back with me again to John chapter
1 verse 35 the gospel of John chapter 1 verse 35 I take the message of John the
Baptist for my message and the title of my message Behold the
Lamb of God read with me beginning at verse 35 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. May God the Holy
Spirit enable me to behold Him, worship Him, and preach Him to
you, and enable you to behold Him. I pray that He will give
each of you the ability by His grace this hour to behold the
Lamb of God and believe Him, trust Him as the Lamb of God
slain for you. Now in this passage it is clearly
set forth that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living
God, is the Lamb of God who has taken away the sins of His people
by the sacrifice of Himself. Christ is the Lamb. I stress
that. I did not say He is a Lamb, but
the Lamb. Our text says He is the Lamb
of God, the only one. All other Lambs mentioned in
the scripture were altogether useless, altogether useless,
except as they pointed to Him who is the Lamb. They had no
other function, they had no other purpose except to point to Him. Those who looked upon those lands
as being themselves of value, those who offered those lands
as being themselves sacrifices acceptable to God were rejected
of God and cast off by God. All other lands mentioned in
the scriptures were useful only as they pointed to Christ, the
Lamb of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
one who only could make atonement by his death. He is the only
Lamb. By his blood we have access unto
the Father. The only Lamb, whose blood is
sprinkled upon the mercy seat, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. Jesus Christ is the only Lamb,
by whom sin is put away, atonement is made, justice is satisfied,
and we are redeemed. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the way, and John says, He is the Lamb. He's not a way,
he's the only way. He's not a door, he's the only
door. He's not a land, he's the only
land by whom we have access unto the Father. And so the Apostle
Peter speaks and says, neither is there salvation in any other.
For there is none of the name under heaven given among men
whereby we must be saved. Not only is Christ the Lamb,
He is the Lamb of God. That is the Lamb, the only one,
who is of God, who came from God, who is God, and who is accepted
of God. He could not be our Savior were
He not God Himself. Now I don't plan this morning
to preach to you on the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, but
I want you to understand the importance of it. I have No use whatsoever. No use whatsoever. Either for the liberal religionist
of our day, or the cultic religionist of our day, who deny the deity
of Jesus Christ. We had a few here the other day
and I suggested that they leave rather personally. I had no use
for them. Had no use for them. Don't have
any time for them. And I recommend that you behave
in the same manner toward them. Mr. Spurgeon was exactly correct
when he wrote, to believe that Jesus is divine. is essential
to real Christianity. And one of the distinguishing
subjects of faith that separates Christians from other men. There
are many who pretend, many who pretend to admire Jesus Christ
as a man, as a prophet, as a religious leader, who deny his deity. They deny that he is God Almighty. Both liberals and cultists, that
is, the Mormons, the Jehovah Witnesses, as well as the liberal
theologians of our day, and many other various religious groups,
utterly deny the eternal Godhead of Jesus Christ our Savior, and
yet, they claim to be Christian. They claim and are very offended
as they are treated as though they are not Christian. But I'm
telling you, no one has a right to wear the name Christian who
denies that Jesus Christ is Himself God Almighty. They do not honor
His name by speaking His name and offering accolades to His
name as a man. That man who does not recognize
and bow to Him, Dignity of Jesus Christ as his God is not a partaker
of the righteousness and benefits of Christ's atonement and of
his work. Why we seek to be charitable
and promote unity among God's saints. Why we seek to be charitable
and promote unity among those who believe the gospel. We must
offer no confederacy with those who deny Jesus Christ deity and
his effectual atonement. To do so would be downright treason
on our parts against him. You understand that? Those who
deny that Jesus Christ is God, either publicly and openly or
subtly with doctrine that denies his deity, are not to be received
and embraced by us as though they were Christians. You can
call them Mohammedans, you can call them Hindus, you can call
them by anything you want to, but they are not Christian. They
are not Christian, and we will not recognize them as such. Now
today I want once more to proclaim the greatness of Jesus Christ
in His glory as the Lamb of God. Because I want you to understand
that it is only as He is God that He is able to put away our
sins. And only as He is the Lamb of God that He is able to offer
sacrifice for our sins. Now I preach from this text in
verse 29 where the same thing is said earlier. So many times
I can't keep up with the number of sermons I preach from. But
I want to give it one more shot. Maybe I'll do the same subject
tonight. Maybe I can get said when I want to on this subject.
