All sermons preached by the webmaster may be freely copied, printed and distributed. We ask only that the site name and homepage URL be included in all copies distributed. Thankyou.
At that last great day when the books are opened, and it comes time for the verdicts to be read, and your name is called out - what will be said? Will it be a verdict that will give reason for rejoicing?
When your name is read out, and judgment is handed down by He who judges in righteousness and truth, who see’s into the very recesses of your mind, who knows the very deepest thoughts, motives, and intents of your heart - what will you hear concerning your case?
Indeed, when you go to face your Maker, upon what will you cast your confidence of future blessing and glory, what is it that you think will get you into heaven?
Think about that for a moment ... for this is more important than your affairs here below, before family, boyfriends and girlfriends, before your financial security, before work, before fun, before acceptance with your peers ... when God says, ‘ why should I let you into My heaven? ‘, What will you tell Him? What is it that you place your trust in as that which is sure to keep you from Hell? Are you sure that it will meet the test of that last great day? There are no second chances in this confrontation. You are either accepted then, or you are cast out forever into the fiery pit for eternal torment.
Already in John we have read that becoming a child of God, that becoming a Christian, is 'not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (Jn 1:13).'
So you see, the going to church, the doing of good things, the being thoughtful, etc - these are all those things that come under the heading of blood, of the will of the flesh, of the will of man, and these will not keep you out of Hell.
So you can trust in going to church if you want, in being good, etc - you can do that, many people do - BUT YOU WILL STILL GO TO HELL. So you see, this question is very serious, and you would do well to pay serious regard to it - consider well what you place your confidence in?
So this morning I want to direct your attention to the only One who can deliver you from that awful place. I want to point you to the Sin Bearer, to the very One that John the Baptist pointed people to all those years ago.
He cried out, ‘ Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.'
Behold! He caught the attention of the multitudes that went out to hear him, and directed them to this One.
Behold! I want you to look, and I will plead with you, I will cry out, I will do all I can to show you this One, the Sin Bearer, that you too might flee to Him for certain salvation.
So please focus, please pay attention; please look to Him...
#1. The Lamb of God
‘The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world (John 1:29).'
It’s another day for John the Baptist in the wilderness, continuing his ministry out there, impressing upon the people their need to turn from their sins and to return to the Lord.
The passage tells us that it is the day after the religious leaders had interrogated him and he now see’s Jesus coming toward him.
The Baptist, unlike so many today, is not interested in drawing attention to himself rather, he very eager to point others to Jesus. He has come to know that this is the Messiah. He didn’t always know this, even though Jesus was His cousin, ‘I did not know Him ‘ (1:31).
But now he knew, for the promise made to Him by God, that of ‘Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost (1:33),' had happened just over a month ago, and John now realised just why his cousin was so different - its Him, He is the Christ!
And so John wants the world to know Him that this is He who gives spiritual life by the giving of His Spirit, of He who saves from sin.
Behold! Look, over there, look at Him, ‘ The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world ‘. It is a deliberate attempt by John to get the people to focus on Jesus and not him.
Why? Because He is the Lamb of God! Why call Him the Lamb of God? - I’m glad you asked.
These were Jews, brought up in the OT Scriptures - these Scriptures dominated their lives. All their laws, all their religion, all their civil actions, all of their life, governed by the OT Scriptures.
And it is to these people that John introduces the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God. These were a people being prepared for His arrival by the Old Testament Scriptures, for He was the very fulfilment of most of it, 'they are they which testify of me (Jn 5:39).'
So what would these Jews have then thought of someone being called the Lamb of God?
Immediately in their minds they would have thought of those lambs being sacrificed in the temple as sin offerings. John is somehow identifying this Person with those sacrifices in the temple.
READ LEVITICUS 4:32-35
Picture the ritual that was carried out so many times in the temple - an unblemished lamb, the priest puts his hand on its head, symbolically transferring the sin of the offerer to the lamb. Leviticus 16:21,22 says, ‘And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.'
Now that’s the idea behind the hand being put on the head of the lamb. It symbolically transfers the sin to the lamb. The lamb was then killed, blood placed on the altar, and the rest poured at the altar base. Then the lamb is burnt on the altar. All this is a picture of the wrath of God being beared by another, the punishment is suffered and completed, by another - it is all symbolic of the offerer’s sin having been paid by another.
Was it the lamb that paid the penalty for the person’s sin? No! This is what we call a type, a shadow, that which points forward to the true, the true substitute sin-bearer.
READ HEBREWS 10:1-4,11,12
All these Old Testament sacrifices were in fact insufficient for taking away sin, but they pointed forward to a greater sacrifice to come, one that could, and would take away sin - and what John is saying in this passage is that Jesus is that sacrifice, the Lamb of God.
Listen to the prophesy of Isaiah 53:7-10, also pointing forward to the Lord Jesus Christ, ‘ He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.'
