I would like you to turn with
me, if you will, to John chapter 3. I'd like to begin with the 22nd
verse reading, and read down through a few of
these verses. John chapter 3, beginning with
verse 22. After these things came Jesus
and his disciples into the land of Judea, and there he tarried
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 the John's disciples and the Jews about purifying. And they came unto John, that
is the Jews, came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, 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 to be given him from heaven.
He 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, rejoices 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. Amen? 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." My text
this morning is verse 30. He must increase, but I must
decrease. He must increase, but I must
decrease. I trust, that is I pray, that
the Lord has prepared your hearts to receive something from Him
today. Wouldn't it be glorious if the
Lord was to speak to you It's certainly that which I look forward
to is hearing from the Lord. Day by day as I travel in this
world, as I journey from one place to another, go from one
place to another, I'm always looking to hear a word from the
Lord, somebody who might know something that I don't know,
something that would be good for my heart, good for my soul.
And I'm always looking to hear a word from the Bridegroom. And
John the Baptist, he rejoiced greatly because of the voice
of the Bridegroom. He said, this is my joy, therefore
is fulfilled when I hear that voice. When I hear His voice,
that fulfills my joy. And I don't think there's any
more greater blessing in this world, this side of heaven, than
to hear from the Lord. And I think one of the things
that shows that there's a great curse upon our generation is
the fact that God is so silent. He is so silent. We're hearing
so very little from the Lord. Are you hearing from the Lord?
Do you hear His voice? Is your heart joyful because
you've heard a word from the Lord? Well, let us begin our
message. We see here that the Jews have
come to John and they have given him some information. Now, John the Baptist was destined
to be imprisoned and destined to have his head severed from
his shoulders. John the Baptist had come on
the scene. He was a faithful man. There was not a greater
prophet born of a woman than John the Baptist. And he had
been doing what the Lord had sent him to do. He had gone before
the Lord Jesus Christ and he had bore witness unto Christ. But these Jews came and they
told him that the one that he had been bearing witness of that
same was baptizing and all men was coming to him and all come
to him, the Jews said. Now what was the object of these
Jews in telling John this? What was their object? Was it
not their motive to make John envious? Somewhere or another
to stir him up, to make him feel like that somewhere or another
that he was inferior and that he was being upstaged by this
one that he was bearing witness to, who was the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, beloved, this is one of Satan's favorite devices, is
to make one servant of the Lord envious at the greater success
enjoyed by another. Do you not see a tremendous amount
of envy among those that are professed servants of God when
it seems that God is blessing one above another? Now, it is
only those who seek not the honor of men, but desire the glory
of God only, and desire only that the Lord would be glorified,
that escape this particular snare. Now, a striking example, I think,
of this principle is found in connection with Moses, who was
the meekest man that ever lived on the face of the earth. He
was meek above all men, Numbers 12.3 says. And there was a time
in Numbers 11, if you want to turn there quickly with me, I'd
like to illustrate this point to you so that you might understand
a little bit more about what's going on here in our text this
morning. But in Numbers chapter 11, and
we'll look beginning with verse 26, But there remained two of
the men in the camp, I'm talking about Moses now, who was the
meekest man according to the 12th chapter verse 3. Now the
man Moses was very meek above all the men which were upon the
face of the earth. Now there were men in the camp
and the name of the one was Eldad and the name of the other Medad.
And the Spirit of God rested upon them, and they were of them
that were written, but went not out unto the tabernacle, and
they prophesied in the camp. And there ran a young man, and
told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp. And Joshua the son of Nun, The
servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said,
My Lord, Moses, forbid them, forbid them to prophesy. Put
them out of business. We don't want them prophesying
and drawing attention to themselves away from you. You put them out
of business. And Moses said unto him, Envious
thou for my sake? Are you envious for my sake?
Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that
the Lord would put His Spirit upon them. Now beloved, that's
a meek man there. That's a man there who seeks
only the glory of God, only desires that God would be glorified and
honored whoever God pleases to use. Whatever it is that God
would be pleased to do with another one, as far as Moses was concerned,
let him prophesy. Would God, the Spirit of the
Lord was upon all of God's servants, and that they all would prophesy. Now it is beautiful to see how
John conducted himself here, back to our original text, John
chapter 3, to see how John conducted himself on this occasion. He
bows to God's sovereign will. We see that very clearly. John
the Baptist knew God, and he knew that God was a sovereign,
and he knew that God had a purpose behind everything he did. And
so he makes a statement in verse 27, John answered these Jews
and said, now remember the context, that they've come to tell him
that he is slipping, as it were, in the ratings, and that Jesus
is getting more attention now than he is. And John answered
and said, a man can receive nothing except to be given to him from
heaven. What a lesson to learn. It's good to learn, beloved,
that God is in control, and that God raises up one and takes down
another, and that God is in control, that He's sowing His people and
His servants wherever He would to accomplish His purpose. But
John the Baptist said if a man is sent of God it's because God
sent him and blessed him and raised him up to use him and
he could not receive anything from God except God gave his
approval and it be given to him from heaven. You yourself bear
me witness. And in John chapter 1 verse 30
is where it tells that John the Baptist had told these Jews Already
he said I'm not the Christ. He said I made it clear to you.
He he reminds these Tempters of his previous disclaimer of
any other Place being his say that of being sent before the
Lord that he was not the Christ And so he reminds them of that
but in in regards to the sovereignty of God and John believing in
it I wanted to make mention of a couple of things here and And
verse 32 and 33, I want you to hear what he says. And what he
has seen and heard, that he testifies. He's talking about the Lord Jesus.
What the Lord Jesus, you see He came from above, and He's
above all. He that is of the earth is earthly.
Making a distinction between earthly men and the Lord Jesus
who came from heaven. The Lord Jesus was sent down
from heaven to earth in order that he might be able to perform
that work which was necessary in order to the salvation of
the sheep. And so he says, he that come
from heaven is above all. We all believe that the Lord
Jesus Christ is the fullness of the Godhead bodily, in Him
dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and that He is above
all. And what he has seen and heard,
that he testify. The Scripture says in John 12,
that he that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath
one that judgeth him. The words that I have spoken
unto him shall judge him in the last day. And the words which
I speak unto you have been given to me, Jesus said, by the Father. And so John says, he that hath
received his testimony What he has seen and heard, that he testifieth
of. And so he's talking about what
Jesus had heard and seen in glory above before he came down to
this earth. And what he had seen there and
heard, that he's been testifying of that before men. But now notice this next statement.
And no man receiveth his testimony. And no man receiveth his testimony. What on earth could he mean by
making that kind of a statement? Because verse 33 says, he that
hath received his testimony hath sent to his seal that God is
true. Well, what he is saying here
is the fact that no man left to himself no man in his natural
state, no man apart from divine intervention, no man apart from
sovereign mercy and sovereign grace, no man apart from the
regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, no man will receive the
testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ on his own. He will not. Left
to himself, he'll reject it every time. Left to himself because
of his blindness of nature, he will not receive the testimony
even of the Son of God who came down from heaven. He'll not receive
it. Now John the Baptist knows these
truths. Many, many in our day and time
do not understand them, but John the Baptist knew them, and he
understood them. And this is what enabled him
to say, he must increase, but I must decrease. This truth of
knowing God, knowing God's will, and knowing God's way. You say,
well what does verse 33 mean then? He that hath received his
testimony. Well, that means, beloved, that
there are those that God has chosen in old time, that He would
enlighten, that He would give the spirit of understanding,
that He would open their eyes, and that they would be blessed
with the knowledge of His truth. You remember the Lord Jesus said,
more blessed are you than spoke to His disciples, because God
has blessed you, because God purposes that you know these
truths. and know the plan of salvation
and the way of salvation, and that you know God's Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so he that hath received
his testimony are those that God has enabled to receive it.
