2024-01-21AM- Behold the Lamb of God

John's main message was about repentance and the need for a change in people's lives. He emphasized that sin is the biggest problem in the world and called on individuals to turn away from sin and embrace righteousness. He warned that there would be consequences for those who did not repent. John's message was simple and consistent, and he was sent by God to deliver it. He also expressed gratitude for the support of the church and the response to his messages. John 1. I'm glad that when I have a need, I can call on Him. And if need be, He will incline to hear my prayers. Thank God. Everyone remember, please, that there will be no service here on Wednesday night. There's going to be so many people out of town. So we're just not going to have the service here on Wednesday. And please remember that the sisters are going to the prison tomorrow night for the teaching. It's the second one this session. So please be in prayer for them. There's women here in the Gospel. They're hearing Jesus' name. And as Brother Ron was saying, there's so much that we can do by giving the Word, but then to show it demonstrated in our lives. Sister Lindsay had spoken of that. We can tell people that the Bible says God answers prayer, but then we can also back it up with saying God has answered my prayers. Things that I've called out to Him for. And He's doing that. So I appreciate the sisters that are going. So please be in prayer for them. And we'll be out of town. Several of us will be out of town this week for the minister's conference in Tennessee. So please pray for us. So pray that I hear. I want to soak and soak and soak it in. I do want to say this morning too that I am greatly appreciative of our preachers that are here in this church. Somebody might look at us and say, well, that's an awful big concentration of preachers in a little bitty place. I would agree. And some churches, God can trust the pastor to be the only preacher in the congregation. God saw fit. We needed more than just me here. So He brought you all together with us. And I want to say that I appreciate every one of you. The preparations that get made. The prayer that goes into this. The response to the messages that go forth. I want to pray, and the Lord really lays something on my heart as He has been here lately. It thrills my heart to be able to see people respond. I prayed even when I was going to preach that message on prayer, that Lord, if just one person, if just one person could catch on. And from what I understand, there's a lot of people that are catching on. And I'm thrilled to know that. So I appreciate my church. I really do. Let's read together John 1, verse 6. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. In verse 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. Would you pray with me? Lord, thank You so much for Your mercy on us. Thank You for trusting us to be in service for the Lord. Thank You, God, for giving us armor to wear. Thank You for giving us skills to fight in this battle. And I'm praying today that You'd light upon me with the anointing. You know what's needed in this place. You know what somebody's ears need to hear. And I pray You'll do it today in Jesus' name, Amen. I want to preach John's words there. Behold the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God. That's just basically meaning look at Him. I mean, spend some time and look upon the Lamb of God. Look upon Him. The Bible says there in our reading in John 1 and verse 6, that there was a man who was sent from God. Now, he had a message. The man came from God. The message came from God. And if the world needs anything right now, it needs men that have been sent from God. If the church needs anything right now, the church needs men that are sent from God. Men that have a message that does not come from an old book out of a library. A message that does not come from observations of things around the world, but a message that comes straight from heaven from God. And that's what John had was a message from God Himself. God's looking for men today that are willing to be sent. I believe that if a man is going to be sent, and if he'll stand up like Isaiah did in chapter 6 and say, Here am I, Lord, send me. That before we can ever get to the place where we say, Here am I, we've got to get to the place like Isaiah said, woe is me. That before I can step up and offer my services unto God, I've got to get low before Him and know my place. And we need people that are sent from God who are willing to fulfill the mission that God has given to them. Because there's a lot of people out there today that say, I have been sent from God. There are many cults that have been started from people who said, I have been sent from God. They've written books and brand new doctrines. But what we can do is we can go according to the Word of God. And when anybody gets outside of this Bible and comes contrary to the Scriptures, you can know that that is not a man that's been sent from God. But we can be sure, according to John 1 and verse 6, that John was a man who was sent from God. John came with a message that was plain and his message was not difficult to understand. Matthew 3 and verse 1 says, In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That was the gist of John's message. He didn't have a lot of different points. He didn't have a library full of messages in a folder that he would bring out according to a certain occasion. But the Bible says that he went forth preaching and saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That was the message of John. Repent. Now, John didn't have a long, drawn-out ministry. He doesn't have the testimony that I heard Brother Savage say on a recording the other day. Sixty-five years of preaching the Word. John didn't have that time. He didn't have the time to build up a library. But his message was consistent and his message was right. And John preached that man ought to repent. That in every life, there needed to be a change. A change. When little Judson came to the knowledge that he needed to be saved, he knew, I am lost. He knew to identify himself as a sinner and there had to be a change. And that's what John was preaching. That there had to be a transformation in a life. There has to be a shift of the old ideology into thinking on things that were righteous. John was the man who called out, just like all the prophets that were before him, that man must quit sinning. The prophet Isaiah declared that it was the one thing that would separate man from God. And it was sin. And John, the Bible says in Luke 3, he came into all the country round about Jordan preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. He was not preaching that men ought to change for the sake of change. He was not saying that you ought to just pick