Our scripture reading this afternoon comes to us from the gospel according to John, John chapter one, and we'll begin reading at verse 15. John chapter one, beginning at verse 15, and after that, we'll make confession of our faith by reading the Apostles' Creed, and then we'll sing Psalter 140, one and two, 140, one and two, after the scripture reading and the confession. John 1 at verse 15, John bear witness of him and cried saying, this was he of whom I spake. He that cometh after me is preferred before me for he was before me. And of his fullness have all we received and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. 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 Elias? 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 of the Pharisees. And they asked him and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, 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 latch it I am not worthy to unloose. These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day, John sees 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. And John bear record, 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 said, behold, the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and saw them following, and saith unto them, what seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted, Master, where dwellest thou? He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt and abode with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first finds his own brother, Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is being interpreted, the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, He said, thou art Simon, the son of Jonah. Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, a stone. Thus far, our reading of God's holy and infallible word. May the Lord bless that reading to each one of us. Please turn with me again in your Bibles to the passage that we read together, John chapter one. As we look at the text for the sermon this afternoon, John one and verse 29. May we read, The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Dear congregation, please come with me in your mind this afternoon to the Jordan Valley in Judea, some 2000 years ago. And as we come to that place, we see the Jordan River coming into view. There on the bank of that river stands an eccentric man, a rough man, a wilderness man. He is wearing a coat of camel's hair. He has a large leather belt around his waist. His food is locusts and wild honey. And his name is John the Baptist. And as we look closer at him, we can see that he's speaking. He's not speaking as someone would speak to someone else beside him or her. He is proclaiming a message. He is preaching God's message of repentance. And as we come closer yet, we can hear that message as the wilderness prophet thunders forth, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And he's attracting large crowds. Matthew records for us that there went out to John the Baptist, Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region round about Jordan. From every town, from every street, from every home, people are streaming out to see and to hear this Elijah like man. And he's a phenomenon. He is unlike anything they have ever seen or heard before. His words grip them like iron. He's preaching to them about a coming wrath. He says, oh, generation of vipers, Who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? He's preaching about a coming judgment. He says the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, which does not bring forth good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. And he's preaching about a coming judge, a judge whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor. He will gather the wheat into his his garner, his storehouse, but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable. And he's baptizing with the baptism of repentance. He's telling these children of Abraham who think they're clean that they're dirty and they need cleansing. John's thunder of law and judgment shocks Judea. and fills his wilderness pews. People come. People listen. People tremble. People are coming under conviction of sin. The law is awakening souls. They begin to cry out, what shall we do? Luke 3, verse 10. John points them to that law, that good law, which if a man live thereby, he shall live. He says to them, look at your lives. Look within. Look for reformation. Produce good works. He says to the people, if you have two coats, share one. He says to the publicans, don't overcharge. He says to the soldiers, do violence to no man and be content with your wages. And the people turn to moral mending. But before the exacting law inscribed upon their hearts and consciences, it doesn't satisfy. It's not enough. But then one day John is preaching again. It's the next day of our text. And as he's preaching the same message, he glances over and he sees Jesus coming out of the crowd and moving toward him. And immediately by divine revelation, he knows what he must say. He knows this is the moment. And he says it. Behold, the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world. What a joy this must have been congregation for John as he stood there that day. Here in these few words was the turning point of his whole ministry. John had been preaching law and judgment and doom. Now he can preach gospel. The desire of all nations has come, he can say. Here in this one is relief from your pangs of conscience. Relief from the burdens of your guilt. Rest from