In the sermon 'Keeping The Heart, John The Baptist' by Paul Carrington, the focus is on John the Baptist's unwavering dedication to his mission and humility. John is portrayed as a man who consistently points away from himself, emphasizing the glory of God and the necessity of Christ's increase over his own. The sermon examines John 3:22-36, highlighting John's belief that nothing can be received unless given from heaven, which underscores his acceptance of his decreasing role as Christ's prominence grows. John the Baptist's life serves as a model of heart religion, where he exemplifies humility, knowing who he is and who he is not, and rejoices in the success of Jesus' ministry. The sermon encourages believers to adopt a similar attitude, prioritizing the increase of Christ in their lives even at personal cost, and recognizing the sovereignty of God in all things.

Well, if you would, please open your Bibles to the third chapter of the book of John, John chapter 3. And if you can, find 22 to 36, verse 22 to 36. We're going to continue our study keeping the heart with a man, John the Baptist, a man who is always pointing away, always pointing away. And here we have in John chapter 3 really the longest recorded dialogue with John the Baptist. It's John the Baptist and he's speaking with his very own disciples and we kind of go behind the scenes of his public ministry and we see the man that he actually was and the motivation of his hearts and in his words what we find is not only a picture of who this man actually was but we find the very cornerstone of every believer when we consider heart religion.

And so just if we go through this, I think you'll really see something that is just on the one side very unique to John, but at the same time something that all of us should want to really embrace. Because if you were to sum up the life of John the Baptist, you would really find a man that ever and only sang a single note. That's all he really ever did. He displays a life that was really always pointing away from himself towards another. And perhaps no one in the entire scripture really better illustrates and gives flesh to the verses that we find in Psalm 115 where it opens up, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us but unto your name, give glory.

And so this is gonna be our focus here in terms of what it means to really keep the heart with all diligence because out of it flow the issues of life. And we're gonna read verse 22 down to the end of the chapter, but our focus is really only gonna be on four verses, 27 to 30. So I'll read here and then we'll pray. After these things, Jesus and his disciples came into the land of Judea, and there he remained with them and baptized. Now John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there.

And they came and were baptized, for John had not yet been thrown into prison. Then there arose a dispute between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purification. And they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, he who is with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, he is baptizing, and all are coming to him. John answered and said, a man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.

He who has the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. Therefore, this song, Joy of Mine, is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth.

He who comes from heaven is above all. And what he has seen and heard, that he testifies, that no one receives, and no one receives his testimony. He who has received his testimony has certified that God is true. For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.

He who believes in the Son has everlasting life, and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Father, we thank you for these words recorded for us here in John. Lord, we thank you for taking us behind the scenes of this man's public ministry to see what his beating heart was, Lord, and we pray that as we study these words and look at them, Lord, that you would mark our hearts and give us of the same spirit, Lord, that we would desire nothing else but to see Christ increase even at expense of ourselves. Lord, may your name be glorified and may you be exalted during this time as we look at your word. Help us, help me in Christ's name, amen.

Amen. Well this was a great man, John the Baptist. He was called by Christ actually the greatest of those that were born among women. He was a man that was actually prophesied about centuries before he actually came, not by one prophet, but by two prophets. Isaiah in chapter 40 talks about the coming of this one, John the Baptist, as the voice crying in the wilderness.

It says in chapter 40 verse three, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. And then of course before the curtain closes on the Old Testament, after telling about the son of Righteousness Malachi, ends his prophecy. It's the last verse or verses in the entire Old Testament with these words speaking of John the Baptist. He says, Behold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse." Well, when he finally comes on the earth, he's one of those like Isaac or Joseph and Samuel.

He comes almost in a miraculous way himself. He's born to Zechariah and Elizabeth, folks that were well advanced in age, but God comes and allows her to bring forth this beautiful little boy. And the same curtain that came down with the prophecy about him in the Old Testament, it lifts in the New Testament, ending 400 years of silence. We meet him, and even before he takes his first breath, Think about this, we learn much of the man, and even as a fetus, a word that today is used to dehumanize a baby when it's in the womb, even as a fetus, he was a worshiper of the living God. When Elizabeth came to the pregnant Mary, both of these women are both pregnant at the same time.

And Elizabeth utters these beautiful words, she says, "'But why is it granted to me "'that the mother of my Lord should come to me? "'For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting "'sounded in my ears, the babe leapt in my womb for joy." And so we learn about this man again before he even draws his first breath, even before he's conceived of the nature and the heart that he's gonna have towards the things of God. And so did a man ever better exemplify what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6 when he said, seek first the kingdom of God in his righteousness? This is the man that adds flesh again to that very statement. And it's really all about the heart and so we see John prior to being conceived in eternity past with these prophecies we see him before he's even born the next time we really meet him we fast-forwarded and he's this dangerous preacher in his early 30s.

And so he's on a collision course with the kingdom of darkness, and he's got the simplest message a man could really preach. It's, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And he preaches this message with such great authority. He preaches it with urgency. There's forcefulness in this man's message, and it was delivered out in the open air.

And one of the things about John the Baptist is that When you listen to John the Baptist you're never left wondering what did he really say? He's gonna say it and you're gonna know what he said whether you like it or not. And it was interesting I was just reading George Whitfield He recounts a story of an archbishop in London meeting with a play actor in London together. He says this, I'll tell you a story. The Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 1675 was acquainted with Mr.

Butterton, the actor. One day the Archbishop said to Buterton, pray, inform me, Mr. Buterton, what is the reason your actors, you actors on stage can affect your congregations with speaking of things imaginary, as if they were real, while we in church speak of things real, which our congregations only receive as though they were imaginary. Why, my Lord, says Butterton, the reason is very plain. We actors on stage speak of things imaginary as if they were real, and you in the pulpit speak of things real as if they were imaginary.

And he ends with that, and this is what Whitfield says, he says, therefore I will bawl or shout loudly, and he says, I will not be a velvet-mouthed preacher. Well, this was a man like John the Baptist. He was a man that was unafraid of men. He didn't shrink from the self-righteous people in his day. In fact, as long as they maintained their views, he did everything that he could to keep them out of the waters of baptism, to keep them dry.

And to the Pharisees that are really typical of religion and the religious establishment that exists in every age, even in our very own here at this time and in the US, you know, the movers and the shakers, the careful planners, the political savvy people. He calls them a brood of vipers. Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? It's very highly likely that he never read Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and influence people. He had this unique fearlessness that he just went after and preached the word of God.

But as bold as this man was, and as direct as he was, he's also, as we're gonna find out, one of the most insightful men that ever lived and ever walked with the Lord. And as we talk about this whole idea of keeping our hearts with all diligence, you know, it's this very aspect of John that I would really want us to consider. These four verses here in verse 27 to 30. And this is where we not only understand the man, but we come to the very marrow of Christianity in these four verses. And there's two things I just want us to think about as we think about John.

He was a man always pointing away from himself. But the beauty of John is that he was a man who knew who he was, and he was a man who knew who he was not. Seems very, very simple, but as we go through this, I think you'll see what I mean, how difficult and how deceptive our human hearts can be. Well really, actually we'll start in verse 26, and these are John's disciples here. We kind of meet a crisis.

John is in this position where all of a sudden his ministry seems to be on the decline, his disciples sense that, and they come with this complaint, almost an appeal. Please do something, you need to do something. And this is what happens, he says, it says in verse 26, and they came to John and said to him, Rabbi, He who is with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, he is baptizing, and all are coming to him." So you can see the frustration really that's taking place in these men, and you can imagine that up until recently, John's ministry had been booming. He had been the one that had probably baptized thousands of people that had actually come to him from all parts of Israel. And you go even further when you fast forward in time, all the way to Acts 18, decades later, we meet a man named Apollos from Egypt, from Alexandria, who's preaching John's message.

That's how far afield John's ministry had spread in days when there was no internet or anything like that. But now there's this seeming decline. And so what is their leader gonna do with this decline in his ministry? Well, we see one of the most remarkable responses here in verse 27. John says this, a man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven.

And so we again draw back the curtain from his public ministry, all the things that he had been responsible for, his rebukes to the self-righteous, to the Pharisees, his bold open-air addresses, all of that. And what we see is a man so well advanced in the school and in the ways of God. He's not just a talking head, but he's a man that had been tried and put to the test with God, and he's still standing. He has an understanding that most men, even his very own disciples, didn't have. And so with these few words, a man can receive nothing.

He begins really his longest address that's recorded for us in the scriptures. And it's really a general truth, isn't it, that this idea that a man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. And I just ask you to think about your own life in this context here, because I think if I think about my own life, if I think about people that I know, if you just spend any time kind of evaluating the human heart or the human condition, it may not be too much of a stretch to say that this single verse, if it's properly grasped and understood, could be the antidote to probably 90% of all of the world's problems, the troubles that rack the human heart, not just the unbeliever, but oftentimes us as believers as well. And really as you think about the concept of keeping the heart, you really can't keep the heart without doing business with this simple verse here before us. And just to kind of look at the human condition, just think to yourself again, how many times when you go through the scriptures do you find the disciples of Christ in squabbles among themselves, among who's gonna be the greatest among them?

Or think about all the times when Paul the Apostle or some of the other apostles and writers in the New Testament had to deal with divisions within the church, right? People that were looking for position or, you know, comparing gifting and all these things that take place again underneath the hood or underneath the the kind of operations of a local church. Think about all the times you read Paul's taking this idea of a metaphor of the body to convince people, persuade people that you may not be the eye. Someone may be the foot, someone could be the hand, but all of us are in operation to advance the kingdom of God. But he had to say these things because of the lack of understanding around this verse that a man can receive nothing except to be given to him from heaven.

Think about our culture, even Christian culture, and it often thrives on some element of discontent and comparison. You can think about the squabbles that arise in your own home, perhaps between children. He has that, or whatever it can be that it can rise up or someone else between different families and so on. Think about all the unrest that can often even plague your own human heart as you look out on the world or look at what other people are doing or things that are happening in other parts of the world, people's lives and so on. And so, doesn't this simple sentence really hit on the heart of something that is kind of typical of us and our human condition?

Really what John is doing is he's laying the axe to the root of human pride. My pride, your pride. And rather than wallowing in the same spirit of his disciples, we're gonna find out what this man does. He actually rejoices and reflects on the very goodness of God. And so, just be warned, obviously, this is not a fatalistic verse, right?

Oh well, whatever God gives me, that's gonna be fine. I'm just not, I'm not gonna do anything. No, there's something more than that. We're gonna find something more in John's words here. There's this actual joyful recognition that a man can receive nothing except it be given from heaven.

And I wanna ask you, what would change in your life, or what would change in my life, if we could say the same sentence, but with the same spirit, and the same heart, as John the Baptist, with the same understanding, and as we consider what it means to keep the heart, to let a verse like this really become a guidepost for your Christian life. Now, to the lazy, this verse shouldn't quash ambition. There's no excuse here, oh well again, you know, I can't do anything about it. It's what's given to me from heaven. Like a child tomorrow getting 50% on a test saying, Mom, what do you want me to do?

A man can receive nothing except it's been given him from heaven. That's not gonna fly. It won't fly on your job. That's not what it is. But as Christians, what our requirement is, you find this elsewhere in the text, we fight, right?

We exert, we draw ourselves out, but there's a recognition of something called the sovereignty of God that covers off everything, and in the midst of ups and downs, setbacks, all sorts of things, retrenchments, there can be a joy because we understand a man can receive nothing except it's been given to him from God. After having done everything, the results of the Lord's, and we can say good is the will of the Lord. And I love what Matthew Henry says about this simple line. He comes with his own simple line as he often does. He says, now here is a man fully satisfied with the place and the work assigned him.

And so what we find in John the Baptist is that recognition that all success is from heaven, it's ultimately the gift of God, and so why should I chafe against the things that God has given. And if we call to mind what we read in Romans chapter eight, it's so beautiful that God is working all things. That means all things for the good, for my good. So am I able to rest content in his designs? And oftentimes I think if you're like me, you know, forget waging war on the outside world, but what about what goes on inside, right?

Here was a man waging war with the Pharisees, with Herod, he was, you know, fighting in multiple fronts. But this is where the greatest heart work really takes place. It's right here where no one else sees. And that's where John is exposing something here to us that we really need to take hold of because he refuses really to enter into the feelings of his disciples. You know, he was prophesied in the Old Testament.

We saw that. All the world just recently was seeking this man out diligently. I mean, he had climbed to the pinnacle of religious experience. Can you think of a greater honor that a man would become the herald of the greatest thing that would ever happen in human history, and preaching the coming of the Messiah. Well, in the words here there's this implication that we find in verse 26 is that when these men come to John, you know, they say this, right?

To whom you have testified. It's as though they're implying, hey, John, remember, you were the one that got this man even started in ministry. There's this harshness or whatever that's in their voice here. And so, how fair is it now that you who kind of were the forerunner in the forefront are now fading to black? And there's a proneness in each one of us if we evaluate our our own hearts.

On the one side, you know, there's the proneness to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think, and some of us may be more prone to that. On the other side, there might be a proneness to berate yourself and, you know, for not being enough, but guess what? Both of those, guess where they have their root? In pride. Both have their roots in pride.

And what I love about John is we see something so rare. We see a man who actually, he knew who he was. And out of that, there was probably one of the most humble, truly humble men that you meet in the scriptures because he knew who he was. He also knew who he wasn't. Well, how do we know that?

