I've entitled this message, The
Preaching of John the Baptist. Now of all the preachers in the
New Testament, the one I personally probably would feel most uncomfortable
being around would be John the Baptist. He was a very intense
man. When the group came out to hear
him preach, You know what he said to them? Oh, generation
of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? And he did a lot of tearing down.
And just on a personal level, I probably would rather go out
to eat with Paul or Peter than John the Baptist as far as feeling
comfortable. However, John the Baptist was
the only New Testament preacher who was prophesied of in the
Old Testament. That gives us some idea of the
importance of this man. The Lord said, among them that
are born of women, there hath not arisen a greater prophet
than John the Baptist. Wow. What about David? What about Josiah? What about
Isaiah? We could go on and on, but the
Lord said, among them that are born of women, there has not
risen a greater prophet than John the Baptist. And that lets
us know of the importance of this man. He was the cousin of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He was six months older than
Christ. And the scripture says he was
filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. Somebody says,
how's that? I don't know. But he was. And
when his mother came into the presence of Mary while she was
burying the Christ in her womb and he was in the womb of his
mother, the scripture says the babe leaped in her womb when
he knew that he was in the presence of the Christ. Isn't that glorious?
What a man this man is who is the one who God chose to prepare
the way of the Lord Jesus Christ. And verse 24 of our text, when
John had first preached before his coming, this is before the
actual public appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was preaching
before Christ made his first public appearance as a preacher.
when John had first preached before his coming, the baptism
of repentance to all the people of Israel. The baptism of repentance. Mark chapter one, verse four
says the baptism of repentance unto the remission of sins. Now, what is this baptism of
repentance or the baptism of repentance unto the remission
of sins. Does that mean your sins are not gonna be remitted
until you repent of them, and until you deal with your sins,
you're not gonna be forgiven? Well, if it means that, then
you're in trouble. It's that simple. But thank God it doesn't
mean that. You see, everybody thinks there's
something you need to do to achieve the forgiveness of sins. If you
do this, if you stop doing that, and if you start doing this,
You'll be forgiven. You'll be granted the forgiveness
of sins. Now, my dear friends, all that is salvation by works.
That's all it is. The baptism he was speaking of
was a baptism concerning the remission of sins, a repentance,
a change of mind concerning the remission of sins. And how sins
are remitted is illustrated in baptism. Now, when somebody is
baptized, they're saying, here's the only way I can be accepted.
When Christ lived, I lived. When Christ died, I died. My sin was put away. When Christ
was raised from the dead, I was raised from the dead. I was with
him when he lived. I was with him in him when he
died. I was in him when he was raised from the dead. I'm in
him right now, and that's all my salvation. Every bit of it. is right there. And that's what
John was preaching. He wasn't preaching some kind
of message of salvation by works. He was preaching the gospel.
Now, he did not know Christ was going to come until he came,
and then he identified him. Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sins of the world. He saw him. He came to him to
be baptized of him, but his message was a message of the gospel. Now, look what verse 25 says.
and as John fulfilled his course. And that's one of three times
this word is used. Do you remember when the Apostle
Paul said, none of these things move me, neither count I my life
dear to myself, that I might finish my course with joy. and the ministry which I've received
of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God. And he said at the very end,
in 2 Timothy chapter four, the last epistle he wrote, I've finished
my course, I've kept the faith. I've fought a good fight, I've
finished my course, I've kept the faith. Now, don't think for
a second that you and I do not have a course to finish. Every
one of us do. I want to be able to say the
same thing Paul did, don't you? And then he said, in verse 25,
whom think ye that I am? You know, when any time someone
comes across in a powerful way, they think, well, who's he? Who's
he? And I guess they were thinking
maybe this is the Christ, the promised Messiah, the one we've
been waiting for. He said, who do you think I am?
