WWUTT 818 He Must Increase But I Must Decrease?

John the Baptist’s Witness and the Bridegroom Language of Christ

At the conclusion of John the Baptist's ministry, he said that he must increase, speaking of Christ, but I must decrease. That's a principle we should all follow. It's not about ourselves, but Christ, when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, studying God's Word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Find all our videos online at www .wutt .com, as well as links to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the Gospel of John, Chapter 3, and today I'll begin reading in Verse 25 to the end of the chapter. The Apostle John wrote,. Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification.

And they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness, look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him. John answered,. A person cannot receive even one thing, unless it is given him from heaven.

You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice.

Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease. He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all.

He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.

The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. So we've made it through verse 27, as I spent a couple of days on that particular passage.

It's right after that, right after John says a person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. This ministry of mine was given to me by God. And he goes on to say in verse 28, you yourselves bear me witness.

And this is contrasted against what John's disciples said about Jesus. This guy to whom you bore witness, he's kind of taken our territory over here. He's baptizing and baptizing was our thing. So John the Baptist kind of turns that back on them.

You bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him. And this is John as though saying to his disciples, so there he is. This is the guy whose way I was preparing. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom.

John doesn't have the bride. The bride belongs to God, specifically Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the bridegroom, the friend of the bridegroom. And that's a reference John is making to himself who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice.

Therefore, this joy of mine is now complete. Now, this language about Christ being the bridegroom, often we think of this as being New Testament language. Jesus referring to himself as the bridegroom in parables, like in Matthew chapter 25, or when John the Baptist disciples asked Jesus why he and his disciples did not fast.

And Jesus in Luke 534 said, can you make wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? And of course, that was in reference to himself. Then we have these references in John. One of the most famous passages is in Ephesians chapter five, where we read wives submit to your own husbands.

Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word so that he might present the church to himself with or in splendor.

Now, nothing in Ephesians five explicitly says that the church is the bride of Christ, but that is the illustration. We have been given marriage to be a picture of the way that Christ loves his church.

And then in Revelation 19 verses seven and eight, let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory for the marriage of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure.

And then at the very end of the whole Bible, you have in Revelation 22, the spirit and the bride say, come the spirit of God and the bride of Christ, who is the church. And so this is why we think of bridegroom and bride language pertaining to Christ in the church as being New Testament language.

I mean, the church didn't even exist in the Old Testament. But what we find in the Old Testament is a reference to Israel being the bride. Isaiah 62 verses four and five, you shall no more be termed forsaken and your land shall no more be termed desolate.

But you shall be called. My delight is in her and your land married for the Lord delights in you and your land shall be married for as a young man marries a young woman. So shall your sons marry you. And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

In Jeremiah chapter two, start at the beginning of the chapter. The word of the Lord came to me saying, go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord, I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness in a land not sown.

Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits of his harvest. All who ate of it incurred guilt. Disaster came upon them, declares the Lord in Hosea chapter two, beginning in verse 16. In that day, declares the Lord, you will call me my husband and no longer will you call me my bail.

For I will remove the names of the bales from her mouth and they shall be remembered by name no more. And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the creeping things on the ground.

And I will abolish the bow, the sword and war from the land. And I will make you lie down in safety and I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy.

I will betroth you to me in faithfulness and you shall know the Lord. All of this language that we have in the Old Testament pertaining to a bride, pertaining to being betrothed, pertaining to a bridegroom.

All of this was pointing to Christ, the bridegroom of the church, who is the Israel of God, Galatians 6, 16. There is only one people of God. There's never been two, only one. All of the ways in which Israel was unfaithful, Christ was faithful and fulfilled.

And so whoever is in Christ is Israel. We are the people of God. And again, only one people, not two. And there is not a people of God that are marked by ethnicity. But the DNA that we have now is a spiritual DNA.

It is by the Spirit of God that we have been marked and have become the sons and daughters of God. Romans 2, verses 28 and 29. For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.

But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man, but from God. Whoever is in Christ Jesus is his people. And there's only one people.

It is only those who are faithful believers of Christ. And so the bridegroom language is in the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament. And it points to Christ, who is the vine. And the rest of us are the branches.

