In this sermon, John is described as a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for God. The analogy is made to the preparations made for a king's visit, where mountains are leveled and valleys filled to ensure a clear view of the king's procession. John's role is to make sure people have a clear view of the coming king, Jesus. Jesus is introduced as the Lamb of God who takes away the world's sin, which is his chief characteristic. The sermon emphasizes that Jesus' purpose is to take away sin and reconcile people with God, and that he accomplished this through his death on the cross.

I never want to preach after hymns like that, I must tell you the truth. I always just want to just enjoy God, just worship him. These are wonderful things that we're singing and saying, but it's a wonderful gospel, wonderful news that God has given us to share, and it's been my privilege to be with you today. Thank you for your welcome. I always do feel welcome here, I feel part of the family, not almost, absolutely David. That's just a reference to this morning. This morning I was talking about John's gospel in the first chapter, which is really an introduction to the rest of John's gospel. At the end of John's he tells us very clearly why that gospel was written. He said if someone was trying to keep a record of all the things that Jesus had done and said, the world itself wouldn't be big enough to contain the library of books that would be necessary. But he said these things, this selection of events and truths and statements are here so that you would know who he is, and that you would believe in him, and that believing in him you would have everlasting life. So in the first part of John's gospel, in the first part of the first chapter, we have a sort of a heaven's introduction when John the evangelist tells us just who Jesus is, and I won't go over what we went this morning, but he is one with God in perfect fellowship with him and voluntarily the Lord Jesus left heaven and its glory and his perfect fellowship with his Father and came down into our world. And then we need to know why he did it. And there are all kinds of views and theories as to why he did it. Some people think it was as an example. Some people think that he died on the cross as a martyr, that things went wrong and out of control at the last moment. Some people think that he is just a wonderful teacher. Well, God has given us someone, a man named John the Baptist, whose job was to introduce Jesus to Israel. I'll introduce you to John first of all, and then I'll leave John to introduce Jesus to you, to tell you just exactly who he is and what he's come to do. John was a Baptist. I don't mean he went to the other church down the road. That isn't what I mean. He was a baptizer. His job was, as people believed the words that he was speaking, it was his job to immerse them in water and he did it, according to this passage of scripture we have here, on one of the occasions at a place called Bethabara beyond Jordan. It's opposite the river Jericho, the city of Jericho. Seems to me that John was operating on the other side of Jordan and what he was doing was people were queuing to be baptized. He was baptizing them into the water of Jordan and I have a suspicion that they were coming out on the other side. I think they were reenacting what had happened 1,500 years before, when the people of Israel had come to that exact spot and another Jesus that we know as Joshua, that's just Jesus in Hebrew, had taken the people through at that very spot into all the promises, the wonderful promises that God had prepared for them. So John the Baptist was here at this spot and John the Baptist is one of those people that really we should spend more time thinking about him. The Lord Jesus bore this testimony. He said that of all those who were born of women, there was not one greater than John the Baptist. So whoever your favorite Old Testament character is, John is greater. If it's David, John is greater. If it's Elijah, John is greater. If it's Moses, John is greater. These are the words of the Lord Jesus, of those born of women that are none greater than John the Baptist. He had a unique job to do and he fulfilled that job with amazing success. As a result of his preaching and as a result of what he was doing, the scripture says that that everyone went out to him. They say some people, preachers, can't get a crowd in a city but John had a crowd in the wilderness. In fact people were emptying the cities and they were going out to him in their hundreds and thousands. This was an amazing people movement and it was amazing for other reasons. John was doing things differently to the way that people had expected them. What he was doing, baptizing people in water, dipping them under the water in response to their faith in what he was saying. There was no trace of that in the Old Testament. God hadn't told Moses to do that. He hadn't told Abraham to do that. He hadn't told any of the prophets to do that and he's this innovator, this man who comes along and starts something brand new. Now in fact baptism wasn't absolutely brand new to the people of Israel at this time. They used it and this is how they used it. If someone who wasn't descended from Abraham, who wasn't part of the family of Israel, wanted to become an Israelite, wanted to become a Jew, there were several things that they had to go through. One of them was circumcision, one of them was a willingness to come under the law of Moses and one of them was to be baptized. They used to take these Gentiles who