I've been sick for a couple weeks, and so I don't know if you hear me cough. I come to prayer, and okay, this takes some work. So grateful that you bear with me. Please turn in your Bibles to the book of John, chapter one, as we continue to consider John the Baptist. I will be reading John one, verses 29 through 34, and focusing our attention on verse 29. This is God's Word. It is His holy, infallible, perfect Word. It is the words of life. It is the words by which God reveals Himself to us that we might know Him and love Him. Hear God's Word. The next day, He, that is, John the Baptist, saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. This is He of whom I said, After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me. I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel. and John bore witness. I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on Him. I myself did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and borne witness, that this is the Son of God. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father, as we consider the most precious work of Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, Lord, may we love You and worship You all the more. And Lord, show us our total dependence upon You for salvation, that we might know that salvation is of the Lord. It is none of us and all of You. And Lord, we pray that You would give us assurance of salvation in our hearts to know that Your promises are sure and that Your Gospel is steadfast. Lord, we pray that we might be faithful in the reading and the hearing of Your Word, and that You might work to store up Your Word in our hearts. In Jesus' name, Amen. It says John bore witness to Jesus. He says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Now I just want to briefly point out three things about this phrase. First, this is a statement about who God is. Behold the Lamb of God. And we know from just a few verses earlier that the Lamb of God is God. He is the Son of God who became flesh to dwell among us. And so, this statement is about God's personal nature. Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. And notice the word who. The Lamb of God is a who. In other words, the Lamb of God is acting personally according to His nature. And the incredible thing is, This points to relationship. The actual possibility to have a relationship with the Almighty God as He acts personally in our lives. And I know sometimes God carrying on a personal relationship with all of His children over all the world can seem overwhelming. And I know I can sometimes feel very small and outside and in a corner. And I think, oh Lord, who am I? A small, sinful man. And I think, Lord, look over there. As Peter said, depart from me for I'm a sinful man. It's sometimes too much to even turn my eyes. that we need to remember. And I need to remember that God is infinite. He is infinite in wisdom, in power, in knowledge, in holiness, and in love. God knows you. And God knows me personally. He knows your thoughts. He knows your weaknesses. He knows your strength, your abilities, and all that you hope for. He knows your shame and guilt. He knows you as no human will ever know you. God is personal and relational in His very nature. And third, it says, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The personal God who is the Lamb of God has a purpose. And that purpose is to take away the sin of the world. Now, why would God put this purpose right up front? The Lamb of God, who? His purpose is to take away the sin of the world. Well, it points us directly back to relationship. God is love, and I think we might think of that as love is God. God is the very standard and definition of love. And love is all about relationship. And so God is all about relationship. It gets to the core of who God is and His purpose directed to you and me and to every child of God is to take away the sin of the world. Now, let me just ask for a minute, is relationship as central in your heart as it is to God's heart. Think about the lengths to which God has gone and is going for the sake of a relationship with you and me. And I would venture that relationship is just not as central in our heart as it is to God. And I know we love our wife, we love our husband, we love our children. Grandkids are precious. But still, there is part of our hearts that are not unreservedly devoted to relationship. And I want to propose that there is a reason for this. And I probably don't even have to say it. The reason is sin. The essence of sin is always, I can be as God, determining good and evil for myself. And there is usually not much room for multiple gods. This is the problem. The little seed of self-godness grows into all kinds of wickedness and evil, until finally the human heart calls good evil and evil good. Romans 1.21, for although they knew God, Adam and Eve and every one of us, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images, resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. In the end, of this foolishness." In Romans 1.29, they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Every sin, the result of every sin, turns the human heart inward and away from God and away from others. Sin kills relationships. And thus, sin is the archenemy of God. God's heart flows out in love and relationship. And God desires that we can experience that as well. Think about God. He has no sin, no corruption, no evil, no selfishness, no malice, no hatred. He is free from His core expression to express relationship. And when God's nature flows forth, it flows forth in love. And Scripture is clear that this is a joy to God. He rejoices in the free flow of His love to His children. The point here is that sin is lawlessness. 