Come back to John chapter 3. While Frank was praying with
Dolores and Andy and the family, I thought if there's one verse
of Scripture that I could give them at this hour, it would be
Psalm 56.3. What time I am afraid, I will
trust in thee. That's a good psalm, isn't it?
That's the truth. What time I am afraid, I will
trust in thee. I'm sure they are entering into
an area they've never been before. And we will too. Sooner or later,
we will too. And these things are our learning
examples to us. What an example of grace Andy's
been and the family there. What they've been through. Has
been to me. And I'm sure it has been to you
all also. But he's our confidence and our
trust in times of trouble. We enter into areas of life we've
never experienced before. But there's nothing that we will
experience that he hasn't. He's already been there. He's
already conquered it. The victory's already been won.
It's just part of the journey home. And that's what they're
experiencing now. It's just part of that journey
home. But let's get to the message
tonight here in John chapter 3. I thought as we were singing
that song, all we need is a fireplace and just gather around it. I
thought how the disciples, when they sat at his feet, he would
take them off by themselves and they would get away from the
crowd. And they got to sit at his feet and listen to him just
talk to them. Spurgeon said we need to, he
taught his preacher school. He had a preacher school there.
And he said, you need to cultivate a way of just speaking out, talking
out the Gospel. The way our Lord did. He just
talked to them. And I hope that's what I can
just do tonight. Just talk to you a little bit. The title of
the message is, He Must Increase and I Must Decrease. That's a lifelong process, isn't
it? This is not something that just happens one time. This is a lifelong process of
Christ increasing. We will never know His fullness.
Not in this life. I imagine we'll probably spend
eternity learning it. But we'll never know that fullness
that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. It says the fullness of the Godhead.
dwells in him bodily. All that God is dwells in that
man. All that God is is contained
and dwells, abides in that man. They said he had not the Spirit
by measure. I have it by measure. You have it by measure. We couldn't
take too much of a measure of it. I thought today, our head would
explode. We couldn't handle it. I'm telling
you, we couldn't handle it. the fullness of God and all that
he is, but it dwells in Christ. All the fullness of God dwells
in him. He must increase, I must decrease. Now it says in verse
22, after this, after these things, after the feast, after the Passover,
our Lord with his disciples He went into the countryside of
Judea and there he remained for a while preaching and they baptized. Now he left the city and he went
out into the countryside not to relax, not to just get away
from the hustle and bustle of the city. He went to save sinners. He went into that countryside
because there are some sinners out there in that countryside
that belong to him. And He's going after them. He's
always on the trail of His sheep. Always going after His sheep.
That's what He did. He went out there in the countryside
and He preached the gospel and sinners believed and they were
baptized. Although Christ Himself, it says,
did not baptize. That's what it says over in chapter
4, verse 2. Though Jesus Himself did not
baptize, but it's spoken here as if He did because If He's
commissioned His service to do it, it's the same as Him doing
it. Paul said in 2 Corinthians, we
are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you in
our stead, be you reconciled to God. As though we were in
the stead of God to beseech you, to be you reconciled to God.
It's as if He did it. That's the way it's written.
And the message that John preached and the message that Christ preached,
they were the same message. They were no different. Same
message. You'll see here that these Jews come along and they
try to bring division. But that's not going to work
with John. That's not going to work with God's servant. He doesn't
allow it because he has experienced what it is to be born of God.
He's experienced true humility. They can't rouse him up. They cannot make him jealous.
We'll see this as we go along. It says there in verse 23, but
John was also baptizing at Eden because there was much water
there. This does away with sprinkling, doesn't it? Scripture doesn't
teach that. He was there because there was
much water. If it taught sprinkling, we would just need a pitcher
of water. We wouldn't need a river of water. A lake of water. You
wouldn't need much water. Not at all. He says they were
baptized in Eden because there was much water. You know, the
word baptized means to dip or immerse. It doesn't mean to sprinkle.
And it's a representation of the death, burial, and resurrection
of Christ. It pictures His death. And we show forth the Lord's
death when we are baptized. We go into that watery grave.
And you're immersed under that water. That's what it pictures. And there's no such teaching
as sprinkling in the Scriptures. But John continued to preach.
