We then to John's gospel in the
first chapter. I didn't intend to preach a series
on the gospel of John but anyway the message for this morning
is from John chapter 1 continuing to look beyond verse 18 where
we looked last week and I want to look at verses 19 to 29 and
see a preacher and his message, a preacher and his message. It's about John the Baptist.
The John here is not John the Apostle who wrote the Gospel
of John, but it's John the Baptist. That's made quite clear. This
is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites
from Jerusalem to ask him, who art thou? This is John the Baptist.
John the Baptist was a great preacher. You know, we say, have
you heard such and such a preacher? He's a good preacher. He's a
great preacher. What marks out a great preacher
in the minds of men and women are different things to different
people. To the people of God, to the sheep of God, a great
preacher is not a great orator, necessarily. A great preacher
is somebody who speaks with a voice they can hear, and it's the voice
of the great shepherd of the sheep. That's what they want
to hear. The people of God Don't mind if it's stuttering, stammering
words, so long as it's the voice of the great shepherd of the
sheep that they're hearing. That's what they want to hear.
Others, they have their competitions, don't they, for the best preacher
in the country. And basically, the sermon that
wins is just some little homily of 10 or 15 minutes long that
amuses people and keeps people's attention because they tell us,
people have got such a short attention span, preaching for
anything more than 10 minutes, you've lost everybody straight
away. Well, no, some people have got longer attention spans than
that, as far as preaching is concerned. But by any standards,
John the Baptist was a great preacher. And how do I know?
Because Jesus himself said, in Matthew's Gospel chapter 11 and
verse 11, he said, there hasn't been one born of women. There's
not a man that's been born that is greater than John the Baptist. He's the greatest one that came,
born amongst women. That's a tremendous accolade
from the Son of God. And he's also a preacher whose
coming was prophesied. 700 years before John the Baptist
was born, the prophet Isaiah wrote in chapter 40 and verse
3, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare you the
way of the Lord. And when they asked John, who
are you? He said, I am that voice crying in the wilderness. Prophesied
700 years before he came. In Malachi, 400 years before
Christ came. The end of Malachi, verse 5 of
chapter 4, that the prophet Elijah, Elias as it is in New Testament
Greek, Elias, he's coming, he's coming before that great and
terrible day of the Lord, before that day in which the Son of
God, the Son of righteousness shall be revealed. He is coming,
he is coming to this earth. Let's just look it up briefly. Malachi chapter 4, behold I will
send you Elijah the prophet. He's already come and gone. So,
who is this? Before the coming of the great
and dreadful day of the Lord, I will send you Elijah the prophet.
He'll be manifest before you. Well, who is it? Well, if we
look in Mark's Gospel and chapter 9, Mark's Gospel and chapter
9, you will see there in verses
11 to 13, they ask Jesus, saying, why do the scribes say that Elias,
Elijah, must come first? And he answered and told them,
Elijah, Elias, verily cometh first and restores all things. And how is it written of the
Son of Man that he must suffer many things and be set at naught?
But I say unto you that Elias, Elijah, is indeed come. And they've
done to him whatsoever they wanted, they listed, as it is written
of him. Because, of course, Herod chopped off the head of John
the Baptist as a gift to that girl who danced before him. He's
already come, says Jesus. He's a man who was filled with
the Spirit from the womb. In the womb he was filled with
the Spirit. That's what the angel said to his mother Elizabeth.
And when Mary, when she was pregnant with Jesus in her womb, came
to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who was already six months pregnant
with John the Baptist, When the babe in the womb, when John the
Baptist in the womb of his mother heard Mary come, he leapt for
joy. That baby leapt for joy in his
mother's womb. He was filled with the Holy Spirit
from his conception. He had a very odd lifestyle.
We know he had a very odd lifestyle because both Matthew and Mark
tell us. He was out in the wilderness.
He wasn't in the religious places. He wasn't in the temple. He wasn't
ministering in the seminary. No, he was out in the wilderness. Isn't it interesting that that's
where God puts his servants? He was out in the wilderness.
He was clothed with camel's hair. Garments made of camel's hair.
