Tonight we will observe the Lord's
table together and I'm going to be preaching on Christ wrestling
with Jacob. That's an important distinction.
It's not Jacob wrestling with Christ. It's Christ wrestling
with Jacob. I've entitled this morning's
message Behold, the Lamb of God. If I said that this is the most
important subject we could possibly deal with, I doubt that I would
get much argument. from anybody, I'd say most people
would be ashamed to say, well, I don't agree with that. But what if I said it's not only
the most important subject, but it's the only subject to preach
on? Scott Richardson said, A sermon
without the cross is a mistake in conception and a crime in
execution. I agree with Spurgeon when he
said if we limited ourselves to preaching nothing but the
cross, it would be a widening rather than a narrowing of our
ministry. Now we know from the other gospel
accounts that when John saw the Lord coming to him, he was coming
to be baptized. You might think, why did Christ
need to be baptized? Well, because he was identifying
with us. We identify with Him when we're
baptized. He's my only hope. But in Him
being baptized, He was identifying with all of His people, one with
Him. And we read in verse 29, the
next day, John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith to everybody who would hear, Behold the Lamb of God which
taketh away the sin of the world." Now this message is the message
of eternity past. I don't know that you can use
the term past for eternity, but for lack of being able to do
anything else, This is the message of eternity past, the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. This is the message for right
now. Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of
the world. And this will be the message
of eternity future. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. Now that gives us some idea of
the weight of this message. It's the message of eternity
past, it's the message for time right now, and it's the message
of eternity future. The Lamb slain, worthy is the
Lamb slain. Now the word behold, John says,
Behold. The Lamb of God. The word behold has the element
of surprise. Wonder. And awe. I hope that is the way this message
is preached. And I hope the way this is the
way this message is heard. with surprise, with wonder, and
with awe. Behold, the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world. Look in verse 35, he repeats
the message the next day. Again, the next day, after John
stood and two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus as he
walked, he saith, behold, the Lamb of God, Now this is a message
to be preached every day, all the time. And with every message
that is preached, this has to be the crux, the thing. Behold the Lamb of God. Now by way of chronological order,
although I'm not sure that that term could be used when we're
talking about something that doesn't have the limitation of
times, of time, but by chronological order, we have to begin with
Revelation 13, eight. Christ is called in Revelation
13, eight, the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Now don't miss that before time. Before the creation of the universe,
before there was an angel, before there was me or you, Christ is
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. You know what that
means? That means the elect have always
been seen in the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And the next time you ask yourself,
why me? Here's the answer. The lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. I have never been viewed by God
in any other way than this way. The Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world and the entire Bible can only be interpreted through
this. The Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Why is there creation? Because
of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Why did Adam fall? Because of the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. This is God's purpose for everything. This is the manifestation of
God. This is the reason behind everything. The Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 1 for
just a moment. 2 Timothy chapter 1. Verse 9. hath saved us, and called us
with an holy calling, not according to our works. Now do you hear
that? God's call of me or you has absolutely
nothing to do with any of our works. Is that good news? Are you glad it's that way? Not
according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace,
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Now that's what this lamb slain
from the foundation of the world is all about. He saved us. And he called us and noticed
the order. What came first, the saving or
the calling? The saving. I was saved in the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. Somebody says, explain that to
me. I just believe it. The Bible
says it. And I glory in it. And I rejoice in it. And I love
it. He saved us. And he called us. And it didn't have anything to
do with our works. It was according to his own purpose and grace,
which were given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Now, the Lamb of God was prefigured
right after the fall. Do you remember Adam and Eve? The scripture says we're naked
and not ashamed before the fall. If somebody in this room was
naked right now, you would be ashamed, you'd run out of here.
Why? Because you have a fallen nature. A sinful, evil nature. Nakedness was actually not an
issue before the fall because there was no sin. Purity. But after the fall, The scripture
says they knew they were naked. And you know what they did? They
made a covering to try to hide their shame, made from fig leaves. God in his mercy came in the
person of Christ, walking in the cool of the evening. And
the scripture said at this time, and I'm sure that they were stunned
when they saw him slay a beast. I have no doubt that it was a
lamb, the lamb of God, prefiguring the coming lamb of God. They
watched the first shedding of blood and they were clothed by
God with those skins. I said the whole Bible is interpreted
by Revelation 13, 8, the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world, but I say equally, the whole Bible is interpreted
by the first story after the fall of our first parents. Cain and Abel. Cain brought his best. Abel brought
the blood. You know what the scripture says
with regard to Cain bringing his best? God had no respect
for Cain or his offering. God had no regard for it. God
had no acceptance of it. He brought his best, his works,
God rejected. Abel brought the blood. Now,
he knew the blood of that animal wouldn't satisfy God's justice.
