For our scripture reading this evening, let us turn to the gospel according to John chapter 1. John chapter 1, and there we will actually begin at verse 14 and read through to verse 34. The word of God, John 1, starting at verse 14. And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake. He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me. And of his fullness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, The grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed and denied not, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No. Then said they unto him, Who art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us? What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as saith the prophet Isaiah, and they which were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him and said unto him, why baptizest thou then if thou be not that Christ nor Elias, neither that prophet? John answered them saying, I baptize with water, but there standeth one among you whom ye know not. He it is who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoes latchet I am not worthy to unloose. These things were done in Bethabara, beyond 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. This is he of whom I said, after me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before me. And I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. And John bear record saying, I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not, But he that send me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom thou shalt see the spirit descending and remaining on him, the same as he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw and bear record that this is the Son of God. Our text this evening is verse 29 of John 1. The next day, Jesus seeth Jesus coming unto him and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. We read of that Lamb of God in Article 20 of our Belgic Confession. Article 20, there we confess, we believe that God, who is perfectly merciful and just, sent his son to assume that nature in which the disobedience was committed, to make satisfaction in the same and to bear the punishment of sin by his most bitter passion and death. God therefore manifested his justice against his son when he laid our iniquities upon him and poured forth his mercy and goodness on us who were guilty and worthy of damnation out of mere and perfect love, giving his son unto death for us and raising him for our justification that through him we might obtain immortality and life eternal. Dear congregation, as we gather on the last evening of a year The tendency is to look backwards, isn't it? To look backwards over a year that has gone by, a year that is filled with many different events. And for some of us, our thoughts go especially to two beautiful things that we are so thankful for. Maybe some of us were married or received a child or were restored to health. There can be other things which are so beautiful. You can also think back of the difficulties of this year, the times that were so painful or the times that were filled with grief. They stand out. It can also be just the general trend of this year, the daily routine of this year. Your memory goes back. And you can think not just of those things that stand out, or just the general routine. You can think also of everything that you've done this past year. A lot of it you and I don't even remember. What did you do on July the 23rd? You may not know. So much we've forgotten. But God doesn't forget, does he? For God, time doesn't just kind of leave the things we've done into that gray area of forgetfulness. We sometimes think, oh, that was already some months ago, as if to say, well, it doesn't matter so much what that was. Let's just forget about it. That was months ago. But for God, January the 1st, 2024 is as real as December 31st, 2024. It's as much as clear to him, the beginning of the year, as this very moment as we're gathered here in the house of God are listening along. For God, everything is open. everything we've done, every word we've spoken, that unkind word in the summer, the conflict you had in the fall, that lustful look, that covetous look, it's all open before God. Not just the things we've done, but even the very thoughts and desires that we've had in our hearts that no one has seen are open before God. And when you think of that, how does this past year look before the all-seeing eye of God? then is it not all stained with sin? How then can we end this year? There's only one way that you and I can end this year. Behold the Lamb of God. It's the only way. And that is the message that comes to us on this final day. However, we've lived this past year. However, we however, we've lived our entire lives. Behold, the Lamb of God. And oh, may we this evening see this Lamb of God is proclaimed to us by his grace that we would end this year before the Lamb of God. That's our theme. Ending before the Lamb of God. First, this lamb presented by John. Second, provided by God. Third, pleasing to God. And fourth, proclaimed to us. Ending the year before the Lamb of God, presented by John. provided by God, pleasing to God, and proclaimed to us. This text, verse 29, first sounded on the banks of the Jordan River from the mouth of John the Baptist, He had come there preaching by that Jordan River, and this ministry was a powerful ministry, and many people were coming. And as they came and they sensed there was something special about this man here and his preaching and his baptizing of the people, that they began to wonder, who is this man? And so Jews from Jerusalem sent out ones to ask that question, who is he? Who are you? Are you Elijah? No. Are you that prophet? No. Who are you then? And we read it, didn't we? He said, I am a voice crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. In other words, he is the one who was there to prepare them for the coming of the Lord. And when he spoke about who that would be, he said, he that comes after me is before me. This one is