Not conventional. He ate locusts and wild honey. That was his food. Very unconventional. But this is the point. Crowds
flocked to him. Crowds came out to him. We read
that in the other Gospels. Crowds flocked out to him. And
why did they come? They wanted to hear this voice
crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord. They
came out and they were made to mourn over their sin by the preaching
of this man John the Baptist. You see, he didn't preach moral
rearmament, he didn't preach the law, but he preached sin. He preached what it is to be
a sinner in the sight of the God of the universe with whom
we all must have to do the one whom we all must meet. He preached
sin. You know, so many people around
us in the world today have no sense of sin. There is no sense
of sin. Not at all. You know, repentance
is a gift that God gives. It's a gift that He gives and
it's a gracious gift to sense that burden of sin as Pilgrim
did in Pilgrim's Progress. That burden of responsibility
on his back that he knew he was mortal and he would die and he
would carry that full responsibility for his sin before the throne
of the judge of the universe and that's a dreadful terrifying
thought for it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God and the preaching of John the Baptist caused crowds
to mourn over their sin oh that there would be such a sense of
impending judgment brought upon this generation in which we live.
You go around and you see such a godless, godless generation
rejoicing in their godlessness. Just as Revelation 11 talks about
the prophets lying dead in the street, these are the days in
which we live. They really are. They're days
just like that. It's as if the sound of the gospel
is lying dead in the street and the people, it says in Revelation
11, they have a party. They rejoice over it. They send
gifts to one another because they're so glad with it. We went
to London on New Year's Day, and in the afternoon we walked
along the banks of the Thames and we went into Tate Modern,
the gallery, just to see, just to have a look. And you can either
take it or leave it as art is concerned, but it was the atmosphere
of the people. It was just a cross-section of
the godlessness of our society. was on display. I'm not talking
about in the art necessarily, but just the people walking around
there. The godlessness of the attitudes that are in our society.
There's no sense of God, there is no fear of God before anybody's
eyes, it would seem, in these days. There's just great rejoicing
that we have cast off these bans from us, this yoke of bondage
of law from us. We've got rid of it, we don't
need it anymore. We have professors of godlessness
in our universities. and were so glad of it that the
preaching of John the Baptist caused mourning over sin and
they came out and they sensed the filth of their sin the degrading
nature of their sin in the eyes of the living God and they wanted
to be cleansed from it they wanted to be clean in the eyes of God
and so John baptized with water merely with water he baptized
with water to symbolize the cleansing that these people wanted for
they had such a desire to be rid of their sin But above all,
He preached Christ. He preached Christ. He came as
a witness of that light. That light which was Christ.
He came and He pointed to Him. He pointed to the Word made flesh.
Again and again, He preached, make the way straight for the
coming One. For the Son of Righteousness
is going to arise. That's who He preached. That
the One is coming who is going to deal with sin. And so the
repentance that was in the hearts of these people, many of them
were baptized in the River Jordan. And even Jesus himself, that
all righteousness might be fulfilled, came to John to be baptized. And John baptized him in the
River Jordan. Now the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem,
the religious hierarchy, the bosses of the seminars and the
law schools and all of those things which there must have
been in Jerusalem, They were disturbed by this. Who's he? What are all the people doing?
They're all flocking out into the wilderness to this man. And
we don't know him. We don't know anything about
him. Who is he? Where does he get his authority
from? So they sent out some people to go and examine him. And they
came. Verse 19. The Jews sent priests
and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, to ask John, who are
you? Who do you think you are? That's
the tone of it. Just who do you think you are?
Look at all these people. You're calling all these people
away from their normal, law-abiding lives and look, look, they're
streaming out here to you. Who do you think you are to do
this? Are you the Christ? And he said,
no, I'm not the Christ. I'm most definitely not the Christ.
He saw them coming and Matthew tells us in his account in Matthew
chapter 3 and verse 7 This is what John the Baptist said to
them. John the Baptist didn't say,
ah, welcome to our meeting. Here's a songbook. Let's have
a good time, shall we? We're all welcome together. This
is what John the Baptist said to these that the priests had
sent. He said, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the
wrath to come? Pretty blunt. He spoke the word
of God to them. You brood of vipers, who warned
you to flee from the wrath to come. But they came to Him. Who do you think you are, John?
Do you think you're the Messiah? Who's authorized you? Let's read
these verses. He confessed and denied not,
verse 20, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And so they asked
Him, what then? Are you Elias? Are you Elijah?
