The Simplicity and Sublimity of Salvation

The Simplicity and Sublimity of Salvation

(No. 2259)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JUNE 5, 1892.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH
6, 1890.

"He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as
received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to
them that believe on His name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." John
1:11-13.

EVERYTHING here is simple. Everything is sublime. Here is that simple
Gospel by which the most ignorant may be saved! Here are profundities
in which the best-instructed may find themselves beyond their depth.
Here are those everlasting hills of Divine Truth which man cannot
climb! Yet here is that plain path in which the wayfaring man, though a
fool, need nor err, nor lose his way. I always feel that I have no time
to spare for critical and captious persons. If they will not believe,
neither shall they be established. They must take the consequences of
their unbelief. But I can spare all day and all night for an anxious
enquirer–for one who is blinded by the very blaze of the heavenly
Light of God that shines on him and who seems to lose his way by reason
of the very plainness of the road that lies before him! In this most
simple text are some of the deep things of God and there are souls here
that are puzzled by what are simplicities to some of us. And therefore
my one aim shall be to handle this text as to help and encourage and
cheer some who would gladly touch the hem of the Master's garment, but
cannot for the press of many difficulties and grave questions which
rise before their minds!

Let us go to the text at once and notice, first, a matter which is very
simple–"As many as received Him…even to them that believe on His
name." Secondly, a matter which is very delightful–"to them gave He
power to become the sons of God." And thirdly, a matter which is very
mysterious–"Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

I. Here is, first, A MATTER WHICH IS VERY SIMPLE–receiving Christ and
believing on His name. Oh, that many here may be able to say, "Yes, I
understand that simple matter. That is the way in which I found eternal
life!"

The simple matter of which John here speaks is receiving Christ, or, in
other words, believing on His name.

Receiving Christ is a distinctive act. "He came unto His own, and His
own received Him not." The very people you would have thought would
have eagerly welcomed Christ did not do so! But here and there a man
stood apart from the rest, or a woman came out from her surroundings,
and each of these said, "I receive Christ as the Messiah." You will
never go to Heaven in a crowd! The crowd goes down the broad road to
destruction, but the way which leads to life eternal is a narrow way,
"and few there are that find it." They that go to Heaven must come out
one by one and say to Him that sits at the wicket-gate, "Set my name
down, Sir, as a pilgrim to the Celestial City." They who would enter
into life must fight as well as run, for it is an uphill fight all the
way–and few there are that fight it out to the end and win the crown
of the victors.

Those who received Christ were different from those who did not receive
Him–they were as different as white is from black, or light from
darkness. They took a distinctive step, separated themselves from
others and came out and received Him whom others would not receive.
Have you taken such a step, dear Friend? Can you say, "Yes, let others
do as they will, but as for me, Christ is all my salvation and all my
desire–and at all hazards I am quite content to be counted singular
and to stand alone. I have lifted my hands to Heaven and I cannot draw
back. Whatever others may do, I say, 'Christ for me'"?

As it was a distinctive act, so it was a personal one–"To as many as
received Him." They had to receive Christ, each one, by his own act and
deed. "Even to them that believe on His name." Believing is the
distinct act of a person. I cannot

believe for you any more than you can believe for me! That is clearly
impossible. There can be no such thing as sponsorship in receiving
Christ, or in faith. If you are an unbeliever, your father and mother
may be the most eminent saints, but their faith does not overlap and
cover your unbelief. You must believe for yourself. I have had to even
remind some that the Holy Spirit, Himself, cannot believe for them. He
works faith in you, but you have to believe! The faith must be your own
distinct mental act. Faith is the gift of God, but God does not believe
for us–how could He? It is for you distinctly to believe. Come, dear
Hearer, have you been trying to put up with a national faith? A
national faith is a mere sham! Or have you tried to think that you
possess the family faith? "Oh, we are all Christians, you know!" Yes,
you are all hypocrites–that is what that comes to! Unless each one is
a Christian for himself, he is a Christian only in name–and that is to
be a hypocrite. Oh, that we might have the certainty that we have each
one laid our sins on Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God! God grant that if
we have never done so before, we may do so this very moment!

