GOD’S WORD FOR SEPTEMBER 16  

We are using Charles Spurgeon book, “The Risen King.”  It’s a collection of well chosen excerpts from Spurgeon’s  “Easter” sermons in devotional form, put together by Jeff Medders.   Pastor Spurgeon lived from 1834 to 1892  in London, England, and had a unique gift of understanding and showing the depth of our faith.  Thus, his reverential title as the Prince of Preachers.   Even though we’re not in or near that season, every day is a good day to focus on Christ’s sacrifice and victory for us!

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BEHOLD!

John 1:29

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”

Lifting up his hand and pointing to Jesus, John the Baptist cried, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”  He didn’t say, “Behold the great example.”  He didn’t even say, “Behold the king and leader of a new era.”  The first point that he dwells upon, and which wins his enthusiasm, is “the Lamb of God.”  John the Baptist views Christ s the propitiation, the atoning sacrifice, for sin.

Notice how John says, “Behold the Lamb of God.”  This is different from what John would have said about all the lambs that he had ever heard or read of since the first appointment of sacrifice.  He remembered the first of the flock which Abel offered and the sweet-smelling sacrifice which Noah presented.  He knew the sacrifices of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  He was familiar with the lamb of the Passover supper and those of Israel’s high festivals.  He remembered the thousands of offerings that had been presented by David and by Solomon, and by other kings in the great national acts of worship.  But passing them by as if they were all mere shadows, he points his finger to the man Christ Jesus, and he says of Him, “this is the Lamb of God.”

What does the Lamb do?  What blessed words – He “takes away” our sin!  Where did He take it?  I will tell you:  “As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us.”  (Psalm 103:12).  He took the sin of all those who truly believe in Him away so completely that it sank into the bottom of the sea.  God has cast it behind His back, and it will not be mentioned against us any more forever.  There is no such thing now as the sin of the saints – Christ has utterly annihilated it.  He came to finish transgression and to make an end of sins.  If He made an end of them, they are gone forever.

So John calls us to “behold the Lamb of God” – is that all the sinner has to do?  Yes, behold Him in true belief. (the original word translated here to “behold” or “look” means to look in a worshipful way, believing in Who He is.)   Whosoever looks and believes in Christ lives by that look and shall live forever.  All who are in heaven entered there simply through beholding the slain Lamb, who takes away the sin of the world.  There is life in a look at the Lamb of God.  Look through blinding tears – look through what little spark of faith you have……but LOOK!

John the Baptist’s one business was to bear witness to Christ.  He was the morning star which heralds the rising sun.  When the sun appeared, he had no more reason for shining.  You cannot account for John except by Jesus – the one reason for John’s existence is Jesus.

I wish it might be so with us.  May we be able to say, “For me to live is Christ” as Paul said in Philippians 1:21.  May our lives be such that they cannot be understood apart from Jesus.  May it be the case that if we were to take Him away, our whole character would become an inexplicable mystery.  I am afraid that some professing Christians could be easily interpreted apart from Christ.  But if we are like John, true witnesses to Jesus, we shall find in Jesus the conscious purpose of our being, and His glory will be the clue to all the windings of our lives.  For this purpose we were born, and for this end we have come into the world:  that we may bear witness to the Lord Jesus Christ.  Search and look, my brothers and sisters, and see whether it is so with you,

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Ephesians 1:7

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace

Revelation 5:6

And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

Revelation 7:17

for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Revelation 21:23

The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light.

Revelation 22:1

And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

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