Because you see, they knew they're Old Testament Scriptures. They
knew in their heads they're Old Testament Scriptures. They knew
that Malachi had written that the Messiah wouldn't come until
Elijah had come again. So are you Elijah? And he said,
I am not. Are you that prophet? Which prophet? Deuteronomy chapter 18 and verse
15. Moses said, God speaking through
Moses, I will send you another prophet like Moses to speak the
voice of God, speaking of Christ. Are you that prophet that Moses
promised would come and that you shall hear him? And he answered,
no, no. I'm not that prophet, I'm not
the Messiah." And then they said unto him, well, who are you then?
Who do you say you are that we can give an answer to those that
have sent us? What do you say of yourself? We've asked you
the questions and you've denied. What do you say of yourself?
And he said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness,
make straight the way of the Lord. I am just exactly what
God has made me and for the purpose that he has made me. I am the
announcer the forerunner, the preparer of the way of the Lord,
for the Son of Righteousness has arisen and is in your midst.
And they which were sent, verse 24, they which were sent were
of the Pharisees. And they asked him and said unto
him, well if you're not the Christ, if you're not the Christ, why
are you baptizing then? And you're not Elias, nor that
prophet that Moses promised, why are you baptizing then? In
other words, What spiritual, what religious authority have
you got to do what you're doing? You know, God authorizes his
own people to speak with his words. It's not seminaries that
authorize people. No, not at all. It's not seminaries
that make a proper prophet or a proper minister. It's the Spirit
of God who gives a message and speaks. And how do we know? The
people here. You know, I can't stand this
idea that there is amongst elderships of churches, as they call themselves,
that, you know, I am your pastor and therefore you will listen
to me. No, you're not my pastor unless you speak with the voice
of Christ to my heart and soul. Then I'll listen to you as if
I'm listening to Christ. When a man speaks to me and I
hear the words of Jesus Christ in what he says, I'll listen
to him not because of who he is as a man, because he's a fallen
man, He's a sinner just like anybody else. But I'll listen
to Him because by God's Spirit He's speaking to me the voice
of the Chief Shepherd. And therefore I must obey Him.
That's it. I don't put any man on a pedestal.
We, none of us, should put any man on a pedestal. Jesus said,
don't call any man your father on earth. Don't call any man
your father spiritually speaking. Not at all. God raises up His
people and He had raised up John the Baptist from the womb for
this purpose prophesied to make straight, to prepare the way
of the Lord. Why are you doing these things
out here? Why are you not in the temple
in Jerusalem, under our control, where we can see you? And John
answers, verse 26, he says, I baptize with water, but there standeth
one among you whom you know not. What's he effectively saying
here? He's saying, yes, okay, you've observed, the people are
coming out and I'm baptizing them with water." What he's saying
is effectively, I am merely baptizing with water. This is just symbolical. This is just outward. This is
just an outward demonstration of what people are feeling in
their hearts. I am merely baptizing with water, but that's not my
message. I haven't come to baptize with water, primarily. My message
is this. My message concerns one who stands
among you now, but you haven't discerned him. He's walking amongst
you now, but you haven't discerned Him. You do not know Him. He
it is, He it is, who coming after me, who was born after me, is
preferred before me. Why is He preferred before me?
For He is the Son of God. He is God in human flesh. He is God the substitute for
sinners. He is God come to save His people
from their sins. He is preferred before me because
God the Father was pleased that in Him should dwell all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily." He is God in human flesh. You're coming
asking me about water baptism. Yes, I'm merely baptizing with
water baptism, but there is one who now stands among you. And
the other gospel accounts Matthew and Mark confirm to us that what
he said as well was The One who comes after me, He will not baptize
merely with water, but He will baptize with the Holy Spirit,
with the Holy Ghost, with the Spirit of God. Who can baptize
with the Spirit of God other than God Himself? Who else can
do that? Only God Himself can baptize
with the Spirit of God. This is new life. This is the
life that is in Him, that He gives to those who trust Him.
to those who are his people. He says it's him that's coming.