Mark, next, that as it was a distinctive and personal act, so it
related to a Person. I find that the text runs thus, "He came unto His
own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them
gave He power to become the Sons of God, even to them that believe on
His name." That religion which leaves out the Person of Christ has left
out the essential point. You are not saved by believing a doctrine,
though it is well for you to believe it if it is true. You are not
saved by practicing an ordinance, though you should practice it if you
are one of those to whom it belongs. You are not saved by any belief
except this–believing on Christ's name and receiving Him. "I take in a
body of divinity," says one. Do you? There is no body of divinity that
I know of but Christ, the Son of God in human flesh, living, bleeding,
dying, risen, ascended, soon to come–you must lean on Him–for the
promise is only to as many as receive Him.

This reception of Christ consisted in faith in Him–"As many as
received Him…even to them that believe on His name." He was a
stranger and they took Him in. He was food and they took Him in and fed
on Him. He was living water and they received Him, drank Him up, took
Him into themselves. He was light and they received the light. He was
life and they received the life, and they lived by what they received.
As the empty cup receives from the flowing fountain, so do we receive
Christ into our emptiness. We, being poor, naked and miserable, come to
Him, and we receive riches, clothing, and happiness in Him! Salvation
comes by receiving Christ!

I know what you have been trying to do–you have been trying to give
Christ something. Let me caution you against a very common expression.
I hear converts continually told to give their hearts to Jesus. It is
quite correct and I hope they will do so. But your first concern must
be not what you give to Jesus, but what Jesus gives to you! You must
take Him from Himself as a gift to you–then will you truly give your
heart to Him. The first act and, indeed, the underlying act all along
the way, is to receive, to imbibe, to take in Christ–and that is
called believing on His name. Note that, "name." It is not believing a
fanciful Christ, for there are many christs, nowadays–as many christs
as there are books, nearly–for every writer seems to make a christ of
his own. But the christ that men make up will not save you! The only
Christ who can save you is the Christ of God, that Christ who, in the
synagogue at Nazareth, found the place where it was written, "The
Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the
Gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to
preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the
blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the
acceptable year of the Lord."

You are to believe on the Christ as He is revealed in the Scriptures.
You are to take Him as you find Him here–not as Renan, not as Strauss,
or anybody else pictures of Him–but as you find Him here. As God
reveals Him you are to believe on His name–"The Wonderful, Counsellor,
The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Emmanuel,
God With Us; Jesus, saving from sin; Christ anointed of the Father. You
are to believe on His name, not on the Christ of Rome, nor the Christ
of Canterbury, but the Christ of Jerusalem, the Christ of the eternal
Glory! Not a christ of a dreamy prophecy with which some are defaming
the true prophetic spirit of the Word, no christ of idealism, no
man-made christ, but the eternal God, Incarnate in human flesh, as He
is here pictured by Psalmist, Prophet, Evangelist, Apostle, very God of
very God, yet truly Man, suffering in your place, bearing the sin of
men in His own body on the Cross. It is believing in this Christ that
will effectually save your soul! To believe is to trust. Prove that you
believe in Christ by risking everything upon Him–

"Upon a life I did not live, Upon a death I did not die, I risk my
whole eternity."

On Him who lived for me and died for me, and rose again for me, and has
gone into Heaven for me–on Him I throw the whole weight of past,
present, future and every interest that belongs to my soul, for time
and for eternity!

This is a very simple matter and I have noticed a great many sneers at
this simple faith–and a great many depreciatory remarks concerning it,
but, let me tell you, there is nothing like it under Heaven! Possessing
this faith will prove you to be a son of God–nothing short of it ever
will. "To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become sons
of God," and He has given that power to nobody else! This will prove
you to be absolved, forgiven. "There is, therefore, now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus." But if you have no faith in Christ
Jesus, the wrath of God abides on you! Because you have not believed on
the Son of God, you are condemned already! One grain of this faith is
worth more than a diamond the size of the world–yes, though you should
thread such jewels together, as many as the stars of Heaven for number,
they would be worth nothing compared with the smallest atom of faith in
Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God!

