The true Way of beholding the LAMB of GOD.
JOHN i. 35, 36.
_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._
GLORIOUS words these! Before we set about the opening and enforcing them, permit me to introduce myself in the language of _Paul_ to King _Agrippa_, “Would to GOD that both my own heart, and likewise the hearts of all that hear me this day, may not only be almost, but altogether in such a divine frame, as I am persuaded the heart of that man of GOD was who first uttered these words!” I need not tell you his name; our text tells us, it was _John_; emphatically called _John_ the Baptist, because he was sent to baptize with water unto repentance, in order to prepare his hearers for the further baptism of the Holy Ghost. He was a _Boanerges_, a son of thunder. He came in the spirit and power of _Elias_, and thereby soon rendered himself so exceedingly popular, that not only _Jerusalem_, all _Judea_, and all the regions round about _Jordan_, flocked to hear him preach, but even some of the _Jewish Sanhedrim_ began to doubt, whether he was not the _Messiah_ himself. Accordingly we are told in this chapter, “That they sent priests and levites from _Jerusalem_ ask him, Who art thou? What sayest thou of thyself?” A most commodious opportunity this, had he any thing in view but his master’s glory and the good of souls, for _John_ to have set up for himself. He might have said, “_Si populus vult decipi, decipiatur_; if people will be deceived, let them; I will impose on their credulity, and let them look upon me as the _Messiah_;” But scorning any such sinister and base ends, “He confessed, and denied not, but confessed, I am not the CHRIST.” The Evangelist expresses himself in a very peculiar manner, “He confessed, and denied not, but confessed;” implying that he took more than ordinary pains to rectify their mistake, and guard them against thinking more highly of him than they ought to think: nay, impatient, as it were, of the least appearance of any such thing, he speaks of himself in the most diminutive terms, acknowledges that he was unworthy even of carrying his blessed master’s shoes, and seizes the very first opportunity that offered itself to point him out in person to the people. The next day (verse 29.) _John_ seeth JESUS coming unto him, and upon seeing him, immediately cries out, “Behold the Lamb of GOD:” “Gaze not on, nor let your views terminate in me, but look to and behold the Lamb of GOD which taketh away the sin of the world.” Thus _John_ spoke in public; and to prove that he acted the same consistent part in private, our text informs us, that, “Again, the next day after, _John_ stood, and two of his disciples,” who like other newly awakened souls, having their master’s person too much in admiration, he labours to divert their views also from himself to CHRIST, and that too in the very same language. “For looking upon JESUS as he walked, he saith, Behold the LAMB of GOD.”
Thus does this disinterested, honest-hearted baptist, unweariedly and repeatedly recommend the LORD JESUS, under the same endearing character of the LAMB of GOD.
It shall be our business in the following discourse,
_First_, To shew you why it is that JESUS CHRIST is stiled the LAMB of GOD. And,
_Secondly_, What we are to understand by beholding him, Way will then be made for a word of application.
And first, Why is JESUS stiled the LAMB of GOD?