Alright, take your Bibles and
turn to John chapter 3, and let's read verses 22 through the end
of the chapter. After these things came Jesus
and his disciples into the land of Judea, and there he carried
with them and baptized. And John also was baptizing in
Enon, near to Salem because there was much water there. And they
came and were baptized. For John was not yet cast into
prison. Then there arose a question between
some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying. And
they came unto John and said unto him, He that was with thee
beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness, behold, the same baptizeth,
and all men come to him. John answered and said, A man
can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven. Ye
yourselves bear me witness that I said I am not the Christ, but
that I am sent before him. He that hath the bride is the
bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom,
which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of
the bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must
decrease. He that cometh from above is
above all. He that is of the earth is earthly,
and speaketh of the earth. He that cometh from heaven is
above all. And what he hath seen and heard,
that he testifieth, and no man receiveth his testimony. He that
hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. For he whom God hath sent speaketh
the words of God. For God giveth not the Spirit
by measure unto him. The Father loveth the Son, and
hath given all things into his hand. He that believeth on the
Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." Now, there are some things that
we need to clear up before we get too far into this, and the
first of those is this, that Christ did not baptize. We're just reading the verse
a little wrong when we look at it, because it goes on to tell
us further on down in these verses that he did not baptize. What
this is talking about is that men and women were baptized as
a result of his preaching by his disciples. They also baptized. John was in one place baptizing,
and the Lord Jesus Christ and his disciples were a little further
on down the road from him preaching and baptizing. And the Jews saw
this as an opportunity. And so issues arose, and the
issues were over purification. The Jews had no other foundation
to argue from except the law of God. When men, especially
religious men, when they want to cause trouble, they always
use the law and the commandments of God as a foundation for their
argument. They always go back to the law.
The law says. The law says. The law says. And if I have opportunity someday,
I want to put this article by Todd Nybert that I read here
recently. And what he said in that article
was that what the law said, it said to you. In other words,
the law didn't tell me how other people ought to act. The law
tells me how to act. The law didn't tell me how other
people ought to be toward me. It tells me how to be toward
other people. What thing soever the law saith, it saith to them
who are under the law. And a man, when he finds himself
under the law for the first time in his life, he begins to hear
the word of God, what it has to say to him. He's not looking
at groups. He's not looking at concepts.
He's not looking at religious organizations. He's looking to
see what God has to say to him. So there's an issue here. And they were, under the law
of Moses, all kinds, just all kinds of washings and purifications. And all these things were types
of Christ and types of that work that Christ would accomplish.
by his person and work, by the power of God's Holy Spirit. And
it appears to me here to have to do with the baptism of John
and the baptism of the disciples of Christ and their right to
administer this thing of baptism. That's what these questions were
all about. We discussed those earlier in
the first chapter of John when they came to him. And they began
to try to divide and try to talk about this thing of baptism.
And so the Jews tried to cause a division over whose right it
was to baptize. If they were to consent to the
baptism of John, they feared John. These men feared John because
God gave to John the hearts of the people. The people came out
to hear him. The people believed him. The
people loved him. And they came out to hear him.
And the Jews feared him for that reason, because they feared the
people. And so they gave some consent
to him as a prophet and to him as having a right to baptize.
But now along comes another man, and he has a group of men, and
the whole group is baptized. And so now the question arises,
and I don't know to what point they went. They tried to like
baptism unto an ordinance of the old ceremonies. added in
with what they already believed. They were just going to add this
thing in. And I believe it had something to do with whose right
it was to administer and what this baptism was about. Some sort of purification issue
that arose to them. But what I want you to see is
this. God's people do not come to divide. When God sends a messenger or
a witness to a man, he does not send him to divide. He sends
him to reconcile. He is already divided. He is
already lost. He is already condemned. The
wrath of God is already on him. He does not send a man to divide
him. He is on sin. He said our sins
have divided between us and the Lord. They've separated us. I'm
already separated. I'm already divided. He doesn't
have to send a man to cause divisions. The Jews sent a man to question
John and to draw a question mark on Christ. Actually, they wanted
to get rid of both of them because they were both preaching the
same thing. But the Jews sent a man and his purpose was not
to reconcile. His purpose was to divide. I
want you to see this in the scriptures. I want you to turn with me to
1 Timothy, chapter 1. And this was always, always their
purpose in coming. It was to divide. to endless genealogies. Somebody
comes and they start trying to build a religion on the genealogies. They're trying to trace their
roots like the old landmarkers. They've got to trace their roots
back to John the Baptist and all this type of thing. Don't
give heed to this type of preaching, this endless genealogies, because
they minister questions rather than godly edifying which is
in faith. Now, when a man goes against
the doctrine of Christ as it pertains to godliness, this man
can be identified like this, 1 Timothy 6. Look at this, verse 4. Here's how you can identify.
