that we can come together, that we can spend this time singing praises to the Lamb of God. Lord, your word tells us we will spend eternity praising Him, praising the Lamb. And it's great to start today. I pray Father, as we look into your word that you would guide us, pray that you would help us, and that you would call sinners to repentance, and that you would encourage believers to walk with the Lord Jesus Christ.
We ask for help, as we look into your word, in the name of the Lord Jesus, amen. You did get my PowerPoint, right? Yeah, good. I think you got it twice.
You got the wrong one, and then the right one. So I want to continue in our series, the Master theme of the Bible. This is part six. I said initially that it would be four or five parts.
We are now part six. So it's based on the, loosely, on this book that I have called, The Master theme of the Bible. Now that looks like a black book up there, and you can barely tell that's a lamb on top. We are addressing this whole projector thing, and hopefully soon we were delivered from this darkness.
So I've always said that with this book that it's in pretty rough shape. I've actually glued it, and it's actually not too too bad. But my good friend Sarah Wells happened to find one in a thrift store, and presented it to me a few weeks ago, all wrapped up with a bow on it. And it was like the best early Christmas present halfway through the year I could have gotten.
And it looks just like this book, only the one that I see, not the one that you see. It's in awesome shape. So the other one, I might be a little ended. I'm not sure, we'll see.
But this one, no. And Sarah, just so you know, there's like a second book in this book that's not in the other one. So like, oh yeah, I might be serious number two coming from this book, I'm enjoying it so much. All right, so let's get started.
So we are going to look at the identity of the lamb today. We have talked about lamb, lamb, lamb, lamb, lamb, all the way back to Genesis. So in Genesis chapter three, verse 15, after Adam and Eve had sinned, and this curse came upon the earth, God promised them in three 15, Genesis 3 15, that he would send a rescuer, a deliverer. We sang this morning, what a rescuer, he's our rescuer.
The mankind would not be left lost to languish and sin, but one would come to rescue them. And then in Genesis chapter four, as you remember, Adam and Eve by that time had two children, two sons, Cain and Abel. Well, those are the two that are named anyway, if they had more than I don't know, but they had Cain and Abel at that point in time. They both came with offerings.
Cain came with an offering of vegetables, Abel came with an offering of a lamb. God accepted the offering of Abel, and he rejected the offering of Cain. But God being who he is, said to Cain, if you do well, if you do the right thing, if you offer me a lamb, it will go well with you. I'm paraphrasing, but he didn't.
And he killed his brother. So we have the first murder in history, takes place over jealousy, over offerings. But this pointed clearly that a lamb was a necessary offering. And then we went ahead a little bit, Genesis chapter 22 in a man named Abraham, who had a son, his son that was going to be, all the earth was going to be blessed because of his son Isaac.
And God said to him, take your son Isaac, your only son, who you love, and take him up Mount Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice. And just as he's about to sacrifice his son, and we understand later that Abraham said, okay, I'll offer him as a sacrifice, why was he so willing? Because he believed that God would give him back his son from the dead, because all the promises of God were in Isaac. And as he's about to kill his son, God stops him, and says, there's a substitute over there for him.
And what was the substitute? It was a lamb, a lamb as a substitute. And we looked at how Jesus is our substitute. He took our sin, he took our place in death.
He took our judgment. He took what we were supposed to have upon himself in our place. Then we go ahead to Exodus chapter 12. And it's the story of the Passover.
And if you remember that, the family would raise this little lamb, and then they'd keep it for 10 days. And then the dad would have to go out and pick this perfect lamb, an unblemished lamb, speaking of purity, like Jesus Christ, a picture of him. And he would have to kill this lamb and apply the blood to the door of the house. And if he did, the family was saved from the angel of death that went through the land of Egypt.
That speaks of the necessity of the lamb to be slain, the lamb had to die. And then we went ahead to Leviticus chapter 16. I know people have trouble reading through books like Leviticus and Numbers, but there are some great truths of the Bible in these great truths of God in these chapters. And we read of these two goats.
One, a goat that was offered to pay the price for sin, an atoning sacrifice for sin, a sin offering. And then secondly, another goat, and this is a really interesting one, because the priest would come and put his hands on the head of the goat. And he would pronounce all of the sins of the people upon this goat. And they would lead the goat away to the wilderness.
And he would disappear, run into the wilderness wild, and never come back. A picture of the expiation or the taking away of our sin. Jesus did both of these things. He had told for us, and he paid the price on the cross.
