And this is the witness of John, when the Jews sent unto him from Jerusalem priests and Levites to ask him, Who art thou?
And he confessed, and denied not; and he confessed, I am not the Christ.
And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elijah? And he saith, I am not. Art thou the prophet? And he answered, No.
They said therefore unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?
He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said Isaiah the prophet.
And they had been sent from the Pharisees.
And they asked him, and said unto him, Why then baptizest thou, if thou art not the Christ, neither Elijah, neither the prophet?
John answered them, saying, I baptize in water: in the midst of you standeth One whom ye know not,
even He that cometh after me, the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to unloose.
These things were done in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
On the morrow he seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!
This is He of whom I said, After me cometh a Man who is become before me: for He was before me.
And I knew Him not; but that He should be made manifest to Israel, for this cause came I baptizing in water.
And John bare witness, saying, I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven; and it abode upon Him.
And I knew Him not: but He that sent me to baptize in water, He said unto me, Upon whomsoever thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and abiding upon Him, the same is He that baptizeth in the Holy Spirit.
And I have seen, and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.
After these things came Jesus and His disciples into the land of Judaea; and there He tarried with them, and baptized.
And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim, because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized.
For John was not yet cast into prison.
There arose therefore a questioning on the part of John’s disciples with a Jew about purifying.
And they came unto John, and said to him, Rabbi, He that was with thee beyond the Jordan, to whom thou hast borne witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to Him.
John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it have been given him from heaven.
Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but, that I am sent before Him.
He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, that standeth and heareth Him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is made full.
He must increase, but I must decrease.
That is all we will read for tonight.
I do not know whether some of you still remember what we shared together last time. We talked about John the Baptist. We said that John the Baptist was an epoch-making vessel of God.
God was going to change the times. He needed a vessel through whom to make that change possible, and He found in this man, John the Baptist, such an epoch-making vessel.
The reason why we are so interested in John the Baptist is because we are right on the verge of another great change. This age is coming very near to its close, and the age to come is coming very near. The King is coming back.
Remember, if this change is to be brought about, God today is also looking among His own for an epoch-making vessel. But, as we mentioned last time, this epoch-making vessel will not be an individual. It will be a corporate person—a people apprehended by the Lord to prepare the way of the Lord.
We also mentioned the message that John the Baptist preached to the nation of the Jews at that time. In other words, God had a word for His people—a word to prepare them for the coming of the Messiah.
That word was a very simple word: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
John not only preached repentance; he baptized people with water, because the baptism of John is unto repentance. By baptism, repentance is acted out: the past is dead, buried out of sight, and one is raised again on the resurrection ground of Christ.
Now, of course, we know that the baptism of John and believers’ baptism are different. Today we have believers’ baptism. We are baptized because our Lord Jesus has commanded us to be baptized.
Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit:
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you.
The emphasis of John’s baptism is on death, because it is repentance. The emphasis of believers’ baptism is on resurrection, that we may walk in newness of life. Of course, baptism includes both burial and resurrection.
I believe that the Lord has a word for His people today, and this word shall come forth from that epoch-making vessel. It is the word of repentance. It is a time that we have to repent for all the past, because the reality has come.
We have to see that everything in the past has to go to death, and we have to be completely on the ground of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus.
This evening, we would like to continue with John the Baptist, but it will be on the witness of John the Baptist.
John began to preach in the wilderness, and many people flocked to him to be baptized. Even Pharisees and scribes came to him to be baptized.
Of course, it was not easy for these Pharisees and scribes to come to John to be baptized, because John was a rough person. He was unlearned. He had never been to the school of the rabbis. He was very unorthodox and irregular.
For these Pharisees and scribes to come to him to be baptized, John ought to have been very pleased. But instead, you find that John had very sharp words for them.
Ye offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of repentance.
And even now the axe also lieth at the root of the trees: every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
That must have offended these Pharisees and scribes. But in the beginning, people came out from the cities, villages, and countryside; they all flocked to John the Baptist to hear him. He had such power and influence over people.
So the Pharisees, scribes, Levites, priests, and rulers had to consider what to do. Here was a man who was unorthodox and irregular, and yet he had such power and influence. He did everything against their tradition. He challenged their authority and position.
They wanted to find out whether he really was the Messiah, or whether he was Elijah, who was to be sent before the Messiah. If so, perhaps they had to go along with him in spite of everything. But if he were not, why should they continue to allow him to exist? He was a contradiction to their tradition, their position, and their authority.
So they sent priests and Levites to John the Baptist and asked, “Now, who are you? We just cannot figure you out.”
Definitely, they had a kind of formula that they used to test orthodoxy. Evidently, whenever someone appeared and something happened, they challenged that person with a formula.
The formula seems to have been this:
According to the Old Testament, Elijah was to come before the Messiah. And “the prophet” refers to the prophet Moses mentioned in Deuteronomy.
The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto Him ye shall hearken.
If that person was none of these, then he must be an impostor. They could draw their conclusion concerning him. Evidently, they used the same formula with John the Baptist: “Who are you? Tell us who you are. Are you the Christ? Are you Elijah? Are you the prophet?”
When they asked John the Baptist, there was no pretension in him. He was very honest in his answer. To the first question, he said, “I am not.” To the second, “I am not Elijah.” To the third, “I am not the prophet.”
“I am not. I am not this. I am not that.”
You know, dear brothers and sisters, in one sense, our witness of ourselves is not true. If you bear witness of yourself, people do not need to take much notice of it.
Even our Lord Jesus, when He was on earth, said in John 5:
If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true.
It is another that beareth witness of Me; and I know that the witness which He witnesseth of Me is true.
Why is it that if a person bears witness of himself, his witness is not true? He may tell the truth, and yet in that sense his witness is not true. There is not much credit to it.
If you speak of yourself, people do not need to give you too much credit. In court, if you bear witness of yourself, the judge or jury cannot go merely by your own witness. Why? Because we human beings are such that our hearts are deceitful, and we often deceive ourselves.
We think we are somebody. We think we are something. We think we are this or that, when we are not. Sometimes we think of ourselves too highly, more highly than we really are. But sometimes we think too lowly of ourselves. This can happen too.
When we think of ourselves too highly, we become puffed up. When we think of ourselves too lowly, we become discouraged. We draw back and try to hide ourselves.
Because of this, if we bear witness of ourselves, our witness is not true. No one needs to pay too much attention to our own witness. We have to be borne witness to by somebody else, so that there is something confirming it.
Yet, in John 8, the Lord said:
I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.
The Pharisees immediately said, “Thou bearest witness of Thyself; Thy witness is not true.” How did the Lord answer them?
Though I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true; for I know whence I came, and whither I go.
You see, dear brothers and sisters, if you bear witness of yourself alone, your witness is not true, because no one really knows himself or herself. But on the other hand, if the Holy Spirit bears witness with your spirit, that witness is true.
How do you know that you are a child of God? Is it because somebody tells you, “Now, you look like a child of God”? Not at all. You know you are a child of God because the Bible says that the Holy Spirit bears witness with your spirit that you are a child of God.
Here you find the difference. If we bear witness of ourselves according to the flesh, there is no credit to it, and we should not do that. But if the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit, then it is true.
The Lord said, “My witness is true, because I know where I come from, and I know where I am going.” Here you find John the Baptist confronted with the question, “Who are you? Tell us. We cannot figure you out.”
In his answer, you find both the negative and the positive. First, he answered negatively: “I am not. I am not the Christ. I am not Elijah. I am not the prophet.” He did not pretend to be what he was not.
How we are tempted to pretend to be somebody else. We always want to be somebody else, and we try to pretend that we are somebody else.
We should have the Spirit of Christ, but we are not Christ. We should have the spirit of Elijah, but we are not Elijah. We should have the spirit of the prophet, but we are not the prophet.
If we know ourselves in the Spirit, the first thing we should know is our limitation—what we are not. We need to know what we are not before we can really know what we are.
God has called us to be ourselves. God does not call you to be somebody else. He wants you to be just yourself. That is what you are.
He has a special plan for you. You have a place in the body of Christ. You are a special member of that body. You are not some other member. You are not somebody else, but you are what God has called you to be.
If you do not try to be somebody else, and yet are content to be what you are as God has called you, that is the beginning of knowing yourself.
You know your place. You know your proportion. You know your measure—how far the Lord has measured you, what proportion He has given you. If you know these things, you know your limitations, and you will be what God has made you to be. That is the beginning of knowing yourself.
But then John answered positively. After he had said, “I am not this; I am not that,” the formula did not work. They asked him, “Now, who are you? Why do you baptize people? If you are not the Christ, how dare you baptize people?”
He answered, “I am a voice in the wilderness.”
