Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayer for attention to the Gospel according to Luke chapter 1 and verse 17, particularly the last clauses. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. And it is this last clause, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. This is what is upon my spirit. Luke chapter 1 verse 17. This is speaking of John the Baptist.

And there are five key aspects to John's ministry that were a preparation ministry. The first one was to fulfill the scripture. The scriptures had told in Isaiah 40 and also Malachi, the one that was to be sent before and there was an expectation of the one that was to come. Malachi 3, Behold I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me And the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.

" The Jews were in expectation of one that would come before or prepare the way before the Messiah. We have in Isaiah 14 verse 3, the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. And when we think that that prophecy was some 750 years before Christ, we think of Malachi some 400 years before. And it tells of the work of one preparing the way, it tells that he was crying in the wilderness and gives something of his message.

John Baptist, one of the key aspects of his preparing was to fulfill those scriptures so that those who knew those scriptures would have, as it were, a forewarning. When our Lord came, Scripture after Scripture was being fulfilled. Well, they had a warning there was going to be a fulfilling of Scripture in the one that went before the Lord as well.

The second key aspect was of preaching repentance. This is what John Baptist did We have read further on in the first chapter of John, we have him preaching repentance. We have in other gospels clearly setting forth the need to repent and to turn from sin. Repent is turning, turning away from and turning to. And so his herald was, that there was coming a time they were to turn away and turn to. Away from Moses, as it were, you have again in Malachi that they had to take heed unto Moses until the Lord should come.

But as John says, and this is recorded here, the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth by Jesus Christ is one of the most difficult things for the Jews to comprehend that they should let go, as it were, of Moses and you in the Lord Jesus Christ, the one of whom Moses said, a prophet shall the Lord thy God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me him shall you hear. And of course all of their practices, their making the Word of God of none effect by their traditions, their sins, these things. John the Baptist was sent forth to preach unto them repentance.

And the Lord Jesus Christ, He is exalted to give repentance and remission of sins unto Israel. The need of repentance is vital Our Lord preached it, John preached it, every minister preaches it, and the blessing of the Gospel is that the Lord Jesus Christ gives that which is needful. He gives repentance, He gives a change of heart, a change of life.

The third thing that John came to preparing was that of baptism, water baptism, which was symbolising a work, a spiritual work, that Jesus would do. A transformation had been buried in baptism into death and risen again in newness of life. We have it clearly now in the Gospel, we read of those later on, that the apostles found it had not heard that there was the Holy Ghost.

And they were asked, whose name were you baptised? And they said, well, John's baptism. Well, baptism of John was only repentance. The baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ is a setting forth of what has been done in the new birth, that there is a dying to self, a dying to the world, and rising in newness of life with the Lord, buried with him by baptism into death and risen again in Eunice's life, that John came as a forerunner of this.

Again, he says, I am not the Christ, he points to the Christ, he might well have said as well, this is not the baptism of the New Testament Church, but this is the forerunner of it, and it is pointing to what God will do through Jesus in a spiritual way.

Another aspect was not only repenting or teaching repentance, but confronting sin, calling it out. He did this with the scribes and the Pharisees that came to his baptism. He said, why have you come? And he called out their sin. He actually named the things that they were doing contrary to the law of God. And he sorted them to show forth meats, that were worthy of repentance. In other words, not just in name turning, but really a transformed life.

And of course, he reproved Herod. Herod, who had taken his brother's wife, he didn't just let it lie, he reproved it. You might say it cost him his life, because it was through that that he was put into prison, it was through that that Herodias, through her daughter dancing, had him beheaded.

But John, he not only preached repentance, good example really in the ministry of gospel day as well, is one thing to preach repentance, but if you're preaching repentance and turning a blind eye to glaring sins amongst the people and in the churches, we're not being faithful like John the Baptist was. Ministers should expose sin where it is seen.

And the last one, vital one, identifying the Lord Jesus Christ. He testified that when he saw him coming, behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, after me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before me.

John Baptist was sent before to clearly point out who Jesus of Nazareth truly was. And we have there the Gospel according to John. This is the record of John and he gives the record of himself and of the Lord Jesus Christ. A great example one that was a preparer, one that was sent before to prepare a people for the Lord, so that when the Lord came, He found them already in expectancy, already being prepared to receive His Word, to receive His ministry.