So John is saying you see, that it is this One who you see here today, He is that Lamb, the Fulfilment of all that the Old Testament pointed to in the sacrifices. He is the true Lamb of God, the Substitute Sin-bearer
So if all these people were to not suffer the punishment of their sin, then they needed a Substitute, just like the lambs of the Old Testament, and so Jesus is that Lamb, ‘ who takes away the sin of the world’.
Was it in the baptism of John the Baptist that these people were to experience the taking away of their sin? NO! That could not do it, and so John points them to the Lamb of God.
None of our religious rituals can do it either. By taking part in the Lord's Supper, it can’t do it either. Certainly baptism can’t do it - and these things symbolise that true salvation, but of themselves they cannot do it. How much less then can those things that have nothing at all to do with that true salvation.
‘ Behold! The Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world! '
#2. The Sin-bearer of the World
So having pointed out the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God, we want to look a little closer at how He ‘ takes away the sin of the world ’.
How is your sin to be taken away this morning if it has not already been taken away?
What does it mean for Jesus to take away the sin of the world? Does it mean that He makes it possible for your sins to be forgiven? No! It means He actually does take away the sins of the world, its something that He actually accomplishes.
By going to the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ offered Himself as a sin-offering to God, becoming responsible to God for the sins that men committed - it is as though a hand was placed on Jesus’ head, and that the sins of people were transferred to Him, and He then took up the responsibility and accountability to suffer the penalty for them in the place of sinners.
How does He take away sin? By paying the price for it Himself, ‘ Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed (1 Pet 2:24).' ‘ But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed (Is 53:5). ' 'For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (2 Cor 5:21).'
By His death on the cross, He stood in for sinners, as a Substitute - paying the penalty for sin that men, women, and children were destined to pay in Hell.
There is no mention of any other, He alone is 'the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me (Jn 14:6).' So remember, that all those other things that people trust in, that people think will save them from hell - there useless when it comes to taking sin away. Only the Lamb of God can remove the sin from the account of sinners.
Was this just for the Jews? No, ‘ the sin of the world. ‘ Quite clearly this does not mean that everyone in the world will be saved, that everyone will be in heaven - for John 1:11,12 says, 'He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:'
So who then was this for? It is for those who receive Him, who believe in His Name. This salvation is not for every person in the world. You see how wrong it is for people to say, ‘ Oh, at least they have gone to a better place! At least they aren’t suffering any more! Not all will be in heaven; not all will be saved.
Since not all will be saved, who then is this world? It means that this salvation is for those of every tribe, people, nation, and tongue, and not just for the Jews. ‘ And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me (Jn 12:32).'
So this morning I can quite confidently stand before you as a Calvinist, Reformed Christian Pastor and Preacher, and proclaim to you, that this God who choses who He will save, who elects unto salvation, He will receive you if you come unto Him by believing in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Salvation is offered to you this morning on that basis, you must go through the Lamb of God. As He has been portrayed in your hearing this morning, as He who died in the sinners stead - it is that sacrifice in which you need to place all your confidence, you must place all your eggs in that basket, with the attitude of Queen Esther - If I perish, I perish. But let me tell you, there will be no perishing for you if that’s what you do.
This text has said that He ‘ takes away the sin of the world ‘, not that He might, but that He does - present tense. Even for those today who receive Him by faith, He takes away your sin.
Though you may still feel your sin and grieve over it, it is no longer before the eyes of God as far as judgment is concerned, for it has already been taken away and paid for in Jesus Christ.
You have been made to appear as though you had never sinned; though most certainly you have. But when the Lamb of God takes away your sin, it can never be required to be paid for again, ‘There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1).'
Now you can understand why John says ‘ After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me (1:30).' Yes Jesus is the Son of God, very God of very God - and though John was the greatest prophet who ever lived, he could save no one.
But this Jesus, this Son of God, ‘ the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost (1:33).'
So not only does He pay the penalty that you deserved to pay for sin, but He also grants you His Spirit, whom enables you to actually believe and receive this salvation as your own. ‘ But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (1:12,13).'
So you are to believe, to trust, to exercise faith in this work of the Lord Jesus Christ for sinners, this substitutionary sin bearing sacrifice as being sufficient for the payment of the debt you have incurred for sin. And even this faith comes from God Himself, it being ‘ the gift of God ‘ (Eph 2:8).
What a wonderful salvation is this, the sinner is baptised by the Spirit, granted the gift of faith, and enabled to take hold of the benefits of Christ’s death for Himself - New Life, Light, and the taking away of sin.
Already in this Gospel we are seeing what a free and full salvation is to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. You can come to Him just as you are, full of sin and shame, and He will receive you. And yet we have barely scraped the surface of the incredible blessings that are to be found in this salvation, there is so much more yet to come, and to discover in this Gospel.
‘ ... But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name (Jn 20:31).'
May the Lord grant you this precious salvation - Amen
Outpost
Homepage
JOHN SERMONS
SERMONS
PAGE
NEXT SERMON IN SERIES
TOP
10/10/2006
AN OUTPOST PRODUCTION