But let me this morning show you three things concerning Christ
as the Lamb of God. I'm going to approach it a little
bit differently today, and yet the message will be essentially
the same. First, I want you to understand and consider this
fact. The Lord Jesus Christ as the
Lamb of God is the subject of Holy Scripture. Again, I emphasize
the definite article of thee. He's not just one of many subjects
in Scripture, Bobby. He's not just the best subject
in Scripture. He's not just the highest, noblest
subject to Scripture. Jesus Christ, as the Lamb of
God, is THE subject of Holy Scripture. The theme of this book is Redemption,
Atonement, and Access to and Acceptance with God by a Sacrificial
Lamb. And that Lamb is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Christ is referred to as the
Lamb of God. I can't, can't, can't even take
time to count up how many times He's referred to in that manner
through the Scriptures. But in the book of Revelation
alone, just in that one book, He's referred to as the Lamb
of God 27 times. Just one book. That's the message of the book.
Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God Almighty. This blessed book is
all about that blessed Lamb who took away our sins. I want you
to turn back a couple of pages to Luke 24 one more time. Our
Lord Jesus after his resurrection is walking on the road to Emmaus
with two of his disciples. And he began to minister to them.
And beginning in verse 27 he says, or the scripture says,
beginning at Moses and all the prophets. Now where does Moses
begin? Genesis 1-1, in the beginning
was the world. Or in the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth. Where do the prophets end? the
last verse of Malachi beginning in Moses and in all the prophets
that is all the way through the Old Testament the Lord Jesus
Christ expounded unto them in all the scriptures Do you see
that? Do you see the emphasis? In all
the scriptures, he says now fellas, the whole volume of inspiration
and all they had was from Genesis 1 through Malachi 4. That's all
they had. He said in all the scriptures,
I'm telling you about things concerning myself. This book is all about that one
whom you call the Christ. This book is all about Him who
is the Lamb who was to come and the Lamb who now has come. Look
at verse 44. And he said unto them, These
are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you,
that all things must be fulfilled which are written in the law
of Moses. First five books of the Bible.
And in the prophets, that is in all the historical narratives,
and in all the prophetic passages. And in the Psalms, that is in
all the poetic books, concerning me. Now, Ron, that takes up the
whole volume. That's the whole volume. That's
how the Jews divided the Scriptures. The Law, the Prophets, and the
Psalms. So our Lord is saying, now I'm
telling you, that these are the words which I spoke to you while
I was yet with you, which were written in the Law of Moses,
in the Prophets, in the Psalms, concerning me. Then he opened
their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures. O Spirit of God, open our understandings
and let us see that this book is about the Lamb. Now I'm telling
you, nobody knows anything about this book. No preacher knows
anything about this book. I don't care if they can memorize
it and quote it from front to back and quote it from back to
front. I'm telling you that nobody understands
or knows anything about this book until they understand that
this book is all about you. It's all about Him. It is not
a book of history. It is not a book of morality.
It is not a book of science. It's not a book of politics.
It's a book about Him who is the Lamb, the Lamb of God. The
Lord Jesus Christ was set forth in the scriptures in type, in
shadows under the law. And He is the antitype of whom
all the Old Testament types were just types. He is the one of
whom they all speak. He is the one who fulfills them
all. And as you read through and study the Old Testament Scriptures,
you see that our Lord is set forth not just in promise, not
just in prophecy, but in picture. So that we look at the pictures
and we see Him. I learned from my wife, she's
a good teacher of toddlers and kindergarten age kids, that if
you want to teach children, Use pictures. Use pictures. And I
found out if you want to teach grown-up children, use pictures. Try to draw pictures before them.
And during the days of the church's infancy, that is during the days
of the Old Testament, the Lord Jesus gave us the gospel in word,
in precept, and he gave us the gospel in promise and prophecy,
and he gave us the gospel in picture. And all the pictures
point to Jesus Christ the Lamb. He is the antitype. Now those
pictures, those Old Testament types, could be divided up into
three categories. Personal types, confidential
types, and instituted types. All the personal types typify
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is described in the Old Testament
scriptures as a priest, like Melchizedek. You remember Melchizedek? He came to Abraham and brought
bread and wine after the slaughter of the kings. And Abraham offered
tithes to Melchizedek because he came, that one who represented
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the apostle says in Hebrews
that Jesus Christ is a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Because he has been a beginning
of days and an end of years. That is, he is that one who is
an eternal priest. The Lord Jesus is a type, or
was typified by England, the great high priest in Israel.