And secondly, he took our sins away. And then when we got to Isaiah 52 and 53, and I'm gonna spend a bit of time here again today, we learned of the suffering servant of God. We learned that there is a lamb, but the lamb is now not an animal, the lamb is a person. The lamb goes from being it, you shall take it on this day, and you shall do this to it on this day, to he was led as a lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before.
The lamb is now revealed as a person. Today we also wanna look at the lamb is that person, a specific person, none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's look, that's our review. Oh yes, the part of the review.
A lamb for sin in Genesis chapter four, a lamb for one individual in Genesis chapter 22, a lamb for a family in Exodus chapter 12, a lamb for the whole nation in Leviticus chapter 16. And then in Isaiah 53, we read of a lamb who was given for many, and in John chapter one, we will read of a lamb for the whole world. This is the progression from necessity of a lamb to the identity of the lamb. The first thing I wanna speak of before we get into John, is I wanna go through how the lamb is first identified in Isaiah chapter 53.
First of all, he's identified as the suffering servant. The NLT says this, it says, many were amazed when they saw him beaten and bloodied, disfigured, one would scarcely know that he was a person. The Lord Jesus Christ as the lamb and as the servant of God suffered greatly. We can't even imagine or enter into what the sufferings would have been that he went through that day, even prior to the cross.
Before he went to the cross, he was beaten, he was punched, he was whipped. He had a crown of thorns put on his head. There's a song we sing, I should put that on the list, stricken, smitten, and afflicted. He was the one who was oppressed, he was wounded, he was led as a lamb to the slaughter, it says in Isaiah 53 verse seven, and it says, it pleased the Lord to bruise him, it pleased the Lord to bruise him.
That is a difficult thing, it was the Lord that put him through these things for you and for me. And after all the beating and all the scouraging, Jesus was forced to carry his own cross to Golgotha, to the Skull Hill. We can't enter into the sufferings of the servants. They are great, intense.
And then we read in Isaiah chapter five verse nine, that the servant of God had to be a sinless servant. Isaiah chapter 53 verse nine says he had done no wrong. He never deceived anyone, but he was buried like a criminal. He was put in a rich man's grave.
Verse 53 verse nine says, no violence, no deceit, he committed no sin. In John chapter eight verse 46, it says, he says himself, which of you can accuse me of sin? And you know what, nobody answered. No one could accuse him of sin.
Pilate himself came out and presented Jesus now to be crucified and said, I find no fault in this man. He could not find a single thing to blame the Lord Jesus. Even though he had many accusers, there were false accusations. Philippians chapter two, it says that he was in very nature equal with God.
And there's a reason for all this, he had to be. You see, a sinner can't die for a sinner. I can't take away your sin. You can't take away my sin.
We both have the same problem. We need a sinless sacrifice. We need a sinless one to come and deal with our sin. And the Lord Jesus is that very one.
Then he's the silent servant. He's led, it says in 53 verse seven, he was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to slaughter as a sheep before it shearers of silence.
So he opened not his mouth. In all of what he went through. In all of what he went through, he didn't speak a word. In his defense, not a word.
Sheep are usually silent when they're taken to be sheared. Sheep are usually silent when they're taken to the slaughter. They're just trusting animals, I guess. They're silent, they're humble animals.
Jesus is pictured as being like a lamb, being led to slaughter, silent. In Matthew chapter 26 verse 63, it says, but Jesus kept silent. When he stood before the high priest accused, he opened not his mouth, he didn't say a word. When Herod started accusing him, Herod said, answer me.
In Luke chapter 23 verse nine, you can read that. He didn't say a word. Finally, Pilate takes him out. And he said, he feels like I have your life in my hands, Jesus.
What do you have to say for yourself? And again, I'm paraphrasing. It says that he marveled at the silence of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said nothing in his own defense.
This is the one who is the lamb of God. He's a substitutionary servant. I know this is a long passage, and it's probably very hard to see it up there. But I just want to look at the things that I emphasized in this.
It says, he's born our griefs. He has carried our sorrows. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And in verse six, it says, the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And in verse eight, it says, for the transgressions of my people, he was stricken. Isaiah 53 verse 10, you have to please the Lord to bruise him, putting him to grief when you made your soul an offering for sin.
He didn't have any of his own sin. It was your sin. It was my sin that he made himself an offering for. He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the grace, and he shall divide a spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors. He bore the sins of many and made intercessions for the transgressors. He is the one who is our substitute. And finally, he's identified in these two verses 52, 15, and 53 verse 1 as the saving servant.
It says in 52, 15, it says, he will sprinkle many nations. His blood will wash away sin. His blood will be effective for all sin for many nations. It refers to the time when the priest will sprinkle the blood of the lamb on the altar for the nation.
