Bow our heads. Our Lord, again, we come to You asking for Your help. Your Word is truth. Your Word is life-giving. We can meditate on it together. And we ask You, Lord, that You would apply its transforming power as Your Holy Spirit gives us aid. Open our eyes, Lord, to behold wondrous things from Your Word. Help us to see the Lamb this morning in all of His beauty, all of His sufficiency, and all of His glory. Our God, let us look and live. In Christ's holy name, amen. All right, everyone, go ahead and open your Bibles to the Gospel of John. Chapter 1. We will continue our study in this wonderful book today. Start by reading the text. Text today, verses 29-34. Hear the Word of the Lord. The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is he on behalf of whom I said, After me comes a man who has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me. I did not recognize him, but so that he might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water. John testified, saying, I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit. I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God." So appropriately titled, this Lord's Day is Behold the Lamb. Behold the Lamb. In some ways, this is a refreshing opportunity for me because whenever I open the word of God to you and go through it in painstaking detail and with all of the outlines and all of the verses and all of the potential lessons and applications I can make, It's very nice to simply be able to look at a text like this and say, oh, okay, that's easy to relate. I'm just telling you really with great emphasis to look at something. I don't always get that opportunity. So I love stuff like this. This is just, this text really is the heart of the gospel. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. There is enough here to save. There really is. There is enough here to save. With all of its teaching, all of its content, all of its truth, one verse we see, if we went and proclaim this, this is sufficient. We are pointing the nations, and hopefully often one another, in encouragement as brothers and sisters in Christ, Pointing each other to the Lamb. The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. All bundled up together, the directive is simple. Look and live! Behold the Lamb! And so that is the heart of the message this morning. Now, John of course, John the Baptist that is, is shifting his position. Last Lord's Day we discussed the fact that he was basically answering all of the religious leaders, the religious intelligentsia, those who thought that they had great spiritual and liturgical authority over the people. And they came out to him trying to extract an answer. Who do you think you are? What are you doing? What right do you have to do these things? Are you the Christ? Are you Elijah? Are you the prophet? They just had a list. Who is this guy? And we even established the possibility, the probability that no matter what his answer was, they would not accept that answer. Such was their hunger and thirst to retain power and authority over the people. It's clear that the religious leaders of that time had manufactured an apostate kind of religion, an apostate Judaism that was destined to be destroyed, and yet they used that to oppress the people. And of course, you have a people who are just crying out for freedom, for liberty. And so John comes announcing the Messiah, to clear the path for him, to make the path straight, to remove the distractions, so that people would see clearly that they need more than just a political conquering hero. They need much more than that. They need forgiveness and deliverance from sin. In all of its condemnation, in all of its enslaving power, that's what they needed. And so he's pointing to the only one This is one of those passages that remind us in no uncertain terms the exclusivity of the gospel. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Now you would struggle to find a religion that actually says that sin is our main problem. Compounding that issue is identifying someone who can actually deal with it. who can actually take it away. There's only one person who can do that. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ. That is a truth that grounds our very hope. This is something that we need to remind ourselves of daily. That though we sin, though we falter, though we struggle with spiritual growth, that any person can try to conjure up accusations against us, It is this verse that has the final word. If you are in Christ, He has taken away your sins. And we can walk in that joy and hope as we are called to do. And so this is what John does. He shifts the attention from him, and then some time goes by and he identifies Christ. It only takes one day. So his ministry is preparatory. His work was to ready hearts for the arrival of the Messiah. And now this moment has come. Now these two men meet. Jesus steps into view and John can no longer contain his witness. And this is what he says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Now this word behold is a very It is what we call an old school word. When we hear the word behold, we think of things that the Lord says in the Old Testament primarily, when he is trying to draw the attention of his people to something very crucial, to something very important. If you've ever used the phrase, hey man, take a look at this, or get a load of this, hey dude, stop what you're doing, come and look, come and look to pay attention, not something that is casual, not something that is passive, not as something that is unintentional. No, you are to behold the Lamb and continue beholding Him. This is a fixed kind of attention that sees Christ in His sufficiency and power and majesty and beauty, and here in