your fears of judgment. Behold, the Lamb of God. Congregation, this afternoon, put yourself in that wilderness pew. And let us, together with God's help, hear this message of John under the theme, simply, Behold the Lamb of God. Three points, the superior lamb, the sin bearing lamb, and the sight of the lamb. Behold, the lamb of God, the lamb. You know, a lamb is the best description that John could have used to present Jesus to the Jews. This simple title associated Jesus with atoning sacrifice. And while these Jews may have questioned it, they knew instinctively what John meant. They knew, here stands one who is atoning sacrifice. Let me draw a comparison, an illustration. If I say turkey dinner, all your minds shift to thanksgiving. Well, John says lamb and all the minds of those Jews turn to atoning sacrifice. It was that ingrained into their their thinking. The connection was unmistakable. Here stands a lamb of sacrifice. They knew it. They may have had many questions, but they knew it. Now there had been many lambs and they knew that too. Thousands of lambs slain in Israel's past and in Israel's present at that time. But notice John does not say Jesus is just another lamb. No, he doesn't say that. He says, this is the lamb, the great lamb, the lamb of God. And this name, This remarkable name puts this lamb as infinitely superior above all the lambs that came before. Let's look then at how he is superior in a number of ways. First, he is superior in his origin or where he came from. He is of God, the text says. All those other lambs that had been slain were the lambs of men. They were taken from their own flocks, laid on the altars and sent up to God in hope of pardon. But this is the lamb of God, the lamb of God's own choosing, sent down by God to men for certain pardon. He's superior in his origin, but he's also superior in his nature, secondly. In his nature, he is God manifest in the flesh. Think of that for a moment. Here is the lamb of God and he is God himself. In the flesh. What a wonder. Christ identifies with his people. They are called the sheep of his pasture, and here he comes, he becomes a sheep. Just like them, a little sheep, a lamb. He comes in our nature congregation to die in our stead. He's just like us and scriptures tell us that everywhere in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren Hebrews 2. Oh, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, in his nature and who he is, he's superior. He's superior, thirdly, in His sacrifice. His is the sacrifice that truly pleased God. None of those other sacrifices pleased God, at least not in the sense that they satisfied His justice. No, they pleased Him only as they pointed forward to this one, to this great sacrifice that would come. Psalm 51, the Lord delights not in burnt offering. And it's true. It's not the burnt offering in itself. It's what that burnt offering signified and meant and pointed to, which is this lamb, Christ Jesus. He says, Thou art my beloved son, in thee I am well pleased. He delights in this lamb and his sacrifice, which is superior. Fourth, he is superior in his perfection. It's perfection. Remember those lambs of the Old Testament, children? What was it about those lambs that the Lord specifically require? They had to be without blemish, no spot. They couldn't take a sick one. Or if one had just been hurt, maybe it fell down into a ravine and they rescued it and it was still alive. Hey, we can use it for a sacrifice. It's got a broken leg. No, no, no, no, no. It had to be perfect without blemish. These lambs, they stood out in the flock from all the other lambs and sheep that were there in the sheepfold. But the Lamb of God, He is far superior, yet on a whole other level, He comes among sinners from His glory above, and He is without sin. He's in the likeness of sinful flesh, but He stands out because He knows no sin. He's holy. Harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. Hebrews 7, 26. Fifth, he is superior in his fulfillment. Here is the great lamb that fulfills every morning and every evening sacrifice. Every morning and evening, a lamb was slain in the temple, in the tabernacle. Every day, two lambs a day, 14 lambs a year, a week rather, 730 lambs a year. Year in, year out, so many lambs. But the Lamb of God. He needs not daily to offer up sacrifice for this, he did once when he offered up himself. One shot. One sacrifice done. Finished, fulfilled all those other sacrifices that came before in one act. He fulfilled the Passovers, all those Passovers that were held. And His blood is not struck on the doorposts as in those days, but it's struck on the hearts of men and women everywhere. Because Christ, their Passover, is sacrificed for them. That once for all sacrifice fulfilled all the Old Testament sacrifices that ever took place. He puts the capstone, the fulfillment upon all which came before. Oh, he is superior, so superior. He's the Lamb of God in his origin, his nature, his sacrifice, his perfection, his fulfillment. But the question comes. Why did he come? So he's superior. Why did he come? Why did this happen? What is his work? John tells us in our second point, the sin bearing lamb, the work that he does, he bears sin. The text says, behold the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin. Sin. What is meant by sin in this passage? Notice in your Bibles the singular, sin, not sins. He doesn't say which taketh away the sins of the world, but the sin of the world. What does