to John 1. John 1. I'd like to read from verse 19 through 29. Now let's all stand together as we read the Word of God and heed it. 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 he denied not, but confessed, I am not the Christ. They asked him, What then art thou, Elias? And he said, No, I'm not. Art thou that prophet? 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 Esaias. 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 the Christ? Nor Elias, neither that prophet. John answered them, saying, I baptize with water. But there standeth one among you whom ye knew 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 the 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 Amen, please be seated Once again, we are bringing out an introduction of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news. The word gospel means good news, the best news that ever was. And this news broke out in roughly 30 A.D., but it was John the Baptist that was working prior to that. We don't know how many years before that that John the Baptist worked his ministry. Could have been three years, could have been ten years. We don't know, but it came before the ministry of Jesus. And it was an important ministry. So now we're going to continue taking a look at John's ministry, namely John's baptism first in verses 24 through 26. We're going to move on to John's humility as we go, but first I want you to see What's happening here with the Pharisees coming to him and asking him about his baptism? They're asking what he's doing Because what he's doing is not a right or a ceremony that was practiced In the Old Testament, there was certain baptismal ceremonies practice in the Old Testament would deal with that in just a moment But they saw him doing this rather curious thing called baptism By the way, there were some that were doing it at the time the scenes were doing it others were doing proselyte baptisms Oftentimes they baptized themselves. That is they went into the water themselves. So nobody officiated so to speak John the Baptist officiated these things so they asked him well, then Why are you doing this? Is it because you're the prophet that is to come remember there has no been no prophets since Malachi and Ezekiel those were some of the last prophets the children of Israel had and roughly 450 BC so they hadn't had a profit for about 400 years and so now they're saying okay a profit is coming and this profit is going to Probably be doing something with water Now, most commentators, almost every commentator links this passage to Ezekiel 36. So you might as well turn there to Ezekiel 36 one more time, verse 25, and let me read just a bit from this because this ties into what's happening in the New Testament. This is certainly a prophecy concerning this weird rite called baptism that's going to happen in the New Testament era. Now, you would all agree that baptism is important. It's been important to the church. It doesn't matter what denomination you are. If you're part of the Orthodox Christian church somewhere, you're going to be baptized. Or you're going to hear someone talk about baptism. Now, you know, there are some ins and outs and timing issues and other things, but baptism is really important to the Christian church and to the Great Commission. So it's a huge part The gospel a huge part of what is to come in the New Testament So we've got to go back in the Old Testament to find some reference to it and you find it in Ezekiel 36 verse 25 I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land and Now that's obviously a futuristic perspective because the children of Israel have been so torn apart by the Syrians and the Babylonians and the Persians and the Greeks and then the Romans. And so, you know, they've had a lot of problems with these foreign nations. So there's references to the foreign nations. But the good news is that God's going to bring them into their own land. And then verse 25, I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses and from all your idols I will cleanse you and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. Speaking of the external water baptism and the internal circumcision of heart or regenerating work of the Holy Spirit of God that is to come in the New Covenant. So, we have this reference to this water thing and we have this word, Zerach. Now, does anybody know what this word, Zerach, means? Take a look at verse 25. I will, Zerach, clean water on you. Now, what does the word, Zerach, mean? Will Xerox clean water on you? the word Xerox is translated in the KJV and I think every other translation I could see as Sprinkle, however, I don't think it's best translated that way The word is probably better translated spray Or perhaps a fire extinguisher spray Okay, the word is translated scatter abundantly Okay, so that's what it means that's the word so so what is the picture I'm gonna take some water I am gonna All over you You get the idea Because I want you to get the idea You want to talk mode? I'll show you mode! Come on! You want to talk mode? Let's talk about Xeroxing! It's not, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Xerox is to spray. Now the same word is used throughout the Old Testament. Let me give you a bunch of examples of where it's used, Exodus 24, 6. Half of the blood be sprinkled on the altar, Exodus 29, 16. Sprinkle the blood all around. Exodus 29 20 sprinkle the rest of the blood Leviticus 1 5 sprinkle the blood on the altar and again The word is the rock every every time Xerox Xerox Xerox the priest shall sprinkle the blood Leviticus 3 13 Aaron shall sprinkle Xerox its blood Leviticus 8 24 Moses sprinkled the blood the numbers 913 is another Example and I'd encourage you to turn there. Do you have your Bibles turn to numbers 913 another example of Where you know again you have