The Lamb of God — Randy Jones

Thank you. If I preach hard, somebody might get saved. Today, I want to talk about the Lamb of God. And I think it's so important to understand that the Lamb type of Jesus Christ is the most important type in the Bible.

The Unpopularity of Faithful Ministers and the Power of the Cross

And you know, real men of God and women of God aren't real popular. That's the truth. Jeremiah, they couldn't stand him. They threw him in a pit. John the Baptist wasn't real popular with the Pharisees.

Jesus, they killed. When it comes to the message of the cross, Satan hates that message more than any message in the world. Do you know why? That's where he was defeated. He knows it. One time Napoleon was talking to his generals and he had a map of the world and he covered the country of England in red and he told his generals, he said, Gentlemen, if it wasn't for that red spot on the map, I would have conquered the world.

And Satan is in hell with a map of the universe and right outside Jerusalem there's a little red spot covered in and he's saying, Demons, if it wasn't for that red spot on the map, I would have conquered the universe.

The cross was his undoing. F .J. Hugo said, Our God rules this universe from a cross. His throne is a cross. And the message of the cross is the message of the hour. Do you know why? And I know everybody says, This is the message, this is the message.

A .W. Tozer said, The one major problem in the churchdom is lack of discernment in the leadership. And that's our job, to discern what's important. If I could go back and re-preach all of my sermons, I'd cut out about 90 of them.

Yeah, everybody said, Oh, that's great, somebody's going to have glory to God, and they shout and stuff. But it didn't make a lasting impact. It's the preaching of the cross that's the power of God. My translation says, It's the very power of God.

Well, the real power of God is when I start twitching and all this stuff. No, that's feeling the power of God. That's a result of the power of God. But the power of God is preaching the cross. And I really believe that God is going to do a big thing and shake the whole church, and He is shaking it.

And the reason is, He wants to get our focus back on His Son and on Calvary. Now, I want you to read a verse with me. John chapter 1, verse 29. John 1, 29. The Lamb of God is in the Bible from Genesis, literally, to Revelation.

The Lamb of God as the Bible's Central Theme

It's so important to understand that's the master theme of the Bible, the Lamb of God. Today, I want to talk about three things about the Lamb. The type, His travail, and His triumph. John 1, 29. The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward Adam and said, Look or behold me.

Is that what your translation says? Now, let me try it again. Behold my ministry. Behold the devil. Did you know that Jesus said John the Baptist's ministry was greater than any ministry, that He's the greatest prophet that ever lived?

And He never worked one miracle. Elijah worked all kinds of miracles. Elijah worked twice as many. But here comes John the Baptist who never raised the dead or stopped the sun or anything like that. And Jesus said, He's the greatest prophet that was ever born of woman.

Why? His ministry was greater. Miracles are fun. They're wonderful. All these other things, sermons and everything is greater. But John the Baptist had the greatest ministry of all time apart from Jesus Christ because God sent him out of the wilderness into this world, stood on the bank of the Jordan River, looked down and over at his cousin, and he didn't say, Look, behold, brother wonderful.

Behold me. Behold the devil. Behold demons. Behold the gift of the Spirit. Behold prophecy. Behold the glory. Behold the power. He turned around and looked at his cousin and he said to the whole universe, Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

You know what? It's exciting to be a preacher because if you focus on true ministry, the real thing, you get to do the same thing John the Baptist did and stand in this world and look at the world and point to heaven and say, Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

That's what evangelism is. Introducing Jesus Christ to that person or to the world. And when we get on anything else, in the chapter he also says, down in verse 32,. Then John said, I saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove from heaven and resting upon him, and I did not know he was the one.

But when God sent me to baptize with water, he told me, When you see the Holy Spirit descending and resting upon someone, he is the one you're looking for. He is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

I saw this happen to Jesus, so I testify that he is the Son of God. The following day, John was again standing with two of his disciples as Jesus walked by. John looked at him and then declared, Look, there is the Lamb of God again.

The Old Rugged Cross Versus a Comfortable Christianity

I'm not going to tell you that preaching the cross is easy. A .W. Tozer said, There's an old cross and there's a new cross. The new cross has a stereo and it's upholstered so it doesn't hurt too much.

