Returning tonight to John 1,
verse 29. Now there are two great battlefields
on which the theologians have fought for years. These are the
two battlefields. I've given this a little thought,
and I believe I'm right. Most people will agree to some
extent on God's power, God's sovereignty, maybe not completely,
but to some extent. And most people will agree to
some extent on the creative, creative work of God. And most
to some extent will agree on death, judgment, heaven, and
hell. But these are the two great battlefields
on which the theologians have fought and wrangled and are still
fighting. And this is where you will get
the most static if you mention these two things. First of all,
the depravity of man. And secondly, the atonement of
the Lord Jesus Christ. the efficacy of it, the sufficiency
of it, and the extent of it. That's the two great battlefields.
That's where men in religious circles shed the most blood.
What happened in the garden? What happened back yonder when
Adam sinned? What happened when Adam fell? What effect did Adam's sin and
Adam's fall have on me? To what extent have I been affected
by Adam's transgression? Is it true that I was rendered
totally unable spiritually to come to God, to want to come
to God, to seek God, to please God? Am I dead in my trespasses
and sin, the depravity of man? And secondly, what happened back
yonder on Calvary's cross? What really took place when Jesus
Christ died? Was He a martyr or was He a substitute? Was he an example or was he a
sin offering and a sacrifice? What happened when Christ died
on that cross? That's the battlefield. That's
the offense of our message. That is the heart of the gospel.
That's the foundation of the gospel that God blesses to the
salvation of sinners, a man A man doesn't know the gospel unless
he knows these two things, what happened in the garden and what
happened on the cross. And these are two things that
preachers don't deal with very much because they know that this
is the battlefield. This is where the war is being
waged, what happened in the garden and what happened on the cross.
I don't intend to spend a lot of time tonight on the depravity
of man, on what happened in the garden. Although, although, a
proper knowledge of myself will lead me to a right understanding
of my Savior. A proper knowledge of myself
will lead me to a right understanding of my Savior. For he saved the
worst among you, when he saved, of what? A wretch like me. If I do not see man's righteousness
in its proper light, I will not view the righteousness of Christ
in its proper light. If I do not see the inability
of the sinner, I will not treasure, I will not treasure. the sufficiency
of Christ. Now, let man's condition be determined
by three witnesses. The Bible says, Let every word
be established by the mouth of two or three witnesses. Let man's
condition by nature, the depravity of human flesh, be determined
by three witnesses. First of all, the Word of God.
The Scripture says, There is none righteous, there is none
that understandeth There is none that seeketh after God. They
are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Our Lord said He looked down
from heaven and saw that every imagination of man's heart was
evil continually. That's what the Bible said. The
Bible says that our righteousnesses are filthy rags. The Bible says
from the sole of our feet to the top of our heads there's
nothing sound in us. The Bible says that our thoughts
are not God's thoughts and our ways are not God's ways. The
Bible says in the flesh no man can please God. The Bible paints
a black dismal, desperate picture of flesh, separated from God,
alienated from God, without God, without hope, without Christ,
without help. Aliens, strangers from the covenant,
enemies of God, ungodly, children of wrath, following the wishes
and the will of the power, the prince of the power of this air.
That's what the Bible says about man. As in Adam all die, in Adam
death, judgment, condemnation passed upon all men. That's what
happened in the garden. That's what the Word of God says
about man's lost condition. And then I call in the witness
experience and history. When you read in the history
of this world the brutality and the immorality and the evil of
men. When you look around you and
see the greed and the hate and the selfishness and the spirit
of Antichrist, you have to say that man by nature is evil. The only thing that keeps man's
evil in check, two things. Number one, God's restraining
grace, and number two, the magistrates and officers of man's law. You remove even the magistrates,
you remove the guns held in the hands of policemen, and any religious
town in America will turn into a Wild West open town of sin. and depravity and murder. And
the third witness I call in is my own conscience and your conscience. In the book of Job, chapter 9,
Job said, If I justify myself, my own mouth would condemn me. If I stood up here, he said,
and told you that I'm perfect, look at it, Job 9.20, my own
mouth would prove me perverse. So my own conscience is a witness
against me. Not only the word of God, not
only history and experience, but my own conscience. If I justify
myself, if I say I have no sin, the truth's not in me. If I say
I have not sinned, I deceive myself and I make God a liar.