were becoming Jews and baptize them. Many people in those days didn't know Hebrew, their own language, very well. But the Hebrew Bible had been translated into another Bible into the Greek language. I won't go into details about what it was called but it was very very popular and many people read it. And the word baptism was in that Greek translation of the Old Testament and it came at a very interesting place. There's a story in the Old Testament of one of God's prophets, a man named Elisha. And on a certain occasion a man, in fact the field marshal of an enemy country, once came to Naaman. And Naaman, well the man who came was a leper. That's to say he had a very virulent contagious skin condition that wasn't just on the surface but down into the bones and ultimately destroyed the whole man. This man was famous, he was powerful, he was highly regarded by the king of his own nation who sent him to Elisha to do something with him. And when he got to Elisha's door his servant came and knocked on the door and Elisha didn't even go to the door to answer it. But he sent a message which said that Naaman, the field marshal, was to dip himself, in Greek baptize himself, seven times in the river Jordan. Now Naaman was infuriated by this because he had got it all preconceived in his mind exactly what God would do, exactly what the prophet would do. And he went off in a huff. But he was blessed with a servant who said to him, if the prophet had asked you to do some difficult thing you would have done it. Now why don't you do this simple thing? And Naaman took the advice. And he came to the river Jordan and he dipped, baptized himself, seven times in the river Jordan. And the Bible says that when he came up the seventh time his skin wasn't just repaired, wasn't just renewed, but it was like the skin of a baby. The next opportunity you have, you touch a baby's skin. This man was a warrior. He was a man of amazing strength. He would have had calluses on her hands from holding swords and shields and spears and things. And he comes out of this water like a newborn baby. And of course it provides an amazing picture of a brand new beginning. And the Jews used it. So Gentiles becoming Jews went through a baptism of water like this, which gave them a new start. Like being born again, like starting all over again, but now they could be Jews. Just like Naaman had had his experience. The only problem was John wasn't baptizing foreigners. John wasn't baptizing Gentiles, non-Jews. He was baptizing Jews. He was telling Jews that they had to start all over again. That there had to be a brand new beginning. And the effects were amazing. People went to see what was happening. And the local press went. Well, it wasn't really the local press, it was the people from Jerusalem who went. You've got to understand that Jerusalem were particularly anxious about all this because, as far as they were concerned, the Jewish religion was centered at Jerusalem with the temple and all its special ceremonies which took away sin. And that's where it was all supposed to happen, down there with the priests. But it wasn't happening down there, it was happening in the wilderness. With this upstart who was preaching something quite different to what they'd known. So they sent messengers to ask, well in our language, who do you think you are? That's really what their language was. Who do you think, who are you? And they dipped into the scriptures and asked him some specific questions. And they said, are you the Messiah? And I would have loved to have seen John on one of these kind of interviews or chat shows. Because he was a real abominable no-man. Every question they asked him, the answer was no. They said, are you the Christ? And he said no. Now they dipped into the scriptures again and they knew that Moses had promised a special prophet who would be like Moses himself. So they said, are you the prophet? And he said no. Now they dipped into the scriptures again because they knew that God was going to bring Elijah to prepare the way for the Messiah. So they said, are you Elijah? And he said no. And in exasperation they said, who are you? And John said, I'm a voice. Crying in the wilderness, make the way ready for God. In ancient times, when a king was visiting a country that he had conquered or something like that, they used to make amazing preparations for it. They would literally bring down the mountains and raise up the valleys. So that as the king was coming in his procession, people could see him from a long way off. And you can't do that if you've got a road that's going up and down. So they would level off the mountaintops and fill up the valleys. So that everything was flat. So that everyone could get a clear view of the coming king. And John said, my job is to make sure you get a clear view of the coming king. That's what I am. I'm just the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Get ready. The king is coming. Amazing response. If you read other parts of the scriptures, you'll see that soldiers and others were coming to John and had all kinds of questions. But he really was a phenomenon. He would have been the topic of everyone's conversation. Anywhere in Israel, if you were sitting around eating whatever you were eating, the conversation would have turned to John. Who is this man? What's happening? Have you been yet? No, we're going next week. And the whole crowd were going out to him. And John was constantly saying, I'm not the Messiah. I'm not the coming prophet. I'm not Elijah. And then he says this. This is how he expresses