And they don't use real nails. They just tie you on there loosely. And it has a water fountain and a Coke machine. It has wheels and a motor, so it's not real hard to carry. It has hydraulic lifts to help you with it.

In other words, it doesn't require very much out of you. He said the old cross was an instrument of death. It had splinters all over it. It was really rough and hurt. And when you went to the cross, you were going to do one thing, die.

And he said, I'm praying that the Lord will raise up men and women to preach the old cross. We used to sing in church on a hill far away stood an old rugged cross. You don't hear that much anymore. Most new courses, not all of them, some do, but most of them are not about Calvary.

In fact, there's even one course, I don't understand why it says this, but it says, I'll weep no more for the cross that he bore. It says something. You ever get a vision of Calvary, you'll never stop weeping.

You know what Peter's name was in the early church? His nickname? Red Eyes. Because he cried so much. Why? He betrayed the Lord, the Bible says, and he went out and wept bitterly. And he was a broken man after that, and he saw Calvary.

The Passover Lamb as a Type of Christ

And in the Old Testament, they had to take a little lamb, not Jesus, but a type of Jesus, a little baby lamb. Has anyone ever seen a baby lamb? Has anyone ever been attacked by one? In the book of Revelation, every time it says lamb, the Greek is a lambkin, a baby newborn lamb.

Every time it's a lambkin, a baby newborn lamb. And little bitty baby lambs, I've actually held one. My father had some sheep, and they're not real vicious. The Bible said he was led as a lamb to the slaughter.

As a sheep before its shearers, it's dumb. He opened not his mouth. Why was he silent? Because of our sins. He was guilty of our sins. And when he went to Calvary, that little lamb was a type of him. They had to take the lamb and observe it for several days, make sure there was no spot, no blemish.

Then they killed the lamb and they put the blood on the doorpost on the top and on the side. The rundown from the top to the ground was on each side of the door and on the lintel, and it made a cross right in front of that little Israelite's dwelling.

And when I was a kid, we used to sing, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. I never really understood. I thought it meant God would skip over me. But the word is tisa, and a lot of people don't understand where it comes from, but a really respected Jewish rabbi in Louisville, Kentucky I took a Hebrew course from him once.

He said that that word tisa comes from the Egyptian language and it means to interpose one's own person. Tisa, in fact, I was preaching a revival in Cincinnati and the pastor's daughter was named tisa, Passover.

That's kind of a weird name, but the name was Passover. God told Moses, you tell the people that when I see that little lamb's blood, that little animal, when I see that blood over the doorpost, I Jehovah almighty God will get up off my throne.

I'll leave heaven. I'll come down to the earth. And when death and destruction and darkness and the destroyer tries to come in that dwelling, I'll interpose my own person. I'll stand in the door of that dwelling and I'll turn away the angel of death or the powers of darkness or destruction.

And I'll say, you can't come in here. The lamb's blood is on this dwelling. Now that was a little animal. That's what God said. I'll interpose my own person. Now that's a little animal. How much more do you think when we Christians plead the blood of Jesus over our homes, by faith, and over our families, over our children, over ourselves, that when destruction and the destroyer and evil and Satan comes, and some people would say today, well, the blood of Jesus has no power against the devil.

I want you to know the devil can't get to me unless God allows him to because there's a line of blood all around me. It's called the bloodline, and the devil can't get through the blood of Jesus Christ.

The Bible says that when I put the blood of the lamb on me, that when destruction comes against me, that Jehovah God, almighty God, sees his son's blood. Not a little animal. He sees his son's blood, and he leaves heaven.

He vacates the throne, and he comes down to earth, and he tells the destroyer, you cannot come in here. When I plead the blood over my mind, the Lord comes down from heaven, and he interposes his own person and he turns away destruction.

And evil. That's how powerful the blood of Jesus is. The blood of Jesus is the most powerful. It's over the law in the tabernacle in heaven. Aren't you glad that God lifted us through the blood? Jesus went back to heaven and sprinkled the blood on the mercy seat seven times.