But where does this wonderful power of faith come from? Not from the
faith, but from Him on whom it leans! What power Christ has! The power
of His Manhood suffering, the power of His Godhead bowing on the Cross,
the power of the God-Man, the Mediator, surrendering Himself as the
greatest Sacrifice for sin! Therefore, he who touches this has touched
the springs of Omnipotence! He who comes, by faith, into contact with
Christ, has come into contact with boundless love, power, mercy and
Grace. I marvel not at anything that faith brings when it deals with
Christ! You have a little key, a little rusty key, and you say, "By use
of this key I can get all the gold that I need." Yes, but where is the
box to which you go for the gold? When you show me and I see that it is
a great chamber filled full of gold and silver, I can understand how
your little key can enrich you when it opens the door into such a
treasury. If faith is the key which unlocks the fullness of God, "for
it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell," then I
can understand why faith brings such boundless blessings to him who has
it. Salvation is a very simple business. God help us to look at it
simply and practically–and to receive Christ and believe on His name!

II. Now, secondly, here is A MATTER WHICH IS VERY DELIGHTFUL–"To them
gave He power to become

sons of God."

If I had a week to preach from this text, I think that I should be able
to get through the first head, but at this time I can only throw out
just a few hints. Look at the great and delightful blessing which comes
to us by our faith in Christ. We give Christ our faith and He gives us
power to become sons of God! The authority, liberty, privilege, right–
something more than mere strength or force–to be sons of God!

When we believe in Jesus, He indicates to us the Great Father's
willingness to let us be His sons. We who were prodigals, far away from
Him, perceive that when we receive Christ–the Father, who gave us
Christ–is willing to take us to be His sons. He would not have yielded
up His Only-Begotten if He had not willed to take us into His family!

When we believe in Jesus, He bestows on us the status of sons. We were
slaves before–now we are sons! We were strangers, aliens, enemies and
every word that means an evil thing might have been applied to us! But
when we laid hold on Christ, we were regarded as the sons of God, as a
man in Rome, when he as adopted by some great citizen and publicly
acknowledged in the forum as being, from that day forward, that man's
son, was regarded as such, so, as soon as we believe in Jesus, we get
the status of sons! "Beloved, now we are the sons of God."

Then Christ does something more for us. He gives us Grace to feel our
sonship. As we sang just now–

"My faith shall Abba, Father,' cry, And You the kindred own."

God acknowledges us as His children and we acknowledge Him as our
Father and, therefore, "Our Father, which are in Heaven," is no
meaningless expression, but it comes welling up from the depths of our
heart!

Having given us Grace to feel sonship, Christ gives us the Nature of
our Father. He gives us "power to become the sons of God." We get more
and more like God in righteousness and true holiness. By His Divine
Spirit, shed abroad in our hearts, we become more and more the children
of our Father who is in Heaven, who does good to the undeserving and
the unthankful, and whose heart overflows with love even to those who
love Him not.

When this Nature of sons shall be fully developed, Christ will bestow
His glory upon us. We shall be in Heaven, not in the rear rank, as
servants, but nearest to the eternal Throne of God. Unto angels He has
never said, "You are My sons," but He has called us sons, poor
creatures of the dust who believe in Jesus! And we shall have all the
honor, joy, privileges

and delight that belong to the princes of the blood royal of
Heaven–members of the imperial House of God–in that day when the King
shall manifest Himself in His own palace!

Some of us could draw parallels about being made sons, from our own
lives. You were once a very tiny child, but you were a son, then, as
much as you are now. So is it with you who have only just begun to
believe in Christ–He has given you authority and right to become sons
of God. Very early in our life, our father went down to the registrar's
office and wrote our name in the roll as his sons. We do not remember
that, it was so long ago, but he did it and he also wrote our name in
the Family Bible, even as our Father in Heaven has enrolled our names
in the Lamb's Book of Life! You recollect that, as a child, you did not
go into the kitchen to dine with the servants, but you took your seat
at the table. It was a very little chair in which you first sat at the
table, but, as you grew bigger, you always went to the table, because
you were a son.