it. He says, here we are, I'll read this passage. This is the record of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites to Jerusalem to ask him, who are you? And that's emphasized for those I've been talking to earlier on today. Who are thou? Who are you? Who do you think you are? And he confessed and denied not and confessed and he said, I'm not the Christ. And they asked him, what then? Are you Elijah? And he said, I'm not. Are you that prophet? And he said, no. And they said to him, who are you? That we may give an answer to them that have sent us. What do you say of yourself? And he said, I'm the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said. And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him and they said to him, why then do you baptize if you're not Christ or Elijah or that prophet? John answered them saying, I baptize in water. But there stands one among you whom you do not know. He it is who coming after me is preferred before me, whose sandals buckle. I am not worthy to be one of us. These things were done in Bethabara, beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day, John sees Jesus coming to him. And he said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is John, who I've tried to introduce to you. And the scripture says that John's job in baptizing was to make Jesus manifest to Israel, to make the way open so that people would know who he was. And now John begins his work of introducing you and me, as well as the people of Israel, to Jesus Christ. Who is this man? And the first thing that John says is this, he says, look, he says, he is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Now listen to this, because you're involved. Who takes away the sin of the world. Not the fellowship, not the Christians, not Peter and Paul and John, the sins of the world. That means everybody. So, Jesus had come to do something which impacts on every single one of us. It doesn't matter whether you knew that this was true or not. Maybe you're hearing it tonight for the first time in these particular words. But you're involved, because he came to do something that includes you. He came to bear away the sins of the world. In the sacrifices that they had back down in Jerusalem, there were two main kinds of sacrifices. When you read in the book of Hebrews, it talks about them, and it speaks about gifts and sacrifices for sin. And the priests in those days used to bring some gifts, some offerings, which really weren't to take away sin, they were really pictures of something else. I want you to imagine this, if you will. They were pictures of people giving themselves to God with absolute abandonment. Do you know the phrase burning your bridges behind you? Do you know what that means? It means there's no way back. Well, they used to bring sacrifices, which were what's known as whole burnt sacrifices. It was a way of acting out that they were giving themselves to God and burning their bridges behind them. No way back. They were totally giving themselves to God. And they used to use different kinds of animals. In particular, twice a day, they used a lamb. This will be a good test for you who know the Bible. Do you know that they did not use lambs for sin offerings? You'll have to look it up in the book of Leviticus, and you'll discover that they didn't. Very poor people could use female lambs under certain circumstances, but lambs weren't sin offerings, they were what's known as burnt offerings. They were free will offerings. They were offerings given to God, symbolizing absolute abandonment to God. It went up in flames and smoke, this amazing picture of people giving themselves to God. So John says, look, he says, he is God's lamb. So they would have been thinking of someone who was going to give himself to God, someone who was maybe going to do something quite dramatic, but then he goes on and he says, he is the world's sin bearer. And I don't want to get too deeply into this, like we did this morning a little bit, but I'll tell you some little bits of the way that the language behind the English version works. The Greeks at this time had a way, for those of you who really want to know, they had a way of putting a present participle and putting a definite article in front of it, which had a particular effect. Are you with me? Okay, what they did was this. When it says here, in my Bible, the one who takes away the sins of the world, it means something slightly different to that. If I were to say to you, well, this is true actually, when I was a youngster, I got a bronze medal for dancing. You wouldn't guess it now. And no one would ever guess that I was a dancer. No one's ever accused me of being a dancer. Never. But I can dance and I could still do the military two-step, I suppose, if I put my mind to it. The point is, I have danced on one occasion, but you would not say, if you were introducing me to somebody, this is Ron the dancer. You wouldn't do it. But the Greeks had this way of putting something so they would say, the dancing one, which characterized the person. So that when you saw that person, they would say, tell me what's the main character of this person? He's a dancer. Now this is the construction that is used here in John's Gospel. So when he sees Jesus coming to him, he says, behold the Lamb of God, the world's sin taker away. Tell me the chief characteristic of this man. Here it is, he takes away the world's sin. That's how we usually introduce people to one another, isn't it? We usually introduce them by saying, well, this is who they belong to. You