these cleansings now, what's the cleansing we'll get it to get there in just a moment But numbers 1913 we read whoever touches a dead person the body of anyone who has died and Does not cleanse himself defiles the tabernacle of the Lord and that person shall be cut off from Israel because the water for the impurity was not thrown on him and He shall be unclean. His uncleanness is still on him. So, again, the term is to throw the water on him, to spray it on him, to get it all over him. That's the picture of sprinkle. It comes closer to the word spray or to the word pour. Now, as you know, I like the idea of moving water. I like the idea of a waterfall. Some of you know that. Because it gives us a better sense of Zerach. The Hebrew word Zerach. Let's take a look at the question. Why the sprinkling of the blood why the baptism with water? Why all this? Cleansing going on and and why the prophecy concerning the cleansing in Ezekiel 36 25 obviously throughout that entire passage I read before the Message this morning. It's because of the uncleanness of Israel's because as the nation's looked at them they Considered Israel to be as unclean as unclean as can clink as could be the nation's themselves are not impressed with the cleanliness of Israel. I Nations themselves recognize that these people are foul They were dirty they were corrupted let alone God so God's promise with New Covenant is that the Messiah would come and would sprinkle clean water and Make them clean from all their uncleanness and from all their idolatry God says I will cleanse you and I will give you a new heart and a new new spirit. The reason, of course, we need cleansing is because we are dirty. We are foul. Now, many of us perceive some sinners to be foul. You start talking about homosexuality, for example, or drunkenness, or sex crimes, or a filthy person, a porn addict, The dirty old man. You ever heard that expression? Anybody here ever heard the expression, the dirty old man? He's a dirty old man. We all know what that is, don't we? We all know that's somebody who's got a serious pollution issue in his character. And probably somebody you want to stay away from and keep your kids away from. Now, that's the picture. So I think everybody here understands what it is. You've referred to these guys as dirty old men. You've seen them as unclean, as contaminated. You've seen them that way. Now the next question is, what about you? See, we know the concept. We understand the concept. But the question is, how does this apply to every single one of us here? We are fouled. We are defiled. We are unclean as well. Our sin is the thing that has defiled us. And of course, you do not have to be a drunk. You don't have to be guilty of some sex crime in order to be classified this way. We have two huskies that hang out in the same cage. One of them is forever and ever fouled up and unclean. He loves to play in the mud. I thought we had a white dog. It's brown today. He's loving it. He's just he just thinks it's the greatest thing and my guess is the female He lives with a female kind of a husband-wife thing going on. Well, the female is much cleaner She doesn't play in the mud puddle. The other does now my guess is the female looks at him and says you're a mess. I You're so foul. You're a brown dog. You used to be white. So she's looking at him and she's saying, you are the dirtiest dog I have ever seen. The fact of the matter is, friends, they're both dogs. They're both foul. They're both unclean. You don't need just the scriptures to figure that out. Do you want me to tell you what they do? What dogs eat and what they lick up and everything else? Do you want me to talk about dogs a little bit? They're still dogs! You can look at a dog and say, well, there's a dirty dog, but here's a dirty dog. One dirty dog, here's another dirty dog. One may be a little dirtier than the other, but they're still dogs. They're still dogs. They're unclean. Unclean dogs. What are they doing in my kitchen? That's what I ask from time to time. What are they doing up on my chair? What are they doing eating my breakfast? These unclean animals in my home. But friends, the application, of course, is to you and to me. We are unclean. Brothers and sisters, unclean. We are the lepers that need to be crying out, unclean! Unclean! You touch me, you'll be defiled! That's why the sprinkling of the blood. That's why the baptism with water. Now, in the New Testament, we find the same thing, Acts 22. Ananias speaks to Paul and says, now, why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord. So what's the picture of baptism? It's a bath, just as it was in the Old Testament. It's a bath in the New Testament as well. You're getting a bath. Now, I don't know many who disagree with that, but I think we need to remind ourselves that somehow in all the debates, We forget about the really really really really basic thing going on when you pour water over yourself standing in a shower Or getting in the tub either way depending on whether you're a Baptist or a Presbyterian You're taking a bath The water is cleaning the skin Okay, this is not senior level theology This is just what you do every day for some of you once a month or so. This is a cleaning of the flesh Now the baptism of John included this washing this washing of dirt and contamination, but it was for the purpose of or Association with a spiritual reality called repentance John's baptism was a baptism unto repentance Jesus baptism is a baptism unto remission. There's a slight difference there and It's a slightly different spiritual reality between John's baptism and Jesus' baptism. And that should be pretty plain from the Word of God. The Bible brings it out. I don't think there's any debate on that either, as far as I know. John's baptism was a baptism unto repentance, which