The servants in the house were much bigger than you and they could do a
great many things that you could not do, and your father paid them
wages. He never paid you any–they were not his sons–but you were. If
they had put on your clothes, they would not have been his sons. You
had privileges that they had not. I remember that, in the parish where
my home was, on a certain day in the year, the Church bell rang and
everybody went to receive a penny roll. Every child had one and I
remember having mine. I claimed it as a privilege because I was my
father's son. I think there were six of us, who all had a roll–every
child in the parish had one. So there are a number of privileges that
come to us very early in our Christian life, and we mean to have them,
first, because our Lord Jesus Christ has given us the right to have
them and, next, because if we do not take what He bought for us, it
will be robbing Him and wasting His substance! As He has paid for it
all and has given us the right to have it, let us take it!

You were put in school because you were a son. You did not like it. I
daresay that you would rather have stayed at home at play. And you had
a touch of the rod, sometimes, because you were a son. That was one of
your privileges, "for what son is he whom the father chastens not?" One
day you were in the street with other boys, doing wrong, and your
father came along and punished you. He did not touch your companions,
for they were not his sons. You smile at those little things, but you
did not, at the time, count your punishments as privileges–but they
were. When the chastening of the Lord comes, call it a privilege, for
that is what it is! There is no greater mercy that I know of on earth
than good health unless it is sickness–and that has often been a
greater mercy to me than health!

It is a good thing to be without a trouble, but it is a better thing to
have a trouble and know how to get Grace enough to bear it. I am not so
much afraid of the devil when he roars, as I am when he pretends to be
asleep. I think that, oftentimes, a roaring devil keeps us awake–and
the troubles of this life stir us up to go to God in prayer–and that
which looks to us as bad turns to our good. "We know that all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to His purpose."

III. Now I come to my last point, that is, A MATTER WHICH IS
MYSTERIOUS. We are not only given the status of children and the
privilege of being called sons, but this mysterious matter is one of
heavenly birth–"Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."

This new birth is absolutely necessary. If we are ever to be numbered
among God's children, we must be born again! Born from above. We were
born in sin, born children of wrath, even as others–to be God's
children, it is absolutely necessary that we should be born again!

The change worked thereby is wonderfully radical. It is not a mere
outside washing, nor any touching up and repairing. It is a total
renovation. Born again? I cannot express to you all that the change
means, it is so deep, so thorough, so complete.

It is also intensely mysterious. What must it be to be born again? "I
cannot understand it." Says one. Nicodemus was a teacher in Israel and
he did not understand it. Does anybody understand it? Does anybody
understand his first birth? What do we know of it? And this second
birth? Some of us have passed through it and know that we have, and
remember well the pangs of that birth, yet we cannot describe the
movements of the Spirit of God by which we were formed anew, and made
new creatures in Christ Jesus, according to that Word from Him who sits
on the Throne, "Behold, I make all things new!" It is a great mystery.

Certainly it is entirely superhuman. We cannot contribute to it. Man
cannot make himself to be born again. His first birth is not of himself
and his second birth is not one jot more so. It is a work of the Holy
Spirit, a work of God! It is a new creation–it is a quickening–it is
a miracle from beginning to end!

Here is the point to which I call your special attention, it is
assuredly ours. Many of us here have been born again. We know that we
have and herein lies the evidence of it, "As many as received Him, to
them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe
on His name, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." If you believe on Christ's
name, you are born of God! If you have received Christ into your soul,
you have obtained that birth that comes not of blood, nor of the will
of parents, nor of the will of man, but of God! You have passed from
death unto life!