know, this is John, you know his father, and usually to John's infuriation, because he'd like to just be known as John, nobody's son. But we introduce them either by relationships, or we introduce to people by saying, this is so-and-so, he does this. This is the thing that characterizes him. John introduces Jesus to the people of Israel, and he says, this is God's Lamb. Then he takes away the world's sin. He is the world's sin taker away. That's what he does. I really do want, if you've never seen this before, I would like to introduce the Lord Jesus Christ to you tonight, and I would like to say to you, he is your sin taker away. That's what he does. I know you think he does perhaps many other wonderful things. People saw him heal the sick, they saw him raise the dead, they saw him give sight to the blind, they saw him give the most wonderful teaching that the world has ever heard, but that isn't what characterizes him. The thing that characterizes him is, he takes away sin. That's what he does. That's what he came to do. So what is sin? Well it's not necessarily that list of do's and don'ts that you've got in your mind. Basically sin is when we say no to God. That's what it is. It's when we say no to God. When we know what God wants us to do, but we choose something else, and in our hearts we say no. And the Bible says that sin has a devastating effect on men and women, and has had a devastating effect upon our world. Let me take you the word sin very briefly, and I'll split it up for you. The Bible tells of the first sin in the human race, which was Adam, and it explains that one of the first things that happened was that sin separated Adam from God. There's the S for sin, and for separation. Sin cuts people like you and me off from God. That's what it does. So that we can't have access to him in the way that we want, and he can't have the kind of fellowship with us that he wants. Sin separates us. Secondly, I'm going to keep it very simple, is the I. Sin involves you and me in a cosmic rebellion. And this isn't Star Wars stuff. This is more powerful than Star Wars. This is heavier than Star Wars. This is cosmic. There has been a rebellion. Angels who were created with amazing power have rebelled against God. And it was the chief of those angels who first tempted Adam to say no to God. And when Adam said no to God, he was actually saying yes to the rebel. So sin separates you from God, but it includes you and involves you in the sin of the rebel. Here's an interesting thing. Do you know that God never intended human beings to go to hell? Do you know that? The Bible says very clearly in Matthew's gospel, Jesus spoke of hell, and he said hell was prepared for the devil and his angels. No human being was ever intended to go to hell. But if you persist in your allegiance to Satan and his angels, if you continue in your sin, if you continue to say no to God and yes to Satan, you must share his destiny. Not because God wanted it, but because that's what you've chosen. There's a great logic and there's a great fairness in this. If you say now, I do not want to have God in my life, God says, well, you won't have me in the next life either. And if you say, I want to be free and loose and do my own thing and not listen to the will of God and just say no to him and yes to myself, like the devil did, God says, well, you will share his destiny too. There's a very powerful logic, a very simple logic in all this. What's the end for? Well, in some ways, the end of sin is the most treacherous bit of all, because it numbs us so that we no longer feel sensitive to things. It's amazing, you know, you can do something the first time and the first time you feel badly about it, you don't want anybody to know. And then the second time you do it, you don't feel quite so badly about it. And the third and the fourth time and quickly it becomes a habit and you do it without turning your hair. And the thing that the first time you knew was wrong, now you're absolutely convinced that it's not important at all. It's what sin does. Sin separates you from God. It involves you in Satan's rebellion and it numbs you so that you're no longer conscious and sensitive to what is happening. But God sent Jesus in the world to do something about this. He sent him into the world to be God's lamb, given up to God, to be the world's sin bearer, to carry your sin in his body on the tree. When Jesus died, there's a sense in which that wasn't his death, he was dying. It wasn't his punishment that he was suffering, it was yours and mine. He was the lamb of God bearing the world's sin. I don't want to, well maybe I should embarrass you, I don't know, but I won't do it because we're very English, aren't we? Most of us anyway. I would love to come to each one of you and look you in the eye and say he carried your sin, yours. Don't hide behind this phrase the sins of the world. At some point you're going to have to be honest, you're going to have to own up, you're going to have to say my sins. It was my sins that drove those nails into his hands and his feet. It was my sin that carried him to the cross, my sin. That's why the Bible says when we own up to our sin, if we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all of righteousness. But you have to own up, you have to say yes, that's mine, that was my sin he was carrying. But that's only the first half of what John had to say. Jesus was going to do something on the cross which would deal with the past, that would put the past behind him and behind you. But that wasn't the only thing he was going