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We've been going through the Gospel of John, and I'd like to invite you to turn to our text. So with myself, please turn with me to the Gospel of John, this fourth Gospel we shall read this morning. Verse 29 through verse 37.
I'd like to, for the past two weeks we've been focusing on verse 29, and that's really the main text. I really believe that this chapter, and you can actually say it could be the text and the key verse to this whole entire book.
Not only the Gospel of John, I believe that this could be the text for this entire book of 66 books. It's compiled as the Bible itself, because that's really Christ is what the entire Bible is about. He is the grand subject of the Bible.
So we're looking at verse 29 through verse 37. Verse 39 through 37. Hear the word of the living God. The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
This is He of whom I said, After me comes a man who is preferred before me. For he was before me. I did not know him, but that he should be revealed to Israel. Therefore I came baptizing with water. And John bore witness, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove.
And he remained upon him, and I did not know him. But he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, Upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, This is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.
And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God. This is the Son of God. Please bow with me as we pray, as we seek our Lord's face now, and ask of His help through His Holy Spirit in this time of worship.
Father and our God, once again, dear Lord, we come before You. We come before You, Lord, recognizing that You are alone worthy of praise, glory, and honor, and blessing, and power, and thanksgiving. Lord, we come humbly before You, Lord, and trembling before Your word with an attitude of rejoicing as well.
Our first great desire is to know You, Lord, to know You in truth and in Your beauty. Lord Jesus, as You prayed before the Father, and You prayed for Your glory in John 17, You prayed for Your disciples, and You prayed for the believers, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.
Father, what a great revelation. And as much as we think of ourselves of knowing You, how much more do You desire that we would come to You? You have taken far, far more steps in coming after us. Descending from heaven, sending Jesus, Your Son, to die.
Sent Him into darkness so that those that are in darkness would come to see the true light, Christ. Lord, we truly realize without Jesus Christ, we are absolutely nothing. Father, I recognize my own weakness.
I confess my own weakness. That, Lord, that we can do nothing, I can do nothing without Jesus Christ. So, Lord, I pray within this hour, may I just be a voice to speak of the glories of heaven from Your word.
Lord, we come, and as we humbly bow before You, we ask, Lord, that Your blessed Holy Spirit would help us see Jesus. Hide myself behind the cross, Lord. We desire to only see Jesus Christ and Him only.
And that we would know that we know Him, we honor Him, and lift Him up, lift Christ up. And You will honor us, Lord, as we honor Him. You honor Your word. Father, we ask You that as we lift Christ up, we know that He is the magnet.
He is the great magnet that draws souls to You, Lord. So, Father, we thank You. Thank You for Your word this morning. Bless our time now as we look into Your word. And as Your word says, speak, Lord, for thy servant hears.
And we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, message 1, day 1, as we have looked, He's here. Jesus is here. This is what John the Baptist was proclaiming. He's here. Message 2, basically day 2, look at Him.
Behold Him.
Behold the Lamb of God.
Look at Him.
He is the Lamb of God. Day 1 was basically a private delegation. Day 2 was a public proclamation. As Jesus comes toward John the Baptist, coming toward Him, in verse 29, the next day, John saw Jesus coming toward Him and said, Behold, look at the Lamb of God.
Look, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Look at Him. Take Him in. He is here. This is He. This is He who He is. He is here and this is who He is. The very Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Beloved, think of this. John the Baptist, as we've seen in the latter verses, was a man that was sent from God. His primary reason and purpose in his existence for being called of God and sent from God comes to this one sentence alone.
This is the reason why God sent him right here. He was born to say this one sentence. Think of that. Could you imagine living your entire life preparing ministry as God has prepared you and you come to this part and he sees Jesus coming and in the process, in his ministry, he's baptizing, he's preaching, but his primary purpose is for this one reason here.
To say this one sentence. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. One sentence. One sentence. This was the introduction to the world of Jesus. The Son of God. The Lamb of God. God's Lamb.
John's public proclamation literally shocked him. What did I mean by that? Well, what does he say? Behold, look, the Lamb of God. Why would this shock them? Why would the Messiah be a lamb? I want you to think of this for a second.
