(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

So last week we did start the book of John and I really felt like we had to cut it in half. So this is, we're still up to John chapter 1 and we started there in verse number 19 because I feel like verse number 19 we sort of started new thoughts. You know, verses 1 to 18 we spoke, you know, we learnt a lot about who Christ was and, you know, directly from the Apostle Paul. But when we start verse number 19 it says, and this is the record of John. The toad for the sermon tonight is the record of John for, and this is the record of John. You don't have to say about this Jesus, you know, about this one who became flesh. And this is the record of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who art thou? You see, the religious leaders of this time, they were surprised that, of John's ministry. They were surprised just how successful he was. There were many people coming unto him, right, he was pointing them to Christ. He was doing baptisms and so that they come and you'll see, you'll soon see, they're basically asking you, like, what kind of authority do you have? Like, are you one of these prophets that we've heard about? You know, what gives you authority to have this ministry? And so that's why they want to come and ask of John, like, you know, they want to ask him, you know, who art thou? Like, what are you all about, John? Verse number 20, and he confessed, and denied not, but confessed, I am not the Christ. Okay, so he's not coming around saying, look, I'm Jesus, I'm the Christ, okay, you know, he's making it very clear that he's not the Christ. Verse number 21, and they asked him, what then? Art thou Elias? Now Elias is Elijah, right, Elijah in the Bible. They ask him, are you Elijah? Why would they ask him that question, are you Elijah? And he sayeth, I am not. He says, I'm not Elijah. That's quite interesting. And then they say, and then they say, art thou that prophet? We'll soon talk about who that prophet is in a moment, okay, art thou that prophet? And he answered, no. So I'm not Elijah, I'm not Elias, I'm not that prophet, okay. Now this is where some people think there's some kind of contradiction in the Bible. You know, say, well, hold on, is John the Baptist Elijah? Because if you keep your finger there, come with me to the book of Matthew. Come to Matthew chapter 17, please. Matthew chapter 17 and verse number 10. Matthew chapter 17 and verse number 10. So as I said, the title for the sermon tonight is The Record of John. We want to know who this John the Baptist is. Remember, we're looking at the book of John, but we're looking at John, the one, the author of the book of John is John the Apostle, John the disciple. But the record of John that we're reading about here is John the Baptist, another John, a separate John, okay. Just so you guys don't get confused by the Johns. But Matthew chapter 17, verse number 10. Matthew chapter 17 and verse number 10. And his disciples asked him saying, why then do the scribes, sorry, why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? So you see the religious leaders, the scribes, the Pharisees, they knew that Elias must first come before the Messiah would come. They asked Jesus Christ this question. You know, this is what the scribes say. Why are they saying this? Verse number 11, and Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come and restore all things. But I say unto you that Elias is come already. And they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of Man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist. Isn't that interesting? So Jesus Christ says, look, about John the Baptist, this is Elias. This is the one that was to come before the Christ, before the Messiah. But then when they asked John the Baptist the question, are you Elias? He says, well, no, I'm not Elias. So who's telling the truth? Is there a contradiction in the scriptures? John the Baptist says he's not. Jesus Christ says that he is Elias. Okay, so the scribes, the Pharisees, they kind of, they kind of understand, they do understand the scriptures to certain amounts. They do get, you know, one of the struggles they had about Jesus Christ is they said, no, surely before the Christ comes, before the Messiah comes, surely Elias must come first. They had a hard time. They did not receive John the Baptist as this Elias that we read about. Jesus Christ makes it clear, yes, it was John the Baptist, Elias was John the Baptist. In what sense though? You know, in what sense? You know, was John the Baptist a reincarnated Elias? Did John the Baptist not know that he is Elias? I mean, why is John the Baptist responding in that way that, you know, that he's not Elias? Well, come with me now to the book of Luke. Come with me to the book of Luke, Luke chapter one. Come with me to the book of Luke chapter one. Now, while you're turning to Luke chapter one, I'm going to read to you from Malachi, okay, the last book of the Old Testament. And when the scribes and Pharisees are asking this question, are you Elias? You know, it's coming back from the prophet Malachi. Okay, I'll read it to you quickly. Malachi chapter four, verse number five. It says, this is the last book of the Old Testament. Okay, it says, Malachi four, five. Behold, these are the words of the Lord, behold, I will send unto you Elijah, the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. You see, God did tell Malachi, Malachi did prophesy of this, that God would send Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And of course, we know that day of the Lord as the wrath of God to come in the future. But, you know, some people, you know, take the view, well, maybe that's Elijah, maybe Elijah is one of those two witnesses that you read about the book of Revelation, maybe, I don't know for sure. But the fact is that if John Baptist came and he was Elijah, as Jesus Christ said, then this has already been fulfilled because he has already come before the great and dreadful day of the Lord, okay? But the Pharisees and the scribes had a hard time understanding that there were gonna be two comings of Christ, that Christ would come in Bethlehem's manger, in humility, and then he would come later on, okay, once again, when the Lord God would pour out his wrath upon this earth, the second coming of Christ. But they had this understanding that Elijah must first come, that Elijah would turn the hearts of the children to the fathers, and the father's hearts to the children. We see that there in Malachi. Well, in Luke chapter one, we have the angel of the Lord that comes to John the Baptist's father, Zacharias, and gives him this prophecy about John the Baptist. Look at it in Luke chapter one, verse number 16. Luke chapter one, verse number 16, he prophesies this about John the Baptist. He says, behold, sorry, wrong passage. Luke chapter one, verse number 16. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. So John the Baptist is going to be a powerful soul winner. He's going to turn many of the hearts of the people to the Lord their God. Look at verse number 17. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias. So is he actually Elias reincarnated? No. But he came in the spirit and the power of Elias. So when John the Baptist says, no, he's not Elias, he's correct. He's not reincarnated Elias. But Jesus Christ is also correct that it is Elias because he came in the power and the spirit of Elias, okay? You know, the Holy Spirit had given Elijah a great ability, a great power to be a powerful preacher. And by that same boldness and that same spirit and power that Elijah had, that would also be given to John the Baptist. It's quite interesting. So when we read about that back in Malachi, that the Lord was sending Elijah, yeah, he did. He sent Elijah the same spirit and power of Elijah, but through John the Baptist, a separate individual person, okay? So is John the Baptist Elijah? Well, both yes and no, okay? He's not reincarnated, his own separate person, but he came in the power and the spirit of Elijah. But let's keep going there. Verse number 17. Let me show you how it connects back to Malachi. It says, and he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. You see, he was coming to teach wisdom. He was preaching against the disobedience of the people. He was telling them, hey, you gotta turn your hearts back to the Lord. He was opening the door. He was getting people ready to receive Christ when he would come to this earth. So interesting, it says to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. You see, John the Baptist knew his mission. He knew that it was all about pointing people to the Lord so he of course pointed people to Jesus Christ. Come with me back to John chapter one. John chapter one, verse number 22. So again, the scribes, the Pharisees, the priests, the Levites, they all kind of get it. They realize Elias needs to come first before you start pointing people to Christ. Are you that guy? He goes, no, I'm not, okay. Look at verse number 22, it says, Then said they unto him, who art thou? That we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? Verse number 23, he said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord as said the prophet, Isaias. Because that's who I am. I'm a voice crying out in the wilderness. Isaiah prophesied of me, is what he's saying there, right? He's making straight the way of the Lord. Again, he knows his mission. He knows he's there to bring a people ready for the Lord. And I want to just pick up these few things that we're reading about here. John the Baptist knows that the one that comes after him is the Lord. He knows it's the Lord God, okay? He knows who Jesus Christ is. Because as we keep going through this chapter, you probably have a few questions, but I'll help you understand this. If you can come with me, keep your finger then, come with me to Isaiah. So he said that the prophet, Isaias, spoke of him. So let's go to Isaiah chapter 40. Let's see what Isaiah did right about this in Isaiah chapter 40, verse number three. Isaiah chapter 40 and verse number three. Isaiah chapter 40 and verse number three. Isaiah chapter 40 and verse number three. One thing that's really interesting about, John the Baptist and Jesus, is the way they approach people, the way they speak to people. They have the ability to, and of course, Jesus Christ, he's the Lord God, he knows all things, but they have an ability to recognise if people are sincere or not sincere. And when people are sincere, seeking the Lord, all the information, all the knowledge is made available to them. But when you see other people, like the scribes asking these questions, being critical of John the Baptist, you know, they don't really answer as clearly as you think they should potentially, right? Because they can perceive these people are up to trouble. These are no good people, they're not sincere. They're not truly seeking the answer. But Isaiah chapter 40, verse number three, this is where we read about this prophecy of John the Baptist. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straits in the desert a highway, look at this, a highway for our God. See, when he says the Lord, he knows he's speaking about God. He says, this is me, this is what I'm doing. I'm preparing a highway for our God. He knows the one that's coming after him is God. You see that? Because he spoke about that, that's who I am. Isaiah prophesied of me. Verse number four, every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. Wow, because he gets that job. He reveals, behold, the Lamb of God. We'll still get to that later on. And all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. The voice said, cry. Remember, here's the voice crying in the wilderness. The voice said, cry. And he said, what shall I cry? So now we see a little bit about, we see in the Old Testament what John the Baptist was preaching, okay? So he's like, what am I gonna cry about? He goes, all flesh is grass. This is what he's preaching. He says, look, you're just grass, okay? And all the goodness thereof is as a flower of the field. Your good works, it's like the flowers, that bud, okay? But then he says in verse number seven, the grass withereth, the flower fadeth. Like you're gonna pass away, you're going to die one day. Even your works, they're all gonna fade. It's nothing, your works are nothing, right? But then he says this, because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it, surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. This is what John the Baptist was preaching. This was prophesied in Isaiah. Because what am I gonna cry about? This is what you're crying about. Tell people they're going to perish. Tell them the good works aren't eternal, right? Of course we understand this, that good works cannot get you saved. You're all gonna perish one day. Hey, but the word of our God shall stand forever. And this is not some coincidence or anything like that. God's got these words here in the Bible for a reason. When we started to learn about John chapter one, how were we introduced firstly to Jesus Christ in the beginning was the word. In the beginning was the word, okay? And what is John the Baptist preaching? The grass withereth and the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Now I know we often preach about the Bible being the word of God. Of course it's the word of God. But Jesus Christ is the word as well. You cannot separate Jesus from the scriptures, okay? You cannot separate it. You know, when John the Baptist is saying these words, you know, but the word of our God shall stand forever. He says, look, if you want to stand forever, you've got to be in the word. You've got to know the word. The word was made flesh, the Bible tells us. We saw that last week, didn't we? So, you know, you can kind of see how it all starts to come together. You know, I love the Bible. It's this beautiful puzzle. And it starts to connect and go, wow. Look how deep the Bible truly is. You know, we can see a little bit of what John the Baptist was preaching going back to Isaiah. Come back with me to John chapter one, verse number 24. John chapter one, verse number 24. Now again, I want you to show you that John the Baptist knows that Jesus is God. He knows it, okay? He's not just a special man. He's not just a special prophet in the eyes of John the Baptist. He knows it's God, okay? Verse number 24. And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him and said unto him, why baptize us thou then, if thou be not the Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet. Remember again, we see where we know who Christ is, we know who Elias is, neither that prophet, that prophet gets mentioned again. So let me just tell you who that person is. If you can come with me to the book of Acts, come with me to the book of Acts chapter three. Acts chapter three, please. Acts chapter three. Who is that prophet that they keep referring to? Cause that prophet does not have a name that we read about in the Old Testament scriptures. Now I'm gonna quickly read to you from Deuteronomy 18. You turn to Acts chapter three. Deuteronomy chapter 18, verse number 15. God reveals this to Moses and he speaks about this in Deuteronomy 18, 15. He says, the Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren like unto me, unto him ye shall hearken. Now that passage in the Old Testament, you might overlook that and go, well, Moses could be talking about any prophet. I mean, there were many prophets after Moses, maybe God's, you know, he's referring to one of the Old Testament prophets potentially, but we actually get the identity of this prophet in the book of Acts. Acts chapter three, verse number 20. Acts chapter three, verse number 20. And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God have spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. So he says, all the holy prophets of old spoke of Christ. Then he says this in verse number 22. For Moses truly said unto the fathers, a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me, him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you, which is what I read about to you in Deuteronomy 18, 15. So that prophet once again is Jesus Christ, but the scribes of Pharisees, they couldn't connect it. Well, the Christ and the prophet, they could not connect that. Okay, but we see in the New Testament that it's the same person. And if you can keep going there in verse