particular, in His sacrifice. Yes, he is the Lion of Judah and the Lamb of God, but here, John's focus is this. He is the Lamb of God. And I think that is one of the main issues the religious leaders had, and much of the people at that point had, had in mind. They only were expecting a lion. They demanded a lion. They didn't expect a lamb, though their scriptures foretold it. They should have been expecting a lamb. And so let us not miss, in all of our eschatological optimism, in all of our triumph and victorious walking in Christ, let us not forget that though we follow the Lion of the tribe of Judah, our foundation, our starting point is gazing to Christ, the Lamb of God, slain before the foundation of the world, and clinging to Him in faith and trusting in His provision. We cannot follow the Lion without vowing to the Lamb. Begins here. So 19-28, the question is, who are you, John the Baptist? Verses 29-34 answer this, who then is Jesus? And this has been the theme of John even up to now. This is the Lamb revealed. We see the Spirit remaining. We even see the Son of God declared. And so I want to follow a simple three-fold pattern in our text today. But the directive is the same throughout this text. It is behold. First it is this, behold the lamb who takes away sin. Secondly, behold the lamb who bears the spirit. And thirdly, behold the lamb who is the son. That is our proper conclusion. We behold the lamb, we behold him carefully, we listen to him, and then our conclusion is this, you are the son of God. And so we hope this morning that the Lord would help us see that. So here is the first thing. Verse 29, the next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And of course the whole point is 30 and 31 as well. This is he on behalf of whom I said, after me comes a man who has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me. I did not recognize him, but so that he might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water." So even John had to perceive and recognize Jesus when he finally arrived on the scene. So here we are once again on holy ground, where the very glory of God made flesh is approaching The people. And so John takes the attention off himself, as he always designed to do, and said, look at the Lamb. There He is. And one reason we really want to galvanize this in our own hearts and minds this morning is you think of the very motif, the very theme of the Lamb. And this phrase from John really gathers up the entire thread of redemptive history. We first see a lamb that God provides in Abel's sacrifice. Think back as far as Genesis 4-4. And even before that, in Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve fell into sin, what was the one truth there that was established? Not only that God would eventually send a deliverer to crush the head of the serpent, but mark this, sin kills. And if you sin, something must die. The only way for sin to ever be taken away, for that to happen, someone has to die. Now that's a haunting truth. It should haunt us. It shouldn't any longer, because now we are in Christ. But that is the problem of mankind throughout the ages that we just have never been able to solve. And we have to, at first, even believe that sin is the problem. The problem expressed at the beginning of this message. Once we can understand somehow that there is wrongdoing, even if you don't call it sin, we understand that there is wrongdoing in this world. There is a violation of the created order. And when that happens, there is always a cost attached to it. Well, the Bible explains that in very clear terms that we can understand. There is a thing called sin. There is a thing called sin. Any word, thought, or deed, or idea, or intention that is contrary to the will of God. That is sin. And when we engage in that, we're born really into that condition, we understand that there is a cost attached to sin. And it is summed up as early as Genesis. If you act contrary against God's commands, God's will, God's character, something must die. You will die. It's personal and very clear. Something must die. Hence, the lamb. We read in Genesis 22, the lamb God provided for Abraham's offering. The Lord will provide a lamb for the burnt offering, my son. And I love it. I love the parallel language because when Abraham looks up, when the angel of the Lord commands his attention, how does the description play out? And behold, behold, there was a ram caught in the thicket. It's amazing. Now here we have, behold, look at this. Now look at this. The Lamb, the once-for-all Lamb, God's appointed Savior, come on the scene to die a sinner's death for sinners, though having no sin Himself, that He might save His people. That salvation might come to all the nations. So these burnt offerings from the time man fell into sin remain a fixture, a fixture that demands our attention to see this theme play out throughout Scripture. There is the lamb slain at Passover to shield Israel from the wrath of God. You can find that in Exodus 12. Their whole sacrificial system calls for an unblemished, spotless lamb to die for sin, to atone temporarily. There is the Lamb of God prophesied in Isaiah 53, 7. He is the Messiah, the suffering servant of Yahweh, is seen as a lamb that is led to the slaughter. And so we see this sacrifice repeated again and again and again. But when Jesus comes on the scene, this is the Lamb of God, the final Lamb, a Lamb unlike any other. where God, in His grace, will provide for Himself a lamb. And how did God provide Himself a lamb? He provided Himself as the lamb. A lamb that does not merely cover sin, as the blood of bulls and goats could only do temporarily according to Hebrews 10.4, but a lamb that takes it away, covers for us permanently, completely, once