That one ordained and chosen of God to come once a year into
the Holy of Holies, wearing the names of the children of Israel
representatively upon him, wearing the emblem of holiness to the
Lord, doing business continually before God. But once a year,
he was ordained of God to come and bring blood. blood by which
atonement was ceremonially and typically made for the children
of God. The Lord Jesus is that one Moses
spoke of in Deuteronomy chapter 8, I believe it is, where Moses
said that God will give you a prophet like me. So that as Moses was
the prophet of God in his day, as he was the man by whom God
spoke to men, as he was the prophet who brought deliverance, so Jesus
Christ came, who is indeed the man by whom God spoke, and the
man by whom redemption is accomplished. And Jesus Christ is described
in the scriptures as being a king like David. A king sitting upon
his throne, high and lifted up. A king with absolute dominion,
absolute power to do what he will in order to save his own.
And a king like David's great son Solomon, who exercises total
sovereignty in perfect wisdom. But then there were providential
types in the Old Testament that foreshadowed our Lord Jesus Christ
as well. When you read the Old Testament
scriptures, Try to understand as you read along and you see
events recorded in the history of God's saints in the Old Testament.
Understand that those events didn't just happen. If you want
to understand history, understand why it's spelled the way it is.
History, Merle, is His story. It's God's story. History is
but the story of God's wonders. It's just the story of what God
has done in days gone by. And as you read Old Testament
history, understand that the history of the Old Testament
is His story of redemption portrayed in days gone by. Understand that?
So that everything that happened in the Old Testament came to
pass by the decree and the hand of God to typify the Lord Jesus
Christ and our redemption by Him. Let me see if I can give
you just a few reminders. You remember that when Adam and
Eve were about to be expelled from the garden and God had pronounced
a curse upon them. Do you remember whose blood was
the first blood to be shed in the world? Do you remember the
first blood to be spilt upon the ground? The first blood to
be soaked up by the cursed earth? It was the blood of an innocent
victim. The Lord God himself took an innocent lamb, I presume
a lamb, though we were not told that, he was an innocent victim
anyway. And he took the skins of that lamb after it had been
slain and clothed Adam and Eve with the skins of that innocent
victim. Will you hear me? That's Christ our Redeemer. God
killed his son, and has clothed us with his righteousness. The
Lord sent Noah to build an ark. And he said to Noah, enter into
the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives
with you. And the Lord shut the man. Judgment
of God fell upon the earth. The rains descended and the floods
came. And God Almighty destroyed all
that lived upon the earth. He caused His judgment to pass
upon every living thing in the universe because of sin. But
what about no one's family? They too passed through the judgment
of God. They too suffered all the terror of the wrath of God. But they were not in the least
affected by it. Not in the least, they were in
the ark. And that ark is Christ. We suffer all the wrath and judgment
of God in Christ, the ark of salvation, who himself bore the
full brunt of God's vengeance. But we go safely through him
into everlasting glory. And we are never affected by
the judgment that he endured and satisfied. Our Lord Jesus
is typified by the crossing of Israel, crossing the Red Sea,
coming out of Egypt, as we have seen recently. The smitten rock,
that rock smitten by the command of God, out of whom flow rivers
of living water to refresh and nourish and save the children
of Israel, pictures Christ our rock. For the smitten of God
from whom flows the rivers of the water of life everlasting
unto our souls. Moses was commanded of God when
Israel had seemed against him to make a serpent of brass, put
it on a pole, and lift it up. And our Lord said, as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, I, if I be lifted up from the
earth, will draw all men unto me. Even so must the Son of Man
be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. You remember Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego. We call them the three Hebrew
children. But they weren't little boys
and girls. Those fellows were three grown men who happened
to be children of Abraham. They were cast into the fiery
furnace. And when they looked into the furnace the next day
to see what had happened to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they saw
a fourth man. Nebuchadnezzar saw a fourth man
in the furnace. And he said, He's like the Son
of God. Now I had no idea that Nebuchadnezzar had any idea what
he was saying. But God knew what he was saying.
And God put the words in his mouth. And that fourth man is
Jesus Christ our Redeemer. Daniel cast into the lion's den
because of justice. Because the law of the Medes
and Persians says he must be cast into the lion's den. It
cannot be changed. And yet Daniel coming out of
the lion's den. Oh what a picture of Christ he
is. So all the providential types in the Old Testament portray
Jesus Christ our Lord. He's the antitype of them all.