Let no man sit down here and cover his face, and say, "There is no hope
for me. I cannot understand about this new birth." If you will take
Christ, to have and to hold, henceforth and forever, as your ONLY trust
and confidence, you have received that which no line of ancestors could
ever give you, for it is "not of blood." You possess that which no will
of the father and mother could ever give you, for it is, "not of the
will of the flesh." You have that which your own will could not bring
you, for it is, "not of the will of man." You have that which only the
Giver of Life can bestow, for it is, "of God!" You are born again, for
you have received Christ and believed on His name. I do not urge you to
look within, to try and see whether this new birth is there. Instead of
looking within yourself, look to Him who hangs on yonder Cross, dying,
the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God! Fix your eyes on Him and
believe in Him. And when you see in yourself much that is evil, look to
Him. And when doubts prevail, look to Him. And when your conscience
tells you of your past sins, look to Him!

I have to go through this story almost every day of the year and
sometimes half a dozen times in a day. If there is a despairing soul
anywhere within 20 miles, it will find me out, no matter whether I am
at home, or at Mentone, or in any other part of the world! It will come
from any distance, broken down, despairing, half insane, sometimes, and
I have no medicine to prescribe except, "Christ, Christ, Christ–Jesus
Christ and Him crucified! Look away from yourselves and trust in Him!"
I go over and over and over with this and never get one jot further.
Because I find that this medicine cures all soul sicknesses, while
human quackery cures none! Christ alone is the one remedy for sin-sick
souls! Receive Him! Believe on His name! We keep hammering at this. I
can sympathize with Luther when he said, "I have preached justification
by faith so often, and I feel, sometimes, that you are so slow to
receive it, that I could almost take the Bible and bang it into your
heads!" I am afraid that the Truth of God would not have entered their
hearts if he had done so. This is what we aim at–to get this one
thought into a man, "You are lost and, therefore, such an One as Christ
came to save."

One said to me just lately, "Oh, Sir, I am the biggest sinner that ever
lived!" I replied, "Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners."
"But I have not any strength." "While we were yet without strength, in
due time Christ died." "Oh, but," he said, "I have been utterly
ungodly." "Christ died for the ungodly." "But I am lost." "Yes," I
said, "this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." "The Son of man has
come to save that which was lost."

I said to this man, "You have the brush in your hand and at every
stroke it looks as if you are quoting Scripture. You seem to be making
yourself out to be the very man that Christ came to save! If you were
to make yourself out to be good and excellent, I would give you this
word–Jesus did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to
repentance. He did not die for the good, but for the bad. He gave
Himself for our sins–He never gave Himself for our righteousness. He
is a Savior. He has not come, yet, as a Rewarder of the righteous–that
will be in His Second Advent. Now He comes as the great Forgiver of the
guilty and the only Savior of the lost. Will you come to Him in that
way?"

"Oh, but," my friend said, "I have nothing to bring to Christ." "No," I
said, "I know that you have not–but Christ has everything." "Sir," he
said, "you do not know me, otherwise you would not talk to me like
this." And I said, "No, and you do not know yourself–for you are worse
than you think you are, though you think that you are bad enough in all
conscience. But be you as bad as you may, Jesus Christ came on purpose
to lift up from the dunghill those whom He sets among princes by His
free, rich, Sovereign Grace."

Oh, come and believe in Him, poor Sinner! I feel that if I had all your
souls, I would believe in Christ for their salvation! I would trust Him
to save a million souls if I had them, for He is mighty to save! There
can be no limit to His power to forgive! There can be no limit to the
merit of His precious blood! There can be no boundary to the efficacy
of His plea

before the Throne of God! Only trust Him and you will be saved! May His
gracious Spirit lead you to do so now, for Christ's sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON JOHN11-34

May the Holy Spirit, who inspired these Words, inspire us through them
as we read them! Verse 1. In the beginning was the Word. The Divine
Logos, whom we know as the Christ of God. "In the beginning was the
Word." The first words of this Gospel remind us of the first words of
the Old Testament–"In the beginning God created the Heaven and the
earth." Even then "the Word" Was–He existed before all time, even from
everlasting.

