I invite your attention to the
gospel according to John chapter 1. My text is in verse 29. The title of my message is, Behold
the Lamb of God. And how appropriate that just
before the message this morning, our song leader led us in singing,
Look to the Lamb of God. Look to the Lamb of God. Behold
the Lamb of God. That word, behold. Behold that word, behold, if
you will. It has various emphases in Scripture. Sometimes it means only to Look
at what I'm saying. Understand what I'm saying. Listen
to me carefully. Jesus might say, as in the parable,
when he said, Behold, a sower went forth to sow. Now, as he
has said those words, Behold, he has probably put a picture
in your mind of a farmer in his day, a farmer getting ready to
sow some seed. He's probably barefoot, which
was common for the common man of that day. He's wearing the
common, plain, white robe of the farmer. He has on his shoulder
a strap, and attached to the strap is a bag, and in the bag
is seed. And he's going across the field,
and Jesus says, Behold the sower. He's sowing seed as he goes. Some falls on the wayside, some
falls in the rocks, some falls in the thorny ground. They weren't a mountain too much,
but some fell on good ground. Now, behold that sower. But sometimes this word, behold, is used in such a way as to rivet
your attention to something. And that's the way that John
here used it. Behold the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world. He's not really making a statement.
He is making an exclamation. Behold! Exclamation point. The
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Exclamation
point. Who is this John the Baptist? He was born of a woman, barren
of womb, and her old husband Zacharias,
a priest. They're past the age of childbearing,
she is. And an angel of God comes down
and says to Zacharias, Your wife's going to have a child." Say,
what? Your wife's going to have a child.
By the way, you doubted what I said, so you will no longer
be speaking. So she did. She conceived by Zacharias, her
husband. The angel that told Zacharias,
you will call his name John. We will know him as John the
Baptist. Six months later, about six months later, a virgin
in Nazareth of Galilee named Mary is told by an angel from God,
you will conceive. Your child shall be the Messiah. Your sister Elizabeth has conceived. She will bear his forerunner.
So these two ladies related closely to each
other and Mary goes to visit Elizabeth and they both are now
with child. Elizabeth has John in her womb. He's probably about six months
older in the womb, not yet born. than the Christ child in the
womb of Mary. John is born, and 30 years later begins his
ministry. He was born the son of a priest. He's a Levite, but God said,
you're going to be a prophet, and a prophet he is. John the
Baptist began his ministry at 30 years, which was the common
age for being acknowledged as an adult. He goes down to the Jordan River
and begins to baptize, calling sinners to repentance. Jesus,
six months or so, John's junior, shows up one day He says, John,
baptize me. And John said, wait, I should
be baptizing you. You come to me? Jesus says, no,
it behooves us to fulfill all righteousness. Baptize me. So
he did. John baptized Jesus. And God reached down and opened
up the heavens. sent the Holy Spirit down in
the form of a dove that lighted on John's shoulder. And then
God said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. So John continues his ministry
there in the Jordan, preaching a baptism unto repentance. And
he's telling folks that Messiah's coming. He's close. I'm His forerunner. I have been sent to prepare the
way for Him. When He comes, I am unworthy
to even unloose the latch on His sandals and remove them from
His feet. He's greater than me. I baptize
you with water, but He will baptize with the Holy Spirit. And He's
coming. He's behind me. And then one
day, John is preaching there in the Jordan River, and in our
text we read, The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him,
and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin
of the world. There he is! I told you he was
coming. There he is. Behold. He's not
merely making a statement, it is an exclamation. He is riveting
the attention of his hearers to this one who is there, behold,
the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. I want
us to behold this morning four things regarding this Lamb of
God who takes away the sin of the world. I want us to behold
His character, second, His relationship, third, His uniqueness, and fourth,
His efficacy. Consider first the character
of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. He is a Lamb. He is a Lamb. Jesus was like a Lamb, harmless. You have heard the expression,