Even after he pointed out, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh
away the sin of the world. He continued to preach until
he was put in prison and he was beheaded. As long as he was alive, he had
a ministry to fulfill. And as long as we are alive,
we have a duty, a ministry, every one of us, in whatever fashion
God has called us in. to fulfill until he takes us
home. Therefore, he says in verse 25,
because of the baptism of John and the baptism of Christ, there
arose a controversy. Shouldn't have been, should there?
There's no controversy between God's messenger and Christ, but
there arose a controversy between John's disciples and the Jews. It doesn't say between John's
disciples and Christ's disciples, it doesn't say that. No, it says
there arose a controversy between John's disciples and the Jews,
and it arose over purifying. Boy, did they have a lot of purifying.
Now, there were some that God had given, but there was a lot
that they had come up with. It's as if God didn't give them
enough. And they came up with a lot of purifying in the tradition
of the elders, and they carried that on for generations and generations.
God didn't even give them. And so they were arguing here
over this thing of purifying. I don't know which one it was.
It doesn't say. But they were just arguing over that. But I
do know this. I do know this. Satan is the
head of this. Satan is the head of this. He's
involved here in this division that they're trying to cause.
He's in the background. He's hiding. He's lurking in
the background. He's stirring up the pot of what
he's doing. He's stirring it up. And those
men, I'm sure, they did not know they were being used by Satan.
God called him. He said, you're a father of the
devil. He said, you're children of the devil. And it made him
mad. So they, in verse 26, the same
Jews that came to John the first time there in chapter 1, they
were intent on dividing the camp and their motive was wicked.
That's all it was, it was wicked. They were not interested in the
truth. They were not interested in who
is this man Jesus Christ. They were not interested in what
John had to say. They were not interested in his
message. They were interested in causing a division between
Christ and John. That's what they were interested
in. They were not interested in learning the truth. You know, when God breaks a sinner's
heart, when He breaks the heart of a sinner, that sinner is interested
in learning the truth. I mean, yet that sinner gets
on the edge of his seat. and wants to hear from God. He
wants to hear God speak. He doesn't want to hear a lie
or an opinion. I've had all the opinions I want.
If you've had all the opinions you want to hear, I've had all the opinions I want.
I've given all I need to give too. But I'm telling you, a person
who's been broken, they want to hear the truth about God.
Tell me about God. Tell me about Jesus Christ. Tell
me about myself. Don't lie to me about me. Tell
me the truth. They didn't want the truth. They
wanted to divide. Listen to them. Everyone is flocking
to him. That's what they're saying. Look
here in verse 26. And they came unto John and said
unto him, Rabbi, teacher, as if they really meant that. He
that was with thee beyond Jordan." You know the one you said was
the Lamb of God? You said, Behold, the Lamb of
God which taketh away the sin of the world, the one you baptized
in Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness? Behold, John. Listen, John. The same baptizes,
and now everybody's coming to Him. John, does it bother you? Does this trouble you, John?
Everybody's going to Him. I wouldn't have thought everybody
here tonight would go to Him. That's the whole purpose of preaching
is that sinners would go to Him. That we would point men and women
who are hellbound to Christ. Go to Him. Look to Him. But these
men who were just a bunch of religious lost people, putting
it nicely, They were trying to stir up jealousy here. I said,
John, everybody's going to Him. You're losing your crowd. John,
you realize that your crowd's getting smaller? Have you noticed
that, John? You used to have a crowd, John.
You used to be popular. I mean, all of Jerusalem went
out to hear John. But John, not too many people's
going out to listen to you now. Well, that's good. Because now
they're listening to Him. That woman in Samaria, she went
back to town. She told him, let me tell you
about a man who told me all that ever I did. They went out and
they heard him. They said, now we believe, not
because of your word, but we've heard him ourselves. That's what I want you to do.
I want you to hear Him yourself. Don't follow a man as a man.
You know, Paul said this, follow me as I follow Christ. You know,
that's son. But they were trying to stir
up jealousy here. But that's what happened over
in Numbers chapter 11. Look over here in Numbers chapter
11. Numbers chapter 11, look at verse 26. But there remained two of the
men in the camp. The name of the one was Eldad,
and the name of the other Medad. And the Spirit rested upon them,
and they were of them that were written. but went not out unto
the tabernacle. And they prophesied, they preached
in the camp. And there ran a young man and
told Moses and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp.
And Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his
young men answered and said, My Lord Moses, forbid them, shut
them up. Moses said unto him, Enviest
thou for my sake? Are you jealous for my sake? Oh, I would to God that all the
Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit
upon all of them. I would to God He'd do that to
us too. I would to God every one of you men could stand here
in this pulpit and preach. I'm serious. I would to God you
could do it. But they were trying to stir
up here. God, doesn't it bother you? You're losing your crowd.
You know, it's getting kind of thin. Well, I tell you what,
if it's getting thin over people following Him, that's fine. We'll
just thin out. I tell you, Satan is the great
divider, isn't he? He causes trouble. He causes trouble all the time.
It's quiet sometimes for a while. But it's not quite long. God allows him to raise his ugly
head. And look here in verse 27. John
gives them the right answer. A man can receive nothing except
it be given to him from heaven. What he's saying here is the
ministry of Christ is from heaven. His ministry is not an earthly
ministry. He said it's from heaven. It's
been given to him from heaven. No ministry, no true ministry,
not gospel ministry. There's a lot of faith going
on out there, a lot of it. And just because there's large
crowds doesn't mean it's successful. I mean, if that was so, then
you look at some of these TV people who've got these thousands
and thousands, but they're not preaching the gospel. But a ministry
that is truly successful is a ministry that's from heaven.
It's God-given. The pastor is God-given and he's
God-gifted. And it's God who makes the difference
in us. He's the one who gives us gifts to preach or to pray
or to teach or to sing. I mean, he gives us those gifts,
as he will. And we ought never to be jealous. We ought never to be jealous
or envious of the blessings that God gives to each one of us. If he gives one more talent than
the other, don't you think that's the wisdom of God? That's the
wisdom of God. God gave it. Are we going to
complain to God? That's God's wisdom. We should never be jealous
of that. We ought to rejoice. We should
truly rejoice because we are all partakers of the body of
Christ. It's a benefit to the whole body. The whole body is
benefited by it. And we rejoice in it. Now John
says, you yourself, you know that I said, I am not the Christ. I told you I'm not the Christ.
I'm not the Messiah. See, the first time they came,
they came and asked him, who are you, John? Are you that prophet? Are you the Christ? John had preached with so much
power that this is how convincing it was. They thought he might
be the Christ. He might be that prophet. He
said, I told you, I'm not the Christ. But I am the forerunner. You might want to listen. I am
the messenger, sinner of Christ. I am the forerunner. But I tell you this, in all of
John's preaching, And he did some powerful preaching now.
This man did some powerful preaching. He never lost sight of who he
was. Just a voice. He never lost sight of this.
I'm just a voice. That's all I am. You know, we
get into trouble when we begin to believe and think that things
cannot go on without us, don't they? If you never want to find that
out, don't quit. If you never want to find it
out, don't quit. You'll be shocked how fast they'll request you.
You'll be shocked. You know, this world was going
on 6,000 years before I showed up. And it'll go on, Lord willing,
another 6,000 when I'm gone. And I won't even be missed by
a few people. And then those few will be gone
and then we'll all be forgotten. And the place thereof shall know
us no more. Won't know us. He never lost sight of who he
was and why he was. Just a voice. God sent me here
as a voice. And that's really, that's all
I am. I'm just a voice. Just a voice. Vehicle of communication. He said, now he that's the bride,
he that hath the bride, he that hath the bride, now he's the
bridegroom. He's the one who's going to get
all the glory. He's the one who all things belong
to. He's the one who has the bridegroom.
The church belongs to him. The church doesn't belong to
me. I didn't die for anybody. And if I did, it wouldn't help.
It wouldn't save anybody. It wouldn't save my dog. If I
died for my dog, it wouldn't save him. But the church, the elect from
every generation, make up the bride of Christ as she belongs
to Him. We belong to Him. He's the bridegroom. But he said
the friend of the bridegroom rejoices. John said, I'm the
friend of the bridegroom. And I rejoice. I'm not jealous. I rejoice. I rejoice that all
are going to Him. That's the whole purpose of my
preaching. That's the whole purpose of my
Being sent as the forerunner is to point you to Him, to the
bridegroom. And someday that body will be
complete. That bride will be complete. She'll be there in
full, beautiful dress. Someday. And John said, I'm happy. You're
looking at a happy man. Trying to goad him into getting
jealous. He said, it ain't going to work.
I'm so happy that they're all going to Him. What better preaching? What could
make a pastor or a preacher more happy than seeing the congregation
walking in truth? That's what you taught this past
Sunday. He's not jealous of Christ. He's
happy. He's happy for Him, and He's
happy in Him. And John says to them, he looks
at them, those old hard-hearted religious good-for-nothings,
he said, he must increase. I'll tell you how I feel about
it. You want to know how I feel about
it? John says, he must increase. He must increase and I must decrease.
He must increase in our hearts. For your treasure is your heart. And the more He increases in
our hearts, the less room we have for these things to take
over. He must increase in our estimation.
What is He worth? Priceless. You see this commercial
that comes on TV, it's priceless. They give you these things and
at the end it says priceless. Priceless. You can't put a price
on that. I'll tell you this, what's your
soul worth? I'll ask you this, what's your soul worth? You can't
put a price on that either. I'll tell you what, apart from
Him, I'd lose it. And He must increase in our preaching. Oh,
that we would learn this early. I wish that all preachers who know the truth would learn
this early. Preach Him. The whole message
is about Him. Everything we know about the
Father comes by Him. He's revealed the Father. Everything
we know about what we know spiritually comes by and through Jesus Christ. You know, true humility happens
when we sit and learn of Him. That's what true humility is
brought on, when the Lord breaks the heart, brings us to His feet,
and then He instructs us. And He teaches us. And we are glad to sit there.
We're glad to sit at His feet. Now, if we try to be humble,
you ever just try to be humble? You have to work at it, don't
you? If you're going to do it now, I mean, naturally, we have
to really work at it and be humble. And then we become proud of our
humility. That's what happens. We end up being proud of it. But boy, if we can stand or sit
at His feet and listen to Him, that will humble us. Truly listen
to Him. John said, He that cometh from
above is above all. This one came from above. He's not of the earth. Nothing
earthly entered into His body, His conception. The human nature
or the soul and the body of Christ, the flesh, was created by the
Holy Spirit. Nothing earthly entered into
it. He that cometh from above is above all. That's His deity. He has the preeminence over all,
all of us, all things. He's first in everything. I'm glad it's so. I'm glad it's
so. I was thinking back when I was
a kid, when I used to go to school, I used to eat in the cafeteria
when I was in elementary, and everybody wanted to be first
in line. Jump in line and try to get first in line. But this
is one line he's first in. He's first in everything. He's
first with the Father, and he's first with the believer. He has
the preeminence. He's Lord. He's Lord. He's above all. All that He is
is from above. He that is of the earth, He says,
is earthly. We know what that's about because
we were born that way. Earthly. All that we are by nature
is of the earth. That's why God must give us a
new nature. That's why He must give us a
new birth. Well, you must be born again. That's what he just
talked to Nicodemus about here in chapter 3. You must be born
again, Nicodemus. You can't understand what I'm
saying. You can't do it. He said you've got to be born
again. Because everything about us in our first birth is just
earthly. That's all it is. You must have
a new birth and have spiritual life. And my knowledge is limited.
Boy, it's limited, isn't it? I mean, we know some things,
but that's all we know, some things. That's all we know. And
I have the Spirit, like I said earlier, by measure. We have
it by measure. I believe we could have more
of it if there weren't so much sin left in us. But we have it by
measure. But He has the fullness of God
dwelling in Him. Perfect in knowledge. And what
he has seen and heard, now listen, John says, what he has seen and
heard, he has come into this world and he has told us. There is one who has come from
glory, from the throne of God. There is one who has come out
of the Holy of Holies. Can we grasp this a little bit?
He has come from God. And what He has seen and heard
in that realm that we have never been to, He's told us. We have His Word here. Here it
is. But He says no one receives His
witness. He came unto His own and His own received Him. No.
They say you're a liar. You're a blasphemer. You don't know
what you're talking about. He knows what He's talking about.
