All right, let's take our Bibles
now and turn to John chapter 1. We'll continue our study here. I titled this study, What Faith
Wants to Know. And we're going to look here
at several verses. I want to begin here in verse
35. Again, the next day after John
stood and two of his disciples, And looking upon Jesus as he
walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God. And the two disciples
heard him speak. They heard what he said, and
they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and saw them
following, and he saith unto them, What seek ye? And they
said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted, Master,
where dwellest thou? And he saith unto them, Come
and see. And they came and saw where he
dwelt, and abode with him that day. For it was about the tenth
hour. Now, I want to look at these
verses, and I want to point out three or four things to you I
want to point out, number one, that there was a testimony given.
There's always a testimony given. I've visited with several people
over my lifetime, and these are people who have called me or
sent me letters or emailed me or first one thing and then another.
Or we just come to see one another at a meeting somewhere and get
to talking, you know, around a meal and stuff. begin to be
acquainted, and they begin to talk to you, and they just start
out talking about how they just always
knew who He was. You know, if you listen to their
conversation, it sounds to me like what they're saying is they
just always knew. They just kind of evolved from
a child into faith. Well, there is no evolution like
that. There is always, there is going to come a time in a
believer's life where God stands before him, a man, and testifies
to him the truth. How shall you hear without a
scripture? That's not my words, that's his. How are you going to hear? What
are you going to hear with? And so there was a testimony
given here, and then there was a testimony received. It says
they heard him. They heard him speak. They heard
what he said. And then there was a question
asked and a request made. And if we have time, I'll show
you how that request was granted. But let's just start here with
this, the testimony of the witness. He said, Behold the Lamb of God. And I think every word of that,
of course, when we're talking about the Scriptures, every word
is important. There are just no idle words
in this book. They may not jump out and grab
you when you read them, but over time, I guess sooner or later,
my Bible will be underlined from one end to the other, and I just
have to start over with a new one. But every word in time,
you see its meaning. You see its beauty. You see its
depth. You see its reason for being
there. But most of the time, we just skip over it and go to
what we do see. You know, we go to this thing
or that thing. And then we start wondering about
that thing. And it leads us back a little
bit. And pretty soon you discover that every last word, well, every
word in John's testimony here is important. He starts and he
says, Behold. I'm not a linguist, but I've
got books and things that I can go back and look at the Greek
and the Hebrew and all these things. And this word, Behold,
is a very similar statement to what Moses made to Israel back
in the wilderness when they came up there to the sea. They come
out of Egypt. God hemmed them in between the
mountains, and there they sat before the sea and Pharaoh coming
up hard at the rear. And they were sweating. They
were worried. And Moses said, Stand still and
see the salvation of the Lord. That's what this word, behold,
means. This is what John is telling them. Just stop. Stop what you're
doing. That's what the Gospel says to
people. Stop. They can't quit. They've been engaged in religion
all their life. They've been engaged in deception
all their life. All their life they've been following
the God of this world. They've been going down the course
of this world, being swept down it like a river, just going with
the flow. And they're busy, and they're
going, and they're going, and they're going. And the gospel says, Stop!
Stop! Stop what you're doing. Quit
doing what you're doing. And look. Look. That's what John is saying. Behold,
he said. Behold. Just stop what you're
thinking and stop doing what you've always done and just look,
he said. Just look. And look at that next
word. He said, Behold me. This is not
a lamb. This is the lamb. You see how
important words are? We see that word in every other
sentence in the Bible. But boy, when you see it when
it's talking about the Lamb, how important is that word? The. It's THE Lamb. THE Lamb. And then look at this. Lamb. We're talking about
the sin offering now. We're talking about substitution. We're talking about sacrifice
for sin. We're talking about the Lamb.
Without shedding of blood, there is no remission. The lamb is
the preeminent thing in the worship of God. Without that shedding
of blood, there is not going to be any remission. I don't
care what you bring. Cain found that out, didn't he? What he
brought was beautiful, but it wasn't what God demanded. This
is the lamb. And then look at this word, of.
