Now last week we began a message,
got halfway through it, on the testimony of John the Baptist
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. And John gives four distinct
testimonies concerning Christ. He speaks specifically of the
superiority of Christ. And then in verses 19 through
28, he speaks In this testimony, that part
of his testimony on Christ, he's trying to distract attention
from himself. He preaches about Christ, and
the religious folk of the day wanted to know about John the
Baptist, and he said, I'm not important. I'm not the Christ,
I told you that. I'm not Elijah, I told you that.
I'm not that prophet, I told you that. I'm just a voice. I'm
just so much noise, and the only thing you need to know about
me is that I've been sent of God to declare to you the one
who's worthy of your attention. Now, beginning in verse 29, there
are two more testimonies which John the Baptist gives concerning
Christ. He says, John saw Jesus coming
toward him and said, Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the
sin of the world, this is the one I meant when I said a man
who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me. I myself did not know him, but
the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed
to Israel. Now, I always find it helpful
to try to get the scene in my mind, that is to try to visualize
What's happening here? Now, John is a rough-hewn prophet. You know, his rough coat and
the leather girdle, leather belt, had a rough diet of locust and
honey, lived in the wilderness. I don't imagine that he would
be well accepted in the halls of religion today because he
wouldn't look like what they expected a preacher to look like. He preached out in the wilderness.
He did not go to the temple that we're aware of. I don't know
of any place in the scripture that ever talks about him going
to Jerusalem and teaching in the religious, in the synagogues
or in the temple or anything like that. And there was a reason. He had a ministry in which he
was to draw Israel away from what they were doing. He was
to draw the true sheep of God, the true Israel, away from, out
of that mess of the temple and the synagogue and all that was
going on, and out into the wilderness, outside of the camp where Christ
would be. Now isn't it interesting that
we do not see that Christ appears in the temple? It says the next
day, John saw Jesus coming toward him. God sent his forerunner,
John, And after he gives his forerunner message, Jesus Christ
appears. And John brings a fulfillment
of the ministry given to him when he does one simple thing
and says one simple sentence. Behold the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world. Now that's what John came to
say. He said a lot more than that,
but all that he had to say was summed up in that, and John went
on preaching for some time after this. I'm not sure of the exact
chronology, it's not important, but for a while later, he continued
preaching until Herod had him put to death. But this was the sum of it. This
was the pinnacle. And you know that this is the
pinnacle message of every preacher's sin of God. We are to point out
Christ to men and declare to them who He is, what He has done,
and what that means. Behold, the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world. Now everything in that sentence
was a contradiction of what the Jews had been taught to believe.
First of all, it was a contradiction in this. They expected Christ,
their Messiah, to come as a roaring lion and destroy their enemies. But instead, he appears as a
lamb. The Jews expected a triumphant,
conquering warrior. And when God came to them in
the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, he came to them meek
and lowly of heart. Now they looked at John, and
he looked kind of rough. I get the impression he probably
spoke kind of rough. His words were very pointed.
And they thought, well, maybe he is the Christ. I mean, we
were hoping for somebody on a horse, but at least this guy looks like
he'd put up a fight. And so they asked him, are you
the Christ? And back here in John chapter
1, Verse 20, he did not fail to confess, but confessed freely,
I'm not the Christ. Now the fact that he gave them
that confession, I'm not the Christ, obviously they asked
him that. So John the Baptist looked like maybe he could be
the Christ, but they could not see Christ in Jesus. I remember Brother Rolf Barnard
made one of his cynical religious remarks one time. People say,
I just want folks to see Christ in me. He said, they didn't see
Christ in Christ. How do you think they're ever
going to see Christ in you? And it's true. Men have no clue what
Christ is supposed to be, how he would come, even though it's
all declared before them. Christ was meek. Look at Matthew
chapter 11. In our Lord's first appearance
on the earth, his first coming, He came meek, gentle. Now when he returns, it'll be
as the lion of the tribe of Judah, but he came first as a lamb.
And he says in Matthew chapter 11 verse 28, come to me all you
who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my
yoke upon you and learn from me for I'm gentle, I'm meek and
humble in heart. And you will find rest for your
souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So our Lord
Jesus, when he came into this world, he came as this meek individual. Now here's the way this plays
out. Our Lord in the gospel presents
himself as the one who is meek and lowly of heart. And they
who will come to him and take his yoke upon them, to them he
is ever a tender and gentle and compassionate Savior. But if
you refuse this Lamb, then in due time you will face the Lion. But He came as the Lamb and they
didn't recognize Him. They should have. Look at Matthew
chapter 12. You know, they should have been able to. It says in Matthew chapter 12
verse 15, Verse 14, the Pharisees went out and plotted how they
might kill Jesus. Aware of this, Jesus withdrew
from that place. Many followed him, and he healed
all their sick, warning them not to tell who he was. This
was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah. Here
is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love and whom I delight,
I will put my spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice
to the nations. He will not quarrel or cry out. No one will hear his voice in
the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering
wick he will not snuff out, till he leads justice to victory.