I love his summary of himself. I'm not. I'm not. Paul said, though I be nothing,
anybody that's worth anything knows they're nothing. And that's what John the Baptist
said. He said, he must increase, I must I am not, but behold,
there cometh one after me whose shoes of his feet I am unworthy
to unloose. I'm not even worthy to untie
his shoes. Now let's go to where that said
in John chapter one. As a matter of fact, we'll spend
the rest of our time in John chapter one. Verse 26, John answered them
saying, I baptize with water. John 1, 26. I baptize with water. But there standeth one among
you. And I love the way he says this. You don't know him. You don't know him. He it is who coming after me
is preferred before me, whose shoelatch I am not worthy to
unloose. And look back up in verse six
of this chapter. There was a man sent from God
whose name was John. There is such a thing as a man
actually being sent of God. How shall they preach except
they be sent? And his name was John. Verse seven, the same came for
a witness to bear witness of the light. I love the way the Lord Jesus
Christ is called the light, don't you? He's called the light in
the creation story. In Genesis 1-3, light be and
light was. He is the only light as to how
God can have anything to do with somebody like me or you. He is
the light. The same came for witness, to
bear witness of the light that all men through him, that all
through him might believe. That was his purpose. You know,
in gospel preaching, here's what we want. We want folks to believe,
don't we? That's it. We want folks to believe, and
that's why he came. Verse eight, he was not that
light. By his own admission, he was
nothing. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness
of that light, the Lord Jesus Christ that was the true light,
which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Now, does that mean he lights
every man without exception or every man without distinction?
He lights all kinds of men, rich, poor, black, white, educated,
uneducated, doesn't matter what country you're from. He's got
a people out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation. And he came as a light. for the
world. I love the way he calls himself
the light of the world. I don't care where you are, the
only light you're gonna have is him. He is that light. Now, look down in verse 15. Here's
John again. John, bear witness of him. You know, one of the scriptures
that I would love to Beset of me is what was said
of John. He did no miracle, but all the
things that he spoke concerning this man were true. There's no greater commendation,
is there? John bear witness of him and
cried saying, this was he of whom I spake. He that cometh
after me is preferred before me. He was before me. He's talking about the eternal
existence of the Lord Jesus Christ, the preexistent, eternal Christ,
the image of the invisible God, God the Son. That's who he's
speaking of. He was. He eternally was before
me. And this is his comment on John
one in the beginning, verse one, in the beginning was the word
and the word was with God and the word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. Now I love, I don't understand
eternity, but I like thinking about the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's eternal. He never began to be. Nobody
ever made Him. He's the eternal, only begotten
Son of God. And this is who John comes preaching. He was eternally. He's the eternal
I am that I am. Aren't you thankful that He never
changes? People go up, people go down,
people go to the side, people all over the place, but not Him.
Not Him. I'm all over the place, not Him.
Jesus Christ the same the eternal was the eternal isness of God
Jesus Christ the same yesterday today and forever the object
of divine worship now let's go on reading verse 16 now I don't
know whether this is John the Apostle John's speaking at this
point or or John the Baptist it doesn't matter because it's
saying the same thing it's not real clear to me who's speaking
at this this might have been John the Baptist But we read
in verse 16, and of his fullness have we all received and grace
for grace. Now it pleased the father. What
pleases the father? That's what I'm interested in.
What pleases the father? It pleased the father that in
him should all fullness dwell. Does that please you? In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And then the next phrase, and
I wish I could preach on this the way it ought to be preached
on it. I can't, but I can say this. Grace is because of grace. Grace for grace. Of His fullness
have we all received in grace for grace. And when you receive
His grace, it does not diminish His grace in the least. Grace is the cause of grace. The reason you receive grace
is because He gave it. And even it takes the grace of
God to receive the grace. You wouldn't receive it if He
didn't give you the grace to do it. Grace. for grace. Verse 17, for the law was given
by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. Law's true, but you know the
law, I love God's law. I wouldn't in any way speak disrespectfully
of God's law, but God's law never saved anybody. Christ kept the law. And he put
away the sins of his people. And this is the truth. The law
was given by Moses, but grace and truth come by Jesus Christ. He is the truth. Verse 18, no man has seen God
at any time. The only begotten son. Now that is used mostly by John. Matter of fact, I don't know
whether anybody else uses that term, but John, but the only
begotten son. Thou art my son, said by David
in Psalm 2. This day have I begotten thee. And that's a reference to his