A lamb. A lamb is innocent, weak, helpless, innocent, dependent, frail. They would probably have had expected him to say, Behold your king. Behold the triumphant one. Behold the exalted one. Behold your ruler.
Behold the anointed one. All those titles actually speaks true of Jesus, right? But here John says, Behold the Lamb of God. John says this by the Holy Spirit, beloved. This is the revelation. There's no mistakes in it.
John said this, it literally shocked the Jews. The Jewish people did not expect this. And actually they got it. They understood what it was. And the Old Testament sacrifices years and years of what it meant to sacrifice a lamb.
And John says, The Lamb of God. The Lamb of God. And John said it literally shocked them. A lamb meant sacrifice. An animal that was weak, dependent, helpless, as I mentioned. As Isaiah would say, led to the slaughter.
For sacrifice. The Lamb of God is chosen to be the ultimate sacrifice. This lamb that God has chosen. He's come to deal with sin once and for all. Not twice. But he comes to deal with sin at last. And to be wounded for our transgressions.
To be bruised or crushed for our iniquities. As the New Testament, the Apostle Paul speaks of in 2 Corinthians. I'm sorry, 1 Corinthians. I think it is. I think it's 2 Corinthians 5. 5, 20, 21. Jesus Christ became sin for us that he who knew no sin became a sin offering for us.
He referred himself as the sacrifice on the cross. The Lamb of God. And this is exactly the meaning of it. He bore our sins in full and in his own body. God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us.
Think of that.
A sin offering in the Greek. A sin offering to be sacrificed up to God. And take upon himself in one package. The sin. As it says, plural, not singular, I'm sorry, not plural, but singular. The sin of the world.
All in one package. Once and for all. So, all those New Testament revelations. The Jews wanted a great prophet. The Jews wanted a great king. They got a lamb. John says, behold, the Lamb of God. Behold, the Lamb of God.
You know, I love what Spurgeon said this. He said, you could sum up my theology in four words. Jesus died for me. And actually, I read where Spurgeon actually said. He says, if I called to preach, and he believed in preaching the whole counsel of God.
All the way from Genesis to Revelation. But he said this. He says, if it sees fit, that if I were to preach on just the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ until the day God calls me on. Every time I preach, God will be smiling upon me.
And how true. Our theology should be, Jesus died for me. Just as Spurgeon said. And that's exactly what this whole wonderful book is about. It's about the Lamb of God. Who takes away the sin of the world.
Well, the Jews wanted a great prophet. The Jews wanted a king. They got a lamb. They wanted a great leader. They got a humble substitute. They wanted an exalted Messiah. And they got a humiliated, humble, weak, supposedly weak, sacrifice.
And he did offer himself up in weakness before God. Now, actually, they could not have had a great king, if you think of it. Not until they got a humble lamb. And being found an appearance as a man, as Paul said in Philippians 2.
He humbled himself. He became obedient to the point of death. Even the death of the cross. Therefore, God also has highly exalted him. And has given him the name which is above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow.
Of those in heaven. And those on earth. And those under the earth. And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Did you get that? Did you see the order?
First, there had to be Him coming. He came in the virgin birth. He entered into this world. He took flesh. He pitched His tent. That's exactly where John, the apostle, takes us. He said, the word became flesh in verse 14.
And dwelt among us.
He pitched.
He tabernacled among us. He pitched His tent. And we beheld His glory. The glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. And then he says, John bore witness of Him. And cried out saying, this was He whom I said.
He who comes after me is preferred before me. For He was before me. And of His fullness we have received. And grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses. But grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. Jesus came in the appearance as a man. He humbled Himself. And scripture goes on to say, He became obedient.
Isn't that wonderful? As a man, He obeyed to the point of death.
Even the death of the cross.
And then the transition takes place. Therefore, God also has highly exalted Him. First, He's a Lamb. Then, He's King. Now, we're looking forward to Him coming back in this great second coming. As King of Kings, right?
Lord of Lords. And He's going to come back. And very soon. Now, they could not be coming. Um, I should say. Becoming a King. There could not be a coming King in glory to reign. Until there's a coming and humiliation.