In his name, the nations will put their hope. Now right there
in their Bible, in the prophet Isaiah, was a declaration that
when God's servant, Messiah, would appear, he would not raise
his voice in the streets, he would not rant, he wouldn't get
red-faced when he talked, but rather he would plainly declare
the truth of God, plainly call God's sheep to himself, and bring
justice to victory. And even as that meek and lowly
man would draw all nations to him, for they all would put their
hope in him. And indeed, we see that in the
book of Revelation, that out of every kindred, tongue, tribe,
and nation, the Lord has a people. But this shows you what our Lord
meant when he said to those Pharisees, you search the scriptures, for
in them you think you have eternal life. But these are the scriptures
that testify of me, and you won't come of me, come to me, that
you might have life. It said, the scriptures, the
Old Testament scriptures told them exactly what to look for
in Christ, but they wouldn't look, they couldn't recognize
Him. Also, They failed to recognize
Christ in this figure of the lamb because they felt no need
of a lamb. They knew what a lamb was for.
A lamb was for sacrifice. You know, these people, and here's
something that shows you just the blindness of our natural
hearts. These people to whom our Lord
came, but they wouldn't receive Him. Every day they went to the
temple. the serious ones that lived in
Jerusalem. Every day they saw the morning sacrifice and the
evening sacrifice. Every day they saw lambs slain
because of sin to satisfy the just demands of a holy God. And it never occurred to them
that every lamb that died was pointing the finger at them and
saying, you need a sacrifice to put away your sins. You know
what they did instead? They thought that their careful
observance of all those rituals made them righteous. The Bible says the law is good
if a man uses it lawfully, that is, if he uses it properly. But
these people didn't use the law properly. They used the law as
a means to obtain righteousness, when instead the law was telling
them that they were sinners. And so when Jesus Christ comes
as the ultimate fulfillment of all that those hundreds and thousands
of lambs that have been slain over the generations of the Jewish
nation, as He came in fulfillment of all of that, They didn't feel
that they had any need of a sacrifice to put away their sin. And so
when Jesus comes as a lamb, they missed it. Christ's primary purpose for
coming to this world was to be a ransom. Look over at Mark chapter
10. scanning around the internet
last night I ran into one of these to a website and talking about how Jesus was homeless
and therefore he gives hope to the homeless and he was an outcast,
you know, they missed the point altogether. In fact they went so far as to
go along with the blasphemy that Jesus Christ was the illegitimate
child of Mary. Never did speculate as to who
the father was, but that he lived as an illegitimate child. And
they thought that was the whole reason for Christ to come, that
he might be able to sympathize with those who have a hard go
of it in this world. Well, here's what Christ came
for. He says in Mark 10, verse 45,
for even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve
and to give his life as a ransom for many. And you look over at
1st Timothy chapter 2. 1st Timothy chapter 2 beginning
in verse 5. For there is one God and one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave
himself as a ransom for all men, the testimony given in its proper
time. Now, when it says that he gave
himself as a ransom for all men, does it mean that the death of
the Lord Jesus Christ, that he died in order to pay for the
sins of every individual that's ever lived? Certainly not. If
you look at the context above when it talks about, it said,
In verse 1, Paul says, I want requests, prayers, intercession,
and thanksgiving be made for everyone. And then he goes on
and says, for kings and for those in authority that we may live
peaceable and quiet lives. And it says that this is good,
verse 3, and pleases God our Savior who wants all men to be
saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. What he's talking
about there when he says all men, he means all kinds of people.
Paul knew good and well, we can't pray for every individual in
the world. When he said, I want you to pray for everyone, it
means I want you to pray for all kinds of people. Pray for
the king. You can imagine the people that suffer under the
hands of tyrants. They're hardly inclined to pray
for them. I mean, we might find it hard
to pray for some of our politicians, you know. Let the scoundrel get
what he deserves. But Paul said, oh, pray for them.
