Morning, brothers and sisters.
Let’s open up to the Gospel of John, please—John chapter 1.
We’re going to start by reading John 1:6.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
The same came for witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe.
He was not the Light, but came that he might bear witness of the Light.
Then John 1:15:
John beareth witness of Him, and crieth, saying, This was He of whom I said, He that cometh after me is become before me: for He was before me.
And then John 1:19:
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.
And then one more passage, in John chapter 20, verse 30:
Many other signs therefore did Jesus in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book:
but these are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life in His name.
Let’s pray.
Lord, even John the Baptist did not know Who You were, but he had to be shown by You. And we’re in the same place, Lord. We also need to be enlightened by You as to Who You are for us and Who You are for the world.
So we come to You this morning. We come to Your Word, and we ask that You’ll open Your Word to us and show us Your beloved Son. Lord, it’s Him that we want to see. It’s only Him that will make a change in our lives, even as has been testified here earlier this morning.
Only He can change us. Only He can do a work in us that is eternal. And how we need Him. But Lord, how, left to ourselves, hopeless we are.
So we turn to You and just ask, Lord, anoint Your Word. Open Your Word to us. Bear witness to Jesus. Let us see Him. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
As those of you who have been frequenting here know, I’ve begun teaching out of the Gospel of John. Last time, we talked about the Word became flesh. And this morning—I’m sorry—I’m not going to have a lot of pictures for you, okay?
But today we want to look at the testimony of John the Baptist and what it reveals about Christ. In looking at John the Baptist, we want to see four different things:
We know just a little bit about John the Baptist. If you read Luke, you know a little bit about his birth and how that came to be. And if you read the other Synoptic Gospels—Matthew and Mark, along with Luke—we learn a little bit about his ministry.
The Gospel of John doesn’t touch very much on those things at all. It doesn’t even talk about the baptism of our Lord Jesus. But it deals with the impression that John gets after the Lord was baptized, after he came to know that this was the Christ.
Those are the things we want to look at today. I don’t want to take a lot of time, because I want to leave time for the baptism.
First of all, John’s testimony concerning himself: a great phrase—“I am not.”
That’s his testimony about himself: “I am not.” You may say, “Well, you’re not what?” Well, he mentioned three things.
When John came on the scene, there was a big commotion, and a great expectation came upon the land of Israel. He came out in the spirit and power of Elijah—that’s what it says in Luke—and he came preaching that the kingdom of heaven was at hand and that people should repent.
Quite a following gathered around him as he went up and down the Jordan River doing his ministry of baptizing. Most people take this time in John as being after Jesus was baptized and after Jesus had gone forty days in the wilderness, where He was tempted, because we see at the end that Jesus is back.
As these forty days closed, the people in Jerusalem sent a delegation made up of priests and Levites. We know that John came from a priestly family, so maybe they sent these priests because they felt they could relate to him. They sent these priests and Levites to ask specifically, “Who are you?”
Because of this expectation, they were wondering, “Who are you?” As soon as they came to him and said, “Who are you?” he immediately let them know, “I’m not the Christ. Don’t think that I’m the Christ. I’m not Him.”
Then they asked, “Well, are you Elijah?” Because in Malachi, it talked about Elijah coming before the end. He said, “No.” Even though he might have looked like Elijah, the way he dressed—probably a hairy man with hairy clothes and a funny diet too. Locusts and honey. I like the new commercial: “I’m a meditarian.”
But John was not Elijah. So he said, “I’m not Elijah.” Then they asked, “Well, are you the prophet?”
Moses talked about a prophet in Deuteronomy 18:15 and Deuteronomy 18:18. He said the Lord would send another prophet like him. They asked, “Are you this prophet?” And he said, “No, I’m not that prophet either.”
“Well, who else is left?” They didn’t know either. So they said, “Well, who are you? What do you say about yourself?”
Basically, this is what he said about himself: “I’m the voice. I’m the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord.’”
Basically, what he was saying from this prophecy in Isaiah was, “I’m sent out ahead. I’m the forerunner. I’m coming out ahead so that He Whom you’re looking for—the Christ—will be revealed. That’s who I am.”
I don’t know if this was very satisfying to the delegation, but he did say this: “Among you is the One you’re looking for.” Some people say that Jesus was even among them in the crowd while John was talking to them.
But he said, “Among you.” In other words, He’s here now.
This is what John says about himself. We might say, “Well, that’s not very much,” but really, it’s a whole lot, because he came to reveal the Christ.
Now, we must look at this: What is John’s testimony concerning the Christ?