means a change of the mind, a cleansing of the mind, a cleansing of the eyes, a cleansing of the perspective. Jesus baptism or Jesus bath is unto remission of sins to the intent that With the stated associated goal being the remission of sins Now I said that carefully Not going to go over this in any more detail if you have questions afterwards, we'll deal with it but now there's one more aspect of the baptism the baptism associates and Baptism has a spiritual reality that reflects, but it also has an association. John's baptism associated people with John and his ministry. Jesus' baptism associated him with Jesus. We are baptized into Christ. It's one reason why some of the baptisms are into the name of Jesus Christ, and we don't have the Trinitarian formulation in some of the passages and acts. The reason is because we're baptized into Jesus, associated with Jesus, who is associated with two other persons. Does anybody know who these other two other persons are? It's hard to separate Jesus from the two other persons. Why? Obvious. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Okay. But our proximate relationship with God comes by means of Jesus. So that's why in some texts you find we are baptized into the name of Jesus. The Father and the Holy Spirit is left off the formulation. It should be a no-brainer. We're baptized in proximity into Jesus. Our association is in Jesus. Jesus divine, we are the ones grafted. Okay, that's all I'm going to say about that. But John's baptism was a shadow. There's a point John is makes in his ministry turn to Matthew 3 verses 10 through 12 And we're gonna see the contrast right away. And here's I think really the thrust of the message this morning John's baptism was only a shadow John in his ministry in his baptism, etc John is very inferior to that which is to come. And that's another reason why, friends, we've got to be careful not to associate John's ministry, John's baptism, too closely with Christ's. Because John himself said, I'm the little guy. I'm going to decrease. I'm hardly worthy of loosening his sandal. But he's the one. He's got the ministry. He's got the words. Listen to him. He's got the baptism. He's got the grace. He's taking away the sins of the world. See, this is John pointing at and comparing his ministry to the ministry of Christ. Listen to Matthew 3 and verse 10. Now also the axe is laid to the root of the trees, therefore every tree which brings not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Then verse 11, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but That's the key word. I baptize you with water under repentance, but He that cometh after me is mightier than I whose shoes I'm not worthy to bear He shall baptize you with a holy ghost and with fire whose fan is in his hand and He will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. I Now what is he saying? He's saying okay. Here's my baptism under repentance. Here's the baptism of Jesus It's coming with a Holy Ghost and with fire. He's saying okay, so I've got the little Inferior little baptism thing. It's a two-year-olds doing a little thing down in the basement But we only get to the real deal We're going to get to what Jesus is doing, and Jesus' baptism is going to be incredibly efficacious. It's going to bring about a radical cleansing, a cleansing. You think I did a cleansing? Nothing! Compared to the cleansing that Jesus does by the Holy Ghost and with fire and he does it on his on his threshing floor And I don't like the word used in any other translation But the KJV because right here we go right to the word and is the purge word, but it's not just purge It's thoroughly purge. It's completely purge. It means a total washing such that you could lick off of that floor He's gonna purge his threshing floor And he's going to do it by the Holy Spirit and with fire. He's going to burn the chaff up, every piece of it. So when he says, baptism with fire, he says, it will be the judgment of God. The pure white fire of the judgment of Almighty God that will utterly burn the chaff such that it will be clean, clean, clean forever and ever. Amen? And, He will purge by the Holy Spirit of God. He will thoroughly sterilize the floor. He will cleanse it. He will scour it. He will not leave. not even the tiniest little bit of contamination. That's the job of Jesus Christ, the Judge and the Redeemer of the world. The word is diakatherizo. Dia is the idea of a thoroughness. Katherizo is a word we use for catheterizer. It's a word for sterilize. were to cleanse, were to purge. Alright, so what does this give us? But John's got a right perspective of himself and his ministry. And his humility produces in him a right estimation of Christ. And I believe this is important to all of us here. If you don't have a right estimation of Jesus, it may be that you're not a humble person. Some of you may say, you know, I can't get as excited about Jesus as some people I've seen. I just can't get excited. I have a hard time witnessing. I have a hard time saying his name. I just have a hard time. Well, why is this? One of the reasons may be that you have too high of an opinion of yourself. John's humility produced in him a right estimation of Christ. Look at verses 26 and 27. John told them, I baptize with water, but right here in the crowd is someone you do not recognize. Though his ministry follows mine, I'm not even worthy to be a slave and untie the straps of his sandals. Pride is a major problem. It was a major problem in John's age as well as ours. Jesus was going after it all the time. It's the point of his presenting the Pharisees and the like that he did. Pride was such a significant issue that I believe it took John. It took a prophet like John, who was willing to submit himself, humble himself, and say, he must increase and I must