harmless as a Lamb, for a Lamb never harmed anyone. A lamb never harmed anyone and
likewise Jesus never harmed anyone. In Hebrews 7.26 we read, He is
harmless. He is harmless. You cannot say
that about most religious leaders. No one ever accused Muhammad
of being harmless, did they? But of Jesus it is said, He is
harmless. He was devoid of malice in his
heart, of deceit in his mouth, of reviling in his conduct. There
was never hatred in his heart toward others. He never spoke
a lie in any word he ever said. When they cursed him, he pursed
his lips and would not curse in return. When he was cursed,
he blessed. He was harmless, he did no harm. We read that he went about doing
good. You could tell where Jesus had
been by the good that had been done. There's a man, he was sick until Jesus came
by. Jesus, who was harmless and doing
good, healed him. There's a woman, She is so deformed
in her back, she cannot stand until Jesus comes by. He does
good, she stands. He opens deaf ears, opens blinded
eyes, loosens muted lips, causes cripples to walk. performs miracles for the benefit
of others, but never for himself. He was harmless. He was harmless. This is the one of whom I speak
to you. He is harmless like a lamb. Jesus was like a lamb, meek,
gentle, and humble. You've heard the expressions
meek as a lamb, gentle as a lamb, and humble as a lamb. So was
Jesus. He was not ferocious. Like a
wolf, he was not proud, like a peacock. We read in the scriptures
that he is meek and gentle and lowly in heart. He says, all
you who labor and heavy laden, come to me. I am meek and lowly. I am gentle in my heart. I say
to you that because he is lowly in his heart, he's not one of
those proud people who tell sinners Stay away from me, I am holier
than thou." Jesus never said so. He's lowly. He's lowly as
a lamb. He's meek as a lamb. I say to
you, it matters not how big a sinner you think you are, you come to
Jesus and He will warmly, gladly, and sweetly receive you. He will
not turn you away. He's meek and lowly like a lamb.
Jesus was like a lamb, the prey of predators, but the predator
of none. Lambs prey on none, but they
are the prey of many. And likewise, Jesus preyed on
none. You will never find him slinking
about trying to stalk someone so that he can attack that one.
Never did. Never did. Oh, but predators
preyed. on him. Oh yes, they looked for
him, they attacked him. He says that many bulls have
surrounded me, strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me. They
gape at me with their mouths like a raging and roaring lion,
for dogs have surrounded me. The congregation of the wicked
has enclosed me. They pierced my hands and my
feet. That is in the 22nd Psalm, and
the 22nd Psalm describes the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
Do you see Him there on that cross? You see those holes in
his hands and the holes in his feet, the holes in his head caused
by the crown of thorns? Those are the fangs of serpents,
the horns of the bulls, and the teeth of wolves. He never prayed on them, oh,
but they prayed on him. He was like a lamb in that regard
also. He was silent and patient in
suffering. He was oppressed and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter
and as a sheep before it shivers as silent, so he opened not his
mouth. He fulfilled the prophecy that
reads, he will not cry out nor raise his voice nor cause his
voice to be heard in the street. Jesus was no rabble rouser. Jesus
led no protest marches. Jesus did no hollering of this
and hollering of that. He was silent even in the face
of suffering. He did not curse those who afflicted
him. In fact, he said, Father, forgive
them. They have no idea what they're
doing. Father, forgive them. Consider
now the second major point, the relationship of Jesus Christ.
He is the Lamb of God. He's not merely a lamb. He is
the Lamb of God. He is the Lamb claimed by God. When he was baptized and on the
Mount of Transfiguration, God claimed him. Not only just on
those two occasions, but on other occasions as well. The Mount
of Transfiguration, we're not really certain which mountain
it was, but we know what happened. Two of the major Old Testament
prophets showed up, and Jesus' disciples are sitting there,
and they're looking at it somewhat from a distance, and... Do you see who's with Jesus?
Yeah. They're back from the dead, as it were. Well, no, they've
come down from heaven to pay a visit here on earth. They're
with Jesus. And He is transfigured. He is
in glistening, glowing white. And they say, let us build three
tabernacles, one for Jesus and one for the other two prophets.
Well, God was not going to have any of that. So he opened up
heaven and said, this is my beloved son. Hear him as though to say
he's the only one worthy of the tabernacle. God claimed him.
