This is a rush transcript.

[00:00:01] One of the things you might not know about our church is that before we were a church, we were a street team. Anybody heard about street teams before, like guerilla marketing? You get your word out there, you pound the pavement. So we had 12 families, too. Thank you, sir. Twelve families who some of them moved up here to start this church. We had people who came from the other CompassHB Bible Church who lived in this area. We had some college students and we would start going out door to door with the dogs bark and everything and inviting people to come to a church that did not even exist yet because we just wanted to get the word out there about Jesus Christ. We would even bring our kids along as like cute kid bait to get people to open their door. Like here. The Kittel hands you a flier. You have to take it then, right? I mean, we were just we were into it. And then one thing we even did, because going door to door had because of the soliciting, because the people maybe like our friends that are Mormons, drove as witnesses because that's kind of gotten them bad stigma over time. We're like, how can we get people to want to come out of their houses? And that's why we bought an ice cream truck to say we'll sweeten the deal with some free ice cream here. I remember the first day we were going out with that ice cream truck and I was so excited. I was like, we're going to reach Huntington Beach for Jesus Christ. And there's a line of cars behind this ice cream truck and we're driving knew where we're gonna go. And all of a sudden you hear like this terrible popping sound coming from the front of the ice cream truck. And you look in the front, right tire of the truck is now gone horizontal and is laying down. You know, it's like pretty sure wheels of vehicles are not supposed to be laying down on the road. Right. And it's like, well, what was that? And it turns that ice cream truck into the neighborhood. And it's just the sound of the wheels scraping on the pavement like you think nails on a chalkboard is bad drive like broken wheel of an ice cream truck where sound you've ever heard. And we just pull over right there in this neighborhood and it's like totally bombed out like here. We were ready to go in. Like now we're just like a calling for a tow truck. You can you can you pull an ice cream truck? We're pretty big. I mean, you just totally bummed out. And there was one person that we gave free ice cream to. We just happened to break down in this neighborhood. And so we just went out there and we went to this one house. And this person said to to one of our team, they said, you know, I've talked to Mormon's and I've talked to Jehovah's Witnesses, but your normal I want to talk to you. That's what she said to one of our people and a true story. I'm not making that up, not trying to insult anybody. That's just what she said. And she came and got ice cream and she still comes around to the church to this very day, my friends. And so God broke us down right where he wanted us to be. And so that's where we came from, was this idea of, hey, if you're going to be a part of this church plan, like before we even get to church, you got to be a part of the street team. Like, we've all got to go out there and we've got to tell people we're not just doing this church for people who already go to church. We want to go out into the streets of our cities and we want to tell people about Jesus Christ. Well, the one man street team that Jesus had was a pretty awesome guy. And I want to study I'm here this morning. It's John the Baptist, opened your Bible back up to the gospel of John. And let me show you the origin of guerilla marketing right here with our friend John the Baptist, a real raw urban ministry that he's got going on, a one man crusade to prepare the world for Jesus Christ. And you can't study the life, death and resurrection of Jesus in any of the four gospels in the Bible without first being introduced to the forerunner of John the Baptist. And. And so we're going to look at him in versus 19 to 34 here this morning. That's going to be our text. And if you're thinking, well, I thought we just did the introduction last Sunday. Now we're on verse 19. Well, some of us were here Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday night, working our way through the first 18 versus anybody here this week. Doing that with us was it was a great time. So, yeah, praise the Lord. So if you want to catch up on those sermons, you can go online. You can always catch up with the sermons there. But we will be going back to the Prolog because really what John says in the first 18 verses is what he then proves through the narrative of Jesus life throughout the rest of the book.

[00:04:32] In fact, even in the prolog, he says some things about John the Baptist. Look at John one, verse six before we even get to our passage. He already starts dropping the idea that even before Jesus came, there was a man who came to spread the word. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. And he came as a witness to bear witness about the light. So as soon as it calls Jesus the light, it says and there was a witness pointing people to the light. That all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light and then jump down to verse 15 as it describes Jesus as the word as God who became flesh and dwelt among us. And we saw his glory. Well, immediately, verse 15 and talks more about John. John bore witness about him and cried out.

[00:05:20] This was he of whom I said, Who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me. And there's John the Baptist speaking about the eternal city of Jesus Christ. Like even though John the Baptist was born before Jesus, even though he was older when they when they were born. He's saying that Jesus was actually before him making a claim that Jesus is God, that Jesus is eternal, that he was alive before he was born. As a man.

[00:05:50] Man, So John, is John, the gospel writer, the apostle wants all of us to really understand who John the Baptist is, the one preparing the way for Jesus Christ. So read with me his description in versus 19 to 34. This will be our text here from this morning. Let's see what we can learn from John the Baptist. This is the testimony of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you?

[00:06:18] He confessed and did not deny but confessed. I am not the Christ. And asked him what then? Are you Alija? He said, I am not. Are you the prophet? And he answered, No. So they said to him. Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?

[00:06:39] And he said, I'm the voice of one. Crying out in the wilderness makes straight the way of the Lord. As the Prophet Isaiah said now they had been sent from the viruses and they asked him then, why are you baptizing if you are neither the Christ nor Elijah or the Prophet? And John, answer them. I baptized with water, but among you stands one you do not know even he who comes after me, the strap of his sandal. I am not worthy to untie these things took place in Bethanie across the Jordan where John was baptizing verse twenty nine.

[00:07:15] The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and said Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is He of whom I said, After me comes a man who ranks before me because he was before me. I myself did not know him for this purpose. I came baptizing with water that he might be revealed to Israel and John bore witness. I saw the spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptized with water said to me he on whom you see the spirit descend and remain. This is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit, and I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God. So, John, say and let me tell you something I've seen.

[00:08:06] Let me be a witness to what I have seen. This guy, Jesus. He's God. He's the chosen one. He's the anointed one. He's the son of God. Now, if you've read the other gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, they all tell you about John the Baptist. And really in those passages, he comes across as a pretty intense individual. You guys with me on that? You ever read these bastards? He's out there in the wilderness eating locusts. That sounds pretty intense to people like us, right?

[00:08:35] Dipping them in, honey. Right. Creating dipping sauces. Very kind of progressive guy. Right. He's got a coat of camel hair, a leather belt, very fashion forward here.

[00:08:47] And he's got the message. And if you've read his message in Matthew Mark Luke, he's just telling everybody to repent. In fact, he's calling people snakes. And he's saying, where's your fruit? That proves you've really turned from your sin. Because even now, Jesus is coming back to judge.

