Back with me now to John, not
Acts, John chapter one. I want to try to focus. I read
the entire story of this account of John the Baptist, but I want
to focus on verse 29. This is the account given by
the Holy Ghost through certain eyewitnesses of the last of the
Old Testament prophets and the only one of the new, John the
Baptist. He was ordained of God, prophesied
beforehand that he should come, and his purpose, John 1, 6 through
7, was to bear witness of the light that all men through him
might believe, that is, through the one he testified of, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And the day in which he lived was very similar
to the day in which we live. God had not spoken to men through
a prophet in nearly 400 years. That's roughly from the time
this Bible was written in the 16th century to present day.
God said nothing. He didn't speak to any prophet. Now there were men around who
gathered who knew the truth and communicated that truth. That's
obvious because there was men there waiting to see the promised
Messiah. One in particular who took him
up, the Holy Spirit had revealed to him that he wasn't gonna die
until he saw the Lord Jesus Christ. And he took up that baby in his
arms and he said, now Lord, let thy servant depart in peace.
I've seen thy salvation. So the gospel was being witnessed,
it was being taught by a few. But for the most part, men were
totally ignorant of God. Four long centuries had passed
by and the world with all of its various superstitions had
settled into their forms and their ideas and their concepts
and organizations. They'd all settled in and were
comfortable. And people, isn't it amazing
how comfortable you can get with things that just shock the daylights
out of you? This whole homosexual revolution. I remember when it first came
to be, men and women were just shocked. They don't pay any attention
to it now. Isn't it amazing what you can
get used to? And that's what I'm saying. This
world had settled into their little organizations, into their
little cliques, into their little religious factions, and they
were satisfied in them. They were satisfied. And just
people every day would go by and read their signs or see their
monuments or see this or see that and they didn't think anything
of it. Jews had their divisions with
the Herodians and Sadducees and Pharisees and the rest of the
world had their idols. Some of them synonymous with
big nations and some just by little isolated groups. But my
point is everybody had grown used to it. They got used to
it. They were not appalled by them.
They wasn't shocked by them. They heard the Jews and they
heard the philosophers and they learned to live with them both.
And then individuals, growing up, being educated, they
would hear this and hear that, and they'd form their own ideas,
just like they do today. Let's just say, for instance,
you were raised in a Baptist religion, but then you go off
to high school, and a lot of your friends are Nazarenes and
Catholics and all these other things, and this one will tell
you this, and you'll see a little bit of good in that, and this
one will tell you that, and you'll see a little bit of good in that.
Before long, you formed your own opinion. It was an unholy mixture of the
world and the Bible, things which our God reminded Israel of all
the time. And other than modern conveniences,
I see very little difference between our day and that day.
I just don't see a lot of difference. Very little gospel preached today,
very little truth about God, about salvation, and about his
son. I can read a very common and
basic statement of doctrine in the scriptures, and they'll look
at me and say, where's that at? I remember Pastor Mahan in the
first church that he went up to pastor, it was an Armenian
Southern Baptist church, and they were getting angry at him.
Ralph Barnard had preached the gospel to him, and he was converted
under Ralph. And now he was assistant pastor
in this church, and he began to teach these doctrines and
things. But they were putting up so much
of a fuss that this Sunday morning he decided he wasn't going to
teach anything, he was just going to read Ephesians chapter 1.
And he got about halfway through it, and this deacon said his
face was red as blood, He said, that's enough. He said, that's
enough. He said, everybody here knows what you're trying to do.
And Henry said, I'm not trying to do anything. Oh, he said,
yes you are, yes you are. Well, he said, what am I trying
to do? He said, you're trying to teach an election. Henry said,
I'm not teaching anything. I'm reading to you the word of
God. I'm reading to you Ephesians chapter one. Is election what
you got out of it? He said, that's what I got out
of it. Men are ignorant. They're ignorant
of the word of God. They're ignorant of the doctrines
of grace. They're ignorant of the gospel
of Jesus Christ. But in God's own time and according
to his prophets, he sent a man into the world whose whole purpose
in his being, his whole purpose in being here was to prepare
the way of the coming redeemer, to set men straight about who
he is, why he's coming, What he's going to do and where he's
going to go. That's what John the Baptist
preached. To make straight the way of life
everlasting. To dogmatically set before men
the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ and to declare who
he is. Who is this man, Jesus Christ?