so much greater than I am. And this one has been there from far before I ever was born. This one is none less than the Messiah. This one is so great that I'm not even worthy to be a servant who would bow down and unloose his shoe or his sandal. This one is so great. He's the Messiah. And then it says the very next day, suddenly John, as he's preaching, he stops and he points and he calls out, behold, the Lamb of God. So different from what they may have expected This Messiah who was so much greater than John, he's introduced as a lamb. We would expect him to be introduced as, behold, the glorious king, the glorious son of David, the glorious one who will triumph in all his majesty. And they would expect to turn and to look and to see some great one. But he's introduced as a lamb. If they would look at him, they would see someone who looks like an ordinary man. No armor, no helmet, no crown, no sword. A man dressed simply and he's introduced as the Lamb. What is this? Why is he called the Lamb? They knew what lambs were. They saw them often here and there in the pastures, in the hills of Judea. There they were with their mothers and then they grew up and they became more independent and they managed for themselves, but they were there with the herds. What's a lamb? It's not a strong warrior. It's not a creature that can even defend itself. A lamb, it's weak. A lamb is needy. A lamb needs another to care for him. What's a lamb? Behold the lamb. That'd be the image that would be in their mind. But if they had thought through, behold the lamb. What were lambs used for, children? Lambs were used as sacrifices. Yes, sacrifices. And when we realize that, then we begin to realize why John introduces him as the Lamb, after having preached to them such a serious message about their sin. Because that is what John did, didn't he? He said, Behold, the axe is laid at the root of the tree, and every tree that does not bring forth good fruit is hewn down and is cast into the fire. And he called them to repent, and he called them a den of vipers, a brood of vipers. even those religious people who thought so well about themselves. And he said that if they did not repent, they would perish. And that word had effect, and the people came, and those religious people, and those soldiers, and those publicans, and those Pharisees, and those others, they came confessing their sins. It was a remarkable thing that these self-righteous and unrighteous together were confessing their sins. and they were also receiving baptism as a sign of the washing away of sin. But they needed something far greater than the water of that Jordan River to take their sins away because all the water in the world cannot wash away any of the filth of the sin of our hearts. Do you begin to understand now why John says, behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. It was in this context when sin had been exposed by his ministry, when sin becomes sin in our lives. What do we need? Is it not a lamb? Why do we preach about sin like John the Baptist did? Why do we seek to be honest with your souls and call sin, sin and expose its presence in our lives and its presence in our hearts and how deeply rooted that problem of sin is in our very fallen being? Why do we speak of sin? Why do we warn of the wrath of God that will come against sin? Because sin is so terrible. It is so terrible because it's against the God of such glory, the God who is worthy of all our love and all our devotion, and that our sin is a fighting against him. And that is why our sin is so terrible. And our sin must be punished with the eternal agonies of hell. Why do we say Because it's true. Because it's the message of God. And it's there for a message that we must hear. And why must we hear it? It's so that you would come to realize and I would come to see how much we need this lamb. Take our sin away. Because you see our sin makes us guilty. And as guilty, we must be punished. Every sin must be punished. Every sin of this past year must be punished. And it's either we bear that punishment or a lamb bears it in our place. But punished, that sin will be. Do you hear it? We're not talking about theories. We're talking about reality. We're talking about your sin and my sin. The sin even of this hour in church, when we fail to worship Him with all our heart, and when I fail to preach with a heart devoted to God as I ought, and you fail to hear and other thoughts arise, even those sins deserve hell. Because here everything must be filled with the glory of God. But also the sins of this day and yesterday and last week and last month and our whole lives. The sins we've done before the eyes of others, the sins we've done with no one else seeing. All those sins. What is left? but with those people by that Jordan to at the end of a year confess our sin. Without excuse, without hiding it. Lord, it's there. And what does God say tonight? Behold the Lamb of God. that taketh away the sin of the world. John presented this lamb in the midst of his preaching of repentance. This was the lamb that God had provided, which is our second point. Ending before the lamb, not only proclaimed by John, but also provided by God. Notice this lamb is called the lamb of God. He's of God because he comes from God. We didn't provide ourselves a lamb. And when he came into this world as the lamb who takes away the sin of the world, what did this world do? Reject him. Away with him. We didn't even ask for this lamb to come. And when he came, we rejected him. This is not thanks to us in any way that this lamb has come. It's because God looked down on this fallen world of sin and God was moved within himself to provide a lamb for such a world. And that's why God has done so. He provided that lamb because he knew it was the only way for his fallen creatures to be restored back to him again and for their sin to be taken away. It would only be through the lamb whom he has sent. He would provide. What do we have to provide? To pay for our sin. What can you give God tonight? to pay, or to try to tip the scales, try to put something good on the one side of the scale to counteract the bad, what can you do? What can you provide? There's nothing. The only thing we can do is add sin to sin and debt to debt. We don't have anything to provide God to pay for our sins. at all. Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no longer know? All for sin could not atone. Thou must save, and thou alone. Is that your confession tonight? Lord, I sit here, I stand here with empty hands. Nothing do I have to provide God. You don't still have your own goodness, do you? That you can comfort yourself with? And you can't look back over a year and say, I've been pretty good? Lord, it's all stained with sin, it's all debt. Before thy holy sight, and I have nothing to pay. If that's you, do you hear his message? Behold the Lamb of God. God says, I've provided a land. He has provided and prepared that Lamb already in eternity, before you existed, before you fell in Adam, certainly before you had any sense at all of your need of that Lamb, already in eternity. We read in Revelation 13, verse 8, He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, not in actuality, that was in the fullness of time, but in God's decree, already before the foundation of the world, He was as that Lamb slain. or as 1 Peter 1 says, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world. And it is already an eternity that that Lamb said. He saw that sacrifice and offering were not enough of all those lambs and bulls and goats and everything else. And he said, Lo, I come. I delight to do thy will, O God. That's God's provision. And the God who provided this lamb is also the God who provided a task for this lamb to do. Think of what took place in Genesis 22. One day God called out, Abraham. He said, here am I. Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest. And get thee into the land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains. Isaac must be slain and the fire must consume his flesh. Isaac, the son of promise, the son of Abraham's love. And the next day early in the morning, out he sets with Isaac, with his servant. He leaves his servant behind. He goes on with Isaac, with the wood. And at a certain point, Isaac says, Father, there's the wood, there's the fire, but where is the lamb? And what did Abraham say? The Lord himself will provide my son. Will he? There's Isaac laid on the altar. There's his father with a knife in his hand about to plunge that knife into the heart of his son. And there's that voice, Abraham, Abraham. And he stays, he stops. And God says, do not do so. Where is the lamb? There caught in the thicket there was that ram. And Abraham could take Isaac off the altar and slay that ram and place it on the altar. And there went that sacrifice. What must have gone through the mind of Isaac as he saw that ram being devoured by the flames in his place? That's where I should have been. slain, and I may live because that ram has died in my place." But again, we know that wasn't enough. Was it a ram? The Lord himself will provide himself a lamb, Abraham said. And what a beautiful thing it was for John to then say, behold, the Lamb of God, this is the one that God himself has provided. He is the one who came as that substitute. That was his task, to take the place of sinners who deserve to die because of all their sins. take their place and be slain by the sword of the justice of God. Behold, the Lamb of God as that substitute, that is what God provided, a substitute. He did not send his son into this world to condemn the world. He says in John 3, but that the world through him might be saved. This is what God has done, unasked for by you. Without you providing him anything to make him give such a gift, he has done it. The perfect lamb. The one who is the lamb of God, who is God, God the Son, and who is very man in the place of men and woman and boys and girls. Very man bearing the sin of men and yet stronger than all men strengthened by his divine nature to sustain that burden laid upon him. Congregation on this last day of the year, with all the sin that stains this year and your whole life and my whole life. Here is God's provision for ones who have empty hands tonight, nothing to give God. You don't have to give God anything. He's given His Son. God so loved the world. that he sent his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life. Where else can you go? Where else can you look in the midst of all your sin and guilt than to this lamb provided by God? There's pardon nowhere else. There's peace nowhere else. Apart from him, there's only sin and guilt. But he's the one who takes away that sin. Because he's the one not only provided by God, he's also the one who has done such a work so pleasing to God. Our third point, ending before the Lamb, pleasing to God. You see that? that lamb standing there on the banks of the Jordan among all those sinful people who need to be washed. He stands there so that sinners can be washed. He, John says, taketh away the sin of the world by taking on himself that huge burden of the sin of the world. Do you know how heavy that burden is? Have you felt anything of the weight of the burden of sin? Really? These aren't just imaginary things. Sin is real, and the burden of sin is real, and the burden of guilt is real. Have you sensed that? We sing it, don't we? With my burden of transgression, heavy, laden, overborn, o'er my folly now I mourn. What a burden sin is. You remember Christian in Pilgrim's Progress? He realized, I'm in the city of destruction and I have this burden on my back and he couldn't get it off in any way. It was there, it was bound to him and there was nothing he could do and it weighed him down. And he realized anything that I can enjoy in this city of destruction will do me no good as long as I have this burden on my back of sin. This burden is there. By nature, it's on us all. And if you've never felt that burden upon you, it's not because it's