In this sermon, the speaker discusses the role of John the Baptist as an effort-making vessel of God. The speaker emphasizes that John the Baptist was chosen by God to bring about a great change, as we are living on the verge of another significant shift. The speaker highlights the importance of humility and selflessness in bearing witness to the Lord, stating that if we speak of ourselves and try to draw people to ourselves, we are not fit to testify for the Lord. Instead, our witness should be focused on directing people to Jesus and allowing Him to increase while we decrease. The speaker also mentions the three-fold witness of John the Baptist, which includes proclaiming Jesus as the Lamb of God, the baptizer with the Holy Spirit, and the breakthrough.

We turn to the gospel according to John, the gospel of John chapter 1. John chapter 1 verse 19 and this is the witness of John when the Jews sent from Jerusalem priests and Levites that they might ask him thou who art thou and he acknowledged and denied not and acknowledged I'm not the Christ and they asked him what then art thou Elias and he says I'm not art thou the prophet and he answered no they said therefore to him who art thou that we may give an answer to those who send us what says thou of thyself he said I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness make straight the path of the Lord as said Isaiah the prophet and they were sent from among the Pharisees and they asked him and say to him why baptizes thou then if thou are not the Christ nor Elias nor the prophet John answer them saying I baptize with water in the midst of you stands whom you do not know he who comes after me the thorn of whose sandal I'm not worthy to unloose these things took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing on the morrow he sees Jesus coming to him and says behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world he it is of whom I said a man comes after me who takes a place before me because he was before me and I knew him not but that he might be manifested to Israel therefore have I come baptizing with water and John bore witness saying I beheld the spirit descending as a dove from heaven and it abhorred upon him and I knew him not but he who sent me to baptize with water he said to me upon whom thou shalt see the spirit descending and abiding on him he it is who baptizes with the Holy Spirit and I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God chapter 3 chapter 3 verse 22 after these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judea and there he abhorred with them and baptized and John also was baptizing in Enoch near Salem because there was a great deal of water there and they came to him and were baptized for John was not yet cast into prison there was therefore a reasoning of the disciples of John with a Jew about purification and they came to John and said to him rabbi he who was with thee beyond the Jordan to whom thou there is witness behold he baptizes and all come to him John answered and said a man can receive nothing unless it be given him out of heaven ye yourselves bear me witness that I said I am not a Christ for that I am sent before him he that has a bride is a bridegroom for the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices in heart because of the voice of the bridegroom this my joy then is fulfilled he must increase that I must decrease that's all we'll read for tonight I do not know if some of you still remember what we shared together last time we talked about john the baptist we said that john the baptist is an epic making vessel of God God was going to change the time but he needed a vessel to make the change possible and he found in this man john the baptist as that epic making vessel and the reason why we are so interested in john the baptist is because we are living on the verge of another great change this age is coming very near to close and the age to come is coming near the king is coming back in order that this change may be brought about but God today is also looking among his own for an epic making vessel but we mentioned last time that this epic making vessel will not be an individual it will be a a people a people that is apprehended by the lord to prepare the way of the lord and then 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 and that word is a very simple word repent for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn nigh and john not only preached on repentance but he baptized people with water because the baptism of john is unto repentance and by that baptism repentance is being acted out repentance is dead to the past buried out of sight and raised again on the resurrection ground of christ now of course we know the baptism of john and believers baptism are are different today we have believers baptism we are baptized because our lord Jesus has commanded us to be baptized go and disciple all nations baptizing them in the name of the father the son and the holy spirit and teaching them all things that i have taught you so we today are baptized with believers baptism now the emphasis of the baptism of john is on death because it is repentance but the emphasis of believers baptism is on resurrection that we may live in newness of life but of course baptism includes death burial and resurrection that's the reason why we feel that the lord does have a word for his people today and this word shall come forth from that effort making vessel it is the word of repentance it is the time that we have to repent of our past because the reality has come and we have to see that everything in the past has to go to death and we have to completely be on the ground of the resurrection of our lord Jesus now this evening we would like to continue on on john the baptist but it will be on the witnesses of john the baptist john began to preach in the wilderness and many people flocked to him to be baptized of him even pharisees and scribes they came to him to be baptized now 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 to the school of the rabbis he was very unorthodox irregular and for these pharisees and scribes to come to him to be baptized he ought to be very pleased with that but instead of that you'll john had very sharp words for them john said sons of vipers who told you to come this is not a ritual a ceremonial washing this is for