And there's no one that ever humbled Himself as much as Jesus. And there's no one that will ever be exalted above Jesus. He is the most humbled. And because He chose to humble Himself. He humbled His whole life was a life of true humility.
If we want to see true humility, look at Jesus. That's why Jesus said, Come unto me, all you labor and heavy laden. I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. And then He says, learn of me. For I am meek and lowly in heart.
Isn't that amazing? We can't say that about ourselves.
We can't say, look at me.
I am meek.
I am lowly.
Our humility isn't really genuine. True biblical humility is dead to self completely. We haven't got there yet. Even though we have to come in humility. And strip ourselves and come bankrupt before God and broken.
But Jesus can actually say, look at me. Come to me.
I am meek in heart. I am lowly.
So we really want to see true meekness.
Look at Jesus. Look at Jesus.
Behold the Lamb of God. He comes in humiliation to die. He died to death. And He died to death to put to death, death. Eternal death. And He succeeded and won that victory as He died upon the cross. Now, that's why John says, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
What that means is that for the whole world, there is only one and only one who can take away sin. And that is Jesus Christ. The only one who would die as the sacrificial Lamb that God accepts. And He's it.
Now, that means basically that His death is sufficient to save all. People say, well, pastor, is this meaning universal salvation? No, it doesn't. It means the offer is to all people. It is the general call.
It is to whosoever will. But as the scriptures point out, God draws His people whom He has appointed to believe, whom He has elected. We don't know who that elect is. So that's why we obey Christ's command, right?
We go into all the world and preach the gospel to every person. That's the command. But God knows who the elect are. So when God's word goes forth, His word will snatch them and draw them to Himself. Miraculous power of God.
That's the effectual call. That's the effectual call. You have the general call, the effectual call. So you see here, this is basically the general call that whosoever will come to Him will believe. That is the gospel in which we believe.
And we also believe those who believe are God's elect. Even John Calvin said that. How do you know that I'm God's elect? By believing the gospel.
That simple.
You know, I was thinking about this this morning. Why have we so complicated these things? It seems so complex, doesn't it? But you know why? Because sin has muddled our brains. Sin has muddled our knowledge of God.
That's why when we start reading through the scripture, God brings it right back to the point. Right to where it needs to be. That's why Paul says, let God be true and every man found liar. That's why scripture says that God will shut every man's mouth.
He will shut the mouth of the world. God will stand alone and be exalted alone and no one else. Rightly so. Rightly so.
Look at verse 30.
John then says this. This is he whom I said. After me comes a man who's preferred before me. For he was before me. This is he on behalf basically of whom I said. After me comes a man who's higher rank.
This is what he's saying. Jesus is higher rank. John is saying Jesus is the Messiah. He is higher rank than I. For he existed before me. Now basically John is saying Jesus was born after I was born. And yet he existed before me.
He's preeminent right? He's preeminent. Get your eyes on this eternal one. This preeminent one. Get your eyes on this exalted one. Who is higher rank than I am. The one you don't know. This is the message that every one of us should have.
Ministers capital M and small m.
Ministers right?
We point people to Jesus Christ. Just as John the Baptist was brought up and had this one purpose in life. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So our one purpose is to point people to Christ.
To know him. To know this true and living God. But also to make him known. And to tell people about him. And I agree with exactly what Spurgeon once. I mentioned Spurgeon. Yeah I love Spurgeon. He said every Christian is an imposter or a missionary.
Probably the other way around. Every Christian is a missionary or an imposter. I think that's the right way. But that's the truth. We don't have a hidden faith. We have a public faith. We confess Christ publicly.
We confess Christ before him. We are witnesses before him. Actually the word witnesses in Acts 1 .8 means martyrs. But it's before Christ. But it's also not only before the face of God. That's first and foremost.
It's before publicly this courtroom of the world in which we live in. Whether it be in the home to our children. We're ministering to our children. Making disciples to our children. Or we witness at the workplace to the people we work with.
Or we go abroad in the highways and the byways to strangers. And we tell people about Jesus. It's all focused on the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's our purpose.
