Dale Partridge - John 1_29-34： The Lamb of God — Jesus Christ

00:00:00.000 The Apostle John has taken us through quite a journey so far in this first chapter of his

00:00:13.140 epistle. We have seen that he has demonstrated to us that the Word is divine, that the Word

00:00:23.680 is not just with God, but the Word was God, and that Jesus Christ is the Word. Now, he has shown

00:00:35.540 us that Jesus as the Word is the source of all life and all light. And then in verse 14, it says

00:00:45.560 that this word, this God-man became flesh and entered into the world. And in verse 19, he told

00:00:54.380 us that God had sent a herald before the word, before Jesus Christ, to tell and to announce

00:01:03.560 his coming into the world. A man who had a miraculous birth himself, a man who was also a

00:01:12.420 Levite, a man who came from an honorable priestly family, but also a man who lived outside of the

00:01:21.580 expectations and the patterns and the systems and the authority of the religious establishment and

00:01:28.120 authorities of the day. And we know that that man was John the Baptist. And as you saw last week in

00:01:35.860 Pastor Jesse's sermon, the Jews questioned John the Baptist. They came to John the Baptist demanding 0.92

00:01:42.780 to know his identity and his purpose. Why are you here? Who are you? You heard the questions. Are

00:01:49.440 you the Christ? No, he said. Are you Elijah? No, he said. Are you the prophet? No, he said.

00:01:59.400 And John replied, I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness. Make straight the way

00:02:05.720 of the Lord. And then a second group of Jews, a second group of Pharisees pressed him further.

00:02:16.280 If you are not these men, then why then are you baptizing?

00:02:20.480 And John answered, I baptize with water, but among you stands one who you do not know,

00:02:28.480 even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.

00:02:32.780 and that is the posture of john the baptist he's a true prophet and a true evangelist because every

00:02:42.440 time someone asks him a question about his identity about his purpose what are you doing

00:02:47.860 here what does he do he deflects it back to christ he reflects it onto the glory of jesus

00:02:54.240 he constantly redirects the posture and the eyes and the ears and the honor and the glory

00:03:00.240 back to Jesus over and over again. And now, as we see in today's text, the one who has

00:03:10.340 been announced by John's lips finally appears on the scene. John does exactly what all faithful

00:03:20.280 ministers do. He directs every eye, every ear, every focus to Jesus Christ, the Lord of all.

00:03:30.740 And that is exactly where our text begins this morning in verse 29. It says,

00:03:38.480 the next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and he said behold the lamb of God who takes away the

00:03:50.040 sin of the world and this is he of whom I said after me comes a man who ranks before me because

00:03:59.120 he was before me all right to the Pharisees John was already a mysterious character they didn't

00:04:07.980 know what his purpose was. Why are you here? What is your purpose? Why are you baptizing?

00:04:13.640 There's already a mystery unfolding for the Pharisees. And this language that John uses 0.83

00:04:20.940 doesn't make any sense to them. John was clearly speaking in messianic terms. He was

00:04:28.000 talking about the prophets. He was foretelling the future. And the religious leaders understood

00:04:34.980 this. They knew the vernacular and the vocabulary and the glossary that John was using. John was

00:04:40.260 raised in a priestly household. He understood the Levitical priesthood. He understood the

00:04:44.400 scriptures. He knew what he was saying. He knew the cues that he was leaving for the Pharisees to

00:04:49.340 grab. But when the one that he had been announcing finally appeared and John called him the Lamb of

00:04:58.920 God, that title did not register with the Pharisees. The Lamb of God. Now, you see that

00:05:11.600 when it comes to the Messiah, the Jews were waiting for, behold, the King. Behold, the ruler. 0.76

00:05:22.100 behold the deliverer they were not looking for the lamb they were not waiting for the lamb of god 0.72

00:05:34.060 and that gets to the heart of the jews denial of christ that really gets to the heart of what's 0.83

00:05:43.860 happening here in this scene the jews could not understand why the messiah would come as a

00:05:50.560 sacrifice because they believed that the existing sacrificial system had already dealt with their

00:05:56.780 sin. That's key. That is the key piece to understanding what's happening right here.

00:06:03.260 They did not understand why the Messiah would come as a lamb because they viewed the sacrificial

00:06:10.320 system as already sufficient.