a new vocation and do something different with your life. But he said sin has got to stop within the lives of all the individuals. And of all the problems that they could identify in their day, they might have said our biggest problem right now is Roman occupation. Somebody might have said our biggest problem is diseases that we have no cure for. Our biggest problem is the leper colony that's right outside the city. But the biggest problem that was in the lives of the people in John's day was sin. And if there's any problem today in the world in which we live, it is sin. It is the greatest problem of our nation. It is the greatest problem of every household. It is the greatest problem of every individual is sin remaining in a life. Now last year, last June, the Pew Research Company put out a poll, the results of a poll in June of 2023 listing the top concerns of the American people. The very top of the list, what most people in America are concerned about as of June last year was inflation. Things getting out of control. I can't afford things like money. That's the biggest issue in America right now according to the American people. The next thing on the list was the affordability of health care. Again, money. That's what's on the minds of the people. People were concerned about the ability of the Republicans and the Democrats to get along in our government. They listed drug addiction as a primary concern, gun violence and violent crime, worried about the federal budget deficit, illegal immigration, the quality of our public schools, climate change, racism, roads, bridges, the infrastructure, terrorism, unemployment. The list goes on of what Americans decide what is the most pressing issue in our country right now. But what made it to number eight was about the closest that this country came when they called out the state of our moral values. It's about the closest that they came to the real problem of sin. And there's no doubt that these things need attention in our country. But if we could get sin under control, if we could get people to turn away from sin and picking up God's righteousness, there's a lot of problems that would be solved. We wouldn't be worried about gun violence. We wouldn't be worried about violent crimes. Inflation would be the least of our troubles. I've got a brother-in-law who's a former police officer. He told us one time, he said, you know, he said there wouldn't be a reason for prisons if they got rid of drugs on the streets. That that's the main reason that the prisons are. Well, sin is to blame for every bit of it. And the surveys can go out and the politicians can count down and decide what to pull themselves on and what to run their campaigns on. But the problem in America is sin. It is plainly stated in the Scriptures that the biggest problem of mankind started in the Garden of Eden when man departed from the righteousness of God and disobeyed God and sin was introduced into this world. So John dealt with the people of his day with sin in their lives. Now, he didn't just come and say, it'd be best for you. He didn't just say that, you know, in the best interest of society, how about you quit sinning? But he gave a warning that still applies in our day. Matthew 3 and verse 10, And now also, John said, and now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. John was saying, it's not just inconvenient for you to be a sinner. It's not just a better thing for you to repent from your sins. But he said that there is a judgment today that is coming. And he gave a message that is echoed throughout the entire Bible, leaving no room for doubt of the future for those who appear at the judgment in their sins. And the Bible is wrapping things up in Revelation 1.21 and verse 8. The fearful, the unbelieving, the abominable, murderers, wholemongers, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Now, there's people that would admit to you today, I ought to do better. Somebody might say, well, I quit smoking. Or I quit cussing when you're around. I get that a lot. I'm not drinking like I used to drink. And I feel like that if they tamper down a little bit, that things are going to get better. But John came with the message there's dire consequences to those who will not repent of their sin. And he said that each tree which does not bring forth good fruit shall be hewn down and cast into the fire. So John, as he preached these messages, was approached by different people. Different groups of people would come to him. And this is the question they'd say. What shall we do? Something got to bother him. Something got down in their hearts when he said you need to quit sinning. And if you don't, there's a judgment that's coming that will cast you into a lake of fire. What shall we do? Selfish people came and said, what shall we do? He said you need to quit being selfish and start thinking about other people. There were thieves that came to John and said, what shall we do? And he said you need to quit stealing from people. You need to quit sinning. And when the violent came to him, he said you've got to quit with the cruelty. You can't act like that anymore. And everyone who came to him, he came back with a personal reason you need to quit. There's a personal thing. It wouldn't do no good to tell somebody to quit stealing that had never stolen before in their lives. It wouldn't do anybody any good to tell somebody who had never killed a man to quit murdering. But John pointed to the things within their lives, and God does that very thing. Every individual has to stop his own personal sinning. What happens in the world today? Because the world refuses to accept that sin is the root of the problem they want to deal with. It's the symptoms to the problems. There's actually a science that is called symptomatology. It is the study of the symptoms of the disease. Now when I'm sick, I don't want a symptomatologist. I want somebody that knows what they're doing to get to the root of the problem. Because a symptomatologist might find skin cancer on me and tell me to rub in some anti-itch cream and make it feel better for a little while. But there's still underlying a skin cancer that's going to grow. You can take medicine to relieve the pain of an infected tooth. And it may make you forget about it for a while. But when the symptoms come back, they're there to say there's a deeper problem that a pain reliever cannot take care of. Now I know there are things in this world for which there is no cure. And where we are in science today and we still don't have a cure for the common cold. So you know what they do? They treat the symptoms. You've got a cough? We'll give you something that helps you with a cough. Congested? We'll give you a decongestant. You've got runny eyes, runny nose? We'll give you things to treat the symptoms. And if that's