not there, but it's because you're so insensitive to that reality. So it's like that person who doesn't feel the problem he has in his foot because his nerves are not working, and the problem's there, but he doesn't feel it. He's numb to it. It's there. And Christ was not numb to that burden. It was laid on him, and he knew it, and he felt it. He is the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Notice that it doesn't just speak about sins, but sins. It's not just that he bore a collection of sins that could be numbered, so many and no more. If it were just sins of the world, then someone here could still wonder, but maybe it's other types of sins and not my type of sin. Maybe it's lesser sins and not my sins, which are so against grace and against life. But it's not just sins, and then you would start categorizing what type of sins. But it's sin that he took upon himself. Sin. Because at root, all those specific sins are just the manifestation of that one great sin problem of our lives. That sin with which we are born. That sin in which we are conceived. That sin is what he took on himself. He took not just some sins, but sin away. The sin of the worlds. Not the weaknesses of good people who are well intentioned, but just, you know, make mistakes sometimes, and so he covers for those mistakes. No, the sin of the world. John in his gospel and in his letters also speaks of the world. He uses that term to especially describe the character of this sinful fallen humanity. The point is not so much how many people sins he bore, but what type of sin he bore. He bore the sin of the world. the world that's lost in sin, the world under the dominion of sin, the world that walks according to its own corrupt lusts and only evil continually, such sin Christ took on Himself. Such type of people are the ones that He died for. Christ took that burden of sin on His shoulders, What an enormous burden! One sin of a few moments ago when your thoughts were wandering into things you thought were more important. One sin is enough to make us deserve hell forevermore. Do you see what he did? He received that great burden of sin. on himself. Willingly, freely, determined to take that burden, he suffered. So that the confession of Isaiah 53, all we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us what indescribable suffering it was for him to have that guilt laid on him. And with that guilt of sin came also the punishment of sin that was laid on him, the curse against sin that was laid on him, that just displeasure of God that was laid on him as he received that burden of sin. We confess in the catechism that he all the time he lived on earth, but especially at the end of his life, sustained in body and soul the wrath of God against the sins of all mankind. From his birth, but also towards the end, do we not see it as he sweat great drops of blood in the garden of Gethsemane? Why? And as he was scourged, why? And as he was crucified, why? And as he hung there in that impenetrable darkness for those hours, why? Because he's the Lamb of God that was taking away the sin of the world. That's why. burden of sin sunk him under the waves of the wrath of God as they rolled over him until God's justice was satisfied, until God's just demand that sin be punished was satisfied, and until every last bit of that debt was paid, the full price for sin, and God was pleased with the payment of his son and the sacrifice of his son. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. And we can also now say, behold the Lamb of God who has taken away the sin of the world. He has done so on the cross and he declared, it is finished. And the Father himself heard, saw that sacrifice and was pleased. It is indeed finished. He was so pleased that he raised him from the dead and he set him at his right hand so that if anyone would question, is that sacrifice efficient? Is that sacrifice pleasing unto God? Is that sacrifice enough to pay for sins like mine? Behold, the lamb of God is now exalted and he's now at the right hand of the father because the father is so pleased with the sacrifice of his son. At the end of a year, you look back. Are you pleased with all you've been and all you've done this past year? You can't be. But may you be pleased with all that Christ has done. Surely. And it's this Christ that is preached to us tonight. Our final point, ending with the Lamb of God proclaimed to us. As he stood there on the banks of the Jordan River, John saw Jesus and cried, behold the Lamb. That Lamb was standing right there in the midst of the people. Some were facing him. Some only had to turn. And there he was proclaimed to them as the Lamb. I just said now he's in heaven. That's true. But it's through the preaching that he comes near. And through the preaching he comes to us. And the call of the preaching also tonight is this. Behold the Lamb of God. He says, here I am in the gospel. He takes away the sin of the world. And that is why this gospel must go forth into all the world and to every creature. And that's why that gospel has found us so far away from Jerusalem, where he shed his blood. Because there is no area that is restricted territory for the gospel. There's no one who can be excluded from the hearing of this message of the Lamb, because it's for the sin of the world. And if you are part of this sinful world tonight, you may hear of this lamb who takes away that sin. And if you, even as a child of God, find so much of the sin of the world in your heart, and as you look back, you see so much of it in your life, you are here to hear of that lamb of God who takes that sin away. Behold. Oh, my friend, you are not too good, are you too? to hear a gospel for the sin of the world. You don't lift yourself above the sinful world, do you? And look down on a sinful world and think you're better than that. And look back and think, I certainly haven't been like the world in this past year. And are pleased with yourself. Oh, if you're doing that tonight, lifting yourself above