In verse 28, it says this, you yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him. Do you see that? Who I am and who I'm not, or who I'm not and who I am. And he tells him to remember, he says, There was never a time, I'm calling you to bear witness, there was never a time that I tried to kind of siphon away glory from the one that I was preaching about. He says, I am not the Christ, and nor am I competitor with him at all, God forbid.

My whole design was for his advancement. And so after hundreds of years of spiritual drought from Malachi, you have this man who was set apart, he was born to herald the message of the gospel. His message was ever and always again to point away from himself towards the Lord. And it's a wonderful thing. I tried this myself.

You could try it. See if you can find a... Look at John the Baptist in your Bible anywhere you want. It's a good test. See if you can find a scripture where John is being referenced and he's not pointing away from himself toward Christ.

And I thought, wow, what a life. Now, is that not something all of us should aspire to, to be those that are pointing away from? We heard a list of things today, there's all sorts of things that can distract, even good things, useful things, but ultimately what are you going to be about at the end of the day? Are you going to be one who points away from yourself to the only one who is worthy. You know, I love the whole tenor of his life.

You can almost imagine him saying that until I die, I will make the mountains low, and I will fill up the valleys for the approach of the great King. That's what I want to spend my entire life doing. And so you come to verse 29, and here we see really the greatest distinction between his way of thinking and that of his disciples. Remember, their whole complaint is that all the world, all are coming to Him. That was their greatest complaint.

Their greatest complaint was John's greatest joy. Isn't that amazing? And so here they are at wit's end contemplating the end of this ministry, the rise and the fall of the sect that they had been a part of. And in verse 29, John further tries to help them. He says this, he who has the bride is the bridegroom.

But the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled." And you know this idea of the friend of the bridegroom, I was just reading one commentator and he was talking about how this concept has so much more to do than say our modern concept of kind of the best man at a wedding. You know, he talks about the the friend of the bridegroom as being responsible for arranging the contract and then acting for the bridegroom during the betrothal, arranging for presiding at all the festivities of the wedding day or in the case of Jewish religion days itself. It was a real position of honor in proportion to the position of the bridegroom himself and it was usually given to his chief friend. And then he says this, and that friend then joyed in his joy.

The whole joy of the friend of the bridegroom was joying in the joy of the actual bridegroom himself. And it is enough saying in his heart, it is enough to be the friend of the bridegroom. And you can imagine the actual, the disaster, use your imagination to envision what would happen if on a wedding day, the friend of the bridegroom and the bridegroom got confused as to their roles. That would be a wedding you would probably never forget. But John wasn't about to be confused in any way.

He knew who he was and he knew who he wasn't. And he was enjoying in another's joy. And so this is the category of thinking that John employed really to keep his heart in a worshipful state, just like the first day that he met the Lord Christ when they were both in their mother's wombs. And so, so far from being a cause for envy, as all are going to Christ, it is the consummation of all of his hopes, everything that he was working toward. It hadn't been in vain, and now his cup is running over.

He ends that one verse, he says, therefore this, my joy, this joy of mine is now fulfilled. That's what he's able to say. And so up until now, everything sounds amazing, it sounds good, you could be nodding, you could be agreeing saying yeah this is this is a good principle, but John doesn't really stop there, he continues and he comes with another principle that's universal really to the Christian life here that covers really all aspects of the Christian life as Christ is formed in us. And it's really a very simple sentence as well. He says, He must increase, but I must decrease.

And Christ will, months or years later when he's talking with his own disciples kind of convey the same thing when he speaks and says, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." And so if I were to ask, you know, let's put up our hands, everyone who wants Christ to increase, all of us would put up our hands, I'm guessing, or a large portion of us. But if we were to ask, well, who also wants to decrease? I know my hand might, what are the implications of that? What do you mean?

That makes me a little bit concerned. Because there's something in me that wants to, I want Christ to increase, but at what cost? This is the war that goes on to it, but there's something in the apostle's heart here too. Apostle Paul, in Philippians chapter three, we read these words of how he was able to count all things rubbish, you know that verse. And he goes through his resume of accomplishments, his inheritance as a Benjamite and all of these different things.

But He ends with some of those beautiful words. He says that I may know him. And the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. And then he says this, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead. You see these men are operating at a level that might be somewhat foreign to modern Christianity because these men are saying this, that Christ increasing even at their own expense will actually be great gain to themselves.