And do you know what? You're coming bothering about
me because all these people are coming out to me. This is what
John the Baptist said. He said by comparison to him,
I'm not fit to do the lowliest job in society. You know, we
see accounts of how it used to be in English society in the
big house, you know, the upstairs, downstairs and the lowest servants
and there was the the chief cook and then the scullery maid and
so on, it went down until you got the lowest of the low. You
came in on the lowest rung of the ladder. And in this society,
the lowest rung of the ladder was the poor person that had
that menial job. When the travellers arrived at
the big house, it was their job to remove the outdoor footwear,
the dirty, dust-soiled outdoor footwear from the guests arriving,
and wash their feet. and he says I'm not worthy even
to unloose the sandals of this one who of course we know 12
chapters further on 14 chapters further on our Lord Jesus Christ
at that last supper took a basin of water and a towel and he did
that most menial lowest job for his disciples and he washed their
feet but John says don't compare me with him I am so low I'm not
worthy to be compared to him I'm not fit even to do that basic
menial job. Why? Because he himself, John
the Baptist, was a sinner as we all are. He was a sinner saved
by grace and by grace alone. He wasn't a sinner who was good
enough to be saved on his own merits. He himself looked to
this one. He himself looked to this one
whose shoes latched he was not worthy to unloose because he
knew what this one was going to do. And these things were
done in Bethabara, beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. John's
saying to them, I wasn't sent, like Paul said, I wasn't sent
to baptize but to preach the gospel. He's saying to them like
Paul said, I was determined to know nothing else amongst you
but Jesus Christ and him crucified. And he pointed to the Lord Jesus
Christ. That was his message. It's the
message of the whole of the scripture. The whole of the scripture speaks
of him. But the Pharisees, these religious leaders came out, they
knew nothing of Him. If you would know God, if you
would know peace with God, it doesn't matter how many people
go to your meeting, it doesn't matter how full of gusto the
singing is, it doesn't matter whether you have jolly social
times together, it matters not one jot. This is what matters.
Is it well with my soul? Is it well with my soul? Do I
know that I have eternal life in the Son of God? Do I know
that when He died on the cross, I died in Him? And when He rose,
I rose in Him? That He was delivered up for
my transgressions and raised again for my justification? Do
I know those things? Because that's what it is to
go to the grave to face our mortality with such a sense of peace. It's
about the light of the world. And John the Baptist pointed
to Him. That was his message and his message alone. He pointed
to Him. He pointed to the light of the
world. In verse 26, there stands one among you whom you know not.
Verse 27, He it is coming after me is preferred before me. This
is where you ought to be looking, you Pharisees, you religious
folks. Not come in questioning me. Go and look for Him, for
in Him is life. In Him is eternal life. And verse
29, the next day, the next day, John seeth Jesus coming to him
and said, Behold the Lamb of God. which taketh away the sin
of the world." The Lamb of God, Him. The next day, do you know
there's a sense in which that fulfills what Malachi said. Malachi, that verse we looked
at earlier, Malachi chapter 4, next to the last verse of the
Old Testament. Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet.
That's the day when they were questioning Him before the coming
of the great and dreadful day of the Lord there's a sense that
the day after that day would come when Christ would be revealed
and so it is the next day John seeth Jesus coming and says behold
the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world that's our
message that's what we gather for we don't hear it anywhere
else that's why we gather behold the Lamb of God Behold, the substitute
for sinners, the only substitute for sinners, the substitute for
His people whom the Father gave to Him from before the beginning
of time, the sacrifice for sin, the One who has paid the sin
debt of His people, has cleared it, has blotted it out. The ledger
doesn't contain that sin debt for His people anymore, for He
has borne it and paid it. He's the Lamb of God which takes
away the sin of the world. He's the Redeemer, the Purchaser,
the Buyer Back, The Savior, that prophet. Deuteronomy 18 and verse
15. And what is He saying to them?
What is He saying to all who heard Him? Behold the Lamb of
God. Look at the Lamb of God. I'm
reminded of the Israelites in the wilderness of Sinai in Numbers
chapter 21. And they'd murmured and they
were bitten by venomous snakes, fiery serpents, venomous snakes.
And they were dying. And Moses prayed, asked God,
what should I do? And God said to him, make a likeness
of that which is killing the people. Make a likeness of one
of these serpents out of bronze and put it on a pole, the likeness
of that thing which is killing them. Put it on a pole and say
to them, whosoever shall look, believingly, shall be healed.
And all who looked, he set up the pole with the bronze serpent
on it. And all those who were bitten, who looked at that serpent,
believingly, were healed of their snake bite. They didn't die of
it. We're told to look to Christ. Behold the Lamb of God. Look
at Romans chapter 8 and verse 3. Romans chapter 8 and verse
3. For what the law could not do,
what could the law not do? The law could not justify a man.