God claimed him. God forbid that you and I should
disown him. God said he's mine. Who would
be so wicked as to spurn the one whom God claimed for himself? Jesus furthermore is the Lamb
predestined by God. He is the Lamb without blemish
and without spot who indeed was foreordained, predestined before
the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you who through him believe in God. There on Calvary,
do you see what's going on? Do you see a Lamb on an altar
being slain? What you see there is the manifestation
of what God decreed before the foundation of the world when
he was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world, predestined
of God. He died on Calvary because God
predestined it to be so. And he's the lamb provided by
God. This fulfills the prophecy of
Genesis 22, verse 8. where Abraham was told, Abraham,
sacrifice your son on that mountain up yonder. Your son, your only
son whom you love, sacrifice him. Abraham said, okay. He trusted God that much because
he knew that God had made a promise that of Abraham's seed through
Isaac, God would raise up Messiah. Now he knew he had to sacrifice
his son, but he knew that his son was going to be the heir
and the progenitor of the blessed race. He does not understand
how this is going to be, but God said, sacrifice my son, so
sacrifice my son I will, and off they go. Now Isaac, he's
not a boy like you see in so many Sunday school books. He's
a young man, probably prime of life. He could have handled his
father quite easily. But he and his father get ready
to go and Abraham says to his servants, y'all stay here. The lad and I will go yonder.
I will make a sacrifice and then we will come back. I don't know how that's going
to be. I'm going to sacrifice him, but we will come back."
And off they go. And Isaac says, Father, I see this rope to be used for binding the sacrifice. You've got the embers. for lighting
the fire. And I see that dagger in your
hand. But Father, I do not see a lamb.
We're going up here to sacrifice, is that right? Yep, I'm going
to go sacrifice. Then, where's the lamb? And Abraham said, God will provide
for himself a lamb. God did. God did. He lays Isaac on that altar. Isaac permits it to be so. He's
bound on that altar. He's a willing sacrifice. And
his father is a willing priest. And he raises the dagger back
to sacrifice his son. And God said it twice, Abraham,
Abraham! When you say something twice,
you want to get your attention. When my mother said, Daniel,
Daniel! Yeah, I knew I better listen
up. Abraham, Abraham! Yes? Put your knife down. The lamb is caught in the thicket
behind you, and sure enough, it was. Now Jesus is the lamb
claimed by God, the lamb predestined by God, the lamb provided by
God, there on Calvary. Now we consider the third point.
Behold the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. He is the Lamb of God. He is the anti-type fulfilling
all the typical sacrificial lambs in the Old Testament. These would
include first, Abel's Lamb of the firstborn. Abel, son of Adam
and Eve, brother of Cain the wicked. We read that Abel sacrificed
a lamb of the firstborn of his flock. Now notice the phrase,
of the firstborn. It does not mean that he offered
the lamb that was born first, rather the lamb of the firstborn. What does it mean? The firstborn
would be the choicest and the best. And Abel walked through
his blocks and he saw his land in the prime of life. And he
looks over and says, that one limps a little bit. Nah, he won't
work. This one's got a spot on his
nose. I don't like that. Nope, nope,
he won't work. And he goes through the flock
until he finds a lamb. And he says, there is no spot
at all and no blemish? That's the one Abel offered of
the firstborn of his flock. And Jesus Christ is expressly
called the firstborn. He's God's firstborn. And of
all God's people, of all his sons and daughters, Jesus Christ
is cheapest and most glorious, and he'll be the Lamb. Then there's the substitutionary
Lamb provided by God in the place of Isaac on Mount Moriah. We
just dealt with that, but bear in mind that God provided a lamb
on Moriah so that Isaac could get off that altar and walk down
the mountain with his father. And God provided a lamb on Calvary
so that you and I can walk down from that mountain with our father. A lamb sacrificed in the place
of sinners. There's a ram on an altar. on
Moriah taking the place of Isaac, and there's a lamb on Calvary
in my place instead, suffering what I should have suffered. Then there is the Passover lamb
of Israel and Egypt. God had heard the cry of Israel
for hundreds of years. endured slavery and its afflictions,
and they cried unto the Lord, and he heard. He sent nine plagues
upon the Egyptians in order to convince Pharaoh to let God's
people go, but Pharaoh hardened his heart every time. Then God said, one more plague. the death of the firstborn in
every family. And he told the children of Israel