He told Mary, don't touch me. I'm not yet ascended. I haven't applied the blood yet. The blood of Jesus. That little lamb's blood. You can study all of that. It's a picture of the Lamb of God. And how powerful that little lamb's blood was.

That's the blood of Jesus. It's much more powerful. Now, I could talk a lot about the offerings. I'm going to just mention the types. I want to get to the Lamb of God and his travail. The last week that Jesus came to Jerusalem, it's called his Passion Week, his suffering.

Christ's Passion Week and the Way of Suffering

There's a road in Jerusalem on the street. The name of it is the Via Dolorosa, the way of suffering. And the Catholics have the twelve stations of the cross. And one thing I like about the Catholics is they remember the Lord's suffering and death.

Oh, brother Andy, we're transgenic. We just want to shout. The tomb is empty. Yes, the tomb is empty. But do you know what had to happen before it was empty? He had to go to Calvary first. And that Via Dolorosa, that way of suffering, that street of suffering, that week was so intense, nobody will ever know except God, probably, what all happened in that week.

But when Jesus was coming back to Jerusalem, he came in riding upon a donkey. You know, something the Father said, you know, just for a moment, I'm going to kind of reveal who that is riding upon that donkey.

It was fulfilled, a prophecy that said, Behold, Zion, your king cometh unto you, meek and lowly, riding upon a donkey in the foal of a donkey. Jesus had ministered so hard and labored and worked and ministered and raised the dead and cast out demons and opened blind eyes.

He'd done all these wonderful things. And then he's coming into Jerusalem. And all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit got on everybody and they began spontaneously to throw down. You know, today we'd work it out, you know, and kind of tell everybody, here's what you do, here's what you do, applause, sign over here, applause.

The Holy Spirit got on everybody and they threw their coats down in front of him and they waved palm branches. And all of a sudden, there was like for an instant, there was a revelation that this was son of God, this was somebody powerful coming in.

And right in his triumphal intro, he rides in and the whole city is screaming, Hosanna, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. And the Pharisees ran out and said, Oh, Master, Master, shut up, shut up everybody, shut up.

The Bible says on the other side of the city, they heard it and they said, What's going on? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth is coming into town. And Jesus looked at the Pharisees and said, Master, make you disciples be quiet, they're upsetting everything.

He said, I tell you, if these don't praise me, the rocks would immediately scream out because the king of glory was heading for his throne across. And he entered into the city and those very people that screamed and were healed and everything, a week later, they're screaming crucify as the devil got on.

The Gospel as the Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Christ

And he comes in and, you know, the story this past week, I'm just going to touch some highlights on it. But, you know, when we go out and tell the good news, we kind of say, well, it's pretty good news.

I'm going to tell my Galatians class today, or it's mediocre news. It's kind of good news. The word gospel means good news. And the gospel is the birth life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

One time, we had a student here. I can't remember his name. My first semester, he was a sharp young man. He was very anointed. He went down to Deep Bellum with this man. He was anointed. And he said he came.

I think he came from Georgia and his pastor, a black pastor, was like 86, still pastoring. And he called him into this office. The pastor didn't know he was going away to Bible school. And he said, pastor, what can you tell me?

What can you tell me about wisdom? Can you give me? And he said, son, three words. Don't ever forget them. Death, burial and resurrection. That's the gospel. Death, burial and resurrection. And Steve, today we get on everything else and we get focused.

And you know, Christians today don't really know what the cost is. What really happened to come? We go around with a crochet and tell everybody, Jesus died for you. But how did he die? What happened when he died?

What's the impact of his death? We don't really understand the cross anymore. It's kind of gone in one ear and out the other. When Jesus came in to his passion, he came into his travail. It was really powerful.

I mean, all the things that happened in the heavenlies and the things that he said from the cross. The first thing that he said from the cross, you know, the story of how he'd gone to Gethsemane. And I shared with my class the other day, Jesus wasn't trying to back out of the cross.

Almost every commentary you read about Gethsemane, he said, well, he was human. He was having second thoughts. He was trying to back out of Calvary, trying to get out of going to the cross. No, that's because we think Jesus was a liar.

In Gethsemane, he turned to his disciples, the Bible said, and said, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death. And the Bible said he was surprised. There were two or three times in Jesus' life where the Father surprised him.