We have the illustration of the cultivated olive tree in Romans chapter 11, from which branches were cut off and new ones were grafted in. And those were the Gentiles. Those who believed in Jesus Christ became grafted into the people of God.

Those branches that were cut off can be grafted back in, but it is only through Christ. And there, with the illustration of the tree, we still have one people. Israel is the church. The church is Israel.

This is not replacement theology. The church did not replace Israel, but rather was the expansion of God's people. This was all the more who were called into Christ by the preaching of his gospel. And as we'll get to later on in John chapter 10, Jesus saying, I have other sheep that are not of this fold.

I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. John 10, 16. So here, John the Baptist is even pointing to that here, the bridegroom language from the Old Testament, how it applies to the church.

And it's to show that this doesn't pertain strictly to Israel, but the church itself is the people of God. And we have one bridegroom, and that is Christ Jesus. And then John goes on to say that the friend of the bridegroom stands and hears him and rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice.

So now at this point, John has no quarrel with Jesus and what he is doing with baptizing others and people now going to him. That's what's supposed to happen. And John rejoices at hearing it, that this ministry has come into the world.

This is what had been prophesied for hundreds of years through the prophets. And John the Baptist got to be the one ordained by God who prepared the way of the Lord. And now here he has come and his joy is complete.

This joy of mine is now complete. He must increase. I must decrease. John the Baptist is not about continuing to be that voice in the wilderness anymore. Now, he will continue to preach, and it's because of his preaching that he will eventually be arrested and martyred.

But he's not trying to attract masses to himself in preparation because the bridegroom has come. So that's the one who you need to go to, and he's the one that you need to listen to. And to ensure that people are going to go to him and not come to John the Baptist anymore, you have the statement that John makes in verse 30.

He must increase, but I must decrease. Perhaps you've seen little decal stickers on cars before. Maybe somebody slaps them on their guitar case or something like that. But you have the word he and then the greater than symbol and then I next to that.

So he is greater than I. That's that's the way that sticker is supposed to be understood. And that's where this comes from. John 3 30. He must increase, but I must decrease for he is greater than I. It's taking the statement that John the Baptist makes about advancing Christ ministry, which was the whole reason why John came.

He was preparing that. And now he means to promote that even more by making less and less of himself and more and more of Christ. But that principle certainly applies to every single one of us, even though that's the context of why John said this.

There is still the understanding that we're not out to try to make ourselves great. We're not standing up there proclaiming Christ so that everyone can think that we're impressive. But rather, we put we proclaim Christ and him crucified so that others would hear the gospel and they would turn from their sin and they would believe in Jesus and be saved.

That's the reason why I preach. And it is a wonderful blessing that I'm able to make my living doing this. And that's my church. My churches has blessed me immensely with taking care of me and my family.

And because all of our needs are met and I don't need anything else beyond the salary that my church provides for me. So I'm able to do things like this, the podcast and the videos and do all of that for free and not charge for anything because I don't need the money.

And I don't think that anybody should be charging for the gospel. Now, that's not a knock on those ministries that have subscriptions. Like you have to pay monthly fees in order to access their content, whether that's podcasts or books or videos or something like that.

They have their reasons for doing that. But the Lord is laid upon my heart to not charge for this. And so I don't. I'm able to do the videos and the podcast and my church that I pastor has provided for my means.

And therefore, with all of my needs being taken care of, I don't have to add extra costs on doing these kinds of things. It's what the Lord has called me to do. Preach the gospel. And I love taking every opportunity to be able to do that.

And it's about advancing the name of Christ has nothing to do with me. I could care less if anybody even knows that the voice of the guy in those videos is Gabe Hughes. In fact, I am I'm probably able to avoid a little bit more or a little bit less scorn that I already take by people not knowing who I am or who the voice is in those particular videos.

So that's fine. I am totally OK with not anybody knowing who I am. But it's to make much of Christ. That's the name you need to know. For it is the name of Christ that has the power to save. It is at the name of Christ that every knee will bow and tongue will confess that he is Lord.

And then I am going to be joining with you in heaven forever, praising God around the throne. And that will be my reward. I need no recognition for this. And so that's the principle that we apply, even though there's certainly a context that we see here in John three thirty of of John taking himself out of the picture so that Christ ministry would continue to be the focus.