for all, but also takes it away from us Willingly. Note that. That Jesus, as the Lamb of God, does this willingly, He does it completely, He does it permanently, and mark this, He does it beautifully. There is something beautiful about the Lamb slain. Yes, there is the ugliness of sin, but the remedy, the perfect, once-for-all sacrifice is something beautiful in the eyes of the saints because we know what it accomplishes. It cleanses us from sin. It brings glory to God in salvation of His people. And this is what Jesus has done in His own body on the cross. That's what 1 Peter 2.24 describes. He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the cross, that we, being dead to sin, see, we are dead, nothing you can do about it, might live unto righteousness, for by His stripes we are healed. So we know that the death of the Lamb brings us healing. He takes away the sin of the world. Now, of course, this is not a universal salvation statement. But this is meant to include the nations, the Gentiles in Christ's sacrifice. That His saving work, His laying His life down in our place would have a global effect. It would not be merely combined to the borders of Israel. This saving work, this message of the gospel of Christ and Him crucified would go to all the nations of the world. to every tongue and tribe. And so that is the call. And it's a reminder to all, saints and sinners, to turn your gaze from yourself, from your works, even from your very despair, and fix it on the One who takes your sin away. Many times we fail to behold with all the busyness of life, with all of the distractions, with all the petty things into which we invest our time, You notice John's command, behold, behold, look. He doesn't tell us to consider. He doesn't tell us to speculate or even admire. Too many of us do these things and yet we do not behold so that we may believe. This is a command to look intently with faith and wonder and a heart of repentance and bring salvation to us. who stands between us and the wrath of Almighty God. It's the same thing as mentioned in the book of Numbers. We've talked about this passage before. When Israel complained to God, and He sent fiery serpents, and He said, just look at the bronze serpent. Pope Moses posted in the camp, just look. Look and be healed. And so here we are called to look to the One who takes away the sins of the world. So I want to get into some of the theology, some of the doctrine, because that is my job here and I do it joyfully. It is to teach you sound doctrine. I love just preaching at you as you sit there and just kind of stare back at me, but this is a teaching time as well. I must teach you things that are fitting for sound doctrine. So let's unpack this passage a little bit. What does takeaway mean? What's its theological significance? Okay, so the word takeaway means simply this. to lift up, to bear, and to remove. This is not something we would say is a wish or an offer. It is something that we could call an active, effectual removal. This is not something that Christ is merely capable of. It is something that He actually does. This is His mission, to take away the sins of the world, and failure is not an option. So what Christ does here is He lifts up, He bears, He removes our sin. Now, of course, the question appropriately should be this, well, what happens to our sin? God cannot merely and does not merely just poof, hey, there go your sins. It's a miracle. Well, it is a miracle, but it's a miracle in the way that God does it. We have to understand that accurately and biblically. Our sins are removed and taken away because Christ puts them on Himself. That's what we call substitution. That Christ puts himself in our place, bearing the wrath and punishment of a holy God, so we can experience funds from sin. So our sin doesn't just get taken away and disappear. It has to be put somewhere. But our sin has God's wrath upon it, His just punishment upon it. And so His punishment must be satisfied, or His wrath must be satisfied for us to ever truly experience removal of sin. We call that expiation, that our sin is removed from us. We see this in the present, that Jesus is the one who is actively taking away sin. When He appears on the scene, He is already at work, speaking to its lasting and permanent and sole efficacy, finished at the cross and applied throughout all of redemptive history as people come to place their faith in Him. So here we have it. Substitutionary atonement. in two particular ways. We've already mentioned them, but here's the doctrine behind this. The first is propitiation, that God's just wrath, His just wrath against sin, is satisfied by the blood of the Lamb. So that God is no longer angry at your sin, and He's no longer angry at you. I know we say a lot about love the sin, hate the sinner, but does God send sin to hell? No, He sends sinners to hell. That's the problem. So there is this fear, it says, well, I think God is mad at me, God is angry at me, and you are not in Christ. You would be correct. And the question then to ask is, how can I stop this from happening? What can take this divine curse, this impending wrath and doom away from me? Behold the Lamb, John says. We read in Romans 3.25 of Jesus as the one whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness because in the forbearance of God he passed over the sins previously committed. He Himself, John says in 1 John 2. He Himself, that is only He Himself, is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. Once again echoing this truth, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of not only ethnic Israel, but also the sins of anyone throughout the nations who will repent and believe in Christ. Here's the other one. Expiation, that is, our guilt removed, which results in basically our record being cleansed. Listen to Hebrews 9.26. Speaking of the permanency of this. Otherwise, he would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world, but now once at the consummation of the ages, he, Jesus, has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. So here we have the answer. How can God just put away sin? He puts it away through the sacrifice of his Son, who placed all of our sins upon himself. We can rejoice in this truth as it is related in 1 John 1, 7. It says this, but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin. This is a verse where all really means all, all the time. When it says all sin, it means all sin without exception. Your thoughts, your deeds, sins done in the broad daylight, sins done hidden, all your sins are covered and removed through the death of Christ. This takes us back to John 1.12. As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to them who believe on His name. In verse 13, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. See, this is executed through faith. Once again, we see this foreshadowed. We see prophecy fulfilled here. So don't miss the weight and glory of this passage. When John says, Behold the Lamb of God, it has the force of the entire Old Testament behind it, that everything we could read in the Old Testament up to that point finds its locus in Christ. It's boom, right there. It's all being fulfilled in Him. He is this Passover lamb. In Exodus 12, we read this, your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old. Then reading on, the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. So Jesus becomes our final Passover lamb, where God can see the blood of Christ applied to us. And he will pass over because his wrath has been appeased. Our sin has been removed. We see this fulfilled in John 19.36, at the death of Christ, for these things came to pass to fulfill the scripture, not a bone of him shall be broken. Think about the day of atonement. That was the biggest day. the Jewish calendar first stated in Leviticus 16 we read this then Aaron the priest shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins and he shall lay them on the head of the goat and and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who stands in readiness. " So this is what we call the scapegoat. You had a lamb who was slain and who was offered up basically on the temple grounds, and then you had a goat who was sent out into the wilderness. So basically what this sacrificial system expresses in these two sacrifices are one, atonement, and then secondly, expiation. Our sins must not only be covered for, they must be sent away. This is the reality of God's saving work, that when our sins are atoned for, it is the design of God that we would not be slaves to sin any longer. It is a contradiction for us to walk in sin. As Paul says, to continue in sin so that grace may abound. If you beheld the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, you would understand the fundamental truth that to walk in righteousness is to see grace abound. We do not have to continue in sin to see grace abound because we already have grace abounding. that we see God's grace just as much, probably even more, in the acting out of righteousness, thinking righteous thoughts, doing righteous deeds. So here's the scapegoat. On Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the high priest took two goats. Of course, one was slain, Leviticus 16.15, and its blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat to propitiate God's wrath. Here's the other one. The scapegoat was kept alive and what the high priest did was laid both hands on its head and confessed all the sins of Israel. And what this did, it symbolically transferred the nation's guilt to the animal. And we think, poor goat. What did he ever do? It was man who brought sin into the world, and this is precisely why all of these acts of atonement, the constant slaughtering of goats and lambs, were merely temporary. They could not ultimately take away sin. The blood of bulls and goats could never permanently take away sin. It was man that brought sin into the world, so a man that is Jesus, the Lamb of God, must die, must lay his life down to remove sin And so what would happen is that this goat was then sent away into the wilderness, burying all the iniquities on itself to a remote area. What happened to that goat? Well, it went out, it disappeared. So this portrays this act of expiation, that the guilt of sin is removed from the people of Israel, but also points to a very important truth, that now that the sin has been, in fact, removed, It is unbecoming of the people of God, and it would be. Imagine the absurdity of this. Someone or a few people in the camp say, wait a minute, wait a minute, that goat's getting away. Let's go and chase it down and see if we can unburden it and take back some of these sins. That is in effect what a person who professes Christ does when they keep living in sin. It's like they're going out with a scapegoat and taking this burden of sin. Say, I want to take this back. You can maybe go on with this sin. Take, yeah, that one definitely I want removed. But these other ones, these more respectable sins, they're not as offensive to a holy God. I'm going to hang on to these. That's stupid. And that kind of stupid hurts. It is unbecoming of the Christian to act in such contrary fashion. And yet we do that. And yet, thankfully, the Lamb of God even covers that sin so that we may stop doing that as well. And so sanctification in that sense can be a very painful process. But that is, mark my words, friends, that is offensive to a holy God. Because we are acting contrary to the expiating work and purposes