1. And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. I know not how the
Deity of Christ can be more plainly declared than in His eternal
duration. He is from the beginning. In His glory He was "with God." In
His Nature He "was

God."

2. The same was in the beginning with God. As we have been singing–

"Before sin was born, or Satan fell,"

before there was a creation that could fall, "the same was in the
beginning with God."

3. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made
that was made. He that hung upon the Cross was the Maker of all worlds.
He that came as an Infant, for our sake, was the Infinite. How low He
stooped! How high He must have been that He could stoop so low!

4. In His was life. Essentially, Eternally.

4, 5. And the light was the light of men. And the light shines in
darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. It never has done so;
it never will. You may sometimes call the darkness, the ignorance of
men, or the sin of men. If you like, you may call it the wisdom of men
and the righteousness of men, for that is only another form of the same
darkness. "The light shines in darkness; and the darkness comprehended
it not."

6. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. How very
different is the style of this verse from the one that precedes it! How
grand, how sublime, are the Evangelist's words when he speaks of Jesus!
How truly human he becomes, how he dips his pen in ordinary ink when he
writes, "There was a man sent from God, whose name was John." Yet that
was a noble testimony to the herald of Christ. John the Baptist was "a
man sent from God."

7. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all
men through Him might believe. Dear Friends, if you and I know our real
destiny and are the servants of God, we are sent that men might,
through us, believe in Jesus. John was a special witness, but we ought
all to be witnesses to complete the chain of testimony. Every Christian
should reckon that he is sent from God to bear witness to the great
Light, that, through Him, men might believe.

8. 9. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light
that was the true Light, which lights every man that comes into the
world. There was no light from John except what he reflected from his
Lord. All the Light of God comes from Jesus. Every man who comes into
the world with any Light borrows his Light from Christ. There is no
other Light–there can be no other. He is the "Light of the World."

10. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world
knew Him not. This is a sad verse. He was a stranger in His own house!
He was unknown amidst His own handiwork. Men whom He had made, made
nothing of Him. "The world knew Him not"–did not recognize Him.

11. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. That favored
circle, the Jewish nation, where Revelation had been given–even there,
there was no place for Him. He must be despised and rejected even by
His own nation!

12. 13. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were
born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but of God. To receive Christ, a man must be born of God. It is
the simplest thing in all the world, one would think, to open the door
of the heart and let Him in–but no man lets Christ into his heart
till, first, God has made him to be born again–born from above.

14. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His
glory, the glory of the Only-Begotten of the Father), full of Grace and
Truth. They who saw Christ on earth were highly privileged, but it is a
spiritual sight of Him that is to be desired–and even now we can have
that! How full of Grace, how full of Truth He is to all those who are
privileged to behold Him!

15, 16. John bore witness of Him, and cried, saying, This was He of
whom I spoke, He that comes after me is preferred before me: for He was
before me. And of His fullness have we all received, and Grace for
Grace. I wish that we could all say that. Even out of this company,
many can say it and, linking our hands with those who have gone before
us, and those who are still with us in the faith, we say unitedly, "Of
His fullness have we all received," and we hope to receive from it,
again, tonight, for it is still His fullness! There is never a trace of
declining in Him. It was fullness when the first sinner came to Him and
it is still fullness–it will be fullness to the very end. "And Grace
for Grace." We get Grace to reach out to another Grace, each Grace
becoming a steppingstone to something higher! I do not believe in our
rising on the "step-pingstones of our dead selves." They are poor
stones–they all lead downwards. The steppingstones of the living
Christ lead upwards! Grace for Grace, Grace upon Grace, till Grace is
crowned with Glory!

17. For the Law was given by Moses, but Grace and Truth came by Jesus
Christ. We know that the Law came by Moses. The Law has often burdened
us, crushed us, convinced us, condemned us. Let us be equally clear
that Grace and the Truth of God come by this Divine channel, "Jesus
Christ."