that mean? It's speaking of the sinful condition of man. His condition by nature of depravity and enmity against God. It's not speaking of Should I say it's not speaking only of the sin of murder, or the sin of adultery, or the sin of lying. Those outward manifestations of sin. Christ does not just take away those outward expressions of a sinful nature. No, he goes deeper. Subsurface, you could say, to that sinful condition itself, that poisoned, that That wrong, that false soil, as it were, that sprouts forth all sorts of evil fruit. And yet that does not exclude those outward sins. They're all included too. Killing, murdering, lying, all those things are included. Maybe an illustration would help at this point. If you go to your lawn, and you pull out a dandelion and you extract that long, slender taproot out of the ground, then the leaves and the stem and the flower automatically all come with it, don't they? It's a small picture of what Christ does. He takes away the root of sin. At the same time, He takes away all those outward manifestations of sin in His people. He taketh away the sin, the text says, roots and all. He doesn't complete a whole work. There were John's hearers looking for some reformation within those publicans. They were told not to overcharge. You could say they're plucking away at the leaves of sin in their life. But there was nothing there to address the nature of sin in their heart. They're plucking away at the leaves, failed to take away the sin. And so it can be with us, with you. You can try to clean up your life. You can try to make amends. You can moralize and sanitize your life. You can work toward reformation. But it's bound to fail. because you cannot move the taproot of sin. Then you're like a little child trying to pull out a big dandelion, and you're ripping the leaves, snapping the stem, and that dandelion will just grow back. Too strong. The roots too strong. Have you, dear one, found your sinful nature to be too strong for you that every time you try to change it conquers you again? Too strong. Have you been endlessly plucking away at the leaves of sin, but they just grow back? What are your specific sins? The sin of pride. The sin of idolatry, maybe. Adoring men, worshiping and serving the creature more than the creator. That's not so uncommon in our day. The sin of wasting time. The sin of twisting truth. The sin of selfishness and not thinking about others or not wanting to help others. The sin of greed, wanting more, coveting more, never satisfied with stuff. The sin of inappropriate language. You know what's wrong and you've tried to improve, but the leaves grow back. You're busy with moral mending, but you find that before an exacting, immovable law, it's not enough. It doesn't satisfy. The leaves grow back, and sin flowers again. It's because, congregation, we by nature cannot take away the root of sin ourselves. You need the Lamb of God to take away your sin, and that's exactly what our text says He does. He takes away the sin. Oh, what a job description that is. He takes away the sin. Takes. That word means to lift up. Means that Jesus Christ lifts up from off your account and your shoulders. And he bears away sin. He lifts up so that you don't feel the weight of it anymore. And he carries away the sin of the world like Samson. He takes the gates of sin, the posts of sin, the bars of sin, all of it, and he lifts it on his shoulders and he carries it away. He removes that sinful condition, even yes itself, along with all your specific sins and takes it far away. It's a vivid picture. But there's another vivid picture, a type of this in the Old Testament. You'll remember that once a year, the high priest, on the great day of atonement, he made atonement for the sin of the nation. That was a high day, a special day. And on that day, the high priest took two goats and one bullock, and he slew the bullock, and he slew one of the goats, and he sprinkled their blood upon the mercy seat, the top of the ark, behind the curtain, where nobody could go, but once a year, this high priest, he would go back there, and he would sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat, and then he would come back out. And then there was that live goat. And he took that live goat, And he laid his hand upon the head of that goat. And there he spoke, he confessed over the head of that goat all the sins of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, and all their sins, Leviticus 16. There was a holy transfer taking place onto that goat. And then a fit man, a strong man from the crowd, he was selected and he led that goat loaded with the sin of the nation out into the wilderness. It was a solemn moment. Everyone watched in amazement as this goat was let out with all their sin, just having been transferred to it by the high priest. Away he went, far away into the wilderness, behind some rocks and trees and over hills, far away, a long journey. And then that man would let that goat go and chase it away into the wilderness, never to be seen again. lost and terrified. It died a swift, certain death. What a picture. Oh, it's sin on that goat. What a picture. The Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world. See him standing on the banks of Jordan from your wilderness pew. John says, behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin, not which will take away on Calvary, but which is taking away right now, John says, present, continuous, tense. That tells us that already in