all the depravity, all the rottenness, all the wretchedness, all the
sinfulness, all the guilt, all the filth that lives in the heart
of every man by nature. But this is denied not only in
the pulpit, it's denied in the pew. And I doubt, I doubt that
there are very many of us who claim to be Bible students who
claim to be believers in Christ, who claim to be children of God,
who claim to be on our road to glory, I doubt there are very
many of us that really understand what we are by nature, and how
vile and polluted we are in the sight of God Almighty, what wretched
creatures we are. But that's the second battlefield,
and this is where I want to spend my time tonight, is on the remedy,
not the disease. I want to talk about the cure,
not the cause. I want to talk about the hope
and not the despair. While you're over there in the
book of Job, in Job chapter 34, while you're looking at Job,
turn to Job 33. Here's a scripture that I looked
at two or three weeks ago and just sat and looked at it. And
I looked at it a long time, and I thought, what a message, what
a point, what an emphasis, what a delight, what a joy, what a
treasure. In Job 33, 34, then he is gracious
unto him and said, Deliver him from going down to the pit, for
I have found a ransom. Deliver him from going down to
the pit, which his sins deserve. Deliver him from going down into
the hole of darkness, which his sins merit. Deliver him from
being separated from God's presence and cast into outer darkness,
where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Deliver him from being
chained and cast out yonder into everlasting nothingness, to be
separated from God forever. because of his guilt and his
fear. Why? Why deliver him? I have
found an atonement. I have found a ransom. And that's what John is talking
about in our text. When he stood there beside the
River Jordan in John 1, 29, he said, Look over there! Look!
Behold! The Lamb of God, the ultimate
sin offering, the effectual sin offering. Behold the Lamb of
God! I've found the ransom, I've found an atonement. The atonement
is the highest work of the Heavenly Father. God is great in creation,
but He's greater in redemption. The Father is great in judgment,
but He's greater in grace. The Father is great in divine
providence, but He's greater in everlasting mercy. For God
so loved, and this is the height of His love, And this is the
height of His mercy, and this is the height of His grace. God
so loved the world that He gave His Son. That He gave His Son. The atonement of Jesus Christ
is the climax of God's creative work. The atonement of Jesus
Christ is the highest work of the Father. in all the history
of the universe. And the atonement is the crowning
work of Christ. Paul said in Philippians chapter
2, verse 7, in Philippians chapter 2, verse 7, the Apostle Paul
said, he made himself of no reputation. He took upon him the form of
a servant. He was made in the likeness of
men. and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself
and became obedient unto death, even, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, because of that, God
also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is
above every that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow
in heaven, in earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue
shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. To the glory of God. Christ is to be praised, eternally
praised for his riches. Oh, the riches of Christ. He
set a cattle on a thousand hills. the gold and silver in the mines,
in the heart of the earth, the stars, the moon, the sun, the
wealth of all heaven is mine. He's to be praised for his riches,
but he's more to be praised for his poverty. He who was rich
because of his love and because of his grace and because of his
mercy, he who was rich took on himself the poverty the utter
poverty of human nature. He became one with those guilty,
filthy, fallen sons of Adam. He came down here from the highest
of creation, above it all, having made all things, to the lowest
point, fallen human nature. Our Lord is to be praised for
His glory, but more to be praised when he made himself of no glory,
no reputation. Ten million angels fall at his
feet and praise him in his glory. But our Lord's greatest glory
is when he came down here and made himself of no glory, no
reputation. He's to be praised for his wisdom.
And all the words that have fallen from his lips that angels are
incapable of speaking. The wisdom that he speaks, but
he's more to be praised when he stood before Pilate and opened
not his mouth. He's to be praised being one
with the Father. Thought it not robbery to be
equal with God? But he's more to be praised when
he came down here to this earth and hanging on that awful cross,
for our sin was separated from the Father. When he cried, and
nobody can say it like it ought to be said, My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? Yes, the atonement is the highest
work of the Father. and the atonement is the crowning
work of the Son. If a man dedicated his life and
ministry to preaching nothing but the atonement, his ministry
will be well worthwhile. If a man dedicated his ministry
to preaching nothing but what Christ did for sinners on this
earth and on the cross, his ministry would serve richly. the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet I don't hear anybody preach
about it. They talk about what people ought to do for God, and
they talk about what people ought to give up for God. But they
don't talk much about what Christ did for sinners, and what Christ
gave up to redeem our soul. Atonement. Atonement. the highest work of the Father."