There's certainly that context. But then this the principle of it still applies to us that we would not be using the name of Christ to advance ourselves. But rather, we are just taking those gifts that God has given to us for the purpose of exalting his name and preaching his gospel so that others may hear it and turn from sin and believe and be saved.

Christ Above All and the Spirit-Given Testimony

Verse thirty one. So what we get to next in verse thirty one is we're at the end of John the Baptist answer to his disciples. Close quotation marks at the end of verse thirty and then verse thirty one is John giving another one of those little theological interludes.

And that's what he's been doing so far in the gospel of John. He did it in chapter one. And like I said before, when we were in chapter three, verses 16 through 21, it's possible that Jesus did not directly say those words.

John three sixteen was not actually uttered by Christ, but it was the apostle John who wrote it down. So it certainly comes from the spirit of God, but it wasn't part of the answer that Jesus gave to Nicodemus.

So John three sixteen through twenty one was one of those theological interludes that that John put into his gospel. Then we have the exchange between John the Baptist and his disciples, which finishes at the conclusion of verse thirty.

And now we're in verse thirty one, where John has another little theological paragraph here that closes out this chapter before we go into the narrative of Jesus and the woman at Samaria in chapter four.

So in verse thirty one, John says, he who comes from above is above all. And that is, of course, Jesus Christ. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all.

So what is being said here? Well, remember, this is the conclusion of John the Baptist ministry. This is it. As far as what John has shared with us in his gospel, John the Baptist ministry ends at the conclusion of verse thirty with John saying he must increase, but I must decrease.

So now we're shifting entirely to the ministry of Christ. All of this affirmation of who he is. That's what we've been getting in the first three chapters. John the Baptist testimony of Christ as being the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

But now we have the testimony of Christ who is able to speak of heavenly things in a way that no one of this earth was able to speak about those things. So the prophets of God. And remember, John the Baptist was the last prophet before Christ.

So the prophets that gave us the Old Testament and John the Baptist, who is preparing the way of the Lord, even though they spoke things that God gave them to speak, they still spoke in an earthly way.

They could only speak about those earthly things that they knew about. They did not know of heaven. He who has come from heaven is able to show the way to heaven in a way that no prophet has ever spoken.

So that's what this is conveying to us here in verse 31. It is showing us the divine nature of Christ, that he came from heaven and he is going to speak of heaven and he shows us the way to heaven. The prophets could only speak of him, but they could not speak of heaven because they did not come from there.

But Jesus came from above. Therefore, he is above all and he's going to show us the way to get to the father. Verse 32. He bears witness to what he has seen and heard. Yet no one receives his testimony.

Now, how can that be? Because you and I have received his testimony, right? Well, I believe that what this is inferring is that no man has an ability by his power to receive the testimony of Christ because he speaks of heavenly things.

And we are naturally minded men. First Corinthians chapter two. If not for the spirit of God, which has been poured into our hearts, we would not be able to discern spiritual things for they are spiritually discerned.

It is only because we've been given the Holy Spirit that we are able to receive the testimony of Jesus Christ. So we have in verse 33, whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true.

Everything that Christ has said is true because he comes from God and God speaks truth. For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the spirit without measure. Ah, and that's how we receive the testimony of Christ.

No one receives his testimony by his own natural ability because he cannot. But God gives his spirit without measure so that we may know the truth that is spoken through Jesus Christ. The father loves the son and has given all things into his hand.

Whoever believes in the son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the son shall not see life. But the wrath of God remains on him. I remember reading a teaching from R .W. Stott, who was pointing out the conclusion of this particular passage.

The wrath of God remains on him. And he pointed out the wrath of God remains. It doesn't come upon a person. It remains upon a person because that is our sin nature. We are all born rebellious against God and under his wrath.

And if it were not for his own intervention, we would have no hope. We would have no ability to overcome our sin debt that has separated us from God. Furthermore, no man even seeks for God, as we read about in Romans 3, which is quoting from the Old Testament.

But we are born again, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. It is by his great grace and mercy that he has not left us to perish in our sin, which is what we deserve.

But he has given us the forgiveness of sins through the sacrifice of his Son, Jesus Christ, who shows us the way to the Father. We have right relationship with God again by faith in Christ. Amen.

You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.