Transcript

Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. There is a marvelous unity in the Bible. For convenience, we speak of the New Testament and the Old Testament. But as a matter of fact, there is such an organic unity between the two that it is disastrous to try to separate them. It is a patent fact that without a waking knowledge of the Old Testament, the new can never be fully understood. Christ and his apostles were profound and sympathetic students of the Old Testament. Their minds were saturated with his ideas and language. This is especially true of the ideas of sin and redemption. My text is one of the many examples demonstrating how God has joined the thinking of the two Testaments together. Hence, without an Old Testament background, it is impossible to interpret these words intelligently. We need both to show us God's method of banishing sin from human life. The luminous message of the entire Bible is that the Lamb is the only answer to sin. It is God's answer. This theme holds an unrivaled place in the scripture. Let us now observe this crimson thread that stretches to the Old Testament and colors the fabric of the new. Consider first that all who embraced this message delivered by John found Christ to be the only answer to their problem of sin. John's hearers had no difficulty in understanding what he meant. They were familiar with the image of the Lamb. Their religious background enabled them to grasp the prophet's meaning at once. Every good Hebrew had been instructed in the symbolism of the Lamb in relation to sin and redemption. Many long centuries had waited for John's dramatic announcement. Some Bible students have spent considerable time trying to prove that the reference in this text was to one specific Lamb in the Old Testament. I prefer to follow Archbishop Trench, who maintained that this title for Jesus should not be referred back to this or that particular Lamb, but rather to all of them. Each one of them illustrated prophetically only some part of the stupendous work God's own Lamb would perform. In each case, a sacrificial Lamb was indicated. Each one served as a type to picture the coming Lamb of God as a substitute. Each Lamb was a shadow of good things to come. These Lambs conveyed one message, namely, that God's Messiah would qualify as the spotless Lamb to do His work on the cross as the sinner's substitute. Jesus came to make that shadow a reality. Christ met fully and forever every demand which infinite holiness could possibly require of a substitute. The resurrection of Christ was the Father's seal and sign, certifying to the entire moral universe that both the character and the work of His Son were eternally sufficient for all who trusted in that work for their redemption. The New Testament is a monumental witness to the fact that all who embrace Christ as God's Lamb slain for sinners found in Him a new life, a new power, a new gladness, and a new peace. They believe that by Christ's death they were emancipated forever from the guilt of their sins. They experienced in their hearts the indwelling Christ who released them from the tyranny of sin. This conviction constrained them to sing unto Him who loved us, washed us from our sins in His own blood, and made us kings and priests unto God and His Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. This experience gave them a new vitality that enabled them to live an increasingly victorious life. It introduced them into a new world so that they could shout, Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new. Thus they found in Christ the perfect answer to sin. They would have no difficulty in expressing this new experience in sacred poetry and singing with Isaac Watts. Not all the blood of beasts on world altar slain could give the guilty conscience peace or wash away the stain. Consider in the second place that Christ is the only answer to the fact of sin in the experience of modern man. Does this crisp announcement made by John have a message for our generation? I am convinced that it has. Although we do not have the same background as the heroes of the first century, we have the same pressing need. The implications are the same. Permit me to point out a few of these. The modern man realizes that there is something radically wrong with him and he is to blame. He knows that he is not just a helpless victim of either heredity or external circumstances. He is conscious that he is responsible for his actions. He is aware that he is in a different category from the animals of the field. He realizes that his guilt must be judged and adequately dealt with. For every man must give an account of himself to God. Modern man wonders if forgiveness is possible. He fails to find it in nature. The laws of nature are inexorable. Nature refuses to forgive wrongdoing. No one can trifle with nature and escape her penalty. Heredity is obey or suffer. There are no exceptions. He fails to find a hint to this problem in the courts of justice. Although the magistrates of justice are sinful human beings, they warn us, become acquainted with the statutes of the land for in the day you violate them, a penalty will be inflicted upon you. Such thoughts harass the mind of the modern man. They trouble his conscience. They make him fearful and unhappy. He craves an authoritative answer to the problem of human guilt. This problem concerns all of us, for all are guilty. The sophisticated person who would have us believe that this is a problem for abnormal minds is only bluffing to conceal his own feeling of guilt. An acute thinker has told us that the absence of a guilt feeling is due to a diseased mentality. Conscience confines this observation. The modern man admits that he is unable to solve the problem of how to secure freedom from his guilt. He soon comes to his wits end and confesses, it is too much for me. It is beyond my power to handle. He has not been able to forgive himself. His conscience has refused to permit this. He has not been able to dismiss his guilt by popular methods of escape. What can he do in this predicament? Here is where the gospel comes to his rescue. At this point the modern man is prepared to hear John's announcement, behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. Now what does this text say to the modern man that will give him the assurance he craves? It tells