our text at that time in his life, Jesus is the sin bearing lamb, bearing away the sin. Isaiah wrote, and he bear the sin of many, Isaiah 53. So it is today he takes away the sin so that when you sin, child of God, it's like he actually did it. It's on his account, his charge. He paid the penalty for that sin. That sin will be the penalty of that sin will be paid. Paid in full by him. Do you see him? Into the wilderness of a life of suffering, he goes, bearing away the sin of his people. Into the wilderness of Gethsemane he goes, where with strong crying and tears the divine scapegoat suffered great torment. There he was. He's terrified. Hebrews tells us that he was heard in that he feared. He feared there in the garden the object of his suffering, the load of sin that he was taking away. Congregation, we don't understand. We'll never understand fully. What that meant for Jesus, the fear that struck him. He's in an agony there in the garden, taking away the sin. He was lonely by himself, taking away the sin they all forsook him. Into the wilderness of Calvary he goes. On the cross, the sin bearing lamb took away sin decisively when he cried out, it is finished. He takes in far away congregation. The psalmist puts it beautifully, as far as the east is from the west, as far as the place where the sun comes up is from the place where the sun goes down. So far has he removed our transgressions from us. You're over there, and your transgressions are over there, over the other horizon, so far away. What a wonder. What a wonder. He takes away all manner of sin, the sin of your youth, the sin of old age, sin of omission, of commission. sin of thought, sin of word, sin of deed, sins of the body, sin of the mind, known sin, unknown sin, sin of ignorance, presumptuous sin, all manner of sin, Paul writes to the Corinthians in 1st Corinthians 6 this He says that neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminates nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners Shall inherit the kingdom of God stated fact And then he says in such were some of you Such were some of you what a wonder All manner of sin is taken away by Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, the sin-bearing Lamb, takes away all kinds of sin. No sin is too great. No sin is too small. Taketh away the sin, your sin, as if it never happened. Gone, gone forever. Never to haunt you again, utterly abolished. You know, he takes away sin also in all its aspects. Sin has aspects. Think of this, the condemnation of sin. Sin condemns, does it not? Satan uses it as a crowbar against you. He has to drop it. The condemnation of sin is silenced. of the power of sin, so strong, yet it's broken. It's broken by Christ. The stain of sin, so dirty, so ugly, so hurtful and hateful, yet that stain of sin is washed, washed away, purged by the blood of Jesus Christ, and remaining sin is mortified. Oh, yes, you say, remaining sin. The presence of sin will remain in your experience, child of God. The Lord does not give you a perfect nature right away. The Lord does not take away every sin so that you never ever commit a sin again. No. But notice again the present continuous tense that he is continually taking away the sin. Remaining sin. And so even if you're here maybe, and in this past week maybe, your many sins discourage you, think of this. He taketh away the sin. He's constantly busy removing and remaining sin in your life, putting sin to death by His Spirit. Ought that not to resolve you, to give you the resolution, the holy resolution by grace to fight sin more? You hinder your Redeemer's purpose when you play with sin, when you dabble in sin. You get in His way, as it were. Oh, resolve to have proper thoughts of sin. The world has a way of putting sin in front of us in a glossed, a veneered, a sugar-coated, a chocolate-covered way so that we don't even realize it's sin. We ought to see through that and to realize what this really is and where this really will lead, whatever it may be. and to see sin as the ugliest thing in the world, the thing that costs the Lamb of God His lifeblood. The world glamorizes sin, but we should toxify sin and resolve then also to esteem this precious blood of Jesus Christ highly. Let his blood be more precious to you every year that you live, congregation, every day that you live. Because he takes away your sin by it. But not just your sin. The text says the sin of the whole world. What does this mean? Congregation John does not restrict the Lamb's work. He doesn't say, behold, the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of Jerusalem. No, then there may have been some Galileans there. He doesn't say, behold, the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the nation. Oh, then there may have been someone from Egypt or Greece there and would have said, what about me? He doesn't even say, behold, the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of many nations. And there may have been someone who would say, but John didn't know about my nation yet. John says, behold, the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the whole world. Any sin that can become past within the bounds of the world, Christ takes away. Can any of you say that you are not in the world? The Lamb can take away your sin, too. And that's because the sacrifice of this lamb is sufficient. It's enough. It has enough capacity in it to take away the sins of the whole world. Of every man and of every woman, every child that ever lived