number 23, it says, and it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people. So you can see how important it is that you would hear the prophet, you would hear Jesus, of course, receive him as Savior, you'd understand who he is. Otherwise, you'd be destroyed. Okay, but I just wanna show you once again, you know, the scribes of Pharisees, they kind of get the scriptures, but they're just not connecting all the dots, right? Now back to John chapter one, John chapter one, verse number 26. John chapter one, verse number 26. John answered them saying, I baptize with water, but there standeth one among you whom ye know not. Now I kinda get the picture here, I could be wrong. I get the picture here, obviously, John's speaking to the Jews here, there are many people listening to his preaching, many people getting baptized. It could be that Christ is already in that group right there. Because it says, and there standeth one among you whom ye know not. Like Christ might be right there in the group, potentially, I'm not sure, okay? But that's what it sounds like to me. And so Christ is just there, listening to John the Baptist talk and preach, all right? And no one realizes, oh, that's actually him right there. That's pointing people to, right? Verse number 27. He it is, who come in after me, is preferred before me, whose shoes latchet I am not worthy to unloose. These things were done in Befabara, beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. All right, look at verse number 29. Then it says, the next day, so this is the next day after he said these things to the Jews there. The next day, John seeeth Jesus come in unto him, and sayeth, behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Well, how profound is that? You know, he knows who he is. His whole ministry was to get to this point, okay? So I assume at this point, Christ was probably in the congregation, in the midst of the people. The next day, Christ says, all right, it's time. And he steps out, he walks to John to get baptized to start his ministry, and John immediately recognized that's him. Behold, the Lamb of God. You know, by saying these words, he knows exactly what he's saying, the Lamb of God. He knows that this is going to be our sacrifice. We already saw that he knows that it's God, but he says, now this is the Lamb of God, though. He's going to sacrifice himself. He's going to take away the sin of the world. You know, 1 Peter 1.19, when it's talking about what we're redeemed by, it says that we're redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish and without spots. So when he says, behold, the Lamb of God, this is the Lamb without blemish, without spots, without sin, you know, without a sin nature, no iniquity in Jesus Christ. And this immediately, you know, you already know this, but you know, it should just bring us back to the Old Testament, how many times they would offer up sacrifices, they would slay a creature or a lamb that shed that blood. And all of that is just a point, it's just a picture. It's an object lesson of who Christ would be, that he would be that lamb. He would be the sacrifice that would take the sins from the world. And the reason I'm just trying to drum home exactly, he knows Jesus is God. He knows he's the Lamb of God that's going to take away the sins of the world. But there is something about Jesus that he's not familiar with as of yet, as we keep reading this, okay? Let's keep going there. Verse number 30. This is he of whom I said, after me cometh a man, which is preferred before me, for he was before me. Because this is what I've been talking about this whole time. He's before me. Even though he's after me, he's before me, and he's preferred before me. And we saw last week, of course, he's getting, acknowledging that once again, that Jesus Christ is eternal, that he's God, okay? But then he says this in verse number 31. And I knew him not. I remember when I first would read the book of John, I didn't understand that. Hold on, John, I mean, you've just been proclaiming Christ, you've been preaching Christ this whole time, right? You know that you're the prophet to come before the Lord. You revealed him as the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. And then he says, and I knew him not. Doesn't that make you wonder a little bit? What didn't you know about him? What didn't you know? Let's keep going there. And I knew him not, but that he should be made a man of God. But that he should be made manifest to Israel. Therefore, am I come baptizing with water. And John bare record, saying, now what takes place between verse number 31 and verse number 32 is that Jesus gets baptized. We get great records of this in the other apostles. We get a quick summary, just a quick overview here of what takes place. But as far as the timeline goes, John the Baptist has just baptized Jesus, okay? Then it says in verse number 32, and John bare record saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and it abode upon him. So you may recall that happened when Jesus Christ was baptized. I'm going to quickly read to you from Luke 3 22. It says after Jesus Christ was baptized and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him. And a voice came from heaven, which said, thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased. So when John the Baptist baptized Jesus, we saw the nature of God revealed right there, right? We see the Son of God being baptized. We see the Holy Spirit descend upon him. And we hear the voice of the Father saying, this is my beloved Son. So this is what John the Baptist experienced going through this. So you need to keep this in mind as we keep reading. Let's keep going there in verse number 33. Cause he says, and I knew him not. Again, right? He said that in verse number 31, and I knew him not. Verse number 33, and it says, and I knew him not. At this point you're like, hold on, understand. You heard the voice of the Father, the Holy Ghost came upon Jesus. And he's still saying, you didn't know. And I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, so the one that sent him we saw last week was God, remember? God sent John the Baptist. So the same one that sent him to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom thou shall see the Spirit descending and remain on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. So John the Baptist, when this takes place, when you see the Spirit of God coming upon him, this is the one that's going to baptize with the Holy Ghost. Now, he says this in verse number 34, and I saw, so he saw the Spirit fall upon Jesus, and I saw this and bear record that this is the Son of God. That's the whole thing. He goes, I knew he's God, I knew he's the Lamb of God, but now I get it, because I didn't know before, now I get it, this is the Son of God. And like for us, it goes over our heads, because of course we know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Like we understand that, right? I mean, even false religions, they refer to Jesus Christ as the Son of God. We need to understand that as we enter into the New Testament, Jesus Christ is the one that reveals to us the nature of God. I've said it many times in sermons in the past, that the Trinity was not a well-known doctrine in the Old Testament. Even though you'll find the Trinity in the Old Testament, it was not well-known until Christ came, and he's really the one that expressed unto us the nature of God, because no man has seen the Father except the Son, which is in the bosom of the Father. He has declared him, remember that? So Jesus Christ came on the scene, teaching us more about God than we've ever known before. John the Baptist knew, okay, Jesus is God. He knew this is the Lamb, but now he goes, and I knew him not, now he bears record, this is the Son of God. So he realises the nature of God, the triune nature of God. He saw the Spirit, he heard the voice of the Father. He says, this is the Son of God. You see, the doctrine of the Trinity started to just formulate in his mind. Now he knows who Christ truly is. Of course he's God, I'm not trying to take away his deity, you know that. One God in three persons, but he recognises this is his record that this is the Son of God. We need to highlight all of these aspects of Jesus Christ. You know, I've been criticised recently for saying, oh, you guys just teach that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, not that he's God. Of course he's God, okay, but he's also the Son of God. Okay, we need to learn about the Son of God because it's through the Son that we have access to the Father. It's through the Son that baptises us with the Holy Ghost. It's all about the Son. You know, to truly know God, you must truly know the Son, okay? The Word manifest in the flesh, the Word of God, okay? So this is exciting for John the Baptist. Like for us, we know the Son of God, right? It's like, we grew up knowing that, right? But not to join the Baptist, this is all new to him. This is a new doctrine. It's like, man, wow, I get it now. It's all making sense to me. I did not know him before, now I get it. Now I truly know who he is. Like he's my cousin, okay? He's God, he's the Lamb of God, but he's the Son of God. He's the Son of God. Isn't that amazing? As I said, the title for the sermon tonight is The Record of John. John Baptist gets excited about this new lesson that he's learned. You know, this new awareness that he has of Jesus Christ, and of course it would have helped hearing the Father say, this is my beloved Son, seeing the Spirit fall upon him. Oh, now I get it. This is the Son. Verse number 35. Again, the next day, after John stood, and two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, behold the Lamb of God. Once again, he's still pointing people to Christ. And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. You know, brethren, that's what I want. You know, in church, you come to hear this crazy pastor preach, okay? You know what I want to say to you? Just follow Jesus. Like, have your eyes on Jesus Christ. Please don't make me your standard. You know, the standard of Christ is much higher than my personal standard. I'm trying to increase. I'm trying to be more like Christ. But brethren, I'm limited. I've got a sinful nature. You know what? Please don't set your eyes on any pastor and think, this is the standard I need to reach. No, you need to reach the standard of Christ. Keep working to be like Christ. One day I'm gonna do something that you're not gonna like. One day I'm gonna say something and offend you. It's gonna happen, okay? But I don't want you out of church. I want you to realize, well, my pastor's just a sinner. Okay? My pastor's just another man, a sinner saved by grace. My eyes ought to be on Jesus. Okay, John the Baptist goes, look, this is the Lamb of God, alright? He says this to his disciples. And like I said, verse number 37, and the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. And you follow Jesus. Okay? You follow Jesus. Look, I hope I can be a good example. You know, I hope I can be a good leader. But really, I don't want you guys being led to follow me. I want us to come together as we seek to follow Christ together in your life of this church. I love that about John. You know, he's not trying to hold on. Well, you guys are my church members. How dare you go to the church next door? Right? Go there. Jesus, that's what it's all about. I love it. Verse number 38. Then Jesus turned and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say been interpreted Master, where dwellest thou? He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. So they go and figure out where Jesus was staying. Okay, he was staying somewhere, and it was a bit late, so they end up staying the night with Jesus. All right, verse number 40. One of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. Okay, so the two disciples that left, one of them was Andrew. You know, the one that would become a disciple, an apostle of Jesus Christ, Simon Peter's brother. Verse number 41. I love this. He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah's, which is been interpreted the Christ. I love it, that he cares for his own brother. He goes to his brother first. Hey Peter, Simon Peter, we found him. We found the Messiah, the one that is the Christ, interpreted the Christ. And brethren again, it's really important for us to keep in mind that Messiah is Christ. It's the same, okay? Messiah is Christ. And it's almost like, I can't believe that I even have to say that. Because it's so clear in the scriptures that Messiah is the Christ. And the reason I'm saying that is because you've got this independent, fundamental Baptist evangelist, Sam Gipp in America, very popular man, I've heard him preach. He went to preach at one of my old churches once. And I used to like his material about the King James Bible. He had some great material in the King James Bible. I'm sure many of you heard it, it's all over the internet now, right? He's gone out preaching that Jesus is not his Messiah. He said it in those words. He said the Messiah was for the Jews. I'm of Gentile stock. So he says that Jesus is not his Messiah. You say, well maybe he misspoke. Look, I sometimes misspeak, okay? But pretty quickly you know when I misspoke. Listen, he said it multiple times in multiple sermons. He's dug his heels in and he says, no, Jesus is not his Messiah. Brethren, there are wolves. There are wolves in independent Baptist churches. Wolves in sheep's clothing. And look, what is he truly saying? If Jesus is not his Messiah, then Jesus is not his Christ. That's what he's saying. Again, he misspoke. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. Look, I understand misspeaking. I'm very forgiving, because I know how many times I misspeak when I preach. Someone says, oh, you said Romans instead of Revelation, or you said Jesus instead of Satan or something. Okay, I'm sorry. But no, he dug his heels in, sermon after sermon after sermon, Jesus is not his Messiah. Please keep your finger there and come with me to the book of Galatians. Galatians chapter three, please. Galatians chapter three, verse number 13. Galatians chapter three and verse number 13. And look, you know, Sam, like I told you, I have nothing personal against this guy. Like I liked his material. But when you start preaching in Baptist church that Jesus is not your Messiah, it's like, there should be alarm bells going off. There should be red flags. Look, I don't always agree with every preacher behind the pulpit. Like I don't always agree with some of the men that stand behind this pulpit and you preach. All right? But if you're saying something that is just outright heresy, you've gotta call it out. You're just gonna say, look, this has gone too far. This is not just a different opinion or a different interpretation on a passage that might be a little bit difficult to understand. This is full blown heresy. Look at Galatians 3, 13. Christ or Messiah, if you wanna say that. Christ or Messiah have redeemed us from the curse of the law. So if Jesus is not your Messiah, have you been redeemed from the curse of the law? Being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, through Jesus the Messiah, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. See, salvation. I mean, generally speaking, we don't have to make this a major issue. Most people just understand and accept easily because it's so black and white in the scriptures. When you say Jesus Christ, if they're asking about the Messiah, they know, okay, you're talking about Jesus. You're talking about Christ. Most people understand that. But you don't have to understand that salvation, the promise given to Abraham and to us, salvation is through the Christ, through Messiah, through Jesus Christ. If Jesus Christ is not your Messiah, then you're not saved. You're still under the curse. Sam Gibb is still under that curse. Because the Bible tells me so. That's why. I mean, even a verse that we commonly use when we go door-to-the-soul in, right, Acts 16 verse 30, and brought them out and said, "'Sirs, what must I do to be saved? "'What must I do to be saved?' And they said, "'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. "'Believe on the Lord Jesus the Messiah, "'and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.'" If Jesus is not your Messiah, you are not saved. In order for you to be saved, you must accept Jesus as the Christ, as