him that Christ's death on the cross was related to his sin, not Christ's sin, but the sinner's sin. It tells him that through the death of Christ, God has made it possible to remain just and at the same time consistently justify the sinner. It explains to him that this death of Christ must be viewed in the character of a propitiation as a lamb bearing away sin. The Savior took the sin of the world as one huge mass upon himself and bore it away through his substitutionary death on the cross. God made him to be sin for us who knew no sin. He laid upon him the iniquity of us all. The modern man must stand beside sinners of other generations and behold in the death of Christ a goodness that outweighed all sin and understand with Paul that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. The consciousness of forgiveness springs from this exalted and exalting vision that Christ died in our stead. This is the soul-filling news of the New Testament that we are now released from the condemnation of our sins. This is the gospel for young and old. There is an aversion among the proud to this Christian teaching. This antipathy comes from those to whom sin means little. Frequently this belief is criticized by those to whom Christ is only a teacher or an example. If I hear such a criticism, I think of a statement made by a Frenchman. He said, when a man tells me he does not believe in God, I take off my hat before him as before one who has suffered a great loss. In some such manner, I feel sorry for those who have acquired such a pseudo-refinement that they ridicule the blood of Christ and esteem it an unholy thing. These persons have certainly sustained a terrible calamity. Such an attitude cannot permanently conceal a bad conscience. It will sooner or later assert itself as it confronts the living and holy God. Regardless of any person's preconceptions on this subject, there can be no question that the blood of Christ shed as the Lamb of God is the nerve of Christianity. It is the pith and marrow of the entire Christian system. It is a central message and dominating theme of the New Testament. It extends to the depths of our ailment and gives us the jubilant experience of freedom from guilt. The message of my text is adapted to the needs of man no matter where he may live. It is the only answer to the sin of the world. It works any place and any time. A Christian missionary relates that among those converted by his preaching at the sacred city of Benares was a devotee who dragged himself many miles upon his knees and elbows to bathe in the Ganges. He had at the bottom of his heart the conviction of sin and the desire for cleansing. He said to himself, if I can but reach the Ganges, the shame and fear and bondage will be taken away. Weak and emaciated from his long pilgrimage, he dragged himself down to the river's edge and praying to Ganga, he crept into it. Then withdrawing, he lay upon the river's bank and moaned, the pain is still here. At that moment he heard a voice from the shadow of a banyan tree nearby. It was a Christian missionary telling the story of the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world. The devotee listened and drank it in. He arose to his feet and unable to restrain himself, he clapped his hands and exclaimed, that's what I want, that's what I want. This is what we all want, even though some are reluctant to admit it. This answer has been verified in the laboratory of experience many times. Many have experimented with various proposals, but after a weary and fruitless search, they have had to confess that there is but one satisfying answer to the question, what must I do to be saved? Let us never lose sight of the significant fact that it is God who takes the initiative in our redemption. It is God who provides the Lamb. Some have said the idea of the cross being necessary for forgiveness is a relic of paganism. To such we reply that a tremendous difference is ignored in this charge. In pagan faiths, man had to provide the propitiation, but in the Christian faith, God provides it. God did not ask man for an atoning sacrifice. He gave the atoning sacrifice out of the overflow of his love for sinners. Keep clearly in mind that the death of Christ is the expression of God's love and not the cause of it. Some have asked, couldn't God forgive without the death of Christ? The Bible answers no. God is more than a private person. He is the moral governor of the universe. It is God's duty to uphold and administer the law in the highest interest of the state. If he failed to do this, moral anarchy would result. For God to forgive and maintain the moral law that lives in him, he found it necessary to give his only begotten son to die for sin. The modern man is a sinful human being, and he can find life in the Lamb of God as much as his predecessors. One of my teachers was fond of saying, there must be pure water where so many have knelt to drink and risen with new light in their eyes. There is no reason to think that this spring will fail to refresh your fevered spirit with the water of life if you approach it with confession, penitence, and humility. You may prove it now, just where you are. Our Lord came into the world for the express purpose of taking away our sins. This was his unique mission. Every other person born into this world added to the mass of sin. Christ alone took it away. Treasure this truth in your innermost soul. Keep on repeating with John, behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Repeat it until you believe it with all your heart, and then repeat it because you do believe it. Repeat it until many who are now burdened with the load of their guilt will turn to the Lamb of God in full surrender and exclaim with Charlotte Elliot, just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bidst me come to thee. O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Let us engage in a word of prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we are grateful that thou hast provided for our eternal happiness. Thou hast given so many evidences to encourage us to trust Christ as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. From henceforth, may our hearts become the throne of him who died in our place. Without reserve and without delay, may our hearts be his forever. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen.