The Gospel of John

He Must Increase

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Conversations, Panels and Sermons

Lesson: 9- 70

Genre:

Track: 09

Dictation Name: RR197E09

Location/Venue:

Year:

Let us worship God. The hour cometh and now is when the true worshipper shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Where the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God we come unto They presence again mindful of all Thy past and present mercies. According to Thy word we open wide our mouth that Thou mightest fill it. WE thank Thee that Thy mercies and blessings never fail and so we come, we thank Thee for all Thy providential care of the week past, the guiding of those who need guidance, the healing of those in need of healing and direction to those of us who need to know our way. Guide us this morning as we study Thy word and grant that we may see Thee in all Thy glory, step by step, all the days of our life in Christ’s name, Amen.

Our scripture is John 3:22-36. John 3:22-36, our subject: He Must Increase.

“After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judaea; and there he tarried with them, and baptized.

23 And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim, because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized.

24 For John was not yet cast into prison.

25 Then there arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying.

26 And they came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him.

27 John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.

28 Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him.

29 He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.

30 He must increase, but I must decrease.

31 He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all.

32 And what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth; and no man receiveth his testimony.

33 He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.

34 For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.

35 The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.

36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

This text is of interest among other things because we are told in verse twenty six that our Lord authorized baptisms during His ministry. So we have not only His authority for baptizing as in Matthew 28:19 but also His practice of it very early. John the Baptist was also baptizing at the same time to prepare the people for Christ, for the Messiah. In verses twenty five through thirty we have John the Baptist’s testimony concerning Jesus. His disciples had reported that Jesus was baptizing in Judea and so they asked by what authority was Jesus baptizing. Since Jesus had been baptized by John the Baptist, had John given him authority to do the same thing? These disciples were very earnestly protective of John the Baptist’s supposed priority. In verse twenty five we are told in an argument to God between a Jew and John the Baptist’s disciples about baptism and implicitly of course the authority of Jesus as against John. What was the meaning of the rite? How did the two compare or how did they compare with Jewish purification rites. In verse twenty seven we see the heart of the answer: John the Baptist said to his followers a man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven. His answer reverses our expectation that John would say a man can do nothing, do nothing, unless God gives him the power. Instead he said a man can receive nothing except from God. The word receive more emphatically places the stress on God’s gift, His sovereign grace, all good gifts come from heaven. In James 1:17 we are told:

“ Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

I cite this because there is a subtle emphasis here on God’s priority I the determination of all things. This is why it is so strange that people can as the Armenians do, assume that man has the priority, God does. In every sphere the bible is emphatic: total priority rests in the triune God. John’s emphasis is very strong on this and this is also true of the Apostle John. John the Baptist reminds his followers in verse twenty eight that he himself stressed the priority of Christ over himself. In verse twenty nine John uses familiar Old Testament imagery of God and Israel, the bridegroom and the bride. We meet with that imagery in Hosea 2:19, Ezekiel 16, Malachi 2:11. The friend of the bridegroom was what we now call the best man. It was in that era his duty to prepare for the wedding reception and to bring forth the bride. He had much more duties than the best man does now but the best man in our current practice comes directly from biblical practices, there called the friend of the bridegroom. He not only prepared for the wedding reception but he brought forth the bride. The bride went to the wedding with what we would call the best man. Now John the Baptist tells his followers that he is such a one, a friend of the bridegroom, the best man as it were and this is his joy. He is not a competitor for the bride but the friend of the bridegroom. The bridegroom’s voice, his words to the bride when he first greets here are therefore his joy and evidence that his work as the friend of the bridegroom is finished.

John’s message to Jesus in Matthew 11:3:

“Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?”

Is not treated by our Lord as doubt, rather a question in regard to timing. John awaited death in prison, he was awaiting word of Christ’s fulfillment of His mission and he was impatient. Our Lord’s answer to John is to cite His miraculous powers over sin and death. The new creation had begun. Now John tells his disciples in verse thirty he must increase but I must decrease. I am of the earth, born in the line of the old humanity of Adam but Jesus is He that cometh from above and is therefore above all. He stresses this again in verse thirty one. He that cometh from heaven is above all, he thus can be compared to no man of any era of history, he is above or sovereign and lord over all. This testimony is of a consequence the first hand witness from heaven. It is a word, John the Baptist says, unlike any other word. Whatever we see about the faith, however accurate we may be, our word is a second hand word. Our Lords is the first hand word. Men reject the testimony of the Christ we are told in verse thirty two however receptive they are to His miracles because it does not conform to their expectations and demands. All who then and now receive Christ’s testimony and see Him indeed as God the Son incarnate do thereby declare as verse thirty three tells us that God is true, that every prophecy concerning the Christ and the law and the prophets is fulfilled in Jesus the Christ. We know Christ to be the truth for he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God. For God giveth not the spirit by measure unto him, in Paul’s words, in Colossians 2:9:

“For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”

As the apostle John earlier wrote, no man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him, He hath revealed, exegeted Him. Again in Colossians 1:19 we are told:

“For it pleased the Father that in Him should all the fullness dwell.”