And the Lord Jesus was foreshadowed by all the instituted types as
well. You read in the scriptures about
God setting up the tabernacle. That's Christ's body. That's
what scripture says. You read about the furnishings
in the tabernacle. The altar. The table of shewbread. The veil that was laid at the
beginning by our Lord. That veil separating the holy
of holies from the outer sanctuary. That veil that hid the Ark of
the Covenant and the Mercy Seat. And the Ark of the Covenant and
the Mercy Seat. That's King is the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything
speaks of Him. We read in the scriptures of
those commandments that God gave. Those 10 commandments given by
God. And I'm going to say concerning
these instituted types and particularly with regard to what has been
termed by men the king commandments or the law and all the ceremonial
law. What I said a little bit ago
concerning all the lands of the Old Testament. These things are
designed and intended by God point to, and typify, and show
us the necessity of Christ the Lamb of God. And apart from Him
they are totally useless. Now some folks will choke to
death on that. I hope you understand what I'm
saying. Apart from him, the types and the ceremonies and the commandments
given under the law are all together useless. The Ten Commandments
were not given by God to be a code of moral conduct. They're infinitely
more than that. They're given by God to show
us our need of a lamb. Our need of a substitute to expose
our sin and bring us to Jesus Christ. The Sabbath days in the
Old Testament were given not so that men and women could be
brought into bondage to live a morbid, fearful life, scared
to death they'd be stolen by religious fools if they went
too far on the Sabbath day. That was not the intent. That
was not the intent. The Sabbath day was given as
a recognition of the only way of rest there is for a guilty
sinner, and that's faith in Jesus Christ. And why were men stoned
for breaking the Sabbath? Because to break the Sabbath
was to deny the necessity of Jesus Christ and resting in Him. To break the Sabbath was to say
that Jesus Christ is useless. Why would a man be stoned to
death if he were to bring a hog and offer his blood upon the
mercy seat? Because to do so is to say that
the blood offered there is useless and signifies nothing. The year
of Jubilee was set down by God once every seven years. Any man
brought into bondage, any man sold into slavery, any man in
Israel who had by some misfortune come into dire circumstances
and had been made a slave, every seven years he was to be set
free. The gospel proclaims Jubilee. freedom for sinners and Jesus
Christ for all who have been brought into bondage looking
to him they find freedom but if a man loved his master and
determined that he would not go free. Determined that he would
stay with his master forever. Determined that staying with
his master, he could have his wife and his children and his
master's house as well. And that man would say to his
master, I will not go out free, I will be your slave forever.
And the master would take him in publicly, bore his ear through
with an awl. He would pierce his ear, put
a big hole in his ear, and identify himself as that man's slave forever. And that too is Jesus Christ
our Lord. He said, I, my father has opened mine ear. I turn not
away my back from the smiters, but I sit my face like a flinch,
and I will obey him. How come? Because I love my master.
I love my father. And I love my bride. And I love
my children. You understand that? All of it
pictures Christ. The daily sacrifices. They're
offered every morning. Offered every evening. The sacrifices
of purification. Offered whenever one was defiled.
Either by touching something unclean or becoming unclean himself. All the sacrifices picture the
Lord Jesus. But the most eminent, the most
prominent, the most instructive, the most dominant picture of
Christ in all the Old Testament was the Paschal Lamb. That one
who was instituted and established by God back in Exodus chapter
12. to be a representative of Christ our Passover who is sacrificed
for us. That's what the book says about
it. In 1 Corinthians 5 verse 7, Christ our Passover is sacrificed
for us. So that's the clear picture of
the Paschal Lamb established back in Exodus chapter 12. And
then when the Lord God established His law and gave further instructions
concerning the observance of the Day of Atonement. You read
Numbers chapter 16, or Leviticus chapter 16 rather, and see how
that God gives clear, distinct instruction. As to how that land
is to be taken. How it is to be selected. How
sin is to be laid upon that land by the imputation of the laying
on the hands of the priest on its head. How the land is to
be slain, slaughtered by the hands of a man appointed of God. And how that his blood is to
be carried into the holy place once a year. Once a year. Or the solemnity of that day. I think we've got no idea what
solemnity was involved in worship on those days. Those men came,
those women came, and they watched quietly, with reverence, with
awe. Fellas, we've come here today
to do business with God Almighty. We've come here today to do business
with God Almighty, and we can't do it except the way He prescribes.
We can't do it except the way He said do it. If we say the
wrong thing, if we do the wrong thing, if we bring the wrong
thing, if we act the wrong way, He'll kill us. He'll kill us. They didn't come in there hooping
and hollering and jumping pews. They came in with solemnity.