[00:09:05] And so you get this like, whoa, John the Baptist. Now, remember that the author, John the Apostle, who writes the Gospel were studying. He wrote his gospel much after the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke. And so he is writing about John the Baptist. People are familiar with what they've read in the other gospels. And John, he doesn't portray John the Baptist as a crazy individual out there doing kind of interesting things. No, he presents him as a man of humility. That's the main impression that he wants us to have about John the Baptist. A whole delegation comes out to see him. He's in the desert. He's baptizing. Crowds are coming out. And here comes a delegation from the Pharisees and they say, who are you? Like, they want to find out who John the Baptist is. And he and look at how John says it looked back at verse 20 with me. Look, even you can see, by the way, that John writes the story. He confessed and did not deny but confessed. I am not the Christ. Can you imagine that? You go up to John the Baptist and you say, who are you? And his answer is, I'm not the one. That's basically his answer. I'm not the guy you're looking for. Not me. Who are you? I'm not the guy. That's it. That's his answer. Know if you don't know what Christ means. That's a really important idea that everybody needs to know. Christ is the New Testament. Greek way to say the New Testament is written in the Greek language. We use the word Christ in the Old Testament, written in Hebrew. They use the word messiah. And what it means is the chosen one, the anointed one. There was so much prophecy in the Old Testament about one who is going to come from God to save his people. God had a special one who was coming to save the people. And they want to know John the Baptist is doing so much out there. The wilderness, they're like, are you the one? Are you the Christ? I mean, that would be a great way to even think about it. Are you the one in his answer right away as I'm not the one that's that's who I am. And they're like, confused. Well, maybe your Alija can if you're taking notes, you might want to write down Malachi, chapter four, verse five, because maybe you got that in your cross references there in in your Bible. First, they start with who are you? Well, you're not the Christ. So maybe you're Alija because it's a prophecy. And Malikai chapter four, verse five, that Elijah was going to come to prepare the way of the Lord. OK. Now, a member, Elijah is one of the main prophets in the Old Testament. He was a very interesting guy in that he did not die. The Bible says that Elijah actually went up to heaven in a chariot of fire. And so when they ask him, are you Elijah? They might think he's literally. Elijah, come back from heaven. And so he says, I'm not. He doesn't want them to misunderstand who he is. So then they go to their next question here. Are you the prophet? And that's a reference if you want to write it down to Deuteronomy 18, where Moses at the end of the law.

[00:12:00] He says there's gonna come a prophet who's really going to tell you the words of God. Like I've written this law, I've told you the word of the Lord, but a prophet is coming.

[00:12:09] Who's gonna show us God in a whole new way? And literally now here in the Gospel of John, chapter one, verse one. We have the word in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.

[00:12:22] So Jesus is going to be the fulfillment of this prophet who's coming to really speak to us from God. And so even though John the Baptist is a a kind of prophet, they ask him, are you the prophet? He answered, No.

[00:12:36] So they're throwing out all their suspects of who this guy could be. And he's his answer back to them is, I'm not the guy.

[00:12:44] I'm not the guy you're looking for. And then finally, verse 22, they're like, well, give us an answer here, man. Come on, help us. Because these guys sent us out here, these Pharisees. We've got to go back to them with an answer. So what do you say about yourself? OK. You're not who we think you are. Well, who are you? And here's what he quotes scripture to define himself. And he said, this is verse twenty three. I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness. I'm just a voice out here in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as the Prophet Isaiah said. So he refers to a passage in Isaiah Chapter 40 that they would have been familiar with that to make make straight the way of the Lord.

[00:13:25] And the idea here is some king, some nobleman would be coming through the wilderness and the road there in the wilderness if there was a road would be all kinds of bumpy and there would be hills and there would be dips. And so maybe there would be some construction guys, some road workers out there like working on the road. So when the king rode into town, he'd be able to come in. So basically, he says, I'm one of the guys with the hats and the signs that say stop or slow with the vet s there. I'm just a guy working on the side of the road. I'm a nobody is kind of his answer here.

[00:13:59] I mean, I don't know about you, but if you've studied the Bible, I go into grown up at church. I always thought John the Baptist was kind of an awesome guy. But if you hear him talk about it, he's a nobody. That's the impression that he's given.

[00:14:11] In fact, they're so unimpressed with who he is. With all of his answers. Look at verse 25. They asked him then why are you baptizing if you needed the Christ nor Elijah nor the Prophet? Like, why are you even out here doing what you're doing if you're just some guy on the side of the road?

[00:14:29] See, the way John the the Apostle writes about John the Baptist is he wants to communicate. He was humble. He was not about himself. He was about pointing to the one his introduction to himself as I'm not the one.

[00:14:44] I'm not the guy. And if you're going to bear witness about Jesus, you can't get in the way. Let's get it down like this. For point number one, make sure your witness is not about you. Make sure when you're telling people about your salvation or maybe you're telling people about what God's doing here at our church. And we're one year old now. Let's make sure we're not talking about ourselves. Let's make sure we're not putting our name out there like we're anybody. If we get a chance to talk to people, we want to point them, not to us, but to the one whose name is Jesus Christ. Can I get the Amen from anybody on this? Because if you're not careful, you're going to end up talking about yourself.

[00:15:23] Like even when people ask you about your life, when they ask you about your family, when they ask you about your work, when they ask you, what did you do on Labor Day weekend, like when you tell people about your life, how much you're talking about Jesus versus how much are you talking about yourself? How much are you giving God the glory for your family?

[00:15:41] God, the glory for your work, God the glory for for the beautiful three day weekend that you had? Or is it really. Yeah. Here's what I did. Here's what we do at my house. Here's who I am.

[00:15:54] So we got to just remember in a country that so about you expressing yourself, that's really becoming our highest virtue right now in America for you to be you is really the best thing that you could ever do, even if you don't feel like you were born with the right body or you don't feel like culture really understands, you just change the barriers and just be whoever you think you should be.

[00:16:17] Like self-expression is the fullness of life in America right now.

[00:16:23] And we just need to remember in a culture that's telling you to express yourself. The call to follow Jesus is to deny yourself. That's what Jesus Christ said. Go to Luke, Chapter nine. Just go one gospel back here to Luke, Chapter nine, and you're on our first birthday. Let's just remind ourselves what it even means to be a Christian and to follow Jesus Christ. It means that from that point forward, your life is no longer about you. You're not the main character in your own life story.

[00:16:55] We need people who don't want to be the hero. We need people who want to be like the sidekick of the hero. You guys know what I'm talking about? We need less Fritos and more Samwise Ganges, if that works for anybody out there with Lord of the Rings. Right. We need. We do. We got too many people running for president when the truth is a lot of them aren't even good enough to be vice president. Who's the guy who's going to stand up and be like, you know, I might make a decent secretary of state.

[00:17:22] If you'll have me. Right. Where's that guy?

[00:17:26] We got everybody wanting to be the guy saying there's only one. One.

[00:17:32] There's only one guy that we should really give the glory to. And his name is Jesus Christ. Don't let the world deceive you into thinking the universe revolves around, you know, the universe has someone that it revolves around, someone who upholds it by the word of his power, the creator, Jesus Christ.

[00:17:53] We've got so many people running for president. But the more people that run it seems, the more clear it is that if there's one hope for our nation, if there's one who can turn us around back on the right track.