And I want you to remember, when they come into the group, they
come in unaware. They come in as a wolf in sheep's
clothing. They're not going to come in
as a wolf. They're going to come in as a sheep. They're going
to come in quietly, reserved. You're not going to notice them.
You're not going to know who they are. But here's how you're going to notice
them. He's proud. Brethren, believers are not proud.
Now, they just flat ain't. What have you got to be proud
about? If God has brought you down to
the bottom, the only place you can look is up. A proud man is
up looking down. A saved man is down looking up.
He's looking up to Christ. God had mercy on me, the sinner.
He wouldn't even look. He wouldn't even look down his
head. But what did the Jew do? What
did the legalist do? What did the proud man do? He
stood and looked right up into the face of God and said, I thank
God I'm not like other men. But one man who was there that
was like other men was a man who, thank God, that he wasn't.
He's proud. Proud. Listen to what he says.
Knowing nothing. He doesn't know anything. He
thinks he does. When a man thinks he knows something,
the Scripture said he knoweth nothing as he should. Huh? I'm telling you, a believer is
a man who's been stripped. He doesn't know anything. And
what little tiny bit he does know, he gives God the glory
for knowing it. He doesn't know anything. But
doting, here's what he does. He dotes about questions and
strifes of words whereof cometh envy and strife and railings
and evil surmisings and perverse disputings of men of corrupt
minds and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness. They come in with all kinds of
questions and disputes. And questions that don't even,
they don't generate godly edifying, they generate more questions.
And you answer those questions and they generate some more questions.
And that's a never-ending thing. A never-ending thing. Listen
to this over in 2 Timothy, chapter 2 and verse 22. He says, follow righteousness,
faith, charity. peace with them that call on
the Lord out of a pure heart. But foolish and unlearned questions
avoid, knowing that they do gender strife. And the servant of the Lord must
not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,
in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God
perventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth,
and that they might recover themselves out of the snare of the devil,
who are taken captive by him at his will. And that's just
how easy it is. That's exactly how easy it is. Titus chapter 3, verse 8. He
said, This is a faithful saying. This is a faithful saying. And
these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they
which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable
unto men, but avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions
and strivings about the law, for they are unprofitable and
vain. A man that is a heretic after
the first and second admonition after the first and second time
where you go to him and you say, this is wrong. This is wrong. Don't do that. And he keeps on
and you go to him a second time and you say, brother, this is
wrong. Don't do that. But he persists
and says, I'm going to do it no matter what. Don't have anything
to do with it. Reject him. That's what that
says. has nothing to do necessarily
with his doctrine. It has to do with his attitude
and spirit. He doesn't want to reconcile.
His heart's not right with God. And I don't care what you believe,
if your heart's not right with God, what you want to do is divide. And that's what you do. You divide. You cause evil surmisings and
you stir up strife and all this type of thing. And he said, go
to them and tell them you're wrong. You're wrong. This is
what the man of God does. He tells you, you're wrong. Don't
do this. Oh, but I believe this is what
I need to do. No, brother, it's not what you
need to do. This is what you need to do.
Oh, no, I'm going to do this. Then we have part company. We
have part company. It's not just doctrine. It's
attitude and spirit. And he's a heretic, he says.
He's a heretic, and he is to be rejected. I want you to hear
me. I've got two messages this morning,
both on this same subject. Faith is always accompanied by
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, and temperance. Always. You'll never find faith
apart from the fruit of God's Spirit. You're not going to do
it. You're not going to do it. Where there's one, there's the
other. There's the other. In emulation, strife, wrath,
sedition, perishes, and the works of the flesh, they expose the
unconquered heart and an unreconciled mind. The one true and undisguised
mark of a heretic, now won't you hear me, is his divisive
spirit. When you find it, back off. Just
back off. Say, men, you ain't on the same
page. We're just not. We're just not. Legalism tends this direction
because to tear down and separate others is to elevate and raise
myself. That's why it tends that way.