18. No man has seen God at any time; the only- begotten Son, which is
in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. We do not need to see
God apart from Christ. I am perfectly satisfied to see the Eternal
Light through His own chosen Medium, Christ Jesus. Apart from that
Medium, the light might blind my eyes! "No man has seen God at any
time." Who can look on the sun? What mind can look on God? But Christ
does not hide the Father–He manifests Him. "The only-begotten Son,
which is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him."

19 – 23. And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and
Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who are you? And he confessed and
denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him,
What then? Are you Elijah? And he said, I am not. Are you the Prophet?
And he answered, No. Then said they unto him, Who are you? That we may
give an answer to them that sent us. What say you of yourself? He said,
I am the voice–not, "I am the Word," but–I am the voice." Christ is
the essential Word–we are but the voice to make that Word of God sound
across the desert of human

life.

23. Of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord,
as said the Prophet Isaiah. You see, even as a voice, John was not
original. That straining after originality of which we see so much of
today, finds no warrant among the true servants of God. Even though
John is only a voice, yet he is a voice that quotes the Scriptures:
"Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the Prophet Isaiah." The
more of Scripture we can voice, the better. Our words, what are they?
They are but air. His Word, what is it? It is, "Grace and Truth." May
we continually be lending a voice to the great Words of God that have
gone before!

24 – 27. And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked
him, and said unto him, Why do you baptize, then, if you are not that
Christ, nor Elijah, neither that Prophet? John answered them, saying, I
baptize with water: but there stands One among you, whom you know not;
He it is, who, coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoelace I
am not worthy to unloose. Ah, Dear Friends, although it was a lowly
expression that John used, you and I often feel that we need something
that goes even lower than that! What are we worthy to do for Christ?
Yet there are times when, if there is a shoelace to be unloosed, we are
too proud to stoop to do it! When there is something to be done that
will bring no honor to us, we are too high and mighty to do it! O child
of God, if you have ever been in that condition, be greatly ashamed of
yourself! John was first in his day, the morning star of the Light of
the Gospel, yet even he felt that he was not worthy to do the least
thing for Christ. Where shall you and I put ourselves? Paul said that
he was "less than the least of all the saints." He ran away with a
title that might have been very appropriate for us. Well, we must let
him have it, I suppose, and we must try to find another like it. But if
we cannot find suitable words, God help us to have the humble feeling,
which is better still!

28, 29. These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John
was baptizing. The next day John saw Jesus coming unto him, and said,
Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world! John
preached a sacrificial Savior, a sin-bearing Savior, a sin-atoning
Savior. You and I have nothing else to preach. Let each of us say–

"Tis all my business here below To cry, Behold the Lamb!"

30, 31. This is He of whom I said, After me comes a Man which is
preferred before me: for He was before me. And I knew Him not. Although
John knew the Savior, personally, he did not know Him officially. He
had a token given to him by God, by which he was to know the Messiah,
and he did not officially know Him till he had that token fulfilled.

31 – 33. But that He should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I
come baptizing with water. And John bore record, saying, I saw the
Spirit descending from Heaven like a dove, and it abode upon Him. And I
knew Him not: but He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said
unto me, Upon whom you shall see the Spirit descending, and remaining
on Him, the same is He which baptizes with the Holy Spirit. John could
not know of his own judgment. No doubt he was morally certain that
Jesus was the Christ. He had been brought up with Him. He knew His
mother, he had heard of His wondrous birth. John and Jesus must have
been together often, but he was not to use his own judgment in this
case, but to wait for the sign from Heaven. And until he witnessed it,
he did not say a word about it. When he saw the Holy Spirit descend
upon Him, then he knew that it was even He!

34. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God. Hear you,
then, the witness of John! The Christ, who came from Nazareth to be
baptized of him in Jordan, He on whom the Holy Spirit descended like a
dove–"this is the Son of God." This is the sin-bearing Lamb! Oh, that
you and I might fulfill John's expectation, for he spoke that we might
believe. He, being dead, yet speaks! May we believe his witness and be
assured that "this is the Son of God!"