00:06:16.160 They had a priesthood.

00:06:18.820 They had the blood of lambs and goats and bulls.

00:06:23.720 They believed that these were enough. 1.00

00:06:26.680 And this, this is the fatal error of the Jews. 1.00

00:06:31.920 They did not know that they were still sick. 1.00

00:06:36.300 They did not know that they were still sick.

00:06:40.320 They did not know that there was still a need for a greater sacrifice, for better blood.

00:06:50.100 And their blindness is not limited to some ancient reality.

00:06:55.500 This blindness still exists today.

00:06:58.060 In fact, if you don't know, this week is leading up to Yom Kippur, which is today.

00:07:05.120 and just over the last few days there's been a hundred thousand chickens that were delivered 0.68

00:07:14.240 to jewish communities in new york city for an atonement celebration called kippurah 0.82

00:07:19.700 yesterday i watched videos of the jews ritually transmitting their sins to these chickens 0.91

00:07:27.900 and then slaughtering them and then covering the blood with dirt this is happening literally today 0.83

00:07:34.380 in New York City. It's the same blindness of the Pharisees here in John chapter 1.

00:07:43.220 They cannot see that animal sacrifices of the Old Testament order were symbolic and insufficient.

00:07:51.560 They were not the end goal. All of those things were preparing people for and pointing people to

00:07:59.560 Jesus Christ. They did not grasp that fallen creatures in a fallen world could never truly

00:08:07.260 atone for fallen men. I'm going to read you Hebrews chapter 10, verses 4 through 10.

00:08:17.300 And it says, quote, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

00:08:25.320 for it is impossible. Think about this. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to

00:08:33.440 take away sins. Verse five, it says, consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,

00:08:39.260 quote, sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me

00:08:45.240 in burnt offerings and sin offerings. You have taken no pleasure. Then I said, behold, I have

00:08:51.940 come to do your will oh god as it is written of me in the scroll of the book when he said this

00:09:00.160 this is verse eight when he said this he does away with the first in order to establish the second

00:09:08.520 and by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of jesus christ once for

00:09:17.660 all end quote complex beautiful deep rich sacramentology

00:09:25.700 sacrificial atonement theology beautiful understanding that the jews had missed

00:09:35.080 the jews did not understand that a sacrificial system was the shadow of the substance to come 0.65

00:09:42.520 they did not see the lamb of Isaac's sacrifice pointing to Christ they did not see the lamb of 0.95

00:09:53.040 the Passover pointing to Christ they did not see that every lamb that has ever been on their altar

00:10:00.740 was preparing them again for Jesus Christ the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world

00:10:08.280 It would be like standing in a room full of arrows pointing at one direction, but never looking at where they're pointing.

00:10:18.420 That's exactly what their life was.

00:10:21.700 They were all around arrows that were shaping them and directing them and pointing them to Jesus Christ.

00:10:28.340 But they were unable to actually look at what all of those arrows were pointing at.

00:10:38.280 and their blindness comes from a low view of sin. A low view of sin. I say it often that

00:10:44.720 a low view of sin always leads to legalism. Because if you believe that you can obey the law

00:10:53.720 or you believe that the sacrifices of animals are sufficient, you will use those things to make

00:11:01.960 yourself appear righteous. But if you have a high view of the law, a view of the law that is so high

00:11:09.920 that you realize that you cannot keep it and that the blood of bulls and goats and rams is not

00:11:14.940 sufficient, where will you run? Well, you will only run to Christ. They did not grasp that salvation

00:11:25.920 demanded that a perfect man had to enter into an imperfect world and shed perfect blood on behalf

00:11:34.040 of other imperfect men. They did not grasp that reality. They did not understand that sinners

00:11:42.080 needed more than another sinner. They didn't understand that fallen men needed more

00:11:49.580 than the fallen blood of animals. Why can a animal's blood not be sufficient for atonement?

00:11:56.940 Well, first, it's not a man. We know that Jesus needed to come in, according to Hebrews, that he 0.51

00:12:02.040 was made like one of us, so that he might be born under the law like us, that he might be a sacrifice

00:12:07.880 for us. The blood of animals cannot atone for the blood or for the sins of man.