He knew what that blood pointed to, the coming Lamb of God. The scripture says, by faith,
Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain,
by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying
of his gifts. And he by it being dead yet speaketh."
Abel would only approach God through the blood of him that
was to come. And the scripture says God had
respect to Abel. And if you come through the blood
of Christ having no Nothing else. Right now, your only plea is
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to this. God, the infinite,
holy God has respect for you through the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The first murder, I can Hear Cain saying, you think
your way is the only way. You think your sacrifice is better
than mine. This is not fair. I don't agree
with this. And I could see holy Abel say, the only way God can
be approached is through the blood of the coming lamb. You
can't come in your own works. I can see Cain growing red in
the face and he picks up a rock and bashes his brother's head
in. Why? The issue was the blood
of the lamb. Now there were many sacrifices
in the next several thousand years, but let's go to Genesis
22. Would you turn with me there? Genesis 22. And it came to pass after these
things that God did tempt Abraham and said unto him, Abraham, And
he said, behold, here am I. And he said, take now thy son,
thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest and get thee into the
land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon
one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose up early in
the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young
men with him, and Isaac his son, and claimed the wood for the
burnt offering, and rose up and went into the place which God
had told him. Then on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes,
and saw the place afar off, and Abraham said unto his young men,
abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder
and worship and come again to you." Now don't
miss that. He said, we're coming back, me
and the lad. How did he say that if he was
gonna go sacrifice him? He knew that God had promised
the Messiah would come through Isaac. And he knew even if he
killed him, God would raise him from the dead. And he believed
that. That is why he took him. And this is very important. I and the lad will go yonder
and worship and come again to you. What was he going for? Sacrifice. The only way you and
I will worship God is through the sacrifice of Christ. There
is no worship apart from the Lamb of God. Verse 6, And Abraham
took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son,
just as Christ bore the wood of the cross up the hill. And
he took the fire in his hand and a knife, and they went both
of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham,
his father, and said, my father. And he said, here am I, my son.
And he said, behold the fire and the wood. But where is the
lamb for a burnt offering? How do you reckon Abraham felt
when he heard his boy ask him that question? But listen to
the answer. And Abraham said, my son, God
will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. Listen to this statement real
carefully. There isn't anything that you could provide that God
would accept. You believe that? There isn't anything that you
could bring to God that he would accept if it came from you. If
it came from you, it's defiled. It's unclean. But God provides. Everything you need to be accepted
by God, He provides. And He provides for Himself. For God to do something for me
or you, He first had to do something for Himself in order for Him
to accept somebody like me or you. And He provided the Lamb
for Himself. And thank God he provided himself
as the lamb. He is the lamb that he provided. Some 400 years later, there were
many lambs that were slain, thousands during the next 400 years. And then we have the night of
the Passover. You can read about that in Exodus
chapter 12. There's not a more important
passage of scripture in all the word of God than the Passover. Exodus 12, 13. Paul said the
gospel was how that Christ died for our sins according to the
scriptures, according to the Passover. Now what took place
in the Passover? The Lord said, you take a lamb
without blemish and without spot and watch it. Watch it for two
weeks. Make sure there's no blemish
and no spot. And then you take that lamb and
you slay that lamb and you take the blood of that lamb upon and
put it on the lintel and posts of the door you're staying in
and you eat all of that lamb. What does God say? I'm gonna
pass through the land of Egypt, and I'm gonna destroy the firstborn. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. Now I like to think of those
houses, there were some people who had full assurance There
were some people who were scared to death, trembling at the thought. Question, were the people with
full assurance any more secure than the people who were trembling
in fear? No. You see, the security was the
blood. What about someone who that very
day had committed some horrible, atrocious sin. If he was in the
house with the blood over the door, was he safe? Absolutely. I want you to hear
all the implications behind that. His safety was in the blood. Who had to see the blood? God said, when I see the blood,
