Well, turn with me to John's
Gospel, Chapter 1, again this week. John the Baptist was sent
by God to testify regarding Jesus. This man, Jesus of Nazareth,
Jesus born of Mary, Jesus born in Bethlehem of Judea, this man,
this one man of all that had ever lived, this one man, God
sent John the Baptist to testify about him. And he testified concerning
who he was. He was sent to bear witness of
the light which was Christ, the light of life, the light, the
life of God was in him. And John was sent to bear witness
of him who came in the middle of time for the purpose of salvation,
of redemption of his people. John's job was to testify, he's
coming, prepare the way of the Lord. He spoke of Jesus who was,
as we've already seen, the Word of God, the expression of who
God is, the manifestation to us, creatures of time and space
and limited by our bodies. He was the one who testified
of Christ, who was the Word of God, the express image of the
person of God, the light and life of God shining in the darkness,
which is the spiritual ignorance of this world because of sin.
Because of sin, man in his natural state has no knowledge of God.
His mind and his heart is just nothing other than darkness,
and such darkness. But this one Jesus, the Word
of God, was made flesh, as we saw last week. He was made the
ones the same as the ones He came to save. He manifested the
invisible God. He is the one who said He was
the way, the truth, and the life. He is God made man for the purpose
of paying the sin debt of men. That's why he came. Because only
as a man, only as a man could God suffer. And only as God could
the sacrifice be infinite enough and pure enough to count as a
substitute for sinners and pay their sin debt. And so in him,
justice is satisfied. Sinners are justified. Sinners
are qualified for the kingdom of God. This is what it's about.
Thy kingdom come. Jesus came preaching the kingdom
of God. By what He has done, sinners are qualified for the
kingdom of God. But what is John the Baptist? What is John the Baptist for?
He is the man sent from God. That's who he is. He is the man
sent from God to announce the coming of the promised Messiah.
Look at verse 23. Who are you, they said to him,
these Pharisees, these priests and Levites from Jerusalem. He
said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight
the way of the Lord, as saith the prophet Isaiah. The voice
of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare the way of the Lord.
Prepare the way for the one who will come. That's what Isaiah
said. Isaiah 40 verse 3. Prepare the
way of the Lord. He is the voice. What I've titled
this message is The Voice and the Word. The Voice and the Word. He is the voice in the wilderness. Did you notice that? There's
significance in everything, isn't there? He is the voice in the
wilderness. Oh, the religious folk. What
did the Pharisees and the scribes and the authorities think? Ah,
well, when the Messiah comes to release us from this Roman
occupation in our country, he's going to come to the headquarters.
You know, you don't turn up in the middle of nowhere. You turn
up in Jerusalem, in the temple. where all the most important
religious folks are. This is where the Messiah will
come and we'll show them how we're going to overcome the Romans.