who lived down in Goshen, a few miles away from most of the people
and the rest of the people in Egypt, he said, every household
get a lamb without blemish and without spot, a perfect specimen,
every household. Sacrifice that lamb, and take
the blood of that lamb and put it on the lentils and the mantle
of your doers. Notice, put it up here on the
sides. God did not say put it down there
because you're not supposed to walk on it, folks. You do not
tread on it. But it's there where the angel
can see it when he comes through. Then God said, roast that lamb
and eat it. And I want you to be standing
when you eat this lamb. I want you to have your staff
in your hand and your walking clothes on. Because as soon as
you eat, you're leaving this place. And so they do. Each household
takes a lamb and sacrifices it, puts its blood on the lentils
on the top, then they eat that lamb, and at midnight the angel
of the Lord comes through the camp, and everywhere he sees
that blood on the doorway, he passes over. Leave him alone. They did what they were supposed
to do. He's walked all the way through
Goshen and seen blood on all the doors, and then he reaches
Egypt. And they had not put the blood
on the doors. And the angel goes into every
house where the blood is not displayed and kills the firstborn,
even in Pharaoh's house, even in Pharaoh's barn. Nothing escaped. And then the
children of Israel are summoned by the Egyptians who say, here,
here's our gold, here's our silver, please leave this land, get out. Now all of that typifies Jesus
Christ. We read in the scriptures, did
we not, that Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us. His blood has been applied to
our hearts and now God walks by and sees the blood of Jesus
Christ on our hearts and passes us by. We have eaten the flesh
of the Son of God by believing in him because he is our Passover
lamb before God. He's also the fulfillment of
all the old covenant lambs. Thousands and thousands of them.
No way of knowing how many. from the year 1441 BC, thereabouts,
until the death of Jesus Christ, minus the 70 years of the Babylonian
captivity, there's a lamb slain as a sacrifice on that altar
every morning, another one every evening, a special lamb every
Saturday, a special lamb every new moon or the first of the
month on the lunar calendar. There are the hundreds of lambs
that are slain annually in the holy days of the Jews. Not only
that, Israel is a nation full of sinners. And when they sin,
they have to bring their sacrifices, their lambs. I tell you, my friend,
That priest went to his altar, made that morning's sacrifice,
and then opened up the door of the tabernacle gate, and here
they come, people with their lambs to be sacrificed. He's
all day long offering lambs from 1440 BC until 30 AD or so. From
Sinai. to Calvary. And no sin was ever forgiven. That's why they had to do it
all over again the next day. No sin. All those sacrifices. But when Jesus comes God said, it's over! Do not bring
any more lambs to me. This lamb on Calvary has ended
it all. He fulfilled all that they typified. He wrought the salvation they
could not. He is the only lamb for this
age. All those lambs in the Old Testament,
they were a lamb. Each of them was. and none of
them ever took a single sin away. Here is the Lamb of God who did
indeed take away the sin of the world. Now we come to the fourth
and final point. Behold the efficacy of Jesus
Christ. He takes away the sin of the
world. Now what is this sin? A sin is any transgression against
God and it falls short of the mark. All have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God. We have done our best to meet
the standard God requires and we fall short. But here, sin
is used in a collective sense. Sin of every sort. Both original
sin and actual sin, both sins of commission and sins of omission,
both public sins and secret sins, both sin as both guilt and defilement,
then there are sins of thought and word and deed, and there
are sins of an individual person and of a collective group. Folks,
there is no sort of sin here excluded. And furthermore, there is no
group of sins beyond the ability of the Lamb of God to take away. None of them. None of them. He
takes away the sin of the world, and that sin of the world is
the sins of all God's elect of every age. How is it that he
takes them away? In the 53rd chapter of the prophecy
of Isaiah, we read that God takes all the sins of his people, puts them together, lays them
on Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ becomes their sin-bearer,
and he bears their sins to Calvary. And there under God's righteous
rod he is stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. Surely he
has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. But Jesus, in his
death, having carried our sins to Calvary, in dying for those
sins, has done something else. He has carried them as far as
the east is from the west." Now, there's an interesting expression.