God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. God was
in Christ, for God so loved that He sent His Son into this world. And Christ said of that hour,
that matchless hour of His mercy and death, He said, for this
cause came I into the world, the very cause for which I came
was to die. And yet I don't hear people preaching
about it. The crowning work of Christ,
He was born crucified. He sent His face like a flint
towards Jerusalem to die. Moses talked about it. Abraham
talked about it. Isaiah talked about it. David
talked about it. Everybody in the Bible talked
about it, but nobody much talks about it now. Paul said, I'm
determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. Maybe we don't see the glory
of it. Maybe we don't see the necessity of it. Maybe we don't
see the efficacy of it. Maybe we don't see the weight
of it, or perhaps we're ashamed of it, or perhaps we'd rather just tickle
the ears of our heroes. I was reading in there in the
study a while ago a sermon subject by a preacher, a well-known preacher. In fact, he thought so much of
this sermon, he put it on a record and sold thousands of them. The
title of the message is, Is There Really a Curse on the Kennedy
Family? I thought, under God, what did
he preach about? Where did he get his text? Where
did he read it in the Bible? How can he answer it yes or no?
What profit will there be to anybody that hears it? Wouldn't
it have been something if he'd preached on the curse that's
really on the human race because of Adam's fall? Wouldn't it be
something if he'd preached on the curse that's on the human
race because they tried in their father Adam to dethrone God? The curse that's on the human
race because they nailed God's Son to a cross. Wouldn't it have been something
if he had preached about the curse from which we have been delivered
by Christ's death on Calvary? He was made a curse for us. God sent his Son made under the
law to deliver us from the curse of the law. But preachers, this generation heap to themselves
preachers having itching ears. that turns away their hearts
from the truth. The atonement, the atonement,
that's the highest work of the Father. The atonement, that's
the crowning work of Christ. The atonement, that's the primary
work of the Holy Spirit. Christ said when he's come, the
Spirit of truth, he's not going to talk about himself. Well,
who's he going to talk about, Lord? He's going to talk about
me, Christ said. I hear preachers, and this same
preacher had a sermon on another record, how to be baptized with
the Holy Ghost. Man, we need to be baptized in
Christ. The Holy Spirit doesn't talk
about Himself. The Holy Spirit doesn't exalt
Himself. The Holy Spirit doesn't call
attention to Himself. The Holy Spirit turns men's eyes
to Calvary. to look on Christ, who was crucified
for our sins. That's why He's come. Christ
said, when He is come, He will not speak of Himself. He shall
take the things of mine, and He'll show them to you. And He's
going to talk about Christ. Paul said, when it pleased God,
who separated me from my mother's womb, to reveal His Son in me. His Son. And then, my friend,
the atonement of Christ is the glad tidings to the sinner. The angels came down here one
time. And you know, brother, if my telephone rings and somebody
says, this is Western Union, I pick up my ears. Or somebody
comes to the door. I go to the door, the doorbell
rings, or somebody knocks, and I go to the door, and there stands
a boy with a pencil behind his ear and an official cap on, you
know, with a yellow telegram. Uh-oh, something important. Uh-oh,
something important. Or I go down to the post office,
and there's a little card in my box that says, You've got
a registered letter. Come to the window and sign for
it. Uh-oh, something unusual, something important. But one
day back yonder, two thousand years ago, the Heavenly Father
sent some angels down here to this earth. You take this message
the Father sent directly to those shepherds down there on that
hillside, and you tell them, we bring you good news. We bring
you glad tidings. We bring you good news, glad
tidings of great joy unto you as born in the city of David.