Whose lamb is it? Who provided him? How did he
come to be the Lamb? Who did he come for? You see
how important these words are? Of. Of. This is God's Lamb, and
look at that last word, God. This is the Lamb of God. This
Lamb is God. This is that Lamb Abraham trained
his son. His son knew what was required
to worship God. There had to be an altar, there
had to be fire, there had to be wood, and there had to be
a lamb. Now he knew that. And he went up that mountain
with Abraham knowing that Abraham was going up that mountain to
worship God. And he looked over yonder and
he saw that knife and his daddy's sheath and he saw the wood and
he saw the fire. But he said, Daddy, where is
the lamb? And he said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb. Not with a lamb. He will provide
himself a lamb. That's that lamb. This is the
lamb of God. This is that lamb promised and
typified all through the Old Testament. And that was the message
of John. Religious folks, they think that
John the Baptist, I sit and listen to him. I know very little. I
learn very little in religion as far as biblical things, biblical
facts. It was more of an emotional thing
and a time of storytelling and altar calls and persuasions and
decisions and all sorts of things. But I didn't learn anything about
God, and I didn't learn anything about the Lamb. And those folks
think that John the Baptist, this is what they teach you,
that this world had backslidden. The people of God had backslidden
and got away from God. And because of it, the world
was in a terrible mess. And what John was for, he was
going to come along with the whip of the law and a very strict,
moral man set out there for an example, and he was going to
beat his generation He's going to take that whip of the law
and beat them into a better moral state so this world will be a
better place when Christ comes into it. That's not what John's
ministry was about. John's ministry was to take the
things of God in the Old Testament and make them straight, make
them clear. Make this clear about who this
Lamb was and what the coming of the Messiah was to be and
what He was for. All these things. That's what
John preached. That was the message of John.
He made straight the way of substitution, the way of righteousness, of
grace, of redemption by the blood. And he told those folks that
he was with the error of their ways. He did that. Those Pharisees, well-established,
well-renowned men of God, supposedly. I'm talking about in the people's
view. They came out there to be baptized by him, and John
said, you bifers. That wasn't very polite, was
it? You bifers. He said, you go bring back meat
for repentance. Then you come back here and we'll
talk. And what he was telling those people was this. You're
going to have to look away from this because this is all error. This is all evil. This is all bad. Well, you're
talking about the religion they were raised in. This is all they
ever knew about worshiping God. And you're telling them they've
got to look away from this because this ain't what it's about. It's
about a person. This is not about kingdoms. This
is not about Brother Mahan brought a message one time, it ain't
like you thought it was. Now that's what John preached. That's what he preached. And in fact, if you want to go
through the Bible with that in your mind, go through the Bible,
just keep that tucked back in the back of your mind, and I
don't care what prophet it is that you read, God called that
prophet to tell those people to look away from their religious
ways. Now, you're a Bible scholar.
You know I'm telling you the truth. Look away from your evil
ways and look to Christ. All through the Old Testament.
Every last one of them. Every last one of them. All through
the New Testament you find the same thing. These apostles telling
them to look away from Judaism, look away from legalism. Look
to Christ. Look to Christ. And so that's
what John did. And the people, what I'm getting
at is this. He didn't just run out there one day and say, Behold
the Lamb, and everybody turned around and saw Jesus coming down
the path and everybody run over here. They knew what he was talking
about when he said, Behold the Lamb. Lots of times we look back
on blind Bartimaeus. Here he is sitting by the road.
He's a beggar. Folks wouldn't give him the time
of day. How did he know anything about Jesus, the Son of David?
He heard this man preach. John the Baptist preached over
that whole area. His fame went out. It tells you
over there in the book of Matthew and early in the book of Luke,
it tells you what an area that he drew men from who come out
there to hear him preach. And just like it was in the days
of Christ, everybody was going around because this man had crossed
Across the path of religion, he was going a different direction.
And I guarantee you, it was the buzz of the community, no matter
what country they was in. And old Blind Lord of Madison,
that's how he heard. That's how Thief on the Cross
heard, too. He didn't just sit up there with no mind of anything. He'd heard these things. He just
didn't understand what they meant until God opened his mind and
opened his heart. That was the ministry of John,
and that was what was going on. Now, listen to this. There was
a testimony received down here in verse 37. In verse 36, he
said, Behold the Lamb of God. In verse 37, it said the two
disciples heard him speak and followed Jesus. They followed
Jesus. And I tell you this, when the
smoke screen is taken away, and there is a lot of smoke puffed
out around this thing of the gospel. Lots of issues brought
up. Lots of things brought up. Man's
will. Does he have a free will or don't
he have a free will? Did God elect the people or was
that sacrifice universal? And there's all kinds of smoke.