That which John Baptist did in the way of preparation, in one sense it is a work that is done. It was done for his day generation. In another sense, of course, it still carries on in the inspired, infallible Word of God, because it is a record of Scripture, of prophecy, prophecy fulfilled, and of the Lord Jesus Christ set forth by another.

Of course our Lord was accused at one time, thou bearest witness of thyself, thy witness is not true. But our Lord testified that his witness was in heaven. But he also had a witness here, in John, and through the scriptures, that he truly was the Christ.

But apart from that, we might ask, well, does the Lord still use this same method today? Does he prepare people for the Lord? The words of our text, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. By nature, when we come into this world, we are born in sin, and shapen in iniquity, if in God's great mercy and grace we are found converted, then we will have been brought to the Lord, brought to know Him, brought to repent, brought to believe on Him.

And is it then that John the Baptist was used to prepare a people for the Lord in our Lord's day, But the Lord does not prepare people for himself to die. No, because the Lord still is the same. He still makes a people that are prepared for him. And so I wanted to look in three ways. Firstly, a people prepared for the gospel, to receive the gospel. And then secondly, a people prepared for the Lord, that is in calling and prepared to be with the Lord for eternity. And then lastly, a people prepared for the Lord in service, those that will be used in the Church of God, whether in the diaconate or in ministry or in other ways, prepared for that work.

We want to look first at people prepared for the gospel. No one will ever seek unto the Lord or view the gospel as good news until they feel their need of it. Countless millions are living in pleasure. They have all that they wish in this world. They do not feel their need of any good news, anything that the Gospel has to offer. They are sinners, but don't feel that they are sinners, or perhaps if they do, well, there's just some parts of their lives that are not quite right. But never mind, that's balanced by all the good works that they do, and they're sure if there is a God that he'll accept them for them. And so they're not concerned with the message of the gospel, anything in the word of God.

The countless millions who go to church regularly, maybe even once a Lord's Day, but they never read their own Bibles. They don't often have one. They just accept what they're told by the vicar or those in charge. And they just have a very light and superficial view of the truths of God. Men do not feel that they are under the wrath of God. They do not feel and know that they are under condemnation. The scriptures make it clear that we are by nature dead in trespasses and in sins. And as a natural man, the natural man receiveth not the things of God, neither can he know them.

We cannot go from a position of being dead, a position of being in a natural mind, and then immediately, suddenly come forth to be a believer and have full assurance of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. What does happen instantly is the new birth in giving of life. The Lord says, I pass by thee when thou wast in thy blood, and when thou wast in thy blood, I bid thee live. He says, I give unto them eternal life, they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of mine hand.

And as with John Baptist, you might say he was inseparably joined to the coming of the Lord. The coming of the Lord was according to Scripture, so was the preparation according to Scripture. And we may say as well that the preparation of the heart in man and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. And the Lord will prepare his people to receive the good news of the Gospel. The Apostle Paul tells us how it was in his case. He says that I was alive without the law once. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, he saw no need of a Saviour who was persecuting those who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. The first thing that was needed for him was to feel a need to know his true state and true condition before God. We are not told in what order things happened with Paul in one sense. We are told of the Damascus road and how on that time the Lord revealed himself to him. But we are told in Romans 7 how that when the commandment came, sin revived and I died, and that which was ordained unto life I found to be unto death. He was brought in guilty as a sinner before God. Thou shalt not cover it wrought in him or manner of evil concupiscence. It brought in him to see and feel in himself that he was a sinner before God. It took away his trust in his own righteousness.

Later on, in Romans 10, he sees his own countrymen in the same position that he was. He says they are ignorant of God's righteousness, they're going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. What was needed first to see that their unrighteousness was not enough, it was not good enough, that they were still condemned, they were still under the wrath of God. And that is what Paul was brought to be.

How many attend our chapels, how many in the churches of this land? that all the time think, well, we're in the right denomination, we go to church once or twice a year, we do good things, and it's reinforced by the message of the churches. One of the services up in the Westminster Cathedral, and the Church of England actually was upholding all of the charitable works of those that were there as if they were entitled to heaven. A completely wrong message that many are getting this. The message in many of the churches is that everyone is saved. One that was attending those churches said to me years ago, don't know what the problem is. Christ has come, he shed his blood, sins put away, we're all going to heaven. We just live, we just live our life. and there was no felt need for personal saviour, personal repentance, it was as if sin did not exist, we were not under the curse, and no realisation that we were walking separate from God, no communion and fellowship and love and union one with another.