The Bible says that no man can come to the Father except by
the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus said, no man is going
to come to me except the Father draw him. He that cometh, all
that the Father hath given me shall come to me, and they that
come to me I will in no wise cast out. And so there must be
a divine work, there must be God's work in the soul of a man
before he will come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you might say,
does the scripture support that view? Well, absolutely. If you'll
turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 2, you will note here a couple
of verses that will support exactly what we just said. Here in verse
10, 1 Corinthians 2.10, But God hath revealed them unto us by
His Spirit, For the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things
of God. Now Paul has just said in verse 9, that I have not seen,
hear, heard, neither have entered into the heart the things which
God hath prepared for them that love him. It's kept away from
those that are just fleshly, those that are lost, those that
have not the work of the Spirit in them, those that have never
been effectually called out by the grace of God. These things
are hidden from them. They can't see them. They don't
know what God has in store for those that love Him. But God
hath revealed them unto His people. God hath revealed them unto those
that He has chosen and called by the Spirit. For the Spirit
searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what
man knoweth the things of a man, save the Spirit of man which
is in him? He's explaining here that it's one thing to know the
things of a man, and the things of a man, a man can know by the
spirit of man. But then he says, even so the
things of God knoweth no man. The things of God knoweth no
man. No man knows the things of God. Now you say, well you mean to
tell me that there's nobody that left to themselves that will
ever come up with a knowledge of the truth? Absolutely not! He cannot come up with the knowledge
of the truth because the scripture makes it plain here, the things
of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. The Spirit of
God knows the things of God. And until the Spirit of God enters
into a man, then man doesn't know the things of God. He cannot
know them until the Spirit of the Lord comes in. And now he
goes on to say here, in verse 14, but the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. The natural man doesn't
receive the things of God's Spirit. You say, well, if we can get
a good personal worker on his case, then he will receive the
things of the Spirit of God. Surely, if we get somebody that
is very, very intelligent and he knows the
scriptures and he knows how to talk to people, he's got a way
with people and he's a kind of a high-pressure salesman like
person and we turn him loose on them, well surely that natural
man will know the things of the Spirit of God before he is finished
with him. But my friend, this is not the
case. This is not the case. Only when the Spirit of God comes
into a man's heart only when God does an operation, only when
God comes down and touches a man's soul and regenerates, brings
life into that man's soul and puts his spirit in that man,
will that man know the things of the Spirit of God. For their
foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, neither can
he know them, because they are spiritually understood. only
spiritual understood. So where God's spirit is not,
there is no spiritual understanding and there is no salvation. Now this is what John the Baptist
believed. That's exactly what he believed and therefore he
had no difficulty in saying that a man can receive nothing except
to be given to him from heaven. He had no difficulty with that.
And he had no difficulty in submitting himself to God's sovereign will
in this matter. Now then, he insists here that
while Christ must increase, he must decrease. And that, as I
mentioned, is our text. That is blessed self-obligation
to refuse or to deny ourselves. He refused. He said, I am ready
to decrease and I am decreasing because the Lord Jesus must increase. Now, beloved, we cannot be occupied
with two objects at once and at the same time. To decrease
is to be less and less occupied with self. The more I'm occupied
with Christ, the less I will be occupied with self. Is that a true statement? Absolutely
it is. Now let me say a few things more
here about John the Baptist and we'll be able to see this text
I think a little clearer in the light of these things. In a very
real sense this occurred, I mean John the Baptist decreasing,
when John first entered upon the scene and came as that voice
of one crying in the wilderness. He attracted great attention.