They came in with some knowledge of who they're doing business
with. Pray that God would accept them. And they wait as that high
priest goes in. and takes care of business in
the holy of holies and when that high priest comes out he lifts
his hands and says the Lord bless you and keep you the Lord make
his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you the Lord
lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace and then
they might shout hallelujah but I suspect they'd say oh bless
God he's accepted the lamb He won't destroy us this year. He
won't destroy us now. There's still hope. There's still
hope. For there's one yet to come. That Lamb represented by
that great High Priest. Now the scriptures universally
declare that Jesus Christ our Redeemer is the Lamb of God. We have been redeemed from our
sins by the glorious, bloody, but beautiful sacrifice of the
Son of God as a lamb slaughtered in our place. You know that you
were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold from
your vain conversation, received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ. as of a Lamb without
blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you. The Son of God was foreordained
and slain in the purpose of God before the foundation of the
world as the Lamb of God for us. And He was manifested and
revealed to us in the fullness of time to put away our sins. And throughout the scriptures,
he's prefigured as a lamb. We can't take time to look at
them, but let me give them to you. Just a few other places
where our Lord's spoken of as a lamb. In Genesis 4, the lamb
is typified. Abel brought a sacrifice from
the flocks, and God received him. Will you hear me? Abel understood because his daddy
Adam, I suspect, told him. Abel understood, I know, because
some way, by divine revelation, he got the message. Abel understood,
now you can't come to God without a blood sacrifice of an innocent
lamb. You can't come to God any other
way. And so Abel, bringing that lamb, said, God, I offer what
you demand, an innocent victim. A holy victim. One who is a lamb. He portrays that one whom you
promised would come. See to my mama. And one of these
days he's coming to redeem me. He shows us how that Jesus Christ
must of necessity assume our nature. And become one of us
that he might share his blood for us. In Genesis chapter 22. Abraham and Isaac are going up
to Mount Moriah because God demanded of Abraham. Give me your son. Give me your son. I want to see
if you believe me. I want to see if you really believe
me. Take your son Isaac and sacrifice him on a mountain and I'll tell
you about it. Now I'll be honest with you,
I can, you talk about a trial of faith. I can picture Abraham,
I can almost picture him that Bill if God came and spoke to
you directly. If the Lord Jesus Christ appeared
to you directly and said sacrifice your son. I can almost picture
a man in the passion of the moment doing what God demanded. I cannot
for the life of me fathom that kind of faith. that would sit
for three days and think about it. And that's what God said. He said, now Abraham, don't do
it today and don't do it tomorrow. But three days now, after you
thought about this thing for three days. And Isaac's carrying the fire
and the wood and said, Father, where is the land for a burnt
offering? Because he knew we cannot worship God without a
land. And in these words, we see the
land promised. The scripture says, Abraham said,
my son, God will provide himself a land. He was typified in able
sacrifice. He's prophesying here. God did
provide a lamb that day for Isaac. But God provided himself a lamb
for us in Jesus Christ when he died in our stead. Then in Isaiah
chapter 53, the lamb is personified by Isaiah's description of him
as a man. He says this one who is the lamb
must come and he will assume human flesh. He will be the servant
of Jehovah. He will obey Jehovah and Jehovah
will sit at last upon his throne. In John 1.29, John was out doing
his business. He was preaching and baptizing
those who believed. And the Lord Jesus came walking
over to him. And John said, boys, this is
it. I've been telling you! I've been telling you! This is
the one coming! There he is! Behold, the Lamb
of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. And John's
disciples heard his message and followed the Lord Jesus. having
identified the Lamb. Then the Apostle John describes
in chapter 19 how that the Lamb was crucified for us as our sacrifice. They made Him up to Calvary and
there they crucified Him. But the Lord Jesus didn't die
as a helpless victim of circumstances. Oh no, this lamb was crucified
by his own will, according to his own purpose. And when he
had finished everything the Father had given him to do as the lamb
of sacrifice, the Lord Jesus cried, it is finished. And he
accomplished death. He's the only man ever to accomplish
death. The only one. I get to thinking a little bit
about old age, you know, and I've decided it ain't what's
cracked up to be, kind of like retiring and doing nothing. And
yet at the same time, I recognize we're responsible to exercise
reasonable care of our health and take care of ourselves best
we can. But should a man be given to
the insanity of committing suicide, he doesn't accomplish anything.