The law could never make a man or a woman right with God. The
law could not do it. Not even if you were as good
as John the Baptist, the law could not do it. What the law
could not do, why not? In that it was weak through the
flesh. For the flesh is weak. The flesh is fallen. The flesh
can never be persuaded. The flesh can never be persuaded.
The carnal mind is enmity against God. This is why we must preach
this gospel of look to the Lamb of God. We don't seek, yes Paul
says we persuade men, but we persuade men of the gospel, of
his grace. We don't seek to persuade men
of the rationality of believing God, although it is rational
to believe God, because fallen flesh cannot believe God. Cannot. Dead in trespasses and sins.
No thought for God. Without any spiritual light. What the law could not do in
that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh." Do you hear that? As that serpent
was in the likeness of the serpent, God sending His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, because of sin, condemned
sin in the flesh. He condemned the sin of His people
in the flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the likeness of sinful
flesh, yet without sin. There on the cross of Calvary,
He condemned sin in the flesh on the behalf of His people.
Look at Christ. Behold the Lamb of God. Why Him? Why must we look to Him? Because
He alone takes away the sin of the world. That's what it says.
He takes away the sin of the world. What does it mean? Does
it mean that Jesus died for every sin that was ever committed by
man? If it did mean that, if it did mean that, every sin in
the books of God would be blotted out. The sin of Adolf Hitler
would be blotted out. The sin of, you name the most
horrendous monster, the most evil person, would be blotted
out. He clearly didn't. The Scriptures
are clear. There is a hell. There is judgment. There is condemnation for those
outside of Christ. He did not die for every sin
ever committed. What does it mean then? It means
this. He taketh away the sin of the
world. The original sin that is in mankind that afflicts all
of us. That's the sin that he dealt with. The sin problem of
mankind. And this too. Those Jews had
come out from Jerusalem where daily there were the sacrifices
and the lambs were slain and the blood was shed. But who was
it for? In their minds it was for one
race only. It was just for the Jews. It
was just for the people living in that part of the world. That's
who it was for and for nobody else. And yet the Old Testament
Scriptures had said, we read recently over the Christmas period,
and the Gentiles, Isaiah 60, the Gentiles shall come to thy
light and to the brightness of thy rising. The Gentiles shall
come. He takes away the sin of the
world, of people all around the world, of people without racial
distinction. He comes to do that. It's a worldwide salvation. This
isn't a cultural salvation. This isn't a salvation for one
particular type of culture. Western-minded people, for example,
in our day. This is the message for all throughout
the world that Christ has saved his people from their sins. Takes
away the sins of the world and I must look to him alone because
only he has satisfied divine justice for His people. If I'm
outside of Him, divine justice is yet to be satisfied. Divine
justice calls for the soul that sins to die. It calls for that
soul to be condemned. But in the Lord Jesus Christ,
that justice is already satisfied. It's already been paid. The price
has already been paid. This Lamb is foretold throughout
the Scriptures. Jesus well said in a few chapters
time you search the scriptures for in them you think you have
eternal life these are they which speak of me this is the message
of this book it's him the Lamb of God who takes away the sin
of the world he's foreshadowed throughout the scriptures Genesis
chapter 4 and verse 4 and Abel brought a lamb Abel brought a
lamb to God as the basis of his worship and God had respect towards
Abel's offering Whereas he had no respect of Cain's offering.
And why not? Because Cain brought his own
efforts. Cain brought his own reasoning. Cain brought his own
acceptability before God. And isn't that what virtually
everybody all around us does? Brings their own acceptability.
I'm good enough as I am. I was listening to some folk
music the other day. Lovely music. It's almost like
meat sacrifice to idols. You know Paul says, Don't make
a fuss of it being meat sacrifice to idols. If it doesn't bother
you in your conscience, just eat it. It's meat. Well, in a
sense, this music is just lovely guitar folk music. But the words
of it are absolutely horrible. Absolutely horrible. Just blasphemous.
They really are. That we're good enough as we
are. That we don't need a saviour. That we don't need anybody to
come down here and save us. We're fine as we are. We don't
need your heaven. You keep your heaven. That's what the song
is saying. And it's horrible. Lovely music, but horrible words.