No, he's the voice crying in the wilderness. in the wilderness,
away from all of that hypocritical, empty, formal religion. Not in
the temple. He confounded the Pharisees by
this. In verse 19, this is the record
of John when the Jews and priests and Levites from Jerusalem sent
to ask him, who art thou? What are you doing there? Why
are you not in the temple in Jerusalem? when he came announcing
the Word who is Saviour God. The Word who was with God, who
is God, in the beginning with God, by whom all things were
made. The angels announced the birth of Christ at Bethlehem. Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. The angels announced
the birth of Christ And John the Baptist announced the start
of his kingdom ministry when he came preaching the kingdom
of God. John baptized in Jordan. Do you know what that was all
about? The baptism in Jordan was symbolizing Jordan and going
into it was a symbol of death. You know, God took his people
when they entered the promised land. They were terrified of
the overflowing Jordan. I think it was a much bigger
river then than it is these days. It's a bit of a trickle of a
stream now. But then when it used to do its
spring flooding, it was a huge great river. And to go into Jordan
was instant death. But you remember the account
of how God stopped the waters, and the children of Israel went
across, as they did across the Red Sea. They went across Jordan
dry shod, it says. They didn't get wet. They went
across completely fine, because God organized it for them. But
going into Jordan was always a symbol of certain death. The
flooded Jordan was a terrible place to go. And John baptized
in Jordan. symbolizing the eternal death
that sin deserves. Sinners would come and say, yes,
I know, I'm a sinner before God. I want to repent of my sin. And
this is what I deserve. And they went down into Jordan
and were immersed in Jordan. That's what baptism is. It isn't
sprinkling. It's immersion. They went down
in there, symbolizing the death that their sin deserved, the
eternal death. the judgment of God on sin. And
he called for repentance, rethinking, turning to God. He called for
that of the people and they came and willingly came. And this
was preparing the way of the Messiah who was coming imminently
to start to preach the kingdom of God. As we read in Mark 1
verse 4, John did baptize in the wilderness and preach the
baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. John knew
that he was cousin to Jesus. Well, effectively, his mother,
Mary, was cousin to John's mother, Elizabeth. You know that Elizabeth
was married to Zacharias, wasn't it, the prophet, the priest.
She was told in old age that she was going to have a son,
this was John the Baptist, and they didn't believe, and his
father was struck dumb until he was born. But Mary, when she
was told of the angel that she was going to give birth to the
Messiah, she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth. And we read
that when Mary arrived and told Elizabeth what the angel had
told her, it says that the unborn baby, John the Baptist, it says,
it leapt in her womb. Wow, that tells us some things,
doesn't it? In the Word of God, there's an unborn baby leaping
in the womb at the prospect of the Messiah coming. The unborn
babe leapt in the womb. Think about that. Chew that over.
And yet, although he was cousin, look at verse 31. And I knew
him not, says John. He's talking about Jesus. Verse
34. Sorry, verse 31, I knew him not,
but that he should be made manifest to Israel. Verse 33, I knew him
not, but he that sent me to baptize with water, and it says what
you will see. And verse 34, I saw and bear
record that this is the Son of God. While he only knew that
he was his cousin or related to him, he knew not that he was
the Messiah until the baptism. until when the Spirit of God,
from the other Gospels we know, John baptized him. John didn't.
John said it should be the other way around, but Jesus said, no,
so should all things be fulfilled. And John baptized him, and the
Spirit descended from heaven like a dove and rested upon him.
And the word of God came, this is my beloved son. Now he says,
I know him. This is the son of God. This
is God manifested to us. This is God come to pay redemption's
price for us. Now he knows for sure. So what
does the voice cry out concerning the word? The voice, John the
Baptist. The word, Christ. What does the voice cry out concerning
the word? Verse 29, the next day, John
seeth Jesus coming unto him and saith, Behold the Lamb of God
which taketh away the sin of the world. Verse 36, And looking
upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God. This is what he said. He said,
Behold, look at, look at the Lamb of God. There's a man. walking,
and he says, look at the Lamb of God. He said it to those hearing
him then. He says it to you and me now. Jesus was a moral example. Without any rival, he was a moral
example. But John didn't say, behold the
moral example that we should follow. Jesus was a teacher of
true doctrine that taught as one having authority and not
as the scribes and Pharisees. He taught with the authority
of God. But John didn't say, behold the teacher whose lessons
we must learn and follow. Jesus was the King of the Kingdom
of God, the King of God's Kingdom. Jesus was that King, but He doesn't
say, bow down to your King. He says, behold the Lamb of God. John points to Christ as God's
Lamb. He points to Christ as God's
sacrificial Lamb. So my first point is behold Christ
as God's sacrifice for sin, God's sacrifice for sin. You know,
there isn't much talk of sin these days, or what there is,
is a very distorted and corrupt view of what sin is according
to the testimony of God. In Hebrews 9, 27, a verse I often
quote, it says, it is appointed to man, that's you and me, to
die once, of that there is no doubt. And then, what happens
the day you die? The judgment of God. As blunt
And as stark as that, it is appointed to man to die once, and then
the judgment. The judgment for what? The judgment
for sin. For God is holy, and of purer
eyes than to behold iniquity, and cannot look upon sin. And
sin is against a holy God. David said, against thee, thee
only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. Oh, he'd done
this evil against several others, but no, the thing that mattered
was that his sin was against God. And justice, the justice
of God, the only true absolute standard of objective justice
is God's justice. And justice demands a penalty. And justice demands the payment
of debt to divine justice. Morality, your morality, you
can be as morally good as you like, it won't pay the debt to
the justice of God for your sin. It just won't pay it. Knowledge,
you can swat up on doctrine as much as you like, but knowledge
won't pay your debt to the justice of God. Your status and standing
in this world, from a good family or whatever else, won't pay your
debt to the justice of God. The only thing that will pay
your debt is eternal death. The soul that sins, it shall
die. The eternal death of a sinner,
and even that, it says God has no pleasure in the death of the
wicked. It doesn't mean that he doesn't
want to do it. It means that it doesn't satisfy his justice.