John the Baptist attracted great attention. It was in a place
of prominence, delivering a powerful message appropriate for the day
in which he lived according to God's time schedule. But when
Jesus appeared, he said, John the Baptist said, Behold the
Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. He pointed
immediately when Jesus appeared, men and women, to Christ. and
in John 1.29 he said, Behold the Lamb of God pointing men
away from himself unto the Lord Jesus. You see John decreasing. Now he said he must increase
but I must decrease and from that time forward John continued
to decrease in a very real sense because it was not long till
he had been imprisoned and the man who had been free to circulate
among the people and preach the gospel openly was now in prison. You see how that John, it's coming
true. He must increase, I must decrease. Even while in prison, you remember
John sent messengers because John had some doubts about whether
or not we should look for another, or whether this man that he had
been speaking of and pointing him into, whether he was really
the Christ. Did you ever have any doubts
about spiritual things? If you never had any doubts,
my friend, you're a very unusual person. I think that everybody,
sooner or later, are going to have some doubts. Not everybody
has a perfect, settled assurance every day of everything that
they profess to believe. And Jesus sent back the word.
They went, a couple of messengers, and said, now, are you the Christ,
or should we be looking for another? And Jesus sent back this word.
The poor have the gospel preached unto them, which clearly indicated
that he was indeed the Messiah, the one spoken of by the prophets
of old. And very soon, John, after that,
was beheaded, you remember. So John decreased. You see how that he went out
and went off the earthly scene. But Jesus increased. From that
time forward, more and more people began to hear the message of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And many saw His miracles, many
were touched by the excitement of the hour as Jesus opened the
eyes of the blind, unstopped the ears of the deaf, even raised
the dead. He fed the multitudes. People
were amazed at what they heard and saw. And they said, a great
prophet is risen among us. So Jesus increased in prominence
as far as attention being given to Him. And in spite of the fact
that it might appear to some that the ultimate death of the
Lord Jesus Christ on the cross was indeed a great tragedy which
cut short his ministry we see even in this position whereby
the Lord Jesus humbled himself and became obedient unto death
even the death of the cross that he increased for he was exalted
from the place of a servant which he occupied when he came into
this world to that of king of kings and Lord of Lords. So he came out of the grave as
the mighty conqueror, victorious over all, and did indeed increase
because he had proven himself to be the perfect spotless Lamb
of God and to be the conquering King, ascending back to sit at
the right hand of the Father on high where he ever liveth
to make intercession for us. And before his presence the songs
of praise are rendered and ultimately the redeemed of God out of every
kindred, tongue, and nation and tribe under heaven shall fall
before His face and wave the palm branches of victory and
sing, Thou worthy for Thou hast was slain and redeemed us to
God. And so He increased the Lord
Jesus Christ has increased. Now I believe the lesson for
us here is to view this from a practical standpoint and from
an experiential standpoint in our own lives. He must increase,
but I must decrease. Surely, though John was a faithful
servant of God, when these things came, when these Jews came inquiring
about those who were leaving John and following Jesus, Yet
knowing the weakness of the flesh and observing even those moments
of doubt that the Baptist experienced in prison when he sent back the
messengers asking, indeed, art thou the Christ? We understood
that this whole situation was not as easy as it might appear
to be on the surface. You read these verses and you
say, well, I think that must have been pretty easy for John
the Baptist, but I don't think it's quite as easy as it might
appear to be on the surface. for him to take that lowly place
and point all away from himself unto Jesus, this is a, you know,
it's a part of human nature whereby we have a very strong desire
to want ourselves to increase. Our pride, you know, we've all
got our pride. Have you ever heard anybody say,
well I've got my pride? Absolutely you've got your pride.