One that feels that will never seek salvation, they never want or value the gospel personally at all. And so there is a preparation, and in that there's a real encouragement. It's encouragement for those that are seekers, those that have a felt need, those who have an aching void that the world cannot fill, those who feel their own works are stained and dyed with sin, that their thoughts are thoughts of evil, that their sins mar everything that they do. The Lord uses this as a forerunner, as a preparation.

We think of the contrast our Lord had with the two praying in the temple, the Pharisee who just spoke of his own perceived good works, and of the publican, God be merciful to me a sinner. He went down to his house justified rather than the other. We have another illustration in the Prodigal Son, where we have two sons, and one seems to have always abided with his father. He's like a person that's always attended the house of God. They've always been there. They've done their father's bidding, perhaps a literal father's bidding. They've always done what's right, and they've looked upon it as putting God in debt, that they have been dutiful and right in all they've done. But then there's been another one, maybe one of their siblings, and they have rebound, they've kicked the traces, they've gone away, they've gone away from the chapels, they've spent Sundays after Sundays, year after year, in the world with no thought of the things of God whatsoever. And then the Lord calls them and works in their heart. And when they begin to be in want like the prodigal son, Then they think of their father's house. Then they're brought to come back. They come back humbly, come back saying not worthy to be a son. They are humble, they are laid low.

But the father receives them with love, with mercy, with forgiveness. But the one that's never gone astray, they can't understand it. Why is this one being received? Doesn't the Father remember all that squandering? Doesn't he remember all that's gone on under the bridge, all of that rebelliousness? Why is he making such a thing of them? He's never done that of me, and I've always done that which is right. And you see that repeated again and again today.

But it's not those that sit upon a pew. It's not those that regularly attend that are saved. It's those that are brought to being want. brought to being need and then they are ready for the good news of the Gospel. A people prepared for the Gospel. The Prodigal Son was. Paul was. Every poor sinner that feels his need is one that is being prepared for the Gospel.

An open ear to what the Spirit saith unto the churches. You know, our Lord told many parables. Without a parable spoken, you're not unto them. But when He told them, He said, He that hath an ear, let him hear. There needs to be that open ear. My ear hast thou opened. And it is the Lord that makes that first preparation in opening the ear. He might use affliction. He might use sickness. He might use a word from the ministry. He might use someone coming to the door, Jehovah's Witness or whatever. Use of God to bring about a felt sense of sinnership and need or felt ignorance of the things of God and then bring a real appetite for the Word of God.

Never overlook God's work in preparing. God's work in making a seeker a seeker and bringing one to have a hearing ear to what the Spirit saith unto the churches. A people prepared for the Gospel. Is it us or has it been us? And can we understand the need of that preparation?

On to look secondly, a people prepared for the Lord in calling. Wherever the Lord prepares for the gospel, he will always, in his time and way, bring the gospel to that person. The gospel is very, very different than the law. The law is weak through the flesh. The law commands but it cannot give power. The law condemns but it cannot ever give away of deliverance from condemnation. The law is described as that which is written on tables of stone, that which is broken by man. The law is described in Hebrews 12 as the mount that might be touched, that burned with that even Moses said, I but do fear and hope.

The law of God cannot be altered, cannot be changed. We are already under the sentence of it because we've broken it. It cannot be undone. It's like the law of the Medes and Persians. It's like the sentence of death that was upon the Jews in Esther's time. It cannot be reversed and taken away. But there can be another law to counter it. There can be a way that death remains and yet death has lost its sting. And that there is a victory over death. And that is the provision of the Gospel. So the people that are prepared for the Lord are those that the Lord in this lifetime brings as His bride the Church ready for Him in Heaven. They are brought to be one with Him, brought to be in Christ Jesus, a union, a reconciliation in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so a people prepared for the Lord are those that are walking by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They believe in Him, they trust in Him, they look unto Him solely for their soul's salvation, they have no confidence in the flesh, and all their hope is in Christ.

The hymn writer says, if ever my poor soul be saved, His Christ must be The Lord said, If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall perish in your sins. And there is none other name given among men whereby we must be saved.

But that people that are prepared for the Lord to be with Him for every glory, to be prepared when He comes, whether it is through their death or at the end of the world, They are a people that are brought to look for Him. To lay that look for Him, He shall appear the last time without sin unto salvation.