It must go on eternally. Or the only alternative is this,
an acceptable substitute. That is the gospel, an acceptable
substitute. The infinite God made man is
the only one who is acceptable. There is no other ransom that
can be found that satisfies the justice of God. There's no other
ransom that can be found that produces this as the response. Deliver him, says God via Job. Deliver him from going down to
the pit, the pit of hell, the pit of eternal condemnation.
Why should he be delivered from going down there? Why should
the sinner be delivered, the sinner deserving of hell? Why
should the sinner be delivered from going down to the pit? Because
God has found a ransom. A payment for release. The ransom
is the price of release. A payment for release. And the
ransom is a lamb. A lamb. The ransom is a lamb. God's lamb. Is that not the theme
of the Bible? Is that not the theme of the
Bible right the way through? The ransom is God's lamb. Abel's lamb, right at the very
start, you know, the lamb that was specified at the gates of
Eden when Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden. The ransom that was
specified there, a lamb, Abel's lamb, typified Christ. This is
how God, through the seed of the woman, is going to be right
with man who is a sinner. Through the Lamb, pointing to
the Lamb which was Christ, the Lamb of God to come. Think of
Abraham's Lamb in Genesis 22. when he took Isaac to sacrifice
him, as God's word had said, take your son, your only Isaac,
and sacrifice him, slay him there. And Abraham, I wonder if he thought,
is this one the promised seed of the woman who will come in
whom will be redemption, whose blood will pay the penalty for
sin? But it couldn't have been because Isaac was a sinner like
everybody else. But Isaac says to Abraham on
the way up Mount Moriah, which I think is Calvary at Jerusalem
in truth, On the way there, he says, Father, I see the wood
for the sacrifice. I see the fire. We've got everything
ready. But where is the lamb? And you know what Abraham replies
to Isaac? My son, God will provide Himself
a sacrifice. God will provide Himself a lamb
for a sacrifice. God provides it. God has provided. He's provided the Lord Jesus
Christ. Abraham's lamb spoke of Christ, the Lamb of God. The
Passover lamb in Exodus 12, you know, as the Israelites were
to come out of Egypt, out of bondage, symbolizing the bondage
of sin in this world. As they were to come out of there,
the night before they were to come out, they were to take a
lamb which had been kept to show that it was perfect, without
blemish and without spot, for 14 days. And on the feast of
the Passover, this first feast of the Passover in Exodus 12,
on that night, the angel of death was to come from the land of
Egypt, and every firstborn in the land without exception, animals,
Israelites, Egyptians, the lot, was to be slain by the angel
of death because of sin, except that for the Israelites, they
were told, a lamb shall die in the place of your firstborn. The Egyptians haven't got a lamb.
To them, it's an abomination. A shepherd is an abomination.