Legalism tends to self-righteousness. The only way a man can consider
himself to grow in righteousness is to see himself in others'
eyes, because he has no vision of God. He sees himself as he
is compared to you. So to help himself along, he
tears you down a little bit. He tears you down a little bit.
That way he can move up a little bit and causes divisions. These Jews pretended to have
a godly agenda. They were there to cause a division. That's what it was all about.
And so they came to John and they attempted to drive a wedge
between him and Christ, to drive a wedge between him and the people
of God. That's what these Jews were going
to do. They were going to straighten John out. Now look here. John tells him down here in verse
27, look here what he says. John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except
it be given him from heaven. Is that right? We're talking
about things of God. That's what they were talking
about, things of God. They were talking about whose
right it was to administer this thing, whose right it was to
change this, who had the ability and power and authority to do
this and to do that. And John said, well, man can't
receive anything unless God gives it to him. This authority is
of God. It's all of God. Everything we
have is a gift of grace. What does that mean? That means
there's no difference in men. None. None. Boy, preacher, you ain't been
around much. I'm telling you, I know some
men that have no difference in men. Ain't no difference. The difference you think you
see is that difference that God has by His restraining hand caused
to come your direction. And we mistake those things,
this world mistakes those things for righteousness. It's not a
righteousness. Paul said, What hast thou gotten
that thou hast not received? And if you received it, why do
you grow in it like you did? Is that what he says? That's the first thing John tells
them. Everything is of grace. It's
all grace. All grace. All men had the same
curse, the same fallen nature, the same potential, that same
rebellion and ingratitude to God. Look over here in 1 Corinthians
chapter 4. There was a man in the midst
of this church that was causing division, causing a critical
spirit and a judgmental attitude. Who was the best preacher? That's
the kind of questions he wanted to generate. Who was the best? Who was the most used of God?
Who knew the most truth? Under whose baptism were you
baptized? And so on. And then he began to blow up
civil matters, just blow them out of shape. Bore them so far
out of shape where it didn't even resemble what was taking
place. And raised questions. Raised questions over the dietary
laws. And raised questions about that
type of thing. This one does that and this one
don't. This one eats meat offered undieted. That one don't eat
meat offered undieted. They wanted to bring questions.
Wanted to bring all these questions. And they weren't asked to promote
faith. They weren't asked to promote
love or charity or peace. These questions generated question
marks on the pastors and elders and even the apostles. And Paul
tells them that God made him a steward of these mysteries
and held him accountable for what he did with the gospel and
who it was that heard this gospel. And look at what he says here
in verse 3. 1 Corinthians 4, verse 3. He said, with me it
is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's
judgment. Yea, I don't even judge myself. The Lord judges me. The Lord
holds me accountable. And the reason I said these things
to you is so that you, look here in verse 6, don't think of men
more highly than that which is written. Now, I'm telling you, don't count
on your own reasons. Men of a reprobate mind are men
that God has given over to themselves, to their own reasons. Don't count
on your own reasons. Don't count on your own ideas
and conceptions. Don't do it. Rely on the Word
of God. Take the Word of God as it testifies
of you and agree with it. Agree with it. Brother Mahan
said one time, the best way to deal with a bitter pill is swallow
it. Don't chew on it. Just water
it down. Water it down. If you want to
chew on something, chew on the blessings of God. You can chew
on them. Don't chew on His judgments.
Just swallow them down. Just swallow them down. Everything you are and had that
is worth seeing, that's worth hearing is the gift of God's
grace. And apart from it, we're no different
from those reprobates in Sodom and Gomorrah. No difference.
No difference in a man, John. The only difference is God lifting
His hand. If He lifts His hand, you're
going to do the same thing they did. Same thing. Listen to this, verse 29 here
in John chapter 3. He that hath the bride is the
bridegroom. He's the bridegroom. The bride
of Christ is the church. The Father has arranged their
marriage. He's arranged it. He's set in
motion this whole thing. He's planned it out. He's designed
the dress that they're going to wear. He's going to gather
the people together at the wedding. This whole thing is of God. He
has the bride. He has her by the Father's decree,
by a covenant union ordered in all things ensured, and by his
everlasting oath and the honor of his name. Blessed in Christ
with all spiritual blessings. Blessed in Christ by his giving
of himself. Blessed in Christ by his intercession
and his glory. Blessed in Christ by an everlasting
love. He has the bride. He has the bride. And he must
increase, verse 30. The one who has the bride must
increase. He must increase, and I must
decrease. We've got the other way around,
see. We won't tear folks down so we can elevate ourselves.