resurrection, his divine begetting. But once again, here's one of
those things, I wish I could explain this, but I can't. But
I know this, the beginning of Christ, the resurrection of Christ
is eternal. It's eternal. You know, Christ
is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
but you know what else he is? He's the Lamb raised from the
foundation of the world. And my salvation has always been
in him. eternal begetting of the Son
of God. It's not something that happened
in time, although it did, but it's a fact. Irrespective of
time, the resurrection of Christ is a declaration of who God is,
and all my hope, every bit of it, is that he was raised from
the dead. Don't need anything else. That's what I'm, I'm putting
all my eggs in that basket. He's the only begotten. of the Father, and I love the
way it says, which is in the bosom of the Father. He hath declared him the place
of intimacy at all times in the bosom of the Father. He hath
declared him. Now listen to me. All me and
you ever gonna see of God is Jesus Christ. He said, he that
hath seen me hath seen the Father. He didn't say, it says, if he
seen the father, he said, he that hath seen me hath seen the
father. Verse 19, and this is the record
of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to
ask him, who art thou? Now, These are the same people
that heard him. I mean, he said, you generation
of snakes, you vipers. Can you imagine somebody talking
to you like that? And they didn't know who he was. Where do you
get this authority? Where do you get off on talking
to us like this, calling us a brood of vipers? Where does this come
from? Who are you? Who do you think
you are? Where's your authority come from? And this is the record. Jews
sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who art
thou? And he confessed, and died not, but confessed, I'm not the
Christ. Now, here's what goes on in true
preaching, confessing and denying not, and confessing again. He confessed, he denied not,
but he confessed. Now, there's something public
about confession. And it means literally to speak the same thing. I speak the same thing God does,
I don't deny what he says, I confess. That's what happens when true
preaching is going on. There's confession, there's not denying,
not taking the edge off, confessing all over again. He said, I am
not the Christ. And they asked him, verse 21,
what then? Are you Elijah? He said, I'm
not. Are you that prophet, that prophet
that was spoken of in Deuteronomy? No. I love the simplicity of
that answer. Then said they unto him, who
are you? That we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? Now he could have said, I'm the
fellow that was prophesied in Malachi and Isaiah, and he knew
he was. He knew exactly who he was. He
was the one who was, I've been filled with the Holy Ghost from
my mother's womb. He could have said those things, but he didn't,
did he? I would have. If I was in that
position, listen to who I am. Not anybody with any wisdom.
John the Baptist. What does he say? I'm the voice. And he quotes Isaiah 40 verse
3, I'm the voice of one crying in the wilderness. And I think
that is so significant. If you were going to hear from
God, you weren't going to hear from him in the temple. You were going to hear a voice
crying in the wilderness. He may have had no connection
with human religion, with accepted religion, with what John calls
over and over again, the Jews' religion. I love the way John
calls it that, the Jews' religion. He had no connection with that
at all. He was the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make
straight the way of the Lord as said the prophet Isaiah. Verse 24, and they which were
sent were of who? The Pharisees. Bible has a lot to say about
the Pharisees. That is my natural religion. That is your natural
religion. I think it's interesting, they
didn't come about until a hundred years before the birth of Christ.
Nobody had ever heard of a Pharisee, but there was this special religious
group and they were brought in to teach us the gospel, the way
the Lord dialogued with them and what he had to say to them.
Now, they that sent them were of the Pharisees, and they asked
him and said unto him, why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that
Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet? When John answered them,
saying, I baptize with water. Go into the water, come back
up. No one was ever saved by that
action, he understood that. I baptize with water. But there standeth one among
you, whom you know not. He it is, who coming after me,
is preferred before me, whose shoe latchet I am not worthy
to unloose. Now these things were done in
Bethabara, beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next
day, John seeth Jesus coming unto him. And I know why he was
coming to John the Baptist. We know that from the other gospel
accounts. He was coming to be baptized. Remember when he comes
up to John, John knew who he was. And he said, I need to be
baptized of thee, comest thou to me? Suffer it to be so now. What if the Lord asked you to
baptize him? You reckon you would feel kind of awkward and unfit
for that? Of course you would. John did
too. He said, comest thou to me? I need to be baptized with
thee. Suffer to be so now, for thus it becometh us. You know who's included in that
us? Every single one of God's elect, me. Thus it becometh us to fulfill
all righteousness. The next day, John sees Jesus
coming unto him, and we know why, to be baptized. Now somebody
says, why in the world did the Lord need to be baptized? Well,
what does baptism signify? Signifies one thing, union with
Jesus Christ. That's the teaching of baptism.