real unless you produce fruit of repentance the axe is already on the root of the tree you will be cut down and that must have offended these pharisees and scribes but still because in the beginning people coming out from the cities the villages the countries they all flocked to john the baptist to hear him he had such a power and influence upon the people so the pharisees and the scribes and the levites and the priests and the rulers they still had john in their consideration here was a man who was most unorthodox irregular arcing away and yet he has such power and influence he did everything against their tradition he challenged their authority and their position what should they do with him they wanted to find out if he really was the messiah or if he was Elijah who was to be sent before the messiah then probably 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 because he was a contradiction to their tradition to their position to their authority so they sent from then priests and levites to come to john the baptist and said now who are you we we just cannot figure you out you're strange now who are you evidently they have a kind of formula that they use to test orthodoxy evidently whenever someone appeared something happened they were challenged that person with a kind of formula and the formula seemed to be first are you the christ are you the messiah and if he said i'm not then they were said now are you elijah because according to the old testament elijah should come before the messiah or if he said he is not elijah then they say are you the prophet and of course the prophet refers to the prophet that moses mentioned in deuteronomy moses said one day there will arrive among you a prophet a brother a prophet and you must hear him if you do not hear him you will perish so they had a kind of formula in three steps are you the christ are you elijah are you the prophet now if that person was none of these then he must be an imposter they could draw their conclusion concerning that person so evidently they use the same formula with john the baptist now who are you tell us who you are are you the christ are you elijah are you the prophet who are you and when they asked john the baptist there was no pretension with john he was very honest in his answer to the first answer he said i'm not the christ i'm not to the second question he said i'm not elijah either and to the third question he said i'm not the prophet i'm not i'm not this i'm not that i'm not that i'm not 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 note of it you know even our lord jesus when he was on earth he granted that there was some truth in that in the gospel according to john chapter 5 the law said if i bear witness of myself my witness is not true but there is one who bears witness concerning me and his witness is true now why is it that if a person should bear witness of himself his witness is not true why now he may tell the truth and yet his witness is not true in what sense in the sense that there is not much credit to it if you speak of yourself you know people do not need to really give you too much credit in the court if you bear witness of yourself now the judge cannot or the jury cannot go by your own witness why because we human beings are such our heart is so deceitful that we often deceive ourselves we think we are somebody we think we are something we think we are this or we are that but we are not you know uh sometimes we think of ourselves too high more than what we really are or most of the time but sometimes we think too lowly of ourselves this this can happen too we think ourselves too lowly and when we think of ourselves too highly we get all a pop-up and when we think of ourselves too lowly we get so discouraged we draw back we try to hide ourselves and because of this you know if we bear witness of ourselves our witness is not true no one needs to take too much attention to our own witness we have to be borne witness to by somebody else so there's a truth in it you know and yet you now you see in the same gospel according to john in chapter 8 the lord said i'm the light of the world if anyone should walk in me he walked in the light and he's not in darkness and immediately the pharisee says your witness is not true because you bear witness of yourself and how did the lord answer them the lord answered them and said i bear witness of myself but there is a father who is in me and he bear witness with me and the witness of truth is true so 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 you are a child of god is it because somebody tell you now you look like a god not at all you know you are a child of god because the bible says the holy spirit bear witness with your spirit that you are a child of god so here you'll find there is a difference if we bear witness of ourselves according to the flesh there is no credit to it and we shouldn't 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'm going therefore my witness is true and here you'll find young baptist when they confronted him with now who are you you tell us we cannot figure out but you tell us yourself who are you and you'll find in his answer both negative and positive first he answered negatively he said i'm not i'm not the christ i'm not elijah i'm not the prophet he did not pretend to be what he was not you know 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 in knowing ourselves 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 we need to know our limitation we have a limit god has called us to be ourself god does not call you to be somebody else he wants you to be just yourself that's what you are he has a special plan for you you have a place in the body of christ you are a special member to that body you are not some other members you're not somebody else but you are what god has called you to be and if you realize that if you do not try to be somebody else and if you are contented 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 of faith you know your measure how far the lord has measured you what proportion of faith you have and 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 and then you'll find he answered positively after he had said i'm not this i'm not that now that formula seemed to work you know king john the baptist so they say now who are you why do you baptize people if