And then many nations is not just Israel. John chapter 3 verse 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. He was made sin for us on our behalf. This is the heart of the gospel.
The innocent one takes the place of the guilty. John chapter, or 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21, God made him Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. So that's a bit of a review, but it's a bit of the first part. There's part one.
The lamb is identified as a person, a servant of God. Then we come to this amazing chapter, this amazing verse, this amazing sentence, really. I want you to read, if you have your Bible with you, turn with me to John chapter one, the gospel of John chapter one. I have it up here.
It's in a font that you probably can't see. So that's why it's always good to bring your Bible. This morning, I would like to present to you the gospel in a single and simple sentence from the scriptures. If you're a believer, I hope you're encouraged by the Lord Jesus, our Savior.
If you're not a believer, may you come to have your sins forgiven today, you can. So here's the accounts from John chapter one verse 25. It says, they asked him, that is John the Baptist, it's referring to, and said to him, why then are you baptizing if you are not the Christ or Elijah nor the prophet? John answered them saying, I baptize in water, but among you stands one whom you do not know.
It is he who comes after me, the fong of whose sandal, I am not worthy to untie. These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is he, on behalf of whom I said, after me, comes a man who has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me.
I did not recognize him, but so that he might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water. John testifying said, I've seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven and remained upon him. I did not recognize him, but he was sent me to baptize in water, said to me. He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him, this is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.
I myself have seen and I have testified that this is the Son of God. Again, the next day, John was standing with two of his disciples and he looked at Jesus as he walked and he said, behold, the Lamb of God. Here we see Jesus identified, the Lord Jesus Christ, identified as the Lamb of God. All of the Old Testament prophecies, all of the symbols of the Lamb that culminate in this one moment of time.
This is one of the greatest moments in time, right here, that you're reading up today. All the Old Testament prophecies of the symbols of the Messiah culminate in this moment. John the Baptist was a forerunner and a cousin of the Lord Jesus as far as earthly life goes. John recognizes the Lord Jesus Christ as the greatest one.
He says it right here. And John's ministry was a baptism of repentance and he's now passing the baton onto the Lord Jesus. The time of baptism of repentance is over. The Savior is now here.
He proclaims the identity of the Lamb as the one who takes away the sin of the world. And I want you to notice, verse 30 here, it speaks so clearly of the deity of the Lord Jesus. You see, John was born six months before Jesus Christ on this earth. But he said there's one who comes who is greater than me because he existed before me.
Why does he say that? Wait a second now. It's me like me saying about my younger brother, Darrell, who's eight years younger than me saying, yeah, I'm, you know, this age, but here's, this is my brother, yeah, he was born eight years after me, but he's existed before me. Like, that would be just silly to say that unless my brother was God.
And so Jesus Christ has got his cousin here. And he says, I know I was born six months on this earth before this one, but he existed before me. He is the eternal God. He is the very God of heaven.
He did not have a beginning. He's eternal. He is deity. So much is packed in this verse, verse 29.
This is one of the greatest moments in history. Everything written in scripture from this moment forward is about Jesus Christ. It's about him. There's a series that used to be on the history channel before they got really caught up in this Oak Island stuff.
So there was a series that used to be called Turning Points in History. I don't know if you ever saw it. I just like watching it once in a while. And so it would be things that happened in history that were turning points.
Sometimes there were battles. A war happened. And it was going in a certain direction. And then some event took place.
And it turned the course of everything. Turning points in history. There were other people who came along and did something, historical, the turn, the course of everything in history that made such an influence. This moment, behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin in the world, is one of the greatest turning points in history that ever there was.
The cross of Christ, obviously, is the greatest turning point in all of history. But leading up to that, when he is identified as the one who will take away the sin of the world, it's one of the greatest moments and statements in all of history, so much is packed into this. So what I did here is, and I won't keep you all day, I just took each word. And I thought, I want to look at each word in this little scripture here.
The first one is, behold, the next day, he saw Jesus coming to him and said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. I look up the word. It's imperative. He's saying, look, look intensely, intently.
It's more than just a casual glance. Pay attention, focus. You need to see this. It's said with urgency.
You know, my little grandson comes over every now and again, and he's running around like crazy, and doing stuff. And then all of a sudden, I see him doing stuff that he shouldn't do. The other day, he decided that he was going to jump as high as he could and land the top of the sister. And number of times, and I thought, OK, this has to stop.
Somebody's going to get killed or hurt or something. And then I'll be busy for the rest of the day doing dealing with that. No, just kidding. It's not a lot of you to get hurt.
