If you would, take your Bibles and go with me to John 1. And we're going to look at this One that has given His life for us and shed His blood for us. And we're going to see Him in another aspect of who is this Jesus. reversed my order, I was talking to Miss Debbie a little bit, I gave her the scenario of where we're heading the next couple of Sundays. She's like, when are you preaching that one? Okay, so I've already got the message, okay. But no, I was sharing with her, I had another one, another focus I was gonna do this morning, and I'm holding it off until next Sunday. because what I'm gonna preach tonight, I'm actually more, I can't, it's kind of hard to say this way, but I'm actually more excited about tonight's message and getting to preach it than even this morning's message, and I'm pretty excited about this morning's message. But next Sunday, I'm gonna do a two-part message based off of who is this Jesus, and then next Sunday night, we'll actually do a little backtrack to make the Sunday morning message mean even more. But I don't wanna split them up. So I bumped some things around, and this morning we're going to look at who is this Jesus? He is the Lamb. All right, we're gonna look at, I had this plan for a different week and I've moved it around. By the leading of the Lord, I believe this is what he'd have us to do. But he is the lamb. By the way, we are into a timeframe now. And I don't know how many of y'all appreciate Brother Bryant be willing to put stuff on the sign for us out there and handle that. And I was hoping he didn't get shot when I told him to put up what he put up this last time. But I don't know if y'all noticed a sign, if you haven't, I'll tell you what it says anyways and you can look at it. And it's not to be mean or to be ugly, but we are in a season now of timeframe that people do things and it has nothing to do with the Bible. Y'all ready? Take a deep breath, breathe in and exhale. It's gonna be okay. But people do things that are nothing but man-made tradition. And through that man-made tradition and operation, people have gotten to a point where they think that that makes the difference. And so I had Brother Bryant put on the sign, not trying to be ugly, just trying to be a reminder. A little ash on the forehead does not equal Christ in the heart. Some of y'all understand Ash Wednesday and the whole thing? Some people don't know the background of it all. I'm gonna chase this squirrel and shoot him real quick. Because we're talking about the Lamb today, okay? And we're in a time frame where we're focused on the Lamb of God. Time frame of focus of what he did for us. How he died, he was buried, and he rose again the third day. All right, so what has man done to it? Man has turned it into a promiscuous lifestyle where we can spend time, by the way, if you, I'm just gonna say it, y'all ready? If you participate in Mardi Gras, shame on you. And hold on, I'll tell you why. The history of Mardi Gras is all about living the most wicked life you can in a timeframe of allowance, all the way up to a Tuesday, so that on Wednesday, you can go and be super repentant and have some ash put on your forehead in the shape of a cross. And now, God forgive me. And I'm gonna give up something like dancing with one-legged women. And y'all think I'm joking. My dad loves telling the story, but he actually had a fellow that got saved and came out. And when it came that time of year, he said, you know what we used to do? He said, me and all my buddies, we used to live as wicked as we possibly could in those days of allowance. And then, of course, you've always got to give something up when you get repentant. He said, we never repented of anything because we went ahead and went right back. After that week of timeframe, after that timeframe and everything, the celebration was done, we went right back to the lifestyle we loved. And then when we got to that timeframe of Mardi Gras again, we lived as wicked as we possibly could. And the things we would give up are things that we had no problems giving up. And he literally said, like dancing with one-legged women. Now listen, that is what man's operation of religion brings about. An absolute ingenuous operation of repentance. It's not real. It is merely an action. Now, Don't get me wrong, are there people that are very genuine in the aspect of this timeframe of the year? Yes. I'm not gonna knock that. I'm not gonna put anything against that. There are people who are very genuine, but genuineness as well does not equal Christ in the heart. There are people who are very genuine about what they do, but they're genuinely wrong. Why? Because you don't feel it's right? No, because the word of God says that's not truth. The word of God gives us truth. And if it does not follow God's word, it is man made process. And man-made religion is going to send a host of people to a lake of fire separated from a holy God. Because man cannot bring about forgiveness of themselves. I don't care how much penance we do. I don't care how much of the things that we give up and suffer and put our bodies through and put ourselves through to show how sorry we are for that timeframe. There is nothing you and I can do to forgive ourselves or to earn the forgiveness of God through works. It does not happen. Say, how do you know that's truth? It's right here. Not of works, lest any man should boast. Then