He doesn't accomplish anything. The Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
death. That's what Luke tells us. When
Moses and Elijah appeared on the mount with him, they talked
to him about the death he would accomplish at Jerusalem. How
did he accomplish death? He accomplished death by breathing
out his life. and in the accomplishment of
his death he accomplished our redemption. And then in Revelation
chapter 5 we see John describing the Lord Jesus as the Lamb glorified. Oh in heaven's glory Jesus Christ
is worshipped. in his sacrificial character
as the Lamb of God, who has affectionately put away the sins of his people,
redeeming them out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue, who
has by his sacrifice made us accepted to God as kings and
priests unto God forever and forever. Now, secondly, let me
briefly show you. And I want you to see and give
thought to this, serious thought. that the Lord Jesus Christ as
the Lamb of God is the Gospel Preacher's message. I cannot stress this sufficiently. I did not say that Christ as
the Lamb of God ought to be the Gospel Preacher's message. I
said if a man is God's servant, If he is God's messenger, if
he is a man sent of God, if he is a man who is indeed a gospel
preacher, Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God is his message. John the Baptist was the first
gospel preacher. He gives us the example. He said,
Behold the Lamb of God. Next time you hear him preach,
he said, Behold the Lamb of God. So, well, he said, God so and
so. Well, John was bold to identify
the sin that heaven himself committed. God's servants are. Well, John
the Baptist called the sinners to repentance. God's servants
did. John the Baptist preached baptism. God's servants did.
But God's servants preach all of those things as they declare,
behold, the Lamb of God. Those issues simply come along
with the message. Please understand that. They
just come along with the message. The Apostle Peter, who was the
chief spokesman in the early church, said in his day, as he
preached to the Jews constantly, he described to them how that
we are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. And he preached
Jesus Christ, and his sacrifice, and his resurrection. As a matter
of fact, in the early church, if you read through the book
of Acts, if deacons preached, they preached Christ the Lamb.
If anybody went around witnessing, they went everywhere preaching
Jesus and the resurrection. The Apostle Paul, who was the
chief spokesman to the Gentiles, the first gospel preacher to
the Gentiles, followed the pattern of these men all the way back
to John the Baptist and said, I'm determined to know nothing
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And that's the
business of God's servants today. A gospel preacher is a man with
one purpose. One business. One object in his
life. His only business is to cry,
Behold the Lamb of God. John was born, ordained, born
and sent of God into this world that he might be the voice of
one crying in the wilderness, Behold the Lamb of God. And every
man who was called of God and sent of God to preach the gospel
was ordained from eternity, born in time, and sent forth at the
hour of God's appointment with his message, clearly crying out
in his soul, Behold the name of God. Whatever else we may do, this
is his business and his work. And those who turn aside from
this message Those who do not incessantly declare Christ as
the Lamb of God to eternity-bound sinners make a mockery of the
ministry and of the poor souls who are so disfortunate as to
hear them. Like John, we must denounce the
religion of the Pharisees. We must expose and identify sin. We must call men and women to
repentance in Jesus Christ. But our message is behold the
Lamb of God. The preacher who fails to point
sinners to Christ as the Lamb of God is a traitor to the souls
of his hearers. And he will in the last day have
his portion with the damned. I've been looking that over now and weighing that statement heavily,
heavily for a long time. And I want you to hear it. I
want you to understand it. I was thinking just a little
bit before I started to preach. I've seen Lindsay a few times over
the years. when his son and daughter are
sitting before him and you have a heavy, heavy, heavy burden
because you want those two kids to know the Son of God and try
to preach to them. I carry that burden 24 hours
a day, 7 days a week. I'm here to preach to eternity
bound men and And some of you may meet God
before I get my next breath out. And if I stand here in God's
name and dilly dally with your souls, I'll meet you in hell
and you will mock me forever for mocking you now. Where on earth did you get that?
Ezekiel chapter 33. God said that blood will I require
at your hand. That's what it said. The Apostle Paul said,
necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me if I preach not
the gospel. That simply means that there is no doom so terrible
as that which awaits the man who claims to be God's servant
but does not faithfully preach the gospel to his heroes. Sermons
that do not point sinners to Christ, sermons that are not
full of Christ, will be hard to answer for in the day of judgment. Larry, Ron, Lindsay, you men,
when you stand here to preach, or anywhere else to preach, make
this the center. Make this the message constantly. Constantly. So I don't have to
go back doing that all the time. Say the same thing over and over
again rather than not say it. Declare to me and behold the
Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God. It is cruel. Cruel beyond description. for a preacher to amuse eternally
bound sinners with trifles, trifles of religious speculation, theological
niceties, denominational dogmas, prophetic mysteries, and all
the other nonsense about which men spin their little webs of
fine, fine, fine sermons. It is utterly abhorrent, utterly
abhorrent. If the Lamb of God is not preached,
that man who pretends to be preaching is doing nothing but playing
with men's souls. Sermons without Christ are damning
to the preacher and damning to the hearer. If I am God's servant,
I will, I must, God helping me, like John, I will have nothing
to do when I open my mouth to preach, except preach Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. I make you that promise. I make
you that promise. I don't care whether you hear
me Sunday morning, Sunday night, Tuesday night. I don't care whether
you hear me teaching Sunday school class. I don't care whether you
hear me standing on the street corner talking to two or three
people. This is the message. Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Behold the Lamb of God. And John shows us by example
that gospel preachers are men whose eyes are fixed on Christ
the life. John in our text we read looking
upon Jesus as he walked saith behold the Lamb of God I try
to get a picture the Lord Jesus was walking by and John just
quit what he was doing and looked at him behold Peter Andrew behold there
he is Behold the Lamb of God! Behold the Lamb of God! You see
that? He said there He is! Behold Him!