Of course, Lottie is a tank, and she is probably totally resistant to Ganton jumping on top of her. But what I did was I stopped him, and I grabbed him, and I said, look at me. Look at me. And he looked at me, and I said, don't jump on your sister anymore.
And he didn't. But so what John the Baptist is pretty much saying here, look, look, don't look at me. Look at him. That is the Lamb of God that takes away this end of the world.
You ever like, you're walking along, and you see people who are like this? What do you do? You just keep on going, oh, look at them. You keep on going, no, no, no, no.
You want to see what they're looking at. What are they looking at? I don't see what they're looking at here. You want to look.
You want to see. Behold. Behold. Focus.
It's the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The next word, believe it or not, I got a message out of the. The. It is the Lamb of God.
It's not a Lamb of God. It's the Lamb of God. There is no other. He is the only one.
There were many, many lambs. But he is exclusively the Lamb of God. There was the Lamb from the flock. There was take a Lamb from the flock, take a Lamb from the herd, take a Lamb from the land.
But he is the Lamb of God. The only one. It's exclusive to him. In Acts chapter 4, verse 12, it says, And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which he must be saved.
If you want that in even plainer English in the NLT, it says, there is salvation in no one else. There is no other name in all of heaven for people to call on to save them. It's exclusive. Jesus himself said, I am the way, the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father by me. He is the Lamb of God, not a Lamb of God, the only one. I've already said an awful lot about Lamb. Lamb is required.
Lamb is a substitute and so on and so on. But it says the next day, when he saw him coming, he says, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The Lamb is required for sin. It says that Jesus came to give his life.
Mark chapter 10, verse 45, it says, Even the Son of Man did not come to serve, to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus didn't come to be a good teacher. Jesus didn't come to be a good example. Jesus didn't come to be a great prophet.
He is all of those. Don't get me wrong. He is all of those. He's a great teacher.
He's a great prophet. He's a great example. But he is the Savior of the world. He came to die.
He says right here, I should have put this up in red because these are his own words. He came to give his life as a ransom for many. All of the Old Testament lambs pointed forward to one Lamb, this Lamb of God. All of them symbolically pointed forward to one Lamb, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
He is the Lamb of God. Of God. That's his source. That's where he came from.
He came from God. He is not appointed by man as the Lamb of God. John did not appoint him at that moment as the Lamb of God. He recognized him as the Lamb of God.
He was not self-appointed. He didn't walk around saying, Hey, look at me on the Lamb of God. He did not do that. He was declared to be the Lamb of God by God himself.
We see this that he was sent and appointed by the God of heaven. We will see this in his baptism. We see it as his transfiguration. In Mark 1, verse 9-11, it says, in those days Jesus came from Nazareth and Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
Immediately coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opening and the spirit like a dove descending upon him. In a voice came out of the heavens, you are my beloved son. In you, I am well pleased. He was appointed by God.
Mark 9, verse 7, they were up on a mountain. And then a cloud formed, overshadowing them with a voice that came out of the cloud. This is my beloved son. Listen to him.
Here we have this one, the Lamb of God is appointed by God. Therefore is the Lamb of God. This Lamb is different from all other lambs that were offered for sin. He came directly from God.
He did not come just out of the flock. He came from the throne of heaven. He is greater than all. It says in verses 27, 30 and 34.
The next thing it says, who takes away. The next age he saw Jesus coming. He said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Takes away means to bear away.
Not just rub it out and just say, let's forget it. It's gone. He bore it away. He bore it upon himself.
He took it away. To remove, to carry it away. If you remember the picture from the scriptures back when we looked in Leviticus of that scapegoat, it was called. It was a goat where the priest came, put his hands on his head and pronounced the sins of the people and the goat ran off into the wilderness never to come back.
It's the same picture that we have here. It's the same picture. Listen to some of these great verses. Psalm 103 verse 12.
It says, as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed his transgression from us. I would like to illustrate that again, but I don't know I've done it so many times that you're probably tired of it. But you know what? If I start walking east, I will never go west.
I will never come to the west. I keep going east forever and ever and ever. My sins are in the west. I will never meet up with them again.
It doesn't say north to south because it was north to south. As soon as you hit the south pole, you start going north. As soon as you hit the north pole, you start going south. They meet east and west.
Don't meet. So far has he removed our sins from us. They're gone. In Isaiah chapter 42 verse 25, it says, I even I am the one who wipes out your transgressions for my own sake.
I will not remember your sins. I love that verse. I remember my sins of last week. I'm fully aware of my sins.
But God has wiped them out. He has wiped them out. They're gone. They're taken away as this verse says, Micah chapter 7.