1 John 3.4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. And because God's law is an expression of God's very relational, loving nature, we must not minimize sin to merely an injustice against law. Sin is an injustice against a person. It is war against the character of God. And therefore, God must eradicate sin. For sin not only attacks God, but it destroys each of us and turns us away from love and a relationship with God himself. Romans 6.23, for the wages of sin is death. And there is the ultimate separation. Romans 5.12, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death spread through sin, so death spread to all men, because all sinned. Isaiah 13.11, God says, I will punish the world for its evil. and the wicked for their iniquity. I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless." And we notice these words, arrogant, ruthless. This is a picture of sin that hates God. You know, I think I mentioned a few weeks ago, I saw, well, kind of a debate, a college professor talking to a Christian and claiming to be so much more righteous than God because God decreed the destruction of evil in the Old Testament. And, you know, I guarantee this man would not want to live in a world where the full weight of sin is turned loose. And he wouldn't even want to live a few years in that condition, much less a lifetime, and way much less eternity. God's wrath on all sin is a blessing. And so the psalmist often asks God to vindicate righteousness with the judgment of evil. In Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve were banished from God's presence, even until the very end of Scriptures, where Satan is thrown into the lake of fire, Evil hates God, hates God's goodness, and will ultimately be destroyed and removed. And that will be a great blessing, especially when it's removed from our own heart. I often think about what a blessing it will be to praise God with a pure heart, not impeded by guilt and sin and corruption. God declares that the current order of sin will not continue forever. There will come the great and terrible day of God's wrath in Revelation 6.15. It says, Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves And among the rocks of the mountains calling on the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come and who can stand? Sin is destructive of all goodness that God has created. It is war raged against God himself. God must judge and ultimately destroy all sin. And that does not mean sin in the abstract. It means sin in those individuals who refuse to bow the knee, who refuse to turn to Jesus in faith. The problem is this, Ecclesiastes 7.29, God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes. Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death. So let me just summarize what I just tried to say here. God is relational in his very nature. The statement that behold the Lamb of God, who, is a statement of who God is. God created human beings to know the joy of fellowship with Him, and yet sin destroys all relationships and justly deserves the wrath of God. No one escapes, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We are all dead in our trespasses and sins. And into this situation steps the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. And so the question is, how can you and I be restored to a loving God? How can you and I have a relationship with this God? And the answer is only through the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who takes away the sin of the world. And specifically, who takes away your sin and mine, that we might know and love our Heavenly Father. Now, I want to take this statement, behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world and look a little more specifically at two points. Behold the Lamb of God, God's character. who takes away the sin of the world, God's purpose. So firstly, we consider God's character revealed by Jesus, the Lamb of God. You know, I know many of you have experience with lambs. We used to raise sheep. And newborn lambs, well, they're some of the most helpless, and yet some of the most amazing little creatures. To see lambs running for joy through the field, playing king of the mountain on hay bales. You know, one of the things I always loved about lambs was their bonding to their mothers. And not only do they bond through smell, they bond through sound. The mothers give kind of a soft cooing sound, and the lambs respond with kind of a soft baa. Of course, that baa can turn into a very loud baa if they feel threatened and separated from their mom as they call for help. And so what I'm trying to paint here is a picture of a lamb's total dependence A lamb is a picture of vulnerable innocence. And yet, John the Baptist sees Jesus and says, behold, the Lamb of God. And just try to reconcile this. Jesus is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Psalm 2 says He will crush the nations with a rod of iron. And yet Jesus is the Lamb of God. Isaiah 53 says, He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shears is silent. So He opened not His mouth. By oppression and judgment, He was taken away. Jesus assumed the dependence and the vulnerability of a lamb. And so he was led to the slaughter. I tried to think about this week, and I couldn't quite get it all into my mind. That the Lord, the creator of the universe, took on human flesh the vulnerable dependence of a lamb. Of course, if we jump ahead to the book of Revelation 5, John is seeing the glorified Christ and God's eternal plan. John says, I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals? And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it. And I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, weep no more. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David has conquered. And so He can open the scroll and its seven seals. And a few verses down in verse 11, John says, Then I looked, and I heard around the throne, and the living creatures, and the elders, and the voice of many angels, numbering myriads and myriads, and thousands and thousands, with a loud voice proclaiming, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth, and wisdom, and might, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and in the sea, and all that is in them saying, to Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, be blessing, and honor, and glory, and might forever and ever. And the four living creatures said, Amen. And the elders all fell down and worshiped him, the Lamb of God, who is the victor, who overcame death, who conquered sin so that he might take away the sin of the world. was the very lamb that was led to the slaughter. Jesus Christ, the God-man who was crucified on the cross. Now I think something very amazing is here. Jesus, the Lamb of God, will always be the Lamb of God. Well, because it was as a lamb led to the