One of them was Gethsemane. Gethsemane means a wine press where something's pressed and squeezed out. And he turned around, the Bible said, he was amazed. He was surprised. And he was troubled because all of a sudden every demon and devil in hell began to come against his mind, his soul, he said.

My soul is sorrowful even unto death. And he was shocked. He said, and the first and only time in his life he asked his disciples, could you please pray with me one hour? And they didn't do it. The only time he ever asked anybody to help him pray in his whole life, and they fell asleep.

And he's in there alone and he's battling the forces of hell. And if you can get this picture, Hebrews 5, 7 and 8 says, who in the days of his flesh offered up strong crying, with strong crying and tears, unto him who was able to hear him and what he feared and saved him from death.

Where was he saved from death? It wasn't at the cross. He died there. It was in Gethsemane. John said he saw the spear pulled out and blood and water came out. He said, I saw it. And he said it twice.

I say it again. Blood and water came out. Medical doctors say, I used to have a book called A Doctor Looks at Calvary that it meant the sack around his heart had ruptured and the fluid ran out. Dallas Holm wrote a song, He Died of a Broken Heart.

And that's probably literally true. Because when they came to break his legs, on the cross, you had to push up on your legs to breathe and they would break their legs and they couldn't push up and breathe anymore and they would die of asphyxiation.

Suffocate. Die of suffocation because they couldn't breathe. When they came to him, they didn't have to break his legs. He was already dead. And I believe he died of a broken heart. They're starting Gethsemane.

And the Bible shows him battling alone and pleading with the Father. My Father, if it be possible, let this cup, the New Living Translation says, let this cup of suffering pass from me. Nevertheless, he knew from the time he was born, he was headed for Calvary because the cross existed in eternity past.

Our names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life. The Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. He was already slain and he knew he was heading for the cross and yet it looked like God had changed his mind and he was going to die right there in the garden.

Waymouth Translation said he labored so hard in agony that great clots of blood fell to the ground. Doctors have a word for that when you start hemorrhaging through your skin and they say that no one has ever done that and lived.

They hemorrhaged through the sweat pores of their skin. Hemorrhaged blood. And Jesus got up covered from head to toe with blood as he's sweating great drops of blood and he comes to his disciples again and says, can you please pray with me?

What did they think? They looked at him bloody and in agony. The only time, I tell you, I think it scared them. A sleepiness and they were tired and they didn't know what to say to him. The Bible says they didn't know what to say and he's battling alone.

The Bible says angels came and strengthened him. And then he began to pray and he prayed three times. My father let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but thine be done. The third time he got enough strength.

He said, okay, rise. It's time to go. And he gets to pilot's hall and they scourge him. And they just kind of say scourge him but you've got to understand that was professional Roman soldiers. That was their job.

They whipped people every day. And they would use a cat of nine tails or a little whip with little bits of bone and glass and metal on the end so that when they lashed the victim, those little pieces would dig into the skin and then they would jerk it out.

History says they would get around the front. They would come around the front and hook into them. They were naked as they whipped them and just tear pieces of flesh out. And history says that even secular historians said a scourged victim, their back would look like raw hamburger meat when they got done.

Pilate says they scourged him. Pilate said that will satisfy their bloodlust. One preacher said he looked so ridiculous sitting there wearing a dirty purple horse cloth and a broken stick in his hand as his scepter and a crown of thorns set crookedly upon his head and blood running down his face.

Beard plucked out and the spittle of blood of drunken Roman soldiers running down his face as they spit in his face. And they're mocking him and bowing the knee saying hail king of the Jews. He looks so ridiculous this preacher said.

That picture of failure. But there's something about seeing that that makes me want to follow my face and worship him. See, most people never really understand his suffering. They scourged him. They scourged him.

They mocked him. Ridiculed him. They took him out and they crucified him. Made him carry his cross so he couldn't carry it anymore. He hasn't slept now all night. It's that day. He's exhausted. He hasn't eaten.

He hasn't drank anything. And he gets out there. He's carrying his cross. He collapses. They compel somebody to carry the cross. They take it to the place of the skull. There's a hill there that looks like a skull.