He knows what He's seen and heard. Now a lot of people make up stuff
they've seen and heard. One of the employees this morning
came to me and said, I've been reading a book, 23 Minutes in
Hell. It was written by somebody who
said he went to hell for 23 minutes and was telling about the things
he saw and all. Boy, that's not something you've
seen and heard. You didn't see that or hear that,
buddy. No. But when Christ spoke, he spoke
of what he's seen and heard. And he said, you receive not
his witness. What he's saying here, no one
left to themselves believed God. No one left to
themselves believed God. Really? You know that. You know they don't. It is by
grace that some of us have believed. Some of us have believed and
received him. But there were many who were
left alone and are now left alone. And they don't believe God a
lot. What he has seen and heard, he's
told us, and you didn't receive his witness. Our Lord said there in John 14,
if it were not so, I would have told you. He said, I go to my
father's house. And my father's house are many
mansions, many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I would have revealed that to
you. Because I speak the truth. And he says in verse 32, those
who have received his testimony have set to his seal that God
is true. This is what I want for me and
for you. I want it to be set to our seal. That they believe God. That God
is true. I don't care how this world,
what it thinks of us. It may think we're fanatics or
nuts or whatever. I don't know. It doesn't matter. We take the Word of God and we
say, this is so. This is the truth. There's not
one wrong thing in here. Not one. It's the truth. Everything
about Jesus Christ is true written in this book. Everything about
me that's written in this book is true. Believe God. He believed God. That's what I want written about
me. The Lord Jesus Christ, the one
whom God sent, he says there in verse 34, speaks the words
of God. He said, as I hear, I speak.
I don't always speak the words of God. There's a lot of things
I say all day long that's not the words of God. Not one time did he ever open
his mouth, not one word, not one word ever proceeded from
his mouth that was not the word of God. Not one time. God sent his son to speak the
truth, to reveal himself to us. David said this, thy thoughts
to usward cannot be reckoned up in order. And he says here in verse 35,
the Father loveth the Son. He loveth the Son. That's who
he loves. And because he loveth the Son,
he hath given all things into his hands. All things, the creation,
universe. There is nothing that exists. I read that to you in John chapter
1. that exists, that was not made by him. Every molecule,
every atom, every person, every animal, every plant, everything
is in the hands of this man seated at his right hand. It's in the
hands of Jesus Christ. You see what John is saying to
these Jews? They looked at that man and they rejected him, they
despised him, they hated him, they spit in his face, And He's
saying that everything's in His hands. Your life's in His hands.
You're spitting in the face of the One who holds your life in
His hands. You've heard the old slogan,
don't bite the hand that feeds you. Well, they were doing it. The Father loveth the Son and
hath given all things into His hands. Everything belongs to
Him. Everything. And if the Father
loves Him, How much more should I love him? How much should we
love him? To be sold out to him lock, stock,
and barrel. Everything's in his hands. How'd
that old song go? He's got the whole world in his
hands. He's got the whole wide world
in his hands. It's in his hands right now.
That's why you and I can go home and go to sleep tonight. Because
whose hand it's in. And he that believes on the Son
hath everlasting life. It's evidence of life. The fact
that you believe now, that you really believe, in your heart
you believe God, you believe the Lord Jesus Christ, you believe
on Him, that's evidence of life. You have, you have, he says,
he hath everlasting life. But he that believes not the
Son, It does not say, he that believes
not that Jesus Christ existed. It doesn't say that. It says, he that does not believe
the Son. You don't believe the words he's
spoken. He has come, and what's he saying? He's spoken the words
of God. He's given us the words of God. And you didn't believe
him. God sent him. He spoke. He said,
as I hear I speak. And you said, you're a liar.
Well, it's evident that man does not have everlasting life. And here's the consequences of
it. Because everything is bound up, listen, everything is bound
up in Jesus Christ. God has invested everything into
him, everything to put into his hands. All life, salvation, it's
all in his hands. And not to believe him, well,
this is the end result. The wrath of God abided on it. They thought the wrath of God
abided on us Gentiles, but they thought they had it made. They
thought because they were circumcised and they thought they kept the
law, they didn't keep one bit of it, but they thought they
did. They played like they did. They thought they had it made.
But he said, John says, no, no. He that does not believe this
man, The wrath of God is on him. It's difficult to think about
the wrath of God on somebody for eternity. But what God does
is right, isn't it? What he does is right. And we
say amen to it.