tonight as we continue to read God's word together in the book of John, John's gospel. And we're going to commence our reading tonight at verse 19. John chapter one and reading from verse 19. And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who art thou? And he confessed and denied not, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, what then? Art thou Elijah? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, no. Then said they unto him, Who art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us? What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah. And they which were sent were off afar a season, they asked him and said unto him, why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elijah, neither that prophet? John answered them, saying, I baptize with water, but there standeth one among you whom ye know not. He it is who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoes latchet I am not worthy to unloose. These things were done in Bethabara, beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day, John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, after me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before me. And I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. John Bear Records saying, I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw and bear record that this is the Son of God. Again the next day after, John stood and two of his disciples And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, behold, the lamb of God. Amen. God will honor his blessing to this reading from his word. Let's just bow for a moment and let's pray as we come to God's word. Father, we thank you tonight for the opportunity to read your word publicly. We thank you for these moments that we have just to spend some time together thinking about the verses that we have read. And we pray that as we seek to exalt Lord Jesus Christ that you would grant us the help of the Holy Spirit. We pray that you would speak to all our hearts encouraging us through your word and encouraging us most of all to consider the one whom you have sent into the world to be our Savior. All of this we ask for our good and for your glory and in our Savior's name. Amen. Amen. Last night, whenever Pastor Moffat brought us to the Word of God, to those opening verses in John 1, he reminded us of certain things about the Lord Jesus Christ, who he is, how that all things were made through him and by him, and he reminded us so much about his humility, his willingness to step from the very heights and glory of heaven to come into this world of sin, to seek and to see of that which was lost. Tonight I want to turn your thoughts to these verses I've read to you this evening. I'm so glad that the men sang that lovely piece as their third piece tonight, O Lamb of God, I come, I come. One of the other hymns that we sang also directed our thoughts to the Lamb of God. And that's simply what I want to do tonight in the time that remains here in our mission night. You see, sometimes people will say to me, well, you see, as far as the gospel is concerned, I don't really understand it. They don't understand it by their reasoning simply because they think it is far too complicated, that there are many terms that we as Christians and very often as preachers use that people just don't seem to be able to understand. Well, I can assure you tonight that this is the first time that you've ever heard the gospel, that you will understand exactly what I'm going to say. Because this is one of the most simple texts that you and I come to this evening. Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world. When you and I come tonight to these verses, we're introduced to a man whom we know was John the Baptist. What a very interesting man John the Baptist is. When you and I, for example, read our introduction to him in Matthew's gospel, you can see that by his appearance, he was a very radical kind of character. He really didn't fit in. When you listen to him preach, you can see how relevant he was and how radical he was in the proclamation of the word of God, because he simply told people of the need to repent and to believe his message. And tonight here he is before us again here in John chapter 1 and he's coming to us tonight as the bearer of good news because he had come to speak God's truth. He was in every sense of the term an evangelist because he came to point men and women to the Lord Jesus Christ. He was God's witness. He was a watchman. There are so many terms tonight that we could use about John the Baptist, but his only desire was, as he fulfilled the ministry that had been committed to him, his only desire was that men and women would come to know Christ and see in him everything that he was in himself and to find in him everything that they needed in time and for eternity. He would preach and he would call people to repentance. And he would point people to Christ because Jesus Christ was the only hope for the world then, just as he is the only hope for the world now. And you'll note here some people had come to speak with John. They had come from Jerusalem. They were interested in his identity. They wanted to know, was he in fact the one who they expected? Was he the Messiah that they had been waiting on now as they had been taught and told through the word of the prophets? But John being the evangelist that he was, he simply turned the attention of the people away from himself. And he pointed the people to the Lord Jesus Christ and he said to them, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. If you really want to know the one whom God has sent, if you're really looking for your Messiah, then you need to take a look at the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one who has come to be your Savior. He's the one that God has sent into the world that you might find your spiritual need met in him. Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone was the answer to the needs of those people. And you know night by night as we come to the Word of God, I just want to say this to you, that Pastor Muffet and I will point you to Christ Because there's nothing else that we can do, we can't save you, but we can point you to one who can. And the Bible tells us very plainly that neither is there salvation in any other, there is no other name under heaven given amongst men. whereby we must be saved. So we're standing in good footsteps tonight for we're seeking to do as John did to his day and generation. But let me take here first of all the directions that John gave because I would suggest to you that they were exceptionally clear. John left the people in no doubt as to who he was and as to who the Lord Jesus Christ was. He didn't want the people to become preoccupied with him. He didn't want the people to lose their focus. He didn't want to promote himself nor his own interests. He simply wanted to point people to Christ because Christ was the only one who could save them. The Lord Jesus Christ was the only one who could bear away their sin. He was the only one who could bring light to their darkened souls and the only one who could bring life to them in the deadness of their sin. And I want you to know tonight, because it's vitally important, If you're here without Jesus Christ and you're living without hope, the Lord Jesus Christ is the only one who can meet your need. The Lord Jesus Christ is the only one who can come right to where you are in the darkness of your sin and bring you out of that sin and lift you out of it, change your life, transform you, and give you a life that is worth living. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can do that. Now, I know we're living in a day when so many people, when we talk to them about salvation and we talk about the way of salvation, so many people will tell us, but you know what? There are so many ways. that you and I can get to heaven. One day sitting in an office belonging to the headmaster of a primary school I was in to do assembly, and I thanked him most sincerely because I'd never been in the school before and I thanked him so much for the opportunity to come and to speak with the boys and girls about the Lord Jesus Christ. And I told him that, he said, no, we're glad to have you today because the children really do need to know about all the ways there are to heaven. I said, sir, whilst I appreciate being here, I want you to know, before I tell the children, there's only one way, God says, to get to heaven. Jesus is the only way. Don't know why I never was invited back, but that's how it goes. But you see, these directions are exceptionally clear. There can be no doubting them. There can be no misunderstanding them. John says, if you're interested in who your Messiah is, if you're interested in the one whom God sent into the world to be your Savior, don't look at me, take a look at him. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. They were exceptionally clear, but I would suggest to you they were evidently costly. Because if John was saying what was true, and if Jesus was their Messiah, then they could not avoid the issue any longer. because here were a group of people, and it seems that they were genuinely interested in who John was. They were waiting for the one whom the Old Testament had described. They were looking for the one that the prophets had said would come to be their deliverer, and now he's in their midst. And John says, if you're really interested in Jesus Christ and all that he has come to do, then you're faced with an issue. You're faced with a challenge about what you do with him. You see, folks, when it comes to the Lord Jesus Christ, you and I are faced with a challenge. We either receive him as our Savior and believe his word, or we reject him and the offer of salvation that God gives us in him, we continue to live as we are, that means living in our sin, living without Christ, with every danger that one day we'll die without him and perish eternally. So that's how important it is. Whenever we come and we sit under the authority of God's word, when the gospel is preached, whether it's a Sunday night, whether it's during Days of Opportunity, in the midst of a mission that comes to any community, people are faced with this great issue of Jesus Christ. What am I going to do with him? Did I ask you tonight what you're going to do with him? Will you receive him as he is, the Son of God, the Savior of the world, the one who came to die for you? Or will you reject God's offer of mercy in Christ and say, as those did all those many years ago, I will not have this man to rule over me? The hymn writer puts it like this, there is life for a look, that the crucified one, there is life at this moment for thee. Then look, sinner, look unto him and be saved. Unto him who was kneeled to the tree. The directions that John gave, they were very simple. They couldn't have mistaken what John said to them, but they were costly. Because if they were sincerely interested in Christ, and they had the opportunity to come to know him, then they must either receive him or reject him. And that same challenge lies at the foot of every individual. So what will you do with Christ tonight? The directions John gave, Look at the description that John gave because these words are amazing. He says, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away. the sin of the world. Now John's very conscious of the people that he's addressing on this occasion and he takes them right back into the Old Testament scriptures. He has something on his mind that these people could readily and easily identify with because he's making a reference back again to the Old Testament sacrificial system, to the land that was slain or offered to make atonement for sin. and he presents the Lord Jesus Christ in a way that offered them hope, but it also showed them their great need of him. The Lamb of God, John says, that takes away the sin of the world. Let me break that down and say this. He is a significant lamb. because he is the lamb of God. In the Old Testament, the lamb was chosen for sacrifice. It was very carefully selected. Couldn't be any old lamb. It had to be a meal of the first year. It had to be spotless and it had to be approved by God. What a picture that brings to our hearts tonight of the Lord Jesus. The one whom God has sent into the world was chosen of God before the very foundation of the world. He's a lamb without blemish and without spot. The Bible says of the Lord Jesus Christ that he was sinless. He was holy, harmless, undefiled. He was separate from sinners. And that's the way it had to be. because the reality is that only one who knew no sin could take the sinner's place. Only one who was perfect in every way could meet the demands that God had placed upon the sinner. And only the Lord Jesus Christ who knew no sin could be made sin for us. The verse goes on to say that we might be made the righteousness of God and him. He's a significant lamb. He was a sacrificial lamb. Going back to the Old Testament economy, you will note that for the people, the lamb had to be slain and a sacrifice had to be made. Atonement, in other words, had to be made for the sins of the people. And when we think of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. What a picture that gives us. Here's what the prophet Isaiah said about the Lord Jesus Christ, hundreds of years before he was ever born. Isaiah 53, he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is done, so he openeth not his mouth. You see, whenever it comes to salvation, whenever it comes to this important issue that affects every single one of us tonight, I want you to understand that this was no afterthought as far as God was concerned. We sometimes sing that little hymn, don't we? Oh, the love that drew salvation's plan. Oh, the grace that brought it down to man. Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span at Calvary. Calvary was no afterthought. It was all in the plan and purpose of God. The Word of God says that God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. And that's why the Lord Jesus Christ came. leaving the glory and the splendor of heaven to come into this world of sin, stepping from eternity into time, as we were reminded last night, in order that he might come and one day go to an old rugged cross and there lay down his life for sinners just like you and for a sinner just like me. And I want you to understand this. that the Lord Jesus Christ wasn't driven to the cross, he willingly went to that cross to bear away the sin of this old world. That's why the hymn writer says, there was one who was willing to die in my stead that a soul so unworthy might live, and the path to the cross, he was willing to tread. Why? all the sins of my life to forgive. All of them. Every last one of them. The Lord Jesus Christ went to that cross and he suffered and he bled and he died in our guilty room instead. offering up himself as a sacrifice for our sin, dying as our substitute for he loved us and he gave himself for us. And in his death, making a way back to God from the dark paths of sin, so that any one of us and every one of us could come tonight as a sinner to the foot of that cross and say, I do believe, I will believe that Jesus died for me. You understand that? Just how much he loved you, that he was willing to go to the cross and die in your place. Willing to die in mine. And you know the greatest mystery of all? The Bible says that it pleased the Lord to bruise him. Can you imagine that, that God delivered up his son for a soul at the cross? You see, his sacrifice was exceptional in degree and in kind. It was the only sacrifice that could ever meet the just demands of God upon the sinner. And thank God tonight it's a one for all sacrifice that never needs to be repeated, for on the cross he himself said, it is finished. I'm sure we all have some lovely hymns we carry in our hearts. Here's one of mine. Behold the man upon the cross, my sin. upon his shoulders. Ashamed I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers. It was my sin that held him there until it was accomplished. His dying breath has brought me life. I know that it is that means to you? Whenever you think about the one who took your place and hung upon that cross, suspended between heaven and earth as if he was worthy of neither, and there with all the pain and the shame and the suffering that he endured, have you ever begun to understand he did it all for you? He did it all for you. Thank God that that sacrifice was acceptable to the Father, and on account of that finished work, you and I can be saved, our sins forgiven, and we can be accepted in Christ tonight on the basis of that finished work. The directions John gave, they were very clear, very simple. The description that John gave, it's all important. And very quickly, the declaration that John gave. He said, behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. You see, friends, whether we accept it or not, there is a real problem in our lives that every one of us have to confront, and that's our sin. That's our sin. It's a problem in our day, just as it was in John's day. It's a problem in our hearts, just as it was in the hearts of the people then. Pastor Moffat reminded us last night when he quoted Romans 5, 12, why we have this problem. Wherefore, as by one man, Adam, sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed up on all men, for that all have sinned. And not only are we sinners, but our sin separates us from God. Our sin controls the way we live. And one day that sin, if it's not dealt with, it will condemn us for the whole of eternity. But listen, here's the good news of the gospel. Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, came to bear away our sins in his own body on that tree at Calvary. Do you know tonight that your sins and mine can all be forgiven, every last one of them? That God in Christ is willing and waiting to pardon us? The Bible says if we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us that sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It doesn't matter how deep down in sin we might be. I've met people in the pathway of life whose lives were wrecked and ruined by sin, and they said to me, listen, I'm so far down in sin, I could never be saved. If you feel like that, you're the very person that Christ came to redeem. You're the one that he died on the cross for, to take away your sin, every one of them, and every last one of them. because the promise of God's word is this, that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. All sin. That's why the hymn writer could say, my sin, oh, the bliss of his glorious thought, my sin not in part, but the whole is kneeled to his cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. And you say to me tonight, but can my sins really be forgiven? Yes. On the authority of God's word a thousand times, yes. But you'll have to come as a sinner to Jesus. You'll have to come to the one who died to bear away your sin at the cross. You'll have to come and just humble yourself in the presence of a thrice holy God and acknowledge your need tonight of sins forgiven. And therein lies the problem. Because so many people tonight just don't see into their own hearts and they cannot see their hearts are deceitful and they're desperately wicked and sin is ruining them and leading them further away from God than they ever intended to go. But don't despair. There's a way back to God. And it all begins when you come as a sinner. to Jesus. Let me ask you tonight, do you know him? Are you a Christian? Have your sins been forgiven? Have you been restored to fellowship with God? Are you still rejecting the gospel and living in sin? I can only say to you tonight in closing, take a look at Him. Take a look at Him, Christ, the Savior of the world. He's the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And He'll take away your sin tonight, too, if you come and receive Him as your Savior. And I hope if you don't do that tonight, you'll have opportunity to do it some other night. Because you dare not live life and face death without a savior. Let's pray for a moment.