the Messiah. Back to John chapter one, verse number 42. John chapter one, verse number 42. So we had John, sorry, Andrew going to his brother Peter. Hey, we found the Messiahs, which is interpreted to the Christ. And now we start to see, well, let's keep going, let's read it, verse number 42. And he brought him to Jesus. So Simon, let's go see Jesus, right? And when Jesus beheld him, he said, "'Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah.'" Why would he have to say that? Look, I mean, look, I don't know. The Bible doesn't tell us that Andrew introduced, you know, Jesus to Peter or to Simon. To me, this is just Jesus Christ revealing his, his omniscience, that he knows all things. As soon as he sees Peter, he says, look, instead of like Peter saying, oh, hi, I'm Simon, right? Jesus Christ says, "'Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah.'" I know who you are, I know your name and I know your dad, all right? "'Thou shall be called Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone.'" Okay, Cephas is Peter. Cephas is Aramaic and Peter is Greek. And both those words refer to a stone. So Jesus Christ says, look, we're not calling you Simon, but you're Peter. You're a stone, okay? And I do believe what we're seeing here is just the omniscience of Jesus Christ, that he's all-knowing. As soon as Peter, you know, comes up to him, he knows exactly who he is. I know your dad, I know you who you are, but we're calling you Cephas, we're calling you Peter, okay? Verse number 43. The day following, Jesus would go forth into Galilee and find a Philip and say unto him, follow me. Now, Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth Nathaniel. So Jesus Christ says, Philip, all right, come with me. Follow me. He goes, all right, hmm, I'll get Nathaniel, my friend. I'll go get Nathaniel. I like it, because Andrew's like, let's get Peter. Let's get Simon, all right? Philip's similar, let's go get my friend, Nathaniel. All right? Now, as I keep reading this, I want you to just, like this is, I can't prove this from the scriptures. I can't like, I can't just show you a verse here, but I truly believe that these men are already saved. Already saved. This is why Christ can just come up to the scene and just follow me and, all right, I'm there. Like, you know, it's because, you know, it's because some people have this strange teaching that, you know, if you were saved in the old covenants, you had to get saved again in the new covenant or something like that. No, that was saved, okay? John the Baptist has been preaching about Christ, all right? And then as soon as Christ comes and he kind of reveals to them, you know, like, torpedo shows his omniscience, right? John the Baptist testifies with Jesus. These guys are just ready to go. All right, let's follow Jesus. Let's get behind him. They're just ready to like, leave everything, right? They're ready to just leave their jobs and just follow after Jesus immediately. And I'll kind of half-proof it here as we keep going through this chapter. All right, so Philip goes find, tries to go find Nathanael, verse number 45. Philip findeth Nathanael and safe unto him, we have found him, of whom, look at this, of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Because we found him. These guys have been reading the scriptures. They've been reading the prophets of old. So look, this is the one that they've been talking about this whole time. We found him. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. We're not Joseph, like Joseph. Joseph's son. Verse number 46. And Nathanael said unto him, can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, come and see. So it's like, ah, I don't think so. I don't think the Messiah is gonna come from Nazareth. I don't think that's, I don't think we got this right. It just briefly just doesn't, it's a bit critical, right? Doesn't fully believe at this point in time. Verse number 47. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and saith of him, behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. Wow, what a thing to say. Now again, let's try to understand what's taking place here, okay? So Nathanael comes, let's check him out. All right, let's see. All right, as soon as Jesus sees him, you know, he knows who he is, right? And he says, behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile. Now once again, do you think Nathanael literally has no guile? Do you think he's just sinless, all right? Of course not. What is the significance of Jesus Christ having to say an Israelite indeed? What's the significance of that? Aren't they all Israelites? Isn't he surrounded by Israelites? Because this is the real one. Indeed, this is a real Israelite in whom is no guile. What is that about? And I'll quickly read to you a familiar passage, Romans 2.28. For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. So when Jesus Christ sees Nathanael, he says, an Israelite indeed. Because you're not just an Israelite on the outside. You're an Israelite on the inside. You have no guile. Because if you're saved, okay, your sins have been taken from you, right? The Lord God sees you in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That's why I believe these men are already saved. Okay, they're just, you know, it's all new, right? The Messiah, like, you know, they're all excited. They know the Messiah is coming one day and now he's on the scene. It might be a bit hard to fully appreciate the beginning. And it's like us, like