This was John's purpose. Behold the Lamb of God. He's here. He's here. Three things. He's here.
Follow Him.
Follow Him. Again, verse 29. Behold the Lamb of God. Go to verse 36. And looking at Jesus as He walked. Again He says, behold the Lamb of God. There's a difference between verse 29 and verse 36. If you see verse 29, it begins the second day.
Actually, the next day. As John saw Jesus coming toward him. See, here Jesus is coming toward John. And for the first time, He says, behold. Notice if your translation says, behold with an explanation point.
Mark, right?
It's almost like He's saying, look!
Look!
He shouts it. I guarantee you when He says this, it went down through every cavern of hell. And shook every demon. The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And then you have verse 30, 31, 32.
And, um, 33. But if you look at all the way down to 36.
Day three.
Verse 35. Again, the next day. That's day three. John stood with two of his disciples. We're coming to this. We're going to look at this more, Lord willing, next week. Two of His disciples. And looking, then looking at Jesus.
Then John is looking at Jesus.
As He walked.
And He says, behold the Lamb of God. So basically, and then verse 37. The two disciples, John's disciples heard Him speaking. They followed Jesus. This is what made John glad.
This is His reason.
This is the purpose of His ministry.
He's here.
Follow Him. And they followed Him. They followed Him. Well, John the Baptist's one purpose in life was to proclaim that great one sentence. Behold the Lamb of God. That's His purpose. His purpose. We see a sacrifice for God's demand.
We see a substitute for man's downfall. We see a Savior for man's depravity. I'll say that again. We see a sacrifice for God's demand. We see a substitute for man's downfall. And we see a Savior for man's depravity.
Where is the Lamb? That's basically the question in the Old Testament, right? We looked at that. Where is He? John says He's here. He's here. He's arrived. Now since He's arrived, look at Him.
Behold Him. All eyes of faith on Him.
I remember when I was in the military. They would always, at times, when we were distracted with other things. When I was in the army, and Ben knows what I'm talking about here. At times, a drill instructor would say,.
Eyes on me! Eyes on me!
And he'd snap to it. And it's almost like John saying this. Eyes on Jesus. Get your eyes on Jesus. Don't get your eyes on me.
Eyes on Him. Eyes on Him.
Praise God. Isn't that what we are about? Is to say, Take your eyes off me. We're nothing. We're creatures of the dirt. And we have failed miserably. But put your eyes on the Lamb of God. The spotless, perfect Lamb of God.
We must preach this to ourselves every day. Look at Him. Let's jump ahead a little bit. I'd like to take you somewhere else in Scripture. As we look at Jesus. As we behold the Lamb of God. Go with me to John chapter 19.
And we're going to see something here. That's in Scripture that basically says, Behold the Lamb of God. But also, Pilate says, Behold the man. Look at chapter 19. I like to read a few verses here. As we look at this account.
Where does this lead? The Lamb. Well, the Lamb had to be led to slaughter, right? He goes to the cross. He goes to the cross. Look at verse 1. And I like to read it to verse 16. And just look at the story.
Let the Word of God speak. So then Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him. And the soldiers twisted a crown of thorns and put it on His head. And they put on Him a purple robe. And then they said, Hail King of the Jews.
And they struck Him with their hands. Pilate then went out again and said to them, Behold, I'm bringing Him out to you. That you may know that I find no fault in Him. And Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe.
And Pilate said to them, Behold the man. John the Baptist said, Behold the Lamb of God. Pilate now says, Behold the man. Verse 6. Therefore when the chief priests and officers saw Him, they cried out saying,.
Crucify Him. Crucify Him.
And Pilate said to them, You take Him and crucify Him for I find no fault in Him. That's a typical politician, isn't it? Trying to please people. Verse 7. The Jews answered Him,.
We have a law.
According to our law, He ought to die because He made Himself the Son of God. Verse 8. Therefore when Pilate heard that saying, He was more afraid. See, he's a typical politician, isn't he? He's afraid of people.
And went again into the praetorium and said to Jesus, Where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer. You know, Jesus knew when to speak and when not to speak, folks. We need to take a lot of counsel from the Word of God on this.