slaughter that he conquered and overcame even death. in his very vulnerable dependence as a man on this earth, he died for you and me. And that was the victory. It was not an abstract victory. It was a real victory by which he won his bride. You and me to be restored to holiness, to be restored in love, so that relationship might freely flow from our hearts, just as relationship freely flows from God's heart. You remember, we saw a while back, that Jesus retains the nail prints and the wound on his side, even in his glorified body. Jesus retains the identity of the Lamb of God. This is His very nature. It was not a, oh, well, let's come up with some plan. It was not a, okay, I guess. No, this is the natural state of who Jesus is. Behold, the Lamb of God, whose purpose is to take away the sin of the world. I read an article on the atonement this week And the author said this, he said, you can't talk about the atonement without talking about the doctrine of God. Or as I would say it, the atonement flows out of God's very character. It's built in to who God is. And so yes, indeed, to talk about the atonement is to talk about who God is, to look at the very doctrine of God. God created all things. God created man in His own image so that He might have fellowship with man, and man might have fellowship with Him. I think if we can get this aspect of who God is into our hearts, that He is the Lamb of God, that relationship, that atonement, that love naturally flow out from God in a way that we can't understand because our hearts are corrupted by sin. If we can get this into our hearts, then we can experience the peace and the assurance that God intends in our salvation. So it's very important to know. Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Now finally, I want to briefly consider God's purpose. Who takes away the sin of the world. And how does God take away, how did Jesus take away the sin of the world? In a word, substitution. Jesus died in your place as a substitute. And thereby, he fully satisfied God's wrath. In one sense, this is so simple. Jesus died that you might not die. Jesus took your sins and paid the price that you might not have to pay the price. Jesus is your substitute. And yet, this principle of substitutionary atonement has caused, well, and continues to cause today, great consternation among those not willing to let it be so simple. I mean, what do I have to do? What hoops do I need to jump through? What prayers do I need to say? What weeping over sin? What mass do I need to take? Well, Jesus paid it all. Sin left a crimson stain, but Jesus cleansed it white as snow. Hebrews 10 is an amazing chapter that describes precisely how Jesus takes away the sin of the world. says, for since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of the realities, it can never by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, they would not have ceased to be offered, since the worshippers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins. But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year. for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. There is no salvation in the law. There is no salvation in the sacrifice of animals. And so it goes on, consequently, when Christ came into the world, He said, Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired. but a body You prepared for me. In burnt offerings and sin offerings, You have taken no pleasure. And then I said, Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God, as it is written in me in the scroll of the book. Jesus came to offer Himself, His own blood, And so a few verses later, verse 19, Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and the living way that He opened for us through the curtain, that is, through His flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let me just draw a couple conclusions from this passage. Substitution is real. When Jesus died on the cross, He actually and really took our sins upon Himself. He actually did pay the penalty for sin, which is death. He actually took the full weight of the wrath of God. He took on the guilt that was ours that we might take on the innocence that was His. And how do I know substitution is real from this very passage? Because it says, he opened a new and a living way through his flesh, human flesh and blood. And therefore, God said, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean and an evil sprinkled clean from an evil conscience. And our bodies washed with pure water. And there it is right there. Our conscience could not be cleansed by something that was not real. But substitution is real. And so our conscience is cleansed. And therefore, love and relationship can flow out. so that we might know the one true and living God. And the result is this. God tells us to draw near. Well, which could not be unless his full wrath and judgment for sin was already paid 100% by Jesus. Now to conclude, let me just go back to the beginning for a minute. God's nature and God's purposes are intertwined in who God is. God is a Redeemer by His very nature. Because our God is relational in His very nature. God is just and righteous in His very nature. And this means that He would never settle for second best for His children. He would not settle for leaving even a hint of sin to ultimately destroy righteousness and love in our lives. What Jesus did had to be done. And Scripture records that Jesus became obedient even to death on the cross. And Scripture records that that was a joy for Him. It's hard to imagine. And, you know, not because it was fun to suffer on the cross and die. That was a cruel death. But because he accomplished absolute, complete forgiveness for his bride, you and I. And therefore, he takes his bride into eternity. A pure and spotless bride. just as He is a pure and spotless Lamb. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father, yes, Lord, we know that You are a God of love, a God of relationship, that You have chosen Your children even before the foundation of the world. and that you would not rest until you redeemed your children. Until Jesus paid the full price for their sin. Lord, that we might have a clear conscience before You. That we might be a spotless and pure bride for Jesus our Savior. In Jesus' name, Amen.