Being filled with the Holy Spirit, he was given knowledge of what he was. He knew negatively what he was not, and he did not try to be what he was not. He knew positively what he really was.
I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord.
In Scripture, a voice comes from a person. A voice carries the message of that person. It is to be heard, not to be seen. A voice, after it is spoken, passes away; but the message that it carries remains.
That is what John the Baptist was. In one sense, there was no man born of women greater than John the Baptist. Yet, so far as he himself was concerned, he knew himself as a voice—nothing but a voice.
He was sent by God to give a message to the world, to tell people of the One who was to come. After the voice had spoken, his work was done, and he disappeared completely from the scene. He was content to be just that voice.
My dear brothers and sisters, is this our witness of ourselves? Do we see before the Lord that we are really nothing? We are nobody. We are but a voice.
Are we speaking our own opinions, bringing our own message? Or are we a voice of God? Do we have a message from God?
If we do not have a message, we cannot be a voice, because if we are just speaking on our own, we direct people to ourselves. We make ourselves the end instead of the means.
But if we really have a message from God, then we can be a voice—a voice in the wilderness. This world is a wilderness, and God speaks through His people.
God gives a message to the world through His people. After we have given them the message, we can go away and disappear—not to be seen, but to be heard. Whoever hears the voice should worship Christ, worship Jesus. Amen.
So first of all, John’s testimony of himself was that he was a voice. Then, secondly, in John 3, you find that he again bore witness of himself.
It was a very awkward situation. John the Baptist was baptizing people, and Jesus and His disciples were baptizing people. More people went to be baptized by the disciples of our Lord Jesus.
The disciples of John had a discussion with a Jew concerning purification. They came to John, and they were very jealous for their master because people were all going to Jesus instead of coming to John.
They said, “The One to whom you testified is now baptizing people, and more people have gone to Him.” Quite an insinuation.
John testified concerning himself, “I am not the bridegroom. I am the friend of the bridegroom. When the friend of the bridegroom hears the voice of the bridegroom, he rejoices. He must increase, but I must decrease.”
In the old days, according to Jewish custom, if a bridegroom was going to ask for the hand of a maiden, he would not usually go himself. He would send his friend to represent him, to go to the maiden’s family and negotiate for the marriage.
The friend of the bridegroom was a person very close to the bridegroom—a bosom friend. He was willing to do everything for his friend. He would do all the negotiations.
After the whole matter was consummated, the friend of the bridegroom would be in charge of the marriage feast. He did all the work for the bridegroom, but it was the bridegroom who had the bride.
He had no jealousy about it. When he heard the voice of the bridegroom—that is, when the bridegroom returned with the bride and the feast began—he rejoiced because his task was done. He was not thinking of himself; he was thinking of his friend.
That was the position John the Baptist took. He said, “I am the friend of the bridegroom. I come to seek the hand of the maiden for the bridegroom. If I hear the voice of the bridegroom, I rejoice. He must increase, but I must decrease.”
In one sense, we are the bride. But in another sense, we are the friend of the bridegroom.
Our Lord Jesus came to this world to seek us for His bride. He wants us to be His bride. But we have another position, like John the Baptist: we are the friend of the bridegroom. We understand His heart.
A friend is one who understands. The Lord Jesus said in John 15:
No longer do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known unto you.
A servant does not know the mind of the master. The master simply says, “You do this,” and he does it. The master does not explain. But to a friend, the master shares his mind.
This is the way the Lord Jesus deals with us. He shares His heart with us. He shares His mind and His burden with us. Knowing what He really wants, what are we doing?
Are we really the friend of the bridegroom? Are we willing to do all this work of negotiation and preparation, and yet after all the work is done, say, “Lord, we are but unprofitable servants. You are the Bridegroom. You must increase, and we must decrease”?
This is the kind of epoch-making vessel that God can use. If we speak of ourselves and for ourselves, if we try to draw people to ourselves, we are not fit to bear witness for the Lord.
But if our witness of ourselves is such that we are a voice and friends of the bridegroom, then our witness of the Lord is true and effective.
This is only the ground of introduction. What we really want to consider tonight is the witness of John concerning Christ.
It is true that sometimes we may be forced to bear witness of ourselves. Usually, it is better not to bear witness of yourself, because if you do, people will say, “Your witness is not true.” But sometimes you may be forced to do that.
