It has been said that if you
find a job you love, you'll never work a day in your life. You
ever heard that said? Well, I can say with Paul, I
count myself happy because I found my niche in this world. Preaching is not drudgery to
me. I have the best job in the world.
I don't have much use for complaining preachers. complain about their
congregation, or how much they get, or how much they don't get,
or how much they should get. When I was a pup, just a young
preacher, I used to say things like, the burden of the ministry, or the terror of approaching
this sacred desk. Those aren't my words, I heard
them in some commentary, and I wrote them down because they
sounded so important. the burden of the ministry. I
said things like that because I thought it sounded humble.
And I liked it when folks insinuated that I was. But it wasn't humility, it was
hubris, really. Now I know that what I do, I
am insufficient for the task. No man who preaches the gospel
is sufficient to preach the gospel. When Paul considered the ramifications
of what it is to preach the gospel, the result of the gospel, every
time it's preached, to some it's life and to some it's death.
The same sun that melts the ice hardens the clay. He said, I'm
not sufficient for this. Nevertheless, sincerely, we preach
of Jesus Christ. I'm not sufficient to speak of
the things I speak of, but I likewise know that God's grace is sufficient
for me. I love what I do. I love what I do. I consider
myself among the privileged in society. Wednesdays and Sundays are the
best days of the week for me. And when I can't meet and worship
with the people of God, as in the numerous days this snow days
this last part of the year, I sit around feeling totally unnecessary. I feel kind of like a screen
door on a submarine. It's just not very useful. It is the finest of things when
you have found your niche. It is the finest of things. Nothing
better. When what you do is your vocation
and your avocation, and you don't need a vacation from it. When what you do has no retirement
age, that even as you grow feeble, if God lets you keep your mind,
you can keep on telling the story over and over again. This verse that John here speaks, It's spoken loudly. It's declared. It's declared by a man who sees the
Lord Jesus Christ. And it's declared by a man who's
found his place, found his niche. John the Baptist was conceived,
was born, lived, and died for this moment. for this moment. And for six months, he had the
best job in the world. He had the best job in the world.
That was the length of his gospel ministry. Six months. Our Lord called him greater than
a prophet. Our Lord called him that. And
he was. He bridges the gap between the
Old Testament and the New Testament. He was Elijah. Though when the
Pharisees asked him earlier in this same chapter, are you Elijah?
He said, no, I ain't Elijah. But the Lord said he was Elijah.
Hold your place there, John. Just turn back a few books to
the Old Testament to the book of Malachi. Our Lord closes out the Old Testament
and never speaks again for 400 years until Matthew, and these
are His departing words in the 5th verse of the 4th chapter
of Malachi. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And He shall turn the heart of
the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children
to their fathers, lest I come and smite thee, or smite the
earth with the curse. Now look over at Matthew chapter
11. In Matthew chapter 11, Verse 14, our Lord says, If ye
will receive it. Speaking of John, this is Elijah, which was for it to come. If
ye can receive it. This is Elijah. John the Baptist
said, I'm not Elijah. The Lord said, Yes, he is. He
is Elijah. He's that one promised to come
and preach the Gospel and be a forerunner of the Lord Jesus
Christ. John the Baptist knew his place and knew his purpose
in this world. If you look back in the first
chapter of John, verse 23, he said, I am a voice. I am a voice
of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the
Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah. I am a voice. It's all I am. What I do and what I am is what
comes from my mouth. I speak. I am a voice crying
in the wilderness. In verse 30 he says, speaking
of the Lord, this is He whom I said, after me cometh a man
which is preferred before me because he was before me. Speaking
of the Lord Jesus Christ. John had the best epitaph that
could ever be written on a tombstone. In John 10.41 it is said of Him,
He did no miracle, but everything He said about Christ was true. Put that on my gravestone. What
a thing. He did no miracle. He wasn't
an apostle. He was a go-between, if you will. He did no miracle, but everything
He said about Christ was true. And though He and Christ were
second cousins, it is unlikely they knew each other, possibly
saw each other, but they lived a pretty good ways from each
other. Their mothers were first cousins, Elizabeth and Mary. And it is said of John that he
was in the desert until his showing for His revelation, and our Lord
lived with His family in Nazareth until He came on the scene. John knew Christ from his mother's
womb, however, and Christfore knew John from
all eternity, for He had chosen him unto salvation. Look at Luke
chapter 1. In Luke 1, verse 39, it says
this, And Mary rose in those days, that is, after she had
been visited by the angel, and told that the one she's going
to conceive is the Son of God, Emmanuel, the Lord with us, God
with us. He shall be great. His kingdom,
there shall be no end. After she found that out, she
was about four months along, I think, or actually Elizabeth
was four months along, she had just conceived. Mary rose in
those days and went to the hill country with haste. into a city
of Judah and entered into the house of Zacharias, whom God
had shut his mouth because he didn't believe the angel Gabriel.