He really mentioned two things about the Lord Jesus. He mentioned, “He’s the Lamb of God,” and he mentioned, “I baptize with water; He baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” Really, that’s his testimony.
What is a testimony? A testimony is something that you have experienced or seen, and you tell the truth about it. In a court of law, if you’re giving your testimony, you’re asked, “Is this the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?”
What you say is supposed to be the truth. So John’s testimony is the truth of what he knows of the Christ.
What does he know of the Christ? First of all, he says, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” My question is, how did he come to this concept?
We can say, “Well, he read the Old Testament.” Well, I’ve read the Old Testament, and it doesn’t say that He is the Lamb of God. But it points a lot to a lamb of sacrifice.
When you think about the lamb of sacrifice, if we went back to Exodus, or to any offering by the Jews, the lamb had to be looked over very carefully to see that it was without defect and without blemish before they could sacrifice it. Nothing with a blemish or defect was to be offered to God. It had to be a perfect lamb.
How then did John come up with this revelation that He is the Lamb of God? If you look at John’s ministry before the baptism of Jesus, it wasn’t one that said, “Behold, the Lamb.” As a matter of fact, his ministry was, “Repent, because the kingdom of God is at hand.”
John had a great consciousness of sin—not his own sin, but the sin of all Israel. When he came preaching, he saw that Israel’s heart was so far away from God, and he was, in a sense, calling people back to God.
We can say that John was the last prophet of the old covenant. Like any prophet in the old covenant—have you ever read the prophets? The prophets are really hard to read, because they’re so full of judgment and correction.
When you’re in your daily reading, you say, “Oh my gosh, I have another section of correction to go through. How can I bear this?” We look for things like Isaiah 40: “Comfort ye, comfort ye My people.” There’s nothing wrong with that, because none of us like to be corrected.
But in God’s calling back, there has to be correction. So John’s ministry was one of correction. He even called the people who were the holiest, “You brood of vipers! Who told you to flee from the wrath to come?” In other words, he said, “There’s so much sin here, judgment has to come.”
He even said, “The axe is already at the root.” When people came and asked, “What are we going to do?” he gave them corrective ministry. “Don’t take more than you’re supposed to if you’re a tax collector. Don’t force things on someone if you’re a soldier.” He gave them corrective things. This was his ministry.
Now, what happened? Well, he met the Christ. He met the Christ, and something changed.
Remember, it says that he didn’t know the Christ. You may say, “Well, I thought he was somewhat related.” That doesn’t mean anything. He didn’t recognize, and he wasn’t to recognize, the Christ by physical appearance.
The Lord said, “The one upon whom you see the Spirit alighting, coming down from heaven and resting—that’s the One.” So he wasn’t looking at the face of a person or anything. But something happened.
Let’s go to the baptism of Jesus, as talked about in Matthew—Matthew chapter 3. That’s Mark. Matthew chapter 3; let’s start with verse 13.
Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
But John would have hindered Him, saying, I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me?
But Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffereth Him.
And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway from the water: and lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon Him;
and lo, a voice out of the heavens, saying, This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.
What happened to John? Here you have a person coming to him, and all of a sudden we have a different response from John. As John meets this Person, he says, “Why are You coming to me?”
Those who came to John were confessing their sins, saying, “I’m a sinner, and I need to be forgiven.” John was really familiar with sinners. That was his ministry all day. But all of a sudden, One comes, and there was a discernment in John that this One didn’t need his baptism.
There was a discernment in him from God saying, “There’s nothing in Him that I have against. He is pure.” All of a sudden, John says, “You know something? I don’t know why, but I feel like, why should I baptize You? You should baptize me.”
And the Man said, “Permit it for now. Just permit it for now. Thus we will fulfill all righteousness.” So He came to be baptized.
I think John went away from this time, even though he saw the Spirit come down, and after that Jesus immediately went to the wilderness. John had time to ponder and think, “What have I just seen? What have I just experienced here? What’s going on?”
I think, in some ways, John was feeling that the Messiah who was coming was just like the One the Jews expected: this great leader who would lead them out of captivity to the Romans. But I think when he met this One, something changed.
As this Man came and said, “Baptize Me,” and John was saying, “Well, You don’t need to be baptized,” I think the Lord started to work this over and over in his mind.
I think John’s favorite book was Isaiah. The reason I think that is because he said, “I’m the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” But the more he thought about this, here was this pure Man, who did not need John’s baptism, who came and put Himself among those who were being baptized.
In other words, He was saying, “I’m coming among sinners as if I were a sinner.”
I think John all of a sudden came into that area of Isaiah 53 where it says:
And He was numbered with the transgressors.