where do we get hope from? The Lamb of God. Where does all of it lie? It lies in Christ. He is the Lamb slain for the sins of man. Now, if you're there, you see it on the screen, John chapter 1, verse 19 through verse number 29. We have here an introduction of a man by the name of John the Baptist. And in this introduction of John the Baptist, he begins to speak because he has to clarify who he is not. He is such a powerful speaker. He is such a gatherer of people that flock to him. And all these things are happening. They look and say, aren't you the one? And he keeps saying, no, it's not me. It's not me. It's not me. Well, if preachers today could actually get that particular mentality, it'd be so helpful. If preachers of the world today could actually get the idea, it's not me. Of course, that doesn't bring in any money, so TV preachers would go out of business. But it's not us. John, I don't care what charismatic individual there is, and boy, just people flock to him and people listen to him, it's not them. They're not the answer. John had every ability to convince people he was the one they were waiting on because they were almost convinced themselves just looking at him. It's gotta be you. It's gotta be you. You've gotta be the one. And John had to go to a clarifying statement And so we find this in verse number 19 of John chapter one. Verse number 19, I'll read down to verse number 29 here. It says, and this is the record of John. when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who art thou? By the way, these are educated in the Old Testament scriptures individuals. No one is going to know more about Old Testament prophecy than these individuals they are sending to ask John, who are you? And they're asking because they think they're seeing someone that they have heard and read the prophecies concerning. Verse number 20, 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? Well, if you're not all these other important people we've been waiting on and looking for and hoping to see, then who are you? And John, In verse number 22 says, they ask him 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 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 or Elias, neither that prophet? So why are you baptizing? Why are you doing these things? If you're not these important people, then what gives you authority? What do you think you're doing? Verse 26, John answered them, saying, I baptize with water, but there standeth one among you whom ye know not. He it is who cometh after me, is preferred before me, whose shoes latch it I am not worthy to unloose. John had the humblest of spirits about him when he could have been the proudest of men. He's got the elite of the religious world of that timeframe coming to him saying, are you one of these big name, very important people? Surely it's gotta be this, or it's gotta be this, or you gotta be this person, right? You're one of the prophesied ones, right? I mean, he easily could have said, yep, that's me. You pick one of them, I'll take it. I mean, he could have easily done that. By the way, if he would have fallen into that trap, it might have been extremely profitable for him, but it would have been extremely detrimental to the purpose that he was given of God. He said, there is one that comes after me who is preferred before me, whose shoes latched I am not worthy to unloose. These things were done, in verse number 28 says, these things were done in Bethlehem, Beth Ar, Beth Abar, beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. And here's our key verse that we're honing in on this morning. The next day, so after all this, John didn't quit, he didn't leave, they went back and gave their report, but the very next day, John comes out and John does exactly what John's been doing. He just continues on with what it is that he was called to do, that voice of one crying in the wilderness, saying, prepare you the way of the Lord. And at this point, there has not been an opportunity for him to do any more than what he's already been doing, so he just consistently keeps doing what he's supposed to do, prepare the way, prepare the way, prepare the way, while others look on thinking, this has gotta be him, this has gotta be him. Verse number 29, 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, in that moment, becomes the declarer of the Lamb. By the way, we'll see in just a minute why that is significant to the children of Israel especially, but also to us. Let me pray and then we're gonna We're gonna jump into these quick thoughts. Heavenly Father, again, I pray that you would help us as we look at your word, as we look at this truth of who Christ is as the Lamb of God, the only one, the spotless, sinless Lamb. No other sacrifice could be available for us And I pray that you would help us, Lord, to see what John did in his declaration and also, Lord, what we can do as well in declaring by making much of Jesus the Lamb of God. Use this time and teach us what only you can. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. The purpose of John the Baptist's ministry was that preparing the way. And once Christ, now watch, once Christ came on the scene, John's introduction to him was a full description of the work that Christ was on earth to do. He was not on earth to build a kingdom, though many people that followed him, even the closest of them, the 12, thought he was there to establish the kingdom. Now, he does establish a kingdom, but not the one they're thinking of. They're thinking he's there to conquer as king of kings and lord of lords. They don't realize he has come to be the lamb slain. And so people misunderstand his purpose, yet John, in the very first declaration of the arrival of the one, by the way, his ministry, the ministry of Christ, the three and a half year timeframe of Christ's ministry is about to truly begin. But it begins with John declaring, behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This declaration that Christ was the Lamb who would be sacrificed for the sins of the entire world, John's declaration can be ours as well. And in that light, I want to reveal to you, I just kind of want to remind us what this declaration is exactly. The how? The who and the why. Three simple things. How? How do we declare it? We're gonna make much of Jesus, how? How do we do it? Now again, I understand this is very, very elementary, okay? Very basic, base level, simple. We gotta keep it simple so we can all understand it. Myself included. But the how is looking at what John did. One word. Behold. Now, that word behold is a verb, it's an action thing, okay? He is telling them to do something. Behold, what does it mean by definition? It means to fix the eyes upon, to see with attention. Don't just know he exists, look on him. Look at, understand, see, open your eyes. Oh yeah, okay, yeah, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. No, open your eyes. Behold, observe with care, direct or fix your minds on him. By the way, you could also take another passage of scripture, consider him. who endured such affliction. It's the same scenario. To consider him as a command to do something. Behold is not just an exclamation. And this is another aspect of the definition given for the word behold here. It's used in this manner of exciting attention or admiration. It is in the imperative mode. This is detailed stuff, okay? It's in the imperative mode expressing command. or exhortation, and by no means a mere exclamation, okay? This is not just a, hey, look! No, it's not just an exclamation point of focus. It is a command to do. John is not saying, oh, hey, look over here, fellas, this is great. That's not what he's doing. What he's saying is, stop what you're doing. Look. You gotta see him. You have to look. I take you back to Old Testament. I take you back to the wilderness timeframes, back when the children of Israel were griping and grumbling and complaining again. and they were causing a massive amount of trouble. And they were grieving the heart of a holy God who had done so much for them. And he sent them fiery serpents to judge their attitudes and their actions and their heart that was so wrong. And in those fiery serpents, there were people dying in the wilderness. All of a sudden, they must have disturbed a viper's nest somewhere. By the way, our heart attitude is more poisonous to us than we realize if we're not careful. But God sent serpents, poisonous snakes, that evidently were so venomous and so dangerous that people, when bitten, did not have a great deal of time to live without some kind of antidote. And the only antidote that was given to Moses for an opportunity for people to survive the snake bite is to put a serpent, a brass serpent on a pole, and then raise that up in the center of the entire encampment. By the way, not everyone could actually see visibly the serpent. If you're bitten, there was no time to get you all the way right up so you could look at it right there and see it right there, planted in the ground. There's the serpent. No, not everybody could see it from the distance. I'll give you a simple example. Let's make it very basic, right? Ground level. A lot of people make a big deal, and I'm not against it. It's great, it's wonderful, but symbols, if we're not careful, symbols become idols to us. We gotta be careful with that. It's another one of those things that I just tend to rub people the wrong way on. But there is a cross in Priceville. Now, I'll be honest with you, there are some people that make that symbol more than what it ought to be. They're more about the cross symbol than they are about the Christ who died for them on the cross. I'll leave it there. But I know it's there, I know, people have told me about it, I've seen pictures, but from right here, can you see that? Even if we stepped outside, could you see it? But it's really tall. It's huge. I mean, you walk up to it and you, I mean, that thing is massive. And yet from here, you can't see it. What if that was the brass serpent on a pole? Why? I've been bit. I can't move. I'm being paralyzed. I'm gonna die. How am I supposed to get there? Y'all ready for me to tie all this together? It's actually very exciting. I can't see it. But all they were told was look and live. But I can't see it. Do you believe that it exists? Do you believe it has been placed there for you? Do you believe that it has happened? Look and with faith believe that God will forgive. By the way, were you there when Christ died on the cross? No. Can you go back and see a video recording of it all happening so you can know for sure without doubt, I saw it, boy, it's right there. Yeah, now I know we've watched movies and all that kind of stuff, but those are all remakes. It's not the actual event. You and I cannot see Christ on