a Savior. Oh, I've found a ransom. I've
found a ransom. I wish somebody would write a
song on that. I've found a ransom. Don't let him go down to the
pit. I've found a ransom. Don't let
him be plunged into darkness. I've found a ransom. The angel
said unto you is born a Savior. God sent a Savior. That's the
best news that an old sinner can hear. God has sent a Savior. You don't deserve it, and you
may not on this earth ever come to the place where you appreciate
it. But, oh, boy, when you get to glory and see, not through
a glass darkly, but face to face, O my soul, then we shall know
as we have been And we're going to see what we were, and what
God saved us from. And we're going to see Him who
was made a sacrifice by our sin, and we're going to fall at His
feet. God talked about rewards in heaven. Oh my soul, you don't
deserve a reward. That's the silliest thing I ever
had to listen to. How big a mansion I'm going to
have. How many crowns I'm going to have stacked on my unworthy
head. I don't want any crowns. The
crowns belong at His feet. His feet. Unto Him who loved
us from our sins. Rewards are for people who are
still playing with toys. Rewards are for folks who don't
know what they are. Rewards are for people who can't
see what they really deserve. unto Him who loved us and washed
us from our sins in His own blood. Unto Him be the glory, the majesty,
and the dominion, and the power, both now and forever, as long
as everlasting." I want to look at four things in this John 1
29 quickly. First of all, his title. His
title, behold, the Lamb, the Lamb of God. I see two things
about that. First of all, He's appointed
by God to be our atonement. I'm interested in this. He's
the Lamb of God. All the lambs in the Old Testament
were but types. All the lambs in the Old Testament
were but figures, pictures. They could never, with the blood
of those sacrifices, take away sin. Turn to Hebrews chapter
10. Let's look at this. Hebrews chapter
10, it says in verse 4, in verse 4, it is not possible that the
blood of bulls and goats could take away sin. All those lambs,
all the blood of bulls and goats on Jewish altars free, all of
it, rivers of it. A whole sea of animal blood cannot
take away sin or remove the guilty stain. Turn on over to verse
10, but this man, verse 12, but this man, the Lamb of God, God's
appointed not the Lamb of Abel, not the Lamb of Isaac, not the
Lamb of Abraham, the Lamb of God. This man, after he offered
one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down on the right hand of
God. Verse 14, for by one offering. Abraham brought a bushel of them.
Moses brought a bushel of them. Oh, Aaron and Levi, the sons
of Levi yonder in the tabernacle under God, they must have sacrificed
ten million animals, and none of them could put away one sin.
But brother, this man, by one sacrifice, by one offering, by
the shedding of his blood, on one occasion he hath perfected
forever and ever them that are sanctified. He's the Lamb of
God. He's not Abraham's lamb. He's
God's lamb. He's the Father's lamb. He's
not Abel's lamb. He's the Father's lamb. John
said, look at that. There's God's lamb. That do make
a difference. That's God's lamb, picked out
by the Father. ordained of the Father, selected
by the Father, appointed by the Father, sent of the Father. That's God's Lamb, fella, God's
Lamb, Jesus Christ. And His atonement not only is
an appointed atonement, it's a blood atonement. Turn to Leviticus
17, verse 11. I want to show you two things
here, and I want you to get this now. Leviticus 17, verse 11. This is what I wish Billy Graham
would preach on the television. Oh boy, I heard him the other
night. Light a candle and pass it on. Light a candle and pass it on. Boy, your candle's been put out
a long time ago. You need to come to the fire
that's on the altar of Calvary. In Leviticus 1711, for the life
of the flesh is in the blood. That's where it is. It's not
on the mourner's bench. It's not in the baptismal pool.
It's not in the preacher's hand. It's not in your decision. It's
not in walking down an aisle. The life of your flesh is in
the blood. What can wash away my sin? Nothing
but the blood. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood. It's in the blood. I've given
it to you on the altar, the blood of Christ. to make an atonement
for your souls. It's the blood. Without the shedding
of blood, there's no forgiveness. It's the blood that maketh atonement
for the soul. It's the blood. Can't preach
that on national TV, because that'd upset some of those liberals,
you know, that don't believe in the blood. He can't afford
to preach sad because that upsets some folks that don't believe
in the sacrifice on Calvary. But that's the only thing God
will use to save a sinner. That's the only thing. Now this
is the second thing. Now I want you to see this. When Cain came
to bring his offering, what made God mad? What turned the wrath
of God against Cain? You say he brought the wrong
offering. That's true. But there was something that
made him bring the wrong offering. There's something that made him
bring it. And you know what it was? Cain ignored the death penalty,
which sin deserves. That's what he ignored. Abel
went out and got a lamb, and brought that lamb and cut its
throat. and shed its blood and put that
dead lamb on the altar. Abel was saying, My sins deserve
death. My sins deserve death. Sin bringeth forth death. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. Sin's wages, the wages of sin
is death. King said, It ain't so. It ain't
so. I'll bring me some fruits and
vegetables." They had a feast of first fruits. They had the
feast where they brought the corn and the wheat and things
like that. But, brother, the atonement ain't
got nothing to do with corn and wheat. It's death. It's blood. Keynes says, I don't believe
sin deserves death. I don't believe it demands the
blood. I don't believe it's the blood
that makes atonement. And God was angry. And that's
what these pictures are ignoring. They're ignoring the death penalty.
