preaching ministry to bear witness to the light that is to Christ the Savior. Look at verse 15. John bear witness of him. And this is the job of every preacher of the gospel, is to bear witness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And he cried, This was he of whom I speak, he that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me. He was before him in relation to time. After all, the Lord Jesus, our Savior, is the eternal God. He was before him in rank. John the Baptist was a servant. Our Lord is eternally the King. He was before him in dignity. John was a man. The one he came to announce is the Son of God. And he was before me, John says, in greatness. John was just a poor man with a message that God had stamped into his heart. It's like burned it into his innermost being to bear witness of the light, to bear witness of the Lord Jesus Christ. But he was a man of humility, Our Lord Jesus Christ is God over all, blessed forever.

Now let me give you another little piece of information here. As we read in a couple of verses here that I'm going to make notice of, the word record If you have a concordance, look it up, look up witness and then look up record and you'll find they're the identical same original word, witness and record. And so we read in verse 32, and John bear record. The translators could have said John bear witness because he did. John bear record saying, I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove and abode upon him.

Well, when did that happen? That's when John the Baptist baptized him. So here's the record that God gave him. Look at verse 34. And I saw, John said, and bear record, bear witness, that this is the Son of God. After all, he heard a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased.

So the word record is essentially the same as witness. So five times John the Apostle, John the writer, he tells us of the mission and ministry of John the Baptist. It was to bear witness of the Lord Jesus. It was to bear a permanent record of who he was, who he is, and what he came to do. He gave a straightforward declaration of the person in the ministry of the Lord Jesus.

Now keep this in mind, the words witness and record. Witness and record, we already know now, they're essentially the same. They were legal words. They were legal words, such as you would use in a court of law. One of my favorite programs on television and it's the reruns of Law and Order and you know in the trial that a witness is called for and that witness bears record to that which not what they've heard but what they have actually witnessed with their eyes and heard with their ears. Witness and record are legal words so it's almost as though This is the way I kind of sort it out in my mind.

John the Apostle calls John the Baptist, as it were, to the stand. What do you have to witness concerning this man, Jesus of Nazareth? What record do you bring to this court to identify who he is and what he came to do? And John the Baptist faithfully set forth the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. He identifies him as the Messiah, as the Savior. And indeed here in verse 34, this is the Son of God. He tells us exactly who this man is that he baptized and the one he bears witness to and the one he brings forth an accurate record of who he is and what he came to do.

Now here's what I wanna show you in the time that remains this morning. Actually, there are three days that's on record here. Four, if you count the last section of this chapter, but three days John went forth preaching. Let me identify these days to you. The first one begins in verse 19. This is the first day. The second day begins in verse 29. And then the third day begins in verse 35. So three days of John's preaching. You want to know what John preached? What did John the Baptist preach? What was his message? What did he bear witness of? Or who did he bear witness of?

What was his record concerning Jesus of Nazareth? And we're going to have three days in which he's involved in the declaration of the person and work of Messiah. Day number one. Day number one covers from verses 19 through 28. And John the Baptist, his audience, his audience here is the Jews, verse 19. And that's an expression John the Apostle uses about 40 different times in this gospel narrative.

And he's referring to the Jewish hierarchy. the leaders of the Jewish religion, which was a works-based religion, live by the law of God in order to be saved, in order to be accepted. And John now, on this first day that we're considering, He receives a delegation of people from the Sanhedrin back in Jerusalem. Who were the Sanhedrin, you ask? Glad you asked that question. I'll answer that for you. That was the highest religious court, the highest religious tribunal in all of Israel. These are the ones who decided not only secular cases, but especially religious associated cases. And these Sanhedrin consisted of 70 men plus one, the high priest who was the high priest over the Sanhedrin.

They sent a delegation, they sent some representatives out to hear John the Baptist. Now remember, John the Baptist, he didn't preach in the temple. He didn't preach in a synagogue. His ministry was out in the wilderness, so this delegation had to leave the temple in Jerusalem and go out into the wilderness, where John the Baptist had pretty much spent all of his life thus far. And they go out there to hear Him.

And we learn that from verse 19, that these sent Him, and they came to John the Baptist and said, Who are you? Who are you? Now, John could have said, if he wanted to brag on himself, he could have said, hey, I'm the subject of Old Testament prophecy. Don't you know who I am? You know, Isaiah wrote of me and Malachi wrote of me. I mean, God sent me on a mission to set forth the Son of God. Who am I? Well, I'm John the Baptist. Don't you know who I am?

But he didn't introduce himself that way. I get tickled. This is off subject. But you notice the weathermen, and I usually watch Channel 3, WSAZ, And every time a weatherman steps forward to give the weather report, he's gotta say, hi, this is blah, blah, blah. He's gotta put his name before us. For somebody who's wrong so many times, I wouldn't wanna put my name out there, would you? But anyway, I got sidetracked there.