Why? Because not only out of the lowly
of this world, but also even out of royalty, God has called
out a people for himself. Therefore, let us pray for all
kinds of men. And Jesus Christ came to give himself as a ransom
for all kinds of people. Yes, for the outcast and for
the so-called illegitimate and all that, but also for the high
and mighty. dirty dead dog sinner, and for
the self-righteous Pharisee. All kinds of people. Therefore,
let us never count anyone out. Let us never say, well, he's
not of the right sort to be saved. There is no wrong sort for God's
salvation. Christ came as a ransom. Death was not an afterthought,
kind of a plan B that they backed up to when the Jews didn't accept
him as king. I remember being taught that.
The initial thing was that God's Messiah would come and he'd march
into Jerusalem and they'd crown him as king and he'd rule from
Jerusalem. But the Jews wouldn't have him,
so God went to plan B, called the gospel. Well, if that's the
truth, I'm sure glad plan A didn't work, because plan A left me
out. No, the cross was plan A. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ was planned and purposed before Adam ever sinned. Jesus Christ is called the Lamb
slain from when? The foundation of the world. Jesus Christ is the Lamb from
the very beginning. He is the Lamb of God. Not one
of those lambs of men, but lamb of God. He is a fulfillment of
Abraham's words when his son said, Father, here's the wood,
here's the fire. Where is the lamb for a burnt
offering? And Abraham, doubtless full of the Holy Spirit at this
point, had to be because he wouldn't have been able to understand
this had he not been. But he said to his son, my son,
God will provide himself a land for the sacrifice. Is that not
amazing that not only did God say there is a means of sacrifice
by which the sinner can come to God, God himself provided
that sacrifice and offered it and accepted it in behalf of
his people. Everything about the gospel comes
from God. He is the Lamb that God chose,
the Lamb that God set forth as a propitiation for sin. He is
the Lamb that God sacrificed, and He is the Lamb that God accepted,
and He is the Lamb that God exalted above all things, and has made
Him not only the Lamb, but the Lion of the tribe of Judah. When
it says He is the Lamb of God, the Jews often use that word,
phrase, of God, to mean the very best. I read somewhere that cedars
were called the trees of God because they believed, you know,
the cedar wood, you know, doesn't rot so easily as others. And
so they, to have that cedar was just as, that was like precious
wood and they called it the trees of God. And the Lord Jesus is
called the lamb of God. You know, the blood of bulls
and goats, lambs, they can never take away sin. But the Lamb of
God came. He is sinless. He offered himself
without spot to God. You read that in Hebrews 9, verse
14. I looked up that phrase, without
spot, and it doesn't appear often in our translation. It appears
more in the King James Version through just scads of times in
the Old Testament. The Lord would set forth a sacrifice
without spot. The animal has to be without
spot. It has to be without spot. Why is that? Well, that without
spot was a picture of being without sin. Now, a person who has his
own sins can't be a sacrifice for somebody else. Inasmuch as
Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God, he is the Lamb which God has
examined and has said he is without sin. He knew no sin. In him was no
sin. He did no sin. I can't imagine
going five seconds like that, can you? I mean, all I have to do to think
evil thoughts is wake up. All I have to do to perform evil
deeds is to do something, because there's sin in everything I do. But the Lord Jesus Christ, from
the moment He was conceived in His mother's womb, There was
no sin, not in his nature, not in his thoughts, not in his desires,
and not in his deeds. He could say with full confidence,
I always do those things that please my Father. And then he's the successful
lamb. John says, Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin
of the world. It's nice to know that we have
a sacrifice that works. Can you imagine what it'd be
like if you were a Jew and you thought that your soul depended
on those lambs and bulls? Now, a believing Jew, he didn't
think that. He understood they had no more
power to put away sin than the bread and the wine that we use
at the Lord's table. You can't put away sin by anything
other than the sacrifice of the Son of God. But those Jews would
go there with guilt on their conscience, and they'd take that
lamb and they'd lay their hands on it, and they'd kill that lamb
and let its blood flow out, and they'd burn it all up. And the
man went away, still under the sense of condemnation and guilt,
because those lambs can't put away sin. But we can look to
the Lord Jesus Christ, and if God will let us look to Him in
faith, we can see in Him all that is necessary to put away
the huge weight of our sin. The huge weight of the mass of
our sin, the huge weight of the very wickedness of our sin, and
this is the one that gets me, the huge weight of the persistence
of them. Doesn't that get under your skin? I mean, doesn't that
bother you that after so many years of believing, you still
find the same old impulses towards sin, you find the same old weaknesses
in yourself, and you haven't gotten any better? Didn't you
think you'd be better now than you really are? Oh, I was told
I keep getting better. It's not true. Thank God that
my sins, my past sins, My current sins and my future sins were
all laid upon this land, and He put them all away. Brother
Donnie Bell said one time, he said, people say, well, when
you come to Christ, He cleanses you of all your past sins, but
not your future ones. He said, well, when Christ died
for me, all my sins were future. I hadn't even been born yet.