The things to do with that are an abomination. But to the Israelites,
take a lamb, a perfect lamb, and kill it. and paint its blood
on the doorposts and over the lintel. And that pictures Christ,
who is our Passover. Do you know that for Jews, today
is the Feast of Passover? And it starts two weeks ago,
symbolizing the 14 days of examining the lamb for perfection. Today
is the Passover. But there's no lamb because laws
don't allow them to do it and there's no temple in which to
do it for the only place where they could was in a temple in
Jerusalem. And that's not been there since A.D. 70 when the
Romans swept it away and it hasn't ever been restored. But our Passover
Lamb is sacrificed for us. The Lamb of God, behold the Lamb
of God, is our Passover Lamb. And He is sacrificed, and because
His blood has been shed, because He has died the death that the
law requires, the law does no longer require that death of
the people for whom He died. Fourthly, Isaiah's lamb. Isaiah's
lamb in Isaiah 53 was a man. And he is a man who is brought
as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers
is dumb. A lamb before the slaughter.
He's a man, but he comes as a lamb to the slaughter without saying
a word. Is that not how Christ went to
the crucifixion? He didn't go kicking and screaming.
He went silently, saying not a word. He is a man paying his
people's sin debt. Fifthly, John the Baptist's lamb
that we see in this chapter, John chapter one, John the Baptist's
lamb is identified as Jesus of Nazareth. Behold, the Lamb of
God. This man, Jesus, born of Mary, raised in Nazareth, this
man is the Lamb of God. The Lamb of God that will take
away the sin of his people in this world, the Lamb of God is
Jesus of Nazareth, the man. You know, when the apostles preached
in the Acts of the Apostles, their message was that this indeed,
this one, this Jesus, this very Jesus, is the Christ of God. That's the message. Behold the
Lamb of God. Go on to Revelation. I'm saying
that through the whole Bible, the theme of it is the Lamb of
God, pictured by various lambs, but it's all fulfilled and reaches
its climax in the one who John pointed to, behold the Lamb of
God. In Revelation chapter 5, the only one worthy to open the
seven seals of God's plan of salvation for his kingdom, the
accomplishment of the triumph of his kingdom, the only one
worthy to open those seals is the lion of the tribe of Judah.
But you know, it's only in the capacity of a lamb that was slain
that he's able to do that. Even there, the one able to implement
the success and triumph of the kingdom of God is a lion only
in the capacity of the lamb. the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. And finally, at the end of Revelation,
Revelation 22 verse 1, he is glorified as the Lamb seated
on the throne of God. You look, what is it? How is
he portrayed? Worthy is the Lamb that was slain
to receive all honor and praise. John saw Jesus as the fulfillment
of all of God's Word revealed, everything it had pointed to,
and he saw it for himself. He saw it for himself. He looked,
and for him, John the Baptist, there was the lamb that I need
to approach God. And He points you to look to
Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God for all you need to be accepted
by God into His eternal kingdom of righteousness and peace. So
my second point is this. Behold THE, capital letters,
THE Lamb of God. There is only one God. In Ephesians
4 verse 6 we saw last Wednesday evening, One God and Father of
all, who is above all and through all and in you all. One God.
Only one God. In three persons, yes, but only
one God. Not multiple gods. Not multiple
ways. There is only one God. And the
one God has only one Lamb. Only one. There is only one.
Religion all around the world will tell you, well, you've got
your variety and I've got my variety, but that'll all be OK.
We'll all end up in the same place in the end, eventually,
anyway. No, there is only one Lamb, and
there is only one way. There are not alternatives that
will do. Oh, what about the traditions
of my fathers and my family? I can't walk out on that. Well,
if you stick with it and it's false and it's not the truth
of God, then you'll go to hell believing what you believe. This
is the truth of God. Jesus said that He alone, no
man comes to the Father but by Me. God only has one Lamb. All of the Old Testament lambs
were not alternatives to Christ. They were mere pictures of Christ.