Behold Him! That man sees Christ best, who looks upon Christ always. And that man preaches Christ
best who sees him best. John knew what he was sent to
do. God sent me to prepare the way
and tell Sinner to behold the Lamb. And John kept his mind and his
heart, his attention, his life focused, focused on that Lamb,
focused on Him. And John looked at Him. And therefore
his words were pointed and powerful. And he said behold the name of
God. Everybody around him knew exactly what he was talking about.
Everybody around him knew. You ever seen a fellow looking
up in the sky on a crowded street? If you were to walk out on a
crowded street and just stand and look up in the sky. Some
folks might think he's crazy. But for Lord, you'd have some
folks standing around looking up in the sky, wondering what
he's looking at. What's got his attention? Just quiet, look up. If you look,
if you look what's got him around. Some folks go by him last and
look at those flames over there looking up at the sky. But there's
somebody paying attention. And one of the surest ways to
get attention is just to look up. Just look up. And I'm telling
you the surest way for preachers to have any efficacy at all in
preaching is to have their minds and their hearts and their attention
and their lives fixed on Christ the Lamb. John gives us another
example by looking at it. In verse 29 the Lord Jesus is
specifically said to be coming to Jesus or coming to John. He's
walking to John. Do you see that? He's coming
to John, manifestly, openly coming to him. And John's got his eyes
on him and says, behold the light. But in verse 36, Merle is walking
by him. He wasn't coming to John, he
was walking by him. And when he was walking by him,
John still had his eyes on him. He said, Behold the Lamb. His
message didn't change. When the Lord was manifesting
with him, and when the Lord appeared to be manifesting, passing him
by, John still stood in the gap and said, Behold the Lamb. Behold
the Lamb. John exemplifies for us that
Christ as the Lamb of God is the Gospel Preacher's only message. If he's the message of scripture,
if he's the object of faith, what else are we to preach? It's
so horrible. I hear preaching, I listen to
tapes, I get them, listen to them, fellas send me tapes, and
I hear preaching. And most of the time, most of
the time what passes for preaching? is nothing but a lecture on religious
morality. Most of the time what passes
for preaching is nothing but a lecture on religious doctrine. Most of the time what passes
for preaching, I feel like, I feel like Mary and Tim, I want to
say they've taken away my Lord and I know not where they've
laid Him. There's no Christ in it. Oh God help us understand
that Jesus Christ is the message of Holy Scripture and the message
of God's servants. Folks say to me, well, simple
gospel preaching ought to be preached to the lost. The saints
need to be led into deeper things. I'll tell you what you do. I'll
give you a challenge. I know some of you fellows are
students. I'll give you a challenge. You find me something deeper
than this. Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world. The only reason you don't consider
that beast so infinitely beyond the grasp of your puny brains
is because you don't understand anything about it. That's exactly
right. That's the most mysterious, profound
thing in the universe. Well, we need some inspiration
for our lives. Oh, if you ever behold Him. I mean if you ever behold Him. have to take care of inspiration.
We need some direction. Behold the Lamb of God. Behold
the Lamb of God. I know I'm looked upon by some
as a simpleton. That's all right. I know what
God sent me to do. He sent me here, Benji, to do
one thing. To do one thing. to hold up Christ
crucified like Moses held up that brazen serpent on a pole.
And I'm good for nothing else. I'm good for nothing else. But
God help me man, I can hold a pole. I can hold a pole. And that's
what I plan to do until I die. I plan to hold this pole and
say behold the Lamb of God. this man John the Baptist in
verse 29 the day before he's preaching to a huge crowd of
lost folks unregenerate unbelieving men and women huge crowd of them
and he said behold the Lamb of God Down here in our takes this
morning, he's preaching to two disciples. Just two. He just
got two fellows come to him and preach that day. Just two. And
they were already believers. And his message was exactly the
same. He said, Behold, the Lamb of God. Exactly the same. No
variation at all. None at all. One last thing. I'll quit. Lord help me. I'll pick this
up tonight maybe. I want you to consider the fact
that the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God is the Gospels
revelation. Turn to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews
chapter 10. Now this must be understood.