Micah. Who is a God like you who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious acts of the remnant of his possession? He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in unchanging love. Listen to verse 19.
He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot. Yes, you will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. The challenge are deep.
It's 35,000 feet deep in the ocean. I will never go and visit there. So if that's the depths of the sea and my sins are locked in a box and put down 35,000 feet to the depths of the sea, I will never see them again. They're gone.
We should rejoice. We should be praising God our sins have been taken away. In Hebrews chapter 10, and this is a lengthy passage, but in Hebrews chapter 10, if I can just sum it up, you can read it on your own. Hebrews chapter 10 verses 1 to 12, it says, the law of the good things to come, not the very formal things.
The can never by same sacrifices which they offer continually, year by year make perfect those who draw near otherwise they would not have ceased to be offered. It says in verse 4, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. And then as you continue on, in verse 10 it says, by this we will also be sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time, the same sacrifices which can never take away sins.
But he, Jesus, having offered one sacrifice for sin for all time, sat down at the right hand of God. If you were here last week, you remember, a brother, he said that very same thing, and he sat on that stool. And he so clearly illustrated to us. A priest did not have a chair in the temple.
He was busy offering sacrifices. Busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy offering sacrifices. But when Jesus Christ came, he went to the cross, he offered himself once as a sacrifice. And then he sat down at the right hand of God.
The work was finished. So if you are relying on anything else this morning, you cannot be saved through your own works. You cannot be saved through man-made religion. You cannot be saved through a mass that offers another sacrifice for you.
You cannot be sacrificed through a Jewish ceremony that offers a lamb for you. You cannot be saved through any of those things. You can only be saved through the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He takes the sin away.
Finally, the next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away what? The sin of the world. I love that. I love that.
There's no sin. There's no faith that is not taken care of. Our greatest problem, creating our greatest need, is sin. Our greatest need is not COVID to be crushed or go away.
Our greatest need is not a better vaccine. Our greatest need is not a better scientist to come up with a way to beat all of this stuff. Our greatest need is not the economy to turn around and be so robust that money is falling out of the sky. That is not our greatest need.
I was on the ESL study one night and the youngest person on there, Jessie. She's just turned in 12 this week. Isn't she? She said, I have a question.
I have a paper I have to write for school. And the subject was given to all of us. What is the greatest problem facing mankind? I'm thinking, oh, boy, please ask me to answer that question, Jessie.
And she said, I don't want to talk about COVID. I don't either. I'm tired of talking about it. She said, I don't want to talk about COVID.
So Mr. McDonald, what's the greatest problem in the world today? I said, oh, thank you. The greatest problem in the world today is the sin of man.
Sorry about that. Disease, illness, murder, terrorism, violence. These are symptoms. But the root of all of that is the sin of man.
Man has rebelled against God. Man has rebelled against the God of heaven. And in doing that, we've rebelled against one another and turned on another. And we've brought disease upon ourselves.
We've brought illness upon ourselves. We've brought hate upon ourselves. We've brought all of the things that go with that upon ourselves. But the root of it all is the sin of man.
Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, came to do one thing, to take away the sin of the world. If you're here this morning and you are burdened down by your sin and you're thinking, how do I get out from under this man? Like, this is killing me. I'm crushed by my own sin.
I know what I am. And if you are honest, there are times when you have to come to a point where you're honest with yourself and honest before God. Someone asked me not to long ago, what does it mean to repent? You know what it is?
Agree with God. God says you're a sinner. I agree. God says you need to be saved.
I agree. God says you can be saved. I agree. Thank you.
How Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, died to take away your sins. If you accept that, if you believe that, with all of your heart trusting nothing else, your sins are gone. They're forever paid for and you are free forever. Are you saved?
Do you know him? Have you trusted him? Are you still trying on your own to clean up your own life? I like what Max Lakado said.
If we try to do it ourselves, it's like two kids in a mud puddle trying to clean each other off. You can't do it. You just can't do it. The Lamb of God, his blood, washes away the sin of the world.
Have you come to him? Have you trusted him? Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus our Savior.
Father, we thank you for this moment, this great moment in all of history. When John the Baptist looks upon the Lord Jesus Christ walking through the wilderness and says, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Father, for those of us who are saved, those of us who know the truth of this, it's amazing. Our sins have been dealt with.
They're gone. We know him. Father, I am sure there are people here this morning who don't know Jesus Christ as their Savior. They still carry around the guilt and the burden of their sins.
The Lamb of God has come to take away that burden. Lord, I pray this morning as we sing this closing song or as they go home and think about these things or even right now, right where they sit in their seat, we'll think about this and trust the one who was given for them, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
We're going to sing a song.