But when all that smoke's gone, here's what it's all about. This
Bible, from beginning to end, talks about somebody's coming.
All through the Old Testament, somebody's coming. Somebody's
coming. John said, here's the somebody.
Who is it? He's Jesus of Nazareth. That's
who he is. This is the Christ. Here's the
promise right here. Here's the seed. Here's the woman's
seed where the promise was given clear back in the beginning,
back in the garden. Here he is. Here's the Lamb. Here's Abel's Lamb right here. Here's Abraham's Lamb. Here's
the Lamb of God sacrificed in picture all through the Old Testament.
And they understood that, and they received that, and they
heard him, and they followed him. They quit following John. John's ministry was over when
he pointed them to Christ. When they saw Christ, they followed
him. They followed him. That's what gospel preaching
is all about. We point men to Christ. We'd
love to have them here, but I don't care if they come here or if
they go up to Kentucky. I don't care if they go up to
Virginia. I don't care where they go as long as they follow Christ. We're trying to point men to
Christ. Christ is where the blessings
are. Christ is where the mercy is. Point men to Christ. Well, they understood that, and
they saw that, and they followed. But now watch what happens. Watch what happens. He said, what are you looking
for? Boy, I can remember that like
it was yesterday. What are you looking for? Why are you seeking me? You coming for the same old reason?
You coming because you know there's a hell out there and you don't
want to go to it? Is that why you're coming? Why are you coming?
Why are you following me? John the Baptist, the greatest
preacher born a woman, what do you want to leave him for? Why
do you want to follow me? Everybody else is going to John.
Why are you coming to me? Why are you sick? He said, you'll find me when
you seek me with all your heart. Well, what are you seeking? What are you seeking? Well, I'll
tell you this, when God begins a work in a man, it becomes absolutely necessary,
it becomes a preeminent thing in his life to understand who
God is. I don't. Religious experiences, they're
satisfied with emotion. I have a little bit of emotion.
Boy, you should have been there. The Spirit of God was in that
service last night. Everybody in there was jumping
up and down and shouting and praising God. Huh? It's satisfied with that. It
can go home satisfied with that. I've done it. Went home satisfied,
laid my head down on the pillow and went to sleep. Never had
another thought. Decisions are satisfied with
arguments. If you can present to me the
facts, and I make my decision, I'm satisfied. Right over here in Taylor, I'm
surrounded by them. I'm all the way around them.
Everyone I've met so far has made a decision. Except that
Jesus is his personal Savior, and he's all fixed up, and he's
going to heaven. High in the sky and a sweet bound back. Not
a care in the world. Not a care in the world. But
not a believer. Not a believer. When God begins
that work in his heart, I'm telling you, he has to know. This thing of being satisfied
with superstition and feelings and emotions, he discovers all
of a sudden that he's being lied to by his own self. And he can't
look in and he can't look without because he's surrounded by darkness
everywhere he looks. And there's only one place to
look. in this book. God shuts him up to this book. He can't go anywhere else, Glenn.
Where else could he go? The Lord said, Will you leave
me also? He said, To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of
eternal life. Where else are we going to go? I tell you, I know when God is
dealing with somebody because you can't He won't talk to friends. He won't offer him a book. He
don't want that book. He wants to know what God said. Tell me what God said. He ain't satisfied with anything
else. He ain't going to have anything
else. He's got to reason with God. And until we know what we seek,
we don't know where to seek it. Until we understand the issues,
we don't know where to look to find answers to the questions.
If the woman with the issue of blood had known the problem,
had known her condition, and had known who Christ was, she
wouldn't have wasted her living with all those physicians, would
she? If the leper had known in the beginning he wouldn't have
spent all of his time out there in the leper colony, he'd have
come straight to Christ. Brian Bartimaeus wouldn't have
sat by the wayside. He'd have went and sought Christ
out if he'd have known. When God starts that work in
the heart of a man, a natural man, he's got to find out who
God is. And he won't take anybody's word
for it. You're going to have to show him in this book what
it says. He ain't interested in games.
He don't want to see the puppet shows. He don't want to hear
the choir sing. a clown to stand up there and
start begging him, singing 59 verses of Just As I Am and all
that phony baloney. He wants somebody to open up
this book and tell him what's going on. What do you seek? What are you
looking for? Why are you following me? What exactly do you think
it is that I have? Are you looking for wonders?