[00:18:04] His name is Jesus Christ. And that's what it supposed to be, look at Luke 923, look at the call to be a Christian here. It says here, if anyone would come after me, you want to call yourself a Christian, be a part of the church here. CompassHB you want to say you're going to heaven when you die here? If you want to follow Jesus, here's how it works. Let him deny himself. Take up his cross daily and follow me. First step to following Jesus is the end of yourself. That's what he says. You've got to you got to get over yourself. And then he says you've got to take up your cross daily. And just remember when he says the word cross in the gospel. Before we get to the beautiful work that he does to die on the cross for our sins to save us. Now, when we here cross, we think of the great sacrifice of Jesus for our sins. We got a little wooden cross out in front of our church here that you can see every Sunday when when you come here. We think the cross is a beautiful thing, but this is before Jesus died on the cross. Like when he says, take up your cross here, you got to think to yourself. Take up your lethal injection. Take up your electric chair. Take up your firing squad. Hey, stick your neck out under that guillotine. That's what he's saying right here. He's talking about what forms of execution. That's how everybody would have heard. Cross, when you take up your cross, you're on a slow march towards your own death. That's what he says. Take up your cross daily. You've got to be ready to die to yourself if you're really going to follow me. That's the definition of being a Christian person. Do you have to say that from now on in my life. The hero of my story is not going to be me. It's going to be Jesus Christ. And when I get a chance to tell people about me, I'm going to spend more time introducing him because I'm not the one he is. Now, I was really blessed when I was growing up. I have a dad who is a great example to me of humility, saying when he preach and you guys got to meet my dad, some of you guys who were here a few weeks ago, he came and we had the honor of having him preach at our church. And you got to get what it what a Bruce Blakey sermon is, is like it's straight Bible straight to you. And you almost forget at some point that there's even a guy up there talking that that's how he is. Here's what the book says. Let me give it straight to you. And he doesn't get in the middle. He doesn't get in the way.

[00:20:38] He took three boys at our house, taught them all how to love God and and love the Bible and kept himself out of it. A very humble guy. I remember one day when I was growing up. I'll never forget it. A conversation between my dad and this friend of my dad's. This guy who I might have even thought at that time was like cooler than my dad because he would probably, like, give me more dessert than my dad would and maybe even like at his house. They didn't have bedtime. So I thought this guy was pretty cool. And I remember he asked my dad one day, well, who would you even say a Christian is? And they were having a conversation about what even is a Christian person.

[00:21:16] My dad said to him, well, you know who a Christian is. Everybody knows who a Christian is. A Christian is someone who denies himself, takes up his cross daily and follows Jesus. To which this guy thought it was super cool. My dad's friend said, Yabut, who really does that?

[00:21:31] And I was like, whoa. I remember that had an impact on me.

[00:21:36] Real followers of Jesus Christ come to an end of themself and make the focal point of their life. Not them, but Jesus.

[00:21:46] Can you say that you've done that here this morning?

[00:21:50] I guess if people could follow you around, if they could get the sense of your life, would they get the sense from you that you're not the man, that you're not the woman, that you're not the young person, like it's not about you, the one you're really pointing to, the one you bear witness of is Jesus Christ.

[00:22:09] My dad, he went to USC, I think he told you guys that when he was here, and it's a big time for you, for the Trojans right now because college football started yesterday.

[00:22:19] Anybody here in the fight on? Anybody know what I mean by that? And he told me you guys are Bruins fans. I'm offending you right now.

[00:22:24] That as I was going to college football season starts. And when, like one of my dad's favorite stories to tell about his entire life is when he was a student at USC and he was he would hang out with some of the football players. And one day, one of their parents came. And so here's like a big time football player at USC. If you know anything about USC football, it's kind of a big deal. And. And this guy who's like a big guy on the offensive line at USC, just muscles everywhere.

[00:22:54] He's like, hey, mom and Dad, come here. I want you to meet the guys, you know? And I don't know if I got all the details. All right. Right. But it went something like, hey, here's Rodney. He's running back. He's going to win the Heisman Trophy this year. Mom and dad, it's my privilege to open holes that this guy pops through. Right. And he's like, and this is Jim over here. And Jim, he's on the O line with me. And we inflict pain on our opponents every Saturday. What's up, bro? You know, and then he comes up to my dad and he's like, This is Bruce.

[00:23:28] He's just a guy. But. Like, that's the whole story.

[00:23:35] That's like my dad's favorite story to tell about himself. I'm just a guy. It's not about me, but I've got a lot to tell you about the one.

[00:23:45] Jesus Christ. Can you say that you have that humility use? Morning.

[00:23:51] Can you say that you're really talking more about the one who has saved you than about you being saved? This is important for all of us to think about. We need to understand humility in our modern American culture and sometimes at church. We don't get humility right, because we think humility means we just talk about how weak we are and how low we are and who am I. I can't really do anything. Woe is me. You know, I pray. But what will really happen? I evangelize. But, you know, it's almost like, whoa, dude, in your humility, you're still all about yourself. You know, there's this false humility that's really rampant.

[00:24:29] So real humility is you're so focused on God. He's so awesome. He takes up all of your view that you forget about yourself because you just want to keep talking about Jesus Christ and who he is. That's what humility is. And that's what John wants us to know about John the Baptist. Here's a guy who got it. He was more preoccupied with the one who was coming after him than the attention he was receiving from people right now. And he was just letting everybody know I'm not the guy.

[00:25:00] But one is coming. Who is?

[00:25:03] I go back to John, Chapter one and we can see here. I'm sorry, I don't go back to John. Chapter one. You were still in Luke 923. Let me read the rest of the passage. I stopped short. My bad. This is Luke. Chapter nine verse page 867.

[00:25:18] If you got one of our Bibles, verse 24 for whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world? What's the point of living it up here in this life if he loses or forfeits himself for it or if he forfeits his soul? What's the point of gaining this life if you lose your soul? And here's the part I want you to underline. Here's Jesus describing what it means to be a Christian, right. Deny yourself. Take up your cross daily. Follow me. And then he says this verse 26. Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words of him, will the son of man be ashamed when he comes in his glory, the glory of the Father and the Holy Angels. So he's not talking about his first coming here.

[00:26:07] He's talking about his second coming when he comes to get all of the glory terrain, he says, if you're ashamed of me, then when I come back and all of my glory to judge, I will be ashamed of you. So as we talk about denying ourselves, as we talk about humility and pointing to Jesus, let's not make the confusion that a lot of people do where they think meekness equals weakness. That's never how the Bible would talk about the Bible would say that humility is a source of strength and that God is close to the humble, near to the humble. But he's a pro. Opposed to the proud and so a humble guy. It should not come as a contradiction to us that John the Baptist is maybe one of the most humble men we're ever going to meet.

[00:26:53] And then also at the same time, one of the boldest men that we're ever going to meet. And oftentimes we don't see those two going together. So I just want you to see that in the same passage, Jesus is calling you to deny yourself. He's saying if you're ashamed of my words, then I'm going to be ashamed of you. Go back to John. Chapter one now and we'll see how John does a masterful job first of deflecting attention off of himself. But now he's going to start pointing the attention towards Jesus Christ. And he does it in a very bold way. He doesn't care who people are, what they think he's going to say, what's true about Jesus Christ. And he's not intimidated. He's not ashamed. I don't know if he ever got nervous or anxious about what he was about to say, but he definitely overcome those emotions if he did.

[00:27:41] And he was bold and they asked him that question that we saw in verse 25. Why are you baptizing? If you're a nobody, then why are you baptizing verse 26? John answered them. I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know even he who comes after me, the strap of his sandal. I am not worthy to untie. I mean, that's low when you can't even reach up to untie a guy's sandal. That's pretty low.

[00:28:09] And then it says these things took place in Bethanie across the Jordan where John was baptized.

[00:28:14] So the point of his message after he deflects it off of himself is On2 Christ and Go Back, specifically diverse 23. Let's relook at this prophecy that he quotes. He says, I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness. I'm just a construction worker getting the road ready because here's the point. Make straight the way of the Lord. And here's what I want you guys to see. John the Baptist was the forerunner, a one man street team getting ready for the first coming of Jesus Christ. The same principle of preparing the way of the Lord is what we're doing as a church right now, getting people to repent. Now to get ready for Jesus who is coming back to reign. John the Baptist is a great example to people like us that you and I should consider ourselves a lowly construction workers here on the side of the road. We're just getting the road ready for the important one. Who's coming. Jesus Christ. Go back to Isaiah 40. And let's look at this text that he quotes here. And then we'll see here that it's only partially fulfilled in John the Baptist.

[00:29:21] So, Isaiah, chapter 40, that's page five hundred and ninety nine. If you got one of our Bibles and when we talk about prophecies from the Old Testament and we're going to end up talking about a lot of prophecies from the Old Testament, one of the great things about studying the gospel of John is he's going to keep sending us back to the Old Testament to see these references to Jesus Christ and things that have now come to pass that were predicted, prophesied long ago.

[00:29:48] And the biggest work of prophecy that we have is the book of Isaiah. Now, if you've never studied Isaiah before, it's an amazing book. Sixty six chapters long. And one of the things that you'll know if you ever break down Isaiah or get into it is it's typically broken into two sections. Kind of like our Bibles, 66 books and broken into two sections. Same thing with Isaiah. In fact, if you're taking notes, you don't just break Isaiah down into two parts here. The first is chapters one to thirty nine, chapters one to thirty nine. Really talk about the judgment that is coming on the people of Israel. That's the main theme in the first thirty nine chapters. They're kind of discouraging. They're kind of dark. They're warning people of the judgment to come. Then chapters 40 to 66 talk about the future restoration of Israel.

[00:30:39] Israel's gonna be invaded. They're going to be exiled. Well, they're going to come back and it starts to prophesy about that. A king is going to come. Who's going to reign? And it talks about that king raining on the earth. Who's gonna be Jesus Christ? So we get a lot of hope and really verse chapter 40. Verse one is the transition from the discouraging prophecies of judgment to now the prophecies of hope. Read it with me, Isaiah. Chapter 40, verse one. It says, Comfort, comfort my people says your God. Oh, that sounds good. I'd like some comfort after I've been here about judgment and bad things. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare is ended. That her iniquity is part. And that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Okay. She's been judged for her sins. Now comes a new era. Verse three. A voice cries in the wilderness.

[00:31:35] Prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up. And every mountain and hill be made low. The uneven ground shall become level. And the rough places, a plane and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. And all flesh shall see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Hey, everybody, let's get ready, because there is one who is coming and the whole earth is going to see his glory. Now, we know in John one Jesus is the word of God. Jesus is the one who reveals the full manifestation of the glory of God. So this is clearly fulfilled in John the Baptist, preparing the way for Jesus.

[00:32:18] But the whole earth we can see here, all flesh did not see the glory of Jesus when he came the first time. So there's a part of this prophecy that's yet to come. And there's an invitation here.

[00:32:30] Who's gonna be the voice out in the wilderness making the way for the Lord. And verse six continues the invitation. A voice says, Cry. Start shout now.

[00:32:41] And I said, Well, what shall I cry? What am I supposed to shout? Well, here's the message. All flesh is like grass and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it. Surely the people are grass, man. Look at the world that we live in. Look at the flowers. Look at. Look at the grass. It's constantly in the process of dying. Even the people they're passing away. Verse eight. The grass withers. The flower fades. But hear the word of our God will stand forever.

[00:33:11] There's a there's an invitation here. Cry out. Who's going to let the people know who's going to announce the coming of the Lord? Who will cry out? Here's what you should cry out. The word of our God that lasts forever. And then you get to this verse nine. So go up onto a high mountain. No Zion Herald of good news. Lift up your voice was strangle Jerusalem Herald of good news. Lift it up. Fear not say to the cities of Judah. Behold your God. Here he is. Look at him. I mean, it's an invitation for all people to get up on the highest place you can wear the most people will hear you and shout out. Bring the good news. Let everybody hear it. Look, here's God.

[00:33:52] That's what we're supposed to be doing. And we think it's just crazy guys like John the Baptist who are gonna be out there telling people about Jesus.

[00:34:02] And we have the idea and the church right now that you can be a Christian without evangelizing. In fact, maybe some of you guys even feel like evangelizing. Sounds like a negative word. Let me just define it. It means to spread the good news. That's what it means to preach the good news. I can be a Christian person without sharing the good news. This is what I'm hearing from Christian people all over at churches all around like. Yeah, it's only some of us have the gift of evangelism. I don't have that gift. I just hang with the church people. If you're ever you get that people give you that idea. Let me just tell you, I don't think that's a biblical idea at all. OK. Now, I understand some people might be more gifted in evangelism than others. That's the way it is with every spiritual gift, in fact. Everybody here, if you're saved in Jesus Christ, if you've got the Holy Spirit, then you have a spiritual gift to use to glorify God, to serve the church, to reach out to lost people. Everybody is gifted. Now, we don't all share the same gift. Right.

[00:35:05] But there's things that we're all supposed to do to obey Jesus Christ, even if it's not necessarily our gift, for example. Maybe you don't have the gift of teaching. OK, maybe you're not going to come up here and preach the sermon next Sunday. But Koosh and 316 says that everybody here should be so filled with the word of Christ that you're teaching and admonishing one another. So maybe you don't have the gift. But that doesn't mean there's not people like people even at your house that you're supposed to be teaching the word of God.

[00:35:37] So maybe you're thinking I don't have the gift of giving. Well, that doesn't mean you're not supposed to give to the church. Well, I don't have really that service isn't really my thing. Well, that doesn't mean you're out of serving. OK. So all of a sudden, it's OK now in the church to be like, well, evangelism is not really my style. I get uncomfortable. So I'm not going to do it.

[00:35:56] That's completely antithetical to the idea of Jesus Christ.

[00:36:01] What what are you saying? You know, the savior of the world. You know, the one who gave you eternal life. You just don't want to talk to anybody about.

[00:36:11] That doesn't make sense.

[00:36:13] That's not all right. It is not OK for Christian people to think that they don't have to share with others.

[00:36:19] The good news of Jesus Christ is not okay for Christian people to not want to share the good news of Jesus Christ. Go with me to Matthew, Chapter nine. Let's go to the New Testament. Let's see how Jesus did it with his own disciples.

[00:36:34] What was the pattern that Jesus gave us? What did Jesus say? We know there's John the Baptist. He's the forerunner of Christ preparing the way of the Lord. How does Jesus expect his followers? He said, We already read one passage where he says, If you're ashamed of me, in my words, I'm gonna be ashamed of you. We'll look at here. Matthew, Chapter 10 is where he calls the 12 disciples. Do you see that there? He names them all. We get a list here at the beginning of Matthew Ten. We name all twelve of the guys. And then it says this in verse five. These twelve Jesus sent out instructing them. It seems like right after he names his disciples, the first thing Jesus does is sends them out like he's going to go preach in all the cities.

[00:37:15] But he has a street team that goes before him to prepare his way by going and preaching in the cities. In fact, this is the Gospel of Matthew, written by Matthew. Look over at chapter nine, verse nine. What does it say happened there? Well, this guy, Matthew Jesus comes to him. He's a tax collector. He's sitting at the tax booth. And Jesus said to him, Follow me.

[00:37:38] And Matthew gets up and followed him. Now, I think there's a reason that Matthew puts that in Chapter nine. And then he talks about getting named one of the 12 and being sent out in Chapter 10, because to Matthew, it probably felt like he was calling me one day and he was sending me out the next day. And I was totally unprepared and I was nervous. I mean, that's probably how it felt.

[00:37:58] I don't see between Chapter nine and 10 him go into seminary, hear him doing years of Bible study. I mean, maybe you've got that in your Bible, but I don't see.

[00:38:07] I hear say.

[00:38:10] It's just like, hey, you're one of my guys. You're following me. We'll go. Bear witness.

[00:38:16] Go, go out. In fact, liquidy praise in Chapter nine, look with me at verse 36. I would hope everybody who says they go to CompassHB Bible Church knows this passage. Matthew, chapter nine, verse 36. This is Jesus when he sees the crowds. He had compassion for them. His heart breaks for them because they were harassed and helpless. They're lost. They're like a beat up man on the side of the road, like sheep without a shepherd. And Jesus said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful. Look at how many people need to be saved. But the laborers, the evangelists, the gospel people are few.

[00:38:52] So few who go out there. My name, therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

[00:39:03] Here's a prayer request from Jesus Christ. I wish we had more evangelize. That's what that's near to the heart of Jesus. Oh, you're gonna be one of my guys. You're gonna follow me. Woman, I send you out in my name. So if you're calling yourself a Christian, I want to completely challenge you. If you think you don't need to tell people about Jesus Christ, where in this book are you getting that idea from?

[00:39:28] Because this book is saying the opposite of that, this book is saying our mission is to make disciples, that's what it says in Matthew twenty eight. That's the great commission. And in Luke twenty four, it puts it like this that we need to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins to all people, to all nations. That's what we're here to do. Go to ax chapter one and you'll see another way that it refers to the great commission shows up in a few different places. We usually refer to it as making disciples. But look how Jesus puts it here and acts. One hears his plan for world domination. Here's his plan to spread faith and belief in him Max. Chapter one, verse eight, it says, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

[00:40:12] And once you get that power, here's what you're gonna do. You will be my witnesses. Same word uses over and over about John the Baptist. You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. We're gonna start right here in Jerusalem and we're gonna start being witnesses. You will be witnesses of me and we're gonna go to the end of the earth.

[00:40:35] You ever looked up where the end of the earth is from Jerusalem.

[00:40:38] David, just go on a globe. Put your finger in Jerusalem. Go about to the other side of the globe. You'll end up in the Pacific. Bring your finger back to land and you're going to hit the Huntington Beach Pier, my friends. I mean, we are the end of the earth.

[00:40:52] From Jerusalem, it's us right here.

[00:40:56] And it's Jesus his plan. And they didn't even know about America back in Bible times, my friends. So he's not just talking about his disciples that were there that day. It's his plan that his people will be his witnesses and their witness will fill the world. That's what Jesus is expecting from his people. OK.

[00:41:15] So that's why we're doing something tomorrow where the invitation is everybody. Let's all go be laborers for the gospel of Jesus Christ. And maybe you're saying, well, I don't want to go out and talk to strangers. That sounds too intense. Well, guess what? Good news for you. We're not a cult. We're not going to make you go up to people's doors if you don't want to. We're not going to be like, hey, how many hours have you put in with the ice cream truck around here? But we are going to have an expectation that you if you're a Christian person, you have seen something about Jesus and you want to tell other people what you've seen about Jesus Christ. We will expect that from every single person here at this church. In fact, if you don't want to tell other people about Jesus, you probably shouldn't keep coming to this church. I'll just be upfront with you right now, because we're going to ask you, who are you telling about Jesus Christ?

[00:42:06] We're not going to expect you to be hardcore Comando evangelist straight going into the places where there are very few Christians dare to go in the name of Jesus. We're just expecting. What do you know about Jesus?

[00:42:17] I'm expecting that you can testify. You can be a witness. Say a witness doesn't have to make something up. A witness doesn't have to say in an impressive, oppressive way. They don't have to be some public speaker. Here's what a witness does. Yeah, I saw this.

[00:42:32] And this really impacted me. And this changed me. And I couldn't believe it when I realized this. And it totally blew my mind. And that's what a witness does. They say what they have seen.

[00:42:44] How can I identify with Christ as my savior? Say that I see him as God, as my hope of salvation, and not want to witness to others the glory that I have seen in Jesus Christ.

[00:42:58] It doesn't make sense if your identity is in Jesus. You're gonna talk to other people about him.

[00:43:04] He says you're going to look at Matthew, Chapter 10. Go back to Matthew Chapter 10. Because when he's sending his disciples out and you gotta see this passage, this is an intense in your face, kind of a passage from Jesus Christ. This is Matthew 10, 32 to 33, which makes it very clear that telling the good news of Jesus is mandatory for all of his men and women. Matthew. Ten thirty. To everyone who acknowledges me before men, you own me. You say I'm not the guy, but I know who is. And you start pointing to me. You acknowledge me. I will also acknowledge before my father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my father who is in heaven. That's a pretty intense statement.

[00:43:53] On the day of judgment, when I'm standing up for you, I mean, basically it kind of sounds like from this passage, if you're acknowledging me, I'll stand up for you on the day of judgment. I'll claim you as one of my people. If you're not acknowledging me, I'm not going to stand up for you. If you just read this passage and none of the rest of the Bible, you would think people are going to heaven or not based on whether they acknowledge Jesus or not. Now, we don't believe that. Here we are. Like I said, we're not we're not a cult. We're not going to make you go talk about Jesus Christ to be saved. We don't believe that it's anything that we do that saves us. It's the work of Jesus that saves us. But here's what Jesus is saying. If you're really one of my people and evidence of my work in you is you own me. You claim me. You acknowledge me when it comes up that you should be talking about me. You're not ashamed and you go for it.

[00:44:45] Maybe you're nervous. Maybe you're anxious. But you own your relationship with me because that's your identity. Do you do that?

[00:44:55] Do you acknowledge Jesus Christ or do you deny him? He's using that as a test for you to see whether you really know him or not.

[00:45:03] Here in this passage.

[00:45:06] And I'm not I'm not asking you to do anything that doesn't come naturally, you you when you people bring up your kids, you have no problem talking about your kids.

[00:45:15] People bring up your work.

[00:45:16] Whatever you do for work, they ask you about your work. You kind of identify by yourself. You say, Yeah, I'm a I'm a fireman. Yeah, I'm a I'm a banker. Yeah, I'm a salesman. You like you'll even pitch yourself as your work. Right. I mean, it's not hard for people to talk about something they really identify with and have a relationship with.

[00:45:36] For example, we've got a guy here at our church that works at Google Orange County. Anybody ever heard of Google before? Anybody? A few of you guys have been on the Internet. And if anybody's heard of Google, they've kind of taken over. Right.

[00:45:47] And we've got a guy who. Who? Fred, good friend of mine. I've known him for a long time.

[00:45:52] And we were having a conversation one day. And I just happened to make the mistake in his presence of expressing how much I enjoy Apple products of technology. I mean, it was like our friendship was on the line, you guys. And this was on Thanksgiving Day. He was over at my house and all of a sudden I say something about Apple and it's like we're cutting more than Turkey all of a sudden, like the. It's intense. OK. It gets as thick as the gravy at the table. Right. And he starts telling me about Google is not just a search engine. They have all of these products that I've never heard about. But they've got their old laptop and they've got their own phones. And, you know, Google's making cars because the way we drive is really inefficient. And that's why there's traffic. And so we're going to just design cars and you'll just get in them and they'll drive for you because we believe we could drive better than you work Google. Right. And by the end, I was a believer. It was like, sign me up. I'll take one of the Google cars right now. You know, where where do I walk? The Isle Man. Right. Because that's two wheelers. That's what he does. Right. We've got a lady here at our church who works at the corporate office of Taco Bell. Right.

[00:47:04] She's actually taking me there. It's pretty cool. Building is one of the five. I don't know if you've seen it. She's taking me there and giving me a tour wants of Taco Bell. They've got all this awesome stuff. As I'm walking around on this tour, I'm not like. So what do you think about Del Taco? Like, I don't really bring that up. Right. Hey, when are you guys going to start serving burgers?

[00:47:22] I've noticed some other people do that, but you guys don't really seem to do that. All right.

[00:47:28] I don't I don't bring that stump up with her. She's been telling me now for over a year how Taco Bell has started serving breakfast and how great their breakfast is. She tells me and she'll start listing items on the menu about Taco Bell breakfast. And I'm over here in my head thinking I have a hard enough time digesting Taco Bell at lunch or dinner. I don't want to start my day that way. That sounds terrible, right? For over a year. She's persistent. She's just trying to tell me all the good things about Taco Bell. She's evangelizing me for Taco Bell breakfast and I'm holding out. I have I haven't even gone there yet. I said this at the last service. She came up to me in between services and gave me three gift cards to talk about.

[00:48:16] You really need to get over there. I love Jesus more than Taco Bell. But here, take take these. Right. I mean, that's just who she is. All I'm asking you to do is identify with who you identify with. If you're going to claim the name of Jesus as your salvation, if you're going to say that I've denied myself, I'm taking up my cross, I'm ending my life. And it's all for the following Jesus. But I don't want to talk to other people about it.

[00:48:45] It just doesn't make sense. It needs to be the last time we ever think that way. Today, right here. Right now. When the name Jesus comes up right now, America is turning in an anti Jesus direction. They are going as hard as they can away from God, and it is going to come up with your family gatherings. It is going to come up with your neighbors. It is going to come up with your coworkers. It is you are not going to be able to escape the reality of Jesus Christ being needed in America from this moment forward. And when that moment comes, when the door opens, that you could talk to somebody with, somebody brings up something and, you know, you could take it back to the one Jesus Christ. Are you going to acknowledge him or will you deny him?

[00:49:28] Say. That's when you find out who you really are. So you find out if you're really ashamed of Jesus or whether he's really yours and it's not about you anymore and it's about him, and you want everybody to know him, say.

[00:49:43] Go back to John, Chapter one in and there's so many different ways that that John expresses who Jesus is in this passage, we don't have time to look at all of them. But let's get this down for point number two here. Use your voice to spread the word. The first term that we used to learn about Jesus was that he's the word. The expression of God in our in our culture, where the mantra is that you have a voice. So get out there on YouTube and get out there on social media and let everybody hear you express yourself. And really, we realize that when we say everybody has a voice, that just means nobody really has a voice. This is what we're saying. But if you're just sitting there thinking, well, what do I have to say? What can I say with my little voice when there's so many things being said about so many topics and so many people? You have something worth saying. Use your voice to spread the word of Jesus Christ.

[00:50:37] I mean, there's always something worth talking about. It's worth getting nervous for, it's worth being awkward for. If you feel uncomfortable.

[00:50:44] Well, it's worth it to name the name of Jesus Christ and to talk about him. So use whatever platform, whatever opportunity you have to do that. And John the Baptist, he's got all these different ways in this one passage to point people to Christ. First thing he talks about, he can't even untie his sandal. We already looked at that there. And John, one twenty seven. Now get into the next section, verse twenty nine. Then the next day, he saw Jesus coming toward him. First way he talks about Jesus here. Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That's how he introduces people to Jesus. And this is he of whom I said after me. Now, here's something else I said about Jesus. After me comes a man who ranks before me because he was before me. And we talked about that. That's a way that John is saying Jesus is eternal, he's God. And then he says, I myself did not know him. But for this purpose, I came baptizing with water that he might be revealed to Israel. I'm just here to get the way ready for him. And John bore witness John just said what he saw. I saw the spirit. Now he's referring back to the baptism of Jesus Christ that you can read about in Matthew through you when Jesus gets baptized. The spirit comes down like a dove. And there's a voice from heaven saying, this is my son. And John is now telling people, hey, I baptize this guy. I myself did not know him, verse 33, but he who sent me to baptized with water said to me, he on whom you see the spirit descended remain. This is he who baptizes with all his spirit. And I have seen and I've bore witness that this is the son of God. God sent me out here to do baptizing in the wilderness here in this Jordan River. I'm baptizing people to turn from their sins to get ready for Jesus. And one day he comes to me, the spirit comes on him. I hear the voice of the father. And let me tell you, I saw him. The son of God is among us. That's the testimony of John. Let me just tell you what I've seen about Jesus Christ. Even though I'm older than him, he existed before me. Now I really want to zero in on this one introduction in verse twenty nine when you look at that with me. I mean, this is just a masterful way to talk about Jesus Christ when John says behold. So Jesus is literally coming toward him. So he's saying to some of his disciples, to the other people that are there. Look, behold. See, that guy may be pointing to Jesus. Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Now, I don't know what you think when you hear about that. Maybe it just sounds like something the Bible would say. But when you say the Lamb of God to the Jewish people in the first century, man, they knew what you were talking about when you started talking about a lamb. Now, I don't know what we think in America when we hear about a lamb. Mary had a little lamb maybe. Right. But at this time, man for the poor, the Jews that John is writing to here, they would have known that a lamb was an animal used as a sacrifice in the temple to atone for sin. And you can see that that's clearly what John is referring to when it says to take away the sin of the world. So this is from the beginning days of the Old Testament among the people of Israel that the high priest, the priest there in the temple, they would have been sacrificing lambs regularly to atone for the sins of the people. Sin is such a serious offense to a holy God that blood must be shed for sin. That is the idea in the Bible. Back in the Vidic is Leviticus Chapter five. It talks about sacrifice, as you can do to atone for your sins, including the killing of a lamb. Leviticus 1711 talks about how the wages of sin is death. And so something has to lose its life, lose its blood. That's where the life is in the blood. Something has to lose its blood to atone for sin in Exodus 29, going back a little bit further in the Old Testament. It says that regularly at the beginning of the day and at the end of the day of sacrifices in the temple, the priests would would slaughter lambs and offer them as sacrifices to start the day off, atoning for sins and to end the day, atoning for sins.

[00:55:10] So when you say somebody is the lamb now of God, the sacrificial substitute of God, that's registering in all kinds of ways with the audience that John the Baptist. I mean, this is a way that's culturally relevant. He's speaking to the people of his day in a way that they understand when he refers to Jesus as the lamb of God. In fact, I mean, the biggest Jewish holiday probably to this day is still maybe the Passover. Right. And this goes all the way back to when God delivers his people of Israel out of Egypt and God's doing the 10 plagues so that Pharaoh will finally let his people go in the tenth plague, the most brutal of all the plagues. Is that the angel of the Lord is going to come among the Egyptians and the Angel of the Lord is going to kill the first born son in every house of Egypt. I mean, just cutting the heart out of every family, going after the firstborn son. But if the Israelites took a lamb and if they slaughtered that lamb, if they sacrificed it and they put its blood over the doorpost of their house, then the angel of the Lord that's coming to do God's judgment and to kill the firstborn sons, it will pass over the House that has the blood of the lamb on its door. And I always paid attention to that story when we were growing up because I was the firstborn son at my house and I was like, yeah, we're going to kill that lamb here at this house. That's right. I was sharing that with a with a lady this week. I was telling her we were going to talk about how Jesus is the lamb of God.

[00:56:50] And she said, all that really hurts when you talk about killing lambs. And I'm like, well, that's the whole point.

[00:56:56] I mean, if you go back to Exodus Chapter 12 and you read about the institution of the Passover. This was on the 14th day of the month that they slit the throat of the lamb and spread its blood over their doorpost. Well, they had to bring the lamb into their house on the 10th day of the month. And so here comes sweet, little, perfect, spotless lammy that now has to live in your house from the 10th to the 14th.

[00:57:22] So even if you're not an animal lover by the 14th, you're feeling something for this beautiful little lamb right at the point when dad comes and slits its throat. Right. That was the whole point. Like, there must be a penalty for sin. We know clearly that Romans six twenty three says the wages of sin is death. That's what our sin gets us. Something has to die to atone for sin.

[00:57:49] It must be judged. And so they would kill the lamb and they would feel it. And the kids would cry. And it would be a little bit gross that the blood of the lamb would be over the door of your house. But it was to show that if God's going to pass over us for judgment, then there must be a sacrifice for our sins.

[00:58:12] Now, ultimately, the story of the lamb goes back to the first Jew, the father of the entire nation. The father with many sons, Abraham, as we were talking about God made a promise to Abraham. He told him to leave the land, that he knew to leave his family to move out, not knowing where he was going. And he brought him to the nation of Israel and he promised him the land. And he said from you, I will make a great multitude of people. I will make a nation from you that will bless all the other nations of the world. An amazing promise to one man guy named Abraham. Now, the son that Abraham is waiting for is going to become this nation. Who's going to continue now, this epic genealogy that's going to go all the way till our day. That son never seemed to come for Abraham. It wasn't until he was one hundred years old that his son Isaac was born and that tested his faith the entire time. The faith of him and his wife, Sarah, who was nine years old when their son Isaac was born.

[00:59:13] And now they have this son. That son must have been to them the precious thing. The answer to all of the promises, the ruly, the fulfillment of their entire lives. They would have seen in that son. And in Genesis Chapter 22, God comes to Abraham and he says, take your son, your one and only son, your son, whom you love, and go sacrifice him to me.

[00:59:37] I mean, just a horrific thing to hear from God to kill your own son and what is Abraham do? The next morning he gets up right away and he sets out to this mountain, to this place where God has told him to go sacrifice his son. And every Jew would have known the story of Father Abraham and his son Isaac walking together on the journey to the place of the sacrifice and in Genesis 22, verse seven. Isaac said to his father, a perceptive young man here. He says, My father and his father, Abraham, said, Here I am, my son now. I like this kind of dialog. We need to bring this back. Hey, Dad. Yes, my son. You may now speak to me. I mean, this is this is good. I like this father. Here I am, my son.

[01:00:27] And look at what Isaac's catching on to. He said, look, dad. We've got the fire and the wood. But where is the lamb for the burnt offering? Where's the sacrifice, Dad? Are you noticing we're missing something?

[01:00:42] And here's a verse that John the Baptist is referring to. Genesis, chapter 22, verse eight. Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering.

[01:00:55] My son.

[01:00:57] And Abraham went up to the place that God told him there on the mount and he set up his son Isaac, and he put him on there and he raised the knife to kill his own son. And an angel of the Lord told him, don't do it. There was just a test to see if you really trusted God. It was never his intention for you to kill your son. And behold, there's an animal caught in the thicket that you can use for your sacrifice. And you think, well, why in the world would God have Abraham do that and think about killing his own son on that spot that they had to walk to? Because on that very same spot some day, God was going to sacrifice his own son on that spot. His one and only son, the son whom he loved, the son that he had a perfect relationship with. For all of eternity past, they created the world together. And then he sent his son into this world. The creator creator becoming the creation. And he becomes the sacrifice of God for your sin.

[01:01:57] Say.

[01:01:58] Jesus Christ comes to die, to take away the sins of the entire world.

[01:02:04] The offer is now on the table for all people that Jesus is the lamb who will pay for your sins.

[01:02:12] He is the substitute. So you don't have to die. His blood has been shed, so yours never has to be. And you can now know eternal life. John says, look at this guy. He is the lamb of God. He is your sacrifice. He is the atonement for all of your sins. And not just for us Jews, for the whole world, for all people, for everybody sitting here this morning. Jesus can save you from all of your sins.

[01:02:36] That's what he's saying when he says he's the lamb of God. It's a beautiful picture of God offering his son to sacrifice for you. Do you identify with that?

[01:02:52] Have you put your faith in that? Is that the hope that you have of eternal life, that your sins have been forgiven? Is Jesus sacrifice his body and shed his blood and your sin has been paid for? It's been paid in full because of the perfect sacrifice, a lamb once and for all. We don't need sacrifices. We're not killing lambs anymore because Jesus was the Lamb of God.

[01:03:15] Covering all of our CNN. Do you believe that?

[01:03:19] Guru Isaiah Chapter 53, we already referenced Isaiah earlier. So we know John the Baptist was familiar with it and there's so many references to the lamb in the Old Testament. But perhaps the most famous one is Isaiah, Chapter 53. I mean, if we're gonna start looking at prophecies from the Old Testament that talk about who Jesus was, this is written six hundred years. And the Dead Sea Scrolls verify that Isaiah was written before the time of Jesus Christ. We believe six hundred years before the time of Christ. Isaiah writes this prophecy about how Jesus is going to die. Look at it with me in Isaiah. Chapter 53, verse three. Here's a description. Six hundred years before Jesus is even born. Before John the Baptist comes.