Notice our master. He knew not to cast these precious pearls before Pilate because Pilate wouldn't understand. He doesn't have eyes to see or ears to hear, right? He asked a question, Where are you from?
Notice verse 10. Then Pilate said to Him, Are you not speaking to me? That's a question.
Listen, listen.
Then he says this. Then he asked a question. Do you not know that I have power to crucify you and power to release you? Now Jesus speaks.
Rightly so.
This worm here, this maggot of the dust has no idea who's standing before Him. He knows now. He knows now. We're talking about the creator of the ends of the earth. Jesus then said this and answered. Jesus answered right here now in verse 11.
And notice what He answers. You could have no power at all against me unless it has been given to you from above. Therefore, the one who delivered me to you has the greater sin. You have no power over me.
Jesus said, I have the power to lay my life down and I have the power to take it back up again. Actually, as Pilate doesn't know who's standing before him, all power comes from Christ. All power. Verse 12.
From then on, Pilate sought to release Him. But the Jews cried out saying, If you let this man go, you are not Caesar's friend. Listen to that plight. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar.
When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus out and sat down in the judgment seat and in a place that is called the pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the preparation day of the Passover, about the sixth hour, and he said to the Jews, Behold your king.
Isn't it interesting?
Notice these words, behold. John the Baptist says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He's the prophet, none greater than John. Pilate says, Behold the man. And now he says before the Jews, Behold your king.
Verse 15. But they cried out, Away with him. Away with him. Crucify him. Pilate said to him, Shall I crucify your king? The chief priest answered, We have no king but Caesar.
Hmm.
Then he delivered him to them to be crucified. And then they took Jesus and led him away like a lamb led to the slaughter. He's God's lamb. And folks, God sovereignly appointed every single step of this.
No accident. God had appointed this. Paul the Apostle actually speaks of this. And if you go with me to 1 Corinthians. If you notice in 1 Corinthians chapter, yes, chapter 2. Verse 6.
Look at verse 6.
After Paul has mentioned that I preach Christ crucified. In verse 2, I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. In verse 3, I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling.
Verse 4.
My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. That your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
Now he unpacks this. Notice. However, verse 6. We speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age. There's a difference between heavenly wisdom and earthly wisdom. God's wisdom and demonic wisdom.
Listen to what he says. The wisdom of this age, nor are the rulers of this age. Like Pilate and so forth. Who are coming to nothing. They're coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery.
And notice what he says. The hidden wisdom of God, which God ordained before the ages for our glory. Which none of the rulers of this age knew. They didn't know it. Blind. For had they had known, they would have not crucified the Lord of glory.
If they would have really known who Jesus really was, they'd have never crucified him. They didn't believe. Pilate didn't believe. He even said in another place, what is truth? Truth was right before him.
And Paul says it. But as it is written, eye has not seen nor ear heard. Nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them who love him. Love him. Praise God. Well, we see the wonderful, wonderful story here of how the Lamb of God was led to the cross.
But it's for our glory as well. Think about it. He dies for his people. I shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Well, so much more could be said of that. So Jesus Christ, and through his death and resurrection, he has accomplished and has won the victory.
He has accomplished salvation. He's accomplished redemption. Let's go back to John's Gospel, chapter 1, where we are. Look at verse 31. John the Baptist, in verse 30, he said, This is he of whom I said, After me comes a man who is preferred before me, basically higher rank, for he was before me.
I did not know him, but that he should be revealed to Israel. Therefore I came baptizing with water. Now, this is an interesting statement by John. I did not know him. I did not know him, but that he should be revealed to Israel.
Therefore I came baptizing with water. John is basically deflecting here. He's deflecting. I did not know him. I did not really recognize him. And I read MacArthur's notes on this, and I liked what he said.
He said, What about Elizabeth and Mary? I'm paraphrasing what I read here in his commentary, but I think this is really great. What about Elizabeth and Mary, the earthly parents, Mary of Jesus, and the parents of John the Baptist?