The Apostle Paul was forced to do that in 2 Corinthians. He did not want to talk about himself; he wanted to talk about the Lord. But sometimes he was forced, and he had to say something. Even what he said was true because he did not say it in the flesh. He was in the Spirit, and there was no pretension in his witness concerning himself.
The same thing is true with us. It is better if we do not speak of ourselves. But sometimes people force you: “Who are you? We cannot figure you out. Who are you? What do you want?” Then we may be forced to reveal something.
Do we really know ourselves? Do we really know what we are and what we are not? I think that is important. It is a preparation, so that our witness of the Lord Jesus may be full and complete.
It amazes me when I think of John the Baptist and his witness of the Lord Jesus. What a full and complete witness he gave to the Lord Jesus. It is amazing.
The witness of John the Baptist concerning the Lord was threefold:
Thus, the witness of John concerning our Lord Jesus is threefold: the Lamb of God, the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit, and the Bridegroom.
When the Lord came to John, he said:
Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!
The next day, when two of his disciples were with him and the Lord Jesus passed by, John said again, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” The two disciples went and followed the Lord.
That was his first witness concerning the Lord. Of course, with the Jewish people, the concept of the lamb was a very familiar one. You can go back in their history to the time when they were in Egypt, and see how God delivered them from death and from Egypt with a Passover lamb.
God used different plagues upon Pharaoh and Egypt, but nothing worked until God smote all the firstborn in the land and saved the firstborn of the Israelites by the blood of the Passover lamb.
Every family was to prepare a lamb without blemish, perfect. Between the two evenings of the fourteenth day of the first month, the lamb was to be killed. Its blood was put upon the doorposts and lintel, and the whole family gathered in the house to eat the flesh of the lamb.
That lamb gave them strength to walk out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and into the promised land. Thus, for the children of Israel, the concept of the lamb was familiar. It marked the beginning of them as a nation of God.
Then, of course, in the temple, every morning the first thing to be done was for a lamb, as a burnt offering, to be put upon the altar. The brazen altar was basically the altar of burnt offering.
Every morning a lamb was put on the fire, and it was slowly consumed through the day until it was reduced to ashes. Then the evening offering was put on. Thus, the fire of the burnt offering continued day and night without ceasing.
All the other sacrifices offered through the day—whether sin offerings, trespass offerings, meal offerings, peace offerings, or other offerings—were offered on the basis of the burnt offering.
Because we read the book of Hebrews, we know that all the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins. All the tens of thousands and millions of cattle, sheep, and goats offered through the years could not wash away a single sin.
Therefore, in Old Testament times, sins were covered, not washed away. But when Christ came as the Lamb of God, He offered Himself spotless through the eternal Spirit to God once for all. It is finished.
He was accepted, and because He was accepted, we are accepted in the Beloved. He bore in His body our sins upon the cross, that we might become the righteousness of God.
We are redeemed, not by silver and gold, but by the precious blood of the Lamb, who was foreknown before the foundation of the world.
Our Lord Jesus is the Lamb of God. He was the Lamb whom all these lambs, sheep, and goats typified. God prepared Him. God sent Him into this world. God had Him offered upon the cross. Because of this, our sins are forgiven.
John gave a very clear testimony of the Lord Jesus in this respect. Repentance was just a preparation. Without repentance, people would not trust in the Lamb of God. They would not see the need of the blood.
But with repentance, they were ready to receive Christ as the Lamb of God. Thus, the witness of John the Baptist was not merely negative: “Repent.” It was also positive:
Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!
Dear brothers and sisters, of course we know this. But the world still needs to hear this witness. We still need to witness to the world: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”
Not only that, even in our daily life we can never go beyond the need of Christ as the Lamb of God.
If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
It is on the basis of the shed blood of our Lord Jesus that our daily fellowship with God may not be interrupted. If it is interrupted, it is only by the power of the blood that it can be restored.
We can never go beyond the need of seeing Him as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. But this is only the first aspect of John’s witness concerning our Lord Jesus.
Today, in Christianity, unfortunately, there are many who bear the name of Christian, yet there is no witness of the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. A social gospel is preached instead.
But thank God, there are still places where you can really hear the full gospel of Jesus Christ: “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” Thank God for that witness.
Yet it seems that our witness of the Lord Jesus often ends there. It is not because the Lord Jesus is not more than the Lamb of God, but because that is all that we know of Him.
In one sense, we rejoice because we know Him as the Lamb of God, and we bear witness of the same. But on the other hand, how sad it is that this seems to be all that we know of Him, and that we have no further witness to give concerning our Lord Jesus.