00:12:13.500 but then there's also the dilemma that there is no way that another man can atone for another

00:12:20.480 man because we're all sinners we know that the wages of sin is death that all deserve to die

00:12:26.480 and so any man that dies is dying for his own sin and does not have the capability of dying for your

00:12:33.520 sin. But Jesus, who was born as a man, under the law, without sin, and yet keeps the law perfectly,

00:12:44.060 who has no sin, is able to die not for his sin, because there is no sin, but for your sin.

00:12:51.680 And that is the incredible dimension of the atonement.

00:12:55.380 only a sinless man could die for sinners only a perfect

00:13:03.680 blood of a man could answer the guilt of imperfect men

00:13:08.060 so the only people in this first century narrative when we're seeing jesus and john

00:13:16.660 preaching about jesus christ the only people who saw christ correctly who rejoiced in john's words

00:13:24.620 were those who were sober about their sin, who were looking through the Old Testament,

00:13:29.580 and they saw the anticipation of waiting for that perfect, spotless, blemish-free lamb.

00:13:37.700 Then it started to connect. They were those who longed for the curse of sin to be finally wiped

00:13:46.260 away. We know that the Old Testament high priests stood daily, according to Hebrews, making

00:13:53.600 sacrifices often. And it contrasts with Jesus who makes one sacrifice, once for all. Just the sheer

00:14:03.840 labor of the sacrificial system, the rest that the Levitical priesthood receives in resting in the

00:14:12.980 once and final sacrifice of Christ. What about you? What about you?

00:14:24.160 Are you looking for something other than the Lamb?

00:14:29.900 Are you excited about something other than Jesus as the Lamb?

00:14:37.020 one theologian said you cannot see christ as king or lord until you first see him as sacrifice and

00:14:46.540 i think he's talking about the soteriological the salvation redemption you're not going to

00:14:50.880 see jesus as lord or you're not going to see jesus as king because you're blind though he

00:14:55.960 is those things no matter what you believe but you first must see him as sacrifice you must first

00:15:03.120 see him as lamb. And when you see him as lamb, then you see him as king. Then you see him as

00:15:10.940 Lord. J.C. Ryle said, but above all, let us prize him as our sacrifice. May his blood be more

00:15:20.140 precious in our eyes every year as we live. Whatever else we glory in about Christ, let us

00:15:29.100 glory about all the things in his cross and in his blood. We know nothing rightly about Christ

00:15:36.540 until we see him with John the Baptist's eyes and can rejoice in him as the lamb that was slain.

00:15:46.160 That's the key. When you want to get out into the world and you want to preach Christ as Lord,

00:15:52.100 or you want to preach Christ as King, those people cannot see those things without first

00:15:57.660 seen Christ as lamb. So evangelism really does need to begin with Christ as the sacrificial lamb

00:16:07.180 that was slain. Yes, he is Lord. Yes, he is king. And Christians often need to be reminded of those

00:16:15.960 two things. But he is first in our own understanding, in our fallen eyes, he is lamb. 0.92

00:16:24.640 now i want to look briefly at this phrase who takes away the sin of the world

00:16:31.580 i just imagine john standing next to the water jesus is walking up and he says behold

00:16:39.680 the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world now a few things

00:16:47.200 he's saying here is one is that there's only one there's only one source to take away sin

00:16:56.080 there are not other things that you can do obedience will not take away your guilty verdict

00:17:03.480 on judgment day church attendance will not take away your guilty verdict on judgment day

00:17:08.580 kissing the feet of idols will not take away the sin that'll have you guilty on judgment day

00:17:15.500 There is only one Savior.

00:17:19.280 Behold the Lamb.

00:17:20.800 Not a Lamb.

00:17:21.860 The Lamb.

00:17:26.220 Nobody has a problem with a God.

00:17:29.740 Everyone has a problem with the God.

00:17:33.880 The Lord Jesus Christ.

00:17:38.020 And we're not universalists, right?

00:17:40.120 So when it says the one who took away the sins of the world.

00:17:43.780 We're not universalists.

00:17:45.500 we know that if christ's atonement is universal and that means that he's covered the sin of all

00:17:53.020 people then that means that there is nobody in hell if we are to adopt that doctrine

00:17:57.780 so what does this phrase mean the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world

00:18:08.660 Well, first, it's a term of expansion, not a term of totalization.