the cross, but we can look back and say, I believe. Look and live. And by the way, In this moment, just as Moses, and by the way, the Bible says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And Christ said, and I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me. It's all about understanding what he has done, and it's all about understanding what John is saying. Behold! What's John doing? Same thing Moses did. Look! It's not an option if you want to live. It's not an option if you want to understand what it is that I am to do with my life. I need to look and live for salvation. I need to look and understand how to live in making much of Christ the one who has saved me. It's not just a, hey, this is a great idea, exclamation. It is a command. We must look, behold. It's time that God's people start proclaiming, look and live, look and live. A lot of Modern day preachers today want folks to look to them. I've got a message for you. The only message anybody can have is what's already been given. Look. By the way, John didn't say, follow me and I'll show you how to get to God. No, no. When it came time, John said, behold, By the way, we know that his heart was not to gather people to himself, but to point people to Christ. When Christ came on the scene, John stepped back and said, it's all about him. He must increase, I must decrease. It's gotta be looking to him. And by the way, you say, how do you know that's what he was really doing? Well, besides all the other passages of scripture we've already kind of referenced in what John said and different things were said, by the way, beyond all of that, there was a timeframe when somebody came to John and said, do you not care that some of your followers have stopped following you or are now following this Jesus? And in paraphrase, I can't give you, I'm not gonna go back and read it, but basically John said, and, so, that's been the whole point. People are coming to hear what I'm preaching. People come to be baptized in faith and trusting God. And yet when Christ, the Lamb, comes on the scene, I'm going to get insulted that people want to follow Him? He's my entire purpose. So they don't follow me. So what? They're not supposed to follow me. By the way, Paul said, Follow me as I follow Christ. Even Paul said, it's not about following me, it's about learning from me as I can be used of God to help others learn how to follow him. Behold, and then the who. Well, I skipped some passages. Isaiah 43, verse number nine says, let all the nations be gathered together and let the people be assembled, who among them can declare this and show us former things. Let them bring forth their witness that they may be justified or let them hear and say, it is truth. Let them hear and let them say, behold, it is true. Write down and you can go back and read it, but Isaiah 55, verse one through seven, very familiar passage of scripture there that backs up the behold scenario. But then the who, so that's the how. How do we do it? Tell folks, you gotta look. You gotta look. Stop looking at self-help books. Stop looking at all the TV junk and all the people who's got all the answers as long as you send enough money. I mean, stop looking to all this junk and behold the one. Look on him and don't look away. The who, he describes not only in the how they are to understand, but it's the who that they are to look to. In the second part of that it says, behold the Lamb of God. In Exodus 12 and also in chapter 13, the Bible details for us the origin of the Jewish Passover feast. Nothing is done by accident. Timings are not done by happenstance in the Bible. God orchestrates, by the way, He created time, He controls time, He puts things done in His time. And it's for purpose. Exodus 12 and also chapter 13 lays out the Jewish Passover as they were getting ready to leave Egypt, Egypt being a picture of the world. And as they're getting ready to leave Egypt, God says, you can't leave. You cannot leave Egypt unless you pass through the blood. There's no mistaking God is presenting, even in the Old Testament, there is one way of salvation. There is no remission of sin. Apart from the blood, there is no removal of the guilt. Apart from Christ, there is no removal from the sting of sin and the venom that it has brought. It brings forth death. There is no cure apart from Christ. There is no cure apart from the lamb slain and the blood applied. So he tells the children of Israel, you can't leave until we do something you've never done before. You've never heard of this before. You've never seen it this way before. But I'm gonna teach you now what's gonna be happening later. By the way, you could then back it all the way up to Abraham and Isaac. Isaac offered, Abraham said, God will provide himself a lamb. And when it came time to slay his only son, Isaac, God says, oh, oh, no, Abraham. I see that your heart is true, it is me and you. It's not you and Isaac, it is me and you. You are faithful, you are true, and you by faith have believed that even if you were to kill your son, I would be able to raise him again because I am God. But don't lay a hand on him because he is not the only begotten son that is to be slain. He's just a picture. Just like you are willing to give your son, I will one day be willing to give mine. But your son is not to die. And God provides a sacrifice in that moment. Through Abraham's obedience, God