And that's true. When Christ put away my sin,
they were all future sins. One other testimony from John
now. Looking back at John chapter 1. Verse 32. Then John gave this
testimony. I saw the Spirit come down from
heaven as a dove and remain on him. I would not have known him
except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told
me, the man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is
he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. I have seen and
I testify that this is the Son of God. He points out the Lord
Jesus and he says behold the Lamb of God and then he goes
on to expand a little bit. He says I wouldn't have known
who he was except that the one who sent me to preach and I suppose
he means by that God. The one who sent me to preach
said the man on whom you see the Spirit of God descend like
a dove and remain. That's the one. And when our
Lord Jesus Christ was baptized by John, that's exactly what
happened. Now it says that the Holy Spirit of God came on the
apostles on the day of Pentecost in the likeness of cloven tongues
of fire. Why? Because before they would
be fit for ministry, they had to be purged of their sin. They
had to be cleansed. And so the Holy Spirit comes
upon the apostles in the likeness of a purifying flame. But there
is no sin in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no need that a purifying
flame come upon him. God comes upon him in peace and indwells him. And here's
the thing. The Spirit of God does not come upon him and then
leave him. You know, the Spirit would come
upon the apostles for a time for them to preach and then would
depart for a while and then come back on another occasion. He
says, the one on whom you see the Spirit come and remain, that's
him. And so John says, I tell you,
this is the one. I saw it. I saw the Holy Spirit
come down like a dove and remain on Him. And I tell you this day,
He is the Son of God. Now what does it mean then to
be the Son of God? Well, it very simply means that
He is a man whose Father is God. Look over at Luke chapter 1.
I know that sounds very plain, You know, it's kind of
like one of those, well, duh, type things, but that's what
the scriptures teach us. But we'll find out what that
signifies. In Luke 1, verse 34, after it's been announced to
Mary that she'll give birth to a son, she says, how will this
be, Mary asked the angel, since I am a virgin? The angel answered,
the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most
High will overshadow you, So the Holy One to be born will
be called the Son of God. God is the Father of the Lord
Jesus Christ every bit as much as Ray Terrell is my father,
every bit as much as I am his father. I bear somewhat of the nature
of my father, not entirely, but some of the nature of my father.
Why? Because he's my father. In Jesus
Christ, is therefore of the same essence of God. He is God manifested or revealed
in the flesh. Look at John chapter 10 verse
30. And we'll wrap it up with this. John 10 verse 30 says, I and
the Father are one. He's saying, I came from the
Father, I'm born of the Father, and I and the Father in truth
are of one essence. The Jews understood what he meant.
It says, again, the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus
said to them, I've shown you many great miracles from the
Father, for which of these do you stone me? We're not stoning
you for any of these, replied the Jews, but for blasphemy because
you, a mere man, claim to be God. Jesus answered them, is
it not written in your law I have said you are gods? If he called
them gods to whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot
be broken, what about the one whom the Father set apart as
his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse
me of blasphemy because I said I am God's son? Now, there are
people that will use this scripture and say, well, you see, Jesus
was explaining that he really didn't mean he was God. No. He's
emphasizing that very point. They said, we're going to stone
you because you're a mere man and you claim to be God. He said,
well, now, wait a minute. Does it not say, and you find
this, I believe, in Psalm 82, does it not say in the scriptures
that God said of normal men, you are gods? Now, these were
men to whom the Word of God came. Now, if He called them gods to
whom the Word of God came, what are you going to call the one
who is the Word of God sent into the world? Far from the Lord trying to explain
away the fact that He claimed to be God, He's saying the Scripture
can't be broken. If they're called gods because
the word of God came to them, what are you going to call the
one who is that word? He's not one of the gods. He
is God. And this John testified. He is
greater than all. He's the only one that we need
to pay attention to. He's the Lamb of God that takes
away the sin of the world. He is the Son of God. He is God
himself. Heavenly Father, thank you for
this word concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. May it grip our
hearts, may it fill our hearts, and may
we joyfully worship that one who is our God, who is our mediator
between God and man, who is above all and the only
one worthy of our attention. Lord Jesus, blessed be your name.
Thank you for your blood that puts away our sin. Thank you
for your love that moves you to sacrifice yourself. And thank
you for your continued love that causes you to work everything
for the good of your people. Forgive us that we ever doubt
you. In Christ's name we pray, amen. All right, you're dismissed.