There's no question about that. We want to increase in earthly
goods and possessions. We all seem to have that bread
in us that we just want to increase. We want to have some prominence
and fame for the things that we have done in this life. This
whole society that we observe around us today is based on that
premise of trying to get ahead and move to the top. People are
constantly saying what we must do is increase. We drill it in
to our young people you must be prosperous and you must increase
then we come to this text like this this kind of a text which
says he must increase and we must decrease and what are we
going to do with that brother sister this is a cross to the
flesh and it's contrary to human nature now there are some areas
in which it is appropriate for us to increase as the people
of God. We are to increase in love for
God and love for each other. Now we can increase in these
various ways. We can increase in spiritual
knowledge and understanding. We can grow in grace and knowledge
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The disciples even prayed,
Lord, increase our faith. And so we can increase in faith. And we ought to increase in zeal
and enthusiasm for the things of the Spirit of God, for the
things of God. Not that we can do these things
ourselves, not that we can have this increase apart from the
work of the Spirit in our hearts, because we cannot. But we can
be strong in the Lord and the power of His might by the Holy
Spirit being within us and upon us. And we need to be making
some increase in these areas. But as far as we ourselves are
concerned, we must occupy the position and maintain the attitude
that is expressed here by John the Baptist, that he, the Savior,
must increase and must decrease. Now Jesus is not
going to increase as far as his power is concerned, because he
has all power. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
going to increase in power and authority. He has all power.
He says that all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. The scripture says power belongeth
unto God. Jesus being God, He had all power. And so He's not going to increase
in power. He's the Sovereign. He's the
Almighty. And so He has all power. He's not going to increase in
glory because He has all of it already. Unto Him be glory both
now and forever. Amen. He's not going to increase
in His person and attributes because He is all in all, the
beginning and the end, and everything in between. And so He's not going
to increase in that way. He's not going to increase in
love, because He is love personified. He is love in perfection. His
love is eternal, everlasting love. He said, I've loved you
with an everlasting love. And His love is supernal. It
is a heavenly love. And so it is perfect, and therefore
He will not increase in love. And so we're not talking about
Jesus Christ growing and increasing from the standpoint of the sufficiency
of His grace or the demonstration of His power or the gift of His
love. We're not talking about that.
We're talking about Him increasing in our lives and us being preoccupied
with the Lord Jesus Christ and getting away from being occupied
with so much of this world and the things of this world. But
from an experiential aspect, in our own travels and our life
here, can we say that it is our desire? Can we say that it is
our prayer? Can we say that it is our devotion
in life that He might increase while we're decreasing? Well,
let me talk to you a little bit about this. Think of the time
when the Lord first dealt with you. showed you your sin, broke
your heart, and brought you to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You feeling of your guilt brought you to the realization that the
Lord Jesus Christ only is Savior and He's the only Savior for
you as a sinner as you knew yourself to be that time. Surely at that
time we saw ourselves decreasing, did we not? We saw ourself being
brought down. We saw ourself coming to the
end of ourself. We saw ourself as we really are
before God. Nothing before God and in need
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Surely at that time we saw ourself
decreasing. The Bible says all flesh is as
grass and all the glory of man is the flower of the grass and
the grass withereth and the flower thereof falleth away and man
in his glory. We all do fade as a leaf. and
certainly before the breath of the Spirit. We're all brought
down to see our loathsomeness and our helplessness and brought
to see our great need of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you may
have had yourself up in the position of a Pharisee before that. You
might not have been like that humble publican that beat on
his breast and said, God be merciful to me a sinner. But you were
like that Pharisee who said, thank God that I'm not like other
men. But He dealt with you by His
Spirit at that time. And beloved, you decreased rapidly,
very rapidly. You came down. You said, Woe
is me, for I'm undone, and I dwell among a people, as Isaiah said,
of unclean lips. Woe is me. You said, I'm ruined. You hit bottom, brother, sister. I mean you decreased. God must
bring a man down before he comes up, before God saves you. The
way with God is down before up. You do not come up and then go
down. You come down, brother and sister,
you come down and then you go up with the Lord. That's God's
way. He brings the sinner. He must
kill before He gives life. And He brought us to where we
had nothing to boast in. To where we said, I'm only a
sinner saved by grace. I'm a guilty bankrupt sinner
deserving of the wrath of God. And anything I get better will
have to be by sovereign mercy. Yes, you decreased at that time
in your own eyes. The Lord brought you up and brought
you down. He increased. He increased at
that time because you saw Him as your only hope. You saw Him
as the sufficient Savior. You saw Him as the source of
love. You saw Him as the giver of grace. You saw Him as the Redeemer and
His blood is the price of your redemption. And you rejoiced
seeing Jesus increasing. Has He increased that way in
your life? Have you been able to see Him
as He really is? The Savior that He really is?