you're not christ how dare you baptize people and here you'll find he answered he said i am a voice in the wilderness in the spirit being full of the holy spirit he was given a knowledge of what he was he knew negatively what he was not and he did not try to be what he was not and he knew positively what he really was he said i was i am a voice in the wilderness to prepare the way of the lord as i there says in the scripture a voice what is a voice a voice comes from a person a voice carries a message of that person a voice is to be heard not to be seen a voice after it is spoken will pass away but the message that is carried will remain and that is what john the baptist yes in one thing there is no man no man born of women in this world greater than john the baptist and yet so far as he himself was concerned he knew himself just a voice he was sent by god to bring a message to the world to tell people of the one who was to come and after the voice was spoken his work was done and he disappeared completely from the scene and he was contented to be just that voice now 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 but whose voice are we speaking conveying 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 we were just speaking on our own we will speak of ourselves we direct people to ourselves we will make ourselves the end instead of the means but if we really have a message from god then we truly can be a voice a voice in the wilderness this world is a wilderness and god speaks through his people god give a message to the world through his people and after we have given the message we can go away disappear not to be seen but to be heard and whoever hears a voice we see christ we see jesus jesus only so first of all you'll find his own testimony of himself is he is a voice that is his own testimony and then secondly in the third chapter you'll find he again bear witness of himself it was a very awkward situation because john the baptist was baptizing people and jesus and his disciples were baptizing people and more people went to be baptized by the disciples of our lord jesus and then the disciples of john the baptist had a kind of discussion with a jew concerning purification so they came to john the baptist and these disciples of john they were very jealous for for their master because people were all going to to jesus instead of coming to john the baptist so they came and said the one whom you testified testified to is now baptizing people and more people have gone to him what a temptation and here you'll find that john the baptist testified of himself he said i am i am not the bridegroom i'm the friend of the bridegroom and when the friend of the bridegroom hears the voice of the bridegroom he rejoices he must increase and i must decrease you know in the old days it is the jewish custom suppose a bridegroom a man is going to ask the hand of a maiden people in the old days are not so bold you know they were shy you know so usually the man would not go to ask for the hand of the himself usually he will send his friend to represent him to go to the maiden's family and negotiate for the marriage so the friend of the bridegroom is a person who is so close to the bridegroom a bosom friend of the bridegroom and he is willing to do everything for his friend for the bridegroom so he will do all the negotiation now in the old days you know it is not that simple you know you have to negotiate about lots of things you know and so the friend of the bridegroom will go and negotiate and negotiate and ask for the hand of the maiden and after the whole thing is consummated then the friend of the bridegroom will be in charge of the feast of the marriage so he does all the other works he has said you know he does all the works for the bridegroom but it is the bridegroom who has the bride and he has no jealousy about it when he hears the voice of the bridegroom that is the bridegroom has returned with the bride and the feast begins oh he just rejoiced because his task is done he is not thinking of himself he is thinking of his friend that's all he he thinks about so that's the position that john the baptist took he said i'm the friend of the bridegroom i come to to seek the hand of of the maiden for the for the bridegroom and if i hear the voice of the bridegroom i rejoice he must increase i must increase no in one sense we are the bride but in another sense we are the friend of the bridegroom no you know our lord jesus comes to this world to seek us for our hands he wants us to be his bride but we have another position as john the baptist we are the friend of the bridegroom we understand his heart you know a friend is one who understands the lord jesus in that link in john chapter 15 said i do not treat you as slaves i treat you as my friend because a slave does not know the mind of the master the master just say you do this and he'll do it the master does not explain but to a friend the master shares his mind and this is the way that the lord jesus deals with us he shares his heart with us he shares his mind and his burden with us and knowing what he really wants what are we doing are we really the friend of the bridegroom are we willing to to do all all these works of negotiation and preparation and and so forth and yet after all this work is done we say lord we are but unprofitable servant you are the bridegroom you must increase and we must decrease you know this is the kind of effort making vessel that god can use if we speak of ourselves for ourselves if we try to draw people to ourselves we are not fit to bear witness for the lord but if our witnessing of ourselves is such that we are but a voice and we are friend of the bridegroom then our witness of the lord is true and it's effective but this is just laying the ground introduction introduction what we really want to consider tonight is the witness of john to christ now that's important now it is true sometimes we may be forced to bear witness of ourselves you know usually it is it is better not to bear witness of yourself because if you do people will say your witness is not true you know but sometimes you may be forced to do that john the baptist was forced to do that and apostle paul was forced to do that in second corinthians he would not talk about himself he wanted to talk about the lord but sometimes he was forced and he