provides a sacrifice. But by the way, it was not a lamb. There was a ram caught in the thicket. Abraham did not say, son, don't worry, God's gonna provide himself a ram. He said, no, no, God's gonna provide himself a lamb, but it wasn't a lamb, that was in the thicket. So is that an error in the Bible? No. Abraham's saying God's gonna provide a lamb. And God said, but this is not the timeframe, so you get a ram. There's a lot more to that, but I'm just gonna leave it alone. But that picture, now go all the way to the Passover, the very first Passover, coming out of Egypt, the picture of coming out of a lost and sin-cursed world into an understanding of the presence of God, coming out and going in with God. They could not come out of their lost condition until they pass through the blood. Once they pass through the blood, now they can cross over into a promised land of victorious Christian life. Not gonna repeat all that we talked about, but here they are, they're coming out, but they had to go through the blood. And by the way, the blood was not the blood of a ram. This time a lamb was to be slain, but that's because this would become an annual event that would be something done all the way through until the final lamb would be slain. And it wasn't an actual lamb, lamb. the one slain as a picture of the one who would come to be slain for us. They were real lambs. They had to be spotless. They had to be flawless. They had to be perfect. They had to be examined and proven to be without spot and blemish. And these perfect, by the way, oh, here's another one for you. They had to be completely innocent of any guilt. This lamb hasn't even lived long enough to do anything wrong. They're innocent, they're pure, they're sinless, they're spotless, they're perfect. This is the perfect lamb. Everybody would want one of these. That's the one that has to die. Why? Because nothing that is with spot and blemish can represent the one who will come without spot and blemish. Nothing that is limp and has any resemblance of what would be considered a resemblance of sin or wrong can be used as a way to resemble the one who will be sinless and who will be perfect and who will be righteous and yet innocent, slain for the guilty. The Passover ties together to understanding when John says, behold the Lamb of God. That was a declaration of understanding. This is not just another good preacher. This is not just another great prophet. This is not just another really good teacher. This is someone who is the definition of the prophecy that God would one day send an answer that man cannot answer for themselves, man cannot do for themselves, and yet God would send a sinless, spotless, perfect, innocent sacrifice that would be made in the likeness of man. He would take on the resemblance, take on the flesh, but yet without sin. You say, what's the big deal about that? Simple, if he had sin, he'd have to try to die for himself first, and he couldn't even pay for his own if he was sinful. But he is God. robed in flesh, therefore he's 100% God, 100% man. 100% man, so he could die to be the sacrifice, 100% God, so number one, he's perfect, he's righteous, he's sinless, and he's eternal. There's so much doctrine teaching all that, and we're not going in all that right now. but he is the lamb of God. The Jews understood the importance of the spotless lamb. The Jews understood when someone spoke of this is the lamb, they were speaking of this is the one that has been set aside for sacrifice. No other lamb can be used but the one who has been vetted and proven to be perfect, spotless, innocent. and able to fulfill the sacrificial need. When John says, behold, the Lamb, they knew exactly the reference. This is not just any person, preacher, teacher, master. No, this is the Lamb promised that God would send for mankind. They understood the Passover and approximately, now get this, approximately around 1500 years later from the very first Passover leaving Egypt, at the same time, you think it's coincidence that Christ was crucified at the time of Passover? It's not coincidence. It's God revealing he started the Passover as a reflection of what one day would be the final blood applied to the account of man. Jesus Christ, as they were getting ready to fulfill their annual lamb sacrifice, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, was slain. And just as they took the blood and they were to apply the blood to the doorpost and the sides of the door, the wooden posts around the door of their house, about 1500 years later, at the time of Passover, another year of fulfilling this tradition that it had turned into for them. Here it is, the lamb is gonna be slain and his blood is going to stain a wooden cross, just like the lamb of the Passover stained the doorpost. God doesn't do anything by accident. Doesn't do anything by happenstance. Everything has a massive purpose. 1 Corinthians 5-7 says, "...purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump." These are pictures of things. Leaven was a picture of sin. And if you purge out leaven and you have now a lump without leaven, it is now a lump that is seen as not having any reflection of sin. By the way, you and I were sinful and guilty before we knew Christ as our Savior. And when we got saved, only God could accomplish the removal of sin and the washing clean that we might be a new creature. Purge out the old leaven. They may be a new lump as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. 