right now, we're all waiting for Jesus Christ's second coming. You know, and then let's say events start to change and some of us might be like, I don't know, man, you really think it's coming yet? You know, I don't think so yet. And then all of a sudden, the sun and moon go dark and the stars from heaven, and you're like, oh yeah, it's happening now. Now we're on board, right? Now we can definitely see that it's about to take place. It's kind of the same thing. It's like, it's all a changing of program. They've been waiting for the Messiah and he's here. He's here in their lifetime, right? And so Jesus Christ says this about Nathanael. Look at verse number 48. Nathanael saith unto him, whence knowest thou me? How do you know me? You know, Jesus answered and said unto him, before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. So Jesus Christ says, look, even before Philip called you, I already saw you under that fig tree. Again, you're just seeing the omniscience of Jesus Christ. Say, what was taking place under the fig tree? I don't know, brother Jason. But obviously for Nathanael, that was a private place. That's not a place that he thought anyone would see him or especially Jesus Christ did not see him, right? Like this was a shock to him because it says these words, verse number 49, Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God. Thou art the King of Israel. You know, from going, I don't think anything good comes out of Nazareth. Now all of a sudden it's like, you're the Son of God. Like you know something that you should not know. You're the King of Israel. I mean, immediately, right? As soon as it dawns on me, as soon as it sees the power of Christ, the knowledge of Christ, you know, the works of Christ and miracles, you know, these people that are already saved, they're ready to jump on board. They're like the Son of God, the King of Israel. Verse number 50, Jesus answered and said unto him, because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believeth thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these. Jesus goes, you think that was good? You're gonna see even greater things than that, Nathanael. This is why again, I believe he's saved. He's just ready, you know? Like maybe some other people would be like, I saw you on the fig tree. It's like, I mean, that's not that. Maybe you saw me some other time or, you know, maybe other people saw me on the fig tree and you heard about it. But as soon as Christ says that, something switches and Nathanael goes, this is it. This is the Son of God, this is the King of Israel. Truly. So again, you know, just showing you a few ways here that I truly believe these men are already saved and they're just ready to jump on board, okay? Now of course there were many people that were not saved and Jesus Christ would have to give them the gospel and they'd have to believe on him and all of that. But these other guys, as soon as they realize, man, oh yeah, that's it. I'm on board. I'm ready to follow him. I'm ready to go. And then verse number 51. What are some of these greater things that Nathanael's going to see? Verse number 51. And he saith unto him, verily, verily, I say unto you, hereafter you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and, sorry, ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. So it says, look, you're gonna see more than me, you know, this miracle, so-called miracle that you think is great, you're gonna see greater things than that. You're gonna see heaven open. You're gonna see the angels ascending and descending upon himself, the Son of Man. So what is verse number 51 about? Honestly, I don't really know. Because there's no record, like there's no scriptures. We don't have a story of this taking place, okay? But just because it's not recorded doesn't mean it did not take place, though. You need to understand that. Because if you just go back to John chapter 20, go back to John chapter 20, please. John chapter 20 and verse number 30. John chapter 20 and verse number 30. Just a reminder, it says, and many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. So it could be that this did take place. Because many miracles took place in the presence of his disciples. And this could have been one of those miracles. Seeing heaven open, seeing the angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man, but are not written in the book. So that is definitely one answer. Another answer is that this has not taken place yet and maybe it's still a prophetic thing to take place, maybe in the millennial reign of Christ or something like that. I don't know. Okay, pick your choice. I don't have a preference. But I suppose it is a little bit mysterious, okay? I guess my initial thought would be that it did take place. It's just not recorded for us in the Bible, okay? But the point of this is that even the smallest miracle, just knowing that he's under the fig tree, was enough to go to Nathaniel. Man, that's him! That's the Son of God! That's the King of Israel. And so he's already saved. Of course, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. And so, brethren, that's it for John chapter one. As I said to you, the title for the sermon today was The Record of John. Hope you can see that what we take for granted as Jesus Christ as the Son of God, that it was something new for these people. They were coming to realize truly who Jesus Christ was. They were truly coming to realize the nature of God. Okay, brethren, let's pray.