decrease, in order to be the right one to introduce the Lord Jesus Christ to the world. And the pride of this country, I think, requires me to bring a message like this this morning. We are in arguably the proudest nation in the world. In fact, according to a survey in 2005, two nations were the first and second most proud nation when it came to their pride concerning their accomplishments of any other nation in the world. The number two nation, the second most proud nation in 2005 was Venezuela. I did a search on Venezuela for a recent news article and the first one that popped up was Venezuela, the worst economy in the southern hemisphere. The worst economy, I think it was in the world, but it was certainly in this hemisphere. The worst economy in our hemisphere is Venezuela. Now, America is a very proud nation. America came out number one in this 2005 survey. America is an extremely proud nation. We were listening to a sermon last night in which a British pastor was preaching in 1958. And he was saying that the Britons had become one of the proudest nations, if not the most proud nation in the world, by 1858. And sometime between 1858 and 1914, they had become so proud, he believed this. He preached it on Armistice Day, or Remembrance Day, in 1958. He said sometime between 1858 and 1914, God judged Europe and sent two world wars. and brought about the unbelievable unmatched devastation to the world at that time. Then I got to thinking about our country, brothers and sisters. We live in the proudest nation in the world. Now in 2005, we topped out as the strongest powerhouse, economic powerhouse in the world at a little over 30% of the gross world product. And we had become the strongest economy in the world somewhere around the late 1800s, early 1900s. And we topped out in 2005 at 30% of the gross world product. Since then, we have decreased 30%. We're down to 22% of the gross world product, which means we have lost 33% of our world economic impact in just the last 10 years. And we're sinking very fast. America may be the most impoverished nation in the world inside of the next 20 to 30 years. I don't know. I do know we have consumed the last five years of economic recovery by spending ourselves into another $8 trillion in debt. Not a good idea, as far as I'm concerned, especially when we know the worker-to-retiree ratio is plummeting and will be one-third of what it was in 1950 when we were just getting started. So we are the proudest nation in the world. Is it possible? that we, between 1958, a hundred years after the British Empire, became the most proud nation on the globe between 1858 and 1914. Between 1958 and 2014, we have turned into the proudest nation on earth, certainly the most economically blessed nation for a period of time. but now perhaps the most corrupt nation in the world exporting some of the most corrupt sexuality you could ever, ever, ever imagine. So sometime between 1964 and 2014, a similar period to what the Brits went through before God brought World War I and World War II to those nations and brought those nations to their knees. And those nations would not exist perhaps today if it were not for our involvement in World War II. I don't know. But I'm here to tell you that America is such a proud nation that we are cruising for a bruising. It is very possible we are headed to World War III. I did a search on China last night and found an article from the Communist magazine in China in which the Communists are saying that World War III with America is, their word not mine, inevitable. God, have mercy on this nation. God, bring this nation down to its knees. God, bring sackcloth and ashes, weeks of prayer and fasting to this nation. Because, friends, I believe we are right on the cusp, on the cliff of economic and military destruction if this nation does not humble itself before Almighty God and acknowledge its sin. and admit who we really are. Now that's hard for proud people to do. There is so much pride in this nation, friends. It's hard to know where to start. I tremble at the national pride, the academic pride, the gay pride, the school pride, the feminist pride, the youth pride. It's found everywhere. Recent graduations. I know this is odd. Some have called me odd for bringing this out. But I believe it's indicative of how far down the tracks we've come. where almost everybody is saying, I am proud of my son. I am proud of my daughter. When are we going to use the word lust for our daughters? You say, well, we just use that word. It's a biblical word and it is a sin. You want to use lust? You want to lust your daughters? You want to be proud of your sons? I don't think so. God forbid that we should be proud of our sons. This is not funny stuff, friends. I'm serious. We are a proud nation. And we ought not to be proud of our sons and our daughters. God forbid that we should be this way. We should be blessed and grateful. We should be blessed and grateful, but not proud. God, humble you. God, humble me. God forbid that we give way to pride such that we're even using the word. I can't believe that we're even admitting it. I say, well, I'm not really admitting it. Yes, you are. You used the word and said, I'm proud. You're proud. You say what you mean. If you mean you're thankful, then say you're thankful to Almighty God for the blessings and the gifts He's given your son or your daughter. This is a major problem. The youth pride in this country is overwhelming to me. I can hardly teach the youth. I can hardly say anything without an argument, without them pushing back. Not an honest question, but the pride arrogance of wanting to debate somebody who's 30 years older than they are. It's unbelievable. Now, I know people are saying, All of these youth, they just need to be heard. They need to be listened to. We need to sit at their