You can listen for hours to religious men on the radio and not know
anything about Jesus Christ. It's amazing how much they can
say and not say nothing. Who is this man? Why should I look to him? Why
did he come down? You say he come down from heaven.
Why? Why did he come down? He said,
I come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will
of him that sent me. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose
nothing, but raise it up again at the last day. Why did he come?
And what did he do when he did come? What did he do? I went
to church all my life. I never heard what he did. I
heard about coming down an aisle, I heard about giving my heart
to Jesus, to accept Jesus as my personal savior, and I heard
all this kind of stuff about coming down. We had a mourner's
bench and everybody come down the aisle and they'd kneel down
at that mourner's bench and do what they called praying through.
I still don't know what that is, but I guess you just pray
till you're through. They never told me anything.
I was as dumb when I left the church as I was when I went there. John, when you listen to John,
he told you who this man is. Who he is, why he's coming, what
he did, what did he come here to do. In this day of compromise, in
this day of deceit and ignorance, in this day of live and let live,
has God sent any true servants into the world? That's the title
of my message today. The true servant. The true servant. Is there really some men ordained
of God sent into this place of darkness to make straight the
way of God? Is there really men appointed
by God for men to represent Him, to be His ambassadors? Does God
still use men to carry His gospel? Was that just something the apostles
did and then He dropped it and we're just on our own? Or does
God still use His servants? Does He still use chosen servants
to call out His elect, to teach them and establish them and watch
for their souls as one who must give an account? Are these men
in the world whom God sends His Spirit and
works through Him to the saving of men's souls? I believe there is with all my
heart. But everybody and their brother
claim to be a servant. Men and women alike taking to
themselves the office of a preacher or pastor, missionary. Assuming
that their willingness to speak is the same as being called of
God. When I ask them about their calling,
that's what they tell me. Believing that a diploma from
a seminary is the same as being ordained of God? Thinking that a letter from a
local church or denomination is just evidence of them being
sent of God? Are you sent of God? Here's my
papers. It's not what Paul said. Paul
said, I don't need any papers. I don't need them from the apostles
and I don't need them from you. God sent me. And he wrote my
message on your heart, not with pen and ink, but with the spirit
of the living God. You're my papers. So how does any man or any woman
ever come to know whether the man speaking to them is a true
servant of God? Where's the evidence? How can
we know? How can we know if that man is
a true servant of God or an imposter? How can we know? How can any soul be exposed to
lies, deceit, and darkness his whole life? come to have confidence
in any man. Well, I want to say this, first
of all. Apart from the grace of God and his intervention,
you never will. You never will. You'll just flop
around here and land here for a while and go there for a while,
and pretty soon you'll find something that appeals to you and you'll
settle in. You'll get comfortable. And boy,
the people just fall all over you. They'll make you a Sunday
school teacher. You ain't been there a week, they'll make you
a Sunday school teacher. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to him. Neither
can he know them because they're spiritually discerned. But if God's pleased to intervene,
and he often does, where his servant is sent, there are certain
things which men can see to discern who he is and who is not the
true servant of God. John said he was the servant.
God sent him. I'm a voice. I'm a voice. And I want to use John the Baptist
this morning to show us four things that every faithful servant
of God has in common. First of all, the true messenger
of God sees the Son coming to Him. That's the first thing He sees,
coming to Him. If He don't come to you, you
can't see Him. You'll go on in your blindness. He has to come to you. Now in
John's case, it was a physical sight. He saw Jesus of Nazareth
bodily walking in his direction. And he knew who he was, he knew
why he was coming, and he knew what he was coming to do. But my point is this, he saw
him for himself. Old Barnard used to say, you
can't tell what you don't know anymore and you can come back
from some place you haven't been. I can't tell you what I've seen
by faith if I haven't seen it. I can mimic, I can read books
and quote authors, but I can't tell you personally what I've
seen and what I know if I haven't seen it. How did he see him? He saw him as the prophesied
lamb. He didn't say, there's Jesus
of Nazareth. That ain't what he said. He said,
behold, the Lamb of God. Huh? What Lamb? What Lamb? That Lamb that was
foretold from the very garden where men fell. Huh? The Lamb of God. He saw him as
his substitute, as his redeemer, as the Holy One of Israel. To
him give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever
believeth in him shall receive remissions of sin. And he saw
him as the foretold redeemer. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. There's only one way to take
away the sin of the world and that is to satisfy the justice
of God. He did not come to establish
some kind of moral reformation or to get men's lives straightened
up, but to pay the uttermost price for our sins. He was our
representative. He was made of a woman made under
the law. Why? Why must he be made subject
to the law? We're the ones in trouble. No,
that's my representative. God put me in union with Him
before the world was. And in the fullness of time,
God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law.