But look at John the Baptist. He lived at the close of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New Testament. He was not in the New Testament as fully as we are today, as the church is today, and yet his knowledge of the Lord Jesus seems to be so full.
John not only bore witness of the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God, but secondly, he said, “I baptize with water. But there is One among you who is before me. He comes after me, but He is before me, and I am not worthy to unloose the latchet of His sandals.”
He is so far superior to me. “I baptize you with water unto repentance, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
In one sense, John the Baptist and our Lord Jesus were cousins. But John lived in the wilderness, and these two cousins did not know each other very well.
When the Lord Jesus came to John the Baptist, there was something in that Man which made John feel that he could not baptize Him. The Lord Jesus had to say, “Suffer it now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.”
John said, “I knew Him not. But He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and abiding upon Him, the same is He that baptizeth in the Holy Spirit.’”
When our Lord Jesus was baptized, as He prayed, heaven was opened. The Holy Spirit descended as a dove upon Him, and there was a voice saying:
This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
John the Baptist bore witness: “This is the Son of God. This is the One who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.”
You need spiritual eyes and spiritual ears to see and hear when such things are happening. You may be right in the middle of it, yet you do not see it and you do not hear it. Only those with spiritual eyes and spiritual ears can see it.
Our Lord Jesus came to baptize with the Holy Spirit. Of course, we know that this was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost.
After the death of our Lord Jesus, He appeared to His disciples for forty days. Then He led them to the Mount of Olives, and there He was taken up. According to His word, they returned to Jerusalem and stayed there for ten days, praying with one accord—one hundred and twenty of them.
As they were praying together, when the day of Pentecost was fulfilled, suddenly there came a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind. The whole room was filled with the Holy Spirit, tongues as of fire came upon them, and they began to speak in tongues, glorifying the Lord.
When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He was the Lamb of God, and He died in order to take away our sins. But after He had ascended on high, the Father anointed Him with oil, just as the oil was poured upon Aaron’s head and flowed down to his beard and garments, even to the skirts of his garments.
The coming down of the Holy Spirit upon the one hundred and twenty was proof that our Lord Jesus had arrived and had been anointed by God as Lord and Christ.
The Head was anointed. After He was anointed, He sent the Holy Spirit, and He baptized the one hundred and twenty in the Holy Spirit. We say that this was the beginning of the church.
Oftentimes, dear brothers and sisters, we think of the baptism with the Holy Spirit in terms of the sound of rushing wind and the sight of fire. But these are incidental.
The essential, the real meaning of baptism with the Holy Spirit, is something else. Our Lord Jesus is the Baptizer. The agent is the Holy Spirit, and we are the people who are baptized.
What is the meaning of being baptized with the Holy Spirit? What is the real work that is done when the Lord, the Head, baptizes His body—His people—with the Holy Spirit? What has transpired?
John baptized people with water unto repentance. When we come into believers’ baptism, we also go into water. But what is that for? We are baptized with water in order that we may belong to Christ.
In Romans 6, do we not know that we who have been baptized were baptized unto Christ? We are baptized with water unto Christ.
Just as the children of Israel were baptized in the sea unto Moses, so we are baptized with water unto Christ. In other words, we belong to Christ.
Then Christ, the Head, baptizes us, who are His, with the Holy Spirit. Unto what? Water baptism is unto Christ; Spirit baptism is unto the body of Christ.
That is why only on two occasions—the day of Pentecost and the house of Cornelius—the terms “baptized with the Holy Spirit” or “baptism in the Holy Spirit” are used.
In 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, this is explained:
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ.
For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all made to drink of one Spirit.
The essential meaning of baptism with the Holy Spirit—that the Head should baptize us with the Holy Spirit—is that we may become one body. One body.
The Lord does not think only individually. We have to be saved as individuals. You cannot be saved for me, and I cannot be saved for you. Everyone has to repent, believe in the Lord Jesus, and accept the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God.
We must be saved individually. But remember, this is not God’s ultimate purpose. It is only the first step.
After He has saved us individually, God gathers us together and baptizes us in the Holy Spirit into one body. That is what He wants.
Therefore, if we remain as individual Christians, if our individualism is not dealt with, if we are still freelance and independent, we know Christ only in this first aspect. That is all we know.
We are far short of the full purpose of God. The full purpose of God is that we who are redeemed should be one. He has baptized us in one Spirit into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles.