00:18:14.720 It's a term of expansion.

00:18:17.220 The Jews were not waiting for a global savior.

00:18:20.880 They weren't.

00:18:21.540 They were waiting for what?

00:18:23.760 For a king to save them from Rome.

00:18:28.360 A king to save them, to save the Jews.

00:18:32.940 And so again, this phrase, the Lamb of God, one, is already stumbling the Pharisees.

00:18:37.560 But then you say, who takes away the sin of the world?

00:18:41.640 Then you have two confusing statements standing side by side.

00:18:46.820 That's taking the Pharisees that are going, whoa, whoa.

00:18:50.120 The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

00:18:55.340 What he's saying here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of all mankind.

00:19:02.740 The sinners from every tribe, nation, and tongue will now be saved in this land. 0.96

00:19:08.820 And it's the fulfillment of the inclusion of the Gentiles, bringing them into the fold, 0.96

00:19:14.300 the engrafting of the Gentiles into the true Israel. 0.96

00:19:18.260 All of these little connections that are being made here in these small words, 0.92

00:19:22.780 and John knows exactly what he's doing.

00:19:28.600 Now verse 30 through 31.

00:19:32.700 It says,

00:19:34.460 This is he of whom I said,

00:19:37.200 After me comes a man who ranks before me.

00:19:41.820 Because he was before me,

00:19:43.960 I myself did not know him,

00:19:46.860 but for this purpose I came baptizing with water,

00:19:50.900 that he might be revealed to Israel.

00:19:55.180 Now John again reveals a few things in this verse,

00:19:59.580 these two verses.

00:20:01.840 One, he just reveals the divinity of Christ by pointing to his eternality.

00:20:08.100 If you see that, just catch it.

00:20:09.980 As we know, John the Baptist was physically older than Jesus.

00:20:14.440 He was born before Jesus.

00:20:17.560 Yet he says that Jesus was before me.

00:20:21.580 So he's talking about the preexistent nature of who Jesus is.

00:20:26.200 Again, every little thing that John says, he's dropping in lines that are very theological.

00:20:33.720 And the Jews are going to catch these phrases.

00:20:36.760 They might go over our Western and untrained minds, but the Jews were catching these things.

00:20:42.520 Now, I believe that verse 31 also serves where he says,

00:20:47.500 this is he of whom I said after me comes a man who ranks before me because he was before me.

00:20:52.020 I myself did not know him.

00:20:54.420 I myself did not know him.

00:20:55.780 and you're thinking, well, of course you knew him, right? Your mother was friends with Jesus's

00:21:00.560 mother. You guys are related. Certainly there was conversations between the women and between

00:21:05.900 the children and between the family of who these boys really were. Certainly. But imagine growing

00:21:12.580 up hearing these things, not sure fully what they mean. The John has some sort of miraculous

00:21:20.360 ministry, and that Jesus is somehow a miraculous birth and has also a ministry and purpose.

00:21:29.860 But you know that Jesus says that it's hard or difficult for a prophet to be recognized in his

00:21:34.100 own town? You know the reality that his own brother didn't even believe that Jesus was the

00:21:40.280 Son of God? When you're around somebody, it's almost difficult to go, is this person really

00:21:48.320 who the prophecy says this person truly is and we know that growing up it was very likely that

00:21:56.280 john and jesus had a relationship with one another yet he still did not at this point

00:22:02.180 know him he did not fully believe yet he was still doubting and concerned and questioning

00:22:12.700 now on the other side of this dimension in verse 31 i believe it also his statement it serves to

00:22:22.260 rule out the idea that john and jesus are somehow colluding or coordinating together this kind of

00:22:28.640 false prophetic reality i think he's actually telling the truth that yeah i did not know him

00:22:39.080 at one point, even though he had a relationship with him.

00:22:45.860 He actually says it again in verse 33. If you look down, he says, I myself did not know him.

00:22:51.000 And you go again, is he lying? Because you did know him. In fact, you knew him from birth.

00:22:58.600 No, again, I believe that there was some degree of, I know you, and yet I did not know him.