They were mere shadows of the one true Lamb that is the Christ
of God. The Passover lambs, many of them,
year after year, every year, on the feast of Passover. But
you know, in that... Hebrews chapter 10 that we read
part of earlier, we read in verse 4 of that, that it is not possible
that the blood of animals, he names some that were used for
sacrifices, it's not possible that the blood of animals can
take away sin, because why? They were only pictures, just
like the pictures on the wall might convey an idea of a place
or some other thought, but they're not the reality, they're just
pictures, they're just blueprints. They're not the reality. But
1 Corinthians 5 verse 7, as I've already said, Christ, our Passover,
is sacrificed for us. He is the reality of which all
those pictures were just pictures and types and blueprints. His
death is the only one to satisfy the demands of divine justice. There isn't more than one. There
are not other ways. You know, people I've heard people
who claim to be Christians saying, do you know something? I think
the Catholics have got something. You know, I really find the more
that I've been thinking about Mary, I really find that Mary
helps me to think about Christ. No, I don't think so. Not according
to the Word of God. No, absolutely not. Absolutely
not. No, she doesn't. There's only
one. Do you remember the Mount of Transfiguration when Jesus
took Peter, James and John up the Mount of Transfiguration
with him? You know, he'd said, he'd said about, you know, people
seeing the kingdom of God, you know, before many days, I forget
exactly, and the very next chapter is the Transfiguration. They're
taken up there and they see a glimpse into heaven for Christ is transfigured
before them into an amazing, shining being. This man glows
with heavenly, divine glory before their very eyes, and they're
terrified. And Moses and Elijah, who clearly are living spirits
in heaven, Moses and Elijah come and commune with the Lord Jesus
Christ in this vision that they had on that mount of transfiguration.
And they're awestruck that there, somehow they knew that it was
Moses and Elijah. And Peter, always the one to
blurt out before anybody else who's keeping quiet says anything,
he says, Lord, it's good for us to be here. Let us build three
tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, because we're all,
you know, isn't this all good altogether? No, immediately the
cloud comes, and it's hidden from their view. And there's
only Jesus there, and a voice from heaven saying, this is my
beloved Son. Nobody else. Nobody else. Hear
ye Him. He's the only one. It's not Christ
plus Elijah plus Moses. No, not at all. Christ alone. Christ alone. THE Lamb of God. Don't look for another. Look
nowhere else. You need a Lamb. He is THE Lamb
of God. He is the Lamb provided by God. I already alluded to that earlier
with Abraham and Isaac. Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who provides,
God who provides, That's what the Lord will provide Himself
a sacrifice. That's what the name of God there,
Jehovah Jireh, means. God provides the sacrifice that
He needs to pay the sins of the people He is determined to justify
and qualify for His eternal kingdom. The Old Testament Jew, if you
read the Levitical law in the first five books of the Bible,
well, Exodus through to Deuteronomy, if the Old Testament Jew sinned,
which of course he did every day, but he was very conscious
of some great sin he committed, and what he had to do according
to that which was specified in the law was to find a lamb for
his sin in order to find forgiveness with God and to take it to the
priest, And for the poor people, some alternatives, some lesser
animals were allowed to take account of their relative poverty. But they had to find a lamb.
If he could afford it, he could find a lamb and go and seek forgiveness
with God. Take it to the priest, it would
be sacrificed for his sin and thereby find forgiveness of his
sin. Where do we look for a lamb?
They had to find a lamb with whatever resources they had.
We need look no further than God's Son, who is God's provided
Lamb, the Lamb provided by God. He is there. You don't need to
go and find one. You don't need to go to a farmer.