Elizabeth being John the Baptist's mother, and Mary, Jesus' mother. Weren't they related? Were not they related? They were cousins? Weren't Jesus and John cousins? Can we say that?
They were.
Yes, they were. Another question is, Didn't Elizabeth know John was a miracle baby? Didn't they know? I believe they did.
Yes, they did.
Here's another question, and I'll bring it out. Didn't Mary know that she had conceived, miraculously, a virgin birth? A virgin. Not a man knew her. That Jesus was the very Son of God without a human father, humanly speaking.
Didn't she know that? Absolutely. Another question. MacArthur. I got these questions from MacArthur. I thought it was really great. Didn't they talk among themselves about this through the years? Do you think that they talked about this, Elizabeth and Mary, of these special children that they were going to have and they would carry?
Absolutely.
I believe that. Now, another question. Wouldn't have these women told their sons, being the mother, that they were who they were, that there was something special about them? Do we believe that? I believe that.
We don't have a lot of record of them conversing, but they were there. And I love MacArthur's questions here because it helps us think a little bit that this had to be, we can assume it, but we can say it had to happen.
There had to be some communication. And it goes on to say this. Wouldn't John know Jesus was the very son of God? Wouldn't John know that? Yes.
A resounding yes.
I believe the answer to all these is a resounding yes. Now, Elizabeth, the mother of John, I believe would have told John the Baptist, as we look at these questions, and Mary, the mother of Christ, may have told him, and certainly was known in the family.
I got parentheses right here in my notes, highlighted. And I want to tell you this, and I believe, and you would be with me on this as a Berean, as you would search the scriptures, but actually, scriptures does not give us the details, right?
So we can't assume, go too far, but we can say, I'm sure that they had conversations among one another about these special young men that God gave, and especially Mary, because she was carrying the very son of God.
And we know the story, right? When Elizabeth was speaking about this, what happened in John the Baptist being in her womb, literally leap for joy, the scripture says. And he was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb.
Speaking of Jesus, now, of course, John the Baptist wouldn't remember all that. We can't remember anything from our mother's womb, can we? But there was something supernatural that was going on there.
We do not know that Jesus, in that sense, who was 30 years old at this time, when he arrives on the scene.
Why?
Because 30 years, Jesus is in obscurity.
Jesus is not known.
And this is where John is going. Basically, Jesus, as we know of, as his earthly father, Joseph, was a carpenter. And we would say, I think we can rightly say that Jesus grew up for many, many years being by his, by Joseph's side, being a carpenter.
But he's in obscurity. He's not well known. He's not, he's in a small town in Nazareth. He's not well known. And I think that would raise some questions here, John the Baptist, wouldn't it? John is just admitting, and from the text here, as I can, as far as I can see, that he did not recognize in a full sense, according to the original Arabic here, in a full sense of Jesus and who he is.
But we do know, but he might be manifested and revealed to Israel. Look at verse 32. It tells us more. John bore witness, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and he remained upon him.
God had previously revealed to John the Baptist that this was the sign that was to indicate the promised Messiah. This would be the sign. And we see this. Look at verse 33. I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.
John baptized with water, but Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit. No mortal man can do that, folks. Only Christ, the Messiah, can do that. So when John witnessed this act, he was able to identify the Messiah as Jesus.
Which act is he talking about?
Well, look with me to Matthew. Go with me to Matthew's Gospel, chapter 3. He's speaking of the baptism. This is very significant. I look at chapter 3. Look with me to verse 13 through 17. Just those portions of scriptures there.
John basically baptizes Jesus. Verse 13, Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. John tried to prevent him. Now, he truly recognized here the greatness of Christ. And this is what John says.
I need to be baptized by you, and you are coming to me? That is a wonderful question. Shows John's humility. I need to be baptized by you, and you are coming to me? But Jesus answered and said to him, I love this, don't you?
Permit it to be so now. Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us. John's joining in on this. Jesus brings him in on this. For us to fulfill all righteousness. It's incredible. Then he allowed him.
The old King James says he suffered him. He allowed him. He submitted. He basically submitted to Christ. Verse 16, when he had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water. I see immersion there, but I won't go there.