to do because well, he needed to do more, didn't he? Let me tell you why he needed to do more. Way back in Bible times, in the times of the people of Israel when they're in Egypt, God gave a message to Moses. If you've seen the Prince of Egypt, the cartoon or Charlton Heston or any of these things, you'll know what I'm talking about. He gave Moses a message that Moses was to take to the king of Egypt and most people know the first half of it very well because the first half of it was let my people go and almost everybody knows it and hardly anybody remembers the next half of it. But if you don't get all of it, you don't get the full gospel, you only get half the gospel. Because the thing that Moses was to say was this, let my people go so that they may serve me. Jesus said nobody can serve two masters. You can't have two lords, you can't have two bosses, you can't have two people directing your life. Now for the people of Egypt, Israel way back in Egypt, they already had a master. So what had to happen is God had to break the stranglehold of that master, break the power of the king of Egypt and bring the people out to a place called Sinai where they could make a new choice to serve God and be his people. But how do we have the energy, the strength to serve God? Someone said it earlier on here tonight. I'll illustrate it very simply. There was a time in my life when I was in my early 20s I suppose when I had an idea about what it meant to be a Christian and I knew it meant going to church and reading the Bible and praying and doing all kinds of other things and I was finding it hard work and thinking that if I just worked a little bit harder it would all come right. All I needed to go was to go to church a little bit more frequently, although I was, I think I've told you this before, I used to go to church eight times on a Sunday in those days. Not eight times a week, eight times on a Sunday. So I thought maybe if I went a little bit more frequently, if I prayed a little bit more, if I read a little bit more, if I witnessed a little bit more, I could become the kind of person that God wanted me to be. I was finding Christianity difficult and I thought I needed to put some more effort into it until God showed me something so simple and so releasing and it was this, that Christianity is not difficult at all. It's impossible. It's impossible. If you live it in your own strength, if you try to be what God wants you to be, it's absolutely impossible. Maybe when people have talked to you about becoming a Christian in the past and you thought there's no point me doing it, I couldn't keep it up. Have you thought that? That's, you're right. You're absolutely right. That's gospel truth you're telling yourself. I couldn't keep it up. But you don't have to. It's not your responsibility. One of the things about becoming a Christian is that you put your life into the hands of Jesus Christ and he becomes responsible for making it possible for you to live the kind of life that pleases him. Oh what's John got to say about that? Well it's here. I'll read on a little bit. I'll read again from verse 29. The next day John sees Jesus coming to him and says, Behold the Lamb of God, the taker away of the world's sin. This is he of whom I said after me, there comes a man who's preferred before me, for he was before me. And I didn't know him, but that he should be made plain to Israel. That's why I'm come baptizing in water. And John bore his record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. And I didn't know him, but he who sent me to baptize in water, the same said to me, upon whom you shall see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, he's a baptizer too. He shall baptize in the Holy Spirit. I suppose John was the world's expert baptizer. I don't think anyone has ever had more baptisms to conduct than John the Baptist. He thought in terms of baptism, his language was baptism. And when he sees Jesus, he says two things. He says, he's the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and he uses this particular construction, which means he is the sin taker away. And then the next thing he says is, he's not only the sin taker away, he is the in Holy Spirit baptizer. And John makes a contrast, because he says to the people, he says, look, I'm a water Baptist, that's what I do. I immerse people in water, and he's a Baptist, but he's not going to immerse people in water. He's going to immerse people in the Holy Spirit. Have you ever seen a baptism? I mean, and just watched one simply, not being religious about it, but just watched it, and just seen how wet people get. And they come out of the pool, or the tank, or whatever it is, they're sodden, they're dripping. Every step they take, it leaves a little print of water, because that's what they were baptized into. John says, Jesus is a baptizer too. He's going to immerse you to saturation in the Holy Spirit. And every step you take, people will see the print of the Holy Spirit. I'm putting words into his mouth. I'm just telling you what baptism means. Baptism saturated people. How wet was Naaman when he'd been seven times under the water? It is the whole point, and the purpose, and the picture of immersion baptism. People come out absolutely soaked, saturated through. John says, he's a baptizer, but he isn't going to baptize in water. He's going to baptize, and then he uses this phrase, he's going to baptize in Holy Spirit. Now, this might be unexpected to you, if you are a Bible reader. Do you know that that little phrase, Holy Spirit, is hardly ever