You don't need to go to a butcher. You don't need to go He's there. He's the Lamb of God, the only
begotten Son, the one who is co-equal with the Father, the
one who is in the midst of God's throne, sharing the glory of
God. You know, God won't share His
glory with another. He says, I will not share my
glory with another. Father, glorify Thou me with
the glory that I had with Thee before the beginning, is what
Jesus prayed in John 17. He's in the midst of God's throne,
the Lamb as it had been slain, sharing the glory of God, for
He is co-equal with God. And His people, His people who
are loved with an everlasting love, His people must eternally
perish if the Son The Lamb of God does not pay their sin debt,
but He does. He comes and He pays their sin
debt. He's a Lamb. who really takes
away sin. He really takes away sin. My sin, oh the bliss of this
glorious thought, that hymn says. My sin, not in part but the whole,
is nailed to His cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord,
praise the Lord, oh my soul. He is the Lamb who really takes
away sin. Think about being found guilty
of a crime. and longing to have the record
wiped clean. You know whether you're actually
guilty or whether you're falsely accused and found guilty with
a miscarriage of justice. The desire to have the record
wiped clean, even if it's a few points for speeding on your license,
isn't it a lovely feeling when they've gone, they've expired,
they're taken away? Think of the bar of God's justice,
the legal bar of the justice of God. Is there such a thing?
According to the word of God, we must all stand before the
judgment seat of Christ and receive the things done in the body.
We must have the judgment pronounced. Are we guilty or are we cleared?
And the answer is that in our natural selves, we are all guilty,
for there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none deserving
in themselves of the forgiveness of God, or of the cleansing of
God, or the justification of God in ourselves. And the judgment
that is pronounced to those who are guiltless is welcome. Come,
ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world. And to those who are not so blessed,
it is this, it is these chilling words, depart from me. Depart
from me. I never knew you. You do evil. What's the evil that you've done?
You've not believed in the Son of God. What's the cause of the
condemnation? You have not believed in the
Son of God. What will take away my sin? What will take it away? What
will take away my sin? This sin burden that I... What
will take it away? What will remove its indelible
stain? Answer, as the hymn says, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. As Peter says, who
Christ, His own self, bear our sins in His own body on the tree,
the cursed tree of the cross of Calvary. He bore the sins
of His people. He took them upon Himself. He
took responsibility for them. They were made His sins. They
overwhelmed him, and in the judgment of God he paid every last drop
of the judgment of God for those sins that they might be taken
away. And in divine justice, The sins
of the multitude for whom Christ shed his blood are gone. They're
gone. You know, it's a flippant, I
think, it often comes back to me, some of the flippant Arminian
choruses we used to sing, but yet there's a lot of truth in
them. Gone, gone, gone, gone, yes, my sins are gone. Now my
soul is free and in my heart's a song. Buried in the deepest
sea, yes, that's good enough for me. I will live eternally,
praise God, my sins are gone. Nothing wrong with that doctrine,
is there? Gone, gone, gone. They're taken away. Jeremiah
50 verse 20. You say, where's your scriptural
warrant for saying that? Don't you know you must all stand
before the judgment seat of Christ and receive the things done in
the body? Where's your scriptural warrant for saying that they're
gone? Jeremiah 50 verse 20. The sins and iniquities, I'm
paraphrasing, but you look it up. I'm not saying anything that's
not there. The sins and iniquities of Judah and of Israel, just
Judah and, well, Judah and Israel are symbolical of the Israel
of God, which is all the people of God, the elect of God, the
multitude from every race and tongue and kindred for whom Christ
died and shed his blood. The iniquity and sins of them
are sought for, talking about Judgment Day, but they're not
found. And it says, there shall be none. There shall be none. Gone, gone,
gone, gone. Yes, my sins are gone. Not what
you have done grants you access into the kingdom of God, but
what he has done, taking away your sins in the justice of God. And God is satisfied. And God's
law has nothing to hold against you, has nothing for which to
condemn you or deprive you of your full reward. For what is
your full reward as a child of God? God says to Abraham, I,
Abraham, am your exceeding great reward. And it was once for all. It was a sacrifice offered once
only. We read it in Hebrews chapter
10. The priests came every day and
the regular feasts and repeated year after year and day after. The sacrifices were repeated
to say this is always the way by which, pointing to Christ,
we are right with God. But this man, Christ, this man
who had something to offer to God, this man came for all time
and for all his people in one sacrifice for sin forever. He
is the Lamb eternally slain in the purposes of God. The Lamb,
as Revelation 13 verse 8 says, the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world The multitude from the fall in Eden to the second
coming of Christ at the end of time. That multitude who trust
in Christ are saved by the one sacrifice for sins in the middle
of time when the fullness of the time was come, says Galatians
4 verse 4. When the fullness of the time
was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under
the law, to redeem those who are under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God, for our God is a consuming
fire. But for the child of God for
whom Christ has died, Abba, Father, our Father, which art in heaven.