From the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and a lightning upon him, and suddenly a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased.
Dear, you see the whole Trinity, right? The Father speaks from heaven. Jesus the Son is there. And then the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit comes upon him in the form of a dove, like a dove, a lightning upon him, descending upon him.
And that was the sign in which John had. So we see this. Verse 15 certificate, folks. Jesus answered and said to him, permit it to be so now that it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. And he allowed him.
So we see here, he was ultimately, Jesus was actually identifying himself with sinners. You know, we have to be baptized. It's an outward sign of what God does miraculously within us, right? The new birth.
This is an outward sign to show that there's been a death, a burial, and resurrection with Christ. But here Jesus is literally, not in the sense of by no means, he's the spotless Lamb of God.
He's without sin.
So why does he do this?
He's identifying with sinners.
This is so significant.
That he will ultimately bear the sins, our sins, as the Lamb of God, the perfect righteous son of God, the righteous one, and his perfect righteousness that will be imputed to them, to the sinners. This is the transference that he's identifying.
So, again, I pointed this out last Lord's Day. There's a double imputation. We hear a lot about Jesus forgives our sins. And that is so important, isn't it?
It is.
He takes our sin.
But that's only one part of the transfer. He takes our filthy rags of our righteousness, our sins. Even our good deeds are rotten before God, right? He has all the good, perfect, good deeds Jesus does.
So he gives us his robe of righteousness. There's a transfer. There's a great exchange. That's double imputation. That's what we need to tell people. Just not half of it. Yes, he forgives you your sins and he takes your sins.
He blows it apart in the sea of forgetfulness.
It's gone.
He did that. Isn't that great? But also, he gives us his righteousness to live a holy life. Now, you know, we're not perfect in the sense of living our sanctified holy life. But we are dressed in the righteousness of Christ because in salvation, that's what happens.
That justification takes place. And then there's the sanctification. Well, this act of baptism was a necessary part of righteousness and secured for sinners. Now, I got a quote by MacArthur here I really like.
It's very good. Listen to what he said. Quote, this public event of his ministry is also rich in meaning. Number one, it pictured his death and resurrection. Number two, it therefore prefigured the significance of the Christian baptism.
Three, it marked his first public identification with those whose sins he would bear. And fourth, it would be a public affirmation of his messiahship by testimony directly from heaven, end quote. That is so good.
And we can break each one of those down and look into it. But we're not going to do it today because we have communion. Verse 34, chapter 1. Notice what he says in verse 34. And I sing and testify that this is the Son of God.
This is John's testimony, folks. So, on day two, we can rightly say, John the Baptist says to the crowd, look at him. Look at him. The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is the Son of God.
He is God's Son. The Lamb of God. That's John's ministry. He knows it with absolute certainty. He knows this. He's seen it. He testified. He heard the voice from heaven here at the baptism of the Father that this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased.
He's seen the Spirit coming down like a dove descending upon Jesus. The dove signifying gentleness, grace, and alighting upon Jesus. So, we have the finest, the most believable, trustworthy voice, John the Baptist.
This is his testimony of who Jesus is. Who Jesus is. That all Israel affirming that this is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the.
World.
Application. What's my application? There's a great message that gives us hope. That gives hope to the world, folks. This is a living hope that we must take to every person. We must have an all-consuming passion to tell people who Jesus is and what He has done.
Right?
There's a grave difference of what religion tells us. And you've heard me say this before. All religions of this world is man's attempt to get to God. That's all it is. It's man's attempt to try to get to God on their own terms and their good works.
But Christianity, the gospel, is God coming to us and what has God done.
That's why we say behold the Lamb of God. Look at what God done on the cross.
He took your sin.
He took my sin. And He also gives us His righteousness.
See, this is the living hope that we give.
We give the gospel.
This is the remedy for the horrible sin. And we're redeemed now. We're redeemed. God has provided this all in the Lord Jesus Christ. The person of Jesus Christ. Person and works. Person and works of Jesus Christ.
So, how does it work? How does it work?
Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. He took our penalty. He took our judgment once and for all. He took that. The wrath of God was poured upon Him because God is perfectly holy.