Horrible words, but it's the spirit of the age in which we
live. That spirit that says, like Cain, I can come in my own
goodness and I can be accepted for eternity in my own goodness. But no, God had respect to Abel's
Lamb. Ah, why? Because it spoke of
the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Abel came
on the basis of the Lamb of God and looking to Him who takes
away the sin of the world. Isaac and Abraham climbed that
mountain to offer sacrifice to God. And Isaac said to his father,
I see the wood, I see the fire, but where is the lamb for the
burnt offering? And Abraham said this, God will provide himself
a sacrifice. Behold the Lamb of God, who takes
away the sin of the world. The Israelites were in Egypt,
in bondage, in slavery, and they were going to be released. And
they had to kill the Passover lamb. And they had to paint the
blood of the Lamb over the doorpost so that when the angel of death
came through the land seeking the death of the firstborn, he
came to their houses and he saw that one had already died in
the place of the firstborn of Israel. And there was substitution. The Lamb had already died in
the place of the firstborn of the Israelites. And so the angel
of death passed over. And so it's the Feast of the
Passover. And in 1 Corinthians 5 verse 7, Paul says this, Our
Passover is sacrificed for us. Behold the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world. In Isaiah 53, this Lamb of God
is personified. He's a person. He's a person
who grows up before us and there's no comeliness that we should
desire Him. He's a person and He's led as a sheep to the slaughter. Behold the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world. John stood there and saw this
man coming And it seems that they had not known each other
during their growing up. They were in different parts
of the country. They hadn't known each other. He wouldn't know.
There were no photographs. There was no communications like
we have. The only way that you would know
somebody is by face-to-face meeting. And he didn't know. And so God
had said, The one on whom you see the Spirit descending like
a dove, he is the one. And John saw and said, Behold
the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is the
sinless, substitute. Peter says this, Christ is as
a lamb without blemish and without spot. That Passover lamb had
to be a lamb without blemish of the first year, without spot,
in its prime, in its prime. He was a willing lamb. He wasn't
forced, he wasn't cajoled, he went willingly. He set his face
as a flint to go to Jerusalem that he might die for his people
and so Isaiah tells us that he was as a sheep before his shearers
is dumb so he opened not his mouth he took it and he bore
it in the place of his people he was a sacrificial lamb people
in the world don't like the idea of sacrifice they think it's
barbaric but this is the way of God one had to die in the
place of others and he says in Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 26
that Christ has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
Himself. He appeared to put away sin by
the sacrifice of Himself. He's a provided Lamb. He's the
Lamb that God provided. John tells us in his epistle,
chapter 4, verses 9 and 10, that God's love is manifested in this,
that God sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins, to
be the turning away of the anger of God, the legal anger of God. The mercy seat. The place where
God will speak with His people. God sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. Because that propitiation was
made in the blood of a perfect sacrifice. And what went up to
heaven when the Lamb of God died in the place of His people was
a sweet smelling savor. You know when Noah came out of
the ark, he built an altar and he sacrificed. And it says there
that a smoke arose which was a sweet-smelling savour to God. The sweet-smelling savour is
that sweet-smelling savour of rightness with God, of being
right with Him. And it's in the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is a sweet-smelling savour,
a sweet-smelling aroma to God. He's the one whom God has set
forth. Behold the Lamb of God which
takes away the sin of the world. That's our message. We have no
other message. It's the message we have for
this community here. To anybody that will hear it.
To anybody that will listen. It's a message of substitution.
It's not a message of do's and don'ts. Though anybody who comes
under the sound of this message with conviction in their hearts
will want to do so much for our Lord and Savior. But it's a message
of behold. Behold with faith. That faith
is the gift of God. Behold the Lamb of God. which
takes away the sin of the world. If you read in the early chapters
of Leviticus, again and again, it says, and the priest shall
take the sacrifice, the animal for sacrifice, the lamb, the
goat, whatever it was, and he shall lay his hand on the head
of that sacrifice and then kill it in the temple. Laying his
hand was symbolizing the fact of transference of the sin, of
the guilt, of the culpability, from that person to the sacrifice
and that bearing the penalty in his place and so it is by
faith we behold the Lamb of God and we lay our hand on that head
it says that in the hymn that we're going to sing now let me
just read these words before we put the tape off so it is not all the blood of
beasts on Jewish altars slain could give the guilty conscience
peace or wash away the stain but Christ the heavenly Lamb
takes all our sins away a sacrifice of nobler name and richer blood
than they behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin
of the world. Amen.