the world, you know what you're doing, you're lifting yourself above the gospel that comes to a world of sin. And if you lift yourself above the gospel, that means you go into this night without the Christ of the gospel, without the Lamb of God. Oh, be done with all that pride of self-righteousness. that lifts yourself above, oh, to acknowledge what you are. Lord, the sin of the world, that's me. And then to hear, behold the Lamb that takes it away. Oh, my friend, you're not holding on to sin, are you? Holding on to sin with two hands, or maybe even just one hand. One hand you know, yes, I need this savior to take my sin away. But with the other hand, you're still holding on to that sin and you don't want to let go. Is that you? And you're afraid if this lamb of God comes and things will change in your life and you'll have to let go of things in your life. And you don't want to. Do you really want to hold on to that sin? Is that sin really so valuable to you that you would do without the Lamb and without His blood and rather remain guilty and with your sin? Really? That only shows that you're part of this sinful world. And it's to you this gospel is sent tonight. Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Where will you go with your holding on to sin? Bring that sin in your hands that you're holding on to. Bring it unto the Lamb tonight and confess your fixation and your insane attachment to that sin. And he will break its power and he will take it away. Behold, the Lamb of God. That's a call tonight to trust only in this Lamb and seek shelter in His blood. Just like that Lamb whose blood was shed so many years before. Remember all those Passover lambs that were shed in that night when the angel of death was going to come. And what did they have to do? They had to take that lamb. They had to slay that lamb. They had to collect that blood and they were to take that blood and they were to put it on the doorpost and they were to go into that house and they were to have the Passover meal inside that house. And the angel of death would pass over those houses because they were covered with the blood of the lamb. What a picture that is of someone tonight who hears of this blood. and who seeks shelter in this blood of the Lamb as your only hope, as your only plea, and that you hear this message, he takes away the sin of the world, and you find the connection between this text and yourself in those words, the sin of the world, and you put your finger on that text and you say, oh Lord, that's me, the sin, that's me. But he takes away, Lord, that's thee, that's thy lamb. And as true as my sin is, so true is this gospel that he takes away the sin of the world. Lord, fulfill thy word also for me. That's the please this Savior delights to hear. That's the please that this Savior delights to answer. to come and to take all that guilt away. He does. And tonight, whether for the first time or again, you say the sin is mine and the taking away of it is thine to do. Here I am, O Lamb of God. He takes it away. Glory be to God, he takes it away. As he cleanses in his blood, pardons fully, freely. We sang it, didn't we? How blessed is he whose trespass hath freely been forgiven, whose sin is wholly covered before the sight of heaven. Oh, then you read those accounts of the gospel with different eyes. You read of his suffering. And you say tonight, it was my sin he was bearing. And it was my sin that made him suffer so. To take it all away from me? Who can understand? that as far as east from west is distant, so far he all our guilt removes. Do you remember Pilgrim's Progress? He came to the cross, and the burden fell off his back, and it rolled away, and it rolled into the empty tomb, and he saw it no more. Because the Lamb of God takes that sin away. Oh, my friend, then, before this Lamb of God, you may end this year in peace. Peace in your conscience, peace with God. Whatever you've done, however you've lived, whatever's gone through your mind and heart, He takes it all away. Yes, the thought of remembrance of sin may come back. And you may say, oh Lord, remember not the sins of long ago or more recently. But he has said, I will remember it no more. Behold, corrugation, behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. God is pleased with the work of his son. Oh, have you, are you tonight only, only pleased with the work of this lamb? Nothing you've done, only him. Oh, before the cross of Christ, there's only one plea, his blood. And there's only one song, worthy is the lamb that was slain and has redeemed us unto God by his blood to receive honor and glory and power and blessing forever and ever and ever. Then there's no, then an ending of the year with the lamb is an ending that will have no end, but an eternal future with the Lamb who is worthy of all. Behold, the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world. Amen. Let us pray. O Lord God, Thou art worthy, and Thou alone, for Thou hast provided Thyself a Lamb. None less than Thy own Son come in the flesh. And Thou, O Son, said, Lo, I come, I delight to do Thy will. And what a will that was, to bear that burden of sin, to humble Thyself unto death in order to deliver from it. Glory be to thy name that thou dost live and thou dost send forth thy gospel and that thou dost use it in order to draw to thyself. And so to come with nothing in our hands to give thee but only confessing our own sin and to behold this lamb and to be pleased only with this lamb and so to cry out for him and to see Him in such a way that we cry, worthy is the Lamb. O Lord God, we pray for the first time or again, fill us with the glory and the grace of this Lamb, that we would end this year with Him and before Him. And we pray, Lord, that whatever we do in the last hours of this evening of the last year, that they would not be a distraction from the Lamb, but that we may be before him. Glorify thy grace, O God, and receive our thanks. Hear us, we pray, in Jesus' name, in that worthy name of the Lamb. Amen.