feet and learn from them. Friends, that's not the Word of God. They're to respect their elders. They're to rise when the elder man comes into the room. You don't see this with the youth. Young men, young women, I'm telling you, I'm concerned for your very souls. When it comes to wisdom, I'm not even talking about knowledge here. Certainly, you don't have all the knowledge in the world, but wisdom is application. That's why cultural questions are important. That's why you ask your mother, your father, what do you think of this music? You ask your 75-year-old grandmother, what do you think about this outfit? You rarely, rarely, rarely hear a young teen saying, I want to know what, I want to know the wisdom of my 75-year-old grandfather concerning this music. This particular application, he's got 75 years of experience watching the trends, the social trends of what happens with music and dress. He's got gray hair for a reason. I'm going to sit at his feet. I'm going to ask him the question, Grandpa, what do you think about this music? Grandma, what do you think about this clothes? Now, that's respect. I've been in probably 20 countries around the world, and America has less honor for their elderly than any other nation I've ever been a part of. And I wish, oh, that I wish that the Spirit of God would come upon the young men and young women such that He'd wash them clean of their sin. Such that there would be this amazing honor. Now, granted, I believe there is some of that going on in our congregation. I understand. But I'm telling you, friends, we're not perfect. And if any of this is opening your eyes for a moment, and you're thinking to yourself, maybe I'm a little proud. Maybe I do have something of a pride issue. Maybe it's not just the United States of America. Maybe it's me. I have come face-to-face with this problem myself. I haven't even gotten to the real problem right now, and that is religious pride. God, have mercy on us for our pride in labels, t-shirts, categories, denominations. It's the worst. It's the most deadly. this competition comparison, it's just got to go. It's got to be rooted, root and branch out of ourselves, out of our minds, out of our language, out of my messages, out of my way of thinking. I pray for it. I beg God that He will cleanse me from it. I stood up in front of Presbytery. I confessed as clearly as I possibly could, as I understood what the problem was with me. I have laid it out in front of brothers and sisters all over the place because I am done with it. I'm done with religious pride. Don't want it. God cleanse us from these things. John the Baptist had the most successful ministry in the history of prophets. But his perspective, I must decrease, he must increase. I'm not even worthy to unstrap the sandals. He was humbled in the presence of the Word of God. Of the Word of God. The Word. Remember, in the beginning was the Word. And that is a definite article. Halahas. The Word. He was humbled in the presence of the, the, the speaker. Don't even bother talking about another speaker. There is only one worth listening to and that is the speaker the keynote speaker. He knew he was a nobody He's the intro guy. He's just the MC. He's saying here he is Go, that's what he's doing He's humbled in the presence of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords now several Aspects to this humility and I'm gonna identify with John the Baptist here in several points first of which is this We are humbled when we realize that we didn't recognize the Messiah. Take a look at verse 26B and 33A. There stands one among you whom you do not know. Did you catch that the first time we read it? There stands one among you whom we do not know. And then later on, verse 32, what does he say? And I knew him not. Now why does he say that? He was his cousin. Second time removed. Their mothers knew each other. Right? Elizabeth and Mary. They'd hung out with each other. And if Zechariah and the family lived down in Jerusalem area where he served as priest, Then from time to time, they made it down there. Do you think that there was any contact between the families? Do you think that Jesus knew who John was? Of course he did! Do you think John knew who Jesus was? Of course he did! But he didn't know who he was. He might have known that he could carve wood well. He could pound nails well. He might have known a lot about him. What kind of clothes he wore, etc. But he says, I didn't know him. I knew him not. Men didn't recognize him in his poverty. They didn't hear him in the cacophony. My guess is Jesus had a few things to say in those 30 years prior to his ministry. I wonder who was listening. I wonder who... You're somebody special. You must be the Messiah. Did anybody say that? Now his mother treasured those things up in her heart, so his mother must have been thinking about him for 30 years, but they didn't know who he was. Now imagine that! The Messiah! The creator of the universe showed up. He came to our town. Wouldn't you want his autograph? Wouldn't you want his autograph? The creator of the universe. Wouldn't it be interesting? You could show it to all your friends. I got the autograph of the creator of the universe. He sovereignly orders every single cell, every single hair on every single head, Every single sparrow that falls, he's in charge of the entire universe. I got his signature, his autograph. See? Nobody was looking for his autograph. Why? Again, this humbles us. Why? We don't even recognize the Messiah. We run right by Him. We don't even know when He appears. Later on, John even asks the question from prison, are you the Messiah or do we look for somebody else? Jesus answers, go and tell John what you have seen and heard. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. Still would we recognize Him. If Jesus came into the OPC, Would he be excommunicated? I wonder that sometimes. Would we excommunicate him from this church if Jesus showed up? You say, I don't know. God help us. I know. But see, that humbles us, doesn't it? John didn't even recognize him. Would you recognize him? If he sat down after the message and started talking to somebody, would the teens blow him off and start talking about the latest Hollywood flick or something like that? Would they just kind of, well, that guy's boring. Boring. I'm going to go talk about something else, something more fun. Wow! You missed it, big boy. You missed the Creator of the universe. You missed the wisdom of all wisdom, the truths of all truth. You missed it all. Just went right by you. Missed the Messiah. You missed the Messiah. That's humbling. That's really humbling. You know, there are people who sit in church for a long time. Hopefully not this church, but there are people who sit in Roman Catholic churches or Presbyterian churches. They hear the Word of God, the Gospels read in English. They hear the Psalms read in English for 20 years. Then they go to college. They run a dissipated life. This is really, really, really, really typical. This is probably most everybody. They live a dissipated life for the next 5 years, or 6 years, or 10 years, or 12 years, or 15 years. They eventually get arrested. They get thrown in prison. And they're in prison. They sit. And someday, some guy walks in, sandals and a robe, and he starts reading from one of the Gospels. And they get it. And they're converted. And they hear. And they know that they're in the presence of Jesus Christ! Suddenly they realize They were bored out of their minds in church for 20 years hearing the Gospels read and the Psalms and Then in a prison somewhere they hear somebody read the words of Jesus and They see him and they hear him and tears running down their cheeks. They run into his arms and they say Where have you been all my life? Praise God. We are humbled when we realize that He was there all along and we didn't even recognize Him. We are humbled when we realize our own blindness, our faithlessness, our unwillingness to run to Him, our apathy, our weakness in spiritual storms. Have you ever felt like you're doing well? You're the strong man. You can stand with anything. You have the theological underpinnings that can keep you alive in a 7.0 hurricane down in the Caribbean. You're it, man! And then you'll get a 7.0 and they'll make that a 12.0. You're up against spiritual wickedness in high places like you've never seen before, and you collapse on the spot. Have you ever seen your weakness? I have. I'm a weak man. Come on, tell the truth, guys. Anybody here, can you relate to, okay, maybe you had a five-minute period in your life where you were weak. Okay, go with that. Go with it. Come on. Who are you? What are you? Are you gonna save yourself? No way. No way. I think of that what happened last 24 hours. I did not know I'd be ready to preach this message till about 9 o'clock. I just, I just felt like a weakling. I thought I was all broken down. Praying to God for faith and for strength and for wisdom. And here I am by the grace of God for one more Sunday. We are so fragile. we barely get by. You all know what I'm talking about here, don't you? Okay, we're humbled when we realize. Now, why then are you proud? I put these things together almost weekly now. The minute I get a little proud, I say, now wait a minute, why are you proud? You were groveling in the dirt like two days ago. Your faith was all the way down here. You're crying out to God for his help. And now you're like Mr. Hotshot inside of two days. I don't know if any of you ever experienced that. But come on. Who are you? Deal with it. You're so fragile. You're so weak. You can't get by. You can't. Without Christ, we are humbled by our own death. On your proudest day, your healthiest day, your strongest day, you're on the top of the world. You received your first million dollar check. You're the healthiest you've ever been. You feel great. At a moment like that, friends, you need to remember that one day you're going to be an emaciated body, writhing on a bed, where you can hardly think of your own name. And all you can say is, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. That's all you're going to be able to say at the very, very end. That's what you're going to be at the end. Weak, helpless, dying, and there is not a soul on earth who can help you. So you need to be humbled by your own death. And every single one of you are going to be dead someday. You're going to die someday, should Christ tarry. We are humbled by the certainty of our own day in court. Every single one of you are going to be in court. And you rarely find somebody in court exceedingly proud. Sometimes you do. Sometimes even on death row. There will be none that will be proud on that day. Every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord. We know that at the very end. But there is a certainty about your judgment. As it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, every tongue shall confess to God, so that every one of us shall give account of himself to God. And I think from time to time it's good to go over that account. You're going to go over the things that you've done in the body. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. There would be no hiding of anything that day. So you might as well not hide it today. That's the encouragement. If any of you are walking in darkness, bring it all out now. It's going to be much more painful to bring it out on the final day. So maybe do a dry run right now. Because you're going to have to bring it out then. Keep this in mind. It's all going to come out. So bring out the things you've done in the flesh. What have you done in the flesh? Talk about it. Confess it to somebody. Absolutely. Bring it all out. Because one day you will be in judgment and it is certain that you will give account of everything you did in the flesh. That judgment is certain. Absolutely certain. Say, how do I know? Because you're being judged right now. Just talked about that earlier. Some people's sins are advertised all over the internet. You know that? And when we hear about it, we heard about it in the last two weeks. Somebody's sins all over the internet. And we were horrified to hear about it. Well, let's take your sins and let's put your sins up on the internet. Let's take a look at what you look like. See, it's going to come out. It's going to be public. So you might as well bring it out now. What are your secret faults? What are the things you're deceiving yourself about? We are humbled also by the cries of those who are in hell. Now, by the grace of God, we believe that God saves us from eternal damnation forever and ever. Now, that's all by the grace of God. That's all His mercy. But, friends, there will be some who will cry out for the rocks and hills to fall upon them. The cries of agony. I don't know how much we're going to hear about the cries of agony. I think we can hear them now. The Bible speaks of them prophetically. There will be cries of agony. There will be the gnashing of teeth. I doubt if we'll hear the gnashing of teeth, but the Bible describes it. When I hear the wicked call on the rocks and hills to fall, when I see them start and shrink on the fiery deluge brink, then, Lord, shall I fully know, not till then, how much I owe. You watch, you listen for the cries of agony from those who will perish in hellfire forever. You listen to those cries, those screams, and then you say, but for the grace of God. That will keep you humble. We are humbled by the ministry of John. John loses his ministry. His disciples scatter. He's martyred. It's over. Done. Gone. But John's okay with that. Why because the ministry of Christ prevails Now there have been some towering ministries and who knows but that this church may come crashing down someday They usually do I Don't know if there's that many churches that survived more than a hundred years Most churches come crashing down. They just do but you know what happens Jesus brings them down. I Then he goes in the ashes and he pulls out a couple pieces I can use that I can use this and I can use this and he goes and he builds his kingdom somewhere else and That's because Jesus is building his own kingdom. This is not ours and This is not permanent. What I'm doing here. It's not permanent. What Jesus is doing is permanent And he will continue to build his church in his own way. And if he sees to it that towering ministries come all the way down and there's like three, four, five, six little pieces that are gathered together and become another ministry somewhere else, that's his doing. He's building his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Finally, we are humbled at the humility of Jesus Christ. Look at verse 29. This is where John sees Jesus coming toward him. and says, Behold, my second cousin. Is that what he says? No. What does he say? Behold, the Lamb of God takes away the sins of the world. He recognized him. Such a picture of the humility of Christ, the humanness of Christ, but also the deity of Christ. See, we get this mix. He doesn't refer to Him as a second cousin. He sees Him for who He is, the essence of it, in both His humiliation and, I believe, His exaltation. And I'm going to deal with both of them. The first, the humility of Christ, the humble Lamb of God. First of all, the term, the Lamb of God. Now, we don't typically call people a lamb. I don't say, behold the lamb, carry, or behold this lamb. John. We don't typically say that. But John did. Why? Because first of all, he is a replication of what is happening in the Old Testament. But secondly, there's something about a lamb that is harmless. No fangs, no defense, no claws. He's not going to defend himself. Jesus voluntarily, humbly, quietly went all the way to the cross. for us. So how can we be proud in the presence of the Lamb of God? How can we be proud where we see somebody selling off his only cloak? How can you be proud? How can you say, well, now look at me. Look at my accomplishments. Look who I am. Look at my wealth. Look at my car. Look at the kind of car I drove to church this morning. Well, in the presence of the Lamb of God whose only cloak is being sold off by these soldiers at the foot of the cross. How can you be proud when He is being whipped for you? How can you be proud with that crown of thorns pressed upon His brow? How can you be proud in the face of His humiliation? How can you say, well, I've really got something going here. in the face of what Jesus Christ did for you. Before He died, you know, He took the bowl, the basin, the towel, and He washed His disciples' feet. What are you going to say? You missed a spot. Right over here, you missed a spot. Get on it. Get on it, Jesus. Is that what you're going to say to the creator of the universe? The very son of God who is voluntarily humbling himself. So in the humiliation, how can we be proud? You missed a spot. Is that what you're going to say? Finally, we're humbled by His power. He taketh away the sin of the world. Friends, I know we've brought this out before, but we do it again. He is the Lamb of God, the humble Lamb of God, who does an amazing thing. He takes away the sin of the world. And that's the impressive element of this. He will thoroughly purge His floor. He will make absolute, complete work of the job. He will do it by His Holy Spirit, He'll do it by blood, and He'll do it by fire. Every corner, every crack, every crevice, every square inch of it, He will take away the sin of the world. See, again, I