All of a sudden, I think John got a whole new idea of what God was doing. When God was coming to judge—remember, John had judgment in his ministry—I think he came to the understanding that the judgment wasn’t going to fall upon the nation. The judgment was to fall upon this One.
God was indeed coming to judge and send His judgment, but that judgment was to fall on One. That One was this One Who came to be baptized.
In other words, this was the Lamb. This was the Lamb Who was to be slain for the sins of the world. He saw it at this time.
Back in Genesis, remember when Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac? They were going up Mount Moriah, and all of a sudden Isaac is coming along and saying, “Well, Dad, we’ve got the wood and we’ve got the fire. Where’s the lamb?”
You remember what Abraham said:
God will provide Himself the lamb for a burnt-offering.
This answers that question: “Where’s the lamb?” This was something that John, I think in some ways, wasn’t really aware of until this time.
During these forty days that Jesus was gone, I think John was meditating about this happening—this One upon Whom he saw the Spirit come down. Why was it like this? Why did He come to be baptized? And all of a sudden it dawned on him: because He’s the Lamb.
He’s the Lamb. The Messiah is a Lamb.
Isn’t it interesting that most of the time in Revelation, what is Jesus pictured as? A Lamb—the Lamb Who was slain, upon the throne.
It said the Spirit alighted on Him. The Spirit fell on Him, and we know that Christ was to be filled with the Spirit. But because judgment was to fall on Him, the whole idea of judgment and salvation really changed.
For example, remember Jesus in Luke, when He first came back to Nazareth? He went to the synagogue and preached from Isaiah 61. Please don’t turn to it.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
because He anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor:
He hath sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
Then He stopped there, which was really strange, because the next part of the verse says:
And the day of vengeance of our God.
Why did He leave that out? We could say that one day the day of vengeance is going to be for a later period, when Christ returns. Or we could look at it this way: the vengeance, or the wrath, of the Lord was going to be poured out on Him. Therefore, it would not apply to these others.
So what could He say to them? He said, “He sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
All of a sudden, we see the Lord saying, “This is a different spirit than John the Baptist was preaching in the beginning.” All of a sudden, we find lovingkindness and mercy coming. It’s not because God is just saying, “Oh, I’m just going to be a loving person to you.” No. It’s because vengeance would fall on the Lamb.
Because vengeance would fall on the Lamb, there could be release of the captives. There could be the healing of the broken-hearted. There could be the acceptable year of the Lord, because the vengeance would fall on the Lamb.
In another place, Isaiah 42 reads:
Behold, My Servant, Whom I uphold;
My chosen, in Whom My soul delighteth:
I have put My Spirit upon Him;
He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.
He will not cry, nor lift up His voice,
nor cause it to be heard in the street.
A bruised reed will He not break,
and a dimly burning wick will He not quench:
He will bring forth justice in truth.
He will not fail nor be discouraged,
till He have set justice in the earth;
and the isles shall wait for His law.
Thus says God the Lord, Who created the heavens and stretched them out; Who spread abroad the earth and that which cometh out of it; Who giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:
I, the Lord, have called Thee in righteousness,
and will hold Thine hand,
and will keep Thee,
and give Thee for a covenant of the people,
for a light of the Gentiles;
to open the blind eyes,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house.
Again, we see this whole idea of the Lord coming, because judgment was to fall on Him, proclaiming, “I will not quench a smoking flax or break off an already bent reed.”
All of a sudden, we see that God can have mercy because His wrath will fall on this Lamb. Therefore, He can proclaim these things because the judgment will fall on the Lamb.
You notice it says, “I will give Thee for a covenant to the people.” I think this is a really interesting phrase, because at this time John the Baptist signals the end of the old covenant, and Jesus signals the beginning of the new covenant.
Incidentally, we celebrated the giving of that covenant this morning:
This cup is the new covenant in My blood.
That covenant is forgiveness of sin.
Then finally, they heard the voice of God: “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.”
The idea isn’t that He’s well pleased just because He’s His Son. I could tell you I’m well pleased with my daughters because they’re my daughters, but I might not be well pleased with what they do.
But He is saying, “I am well pleased.” Why? Because Christ had come to be baptized. Because He had come to take His place among sinners.
In coming to take their place, He was saying, “Father, I will do Your will. I will become the Lamb. This is the step I’m taking.” With this, the Father is pleased.
The Father is pleased with His coming and saying, “I will bear the sin. I will become the sinner, that many may be saved and that many sons may be brought to glory.”