Calvary. What they would do is they would lay him there but they'd tie him and then they would drive great big spikes about this long through the wrist, probably the bottom of their hand or the middle of their hand sometimes.

They would nail him there. They would just put that in the palm of their hand. If you've ever seen Jesus of Nazareth when they pulled that hammer back. Bang! And the agony. Ah! And the guy's face. You know, we can sit here and talk about it and the physical suffering was awful.

I want you to know that was the least of the suffering. As horrible as that was, that was just the beginning. And Jesus took the cross and one of the things they would dig a three to four foot deep hole and they would pull it up on a rope and lever pulley thing, take the cross there and then they would just let it go.

That's another portion of suffering. And that was one of the worst things that would happen when they would let that cross drop three or four feet into the ground and when it hit the bottom with a thud it would rip and tear the nails.

And they're hanging there probably naked, exposed. The worst death that the Roman Empire could think of for a convicted criminal. And while he's hanging there, Father, forgive them. That's Calvary love.

Calvary forgiveness. Calvary mercy. Look into his accusers and the people that are coming against him. And he looks at them and says, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. He says seven things from the cross.

And I don't have time to teach on all of them, but they're all very meaningful. First, he takes care of his family, his mother. He says, Son, behold thy mother. Woman, behold thy son. He dealt with his family.

He deals with the whole world first. Then he deals with his family. And then for the next three hours, he's silent. Folks, it's just him and God for three hours. And I want to tell you something. There will come a time when friends and family are wonderful, but when you walk with God, there's going to be a day when it's just you and God.

He also dealt with the thief next to him. And he told the thief, he said, Lord, remember first they mocked him. And he said, Lord, remember he said today. First, he said, barely, barely, truly, truly.

That's the seal of truth. I, the seal of authority, I, the son of God, say unto you, today you'll be with me in paradise. You think that happened? A few hours later, that old thief's looking at Jesus in paradise.

Sure, the sun came up this morning. And then Jesus is there and he's suffering and he doesn't say anything for three hours from 12 o 'clock to three in the afternoon. And it's agony. I mean, I can't imagine the agony that he's feeling.

Christ's Bearing of Sin and the Wrath of God

But then something else begins to happen. Jesus had talked about a place called hell where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. And this place of hell, he said, you don't want to go there.

And he said, don't you fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell. And while he's on Calvary, all the fire of hell begin to burn against him. I've got news for you. Jesus did not go to hell and suffer as a sinner like some people teach.

That was a lie hatched in the incubators of hell. When Jesus went to hell, something else happened. But when he's on the cross, the fire of hell burns against him. And while he's hanging there, I want you to know the Son of God put out the fire of hell.

And he killed the worm that wouldn't die. That's why I'm excited about being saved. I don't have to go to hell because on Calvary, he put out that fire that couldn't be quenched. The Bible said we've been delivered from the wrath to come.

It was at Calvary that he put out the fire that couldn't be quenched. He killed the one that wouldn't die for every believer. That's why the cross is so exciting to me. He didn't go to hell. Some people said he went to hell and suffered in agony and burned in flames.

I want you to know that's a lie. The Bible never says that anywhere. It does say he went and preached to him. And it does say in the Psalms that he went down there and he did visit hell. After he died on the cross, in spirit form, he visited hell.

And he said, what? Open up the everlasting doors. Open up the everlasting gates and let the King of glory come in. And hell yelled back, we don't know who the King of glory is. Who is this King of glory?

And Jesus answered, the Lord God mighty in battle. The Lord God almighty. And he kicked the doors down. And he went and he took away the keys of death, hell, and the grave. And then he marched back to heaven with captivity led captive.

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. The cross is not a negative message. It's the most exciting message you've ever heard in your life. It's where it all happens. And then Jesus is there. And he puts out the fire of hell.

But then something begins to happen that's so awful that none of us will ever understand. The King James said he was made to be sinned for us. The Greek literally says he became sinned. Let's say he carried sin, that it was put on him, it was imputed to him.

The Bible says in the Greek language, he became sinned. I don't know Isaiah and Isaiah 52 look down through time by prophecy. And he saw the Lord hanging on the cross. And he said it was a horrible sight.