You come here to see a miracle? Lots of them do. Some of them
followed Him because they hated the loaves from the field. They
figured they didn't have to work again. Where'd they follow Him? You looking for wonders? You
looking for signs? You caught up in the wonder of
the great miracle worker? Why are you following me? Now
watch this. Here's the fourth thing. Here's
what they said to Him. Where do you live? Huh? Where do you live? Where do I live now? Where do I live now? I'm going
to tell you something. When God begins a work, and I'm
not telling you this because I read it in one of the old writers. I'm telling you this because
this is my experience. When God begins a work in your
heart, you're going to want to go where He lives. Now that's where you want to
go. Where does he abide? Where can we go and find you
every day? Where can I go? Where you live. Where you live. Where you live. And I'll tell you what you learn.
You learn there's only one place where you can find peace and
rest and forgiveness of sins, only one place where righteousness
can be obtained, one place where God can propitiate His name, where He can solve the mystery
of how can He stay just because He ain't going to compromise
that justice and still show mercy to me. How can God propitiate
his name and still be merciful to guilty of our sinners? One
place where all the mysteries of Scripture can be made known,
in the one mediator between God and me and the man, Christ Jesus.
The one thing we're going to want to know more than life itself
is where he's at. Oh, we believe you, John. We
believe this Messiah is coming. We believe this is Him. Now,
where is He at? Where does He live? Where does
He live? That's where I'm going to live.
I'm going to go where He's at. I'm going to go where He's at. Wherever
He lives is the house of God. Wherever He lives, life dwells
there. Wherever he lives, the kingdom
is established. Wherever he lives, glory abides. Wherever he is, his sheep are
sure to follow, because they are going to hear his voice and
they are going to follow him. Wherever he lives, the Word of
God abides. And God begins to work inside
where the trouble is and expose all the All this evil inside
and begins to tear down the groves in the high places. Begins to
overthrow the strong man and begins to tear down those imaginations
and thoughts and all these things. And I promise you this, you will
have had, when God begins that work in you, you will have had
all you want of religion. Yes, you will. You'll throw your
hands up and walk out today. You will have had enough superstition
and feelings and experiences and jumping up and down and singing.
You will have had enough empty promises and dreams without reality. Here's the Savior. Here's the
Lamb. Here's the fountain of living
waters. Where can I find Him? Where can I find Him? I'll never forget the day a fellow
told me, he said, you need to go up to Ashland. He said, there's
a man preaching on the TV up there. And he's preaching exactly
what you're telling me you're seeing in the Scripture. Man,
I was gone like a shot. Where is that church? I drove
up and down. Didn't know anything about it.
Lived in that area all my life. Didn't know who this man was.
Drove up there and saw his name right there on the sign. Went
in there and talked to him for about an hour or two. And he
said, we'd be glad to have you. And boy, he did. And that's where
I camped out, right there. Where does he live? I'll tell
you where he lived. Where two or more gathered together in
my name, he said, I'm going to be in the midst. That's where
I'm going to be. Now, the thing of it is, you
want to know where he lives. You want to know where he abides.
You want to know where he stays. Where He speaks, where His Word
is, where His glory is, find two or three gathered together
in His name and go there. And then watch this. They said,
where do you live? What did they tell him? Well, y'all don't even know that. Hang on a second. What did they
say? Come and see. The Spirit and the Bride, what
did they say? Come and see. Come and see. Come and drink. Come and taste. Here it is. Here
it is. His house, wide open. Wide open. Here's these disciples. They
come down there. Winston's been following him.
Talking to him. They want to know where he lives.
Why would you want to know where somebody lives? So you can come
back. That's why. That door back there,
it opens to let you out as well as it opens to let you in. Nobody
chains anybody here. I'll tell you why you're here.
Because you know where He lives. That's exactly right. Oh, God
help us to understand these things in our heart, where He lives. And then it said down at the
end of that, you can look at that and be thinking about that
for next week, He said it was about the tenth hour. And over
in the margin of my Bible, it says that's about two hours before
dark. Darkness closing in fast. And
he said, come on in. Come on in. Ain't that how you
found it to be when you found him? Darkness closing in fast,
wasn't it? Yeah, it was. It was coming up
on the long night. And we found him. He said, come
on in. Here's where the light is. Here's where the fire is.
Here's where the comfort is and the peace and the warmth. Come
on in.