had to say something you know but even what he said was true because he did not say it in the flesh he was in the spirit and he was a preparation he was a preparation for his witness of christ so the same thing is true with us it is better if we don't speak of ourselves but sometimes you know people force you now who are you we cannot figure you out now tell us who are you what you are so you are not this you are not that who are you you know sometimes we we are forced to death and even that will really reveal something do we really know ourselves do we really know what we are and what we are not i think that's important as a preparation the witness of the lord jesus may be full and complete it amazes me when you 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's amazing it's amazing the witness of john the baptist of the lord is threefold first he bore witness to the lord say behold the lamb of god second he witnessed of the lord that the lord is the baptizer with the holy spirit and then thirdly he witnessed of the lord that he the lord is the bridal so at least you'll find the witness of john concerning our lord jesus is threefold the lamb of god the baptizer with the holy spirit and the bridal first of all you'll find when the lord came to him he said behold the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world and the next day when his two disciples were with him and the lord jesus passed by and he said behold the lamb of god and his 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 familiar one they could go back into their history to the time when they were in egypt as slaves and how god delivered them from death from egypt with a paschal man and god used different plagues upon pharaoh and egypt had nothing worked until god threw all the firstborn in the land but saved the firstborn of the israelites by the blood of the paschal lamb every family was to prepare a lamb without stop perfect and then between the two evenings of the 14th of the first month the lamb must be killed and the blood put on the doorpost and the lintel and the whole family were gathered together in the house and they will eat the meat of the lamb that will give them strength to walk out of egypt and walk through the wilderness into the promised land so with the children of israel the concept of the lamb was a familiar one that 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 a lamb as a burnt offering will be put on the altar the altar the brazen altar is basically the altar of the burnt offering therefore every morning a lamb will be put on the fire and it will be slowly consumed through the day until it was reduced to ashes and then the evening burnt offering will be put on so the fire of the burnt offering and the burnt offering on the altar will continue day and night without ceasing without ceasing and all the other sacrifices that were offered through the day whether they were a sting offering or whether they were trespass offerings whether they were oblations or whether they were peace offerings and you know all kinds of offerings were offered on the basis of the burnt offering and of course if we read the book of hebrews you find all the blood of the bullocks and of the goats actually cannot wash away all things all the things of thousands and millions of cattle and sheep and goats have offered all the blood that was shed through the through the years thinker not wash away anything all the tens of thousands and millions of cattle and sheep and goats have offered all the blood that was shed through the through the years thinker not wash away anything therefore in the old testament time you'll find the thing was covered not washed away only covered but when christ came as the lamb of god he offered himself spotless by the eternal spirit to god once and for all and it is finished he was accepted and because he was accepted we are accepted in the beloved he bore his body our sins on 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 that was foreknown even before the foundation of the world so here you'll find our lord jesus is the lamb of god he was the lamb that all these lambs and all these sheep and all these bullocks and all these goats typified he is the lamb of god god prepared him god sent him to this world god has him offered on the cross and because of this our sins are forgiven and this is the only way now john bore a very clear testimony of the lord jesus in this respect what was the hope of the people repentance was just a preparation because without repentance they will not trust in the lamb of god they wouldn't see the need of the blood but with repentance they were ready to receive christ as the lamb of god so actually you'll find the witness of john the baptist was not just negative say repent but it was also positive behold the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world now 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 sins of the world and 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 with one another and the blood of god's son jesus christ cleanses us from all our sins it is on the basis of the blood of our lord jesus the shed blood of our lord jesus that our fellowship our daily fellowship with god may not be interrupted and if it is interrupted it is only by the power of the blood that it can be restored our fellowship with god can be restored through the blood of the lamb so 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 just the first aspect of john's witnessing of our lord jesus you know today in christianity unfortunately there are many that bear the name of christian and yet there is no witness of the lord jesus as the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world how social gospel is preached instead but thank god there are still places where you can really hear the gospel of jesus christ behold the lamb of god who takes away the sin of the world thank god for such witnessing but it seems as if our witness of the lord jesus ends there not because the lord jesus is not more than the lamb of god but because that is all that we know of him how sad it is in one sense we rejoice because we know him as the lamb of god and we can 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 we have no further witness to give concerning our lord jesus but look at john the baptist in a sense he he lived in that