all we've got, well, then that's what we're going to have to deal with. There are people who have reached a place in their illness that all they have left is palliative care. Make them comfortable. There's nothing that can be done about that. And if there were no answer for sin, then dealing with the symptoms would be all that we could do. Oh, but there is recourse. There is something that can get way down into the bottom of things and can take care of the sin itself. When John the Baptist came preaching, he came preaching against the sin of the day. But he revealed that there is an answer to man's sins. And when people question John the Baptist about his preaching, and how can we do what you say? How can we fulfill the righteousness of the preaching of the man sent from God? The next day, John seeth Jesus coming unto him and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. There is an answer for sin for every struggling individual who has tried to quit sinning and cannot. For every soul who's dealing with the symptoms and the sin continues to show up, there is a remedy. When we look at the things that our society is going through right now, the ills of our culture, answers are pouring in from every side. Gun control. Take from the rich and give it up to the poor. Get somebody else in office. Get rid of our Constitution and bring in something else. All these different ideas that come in. But nothing is going to fix the sin problem until the remedy Himself is recognized. God is the only One who can take away sin. God alone. He said in Isaiah 43 and 11, I, even I, am the Lord, and beside Me there is no Savior. And everything around Jesus' entrance into this world points to Him being that wonderful Savior. The fulfillment of the prophecy. You remember when the angel appeared to Joseph? He said, Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. When Mary carried baby Jesus in her womb, she called Him God, my Savior. When John the Baptist's father Zacharias heard about it, he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel. He hath visited and redeemed His people and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us. The angels to the shepherds on the countryside said, Unto you is born this day in the city of David, which is Christ the Lord. Simeon in the temple held the child Jesus in his arms and said, Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation. And John the Baptist said, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. He called Him the salvation of God. The need of our day is for people to be saved from sin. Romans 3 and 23. It leaves no one out. All have sinned. All have sinned. Your neighbor and my neighbor. My church family and your church family. The people closest to me. The people that I love. And the people that hate me. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Read on in Romans 6 and it says that the wages of sin is death. Oh, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Sin is all around us. It's the biggest problem of our day. But God is willing to forgive sin. God's willing to forgive sin right here today. God's willing to forgive sin in churches that are down the road having service. God is willing to knock on people's doors, our own neighbors, and make them remember the Gospel which they've heard. And He's willing to save them. Because all around us there's people that are living with regrets in their lives that haunt them every day. Adulterous affairs, hidden drunkenness, immorality, abuse, murders, things that people are having to keep hidden from others. They're living with these things and it torments them. But God has demonstrated in His Word His willingness to forgive. It is written that God has forgiven adulterers. God has forgiven thieves. God has forgiven murderers and blasphemers. God has forgiven fornicators. He's forgiven the effeminate. He's forgiven extortioners. And the list goes on. John's announcement of Jesus was this, that He has come to take away sin. And this is the single best news that any soul could ever receive in their life. Somebody would say, I need the lottery. There was a young man years ago we went to church with and he was in a bad situation. He said, all I need is $1,000 and it will fix every problem that I've got. I said, it will not do it. Because in two weeks you'll need another $1,000. You'll be right back where you are now. The best news for every eternal soul is that Jesus takes away sin. Jesus saith unto them, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Me. God saw fit to write it three times within the Scriptures in Acts 2 and Joel 2 and in Romans 10. It shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. This is the news that the world needs right now. Now, according to a few research, most people don't recognize it. That means we're going to have to bring it up. I mean, when people say, well, you know, I'm struggling in my life right now. I'm just having problems in my mind. And we say, well, Jesus can help your mind. But what really needs help is to rid the man of the sin. Somebody says, I need help in relationships. Or I need help financially. Or I need help in employment. The root need is of sin. And we have the answer that Jesus Christ takes away sin. Would you stand with me today? Brother Austin, would you come and get us a song please? Let's remember that for anyone, if they shall confess with the mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in the heart that God has raised Him from the dead, He'll be saved. And that's our mission here. We're going to continue to come together and we're going to worship God. We're going to keep on seeking God in prayer. But we've got to see people saved. We can't candy coat things. I'm not saying we go out to be offensive just to be offensive. But people really have to know what their true need is. So let's pray that God will help us to get that message across so that they understand it enough that they will say, what should I do? How can I get rid of it? And we can point them to Jesus. Come in today and let's talk to the Lord. And if there's someone among us with unconfessed sin, someone among us that the symptoms continue to show up, and it's because the disease was never cured, it's because sin was never rooted out, you know the answer. You know the answer. Call on the name of the Lord and thou shalt be saved, He said. Hallelujah. Oh, God. Thank You, God. Thank You, God. Thank You, God. Thank You, God. Thank You, God. Thank You, God. Thank You, God. Thank You, God. Thank You, God. Thank You, God. Thank You, God. Thank You, God. Thank You, God. Thank You, God. Thank You, God. Thank You, God. Thank You, God. Thank You, God. Thank You, God. Thank You, God. Thank You, God. Thank You, God. Thank You, God. Thank You, God. 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