It's this great paradox, but it's so true. Years ago, about a decade ago, I was preaching in a slum, and a real, as a family, we'd go every Sunday, and we'd plant this little church there. And I still remember, I'm preaching in this slum, and it's just a concrete floor, just sweltering hot in the Dominican Republic, and I was preaching on the same verse. And I had a little glass of water up there, and some rocks, and I put them in to exemplify, You know, this is you, this is me, and I want Christ, but if I'm gonna have Christ, and I put in those rocks, what's gonna happen to that water? It's gonna overflow, and it overflowed onto the floor.

And I was just this past week, as I was recalling that, 10 years ago, I was telling the same verses, and you know, my lament personally was, Lord, how little have I actually learned this lesson that 10 years ago I preached about a man, John the Baptist, who was doing these things. It's one thing to preach it, but it's another thing to have the same heart attitude. And really, you know, I looked at myself, there's such slow, halting progress, and really, oftentimes, you know, My only consolation is that when I talk to other men that I trust and I know have been in the battle, I talk to them and they kind of share the same thing and I kind of draw some strange consolation. I'm not the only one. But there's something there that John is tapping into that's one of the most rare things.

He must increase and I must decrease. You know that word must is really the same word that we find earlier in the chapter when when Jesus is preaching just a few verses earlier and he says, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. There's this word meaning of great necessity, you know, the only way, There's no alternative. In other words, in order for Christ to be more seen, I must fade. And if Christ will shine the brighter, then I'll be all the happier.

But it's gonna come at a cost. And I just ask you to ask yourself, Are there words that are actually harder to utter and mean them than these few words? I don't even know how many there are, six or seven words right here. And so speaking of this simple sentence, one of the commentators said, "'Well will it be for those followers of Christ whose lives shall be sermons on this very verse. And you know, I was just looking at a man I really admire, a man that was very, very imperfect in his day, had lots of problems.

You could point out so many different problems he had, but there was a man named William Carey who was the first Baptist missionary. He went all the way from England, he went all the way to India in the late 1700s, and he spent 41 years in India, kind of in the northeast corner, and went through unbelievable ups and downs and stops and starts. But as he was going, he was a plodder. He would just plod on, and he translated the Bible. He preached.

He saw many people come to know the Lord after seven years of no one even, you know, wanted to hear him. He actually was responsible for abolishing something called sati, which would mean when a man died they would kind of burn his body, but they would push it onto the river on this kind of a pyre, funeral pyre. And sati was, it means good wife in Sanskrit. And if you were the wife of that man, your duty was to go and throw yourself onto that pyre and burn and die with your husband. That was normal in that culture.

It was this man who had such a value for human life, women, all of these. He brought the scriptures to bear and elevated what women were seen as in that land, and it was finally abolished right before he died. And a man came and visited him, a man by the name of Mr. Duff. And he came and said farewell, and was turning to the door when Kerry called him.

He's about to leave. Did you call me? He asked. Mr. Kerry.

Yes. Yes, Mr. Duff, said Kerry solemnly. You have been speaking a great deal about Dr. Carey, Dr.

Carey, Dr. Carey. I beg of you that when I am gone, nothing may be said about Dr. Carey. Don't talk about Dr.

Carey. Speak, I beg you, about Dr. Carey's Savior." And his dying wish was fulfilled. You know, he told his son what he wanted on his tombstone. He said, let these words be put on my tombstone.

William Carey, born August 17th, 1761, and died a wretched, poor, and helpless worm. On thy kind arms I fall." And so in the man John the Baptist, what we find is a man who understood really that the most significant battle in keeping the heart with all diligence really has to do with understanding the simple lines before us, that a man can receive nothing except to be given to him from heaven on the one side, and also that he must increase, but I must decrease. So may God help us as we consider these things and allow the Lord to work them into our hearts as we continue on this pilgrim's progress. Let's pray together. Not unto us, oh Lord, not unto us, but unto your name, give glory for your great mercy and for your truth.

Lord, you are such a good God. We are so thankful for you, oh Lord, and we ask you to help us as we live in this world, to live with all of our hearts, to give glory unto you, for you alone are worthy. Lord, your name must remain, Your name must be exalted. Oh Lord, may we die and be forgotten, but may you, oh Lord, be exalted. And we pray that you would use us, our small feeble lives, as you've done so many times through history.

Lord, it's pleased you so often to use the basings of this world to confound the wise. And so, Lord, we pray that you would help us to just live before you as men and women, as children, as those who love their God. Lord, help us to keep our hearts with all diligence and serve you in the time that you've given us. We're grateful for this example here in John the Baptist, Lord, may more of what we've read here be true of us. That's my prayer for myself, Lord, and we just pray you would help each and every one of us to walk in the way.

In Christ's name we pray, amen.