The Savior of real sinners? Have you been brought to see
that? Well, if so, then you have decreased, and He has increased
in your life. And then we come to that place
after the Lord saves us, He brings us down, and then He lifts us
up, reveals His Son to us, And we're now decreasing day by day,
and the Lord Jesus is increasing, and we're loving Him more day
by day, and seeing ourselves and loathing ourselves more day
by day, and we come to that place of baptism. And we realize then,
you know, and we come to that place of coming into the Lord's
Church. And how did we see ourselves
in that day? Well, there was a time when we
were too big. to join the church. We said,
well, uh, I'm too good for these people. I don't want to be coming
among these poor afflicted people. I don't want to take up a home
here with these poor afflicted children of God. I don't want
to do that. And you know, after the Lord deals with us and we
decrease and we decrease, we decrease. Now we begin to say,
I'm not good enough to be found among these people. Well, if
I join these people, I'm going to be a detriment to them. Instead of a blessing, I'll surely
drag them down. Surely, I'll not be any help
to these people. You remember Paul's idea of himself? When I preached a message here
a few months ago on Paul's resume of himself, or how a believer
really looks at himself, and Paul said, I'm least, I'm less
than the least of all. of the Lord's people, of all
the saints. And you come to see that, that you're less than the
least of all the saints of God. And so you're decreasing, and
you come to that place where you come down, down, down, until
you seek a home in the church, until you want to be among God's
people and to be numbered among those that are in the Lord's
church. Now you know there seems to be,
this seems to be the pattern as I see it. All the work that
needs to be done by the grace of God in the lives of men and
women. All the work that needs to be done. Think of a young
person. Now he's just got to get a few things out of the way.
He says, now here I am Lord, I'm just young, and I cannot
be too preoccupied with you. I've got some things that I've
got to get out of the way. In other words, I've got to get
my education. And I've got to find a wife or
I've got to find a husband. And I've got things that I need
to do and I've got to get some things out of the way. I cannot
be so preoccupied with you now that I can't take care of the
ordinary things of life. I just can't do that. And then
they get married. And they say to themselves, then
I'll have time. Then I'll have time to seek the
Lord. Then I'll have time to be preoccupied with the Lord
Jesus. Then I'll have time to be unselfish. Then I'll have
time to live wholly for the Lord. But we find that we have less
time. You got less time after you get married. Then the children
come along. And there are many, many distractions
in the home. Maybe three or four of them wanting
attention at the same time. And here you are, you're still
waiting on given God is due. You're still not decreasing,
you're only increasing. Then we hit middle age and it
don't get any easier when you hit middle age. You're still
in the bondage of this world and the throes of this world.
It doesn't get easier because what you have been doing is making
an excuse to reverse the order of John the Baptist here. The
Baptist said you have to Decrease. And you've been increasing. Pleasing
yourself, doing your own thing. Doing what you wanted to do in
life. Lord, you just wait on the sideline. I'll get to you
later. I'll get to you later, Lord.
You just stay on the sideline. And when I get everything settled,
I'll begin to decrease and let you increase. You've been increasing.
He has been decreasing. That's what's happened in your
life. You may feel that all the goals that you have set for yourself
and the few or the many that you have reached haven't brought
the peace and the joy and the satisfaction that you thought
they would bring. And you may say this morning,
I'm not a happy preacher. I'm a professing believer, but
I'm not happy. You know why? Let me tell you
why. The child of God will not find
his joy in increasing, but in decreasing. Now you say, Preacher,
that's against the flesh. It is against the flesh, but
you'll never find your joy in increasing in this world. The
higher up you go, the more you have in this world, the less
joy you're going to have, true spiritual joy in your heart. It's when we decrease and Jesus
Christ increases in our lives that we become happy in the Lord,
that we begin to see The fact of this truth that we must decrease,
he must increase. Jesus said, take up your cross
and follow me. That's what he said. Take up
your cross and follow me. The world says, shuck it off.