transitional period he closed the old testament and he began 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 bold it really puts us to shame he 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 actually before me he comes after me but he is before me and i'm not even worthy to unloose his the strength of his angels he is so far superior than i am 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 they were cousins you know they were cousins but john the baptist lived in wilderness so these two cousins did not know each other very well and when the lord jesus came to john the baptist somehow john the baptist said there was something in that man that he could not baptize him so the lord jesus had to say to him we have to do it to fulfill the righteousness because the lord had nothing to repent of and john says that but he said i do not know him i do not really know him but the one who sent me to baptize said when you see the holy spirit descend and abide in that person he is the one who will baptize without his spirit and we know when our lord jesus was baptized and as he was praying the heaven was open and the holy spirit descended as a dove upon him and there was a voice saying this is my beloved son in whom i'm well pleased and john the baptist for witness and said now this is the one this is the son of god this is the one who will baptize with the holy spirit evidently only the lord jesus and john the baptist heard the voice so what happened you know you need spiritual eyes and spiritual ears even to see and to hear when things are happening right in the middle but you don't see it you don't hear it only those with spiritual eyes and spiritual ears can see it but anyway you'll find our lord jesus came to baptize with the holy spirit now of course we know this is fulfilled on the day of pentecost after the death of our lord jesus he appeared to his disciples for the 40 days and then he led them to mount olive and there he was taken up and his disciples according to his word they went back to jerusalem and they stay there for 10 days praying with one accord a hundred and twenty of them and as they were praying together when the day of pentecost is fulfilled then suddenly there was a sound like a hard breathing like a person was breathing and then the whole room was filled with the holy spirit and tongues like fire came upon their heads and they began to speak in tongues glorify the lord on the day of pentecost when the lord jesus was on earth he was the lamb of god and he died in order to take away our sin but after he was ascended up on high the father anointed him with oil just like the oil that was poured on Aaron's head and it began to flow down to his beard and to his garment even to the hand of his skirt the coming down of the holy spirit upon 120 is a proof that our lord jesus has arrived and he was anointed by god as lord and christ the head was anointed and after he was anointed he sent the holy spirit down and he baptized the 120 in the holy spirit and we say this was the beginning of the church you know dear brothers and sisters oftentimes we think of the baptism with the holy spirit in terms of sound and fight the sound of hard breathing and the sight of fiery tongues but these are the incidentals the essential or the real meaning of the baptism with the holy spirit is somewhere else our lord jesus is the baptizer the agent is the holy spirit and we are the people baptized and now what is the meaning of being baptized with the holy spirit what is the real work that is done when the lord the head should baptize his body his people with the holy spirit that really has transpired i think we need to see one thing john baptized people with water unto repentance and when we come into believers baptism you know we we are also baptized with water but what is that for we are baptized with water in order that we may belong in romans chapter 6 do we not know that ye who have been baptized are baptized unto christ we are baptized with water unto christ just like the children of israel were baptized by water through the rest the unto moses so we are baptized with water unto christ in other words we belong to christ and then the head christ baptize us who are his with the holy spirit unto what water baptism is unto christ spirit baptism is unto the body of christ that's the reason why only on two occasions on the day of pentecost in the house of camellias the word baptize and baptism with the holy spirit is used nowhere else there are other occasions in samaria the eunuch paul then the people the twelve in ephesus in act 19 and so on and so forth and yet you find the word baptize with the holy spirit of baptism in the holy spirit are only used on these two occasions and nowhere else oh why because in the epistles it is explained in first corinthians chapter 12 verse 12 and verse 13 even as the body is one and there are many members and even though there are many members yet there are there is one one body so also is the christ for in one spirit you were baptized into one body whether jews or gentiles and you were all made to drink of one spirit the essential meaning of baptism with the holy spirit or the head should baptize us with the holy spirit is that we may become one body one body you know the lord not only save us individually well we have to be saved as individuals you know you cannot be saved for me and i cannot be saved for you everyone has to repent and to believe in the lord jesus and to accept the lord jesus as the lamb of god we must be saved individually but remember this is not god's purpose this is just the first step towards god's purpose after he has saved us individually then he gather us together and baptize 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 being dealt with if we are still so freelance and independent we only know christ in his in the first aspect that's all we know we are far from the full purpose of god the full purpose of god is that we who are redeemed are one and he has baptized us in one spirit into one body whether jews or gentiles in the world the distance between the jews and the gentiles cannot be surmounted it's impossible but here you'll find in one spirit we were baptized into one body and when we are being baptized into one body then what the scripture says he said there is neither jew nor gentile neither circumcision