But John the Baptist, you see, he's not putting himself forward. He's there to bear witness to and to declare the record of Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. So immediately he says in the 20th verse, I am not the Christ. that is the Messiah. You gotta remember that the Jews have for hundreds and hundreds of years, they've been anticipating the arrival of Messiah. They've been looking for him. And here comes John the Baptist, and he has a tremendous crowd to preach to.

He was different, his dress was different, his diet was different. He preached in a different place because he preached out in the wilderness. And you know, people said, have you heard that preacher out there? What church does he pass? He's just out there in the desert.

Let's go hear him. And people went out there to hear him. He had tremendous following and they had great respect for him because his father was a priest. So he could trace his lineage all the way back to Aaron. So this is a man with some credentials, though he didn't flaunt them himself. They said, who are you? He said, well, let's set the record straight to begin with. I'm not the Christ. I'm not the Messiah.

So they asked him in verse 21, well, what then? Are you Elijah? He said, no. And then they said, are you that prophet spoken of by Moses in Deuteronomy? where it says, where Moses said, a prophet will arise greater than me. Are you that prophet? And he answered, no, I'm not. Then said they unto him, well, who are you? Who are you? That we may give an answer to them that sent us. What do you say of yourself?

Boy, here's where he could really talk about his credentials and being the subject of Old Testament prophecy. But he merely said, I'm the voice. I'm just a voice. And that's exactly what Isaiah chapter 40 in the third verse says. A voice preaching in the wilderness. John says, I'm just a voice. I'm a voice of one crying in the wilderness, not in Jerusalem, not in the temple, not in a synagogue, but in the desert, in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah.

And they which were sent of the Pharisees, and they which were sent were of the Pharisees. They asked him in verse 25, they said to him, well, why baptizes thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elijah, neither that prophet? John answered them saying, I baptize with water, I baptize in water.

It's a picture of death, burial, and resurrection. but there standeth one among you, there walks among you. He wasn't in that immediate crowd then. But he said, there is one among you whom you do not know. They knew the law. They knew the priests. They knew the rabbis. They knew about the prophets in the Old Testament because the Old Testament's all the Bible they had at that time. But he said, there's one standing among you.

Notice the word standeth ends in E-T-H, which means it's a continuing verb. He's just, he's here now. Not literally there, but he's in the midst of the people, the population. And he said, he's here now. He stands among you and you don't even know him. You don't know him. Verse 27, he it is who coming after me is preferred before me whose shoes latch it. I am not worthy to unloose.

These things were done in Bethabara, beyond Jordan, where John was baptized, first day. He ends his message. I don't know, maybe he went back in a cave, wherever he lived, I don't know where it was, but that was the end of the message. And the subject of this first day is very basic. And here it is, Messiah is here. That's what he was saying. Messiah has come, the Christ of God, prophesied, promised, predicted, pictured in the Old Testament.

He has come and you don't even recognize him. You go back and tell the Sanhedrin, the Messiah that they say they've been looking for and longing for, he's amongst us now and you don't even know him. They were ignorant of him. For he cannot be known except by divine revelation.

So that's the first day. The second day begins at verse 29. Verse 29. The next day. So here's day two. The next day, John seeth Jesus coming unto him. Some say to be baptized. And we know that our Lord did come to John the Baptist to be baptized. And saith unto, and saith, behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Now on that first day, the congregation consisted of the delegation, the representatives of the Sanhedrin. The second day consisted of just a crowd of people, just ordinary folks. And the first thing John says to them is behold the Lamb of God. He is God's lamb.

And he's come to take away the sins of the world. And notice again that E-T-H, who taketh away the sin of the world, of all kinds of people in the world. See, that's what our Lord has done. He has taken away the sin of his people and he's still taking them away.

They'll never come back. It's like in 1 John 1, in verse 7, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, it cleanseth us from all sin, cleanseth us. So what does that mean? It continually washes us. We're continually cleansed. We will never become filthy. We'll never become dirty again in the sight of God because the blood of Christ Jesus goes on, keeps on cleansing us. You say, but Jim, I sin every day. I know you do and so do I, but the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ goes on cleansing us. And he makes sure that the sins of his people have been forever taken away.

So the first day, he identifies the Lord Jesus as being the Messiah. The second day, he identifies him as being the Lamb of God who came as a sacrifice for sin. You see, all of the Jews understood the necessity of killing innocent lambs. The Passover lamb, a male without spot, without blemish, that was like foremost in their history, Exodus chapter 12.

And then when God gave his law, he ordained that there be a sacrifice, a lamb must be sacrificed in the morning at nine o'clock and in the evening, early evening at three o'clock, every single day. One in the morning, one in the evening. And God kept this before them throughout the Old Testament to teach them the only way sin can be put away is for an innocent victim to die in the stead of the guilty. This was perpetually in front of them. And so when John the Baptist said, behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, well, they knew something about lambs. They knew something about the death of the lamb.