[01:04:08] This is a prophecy about this servant. This one who's coming from the Lord. He was despised and rejected by men. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised. And we esteemed him the.

[01:04:28] Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken.

[01:04:34] He was smitten by God and afflicted. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds. We are healed.

[01:04:49] Now, here's an animal analogy for us all we, like sheep, have gone astray, referring to our sin. We have turned every one to his own way and the Lord has laid on him. The iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb. Here it is, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, like a sheep that before its shears is silent. So he opened not his mouth, like a lamb on its way to be sacrificed. That doesn't even realize what's about to happen to it. So Jesus fully knowing what's going to happen to him. He doesn't complain. He doesn't open his mouth. He doesn't say this isn't right. As the soldiers are mocking him and saying prophesy, who hit you? And beating a crown of thorns into his skull and hitting him and whipping him on his back so that his bare flesh is exposed because the skin has been peeled away. He's not complaining. He's not telling them what they're going to get for doing this to him. No, without a word, he suffers. Then he asked to carry his own cross. He's now beaten down and so weak he cannot even bear the weight of the wood that he's going to be crucified on. So they get another man to carry his cross up there. Doesn't say anything is they nail his hands into the cross. He doesn't cry out about the injustice. This is as they nail is feed into the cross.

[01:06:21] He has to lift himself up to breathe to get enough oxygen because of the way that his body would slump there on the cross. And so he has to rub is exposed flesh on the back of his body up against this piece of wood to get a breath. Because when you died on a cross, they tortured you before they executed you, you suffered and then you died. And there's no complaining.

[01:06:50] Now, that's Jesus Christ. That's what he's doing. It says for you. Your lamb, your sacrifice to take away your sin. Have you put your faith in Jesus Christ? Is that how you're going to heaven right there? Is that Brud blood of Jesus?

[01:07:08] So precious to you that spilled blood of Jesus that came off of his body and went down on the cross, probably making a little pool of blood down there at the feet of the cross? Is that the most precious substance to you in the entire world? Because that's what paid for your sin, because somebody had to die because of what you've done. Somebody had to die because you have fallen short of the perfect standard of God. Somebody had to pay for and Jesus was your life. The Lamb of God.

[01:07:42] To take away the sin of the world, he's our sacrifice.

[01:07:47] My friends, he's our hope of eternal life. How could we know that? How could we see that? And how could we understand the salvation we have in Jesus Christ and not want to talk to somebody else about.

[01:08:04] It completely baffles the imagination. It makes us wonder, do I even really know about the sacrifice of someone who would pay for all of my sins if I wouldn't want to share that good news with everyone I know? To tell you that somebody has already done. The punishment for your son. He's already paid it for you.

[01:08:29] And here at this church, that's that's the greatest news to us. That's what this church is all about.

[01:08:34] In fact, we're going to call the ushers and they're going to start coming forward and we're going to hand out here the elements of communion. And you're going to get a little piece of bread, which Rick represents the body of Jesus that was sacrificed for you.

[01:08:47] And you're going to get a little drink here that represents the blood of Jesus that was shed for you in. The message here is that Jesus died to pay for your sin. This is the message we have to tell the world. Let's get this down for point number three. I want to tell the world that Jesus is greater than your sin.

[01:09:05] And not only did he die and pay for it, you can be forgiven for it, but it's so much better to know Jesus. It's so much better to have this eternal life where you've turned from sin and you're following Christ. It's so much better. Really, it would be better for everybody in America instead of expressing themselves. To deny themselves really would be better for every soul in America, instead of following their own path to follow the path of Jesus to the cross where he bled for them, where he offered himself for them. And I got a message. I got something worth saying at any given moment of the day and that Jesus Christ has died for my sins. He sacrificed himself so I could have his life. Can I give a man from any man if this is our message here at CompassHB Bible Church? So if we're going to celebrate a birthday, this is how we're going to do it. We're going to say that Jesus is our sacrifice, his body, his blood.

[01:10:00] And we're going to say here at this church, worthy is the lamb that was slain for us. If you never knew about the lamb and what it means, man, everybody's going to know about it and have heaven. Every nation, every tribe, every Tom.

[01:10:14] We're all going to shout out together when he's there in our presence. All of us who have been saved by him, we are all going to say worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive glory and honor and blessing and power. And everybody is going to say a man, and that's what it's gonna be.

[01:10:33] And all we're doing here at this church is we're given a little glimpse when we come here to worship. Just a little glimpse of what it's gonna be like to worship the one who died so that we might live. All we're doing when we go out there into the streets is we're just giving people a little glimpse that there is hope for them and their sin that they don't have to die in that sin because Jesus already did. So I hope everybody it'll be significant to you and we take these elements and then you will remember the death of Jesus. And it says that when we take these elements, we proclaim the Lord's death. Until he comes, we prepare the way of the Lord. And I just got to appeal to you right now if you know that you're still in sin here today. If you've never come to Jesus confessing your sins and praising him for his sacrificial death on that cross and asking him to wash your sins away and to give you this new life and through the sacrifice of his body, then then that's what you need to do. Don't worry about this symbol of communion. It would be hypocrisy for us to take elements that represent Jesus dying for our sin while we're still continuing in sin in our life. Please don't do that. Please don't dishonor Jesus by taking the elements in that way. Now would be the time for you to see this sacrifice is here to take away your sins, not only to forgive you for them once and for all, but so you don't have to stay in them anymore. To give you a new life. And someday you you will be made perfect in the presence of Jesus Christ and you will be like him and you will never seen again. That promise is for everybody here. The blood of Jesus can wash your sins away today. Use this time to call out to him. Everyone who comes to him broken over their sin. He does not despise them. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. So I pray that if you know your son has not been forgiven, call on the Lord. Even now, while the ushers come forward. Let me pray God, we pray. We pray to you. And we want to be. We want to tell the world. Behold the lamb of God who takes away our sin. And now we praise the name of Jesus Christ at this church. That it's through his death. By the shedding of his blood. By the sacrifice of his body. Don't we have life? And so we do this in remembrance of Jesus Christ, God, that we pray this in Jesus name. A man. Just when you get the elements. Wait, we'll all do it together after this. So.

[01:14:09] Young.

[01:17:05] To me is.

[01:17:14] So I said.

[01:18:21] As we eat this bread and drink this cup, we say, behold the Lamb of God who has taken away our sin. We do. Want to say that worthy is the lamb who was slain. And God, we pray that that would always be the message here at this church would be the shed blood and the sacrifice body of Jesus Christ. As the hope of our salvation, God, that it would not be about us, but that we would be humble because we're so excited about Jesus Christ and then we would be bold to get this message out in the streets. God. So we use us here, accomplice HDB to prepare the way of King Jesus as he gets ready to return and bring many souls and get them ready. For the day, we're gonna see Jesus and we pray this in Jesus name.