His visage, his face was more marred than any man. The Hebrew there means he didn't look like a human being anymore. As he's suffering in agony, the Bible said he had no beauty. Isaiah says that we should desire him.

It was an ugly, horrible sight. He said we had to turn away our faces. We couldn't see and we couldn't even look. It was so horrible. But that's just by prophecy. Can you imagine what Jesus was feeling as he turns into some kind of twisted, cursed, darkened, horrible thing on there?

The New Living Translation said he didn't look like a human being anymore. As every perverted sin, every homosexual act, every murder, every lie, every fight, every fit of anger, every sin that ever would be committed was being committed and ever would be committed to be committed.

All the sin was deposited into the bosom of the Lord Jesus Christ. And can you imagine an innocent, spotless Son of God suddenly encountering all the sins of the universe? And that time frame on Calvary, God made him to be sin for us.

Do you want to know what God thinks about sin? Look at Calvary. It's an awful thing. It destroys. And he became sin. None of us will ever know. You know, our sin is pretty bad. We feel pretty bad over our sins or what we see.

Can you imagine all of them at once? And then something else happened. The Bible said he endured the wrath of God for us. Isaiah 53 said that it pleased the Lord to bruise him. It says that the Lord shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied.

While the Son of God is in such agony physically. I mean, the physical suffering, I can't imagine. I cry if I stub my toe. And he's bleeding from head to toe from the crown of thorns, from the nails, from Gethsemane, from the beating.

And he's blood from head to toe. That's why we sing there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains. That's what was happening.

But as he became sin and he's so cursed and he became a curse and he's fighting hell and every demon. You ever have the demon of discouragement come against you or attack your mind? You're no good. Just quit.

Can you imagine what was coming against the mind of the Son of God? And then while all this is going on, God begins to pour out his seven vows of wrath. Have you read what those do to the earth and the universe in the book of Revelation?

The Bible said this old world is going to rock and reel like a drunken man as the wrath of God is poured out from heaven upon this world. If there are six billion people in the world when the tribulation starts, by the end of the tribulation there will only be about 50 to 100 million left alive.

It's going to decimate the whole world as the wrath of God. You think, well, everybody's getting by with sin. The homosexuals are getting by and the Satanists are getting by. I want to tell you something.

Not one sin will ever be unaccounted for. Someday God's going to repay this world for every sin that was ever committed. That's why I'm excited about the rapture too. Some people are saying, oh, we're not going in the rapture.

I want to tell you something. Bye. I hope they have a good time while they're here because I'm going to do what the Bible said and I'm not going to let them take away my blessed hope. The wrath of God begins to course through the bosom of the Son of God.

Can you imagine? I don't know how a human body... It was a miraculous, supernatural thing. Maybe angels came and deposited it there. Maybe the Father Himself poured it there. But He endured all the wrath of a just and holy offended God on Calvary.

And He's suffering so much that He cries out. The only time this happened in the Bible, He said one sentence, one statement in two different languages. His agony is so great, you see, in the midst of all His agony, He felt something happen.

He felt God's presence with all. Most of us don't even know it. Samson didn't know that the Spirit of the Lord had left him. But in the midst of this awful, unmitigated, horrible suffering, Jesus fills the Father's presence with draw.

And see what was going on in heaven. God could not fellowship tense. And this was the price of Calvary. And this was another surprise for the Son of God. That while His Son is hanging there in agony, being ripped apart, that God Almighty for the first and only and last time had to cut Himself off from Himself.

And God had to forsake part of Himself and leave it outside the Godhead there as God Almighty had to turn His back. And the Bible said the sun quit shining, that there were earthquakes, and God had to look the other way.

And in His ears, He heard His Son cry out first in Hebrew, Eloi, Eloi! My God, my God! That His suffering is so great. In mid-sentence, He switches to His native tongue of Aramaic and says, Lama, sit back to me.

Why have you forsaken Me? We'll never know what it meant to God to have to hear that. And as Jesus is hung in there from 12 noon to 3 in the afternoon, He hasn't said one word until He says that. And then the Bible says, Jesus knowing that all things had been accomplished and fulfilled.