In the world, the distance between Jews and Gentiles cannot be bridged. It is impossible. But in one Spirit we have all been baptized into one body.
When we are baptized into one body, then, as Scripture says:
There can be neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman; but Christ is all, and in all.
This is what the Lord Jesus has done as the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit. We are one body. We are members one of another. There is an organic relationship, not only between us and the Lord, but among us with one another.
Because of this, how important it is that we maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. How important it is that our lives should be lived in the body, and not as though we were outside the body.
How important it is that we be related to one another and built up together. How important it is, as members of one body, that we function—not only separately, but together and in coordination under the headship of Christ.
All these things are real and important because the Lord Jesus is more than the Lamb of God. He is the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit.
Do we really know the Lord Jesus as the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit? If we do, that will deliver us from being independent and from individualism.
It will help us to see that we are one body and how we need to live the life of that body. This is what the Lord has done, and we should not do anything contrary to what the Lord has done.
This is why division is such a serious matter. Is Christ divided? Are we not one body?
This is the desire of the Lord: that we who are His should really be one, that the world may know that the Father has sent Him. If we are perfected into one, the world may know that the Father has loved us, even as He has loved Christ.
This is the second aspect of John’s witness concerning Christ. Then there is the third one.
John the Baptist not only saw the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He saw the Lord Jesus as the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit, who gathers His wheat into Himself. We are gathered together unto Him as one body.
But John the Baptist also saw the purpose—the final purpose—that we would become the bride of Christ, and that Christ is the Bridegroom.
The reason why the Lord Jesus came into this world is more than merely to seek and save the lost. The reason why He saves the lost is that He might bring them together into one body, the body of Christ, the fullness of Him who filleth all in all.
But the reason He wants His body to be built up, fully grown, and mature is that this body is to be His bride. He has His eyes upon that bride.
If you look back into Genesis, there is a picture there. God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone.” Then God brought all the animals to Adam.
Adam looked at every one of the animals and gave names to them all, but he could not find his counterpart.
So God put Adam to sleep and took something out of his side. In the original, it is simply that God took something out of him and built a woman with that something.
It is wonderful that the word used there is “built.” Adam was made, but the woman was built.
When Adam awoke, God brought the woman to him. Adam looked at her and said:
This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
The two were joined together in one flesh. Beautiful.
It is the same thing. Our Lord Jesus came into this world, but He could not find anyone who was His counterpart. When He came into this world, all He saw were sinners and rebels, like wild and vicious animals.
He could not find anyone who would be His counterpart, who would be His bride. He cannot join Himself with that which is not His life. He could not find any, and because of that, He had to start from the very beginning.
He was put to sleep on the cross. Out of Him came blood and water: blood for the remission of sins, water for life.
With that which comes out of Him, He builds the woman. He has brought us into life through His death, and then He builds us together with that which is out of Himself.
Remember: the church is built with that which comes out of Him. Only that which comes out of Him, which is like Him and corresponds to Him, can be joined back to Himself.
That is why, during the process of building, the work of the cross has to be done in our lives, because it is the cross that is fashioning us.
Then what is left, and what is built together, will become that woman—the church, the glorious church.
Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself up for it;
that He might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word,
that He might present the church to Himself glorious, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing;
but that it should be holy and without blemish.
That is what the Lord is doing. He has to start from the very beginning. He has to save sinners, bring these saved ones together, and build them up.
When they are fully grown, then He will come back and claim this mature body as His bride. They will be joined together forever.
Dear brothers and sisters, John saw all this by the revelation of the Holy Spirit. He was a person used by God to make the change.
How much more we should know of our Lord. That is our witness of the Lord.
Do we witness to the world that our Lord is the Lamb of God? Thank God, we do. But do we also witness that our Lord Jesus is the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit, and that we are one body?
Do we really witness and say that the Lord is the Bridegroom? That is why we have to be built up together. It is not for ourselves alone. This is for Him, for His sake. This is what He wants, what He comes for, what He longs for.
If we can bear such witness, we will be used to change the times and to bring the King.
Our Heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee because, through the Holy Spirit, Thy servant John the Baptist could give such a clear testimony, both of himself and of Thy Son.
Lord, we do pray that, through the revelation of the Holy Spirit, we too may be given clear revelation as to who and what we are before Thee, and what Thou art to us.
May we bear a true testimony of Jesus to the world. Oh, may Thy name be exalted in Thy preciousness. Amen.