not when you see it. As a matter of fact, if you were
in the house, you couldn't see it. You had to believe it was
there, but you couldn't see it. God said, when I see the blood,
what was God looking for? When I see your sincerity, when
I see your efforts, when I see your good intentions, When I
see your changed life, when I see what? The blood. I will pass over you. That's the success of the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. When he shed his blood, everybody
he shed his blood for was saved. He said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. What can wash away my sin? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world. Now let's go another 500 years
during the writings of Isaiah. Behold the Lamb of Isaiah 53, As the sheep before her shears
is dumb, so openeth he not his mouth. Why this silence? Why did the Lord not defend himself
in that mock unjust trial? Why this silence? Because he was guilty. I think of that scripture in
Romans 3 that every mouth might be stopped and all the world
stand guilty before God. He took my sin and he became
guilty of the commission of that sin. No, he didn't sin in himself,
you know that. But when my sin became his sin,
and he owned it as his sin, he became guilty of that sin, and
his mouth was stopped before God. That's why he didn't defend
himself. He actually became guilty of
my sin. The innocent lamb was no longer
innocent, and this is the great mystery of godliness, how God
can be just and justify the ungodly. Behold the lamb of God, of God's
providing. This is God's lamb. This is God
the lamb. Behold him as he approaches John
the Baptist. Behold God's lamb. Every one of those lambs sacrificed
in the Old Testament pointed to this lamb. Behold the lamb
of God. Just as the Passover lamb was
watched for 14 days to make sure there was no blemish, he walked
upon this earth 33 years without blemish. I love to think of his
first 30 years, lived in obscurity, working as a carpenter in a carpenter
shop. And during that time, he never
sinned. He kept God's law perfectly. He entered his three years of
public ministry and he never sinned. Men hated him. He was given an
unjust trial, beaten and tortured. Pilate brings him out before
the crowd. Behold the man with the crown of thorns and
the purple robe. Behold the man, the Lamb of God. He's taken to a cross, flung
down on the ground, nails driven through his hands and feet as
the Lamb of God, the Lamb of God must suffer and die. The
cross is raised up and placed in the stand and there he hangs. Hear his words, the Lamb of God,
Father, forgive them. Beloved, that was not a generic
prayer. Everybody he prayed for was forgiven. Woman, behold thy son. Behold thy mother. He takes care
of his own. Because he's the Lamb of God,
He could look at that thief and say, as the lamb today, thou
shalt be with me in paradise. When God sent darkness over all
the earth, I love to think about how scared everybody was at that
time. What in the world was going on? They knew something was going
on. They didn't understand, but there's one thing the Lord said
from the darkness. My God, my God, why has thou
forsaken me? Why? Because he's the Lamb of
God that takes away the sins of the world. He said from the cross as God's
lamb, I thirst. There's never been thirst like
this thirst as he thirsted for his father. He bowed his mighty head and
said, it is finished. Sin is put away. Justice is satisfied. I did what the Father sent me
to do. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. When he said,
it is finished, they were saved from their sins. And he said,
Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And he bowed his head
and he gave up the ghost. They put a dead body I think of them taking him down
from the cross dead. Lamb has to die, doesn't it? They take down his dead body,
put it in a tomb, and he lays there for three days, dead. Graveyard dead. Graveyard dead. And all of a sudden, His heart begins to pump. His lungs take in air. He opens his eyes. The Lamb of
God is now life. I love to think of him ascending
back to his father. in a glorified body. One difference, though, that
this glorified body has that no other glorified body has,
he still has the scars of his death as God's lamb to remind
everybody in heaven there's only one reason you're here. You know, I can't conceive of
this, but I won't even remember what it's like to be a sinner
when I'm in heaven. Former things are passed away. Behold, all
things are new. I won't remember, but I'll know
this. The only reason I'm there is
because of his scars. That will be a visible reminder
to me continually. Behold the lamb as he's preached.
Peter said, you were not redeemed with corruptible things such
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 or without spot for ordained
by God, but manifest in these last days for you. Paul put it
this way in first Corinthians chapter two, verse two, I determined
not to know anything among you save the lamb of God, Jesus Christ
and him crucified. We preach Christ crucified. And
to the Jews, a stumbling block. Why? That's saying our works
don't even count. I won't have that. That'll lead
me into sin, to say that the blood of Christ is everything
in salvation. Our works don't even, I won't listen to that.