of Christ and His redeeming work. I'm taking my sins away from you so you don't chase them down, so you don't live under its power and influence any longer. You are secure here. Let the goat go. Don't try to chase down the goat. Let the goat die. this is done in the presence of all the people but this is why Psalm 103 verse 12 can say this as far as the east is from the west so far does he remove our transgressions from us and we don't you notice we have a north pole in a south pole we don't have an east and west pole you can't really measure of a distance from east to west it's in our mind it's meant to be infinite but that is God expressing His saving purposes toward us. God hates sin infinitely more than you hate your sin. In this life, I don't think we ever hate our sin enough. But God hates it. And His design is to remove it from us. We see this all over. Isaiah 53. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted, but He was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening of our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way. But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. In here is imagery of Christ becoming one of us. We are people. We are flesh. Christ takes on human flesh. We are sheep. What has Christ become? A sheep. The Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. Further on it says, My servant will justify the many as He will bear their iniquities. He Himself bore the sins of many and interceded for the transgressors. Micah 7.19, talking about the provisions of the new covenant. All of this is written in scripture, my friends. Yes, you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. See, we're not meant to then take a big deep breath and swim to the bottom of the sea and try to receive these sins. When Christ has removed our sins, we are to submit to that reality, submit to that truth. Let the sins go. All of these things, all these New Testament passages look forward to their fulfillment. Jeremiah 31, this great prophecy of the provisions of the New Covenant. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It says I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. So here we have this great new covenant promise, forgiveness and forgetfulness of sin that God will never call to mind all of the things we have done against him. Because sin is against God first and foremost. And then we see this fulfilled based on the testimony of Hebrews 8, 8 through 12, as well as 10, 16 through 17, where he quotes Jeremiah 31 directly. So we're not waiting for a future fulfillment of this. It stands to reason then that we are the house of Israel. We are the house of Judah, both Jew and Gentile experiencing the promises secured to us by the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. In Christ's once for all sacrifice that Jesus takes away And this passage is the fulfillment of Isaiah 53. Takes away the sins of the world. 1 Peter 2.24, as we've already quoted, He bears our sins in His body on the cross. Hebrews 9.26, He's appeared once for all at the end of ages to put away sin by the sacrifice. So this is sin being taken away. And we are to look to Christ and to no other. For this salvation, sin is not merely covered, but removed. Realize that. That is the hope that every Christian can glory in. That this sin has been removed powerfully, mightily, transformingly. Look at Ezekiel 36. The Lamb of God accomplishes this. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness." He says, I will give you a new heart. I will put my Spirit within you. So this inner transformation, the cleansing of the new covenant, the spiritual cleansing from sin, our greatest problem. How do we see this fulfilled? Listen to Titus 2.14, speaking of Jesus as the one who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession. And it goes on to say that those people are zealous for good works. When our sin is taken away from us, it doesn't put us in this position that is neutral to sin. No, now we are transformed in such a way where we are zealous for righteousness. We pursue righteousness. We accomplish righteousness. We speak righteously. We love what God loves. And through the power of the Holy Spirit, we perform the deeds that God has Himself set in advance for us to do. Romans 11, 27. And this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sin." Once again, a fulfillment of Jeremiah 31. So we see this written all over the place, whether it's Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Micah, all fulfilled according to the apostolic writings of the New Testament. where sin is forgiven, carried away, cleansed, and most importantly, remembered no more. We read, if God is for us, who can be against us? If God will not hold our sins against us, how can anyone else? God has the final word. Only God can condemn. But only God can deliver, and He has. And if He has delivered us, condemn us. That's why we can say, practically, when Jesus takes our sins away, our guilt is removed. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Mark that down. A very strong negative. There is no, none at all, not any condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Here's the other one, your stain is cleansed, you're cleansed from sin. We've read already from Hebrews 9, 14, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offer himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Some saints go on from believing in Christ and confessing him and they just sadly have such a sensitive conscience and they're condemning themselves for things that scripture never commands us to condemn ourselves for. You see, our conscience is not the final authority. The Word of God now, through the Spirit, informs and instructs the conscience. And one of the most important things in regards to the conscience is that even the conscience cannot justly condemn us anymore. Our conscience urges us to serve the living God now. Sin's power is broken. This is so key. If he takes away the sin of the world, no longer should we continue in it. Romans 6, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him in order that our body of sin might be done away with. so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. For he, listen to this, for he who has died is freed from sin. That's speaking of those who are in Christ. Yes, in a very real way, we died with him. We are crucified with Christ. And now that we have died, we are freed from it. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. The law condemns, sin does not. And then of course, Our shame covered this great exchange. A verse we should all know, 2 Corinthians 5.21, He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become what? The righteousness of God in Him. That would have been really awkward if you were silent. Yes, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. The very expression of God's righteousness. Like, what a high calling! What a high station! that God can look upon sinners once alienated from Him and see the very righteousness of His Son. So how do we honor that station? How do we honor that calling? How do we honor Christ? By living righteously. By trusting in Christ and then obeying His Word. Full of hope that our sins will not circle back. They will not come home to roost because they have been sent away. So don't chase down your sin. Don't carry it back. And when your conscience condemns you or the accuser gets in your face and condemns you, all you do is point to Christ. You can tell the enemy, behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. I am in Christ. Who is He who condemns? And we can go to Christ, we can go to the Lord humbly, because 1 John 1.9 says if we confess our sins, The Lord will not condemn us. It says, rather, He is faithful. He is righteous. See, when we act unfaithfully, when we act unrighteously, God remains the same. God is unchanging. He's faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So when your conscience trembles, wash anew at the same fountain that first cleansed you. Remember that your chains of sin are broken. We don't fight from Condemnation. We fight from pardon, right? We fight from the very platform that God has pardoned us from our sins. He forgives them no more. Remember that He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. Very, very clear as to our attitude, our posture toward the Lord when we sin. We recognize that we have an advocate, we have a great high priest who has gone before us, who represents us faithfully, though we act unfaithfully. We will never stand, my friends, on our own faithfulness. We can never look to our own faithfulness and our own righteous deeds. Our righteous deeds, our own faithfulness, are just as unable and powerless to save us now as they were apart from Christ. It is only, it is only through faith, trust in Christ's works, right? We trust His faithfulness, His righteousness, not our own. That's why we behold the Lamb. We don't behold ourselves. Look away from yourself and look to Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith. And so we go to these next couple of verses where John clarifies, this is he on behalf of whom I said, after me comes a man who has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me. So remember that Jesus' earthly ministry comes after John the Baptist. He was as God, very God of very God. He existed before John, even though John was born first. And so this is what's going on. The one who comes after me is the one who was before. And then verse 31 explains his baptism. He says, I did not recognize him, but so that he might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water. That was John's public way of clearing the way for the Messiah. Really distracting them from apostate Judaism that filled Israel at the time. So, to review very succinctly, very concisely, John's baptism was unique. He wasn't just doing something that the other religious leaders in Judea or Israel were doing at the time. Remember, in that day, baptism was reserved for Gentile converts, and if a man wanted to convert into Judaism, he was baptized and, of course, circumcised. So it was only reserved for Gentiles entering Israel's covenant community. But what John was doing, he was calling Israel itself to be baptized. to come humbly, to have repentant hearts, so that when Jesus appeared on the scene, they were prepared to receive their King and their Savior, and as is pointed out here, their Lamb, who would die for them, bringing forgiveness and deliverance permanently from sin. And so this is a shocking thing. Because He's saying, you guys, all of you, you're unclean, you need to repent. John's baptism was not a mere ceremonial washing, it was a baptism of repentance, unique to its time. And I think that's what set the religious leaders off. Who are you? What are you doing here? What gives you the authority to do this? And they would continue asking those questions of Jesus. What right do you have to do this? Why are you healing on the Sabbath? Why are you doing good on the Sabbath? Jesus, this is offensive. This violates the law of God. Those questions remain, which expresses their apostasy and unbelief and the powerlessness and bankruptcy of their religion at the time. So this was unique to its time and a call for the people to prepare their hearts for the coming Messiah. And beholding the Lamb always begins with repentance. A heart made ready for the... Secondly, so we have behold the Lamb who takes away sin, we have behold the Lamb who bears the Spirit. So here we have really the certificate of approval of authenticity upon Christ. And so he says this, verse 32, John testified saying, I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained on Him. I did not recognize him, but he who sent me to baptize in water said to me, he upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him, this is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit." So we read about this in greater depth in the Synoptic Gospels, where even a voice from heaven comes out in approval and really saying and confirming that Jesus is his son. This is my beloved son and whom I am well pleased and of course then Jesus goes up out of the water and soon after that begins officially his earthly ministry. So this is the Lamb who bears the Spirit. Now this is, again, all these things tie these certain Old Testament threads together. So here is the presence of the Holy Spirit. Now don't miss the Trinitarian work in salvation here, the Trinitarian announcement here. You have the Son, you have God the Son, you have God the Spirit, and then you have the voice from God the Father who speaks out of heaven. declaring publicly his approval, his seal of approval upon what the Son will accomplish. His love and approval for him. So now John here is bearing witness to what he saw. So he sees the Spirit descend from heaven as a dove, as we understand culturally a sign of purity, peace. Primarily in scripture it is a It is a symbol of the presence of divine favor or divine power or divine equipping. So we see the Spirit come upon God's people throughout the Old Testament. But here we have something a little different. He says in verse 32, that when the dove came out of heaven, it says, and he remained upon him. So this marks a crucial pivot as to how God will work with his people. So under the old covenant, the spirit would come upon men, usually for special moments. We would call this a special dispensation or a special anointing. You notice that he came upon Gideon for battle. comes upon David for being a king. In these cases, after that is done, the spirit departs. He comes upon Samson, giving him strength. I know that we imagine Samson as this 6'6 ripped out Jimbro. He may have just been an ordinary looking dude. From where did he draw his strength? It certainly wasn't from taking his pre-workout and measuring his macros. No. It was from the Spirit. If you know, you know. It came from the Spirit of God coming upon him so that he had really God-like strength. It says that he tore a lion apart as if one tears a young goat. I mean, just tore the thing to shreds. Didn't put him into some kind of chokehold. No, ripped him apart. That is a wondrous, terrifying strength. I mean, Samson was the king of the jungle for a while. But then, of course, the Spirit departs from him. And when we see this very sad episode near the end of his tenure as judge, where he doesn't know that the Spirit departs from him. Even Saul, to prophesy, as Saul among the prophets, 1 Samuel 10.10. You see the Spirit come, and you see the Spirit go. But for the most part, there is this trend of a temporary and I would even say partial anointing of the Holy Spirit. But here, the Spirit, the Greek meno, remains. That means simply to abide closely and to abide continually. We can understand it in the sense of permanence, that the Spirit would not depart from the Lord Jesus Christ. And we see a fullness of this anointing. Once again, by what authority do we say these things? Go back to Isaiah 11, verse 2. The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him. Spirit of wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, knowledge and the fear of the Lord. So we find that Jesus had a special, complete, and permanent anointing from the Holy Spirit. So He, as the Anointed One, becomes our Spirit-filled Savior and Mediator, our Spirit-filled Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And then we see this anointing come upon us. See, this is even here. While fulfilling Scripture, while fulfilling Old Testament writ, it almost becomes prophetic for us. It looks forward of the benefit that we will have as God's people. That He would pour out His Spirit upon all people. Acts 2.33, that happens. And you notice that from the time of Pentecost, the Spirit has never departed from the people of God. It's abiding presence and empowerment is a permanent reality. And how often do we take this for granted? Sometimes we act like we have no power. Yeah, we have no power in and of ourselves. God has you right where He wants you in that moment. But we have the very power and might of God as the Spirit is present with us. And He doesn't give the Spirit by measure, He gives us all of the Holy Spirit. Just as we had all of Christ, so we have all of His Spirit. That's why it's called the Spirit of Christ. I know that if we've seen the Lord, if we've seen Jesus, we've seen the Father. But also, if we have the Spirit, we have Jesus. He is called the Spirit of Christ. Even Jesus said, it is to your benefit that I go, because if I don't, I can't send the Spirit. I have to go and ascend, and then I can dispatch the Spirit to minister to you, and to guide you into all truth. And so now this Spirit abides in the church. Now imagine this gracious exchange, my friends. We who were born into sin, separated from a holy God, loving our sins, obsessed with our sins, having all kinds of fun with our sins, it is taken away, our sins are taken away, and we are given not just forgiveness, Not just expiation, but we are given the very Spirit of God to abide with us and to empower us for gospel mission until the return of Christ. Until He returns in power and glory. That is another great exchange. Listen to what our own confession says. The Lord Jesus, in His human nature, thus united to the divine, was sanctified and anointed with the Holy Spirit above measure, having in Himself all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, in whom it pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell. So in other words, for us, Christ is the wellspring and we are the streams, and by His grace and provision, the Spirit flows us. So in this sense, beholding the Lamb reveals the abiding Spirit, the same Spirit who remained upon Christ, now dwells permanently with the redeemed. And we could go on several more sermons describing just in what ways this is made manifest. But for now, we look to the Lamb, we behold Him, and rejoice in the very reality that we have His Spirit abiding with us, even confirming the fact that we are His, the very internal testimony of the Holy Spirit that we belong to God, that we are no longer slaves of sin. So, thirdly and finally, we behold the Lamb who is the Son. John says this, I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God. So here we have again, John in repeating the creation narrative where Adam says to Eve, this here is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. John identifies again, this here, the author of the new creation. This is the Son of God. This is my testimony. And so, of course, the plain application. John's testimony is our testimony. That is what we testify. That is the truth we bring to bear upon every man in this world. This is the Son of God. This is God's appointed Messiah, who is the Lamb who will lay His life down for us to bring forgiveness of sins. So he goes here from saying, he moves from beholding to testifying. This is his full confession. You see, it doesn't just stop at beholding. Here is the point. You behold so that you may confirm and believe and then confess. See the lamb here who bears sin. The anointed Savior, empowered by the Spirit, is none other than the eternal Son. So here we have our Trinitarian moment. The Father speaks from heaven, the Spirit descends and remains, the Son stands in obedience. And I will add this, the Son who is anointed by the Spirit, you think about even Noah's flood, I was looking at this even this morning, and what bird did Noah send out? Sent out a dove. sent it out more than once and then it finally came back with a freshly plucked olive branch or leaf and then later on he sent it out again and what happened? The spirit or the dove remained. It remained outside into basically a refreshed, renewed creation. And so in Christ, as we see the Lamb alight on Him and remain with us, we can enter into the new creation. And of course, as the Spirit descends and remains, what does the Son do? He stands in obedience. So here we see the very Trinity at work, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in announcing, making clear, Jesus' mission that He will faithfully and completely accomplish. So in this, to behold Him rightly is to confess Him truly. We read this in 1 John 4.15, whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. So confess does not mean just to admit something. Sure, okay, Jesus is the Son of God. No, to confess means to say the same thing, that your testimony is saying the same thing about Jesus that God Himself says about His own Son. So if you behold Christ rightly, you will confess Him as He presents Himself. So he who truly beholds the Lamb will testify that Jesus is the Son of God. And so just to wrap this up this morning, The message of this passage is simple. Simple, but timeless. And it is a command for all of us, even as Christians. Behold the Lamb. Behold Him who takes away sin. So we trust Him as our substitute. Behold Him on whom the Spirit remains. What do we do? Well, then we follow Him. as our anointed chosen Lord. Finally, behold Him as the Son of God. If we behold Him as the Son of God, what is our proper response? It is to worship Him as our sovereign Redeemer. And this is the summary of the whole path of the Christian life. Behold, believe, and then bear witness. How can we behold, believe, and then say nothing to a world trapped in sin? So John's voice still cries to us today. Stop looking inward. Stop looking around. Look up. Look to the Lamb who bears your sin. Look to Christ who sends His Spirit. And look to the Son who reigns forever. And behold Him until that faith becomes sight. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin. Let's pray. Our Lord, we thank You again for Your love and Your faithfulness. We thank You for the precious truth in this section of the book. We thank You for the command. A command that if we never hear, we would be lost forever. To simply behold the Lamb of God. Help us, God, to look and live. Help us to continue to focus our gaze on Him as the only one who can save us. Lord, grant us repentance from constantly looking away, from being distracted by the cares and the lusts of this world, by maybe even letting the temptation to creep in our own minds that something else is mighty to save, that something else can deliver us. Humble our hearts, Father, to look to Christ, to see Him as precious, to see Him as worthy, to count ourselves as those who are blessed, who have been shown of great mercy. Because we have Him. We have the Lamb. And because of what He has done, we can also by faith follow in triumphant procession The Lion of the tribe of Judah who goes forth conquering every nation through the power of the gospel. Help us, God, to be faithful stewards of that message. that we would also persevere to the end, knowing that the triumph of the Lamb is the triumph we exult in that very reality. And we are thankful because we have beheld and we have believed. Now let us pray. For Christ and His Son.