Abba, Daddy, Father. This is the relationship. The
Old Testament and the New Testament saints together. Old Testament
saints looking forward by their types and their pictures to when
Christ would come. New Testament saints as we do
looking back to the accomplishment of all when Christ cried, it
is finished on the cross, accomplishing salvation and rising from the
dead and ascending on high. Looking forward and looking back
to that one event in time. You know I've said before, I
heard Clay Curtis say it, and he put it so well, the whole
purpose of this creation, you need to reject entirely the materialistic
evolutionary view of this creation, for it's not the truth of God,
it's a lie, it's a delusion. But if you believe God, This
world is created for one purpose. It's for three hours in the middle
of time, 2,000 years ago, when darkness covered the daytime
earth, when God's Lamb paid the sin debt of His beloved people. Do you get that? Three hours.
That's what the whole of this creation is for, that three hours
in the middle of time when God's Lamb, His beloved Son, the infinite
God contracted to a span, paid the sin debt to the justice of
God for His beloved people who He's qualifying for His eternal
kingdom, irrespective of their ethnicity. You know, there's
a lot of talk about which sort of lives matter. In the kingdom
of God, Neither male nor female, bond nor free, black nor white,
whatever race. Multi-ethnic multitude that no
man can number. Every tribe and tongue and race
counted amongst the elect of God. Gentiles as well as Jews. As the Old Testament prophets
repeatedly said, for the Gentiles, the Gentiles shall come to thy
light, said Isaiah. The Gentiles, yes, it's there. It's there, sufficient for all
without distinction of race. Behold the Lamb of God! that
takes away the sin of the world, not just of Jews. It doesn't
mean he died for everybody that's ever lived in the world. It means
a world of sinners without distinction of race, all by grace, not by
their works. There is no purgatory needed,
as the Catholics teach. There is no purgatory, for the
blood of the Lamb has done all that's necessary. There's no
penance required for sin, for the blood of the Lamb has done
all that's necessary. There's no works of righteousness
required, though you will bear the fruit of the Spirit if you're
His, because He has done all that's necessary. There's no
passage of time that will lead to reformation. It's immediate. What did Jesus say to the thief,
one, the penitent thief on the cross in Luke's Gospel? This
day you shall be with me in paradise. He didn't say when you've sanctified
yourself by progressive sanctification. He said this day you shall be
with me in paradise. So then, why did John the Baptist
come? Answer, to herald the Lamb of
God. To herald the Lamb of God. For John, to live, was Christ. As Paul said, for to me to live
is Christ, to die is gain. So it was for John. He knew him. He knew who he was. It had been
revealed to him. Behold the Lamb of God. He could
only point to God's Lamb for the removal of his sin, for peace
with God, for acceptance into God's kingdom. And so all of
his people, whether a preacher or a simple witness, and I don't
say that in any derogatory way, a simple witness, a simple witness,
What's the message that we give to this world around us, to this
dying world, dying in its sins, heading for a lost eternity without
knowledge of God, without God in this world, and without hope?
What's the message that we cry? Behold the Lamb of God. However you phrase it, that's
the sentiment. Behold the Lamb of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of sins. Amen.