Sin could not be put away without satisfaction. God Almighty in
His infinite wisdom found a way for us to escape His wrath. But that way does not violate
His justice. The Lord Jesus Christ as the
Lamb of God has borne every stroke of justice that God's elect should
have borne when He died as the Lamb of God in our place. Now
this is what the gospel reveals, proclaims, and teaches. Jesus
Christ is the Lamb. All the other lambs were useless,
except as they pointed to Him. Didn't matter how many animals
they sacrificed in Israel, thousands and thousands and thousands and
thousands of lambs and rams were sacrificed. Can you imagine how
many? Those Jews, every day, Every day for 2,000 years nearly. Sacrificed blood sacrifices. Every day, morning and evening.
Once a year they offered the sacrifice in the holy of holies. Floods of blood. Never took away
one sand. Not one. Not one. For the law
having a shadow of good things to come. and not the very image
of those things can never, never, never, never with those sacrifices
which they offered year by year continually make the comers there
unto perfect. For then would they not have
ceased to be offered because the worshipers once purged should
have had no more conscience of sin. If they could just satisfy
your conscience You'd say, well, I've got no need to sacrifice
anymore. But they could never do it. They could never do it.
But in those sacrifices, there is a remembrance again, made
of sins every year. Gotta come back next year, fellas.
Offer another sacrifice. Because the lamb hasn't come
yet. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats
should take away sins. Wherefore? Oh, do you see? Since it was not possible for
sin to be put away otherwise, Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, he said, Sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not,
but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come, in the
volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O my God. Verse 10, By the which will we
are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ one
time. One time. Christ is the lamb that God appointed. He said this is one that will
make sacrifice for sin. In his wise counsels, you were
talking about earlier Lindsay, he appointed this lamb. He said
I'll have him. Christ alone is the land that
God provided. He is the one who comes out of
the Father, who was with the Father, and is with the Father
from everlasting to everlasting, because this land is himself
God Almighty. Jesus Christ is the land that
God himself sacrificed. The only one that God himself
sacrificed. Jesus Christ alone is the land
that God accepted. Never, never, never before did
the Lord God smell a sacrifice and said that's enough. You've been trying to bring God
your resolutions, that's the reason your conscience still
torments you. You've been trying to bring God your religion, that's
the reason your conscience still torments you. You've been trying
to bring God your good works, that's the reason your conscience
still torments you. Bring in the lamb. Bring in the
lamb. And God Almighty smells that
sacrifice and calls it a sweet smelling saviour. He says that's
enough. And he says it well in your conscience. in the conscience now is pairs
of guilt and sin for God said the Lamb is enough. That's enough. Jesus Christ is the Lamb whom
God has sent forth. We are justified freely by God's
grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. whom
God has sent forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that have
passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at
this time, his righteousness that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Now what I preach to
you this day is substitution and satisfaction. by the blood
of Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God. It's the gospel. Be thankful
you've heard it one more time. Either believe it or be prepared. I will meet you at the judgment
seat and I will bear witness before God and the world into
the damning of your soul. I told you. I told you the truth. And God says, your blood He'll
not require my hands. I told you the truth. There is forgiveness with God.
Because Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God. He's the Lamb of God. Now I bid you, oh I bid you,
come to God. Sinners may now approach God. Pope Ponce, if we can come to
God, you and me, we can come to God without trembling, without
terror of God rejecting us and crushing us down to hell. We
can come to God because He bids us come by faith in the Lamb.
You are without Christ. This is what I call you to do.
As you have read in the scriptures, as you've heard us explain to
you time and again, in the Old Testament, that high priest would
lay his hands on the head of that lamb that was about to be
slaughtered. And when he lay his hands on
the head of that lamb, What he was doing was he was taking the
sins of himself and of all the people and laying them right
there. By an act of ceremonial imputation
Rex he took the sins of Israel and put them on that lamb and
then he killed him. Will you listen? God Almighty
took the sins of his people and put them on his son and killed
him. in our stead to satisfy his justice. Now I bid you, oh I bid you,
this is what I'm doing, this is what I'm doing right now,
right now. I lay my sins where God laid them 2,000 years ago. On Him who is the Lamb of God. And I hear God speak. Thy sins
are forgiven thee. Behold the name of God. Amen.