But you see, this is what upset the crowds about Jesus of Nazareth. He came not as a king, but as a sacrifice. He came not with great pomp and ceremony, but he came as a simple preacher of the gospel declaring how God could be just and justify the ungodly through his own death upon the cross that he would die. He declared himself to be the son of God.

And John the Baptist says he's the lamb of God. In Genesis chapter four and verse four, we see the lamb typified. That's Abel's lamb. When Abel went to worship God, he worshiped God by killing a lamb. That lamb never hurt anybody. It was meek and mild. But that lamb pictured somebody. It typified Christ the Savior.

In Genesis 22, in verse 8, we find Abraham ready to offer Isaac on the altar. And when Isaac saw he's got the wood on his back, his daddy's got the knife, and he's got the fire in his hand, a torch or whatever, and Isaac said, well, dad, you got the knife, I got the wood, you got the fire, where's the lamb? We can't worship God without the lamb. And here's what Abraham said. And this is a great prophecy. He said, my son, God will provide himself, himself, a lamb.

And then in Exodus chapter 12, we see the lamb killed, blood shed. That picture's of our Lord Jesus. And here in John 1, 29, the lamb is identified. Who is this lamb? He's the one who's among you whom y'all don't know. You say you know the scriptures, but you don't know Him of whom the scriptures are all about. The Lamb of God. The Lamb is identified. This Lamb must die for God's people. And I say, first of all, the Lamb of God, Christ, He died for God. He died to satisfy God's justice. You know that. It's the only way God can show grace to us and mercy to us was through the doing and the dying of the Lamb of God, who is the Son of God. John's just preaching to ordinary folks. He's not preaching to a delegation of Pharisees now. He's preaching to just ordinary people. And I'm just preaching to ordinary people here. Those of you who are, we're just, nothing special about us.

And my message to you and to anyone who'll listen is behold the Lamb of God. He came to take sin away. How did he do that? By the sacrifice of himself. This is John's message on the second day. At first day, his message was directed to the religionists. They thought they were somebody. He said, you know, there's one among you, you don't even know him. I knew the law. They knew the holy days, the special days, the feast days. They knew who the rabbis were.

They knew who the who's who in Judaistic religion were, but they didn't know God through Christ. That's not you, is it? Do you know Him? Leicester know Him. and you'll never know him unless he introduces himself to you through the preaching of the gospel.

John says he's the Lamb of God. That's who he is, and what he came to do is to die, to lay down his life. And once again, John the apostle says in verse 32, and John bear record. Is this John's record of him, of the Christ? And John even said in verse 33, and I didn't even know him. There was a time when John didn't know him. There was a time when every preacher of the gospel has to confess, I didn't know him.

But now I do. And my responsibility is just to bear witness and record to you. It's like you've called me to the stand. The old times used to call this the holy desk. Well, it's neither a desk nor is it holy. But it is set aside for a worthy purpose, a place to declare the word of God, to declare Christ the Savior of sinners.

I did, there was a time I didn't know him. You probably heard that story of Ralph Barnard told. He went to a bank, cash check or something, the world crossed away from him. He said, are you a Christian? She said, yes I am. He said, how long have you been a Christian? She said, all my life.

He said, that's too long. That's too long. There was a time when you didn't know him. He knew you, but you didn't know him. Then there was a time he introduced himself to you through the preaching of the gospel, and you heard who he is, what he did, why he did it, where he is now, and you believed.

So John, on the second day, is preaching to the crowd. Thirdly, the next day. The next day, John is gonna preach to just two people. He went from a religious crowd to a general crowd, and now he's just preaching to two people. John stood and two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he said to them, his is the message that hasn't changed. Behold, the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him. They heard him speak and follow Jesus. So keep up now. Let me summarize the preaching on these three days.

First day, Who is the Messiah? Well, he's come. What is he doing? He's come. Messiah has come. Second day, John's message was substitution and sacrifice. He's the Lamb of God. Taketh away the sin of the world. That's how he's gonna take sin away. It's gotta be sacrifice. The third day, he's preaching to two people and he said, follow Christ. That's what John said. So you see verse 36. Looking upon Jesus as He walked, He said, Behold the Lamb of God!

Look to Him. Don't look to me. Look to Him. He's the Savior. He's a mediator. He's a great high priest. He's the Son of God. He's the Lamb of God. Look to Him. Look and live. And the two disciples heard Him speak, and they did what John wanted them to do. Follow Him. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they... You know what the rest of it is. Follow me. The Messiah has come. He's the sacrifice. He's the Lamb of God. And here's what I want you to do by the grace of God.

Follow Him. three days of John's preaching. Pretty simple, isn't it? And it goes from a religious crowd to just a general congregation to two people. But his subject is still, it's still the same record, and he's still the same witness, preaching of Christ and Him crucified. Believe him. Follow Him, follow Him. Well, may the Lord bless the preaching of His word.