Shuck it off. Carnal believer says, I'll not
do it. I'm not going to die to self. I won't die out to myself. Then, my friend, listen. Jesus
said you take up your cross and follow me and the cross is a
place to die and when people see that It means to die out
to sell then it's not so attractive after that. They're not much
interested in it He must increase beloved. How is it in your life?
Are you spending more time now? Reading the Word of God or less
time. Are you spending more time seeking the Lord meditating on
the things of God his goodness? Listening to the gospel or less
time Are you more diligent now in prayer? Are you making any
effort to release the burdens of others and lift the burdens
of the oppressed? Are you involved in any way,
shape, or form trying to serve God and do His will in your life? Manifesting and displaying the
love of God toward others? Praying not only for yourself,
but for others? Or is it, Lord, bless me and
mine, us four, and no more? We're too self-centered, my friend. too self-centered. All we're
interested in is ourself. We want to increase and we are
increasing all the time but the Bible, the order of the scriptures
is He must increase and we must decrease. Well, He must increase
and when He does it'll make a great difference in the church. It'll
make a great deal of difference in the church when it's in the
proper order. It'll thaw out, one fellow said,
the icicles. out of the hearts of the professing
people of God. It'll break up the spiritual
drought when we're no longer occupied with self. And we'll be preoccupied with
Him. True humility and meekness is
a byproduct of our being preoccupied with the Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody
says, I hope to be meek like Moses. I hope to be humble. I hope to be a humble servant
of God. Well, my friend, The way to come to that is to seek
Christ and to submit yourself to Him, follow Him, and to preoccupy
yourself with Him, to be so occupied with Him. If you seek humility
and if you seek meekness, it will flee from you. But if you
don't seek it, but if you seek Christ, then humility and meekness
will pursue you. It will come after you. It will,
my friend, I'm telling you the truth. And so, can you set aside
your interests, your wants, and what you feel is so important
to you, can you set it aside and become occupied with Christ?
Can you do that? Can you become His follower,
His disciple? Jesus said, unless you come,
deny yourself, follow me, you cannot be my disciple. You must
follow me, obey me, imitate me, seek me. So can you set aside
your interests and your wants to do that which is bidding you
of the Lord? I just believe, I'm convinced of it, that sooner
or later God's going to lay hold of some of you people and He's
going to have something for you to do. I'm convinced of it. The Lord's going to want you
to do something. And He's going to lay hold of you and He's going
to speak to your heart. And whether it be to give a word
of testimony, whether it be to assist somebody along the way,
whether it be to be a blessing to somebody that you could bless,
whatever it is, or whether it be calling you to a mission field
somewhere, or to preach the gospel, whatever it would be that God
would lay hold of you to do, and I'm going to tell you this,
that if you're wrapped up in this business of increasing,
and wanting to increase, and you're afraid to decrease, then
you've got a problem. You're going to have a battle
in your life. But if you'll submit yourself,
and give up, give up your interest and your wants, and seek the
Lord first, then I think you'll be able to do that, which God
bid you to do, and you'll be a blessing to many. He must increase,
I must decrease. Now beloved, if I today have
spoken to one of you here who has decreased, till you say,
I'm nothing, I'm nothing, let me tell you that He, that is
the Lord Jesus Christ, is everything. He is everything. The Lord Jesus
is our substitute. Nothing can be a substitute for
Him. He's a substitute for all things. Nothing can be a substitute
for Him. He, I tell you, is everything. And there is a place in His kingdom
and family and church for you because you have the spirit and
attitude of John the Baptist if you say, I've decreased. I'm
not a Pharisee any longer. I know I'm a sinner. and I know
I'm lost, and I know that I need Him. I need Him, and I know that
I do. Then, my friend, there's a place
for you in the Kingdom, the family, and the Church of the Lord Jesus
Christ, because you have that true Spirit of God working in
your heart. Because, as the Scripture says,
there was not a greater prophet born of a woman than John the
Baptist. And he that is leased in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater
than he. And I hope this morning that
the Lord be pleased to use this. This was not my choice of the
message to preach this morning. I felt burdened to preach this.