Brother, if I believe my sins deserve death, I'm going to look
to the death of Christ to put away my sins. Without the shedding
of blood, there's no atonement. There's no remission. Look at
John 1.29 again. Behold the Lamb of God. His title,
the Lamb of God. God's Lamb. God's slain Lamb. God's sacrificial Lamb. God's
Lamb that shed His blood. The blood cleanseth. The blood
purifies. The blood giveth life. And then
look at His work. He takes away sin. Behold the Lamb of God. And if
you believe, That He saved the worst among you, when He saved
a wretch like me. You'll be mighty interested in
these three words here, four words. Take away sin. Taketh away the sin. Taketh away
the sin. Oh, He taketh away the sin. The
reason God's angry with us is sin. The reason death and sin,
death and judgment and disease and all these things are upon
us is sin. The reason the canons of heaven
are turned against us is sin! The reason we're on our way to
hell is sin! But he takes away the sin. Well, that's my only problem.
I've got to do something about my sins. I've got to have my
sins taken away. And there's nothing so difficult
to put away as sin. Now, in the summertime when the
peaches come in, I like peaches. I'm usually pretty messy eating
one. I'll get out my handkerchief, you know, and I'll wipe the peach
juice off my hand, you know. My wife said, that won't come
out. Don't do that. Peach stain won't come out. I've heard that for 26 years.
I still don't believe that. But that's what she says. Peach
stain won't come out. Can't wash it out. You can't
scrape it out. You can't get it out, no way. Well, boy, you think peach stain's
hard to put away, you try sin. Sin is difficult to put away. Sin's against God. Sin is God's
law. Sin is a stain that's there to
stay. And you can't wash it away with
this water. Now, you can take an old sinner and stick him in
there, a dry sinner, and he'll come up a wet sinner. But that's
not going to take it away. You can get down on your knees
and pray until, as somebody said, hell freezes over, and you won't
move one sin. Not one sin. And you can join
the church and work yourself in what they say church work
all your life, and you're not going to put away any sin. The
Hebrew sacrifices couldn't do it. The religious ceremonies
couldn't do it. Reformation won't do it. Even
the fires of hell won't put away sin, won't burn away the stain. He that's filthy, the scripture
says, let him be filthy still. Fire purifies, not the sinner. But fire purifies, not the sinner. The fires of hell won't purify
a black heart. But I know who can. Behold the
Lamb of God that can take it away. Look at Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 9 again. Hebrews
9. He taketh away sin. In Hebrews chapter 9, verse 26,
it says in the last line, Once in the end of this world hath
he appeared. He come down here. And he came
down here to put away sin. He came down here to do what
the law couldn't do. He came down here to do what
man can't do. He came down here to do what
religious ceremonies won't do. He came down here to do what
the bulls and goats and their blood can't do. He came down
here to do what is impossible with men, to put away sin. To put it away. Put away its
guilt. who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect. You can search through heaven
and through earth and through hell, and you cannot find one
who can bring a charge against a person for whom Christ died,
because He has effectually and sufficiently and eternally put
away sin. He put away its guilt. He put
away its penalty. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ, not to them who made a decision,
to them who are in Christ. Not to them who are serving God.
There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ, who are washed in the blood,
who are cleansed by the blood, who have a blood atonement to
put away their penalty. and to take away their defilement.
Listen to this. In the book of Zechariah, over
here in Zechariah chapter 3, he said, I saw Joshua. Joshua
represents you and me, the high priest standing before the angel
of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.
And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan,
even the Lord who hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee. Is not
Joshua brand plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed
with filthy garments. And you see him standing there,
his old dirty rags hanging on him, dirty and ragged and filthy,
standing before the purity of God's presence and the holiness
of God's throne. And God said, take those filthy
garments off him. Behold, I've caused your iniquity
to pass away, to pass away. I'm going to clothe you with
a change of raiment. I'm going to clothe you in the
spotless, holy righteousness of Christ." Put a mitre on his
head, a crown on his head. They put a mitre on his head
and they clothed him with those garments, and he stood before
God perfect. That's the way we stand. When
the blood of Christ flows from His hands and feet and side on
Calvary and flows over me, it takes away my guilt and my penalty
and my defilement. And brethren, through the blood
of Christ, I stand before heaven's throne without any sin. The same way that those Israelites
who were stricken, who were bitten by the fiery serpents, the same
way that they receive healing. Moses lifted up the serpent in
the wilderness. And he said, look and live. And
Christ said, as Moses lifted up that serpent, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth on him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. It comes by faith. Look
to Christ and live. Our Father, bless the Word, anoint
it with the power of Thy Holy Spirit. We pray tonight that this one
goal, this one aim, may be accomplished, that men may see in Christ all
things, all that we lack, all that we lost, all that we need.