And he wouldn't open his mouth again until he named that boy
John. It came to pass that when Elizabeth
heard the salutation of Mary, the babe, John the Baptist, leaped
in her womb and was filled with the Holy Ghost. for He is born. Jesus spake out a loud voice
and said, Blessed art thou among women, and that word blessed
doesn't mean above or high or beyond other women. It means
graced, highly graced. That's what that word means.
Highly graced art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit
of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that
the mother of my Lord should come to me. For lo, as
soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe
leaped in my womb for joy." John knew Christ before he was born.
He just didn't know he knew Him. But he knew Him. The first phrase
of this verse, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin
of the world. The first phrase defines the
ministry of John and every man whom God had called to preach
the gospel. This is it. No more, no less. This is it.
No matter where you start in Scripture, this is where you
end up. If you don't end up here, you end up wrong. If I find a
place in Scripture that I can't find Christ in, I know He's there,
but I'm dumber than a box of hammers. I'm dull. I know He's
there. If I can't find what it means,
I don't preach that message until I do. So I leave out a whole
lot. Until I find out, until I find
Christ in it, I'm not going to preach it. I'm not going to preach
it because my job as well as John's job was summed up in this
little phrase of five words, Behold the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God. In a million ways, from a million
texts, this message is as broad as the universe and is utterly
narrow, as narrow as the eye of a needle in its scope. All
things in Scripture are reduced to this simple phrase, to this
person, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is at once, it at once covers
time and tide and reduces the single truth, reduces all truth
to a single and singular and simple declaration. What is it? Behold the Lamb of God. That's
it. I could stop there and go home.
If you could just get this in your head, if this could come
down to your heart, God would have planted it in your soul.
Behold the Lamb of God. My job would be done for today.
But when I come on Wednesday night and then again when I come
next Sunday, I'm going to say the same thing. Behold the Lamb of God.
Notice the employment of the definite article here. He is
the Lamb, not a Lamb. There are a whole lot of a Lambs
throughout Scripture, but He is the Lamb. It's as if God has
but one Lamb. Well, that's how it is. That's
right. God has one Lamb. He's the only Lamb of God. And that word lamb is not just
talking about his gentle person and his meekness, that word lamb
refers to his sacrifice. The fact that he is the sacrifice
of God, the offering to God. All the others, lambs slain,
merely pointed to and pictured him. He is the only lamb of God. He is the morning lamb. Slain
before the foundation of the earth and slain before the dawn
of time. He said he's slain prior to the
conception of the world. He's that evening lamb slain
in the end of days that we call the gospel age. He's that Lamb
that ushered in the acceptable year of the Lord. He's the Paschal
Lamb. He's called Christ our Passover,
slain for us. Whose blood assures the believer
that he's been passed over in judgment. Because he will not
be judged because God sees the blood of the Lamb. He's the Lamb on the throne in
Revelation. In fact, that is his central character in Revelation.
The revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ given to John in the Isle
of Patmos revealed Jesus Christ is the Lamb. Now He's shown to
be Lord over all and King of kings, but the one thing that's
true throughout is that Lamb on that throne. That's the song of Revelation
chapter 5 and verse 9 and 10. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain,
that has redeemed us by His blood out of every kindred, nation,
tongue, and people that made us kings and priests unto our
God. He is the Lamb of God. That's
what he said. Behold the Lamb. of God. Behold God's Lamb. Behold God's sacrifice. Abraham saw his day and was glad. He said that to the Pharisees
and said, You're not even fifty years old and you talk about
Abraham. He said, Before Abraham I was. And Abraham saw my day
and was glad. When did he first see his day?
He first saw his day when he took Isaac up on that mountain
to sacrifice him unto the Lord. Isaac looked and said, Daddy,
I see the wood and I see the fire. I don't see the lamb. I don't see the sacrifice. He
said God will provide himself a lamb. God will provide himself
as a lamb. God will provide to himself a
lamb. God will provide himself a lamb. And in this capacity
as a lamb, and only in this capacity as the lamb do we see him in
his full and true glory. As the lamb. His work. His person, His accomplishment
is seen in this character as the Lamb of God. He's the Lamb
of God, the only sacrifice of all the sacrifices that was ordered
that were offered in those many years. I don't know how many
years from the time I didn't look it up, from the time these
sacrifices began. There were several offered before
Him, but when they became law, the ceremony of the sacrifices
of these lambs for the different Sabbaths and the different feast
days that went on. But I just figured out for a
hundred years, I just took a hundred years back from the time of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and one sacrifice, one day of feasting was called
the Feast of Tabernacles. In a hundred years, just on that
day of the Feast of Tabernacles, 9,000 lambs were slain, just
in that one sacrifice. And there were many other sacrifices. feast of Pentecost, the eight
different Sabbaths, all those were sacrifices. The offering
of the red heifer, all of them were sacrifices. They were multitudinous and never,
ever satisfied law and justice. A lot of blood, a lot of blood. I expect the people for the ethical
treatment of animals would have difficulty with this, but I don't
care. I think Peter really means people
eating tasty animals. I think that's what it really
means. He is the sacrifice that pleased
God. The only one. Look over at Hebrews
chapter 10 just for a moment. Paul in Hebrews chapter 10 is
comparing the Old Testament sacrifices with the sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus Christ. In Hebrews chapter 10. He says in verse 6, in burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin, thou hast had no pleasure. All those offered, you didn't
have one bit of satisfaction. Then said I, lo, I come. In the
volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will, O God.
And above, when he said, Sacrifice, and offering, and burnt offering,
and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hast thou any pleasure
therein, which were offered by the law. Then said he, Lo, I
come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, and
in him he established the second. The difference was that the comers
thereunto that brought these lambs to the priesthood, their
conscience was never quietened. They were not made perfect. And
so they continued to offer these sacrifices year after year, which
could never make the comers therein too perfect. But the difference
was this one, as opposed to those sacrifices, is the Lamb of God. And this one perfectly satisfied
God. Lo, I come in the book to do
thy will, O God, and taketh away that old Testament sacrifices,
those old covenant sacrifices, and establishes this one sacrifice. For it says, By the witch will
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once. The words for all are in italicis.
They can be left out. And every priest Standing daily,
ministering and offering all times the same sacrifices which
could never take away sin. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God. Verse 14, For by one offering he hath what? Perfected. Those
offerings could not, the comers thereunto were not perfected,
so they continued. But his offering perfected his
people and satisfied God so much so, that God says in verse 17,
and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Now
where remission of these is, there is no more offering for
sin. Why? You don't need none. Don't
need none. He's the Lamb of God. The Lamb
of God. The Lamb fixed. Fixed it so that
God could be just and justify sinners through His perfect death.
He's the Lamb of God in whom all the elect are accepted. We're
accepted in that beloved land. Behold Him, is what John said.
