Grace Bible Church
Pastor/Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
July 29, 2008
Basic Training in Doctrine
John 1:6-8 “The witness of God”
God uses people. All believers today are in full time Christian service.
“sent from God” – para means immediate source. In God’s plan God can take imperfect man, unstable man, man who has an old sin nature and who is oriented to cosmos diabolicus, oriented to the thinking of this world, to human viewpoint, and use him in His plan;
It is not the man; it is the message. It isn’t his personality; it is the content of his message.
The name John means “God shows grace”
This marked the opening of a new era
Matt 11:11
“Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
The world lives in such darkness that not only was J.C. in the form of God, PHI 2:6, but a witness was needed to proclaim His coming.
To bear witness
The word to believe is in the aorist tense which indicates the point of time when anyone believes in JC as their Savior.
John had a great impact on the ministry of Jesus Christ because many did believe because of his message and the first disciples of Christ were in fact trained by John.
defines our character.
The light defines the theme of our witness.
That all should believe defines our goal.
Matt 3:3
For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet, saying,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
‘Make ready the way of the Lord,
Make His paths straight!’
[ISA 40:3]
John becomes the example for every servant of God. We are all to concern ourselves with TLJC and not a desire for the people to whom we witness to be occupied with us.
His reason for living was to be witness.
Your reason for living should be the same.
You are a witness in the A.C. in order to glorify God.
John was the lamp not the light.
A witness does not tell the things he thinks but the things he knows.
John’s only purpose was to bear witness of Christ. He had no church, no walking of isles, no big buildings, just the most important thing, a message
PRO 14:25; JOH 10:25; ACT 1:8.
Prov 14:25
A truthful witness saves lives,
But he who speaks lies is treacherous.
John 10:25
Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these bear witness of Me.
Acts 1:8
but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.