When I confess Christ in believer's baptism, I say he's all my hope. My only hope is being united
to him. When he lived, I lived. When he died under God's wrath,
I died. When he went to the tree, I went
to the tree. When he was buried, I was buried. When he was raised
from the dead, I was raised with him. That is my confession. I'm confessing my union with
him is my only hope. When he was baptized, he's confessing
his union with us. Isn't that wonderful? The next day John seeth Jesus
coming unto him and saith, behold. Stop there. Faith is by looking, not by doing. Get doing out of your thinking.
Faith is by beholding, looking unto Jesus, the author and the
finisher. of our faith. Behold, look, look
unto me, and be ye saved all the ends of the earth, for I
am God, and beside me is none else. Looking, behold. Behold, and I love what John
calls him, the Lamb of God. Now I've already brought out
how he's called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
And if you look in the book of Revelation, what is Christ called
the most? 28 times, 28 times the Lamb of
God. I love it when John is weeping
because nobody's found worthy to open up the book in Revelation
chapter five. And one of the elders said, weep
not. The lion of the tribe of Judah
is worthy to open the book and loose the seven seals thereof.
And I looked, and behold, a lamb as it had been slain. Now this
is in heaven. This is what you see in heaven.
A lamb as it had been slain. I love it there in the garden.
Adam and Eve shivering in their, what's gonna happen? He's gonna
kill us, he's gonna put, we've disobeyed God. They tried to
cover themselves in the fig leaves. The Lord slew a lamb and covered
them. Cain and Abel. Abel comes into
God's presence with a sacrificial lamb. He was saying by that,
I deserve death, and the only way I can be accepted by you
is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the coming lamb. Did
he understand that? Yes, he did. By faith, Abel offered
unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained
witness that he was righteous, the Lord testifying of his gifts.
He, by it being dead yet, speaketh. Yeah, Abel knew exactly what
he was saying. What did Cain say? Cain said, I don't deserve
to die. I'm not that bad. I'm gonna bring
this fruit that I've worked hard for and God will accepted that. No, he wouldn't. But oh, he had
respect to Abel and to his offering. The infinite respect the Lord
has for his son. Oh, the infinite respect for
his blood. What about when Abraham and Isaac
are walking up the Mount and Isaac said, see, here's wood,
here's fire. Where's the lamb for the burnt
offering? We can't come into God's presence without a lamb.
We know that. We can't worship God without
a lamb. What are we doing? Here we are
coming up the mat. My son, God will provide himself
a lamb. He's the one who does the providing.
You can't provide anything God would accept. He's the one who
provides for himself. God can't do anything for you
until he first does something for himself and satisfies his
own justice and makes a way to save you in a way that honors
his holy law and his infinite holiness. God provides himself
as the Lamb. He is the Lamb. Remember that Paschal Lamb in
Exodus chapter 13 where God said, when I see the blood, I will
pass over you. the lamb of the great day of
atonement, pictured in the scapegoat where the scripture says the
great high priest laid his hands on the head of the scapegoat,
the transference of guilt, the transference of sin. The lamb
bore those sins and took them away. The lamb of Isaiah 53. This is the message of the scripture.
This is what heaven's gonna be all about. Somebody gets tired
of this, you wouldn't like heaven. You wouldn't even be comfortable
there because that's all everyone is worshiping. is the lamb of
God that, and I like this, that takes away the sins of the world. Now, people always get stuck
on the world. I like it. I like it. I like that scripture, God so
loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. I love
that scripture. He's the propitiation for our
sins, but not for ours only. but also the sins of the whole
world. He's called the savior of the
world. He's called the light of the
world. And somebody says, well, that
means, and just generally, when anybody says that, I think, well,
what are we getting right here now? But let me say this. He's the savior of the world.