Look yonder. Now people were gathered around
John to be baptized. They were coming to John. John
had followers. He baptized them to repentance, a natural repentance. Stopping doing what you're doing,
which was a legal thing. Start doing something else. But
he said, look yonder. Look, behold the Lamb of God.
He taketh away the sin of the world. Behold Him. Pray God to
fix your eyes and hearts upon Him. If you do, and when you
do, you will find that the things of the earth will grow strangely
dim. When you see Him, nothing else really matters. I'm serious. You know that's true. Beholding
Him as the Lamb of God, God's acceptable sacrifice will sweeten
every relationship you have. If you come to know Jesus Christ
or believe you have and yet you're still as mean as a striped snake
with your spouse or your children or your relationships or your
business dealings, there's a probability you don't know Him at all. Because
if you look at Him, you'll look at every man and every woman
as just like you. And if there's any difference,
it's only by the grace of God. Only by the grace of God. Beholding
Him as the Lamb. will temper every vexation of
your spirit, make life as precious and enjoyable a prospect as can
be had on this cursed earth. Behold the Lamb of God and be
saved. That's what it said, I am the Lord. I am a just God and
a Savior. Look unto Me, all ye ends of
the earth, and be saved. Look unto Me. Behold Him and
nothing or no one else. Your weakness will become strength
if you behold Him. That's what Paul said. When I'm
weak, I'm strong. Your experiences, your deeds,
your work and your thoughts will pay to nothing beholding Him.
They won't mean anything. Your inward struggle with self
and sin and your bent to self-exaltation and your self-righteousness and
your self-deification are only quelled and subdued as you look
at Him. If you don't look at Him, they pop up real good, don't
they? We look at Him in His accepted
obedience. In fact, all we do, all we do, we bring to that acceptance. Not ours. We don't do things
to be accepted. And the struggle we have inwardly
with these high thoughts against God and these high minds against
God, which are natural to us, we can't get rid of them. What
do we do? We bring them to the fact or to the obedience of Jesus
Christ according to Scripture. He obeyed. We don't. He obeyed. We can't. Not without
sin. So we bring everything to Him.
Behold Him. And these things that beset us
will be quelled and subdued. They will not be put away. Just
the minute we take our eyes off of them, we'll find they're back
home again. Some would have you believe that
there's more to being a believer than Believing, more to being
a believer than beholding the Lord Jesus Christ. They hold
that rules and regulations and church covenants and bylaws and
personal convictions and regional sanctification and denominational
purity are the making of a Christian. That's why they write books on
how to get started and how to do this and how to live the life
of a successful Christian and how to be a super Christian.
Go to a bookstore sometime and read some of the stupid titles
they have on the shelf. How can I be a child of God?
Look to Christ. Nowhere else. How do I grow? In the grace and in the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look into Christ. How do I overcome
my flesh? You don't. But looking to Christ
will subdue it. Not things of the earth, things
above is where our eyes are to be cast. All these things that
religion comes up, they are the mainstay of religion. They are
covertly designed to take a man's eyes off the prize. Put men's eyes squarely on man
and give churches and councils power to judge men's behavior,
curtail their behavior, keep them in check and exercise control
over them. That's the only reason for them. Behold the Lamb of
God. I say to you, behold the Lamb
of God and do what you will. Live life. Be free. Behold the
Lamb of God. Only those who have never beheld
Him would dare utter such a blasphemous oath as there is more to preach
than Christ. Those who have looked and are
looking know that they have seen the best thing. They've seen
the only thing. They've seen the chiefest among
10,000. They've seen the altogether lovely
one. They've seen the rock, the rock
of ages, the rock in a weary land. They've seen the king,
the king of kings, the king of peace, the king of righteousness.
They've seen the sovereign Lord over all. They've seen the lily
of the valley and the rock rose of Sharon. the bright and morning
star, the day star arising in our hearts, the sun arising with
healing in His wing, the anchor of our soul, the water of life,
the bread of life, the blood of the everlasting covenant,
the death by which death had been put to death, the hope,
the calling, the peace, the righteousness, the sanctification, the wisdom
and redemption of God. If you've seen Him, you've seen
it all. Everything that has to do with being accepted by God,
don't look anywhere else, look to Him. Behold the Lamb of God. When you look at Him and behold
Him, you've seen the face of God and
you lived. No man has seen God's face and
lived. Yes, you have if you behold Jesus Christ. You have. You've seen the face of God.