00:23:05.700 and so whatever family connection existed between them

00:23:10.260 john is making it clear that his identification of jesus as the messiah did not come until recently

00:23:19.340 and most likely that came specifically at his baptism at his baptism where who god the father

00:23:28.980 confesses and testifies this is my beloved son and you see the trinitarian reality that jesus

00:23:36.700 the son the spirit descending like a dove and god the father proclaiming and testifying that

00:23:43.080 jesus christ is the lord that moment to john was probably the moment we don't know for sure

00:23:51.060 explicitly when this happened but we know for sure that that moment happened now that raises

00:23:57.680 some of those earthly questions about, again, knowing him. And I was thinking about

00:24:06.560 John, who did not see Jesus in the womb, yet knew him. He leapt in the womb when he was near Christ.

00:24:17.440 And so my assumption is that when Christ came and he was baptized, the same spirit that had him

00:24:25.380 leap in the womb, had him leap in joy in Christ's adult life. It's the same way that we come to

00:24:34.260 know. We do not see Christ. We might know of him in the fact that we have heard of him through the

00:24:41.840 scriptures and the preaching, and we might have visited church as a child, but there is a time

00:24:46.640 in which something, the Spirit of God, testifies, and then we can say, I know him. In the same way

00:24:55.220 that John says, I know him. And so this leads us to verse 32, where John recalls his baptism of

00:25:04.700 Jesus. And he says in verse 32, and John bore witness, I saw the spirit descend from heaven

00:25:10.880 like a dove and it remained on him. Now, I just want to be clear. This, I don't believe is,

00:25:18.680 the Spirit of God certainly was with Jesus before it descended upon him.

00:25:27.300 I believe God used this moment to reveal the Trinitarian nature of the Godhead to those who

00:25:32.720 were present, to those who would write it into the scriptures. The early reformer Wolfgang Musculus,

00:25:39.520 which is one of the greatest names, Wolfgang Musculus, he said, quote, the Spirit did not

00:25:45.780 descend on christ's account who was never separate from the spirit either from the father

00:25:52.820 but on our account that he would come and redeem the world and might be made manifest through

00:26:00.420 john's declaration of his identity end quote in verse 33 john speaks again of this account of

00:26:07.380 jesus's baptism so again we don't get to see jesus's baptism in john we get to see it in the

00:26:13.700 synoptic gospels, but there's a reference to it here in John chapter 1. In verse 33, it says,

00:26:20.440 I myself did not know him. He says it again, right? But he who sent me to baptize with water said to

00:26:26.740 me, so who sent John? Well, God the Father. God the Father sent John. So again, verse 33, I myself

00:26:35.820 did not know him but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me he on whom you see the

00:26:44.820 spirit descend and remain this is he who baptizes with the holy spirit so there's a contrast

00:26:53.900 god tells john you go baptize with water but he says but he who comes and baptizes with the spirit

00:27:03.680 showing the difference between John and Jesus. In verse 34, he says,

00:27:11.320 and I have seen and I have borne witness that this is the Son of God.

00:27:19.460 Now, just to offer some cultural context around baptism, it was quite common to have water

00:27:27.840 baptisms occur in the Jewish world. There was various types of baptisms from sprinklings,

00:27:34.440 from pourings, from effusions, from immersions. There was all types of baptisms that were

00:27:42.180 occurring. Proselytes, who are people that are converting from pagan religions, that

00:27:47.980 are coming into the people of God, the proselytes attempting to enter into that old covenant

00:27:53.380 Israel, they would participate in what is called a mikvah. Now, the mikvah was essentially a

00:28:00.600 self-administered baptism. It was symbolic. You actually can see some of the pools around Jerusalem

00:28:07.780 in which you would walk into these pools, and you would very likely immerse yourself, 0.95

00:28:13.240 and it would be symbolizing washing away the filth of paganism, and it would occur very likely and 0.92

00:28:21.440 oftentimes, before circumcision for men. 0.95

00:28:24.360 So it was a way of symbolizing being washed clean from the old world. 0.96

00:28:30.000 Now, what made John's baptism unique was that he was administering it. 0.73

00:28:38.700 Because these were self-administered baptisms.

00:28:42.000 Yes, there were priestly baptisms of blood and sprinklings that occurred.