used in the Old Testament? It's only used on two occasions, and each time it's used in contrast to the people's sin. There's a reference in Isaiah, when God says his Holy Spirit was amongst them when they were sinning in the wilderness. And there's a very famous reference to Holy Spirit in the Psalm of David, Psalm 51, where David was confessing his sin, and towards the end of it, he says, very conscious of his sinfulness, he says, and don't take your Holy Spirit from me. The trouble is, that we have grown up in a world which knows very, very little about holiness. I don't mean church-going, or having a face just long enough to show how religious you are. That seems to go with some people's expectation of what Christians are. I don't mean that. I don't even mean, sort of, textbook righteousness, so that you can tick all the boxes because you've done this and you haven't done that. I mean holiness which is nothing less than the shining out in a character of what God is like. Love, purity, passion, yes, real passion, real emotion, life, dynamic, on the move. Don't think that holiness is a whole list of things you don't do. I am, oh I'm sorry, I hadn't realized what the time was gone. I'll stop very quickly. I remember, and I've told you this before, I was in Malawi some years ago and I was with some Christians and they met in what they called their church, their church building, and it was mud. Everything was mud. The walls were mud, the floor was mud, the pews were mud, the platform was mud, the pulpit was mud, the only thing that wasn't mud was the roof and that was grass. And it was all delightfully simple and it was a wonderful time. They had a pattern and different ones would come and they would tell what it meant to them to be a Christian. And someone was interpreting for me so that I could understand it. And there was a definite pattern to it and they would come and they would stand and they would say something like, I used to beat my wife but now I'm a Christian, I don't do that anymore. And then somebody else would get up and they'd say, I used to steal chickens but I don't do that anymore now that I'm a Christian. And somebody else would stand up and they'd say, well I used to get drunk every night but I'm a Christian, I don't do that anymore. And one man got up and he used a slightly different language and he said, he said, I used to beat my wife and I used to steal chickens and I used to get drunk all the time. He said, but now I'm a Christian, I've stopped everything. Now is that your kind of definition of a Christian, somebody who's stopped everything? Is that, when someone says he's a Christian, is that what you think it means? He's stopped everything? He's just started everything. That's what happens. Holiness isn't the absence of sins. Holiness is the presence of God's life, inner life. It's positive, it's dynamic, it's glorious. John says, he is the spirit baptizer. He is the one who will saturate you in holy spirit. This is why I want to tell you this, that John introduced Jesus as a four square saviour. He had a full gospel. This would be the one who would deal with the past. He would take away the sins of the world and this would be the one who would bring power for the future. He would baptize in the holy spirit. That's why only Jesus can be a saviour. No one else has the power to deal with the past and nobody else has the power to equip you for the future. You can't be your own saviour. Religion can't be your saviour, not even bible religion or fellowship religion or Christian religion. It can't do it. No religion can do it. No education can do it. No bible verse can do it. Only the sin taker away and the holy spirit baptizer can do it. Only Jesus can do it and I've just done about all I can do because all I can now do is the same as John did and that's just point you to him and say you must have your own individual dealings with Jesus. There's a lovely little couplet here. It says that two of John's disciples heard John speak and they followed Jesus. That's what every evangelist wants to do or should do. You listen to me but don't follow me. Follow Jesus. I can't help you anymore now. I really can't. I've come to the end of everything that I can say or everything I'm going to say anyway. All I can say it again is Jesus can be a saviour to you because he can deal with your past. He is the world's sin taker away and Jesus can equip you for the present and for the future because he is the holy spirit baptizer and now I must leave you in his hands if you'll give yourself to him. Let's pray. Now Lord Jesus we really want to get beyond the words and the ideas and we want to come to you and I want to come and pray on behalf of all my friends here tonight. Folks who come regularly and folks who haven't been for a long time and folks who are just passing through but I want I want all the eyes to be focused on you. Not even trying to remember the words of what's been said but I want to say like John behold behold the Lamb of God. Look, look to Jesus. He takes away the world's sin. Look to Jesus. He baptizes in Holy Spirit. Lord Jesus these are your unique prerogatives. You will not share them with anybody else. You won't allow anybody else to save from sin and you won't allow anyone else to baptize in Holy Spirit. These are the tasks that the Father has given you to do and you do them perfectly. I want to pray for my friends Lord that you really will draw them to yourself and give them faith to trust you for the past and the future. Give them faith to put their life into your hands. Amen.