That's a stumbling block. The Greeks, why, that's not gonna
help me live in this life. This is foolishness. This is
not gonna add to my life, but unto them which are called, both
Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and Christ, the
wisdom of God. Don't you love to think of all
the times the Lamb is mentioned in the book of Revelation? 29
times. 29 times we read of the Lamb of
God in the book of Revelation. I love the way John says, there
was no need of the Son, for the Lamb is the light thereof. The only light you and I have
is the Lamb of God, but what a light He is as to how God can
accept me and love me and embrace me and see me as holy, unblameable,
and unreprovable in His sight. How is that? The Lamb of God. We read in Revelation 17, 14
of those who make war with the Lamb, and He overcame them. And it wasn't a hard battle for
him. You see, he's the lamb of God, God the lamb. He overcame
them. Why? Because he is Lord of lords. And he is king of kings. And they that are within are
called, called by the irresistible grace of God, chosen in eternal
election and faithful they all believe. We read in Revelation
14 of the lamb standing on Mount Zion with 144,000 with the voice
of many waters and a great thunder and the harping of harps singing
the new song that no man could learn save the 144,000 which
represents the elect of God. a vast number but an exact number
that cannot be added to or taken from. These are they which were redeemed
from among men. The redeemed, those Christ died
for, not defiled by women. They stayed in the covenant. In their mouth was no guile,
and they are without fault before the throne. Why? Because of the
blood of the Lamb. The only message. the blood of
the lamb. We read of the married supper
of the lamb with his wife, the bride, clothed in fine linen, clean
and white, the righteousness of the saints, which is nothing
less than the righteousness of Christ. Now, in closing, would
you turn with me to Revelation 5? Now, there are seven different
scenes visions in the book of Revelation, and they're given
from different points of view, but I have no doubt that Revelations
5 is talking about the final scene. Revelation 5. John says, And I saw in the right
hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on
the backside, sealed with seven seals. Now, this book is the
book of God's decrees. Written inside and on the front
side and backside means it's totally full. It's totally full,
nothing else. The book of God's decrees. Everything that takes place,
takes place according to the decree of almighty God. There is nothing independent
of the decree of almighty God. Verse two, and I saw a strong
angel. I reckon every angel is a strong
angel, don't you? I saw a strong angel. proclaiming
with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the book and to loose
the seals thereof? And no man in heaven nor in earth,
neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither
to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man
was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to
look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto
me, Weep not. Behold, the lion of the tribe
of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book.
and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and lo,
in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, and in the
midst of the elders, stood the lion of the tribe of Judah, yes,
but look what he's now called, a lamb, as it had been slain,
having seven horns, absolute omnipotence. Seven eyes, absolute
omniscience, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into
all the earth, the Holy Spirit, seven representing his perfection. And this lamb came and, what's
it say? He took the book. He didn't ask for it. As the
equal with the father, he took the book out of the right hand of him
that sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book,
the four beasts and the four and 20 elders fell down before
the lamb. having every one of them harps
and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the
saints. And they sung a new song, saying, thou art worthy to take
the book and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast slain. And here's what that slaying
did. Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every
kindred and tongue and people and nation. and has made us unto
our God kings and priests and we shall reign on the earth.
And I beheld and I heard the voice of many angels round about
the throne and the beasts and the elders and the number of
them was 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands saying
with a loud voice, worthy is the land that was slain. to receive power, and riches,
and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.
And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and
under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that
are in them, heard I saying, blessing, and honor, and glory,
and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the
Lamb forever and ever. And the four beasts said amen,
and the four and 20 elders fell down and worshiped him that liveth
forever and ever. The Lamb of God, this is Joshua's
scarlet thread that runs through every verse of the Bible. This is the worship of eternity
past. This is the worship of eternity
future. And it's the worship of right
now. The Lamb slain. Behold, the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sins of the world. How can my sin be taken away?
the Lamb of God. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for thy Lamb, the Lamb of God, the Lamb who
is God. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
and for his sake that every one of us may behold the Lamb of
God that taketh away the sins of the world. Lord, if we behold him, we have
all the riches and blessings of your grace. Give us grace
to behold Him. In His name we pray, amen.