Why not from the north to the south? Well, you can measure
that distance. Just get your compass and go
to the North Pole, and when you're on the North Pole, your compass,
it points in only one direction, south, south. All right, walk
due south. Doesn't matter which way you're
facing. South is in front of you. Follow your compass due
south. Do not waver. Do not go this
way or that. Follow it due south. You'll end
up at the south pole. How do you know you're at the
South Pole? Because now your compass will only point north.
At the South Pole, everything is north. Measure the distance.
You can do it. You can do it. You can measure
the distance. Now go to the equator. As far as east is from the west.
How far is that? Stand anywhere on the equator. Your compass is pointing west
or east. It matters not. You can, you
know, whichever way you want to, you know, look. Let's say
as far as the east is from the west, okay, we're going to go
east. So follow your compass around
the equator as long as it says east. Follow it until your compass
says west. It never will. It never will. It's always going to be East.
Always. You cannot measure that distance.
You cannot measure the distance on Earth between East and West. And you cannot measure the distance
that Jesus Christ has removed since. Then He removed them as
far as East is from the West. And then he threw them behind
God's back where God would not see them. Someone says, yeah,
but what if God turns around? Well, they're still behind his
back. They're behind God's back. He threw them into the deepest
part of an unfathomable sea. They are so far removed that
God said, go ahead and look for them. A search will be found
for the sins of Judah. They will never be found. Now
that's what Jesus did in taking our sins away from His people.
He did that on Calvary. But, consider, three years before
the fact, three years before the fact, three years before
Jesus on Calvary took sins away, John the Baptist using present
tense, active voice, said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away
the sin of the world. He did not say, Behold the Lamb
of God who will take away the sin of the world. He says, No,
He's taking them right now. He takes away the sin of the
world. Present tense, active voice.
How can that be, John? I mean, He's not going to do
this for another three years. No, He's doing it right now.
How can that be? Because you cannot pinpoint what
Jesus Christ has done in taking away sins. He is the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. He was slain before the foundation
of the world in God's eternal decree. Slain since the foundation
of the world in type and picture, shadow and in reality. His death has always been efficacious.
Abraham lived 2,000 years before Jesus Christ was born. Jesus
had taken Abraham's sins away. Explain that to me. I do not
know how. You cannot pinpoint the exact
place where it happened. You know where it happened, but
with regard to the time when it happened, from eternity. Isaiah in the 53rd chapter describes
the death of Jesus Christ as both in the future and happening
right now and already done. He's the Lamb who takes away
the sin of the world. What is this world whose sins
are taken away by Jesus Christ? Some say, oh, that's everybody
without exception. Everybody without exception. No, it's not. No, it's not. For Jesus said, if you do not
believe in me, you will die in your sins. Now, if you die in
your sins, he did not take them away, did he? He could not have,
if you die in your sins. So therefore, there are two sorts
of people in this world. Two sorts. You may divide all
humanity into two sorts. Some have said, we did what John
said. We beheld the Lamb of God who
took away the sin of the world. He took our sins. He took our
sins. And others say, uh-uh, uh-uh,
we're closing our eyes. We're not going to behold Him.
We're not going to have faith in Him, that Lamb of God, or
whatever you call Him. No, no, no. We're not going to
behold Him. Well then, you'll die in your
sins. You are not of this world of
whom Jesus took their sins away. Every one of you today. This
is serious, folks. This is serious. Before you walk out that door
today, ascertain that you have obeyed this command to behold
the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Oh, what a beautiful sight that
is. The Lamb of God who takes away
the sin of the world. The Lamb claimed by God, predestined
by God, provided by God. Do not walk out that door today.
Please, do not walk out that door today with your eyes still
shut against Jesus Christ. Look at Him right now. Behold
Him. Believe in Him. He'll take your sins away. Let us stand.