I had to preach it. And I trust and I recognize sometimes
these things are, as we present them, sometimes there's a battle
going on. And I felt that battle this morning.
I felt that pressure this morning. That you often feel when you're
trying to preach what God has laid on your heart, Somebody
needs it, but the devil don't want them to hear it, and I felt
that pressure somewhat this morning But I do believe that the Lord
has Blessed his people with the spirit And I believe that they're
able to pick up on the spiritual message of the Word of God And
I hope this morning that you have received something that
will edify your soul, build you up in the faith, and along the
way as the Spirit of God is working in your life, you'll not be afraid
to decrease in your own thinking. You know I was talking with the
people in Indiana when I was preaching out there about how
that often times people are afraid to think of themselves and look
at themselves as the scripture pictures them to be. They're
afraid of it. They become afraid of it. They
say, well, I'll get mentally ill if I believe what the Bible
says about men. I'll become mentally ill. Every imagination of their heart
is only evil continually. You mean tell me everybody I
meet on the street, every imagination of their heart is only evil continually? You want me to believe that?
Well, my friend, you believe what you want to believe, you
believe what you're able to believe, but I'm just telling you what
the Word of God says. All have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. All have fallen. All are lost apart from the Lord
Jesus Christ. Do you believe that? Can you
accept that? Now, my friend, listen. I want
to tell you this. Whenever God brings a person
down and they decrease in their own thinking about themselves,
they come down, down, down, Down! On down sinner! Come on down!
Get down! And when you come down, when
you come down, the Spirit of God is going to increase Christ,
the view of Christ in your life to the point where you will not
become mentally ill. You will have a sound mind. God
will give you a sound mind. Nobody without the Spirit of
God has a sound mind. You say, well I question that.
You question it if you want to. But I'm telling you, no man looks
at himself as he really is until the Spirit of God comes into
him. And no man sees Jesus as he really is. The reliever of
all man's problems is Christ and nobody sees him until the
Spirit of God comes into him. Don't be afraid to decrease.
Don't be afraid. Come on down. come on down and
Christ will reveal himself he'll make himself known and I do realize
this truth that if a man was to be stripped if he was to be
brought down if he was to decrease to a certain point and the Lord
did not reveal Christ to him if Christ did not increase in
his view, in his heart, in his mind then there's a possibility
that that man or woman might become mentally unstable. But
I'm telling you that wherever the Lord strips, He pulls. I'm
telling you that when He empties, He fills. I'm telling you when
He brings down, He lifts up. Tell them, the scripture says,
tell them that are cast down, there shall be lifting up. There shall be lifting up, no
question about it. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. The devil will tell you, leave
this alone. Leave that decreasing business alone! You keep on pushing
the pedals, and you keep on grinding at the mill, and you go on and
increase! Ah, my friend, my friend, listen
to me. Hear the word of the Lord. Hear
the word of the Lord. He must increase. I must decrease. Must. I'll never have the mind of God,
I'll never have the blessing of the Lord, never be happy,
and never be able to shout Hallelujah! like I ought to be able to until
He increases and I decrease. May the Lord bless you. Father
in Jesus name, may you be pleased to use this stumbling message
to the glory and praise of your name. May truly the work of the
Spirit be carried on in all hearts here this morning. We ask it
for Jesus' sake, in his name, amen.