If you're saved, he saved you. Now, you can't possibly think
that he's the savior of people in hell, because he's not. He
didn't save them, He didn't die for them. You can't, there ain't
gonna be anybody in hell that He died for. But the world means
He's redeemed a people out of every kindred, tribe, people
and tongue, whatever kind of person. He's the Savior of the
world. If you're saved, it's because He saved you. He's the
only Savior. And what He does is I love, He
takes away the sins of the world. He takes them away. just like
that scapegoat took him away. He takes away the sins of the
world. My sin has been separated from
me. Christ took it away and I bear
it no more. The Lamb of God. Verse 30, this is he of whom
I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me. You know, the father prefers
the son, doesn't he? And this is also speaking and
mainly speaking of his eternal existence. He was, he eternally
was before I was ever around. He knew that this is the Lamb
of God. This is he of whom I said after
me, cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before
me, and I knew him not. What he is talking about, you
know, the Lord Jesus, the eternal Son of God, just like, look like
the average Joe. He, there wasn't anything about
him, his humanity that would make you think, that must be
the Son of God. Not at all. He has no form nor comeliness.
And when we see him, there's no beauty that we should desire
him. No one could recognize, including John the Baptist. Here
he comes. He didn't know who he was until God said, this is
him. This is my son. He testified. John heard that from heaven.
This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. My son is that
one the spirit will come down and abide on like a dove. John
saw this. I knew him not, but that he should
be made manifest to Israel. And you know, he is manifest
to Israel, isn't it? All of the Israel of God is gonna
know him. He's manifest to Israel, therefore
am I come baptizing with water. But John bear record saying,
I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode
upon him. I knew him not, but he that sent
me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom
thou shalt see the spirit descending and remaining on him, the same
is he which baptizes with the Holy Ghost. Now what that's talking
about is regeneration. That's what the baptism of the
Holy Spirit is, immersed in the Holy Spirit. It's one thing to
be immersed in water. It's another thing to be born
of the Spirit, immersed in the Spirit of God. You see, when
you're immersed in the Spirit of God, you see who He is. Now that's being immersed in
the Spirit. You see who he is. And when you see who he is, there
ain't gonna be any doubt in your mind about who you are. And you
see that he truly is all in salvation. You see that. Because of the
one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. And then he said in verse
34, and I saw And I bear record, this is John's
testimony, that this is the Son of God. Now this is what faith is. Believing that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. Well, everybody believes that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. A lot of folks do. Well, I'm
talking about the God of the Bible. I'm talking about the
living God. I'm talking about the sovereign
God. I'm talking about the creator. I'm talking about the omnipotent
God. I'm talking about the omniscient God. I'm talking about the independent
God. I'm talking about the immutable God. I'm talking about the God
of the Bible. Jesus Christ is God the Son,
fully equal with God the Father, the Son of God. When the Ethiopian
eunuch said, what hinders me from being baptized? If you believe
with all your heart you may, I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. You believe that? You believe
He's the Creator? You believe He's got the Son?
I think of the thief. His buddy is railing on Christ
and he looked at that one nailed to a tree and said, don't you
fear God. This one between us, nailed to
a tree, is God. Don't you fear God, seeing you're
in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, we receive
the due reward of our deeds. But this man who is God, this
man hath done nothing amiss. Now you know he's God and you
know he's never sinned. He's done nothing amiss. And
then he looked at that one hanging on the tree and said, Lord. He knew he was the Lord. You
see, this is what faith is. It's knowing who he is. That
is faith. Lord. You're not gonna stay on
this cross. You're gonna come back as a mighty
reigning king in your kingdom. Oh Lord, remember me when you
come into your kingdom. You remember that Roman centurion
when he saw the earthquake and the rocks rent and graves opened,
he said, surely this man was the son of God. That's faith. That's what John bear witness
to. Verse 35, again the next day
after John stood and two of his disciples. Look upon Jesus as he walked,
he saith. What? Same message, isn't it? Behold the Lamb of God. Now, this is a message not only
that bears repeating. Paul put it this way in 1 Corinthians
2, verse 2, I determined not to know anything among you, save
Jesus Christ and him crucified. Same message. Verse 37, and the
two disciples heard him speak. They heard what was being said,
and what did they do? They followed. Jesus. They left
John. You reckon John was upset about
that? Oh, he was so happy. They followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and saw them
falling and saith unto them, What seek ye? And they said unto
him, Rabbi, which is being interpreted, Master, where dwellest thou?
I want to be where you are. That's what I want. I want to
be where you are. the preaching of John the Baptist.
Now, we could read, I intended on going on to John chapter three,
but I'm not going to. May we be like John the Baptist,
finishing our course, preaching and believing the Lamb of God. Let's pray.