00:28:45.720 but john was administering these baptisms and not only that he was commanding it

00:28:54.300 he was commanding these baptisms now what makes this even more wild is that he was commanding

00:29:02.900 jews who were circumcised and who were already in the covenant to be baptized this is where the

00:29:11.640 pharisees really began to be stirred up wait a second baptisms are for entrance but you're 0.50

00:29:22.100 baptizing people who are already in that's going to throw a wrench in the theology of the pharisees

00:29:30.420 and this is why they asked who are you are you the prophet

00:29:40.620 are you elijah are you the messiah

00:29:45.100 what are you doing on what authority do you have to do such things commanding god's people to be

00:29:55.960 baptized again where is this coming from so you can start to see the curiosity behind the pharisees

00:30:06.100 why they would be asking these questions so all of this caused friction between john

00:30:14.200 and the jews it's the friction that was caused between jesus and the jews they're operating

00:30:22.080 outside of the framework

00:30:23.840 now john's baptism was preparatory it was preparatory it's kind of like the setting

00:30:34.300 of the table before the feast right it's preparatory work it made ready a people for the one

00:30:42.620 who would bring true baptism of the spirit so again if you look back it says

00:30:53.580 he did this see verse

00:30:58.540 i myself did not know him but he who sent me i baptized with water

00:31:01.820 um no it's earlier than that verse 31

00:31:07.140 i myself did not know him but for this purpose i came baptizing with water

00:31:13.840 that he might be revealed to israel that he might be revealed to israel

00:31:21.080 and this is important the purpose of john's baptism was a baptism of repentance

00:31:29.720 but it's a baptism of repentance for people who are already supposed to be repentant

00:31:37.020 and again this caused that structure of friction now

00:31:44.460 i don't believe that that necessarily means that john's baptism was a different sacrament

00:31:52.360 in substance from christian baptism there's a theological debate here but i'm going to give my

00:31:58.060 position. Acts 19 describes some sort of distinction. Oh, you've only been baptized in

00:32:05.080 John's baptism, a baptism of repentance. He shows there's a distinction, that there might be a

00:32:10.900 difference between the baptism of Jesus in the Great Commission, the Trinitarian baptism,

00:32:15.340 and the baptism of repentance. The great Bible commentator John Lightfoot argued that the two

00:32:23.600 were essentially one baptism, differing chiefly in the circumstances, and John baptized in

00:32:30.700 expectation for the Messiah who was about to be revealed, while the apostles baptized in

00:32:36.880 realization of the Messiah that was revealed in Jesus Christ. And he actually goes on to talk about

00:32:43.620 was there not, if this baptism was not sufficient, we have no record of many of the apostles being

00:32:50.800 baptized but many of the apostles were disciples of john and we would expect that they were baptized

00:32:57.840 through john's baptism and we would again implicitly understand that those baptisms

00:33:04.240 were sufficient since we have no record of those apostles being re-baptized

00:33:09.760 now the difference is that after christ's resurrection

00:33:14.240 and revelation, baptism is administered with a more complete expression.

00:33:22.400 It was administered in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. That's

00:33:26.840 what we see in Matthew chapter 28 of the Great Commission. But again, I think I'm with Lightfoot

00:33:31.740 and Ryle here. Bishop Ryle says, quote, I do not think that we should treat John's baptism

00:33:38.000 and Christian baptism as two entirely different sacraments. They are better understood as the

00:33:44.040 same basic baptism unfolding across two stages of one revelation. I thought that was very well

00:33:51.820 put. Now, I want to focus just real quick on this phrase of contrast that John uses.

00:34:01.880 This is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And we know this verse has been abused in many ways

00:34:10.160 in the charismatic world the pentecostal world what does it mean now this is john recognizing

00:34:18.620 the partial nature of his baptism it's partial it's incomplete and the full nature of christ's

00:34:30.600 baptism through the holy spirit there's a contrast here between two types of baptism

00:34:36.280 but they are connected in some dimension and so what are they talking about here

00:34:44.260 now again i think ryle wrote something on this that is better than i could ever write

00:34:49.660 so i'm just going to read it because it's that good he says

00:34:53.400 the baptism here spoken of is not the baptism of water so he's talking about the holy spirit's