1 Corinthians 5, 7 says. You could go over to Isaiah 53, and in verse one through verse number eight, down you get to verse number eight, it talks about that Christ as a lamb, led as a lamb before the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. 1 Peter 1, 18-21, for as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold for your vain conversation received by tradition of your fathers. By the way, that's all that it had become, traditions. It had lost its purpose. But Peter says here in 1 Peter, but with the precious blood. What are you redeemed by? You're redeemed by the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He is the lamb. So what are we to behold? Who are we to behold? The lamb. He's not just a person. He's not just a namesake. I'm gonna say this and I'm gonna move on, the last part will be done. People have taken the name of Jesus and it means nothing. I saw something just recently, somebody talking about, I'm gonna speak Jesus, speak Jesus over, speak Jesus over, speak Jesus over. Just like Judaism, just like the Israelites had gotten to a point where sacrificing a lamb every year was just tradition. We're gonna speak Jesus because it's our tradition. I'm gonna use his name because, you know, that's the famous name, that's the popular name, that's the thing to do. We're Jesus people, no. By the way, I believe that that is as much, that whole mentality, that whole heart mentality of using that as a way to speak that which, it's a whole thing of positivity mentality. You speak it into existence. And by the way, just throw Jesus on top of it and that'll help guarantee. That's the mentality of the heart of that action. And I'm not trying to be ugly, and I'm not trying to point fingers. I am just telling you the truth according to the word of God. It is blasphemous to use the name for personal gain. Blasphemous. It'd be better off if we lived a life reflecting Jesus. than to use the name so I can bless myself regardless of how I live. Behold the Lamb, and then why? Which taketh away the sin of the world. There is no other sacrifice. There is no other option. There is no other way. There is no other possibility. Well, everybody's got their own beliefs. There is no other belief that works outside of truth. Sincerity does not save. Desire does not save. Good works does not save. Being a good, helpful person does not save. Those are all good things. but they do not bring forgiveness of sins. Only a holy God has the offer of forgiveness that can be applied. And the cost for that purchase of forgiveness has already been paid, but it's not automatically applied to every single life. It is automatically offered. So what's required for the offer to be applied since it's been paid for? Behold, the Lamb of God. It is He which taketh away the sin of the world. You must look and live. In eternity past, God determined that Christ would suffer for the sins of the world. God did not create a sin for world, he created a perfect one. Sin entered because of rebellion against God's perfect design. Hebrews 9.26 says, for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world But now once in the end of the world in all things hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. How much it must have hurt the heart of God to watch and to watch and to watch and to observe as sin just ripped people to pieces. as he gave them the ability to do the picture of what one day would come, and yet it still just ripped apart even those he loved so much. Sin ripped them from his presence, ripped him from the fellowship. How much it must have been a suffering of things for God from the foundation of it all to watch it happen. And yet, yet, but now once in the end, of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." When God sent His Son, He sent hope in the only way for man to be redeemed. God also determined that all those who would accept that suffering and sacrifice would have their sins forgiven and the condemnation of sin taken away. 1 John 3, 5, and ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. Ephesians 1, 7, in whom we have redemption through his blood. By the way, there are many versions of the Bible redone today that remove three words. They remove through his blood. Oh, but it's in other places in those versions. But get this, do you know that the Bible repeats itself over and over again? Because the word of God validates itself. If you remove words because, well, they're found in other places, the more of them you remove, the more ability you give somebody to say, but even the Bible doesn't repeat itself in those areas. You can't just take one place and make some doctrine out of it. No, it used to say it everywhere. Now we've given ourselves the ability to doubt whether or not that is a real doctrine. It only says it once. Oh no, it used to say it 15, 20, 30 times. It's been removed. In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. Behold the Lamb of God. which taketh away the sin of the world." You want to make much of Jesus, make much of who He is, why He came, and what He did, and what we now have the opportunity to receive because of the Lamb. He matters. He must increase. I must decrease. Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." It's time we start declaring once again, look and live. Heavenly Father,