What the gospel does is tear you down and elevate Christ.
Now, that's the way it works. That's the way it works. This one by whom God speaks is
set forth in Hebrews 1, verse 2, as one whom God has appointed
heir of all things, and by whom also he made the world, the brightness
of his glory, the express image of his person, upholds all things
by the word of his power, who by himself purged our sins and
sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. He must
increase. This is God's purpose in him,
and it's the very nature of him to increase. He is God. He's
God. I see a wonderful picture of
him in Joseph down in Egypt. His brothers took him and threw
him in a pit, but they couldn't kill him. God arranged it so
he had an intercession, and they didn't kill him, but they sold
him out of the pit into Egypt. And he went down there, and the
Egyptians cast him into prison. But he didn't stay in prison.
And God, in his purpose, continued to take Joseph and raise him
up until he had elevated him to second in command over all
of Egypt. That's what John is saying about
Christ. He must increase. He must, because
God's anointed him. He's God's anointed. And God's
going to raise him up. He's going to increase. I don't
care what you do. You can go out here kicking and screaming
and crying and run up and down the road here with a sign telling
folks we're preaching a lie. You do whatever you want to do.
He's going to increase. He's going to increase. And you're
going to decrease. None else can meditate, mediate
the will of God, toward man except Christ. None else can satisfy
divine justice. None else can manifest what a
holy God requires. He that cometh from above, he
said, is above all. He has the preeminence in all
things. Verse 32, And what he hath seen
and heard, that he testifies, and no man receiveth his testimony. He that hath received his testimony
hath set to seal that God is true. I won't tell you what that
means. Old Joseph down in Egypt. And
I'll say this, and then I'll close. I'm out of time. But when God raised him up, he
was sitting down there in that prison, and Pharaoh had a dream.
Pharaoh had a vision that came to him, and it troubled him.
It was a troubling vision. He didn't know what it meant.
None of the soothsayers could tell him what it meant. God sent
him the mystery. The gospel is a mystery, and
God sends it, and we begin to Be troubled about it. We don't
understand it. We don't understand divine election.
We don't understand the sovereignty of God. We don't understand the
total depravity of men. We don't understand a total ruin
of all men and Adam. We don't understand representation
or substitution. We don't understand the mystery.
It's just a troubling vision. It's a troubling sound that we've
heard. And none could answer it. All
the soothsayers, all the professing men of wisdom in Egypt couldn't
answer it. But somebody said, I hear Joseph
is a wise man, and he interpreted my dream. Maybe he can give you
some help. And they brought Joseph to Pharaoh. And Joseph told him the truth.
He told him what the mystery was all about. And Pharaoh took
that ring, that signet, There was nothing done in Egypt that
wasn't covered with raw wax, and that ring went down on that
wax and sealed that. Sealed that document. Guaranteed
that thing to be of the highest authority in the land. And when
Pharaoh was convinced that in this man was the Spirit of God,
that's what he said, he saw in him, he said, who's like him?
who has the Spirit of the living God, who is like it. And he took
that ring off and he gave it to Joseph. And he said, whatever
you sign, it's lost. Whatever you say goes. Whatever
you determine is going to come to pass. Huh? Now, that's what happens
when the believer comes to know Christ in regeneration. He takes that ring of his own
Sovereign test. What he thinks is his own sovereignty,
he takes that ring off and he gives it to Christ. And the man
who believes God, John said, has set to his seal that God
is true. The Spirit of God is in this
man. And he's my authority. He's my hope. In him is the spirit
and attitude I want. In him is the wisdom I want.
Take the ring off, put it on his finger. That's what this
book of John here is all about. And in the last verse, he said,
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. He that
believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God
abideth on him. He's not talking about that from
that point it abides on him, but he's saying here that It
gives evidence that all along that wrath of God has abided
on him, and it's going to abide still. God help us give us an
understanding of these verses, not just to know some truth,
to have something to argue about, but to cause our hearts to seek
him and our minds to seek him.