00:35:01.100 baptism, right? It says, the baptism spoken of here is not the baptism of water. It does not

00:35:09.060 consist either of dipping or sprinkling. It does not belong exclusively either to infants

00:35:16.000 or to grown people. It is not baptism which any man can give, Episcopalian or Presbyterian,

00:35:24.540 independent or methodist layman or minister it is a baptism which the great head of the church

00:35:31.760 keeps exclusively in his own hands it consists of the implanting of grace into the inward man

00:35:40.380 it is the same thing with the new birth it is a baptism not of the body but of the heart

00:35:49.100 It is about baptism, which the penitent thief received, though neither dipped nor sprinkled by the hand of any man or minister.

00:35:59.740 It is a baptism, which Ananias and Sapphira did not receive, though admitted into the church communion by apostolic men, end quote.

00:36:12.220 How that was wonderful.

00:36:13.200 so our water baptism though commanded by christ we are commanded to do water baptism by christ

00:36:22.980 and to be received in faith is an act of trust and hope that signifies

00:36:30.100 our trust for the greater baptism of the holy spirit

00:36:36.400 the water is the outward sign the spirit is the inward reality now the sign without the spirit

00:36:45.780 is empty there are many who are in the church and not of the church and the old testament

00:36:54.960 there were many circumcised of the flesh and not circumcised of the heart not all who are israel

00:37:02.980 our Israel is what Paul says. There are some that are in the community, but not of the community.

00:37:13.100 Now, if the sign without the Spirit is empty, the claim to the Spirit while rejecting the sign

00:37:22.000 is disobedience. You need both. In fact, Christ commands both. Christ commands be baptized,

00:37:32.060 repent and believe. Christ also commands

00:37:36.360 you must be born again.

00:37:39.580 And you quickly land at Augustine's position.

00:37:46.040 Command what you will and will what you command.

00:37:50.640 You're commanding me to be born again

00:37:52.400 though I cannot born myself again.

00:37:56.940 God commands both. Be baptized in faith

00:38:00.260 trusting be born again i can't do that i i can't produce a spiritual rebirth of myself

00:38:14.080 you were dependent yet god commands both

00:38:18.200 again it's that same pattern circumcision of the flesh requires circumcision of the heart

00:38:26.820 Baptism with water requires baptism of the spirit.

00:38:29.460 The outward act comes first as the sign.

00:38:32.160 The inward work of God is the reality of which that sign points.

00:38:37.460 When you baptize that infant, you're waiting.

00:38:41.460 We don't know the baptism of the heart.

00:38:43.960 I can't see the heart.

00:38:45.540 I can't look at the inward man.

00:38:47.220 I can only see the outer shell.

00:38:49.340 But you trust and hope and faith that you wait for the sign to produce by God's grace and mercy.

00:38:55.740 that which is signified by the water, the washing away of sin.

00:39:02.960 That is what they were doing in the Old Testament.

00:39:05.740 They were cutting off the skin. 0.90

00:39:10.720 And they were waiting, those who had faith, 0.79

00:39:15.400 for the sign to bring forth that which it signified,

00:39:20.440 which is the circumcision of the heart.

00:39:22.220 and so they are not merely symbols they are acts of faith baptism the lord's supper they are

00:39:31.960 covenantal keys they are works of god's will they're important but they are not independent

00:39:42.640 they require dependent upon god's work in us and my last point which is just one sentence

00:39:51.800 Verse 34. John recalls the testimony of God at Jesus' baptism and is why he says, if you look

00:40:02.020 at your Bibles, and I have seen and I have borne witness that this is the Son of God. Let's pray.

00:40:12.500 Father, we thank you for the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world.

00:40:20.880 Lord our sins

00:40:22.260 Lord that when John was

00:40:26.760 preaching that word

00:40:28.480 he was preaching to us

00:40:31.520 about us

00:40:32.680 and Lord we ask that you would bless us

00:40:34.960 to understand and to revel

00:40:36.300 in the reality of Christ

00:40:38.880 as sacrifice

00:40:39.820 Lord we thank you for this word

00:40:42.820 in Jesus name, Amen

00:40:50.880 Amen.

Dale Partridge - September 27, 2026

John 1_29-34： The Lamb of God — Jesus Christ

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