Again, He that knew no sin became sin. That we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Once and for all, He died. He took God's wrath. He took God's judgment. He took our iniquity. He took it in His own body and He bore it to Calvary as the ultimate sacrifice.
Folks, is this not our message?
This is our story.
This is our song.
As Fannie Crosby said, praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission.
Perfect delight.
I am my Savior.
It goes on.
This is what it's all about. Christ and Christ alone.
I love what Stephen Lawson says. He preaches powerfully and he says, Christ and Christ alone is enough. And he said, actually, if you got something else, you don't need it. All you need is Jesus Christ.
Nothing added to it. Nothing taken away.
Christ is sufficient.
He took our sin.
He bore it all the way to Calvary. And to accept us into the beloved by His atoning grace. Ephesians 2, 3, 13 through 16. Let me read it. But now in Christ Jesus, you are who were once were far off. Listen to this.
You were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. That's what brings us near is the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace. My brother Keith mentioned last. Or is they talking about peace with God?
That's what really matters. The only way to get peace with God is being justified. And Jesus is the just and the justifier. He brings us peace with God. Then the peace of God comes in our sanctification.
But the peace with God who has then the scripture says, who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished it in his flesh, the enmity. That is the law of commandments contained in the ordinances.
So as to create himself one new man from the two, thus making peace that he might reconcile them both to God. That's what it's about. Ministry of reconciliation. And both to God and one body through the cross.
Through the cross, through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. So the Holy Spirit does this and he does something supernatural within us. Something we can't do for ourselves.
Amen.
It's through the supernatural new birth. And God does an incredible operation by the spirit. He takes out a stony heart. He puts in a heart of flesh. And even in that heart of flesh, he says, I will write my laws upon that heart of flesh.
And you know what?
That's what gives us cause.
That's how he causes us to love him and to fear him and to love him. And he writes those laws on the tablet of a fleshly heart.
It's not external.
It's not on the external trying to be something good or trying to be a Christian. It is the desire within that he changes. By the new birth that we're changed. And that's why Paul says, therefore if any man be in Christ, he is what?
A new creation. Then he says the word, behold, look, all things have become new. Old things have passed away. All things have become new.
So that is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. Well, I must close this down. 1 John 1 .7, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another in the blood of Jesus.
There it is. The blood of Jesus. His son cleanses us from all sin. Oh, beloved, look to Jesus. Look to Jesus and Jesus alone. Look and live. Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Let me tell you a story in conclusion here. Again, I speak a Spurgeon. You can tell I love Spurgeon, right? I love old Charles Spurgeon because every time you read Spurgeon,.
He takes me.
Every time I read him, he takes me to Jesus. He takes me to Jesus. This is a true story. And I mentioned this to Brother Zach last week. And you might have heard me mention this before. He was testing the acoustics one day in the Metropolitan Tabernacle.
And, of course, it was an echo. And, you know, it was quite a large church because he preached to a lot of people, thousands, in that sanctuary. And he didn't realize this. No one was in there, he thought.
He didn't see no one. And he shouted out, just testing it. Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And not realizing it, when he said that, there was a lady in the loft that heard him say that great proclamation.
Spurgeon didn't realize it. He just unleashed the Lamb. Not realizing it, that woman heard that, and she got on her knees and her face before God, and she repented and gave her a complete life and heart and soul to Jesus Christ and believed in the gospel.
That's the power of God's Word, folks. Unleash the Lamb. By faith. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
Amen? Amen.
Let's pray. Father, how wonderful it is that we have this wonderful gospel. The gospel of light. The gospel of truth. The gospel that is all in all to us, and that is Jesus Christ. He is the gospel. God is your gospel.
It is your good news. And all that we need to know is in Jesus and Jesus alone. Thank you for the salvation that you've given us, through faith, by grace, through faith, Lord, that we have looked upon Christ by your Spirit, and we see who he is and who we really are, and we beheld his glory full of grace and truth.
Lord, I just pray, bless us in the remainder of this time as we come before your table and seek your face. Continue to bless us in this hour of worship as we commune with one another and commune before you.
And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.