In Him dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4 it
says, the glory of God shines in His face. the face of the
Lord Jesus Christ. To behold Him is to believe Him.
That's what beholding Him means, believing Him, trusting Him.
To behold Him is to have been given the gift of faith. If you
can see Him, you can see Him because God has given you eyes.
If you can hear Him, you can hear Him because God has opened
your ears. One man said that salvation begins, continues,
and culminates in looking at Jesus Christ. And it does. Beholding Him is the only thing
that gives the believer any true joy and peace in this world.
And that joy and peace that He gives will not leave you, ever. That don't mean you won't be
sad. But happiness has to do with what
happens. Joy has to do with the state of being before God. Peace
has to do with the state of being. My peace I give to you, not that
the world gives, I give unto you. Rejoice evermore. Religious men have come up with
all sorts of inventions to mortify the deeds of the flesh, but the
only way to do that is beholding the Lamb of God. Because if you
try to mortify the deeds of the flesh with your strength, you're
applying to the flesh to do what? To get rid of the flesh, and
that ain't gonna work. What you're gonna end up with is more religious
flesh. Your flesh will be a little more religious, but it'll still
be flesh. It won't be anything but flesh. You cannot apply to
the flesh, to your own strength, to get rid of your problems.
You can't apply to your own strength to get rid of your, to mortify
those deeds that come from you naturally. You can't apply there.
You gotta look away. Clean away. Behold the Lamb of God. Malice and envy and hatred and
anger subside when you're beholding Him. You know that's true. Job's
captivity was turned when he prayed for his sorry friend.
Scripture says that. Your captivity was turned when
you prayed for your friend. The only way that sin, the sin
of unbelief is subdued, and the weight that so easily besets
us is laid aside. We read in our Sunday school
lesson this morning, Paul said in Hebrews 12, laying aside the
weight that's so easy to beset us, the sin that's so easy to
beset us, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of
our faith. What does that mean? He began
it and He's the finisher of it. Well, what do we do? We're recipients. That's all. Exercise your faith. Show me
how to do that, please. People talk about how to exercise.
I don't know how to do that. What is it? As far as I see,
it's believing Jesus Christ. That means looking to Him, beholding
the Lamb of God. You say, well, that seems so
simple. What about our life? Don't worry about your life. Listen
to me. Behold the Lamb of God. Your life will fall into place,
beholding the Lamb of God. Everything will be sweet, beholding
the Lamb of God. This word, behold, is a word
that requires exclusivity and a single-mindedness and it inspires
awe. Behold! It suggests that nothing
else is to be in view. Don't look anywhere else. Behold
the Lamb of God. This one glorious thing is to
fill the vision. And this only. Jesus Christ. Behold means to be possessed
of a singular tunnel vision. To have the blinders on. That's what it means. Can't see nothing out here. Good.
Ain't nothing out there but wretches like me. Ain't gonna help me
none. Looking to Jesus Christ with the blinders on. You cannot look to Jesus Christ
at the same time you look at yourself. Our eyes don't focus that way.
They always focus on one thing. Now we may in our peripheral
view see other things, but our eyes only see one thing. Interpret
one thing to our brain. You cannot behold the Lamb of
God at the same time as you behold your brothers and your sisters
and see their weakness and faults and sins. There's plenty to go
around. Looking to Christ means beholding
Him alone. What are you looking at? I might even get nasty. What
are you looking at? Behold the Lamb of God. But He
doesn't finish there. He said, Behold the Lamb of God
that taketh away the sin of the world. The word taketh means
to bear up unto. The word is aro in the original. It's in John 15 when the Lord
said about those vines that He would prune them, cast them away. It's actually the word is aro.