or will live. The Canons of Dort teach us this. Head 2, Article 3. This sacrifice is abundantly sufficient, it says, to expiate the sins of the whole world. Every last sin ever committed can be washed away. But sadly, it does not do so. And that's because many do not want their sin taken away by Him. Because they love their sin too much. But we should note that the limitation is not with Christ. It's the whole world. Spurgeon rightly said that there is nothing in this text to shut any man, any woman out of mercy. But there is everything in this text to induce every one of you who is conscious of guilt. Even a little bit conscious of guilt, we don't want to set bars, conscious of guilt before the tribunal of God to come to the Lord Jesus and receive full and free redemption. washing from your sin, but then you do need to come. Right? If I say there's a gold mine at the end of line 26, you can have some gold. You can't say, that's nice, I'll have some gold and stay and go home. You have to go and you have to get. So you do need to look upon this Lamb, which is our third point briefly, the sight of the Lamb. Congregation, look upon this Lamb. Turn away from everything else and simply look at Him. Don't just glance at him and then look away, but fix your eyes on him. How many there are who give him just a glance, just a glance, just enough to see him. They can't help but notice him. There's something about him that's different than everybody else. The world makes movies and talks about him and all kinds of things about Jesus Christ, but it's a glance. They look away. They look away. They're not taken up with him. They see no beauty in him. Oh, congregation, fix your eye on him. If you're looking for deliverance from sin, if it's your desire to be reconciled unto God, to have peace with God, if you want to get to heaven, this is what you must do. Fix your eye on Jesus Christ. Do you feel the poison of sin raging within you? Killing you? Do you feel the gravity of what that means? Death. Like the Israelites in the desert, bitten by those serpents. It was sure. They were dead, as dead could be. It was a matter of minutes. He's the brazen serpent lifted up to draw all men unto him. Look at Christ crucified. Look as if your life depends on it because it does. Look at him in faith with the eye of faith. Oh, it's just a look congregation, but there is life in a look. Everlasting life in a look at Jesus Christ. Don't look at yourself. Don't look at your prayers. Don't look at your works, your lambs, your preparedness, your seriousness. All those things will never do. They can never atone. Ask Martin Luther all those things he did. It didn't turn him one inch closer to God, closer to salvation. all for sin could not atone, thou must save and thou alone. And it's so simple and it's so free. Maybe you're here and you're wondering, am I looking? Am I looking? Well, here's the way to tell. Zechariah wrote this, that they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and shall mourn for him. What's that mean? It means that there will be grief for sin. Maybe not as much as you desire, but there will be a level of hatred for sin, of seeing sin for what it is, and hating it, and grieving it, and seeking to fight against it. Mourning for sin. Say, Lord, I am not what I should be. By grace, make me, make me what I should be. Do you mourn for sin? Do you desire holiness? Then you are looking. But don't stop looking. Keep looking. Because if your eyes come off Christ, go back into sin. You'll lose focus. Go back into sin. Keep your eye on Christ. Maybe you're here this afternoon and you're tired of sin. Sin has arrest you all your life. And you wish it gone. Look then unto Him for His appearing. Hebrews 9 tells us that unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time. And in those words, without sin. Without sin. Unto salvation. Think of that. He will come without sin unto salvation. Perfect happiness. Paradise. We can produce our paradises here below, but they're nothing. They're nothing. They're vain at length. Here is what we all should strive for and long for, His appearing without sin unto salvation. Sin will be done. Then He won't come with the purpose of bearing away sin. That will be finished. Sin then will be gone forever and he'll take you to glory where sin won't exist and there you will praise the lamb Forever Saying with a loud voice worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing That a great assembly there He has washed us from our sins in His own blood. What a wonder. Are you still here, and you're still halting between two opinions? You haven't looked, and you're not sure you want to. Does the sin of the world still have some appeal for you? You say, yeah, there's something in Christ, but I'm not so sure I can let all this go. then you are not looking at Christ by faith. Then you're still looking at and living in your sin. And if you refuse to look at this Lamb, then I have to be honest with you. I have to leave this pulpit clear of the blood of souls. If you refuse to look at this Lamb, the day will come when your eyes will meet. He will look at you. And you will look at him and say, hide me from the face of him that sits upon the throne and from the wrath of the lamb. And the reason is given for the great day of his wrath has come. That's what you'll say. Oh, sinner. Oh, sinner. Today, the great day of his salvation is come to you. Look. live. Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Amen.