This is how we come to the idea, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” John the Baptist saw something, so that after the baptism, when Jesus had come back and John saw Him coming toward him, he said, “This is the Lamb of God. This is the One Who will take away the sin of the world.”
I think that was a whole different understanding for him: seeing that sin would be dealt with in the slaying of a Lamb.
Now, what about, “I baptize with water, and He baptizes with the Holy Spirit”?
John was the last prophet of the old covenant, and all the old covenant can do is bring you to repentance. It can’t go any farther than that. It can say, “You’re doing the wrong thing. You need to change.” That’s all it can say.
There are shadows that pointed to a sacrifice, but all the old covenant can really say is, “You’ve blown it.” That’s all it could do.
Even when people would come and say, “Well, John, okay, I’ve been wrong. I’m sinning. What should I do?” he could just give them instructions, but he couldn’t enable them to do anything. They were left to themselves.
He said, “I baptize with water. But He Who comes after me baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” What does that mean?
I think it has something to do with Ezekiel 36:25, beginning with verse 25. It talks about the new covenant, which Jesus is the One Who initiates.
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean:
from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you:
and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put My Spirit within you,
and cause you to walk in My statutes,
and ye shall keep Mine ordinances, and do them.
In other words, what John could never do, Jesus could. He did this by giving the Holy Spirit.
We all know: When does the Holy Spirit come upon us? It’s not until after the Lamb of God has been slain.
These two things John saw—this is his testimony. He said, “He’s the Lamb of God. He is the One Who will take care of our sin.”
But then there is another question: after my sin is taken care of, how am I going to live? John could say, “He’ll take care of that too, because He baptizes with the Holy Spirit. He gives you a whole new life, a whole new spiritual life.”
As the last prophet of the old covenant, John the Baptist doesn’t give us a new set of laws. He doesn’t give us a system of doing things, or even a system to believe in. He simply points us to a Person.
He says, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” He says, “He baptizes with the Holy Spirit.”
The new covenant begins with an introduction, not of a new set of laws. It’s not like, “Okay, here we’ve got the Sermon on the Mount. Here’s a new set of laws. We couldn’t do the Ten Commandments, so let’s try the Sermon on the Mount”—which goes a lot deeper, right?
It says, “Don’t commit adultery.” Well, have you done it in your heart? Oh my gosh.
But no, He points us to a Person. That’s what the whole thing is about. That’s what God has wanted from the beginning: to turn us to a Person, to turn us to Himself. That’s what He wants. He wants us to turn to Him.
Now, what does this reveal to us about God in Christ? Last time, we read this verse: He is full of grace and truth. This is exactly what it reveals. It reveals that He is full of grace and truth.
Last time, I said one of the greatest pictures of grace, when I read the Gospel, is when the leper comes to Jesus in Matthew 8 and says, “If You’re willing, You can make me clean.” The Lord had compassion and said, “I am willing,” and He touched him.
I think that’s a wonderful picture of grace. But you know something? God can expend His power without there being grace. He can expend His power without cost.
It didn’t cost Him anything to touch the leper—except maybe some people would say, “Well, You touched the leper; You’re unclean.” But other than that, it cost Him nothing. When God split the Red Sea, it didn’t cost Him anything.
But, brothers and sisters, being full of grace is sacrificial.
For Him to become the Lamb, it cost Him everything. It cost the Father His only beloved Son. It cost the Son His very life—His very life on earth. It was sacrificial love.
Now that, brothers and sisters, is grace. Even more than compassion. Compassion is wonderful, but compassion doesn’t always cost us.
The forgiveness of our sins cost. It cost the highest price. And there was a willingness to pay it.
There was no thinking, “Well, I don’t know. Is this too much for Me? Maybe I’ll go to Kmart and see if I can get it for less.” There was no bargaining here.
The bargain was this: a life. That was it. It was a life. It had to be the purest life. It had to be the best life. That’s what was given up: the purest and the best.
He displayed sacrificial love. Also, He is the giver of grace.
Some of us think that all the grace we get is only at the cross, and that there’s no grace besides the cross. True, we can say, “Well, that’s a lot of grace.” But it says we have received from Him what? Grace upon grace.
What does that mean? It means that for every need that we have, for everything that we need in order to please God, there is grace for us. Because He is full of grace, and He will never be depleted.
Every time we come into these situations, what does Hebrews 4 say? We approach the throne of grace. Why? That we may receive grace in time of need.
“Lord, I can’t do this. How can I serve You?” “I’ve got grace for you.”
Grace isn’t only unmerited favor. Grace is also an enablement. It comes from the very life of God, imparted to us through Him by the Holy Spirit. We have all this grace that enables us to do the will of God.