want you to think about that. That's a lot of sin. And He will be more meticulous than... He will be a billion times more meticulous than the absolute most righteous crusader, the most liberal do-gooder, the most well-intentioned social programmer that creates way more problems than he fixes, by the way. Jesus will be way more thorough. He will thoroughly purge his floor. He will take away the sin of the world. This ought to be a huge blessing in your mind. Think about all of the sin of the world. Think about what happens in every foul mind, in every foul corner of this globe. Every thought and intent of the heart will be cleansed, either by the Spirit or by fire, now or later. Every blaspheming word on every DVD will be cleansed. by fire or by the Spirit of God, either here or now or later. Every lie, everything that maketh a lie, cleaned out, cleansed forever by fire or by the Spirit of God baptism. Every facade, every hypocrisy, every lie. It will be the Lamb on the cross or the Lamb on the throne taking away. the sin of the world. Think about all the drunkenness, the murderous slave trade, the covetous thoughts, the bitter, hateful thoughts, proud thoughts, fornicating thoughts, blaspheming thoughts, lies. And now I'm just talking about you right now. Think about all these things wiped out forever. How many of you have said before, the mind is a terrible thing, as you're thinking about your own mind and the things you've been thinking about for the last 10 minutes. Wouldn't it be a blessing to have all these doubting thoughts, all these blaspheming thoughts, all these demonic whispers, all these lustful thoughts, all these thoughts that you know are so corrupting to your mortal body, it's sick. Imagine all that wiped away, washed away. Is that beautiful to you? Is that something you say, yes, hallelujah, that's what I want. I'm so sick of it. You want me to tell you how sick I am of sin in my own life, let alone what I read in the newspapers? Gone forever and ever by the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. On the flip side of this, what if John Paul Sartre had his way? What if you had sinners hanging around in a green room called no exit for a billion years, for a trillion years? How would that be? John Paul Sartre, the great existentialist, how would it be if we were our own gods or attempting to be our own gods? For ever and ever, one of the most frustrating, futile plays ever presented, and he'll tell you it was futile, but everybody loved the play. Imagine if John Paul Sartre, that sick man, wrote most of his stuff on drugs and alcohol. What if he, he dominates Hollywood as he does now with all, most of the flicks are existentialist and John Paul Sartre rerun over and over and over and over again. What if Hollywood still exists a billion years from now? God forbid! God forbid that trash appears again and again, generation after generation, forever and ever. God forbid this evil should ever exist beyond eternity. What if the devil had his way? What if the Mexican drug cartels and ISIS had their way? What if your evil heart had its way forever and ever and ever and ever and ever? How would that be? God wins. You don't. Or your sin doesn't. Your mortal body will not win in this conflict. Holiness wins. Righteousness wins. Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, He wins! Hallelujah! For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. God sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh forever. Praise God. The law couldn't do it. The law couldn't take it down. But Jesus Christ does and will. who being the brightness of His glory, and the expressed image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." You get a little bit of the weeby-jeebies when you hear that. He rode into battle. He took on the greatest dragon, the mother of all dragons. He took the ultimate evil in the world that undergirds every abuser and every tyrant and every sin and death and hell and all the destruction. Everything Every evil is ultimately linked to that evil itself and that is sin. He took that thing on himself. He overwhelmed it at the cross and he walked away the victor and is sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. Praise Jesus forever. Amen. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all. And I want to emphasize the word all. It's all of it. All of it. Every aspect of it. The guilt of it, the power of it, the punishment of it, and the very essence of it. That is sin itself. It doesn't just say, He came to take away the guilt of the sin of the world. He came to take away the sin of the world. with its guilt, its power, its essence, every piece of it, the entire enchilada, He came to take it away. And the Holy Spirit applies it by sprinkling, no, spraying it, no, using the fire extinguisher. And He does thorough work. So friends, He must increase, we must decrease. We prepare the way, we plow the roads, we preach the Word. But the Spirit of God comes like a semi-truck down that road. And that baptism is going to clean us all up. We wait, we pray, we expect a powerful work of the Spirit of God applying the blood of Jesus Christ right here, right now. Pray with me. that this will happen. Will you pray with me now? Father in heaven, we've laid it out. We've described it. We've preached it. We've gloried in it. But, Father, give us the blessing. Apply it by Your Spirit to the hard hearts, to the half-hard hearts, to the hearts that have a hard issue here and a hard issue there. O Spirit of God, spray us with the blood of Jesus. Wipe away the sin. Deal with it now. O Father, we pray the Holy Spirit of God will do His baptism on us, do a mighty cleansing, a mighty cleansing this morning in our hearts and lives, right here and right now. We pray this. We ask for it. We seek it. We're knocking. Amen.