If they don't produce, I'll bear them up and cause them to produce.
In 1 John 3, in verse 5, He said He was manifested to take away
our sins, and there is no sin in Him. He bore upon it, carried
it upon His shoulders. He bore the burden of our sin. He appeared once in the end of
the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And
we just read in Hebrews 10 that He perfected forever them that
are sanctified. He alone did it. He did it once,
and He did it all by Himself. When He by Himself had purged
our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Father. The
sin of the world. Now there are a lot of people,
a lot of preachers who get a hold of that and they just run with it into
universal love and universal salvation and all that stuff,
but it don't mean that. Or they talk about drinking and
chewing and smoking and going to the movie show. That's not
what this is talking about. This is singular, isn't it? He
takes it the way the sin of the world. Not plural. It doesn't
say it. It takes away the sins of the world. It takes away our
sin. And put away our sin. We still got them, though, don't
we? But there's one we don't have. We still have our sins. We're
still sinners. And He has forgiven us our sin.
And His blood shed satisfied God for our sin. But there's
a sin that we don't have before God. It's the sin. The sin of the world. Men may
do their mea culpus about particular vices while patting themselves
on the back for not being like other men. I know I sin, but
I don't do like so and so. But those are talking about sins,
and that's the problem. The problem is we have this issue
called sin, the sin. That one cannot be subdued. by the Holy Spirit through the
gospel. That one, we were accounted as
having done, though we were not present when it was done. When we talk about sins, we're
talking about personal behavior. This sin, senior, is that which
every man is guilty of. Every man. You, me, and every
other person on the face of the earth. This is the sin of the world,
and every man and woman born of Adam is guilty of it, even
before they were born into the world, and it was manifested
as soon as they were born, but they were guilty before they
were born. This sin I didn't have anything to do with. I didn't
do this sin, but I did do this sin before God, because God accounted
me as having done it. You say, well, that's horrible.
No, that's good. Because if I can have another representative that's
perfectly righteous, God can count that as my righteousness. Scripture says in Romans chapter
5 verse 12, that great chapter on substitution and imputation,
whereas by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin. So death passed upon all men,
and this is a weak reading in the in the English here, that all
have sinned. That's not what it says. It originally
says, in whom all sinned. Adam's sin was counted as ours.
And it's our sin. We had it before we opened our
mouth to speak our first lie. This is the sin. He'd take it
away, the sin of the world. Boy, I'm glad. This sin cannot
be subdued. It has to be taken away. It has
to be taken away. This is the sin that Christ was
made to be for His people. He was made to be sin for us.
Why? Because He was the second Adam,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He taketh away
the sin of the Word. What does that mean? God no longer
counts His people in Adam. Paul goes on to say in Romans
chapter 5, for as by one man's disobedience, in verse 19, the
many were made sinners. But by the obedience of the one
shall the many be made righteous. This is that sin that He took
away. Why? As our representative. He was
made to be sin for us. Behold the Lamb of God. This sin is a whole other animal
than our sins. It is about the sin that cannot
be subdued but must be taken away. It is about the sin that
condemns me along with the rest of the human race and makes no
difference between me and them. It is about the sin of my father
and my federal head and representative that puts all humanity in the
same condemned sinking boat. That's how we're born in this
world, in a sinking boat full of holes and going down fast.
Behold, behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the
world. Beholding Christ is looking to
the Savior. It is not consulting with flesh
and blood. And in Him I see the sin of the
world taken away. In Him I see the fact that I
am no longer considered in Adam. I am considered in Christ. In Him I see that the sin of
the world taken away from me. and His act was for me. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. This is my message. This is my
counsel. If you're coming to the pastor
for counseling, this is the counsel I'm going to give you. No matter
what your situation is, I'm going to give you this. This is my
advice. There's nothing better than I
can tell you. Behold the Lamb of God. that taketh away the
sin of the world. Best advice ever. Father, bless
us for understanding. We pray in Christ's name, Amen.