Now listen, to redeem them that were under the law, to pay what
they owed, what that law demanded, what God's justice demanded. In Titus 2.14 it says, He gave
Himself for us. that he might redeem us from
all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous
of good works. In Colossians chapter one, verses
21 and 22, he tells us, that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy, unblameable,
and unreprovable in his sight. He saw him as he was sent forth
of God, as the Lamb, the Lamb of God, the Lamb of whom all
the other lambs were but symbolic. Those lambs established for a
time then present which was offered sacrifices for sins, that lamb,
that symbolic lamb. He sees the Christ of God not
as a point of contention, not as a doctrinal argument. He saw him as his savior. That's my savior. How does the true servant see
the Son of God? He sees Him as God has sent Him
forth as the Lamb. And secondly, he sees Him coming. He saw Him the next day coming
to him. He'd been coming since the day
of His appointment. Did you know that? He was coming when He created
the world. It was made by Him and for Him. And by Him it has its continuance. He was coming when He came to
Adam and Eve with that sacrificial lamb to reconcile them in the
garden. He was coming when He came to
Abel at the altar. When He came to Noah at the flood. In Hebrews chapter 10 it says,
lo, I come, in the volume of the book it's written of me,
to do thy will, O God. How does a true servant see him?
He sees him coming, coming. And he sees the spirit of the
living God abiding upon him. John looked, and the dove, he
said, this is what God told me when I see the dove, the heavenly
dove, that's a symbol of the Holy Spirit, descending and abiding
upon him. How does a true servant see him? How does he see this one he preaches? Well, he sees the Spirit of the
living God abiding upon him. You can't see the dove till you
see Christ. You can't see the Spirit of God,
you can't perceive the Spirit of God apart from viewing Christ. Christ is the only revelation
we have of God, either the Spirit of God or the one we call the
Father. No man knoweth the Father save
the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal it. And you and I know nothing of
the Spirit apart from seeing Christ. The last book of the Bible is
called the Revelation of Jesus Christ. No man knoweth the Father save
the Son. And Jesus Christ is God come
into the flesh. Emmanuel, God with us. Is that important? My soul, I
imagine. This is God manifest in this
one. He didn't just see a man coming,
a reputable man or a good man. Nicodemus said, good master. This is God with us, God and
man united in one glorious person. And he's united with us to mediate
the redemptive will of God. John tells us, he said, when
the comforters come, He said he's not gonna come till I go
away, but when I ascend up to be with the Father, I'm gonna
send you the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. And when he's come, now
listen to this. This is so easy in this day of
Holy Spirit religion. So easy to be deceived. But here's
what John said. The Lord said when he ascended
up to glory, The Father was gonna send us the Comforter. And when
He's come, now listen, He will not speak of Himself. Oh, oh. Then what are these so-called
Holy Spirit-filled churches talking about? It's all they talk about
is the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost. I'm gonna tell you something,
anybody that preaches the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost, the Holy
Ghost all the time, they don't know the Holy Ghost. When he's
come, he will not speak of himself, he'll take the things of mine
and show them unto you. When you find that true servant
of God, he's not gonna preach the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost,
the Holy Ghost, he's gonna preach Christ. Because that's what the
Holy Ghost that abides on him is telling him to preach. Somebody said something to me
recently about tongues being a heavenly language, and I understood
what he was saying, but I'm gonna tell you something. The gospel's
the only heavenly language, the only tongue that God will speak
in. You better let that sink in. It's not understood by any man
till God enables him by his spirit to hear it. But if he does enable
him to hear it, he can interpret. He can hear the gospel and he
can tell you. If tongues give any evidence
of the Spirit of God, it is to declare the gospel or to hear
it as though God himself had said the words. John the Baptist
saw the Holy Ghost abiding upon the Lamb of God. In him, Paul
said, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you're
complete in him. Now let me show you something
over here in Acts chapter five. Acts chapter five and verse 30. He said, the God of our fathers
raised up Jesus, whom you slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath
God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior for
to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. Now
watch this. And we are his witnesses of these
things and so is also the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to
them that obey him. The true servant of God, God's
messenger sees and declares to men that the Holy Ghost abides
upon Jesus Christ. If you have Jesus Christ, you
have the Holy Spirit. What does a true servant see
when he sees the Son? He sees the lamb slain. He don't
just see the lamb foretold, but he sees the lamb slain. God himself
set forth the lamb slain in the garden and at the altar and under
the law. And the scripture says without
the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins. Paul said
in Romans 3 verse 24, being justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Now listen, whom God hath set
forth. This is in Old Testament times.
whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith
in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins. Both in those Old Testament saints
and New Testament saints. The Savior who cannot die cannot
save. He's the Lamb slain. necessary for Him to take to
Himself the body and blood of a man. Again, in Hebrews chapter
10, it says, When Christ came into this world, He sayeth, Sacrifice
an offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared
me. And every true servant that his servants of God sees
the God-man mediate or God and man in one glorious person who
alone can put away our sin and he puts it away through his death.
He satisfies God's judgment. The sinner must surely die. And then let me close with this.
A true servant of God, if you're looking to to a man and you wanna
know if he's a true servant of God. A true servant of God loses
himself in Christ. Everything concerning himself
goes by the wayside. Christ is all. He's all. I may do some things, but in
the end, it's about Christ. And I can do away with the things. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ is all in all. Paul said,
for me to live is Christ, and for me to die is gain. John the
Baptist lost himself in Christ. He said, I'm not the bridegroom.
They kept asking him over and over and over, are you the Christ?
See, they thought the Christ was gonna be one person. They
thought that prophet, he told Moses, a prophet, Moses said,
a prophet like unto me. They thought that's something
different. And then they knew there was
going to be a king like David, and they thought all these were
different. And so they asked John all these different questions.
Are you this? Are you that? Elijah's coming back. Scripture
said he was. Well, that's John the Baptist.
He came in the spirit of Elijah. He said, I'm not the bridegroom.
I'm just the friend. I'm not here on my account just
to rejoice with the bridegroom. I'm not here rejoicing over my
ministry or rejoicing over anything else. I'm here to rejoice over
the bride and the bridegroom. I'm just a friend of the bridegroom. He must increase, I must decrease. That's what I'm saying. A man
loses himself in Christ. He begins to see something of
the monumental glory of God in Christ and the glory of what's
taking place and his little piddly life just goes by the wayside. John said, his coming was preferred
before me for he was before me. And worthiness, I'm not worthy
to unloose his shoe latchet. And I'm not here on my worthiness,
I'm here on his. I'm not wearing my own garment,
I'm wearing his. If you ain't got on his garment,
you're gonna be kicked out. I don't have an agenda, I have
his. And I'm not trying to build my
reputation. I'm just a voice. That's what
God said. I'm just a voice. I want to communicate
His. And without Him, we can do nothing. Please the Father that in Him
should all fullness dwell. Can I be pleased with anything
else? A true servant of God loses himself in Christ. He loses himself
in his gospel. and in his person, and in his
purpose, and in his power, and in his ministry. May the Lord be pleased to confirm
these words in your heart and mine. And may I, in some way,
give off that evidence of a true servant of God. And that servant,
you know who he The whole object of his ministry, everything that
he does and lives for and says, you know what that is? That is
the true servant of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. If you lose
your life to him, you'll be a servant. That's what you'll do. You'll
be a servant just like him. Just like him. May the Lord make
it so for his glory. Thank you.