nor circumcision neither barbarians nor scythians neither bondman nor freeman but it is christ all in all now this is what the lord jesus has done as the baptizer with the holy spirit we are one body we are members of one another there is an organic relationship not only between us and the lord but there is an organic relationship among us with one another this is what the lord has done and because of this how important it is that we maintain the unity of the spirit in the uniting bond of peace how important it is that our lives should live in the body and not as if outside of the body how important it is that we need to be related one with another and be built up together how important it is as members of one body that we have to function not just respectively but also together coordinatively under the headship of christ now you see all these things are so real and so important why because the lord jesus is more than the lamb of god he is a baptizer with the holy spirit and john the baptist saw it did we see it do we really know the lord jesus as the baptizer with the holy spirit if we do that will deliver us from being independent from individualism that will really help us to see that we are one body and how we need to live the life of that body because this is what the lord has done and we should not do anything contradictory to what the lord has done and this is the reason why division is such a serious matter is christ divided are we not one body this is the desire of the lord that we are who are his should really be one that the world may know that god has sent him and if we are perfectly one then the world may know that the father has loved us as he has loved him our christ but this is the second aspect of his witnessing concerning christ and then there is the third one john the baptist not only saw the lord jesus as the lamb of god who takes away the theme of the world he saw the lord jesus as the baptizer with the holy spirit who was gathered the wheat into him unto him and blow the check away we are gathered together unto him as one body but then john the baptist also could see the purpose the final purpose that is that will be consummated in christ and that is christ is the bridegroom the reason why the lord jesus came into this world is more than just to save to seek and to save the lost the reason why he should save the lost was that he might bring them together into one body the body of christ the fullness of him fulfills all and all but the reason why he wanted his body to be built up and to fully grown and be matured is because this body is to be his bride he has his eye on that body you know if you look back into genesis there is a picture there god say it is not good for adam to be alone and then immediately after that you know what god did god got all the animals to adam and adam looked at every one of these animals and gave names to all these animals but he couldn't find his like his counterpart so god put adam to sleep and took out of his side something i want to say a rib in the original it is something took something out of him and build a woman with that something it's wonderful the word used there is built a woman adam was made with earth you know but the woman was built and then adam woke up and god led a woman to adam and adam just looked at him her and he said this is the bone of my bone and the flesh of my flesh got him a woman out of a man and the two are joined together in one flesh beautiful you know it is the same thing our lord jesus came into this world but he couldn't find anyone who who who was his counterpart his like when he came into this world all he saw were sinners rebels just like all these vicious animals you know he couldn't find he couldn't find anyone that will be his counterpart that will be his light he cannot join himself with that which is not his light but he couldn't find any and because of that he had to start from the very beginning he was put to sleep on the cross and out of him came out blood and water blood for the remission of sin water for life and with that which comes out of him he builds a woman the church he brought us he he he has brought us into life through his death and then he built us together with that which is of him remember this the church is built with that which comes out of him only that which comes out of him is his like his counterpart and can be joined back to himself that is the reason why during the process of building lots of work lots of work of the cross has to be done in our lives because there's much rubbish in us and then what is left and being built together will become that woman the church the glorious church he loved the church and gave himself for it in order that he might sanctify it purifying it by the washing of the water with the word that he might present it to himself a church glorious without spot or wrinkle or any of such fault that it might be blameless and holy you know that is what the lord is doing he has to start from scratch from the very beginning he has to save sinners and he had to bring these same ones together and build them up and when they are fully grown then he will come back and claim this matured body as his bride and they will be joined together for eternity our dear brothers and sisters john saw all this by the revelation of the holy spirit and he was a person who was used by god to make the change and how much more we should know of our lord what is our witness of the lord do we witness to the world of our lord as the lamb of god thank god we do but do we witness also that our lord jesus is the baptizer with the holy spirit that we are one body and do we really witness and said the lord is the bridegroom that's the reason why we have to be built up together we have to go it is not for ourselves alone it is for him for his sake this is what he wants that he comes for what he longs for and you know if we can bear such witness we will be used to change the time to bring back the king the bridegroom so may the lord help us shall we pray 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 thee lord we do pray that through the revelation of the holy spirit that we too may be given clear revelation as to who and what we are before thee and what you are to us that we may bear a true testimony of jesus to the world oh may thy name be exalted in thy precious name amen