Well this is the heart of Christianity, that Christ is God incarnate. Our Lord tells Philip and all of us in John 14:9:

“….he that hath seen me hath seen the Father;”

This is the great exaltation of the last of those who lived, walked and known Jesus Christ in their old age. As they would go to church service they would great one another with the words ‘Have you seen? We have seen. Have you heard? We have heard. Have you touched? We have touched.’ The elderly who were the survivors of those who had known Jesus in person reveled in that greeting and it is echoed in John in his first letter. The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hand, we are told in verse thirty five. Now verses thirty one through thirty six are the words of John the Apostle rather than John the Baptist but they are so close to those of John the Baptist that it is clear that a common inspiration marks them both. The conclusion to all this is in verse thirty six: he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him.

The word ‘believe’ here is not our word which we rightly term easy believe-ism, it has nothing to do with the Greek word here translated as believe. It means founding our whole life upon Him so He is everything to us. We live, move and have our being in Him, we reflect what He is and we try in all things to serve Him. So those who truly believe already have eternal life but those who disbelieve are the living dead who face eternal death. God is the creator of life and true life is only possible in Him. Apart from God existence is meaningless and is hell and judgment. John the Baptist’s work extended beyond Judea through his disciples. In Acts 18:24-28 and Acts 19:1-5 we encounter some of his disciples at Ephesus and at Corinth. One notable follower of John the Baptist became an important Christian missionary referred to for example in First Corinthians, Apollos. The readiness of John the Baptist’s followers to follow Christ and the apostles is a witness to their faith and the maturity and wisdom of John’s ministry. Too often in history men have been ready to receive the truth but not to grow with it. Their mentality has been a reluctance to move forward in terms of God’s determination of all things. After a certain point they say in effect as a very, very revealing phrase from the 1970s had it, stop the world I want to get off. That’s a loser’s philosophy and it is to ask for hell. God who ordains all things makes all things work together for good we are told and so we his people instead of saying stop the world I want to get off, say instead, we know that all things work together for good for them that are the people of God, the children of God, the called according to His purpose.

That purpose may take us through very difficult days but the goal is a glorious one. If we know Jesus Christ is Lord we know that the present distress always leads toward His kingdom and His reign over all things. He must increase and He shall. Unless we accept this fact we do not know Jesus Christ, until then we are on the level of John the Baptist’s disciples. Therefore in all things we must say ye must increase. Let us pray.

Our Father we give thanks unto Thee that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is in command of all things, even the wrath of man shall praise Him. Give us grace therefore to know that we are in a battle whose conclusion has ordained from all eternity. That our Lord shall triumph and we shall be more than conquerors in Him. Bless us mightily in terms of Thy holy purpose and make us ever joyful in Thee. In Christ’s name, Amen.

I referred to the 1970’s saying ‘stop the world I want to get off’, it came from the whole world of the student revolution so it was precisely those who were young and should have had the most hope who coined the most pessimistic statement of their era. Stop the world I want to get off. And that’s why they were losers and why all those who come after them and share their faith are losers, because they are in effect saying ‘if my will isn’t done the world isn’t any good and life is not worth living’. Yes?

[Unintelligible Question]

[Rushdoony] Well, the baptism that is predicted in Ezekiel 36 the word used is sprinkling. The most common practice in those days was aspersion and that was what John the Baptist practiced. The people who were to be baptized would wade into the waters of the Jordon or whatever stream there was and then water would be poured over them out of the stream, and aspersion was for some time the practice. Subsequently both sprinkling and immersion became common practices and so when you go back in the history of the architecture of the church you find baptisteries that are for immersion and you also find fonts for sprinkling.

One would have to say since they didn’t make that great distinction between these forms they recognized it was not the form but what the form set forth. Purification, the new birth, life in Christ, that this was the key factor. Any other questions or comments?

Well if not let us conclude with prayer.

We thank Thee our Father that our Lord is king of all kings, lord over all lords, the creator, the redeemer, our protector. We thank Thee that we have the blessed assurance that He will never leave us nor forsake us so that in all things we are more than conquerors. Bless us this day and always with a holy confidence and boldness in Him. And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, Amen.