What about truth? First of all, we can say this: God is true to His Word.
Remember, way back in Genesis 3:15—that’s the first prophecy of the atonement, isn’t it? The seed of the woman will bruise the head of the serpent. God is true to His Word.
But not only is He true to His Word; He is true to His character. He loses nothing of Who He is by forgiving us.
That is the greatness of this all: in sending His Son, He could be just and the Justifier of the ungodly. He did not lose anything by sending His Son. Matter of fact, we could say He didn’t even lose His Son. He gained Him back, even in a greater sense, as a glorified Man.
So He is true to His nature and His character, and grace does not cause Him to alter that at all.
Finally, then, I have two questions for you, and this is what we’ll end on.
John the Baptist said, “I came baptizing that He should be revealed to Israel.” And he said, “I did not know Him.”
Here’s my first question: Do you know Him as the Lamb of God?
Do you know Him as the One Who takes away your sin? That’s a question I can’t answer. That’s a question you have to answer yourself.
There are many in here who would say, “Yes, I can answer that.” But I don’t know if everybody can do that. The question has to be posed. You have to come to grips with that question and answer it.
You are asked the question: Do you know Him as the Lamb of God Who takes away your sin—not just the sin of the world, but your sin personally?
Have you seen Him as that? Have you trusted Him? Do you come in the morning—is He the Lamb that you offer?
Or, like Jerry said last week, are you coming with the works of your own hands, trying to justify yourself? Our sister brought that up in her testimony, didn’t she? “If I’m good enough, then everything’s going to be okay.” Well, she found out that wasn’t true. That was her testimony.
But the greater testimony is that the Lamb has been provided. God has provided a Lamb. Remember: “Where’s the lamb?” “God will provide a lamb.” He has provided the Lamb in Jesus Christ.
The question is: Have you seen Jesus Christ as the Lamb Who takes away your sin? It’s a question that you have to answer.
The second question is: Do you know the One Who baptizes with the Holy Spirit?
In other words, do you know that, as Savior, He’s not just Savior from your sin? He is a Savior Who brings you new life. He saves your life.
The question is, do you know His saving grace in your life? Those of us who can say, “I know Him as my Lamb,” have to look into ourselves and say, “Do I know this life He’s talking about?”
“Well, what if I don’t? Does that mean I’m not saved?” No, but it means this: maybe you should go to Him and say, “Lord, I know the forgiveness of sins, but what is this life that He’s talking about? What is this life that You offer me? I don’t know this, and I want to.”
You see, this is offered. It’s the whole package. The Lamb of God cannot be separated from the One Who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. It can’t be separated.
Salvation is one. It is a whole. It is forgiveness of sins, but it is also the Spirit of God living in me.
This is what He wants us to see. John saw this. John the Baptist saw this. The question is, do I see this?
That’s what we need to end with: Do I see everything that Christ is for me?
With that, let’s pray.
Lord Jesus, we want to thank You that You have paid the price for us all. I pray, Lord, that if there are those here who do not see that, You would reveal that to them this day.
Let them see that Jesus Christ is the Lamb for their sin, the Lamb offered to You on their behalf—the One Whom You sent, the One Whom You accept, the One with Whom You are pleased. Oh Lord, that they might see that.
Lord, I pray that those of us who know somewhat of an initial forgiving of sin, but have been caught up in other sins and have been cluttered in our lives, would be taken again to see the Lamb—to see the effectiveness of that blood for us, and the power in that blood to release us from these sins.
Lord, I also pray that we would see that You have life for us, even that very thing that You said: that these things were written that we might believe that You are the Christ, and that believing we might have life in Your name.
Lord, we want to know this life. We don’t want to be just trying to please You on our own. We want to know this new life—the life of Christ in us.
So, Lord, we pray: if we’re not knowing that, help us to come to You and be honest with You and say, “Lord, I don’t know what this life even is. But Lord, if there is, I want it. I want everything that You have for me.”
Lord, make us desperate in that way. Make us the way that we will pursue after it, not just wait for You to give it to us. But Lord, help us to come after You and say, “Lord, give me this life or I die.” Lord, give us that type of spirit, we pray.
Now, Lord, bless these ones who are going to be baptized. They go and make this statement, saying, “Lord, I want to forsake all and follow You.” Bless them, I pray.
As they come out of the water, I pray You’ll fill them with Your Holy Spirit. Enable them, Lord, to live before You and to live before this world as a new creation. Let them know, Lord, Your life in them.
I pray You’d open up the Word in a new way to them as they go on from this point on, and that You’ll bless them. We ask these things in Christ’s name. Amen.