“He must increase, but I must decrease.”

(John 3:30 NASB)

(1) QUESTION: What is the secret of JOY? Well according to John the Baptist, it’s putting Christ first, others next, self last. I have one complaint about us preachers, we often don’t tell us, like I think it was E. Stanley Jones who said, “We don’t tell us how.” How can we put him first? Well, you look through a passage like this and you look for some clue, what is it that enabled John to say what he said? “This joy therefore is fulfilled.”

(2) Here is a man who has joy in the midst of very difficult circumstances, what is it? Well I suggest to you that it’s found in one little clause in our study passage today. “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30) Now here he describes himself, “The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears HIM!” Are you a person who stands and hears him? Let me make a suggestion to you that the clue to John’s securing the relationship to the Lord that enabled him…

(3) …to rejoice at the crowd leaving him and following the Lord Jesus Christ. How in the midst of apparent disappointment, he found great joy in it. It has been said that, “You can’t place a load on a running donkey.” Well that just might be the way of saying what we need to do is to get off by yourself and be alone with the Lord for a while. That’s how John managed to accomplish what he accomplished. All that time that he spent in the desert was the game changer!

(4) Our ‘Secret Place’ will be very important; out there he came to know the Lord God. And so he stood and heard him. As Paul puts it, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18 NASB) Our responsibility is to look, his responsibility is to transform. And so as we look into the Scriptures and meditate upon them, HE…

(5) …works his great transforming power. To put it in another figure, an illustration as our Lord did, he came to Bethany one day where Mary and Martha and Lazarus lived. They met him at the door, Martha immediately went into the kitchen and you could hear the dishes and the pans and pots making their noises, for she was preparing something for the Lord and Mary went over and sat down at Jesus’ feet. And the text says, “She went on hearing his word.”

(6) “Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.’ But the Lord answered and said to her… (Luke 10:38–42 NASB)

(7) …“Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:42 NASB) Martha became disturbed, came out, she was upset. She said, “Lord, do something about Mary.” And he said, “Martha, Martha, you’re careful and troubled about many things, but just one thing is needful, and Mary has chosen that good part…

(8) …and furthermore, it shall not be taken away from her.” So Mary was sitting at his feet and hearing his word, and she was growing in likeness to the Lord Jesus Christ. Something was transpiring in her while Martha was in the kitchen serving. It’s alright to serve. Later on in the 12th chapter of the Gospel of John, Martha’s still serving but there’s no word of rebuke there, “So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him. Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.” (John 12:2–3 NASB)

(9) It’s perfectly alright to serve, but service must flow out of fellowship with him. So to stand and hear him, to sit at his feet and hear his words, to look into the mirror, these are the things that lead to a transformed life.

(10) Our responsibility is simply to look, simply to stand, simply to hear. And we’ll know the secret of joy in measure. Therefore I would suggest to you if it’s not that, then it also is the order of those words in our study today; “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30) Who knows maybe it’s both, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” There is a logic here because as HE increases necessarily I decrease. For the more I am occupied with Him, like the Black…

(11) …Locust in the spring when the sap begins to rise in those feeble leaves, those dead leaves that have been hanging onto the tree all through winter finally begin to fall off. And the manifestations of the old life leave as the sap of the new life in Christ becomes predominant in the life of a Christian occupying with Him. Now, it seems to me that John is one of those magnificent individuals who has really come to know what it is to spend time with the Lord.

(12) I like what our Lord said about John, he said to the crowds, “But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and one who is more than a prophet.” (Matthew 11:9 NASB) But then he said also, “Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist! Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” (Matthew 11:11 NASB) Please know that I am not picking on anyone…

(13) …I am just reminding us that we already KNOW! “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” (John 5:25 NASB) Yes they rejoiced in John’s light, and so do we who rejoice in what happened because he stood and heard him. And if we are to know true spiritual joy, it will not be found except in the relationship that we enjoy with Jesus Christ.

(14) May Father God help us to make one of the aims of our life a fellowship with him. You cannot enjoy that apart from the Scriptures. If you know anything about me you would know that I enjoy leaving you this morning with a simple suggestion. This week, spend some time each day in the reading of the word of God, and meditate upon it, reflect upon it then open to one of the gospel accounts, put yourself in the place of those with whom our Lord encountered!

(15) Remember that word “MUST,” in accord with God’s eternal plan, “HE MUST increase.” No other option! The friend of the bridegroom fades away, the luster of the star is lost in the glow of the morning sun. The old covenant fades out, the new is here, the shadows retreat and the real substance arrives so that we may see the old fading, we see the transition, from John to JESUS! You will be different this week if we stop, and give yourself to acquaintance with him.