Those that were converted of the Thessalonians, the word came unto them, not in word only, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, and that they were called then to be followers of the Lord and of the Lord's people, and to wait for his son from heaven.

Our Lord said to those that believed on him, in John 8, he said, if ye continue in my word, then shall ye be my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

And that preparation, that which is vital before we die, is to have that faith of Jesus Christ that is in Jesus Christ. That our trust and our hope be in God and in the Lord Jesus Christ. To have the Gospel revealed to us. To have the way of escape from the wrath to come revealed to us and to trust in it and to hold fast to Him. By faith ye are saved, by grace ye are saved, through faith that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. And faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of the Lord.

A soul that has been under the law, they know what it is to have bondage, condemnation and death. A soul that is under the Gospel, know what it is to have liberty, the Son shall make you free. Like the children of Israel brought forth out of Egypt, there's a great difference between being in bondage and in liberty, from being under the law and under the Gospel.

Right through the Word of God, the Lord always deals with contrast. with two, two worshippers, Cain and Abel, one worshipper resting in the blood, one in his own works, two widows One that claimed to the people of God, Ruth and Walper, that went back to her own people. Two that prayed, as we mentioned, the Pharisee and the Publican. All the time the Lord is shown to two that built their houses, one on the sand and one on the rock. He doesn't show it just one way, always the other way as well.

And so those that know the chains, the vital chains, have been brought under the Gospel and who are then prepared for the Lord's coming, they have known not only a preparation for the Gospel, they don't only know the malady, but they know the remedy, and they know the relief and the blessing.

Like Bunyan portrays his pilgrim, that at first all he had was a burden upon his back, And that burden, that is what He wanted to be relieved of and to be delivered from. And it was not until He came to the cross and viewed the cross that that burden fell off. I, if I be lifted up above the earth, will draw all men unto me. It is through the sufferings of Christ in our place, He bearing the wrath of God due to our sins. He has made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. It is seen to Jesus in the sinner's place, Isaac taken off the altar, the ram put on the altar, the paschal lamb instead of the firstborn of the children of Israel, the substitutionary offering of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's for us to see that. and to be given the power of God to believe it, that this is Jesus in my place. These sufferings that He endured were what I deserved. And because He has suffered, I shall not suffer. Because He has shown me these things, it means I have an interest in them.

Remember, when our Lord rose from the dead, He only appeared unto those that were His people, those that were not. The Lord reveals himself to his people, my sheep, they know my voice, they follow me. A stranger will they not follow, they know not the voice of strangers. And it is in the gospel that a people are prepared for the Lord's coming. What a solemn contrast is the People that are unprepared, when the Lord comes at the last day, they shall call upon the rocks and the hills to hide them from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne.

But the Lord says of His people, when you see these things come to pass, look up, for your redemption draweth nigh. The Lord is coming to gather you home, to take you home, to be with Him. It's a blessed thing. to be prepared. Ambrose says, prepare me, gracious God, to stand before thy face. Thy spirit must the work perform, for it is all of grace. And may we truly desire that preparation, that preparation for the Lord, that we might be with him forever, be his bride, beautiful words set forth in Ephesians, and the Lord is spoken of as the bridegroom of his people.

And Paul says, therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their husbands and husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish."

That is the preparation that the Lord is doing under the Word, in the church, sanctifying it, setting it apart, cleansing it, the washing of water by the Word. God not only saves, that he sacrifices, he sets apart, and he washes with the washing of regeneration. He might, it says, let the water and the blood from thy riven side which flowed, be of sin the double cure, cleanse me from its guilt and its power. May our prayer be, our desire be, Lord prepare me, make me a prepared people for a prepared place. The Lord says, I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there ye may be also. It's a blessed thing to be prepared.

And it works two ways. I think of those that have had to go from Bethesda, Harpenden, down to Brighton. Well, they had a place at Brighton prepared for them, a room that they were going to have. They heard about it, they knew they couldn't stay where they were going, and there were those that looked forward to, they hasted to actually go to a place that was to be theirs and prepared for them. It makes such a difference when you know where you're going. and know that there is a place just for you, and made willing to go as well, and may that be so with heaven, that we know we cannot stay here always, we must depart, and that the Lord has prepared for us a home.

I want to look in the third place of a people prepared for the Lord in service. Sometimes with those of us in the ministry, the Lord has begun preparing that He's known to us some 13 years or so before we've been sent into the ministry. But once we've been sent or once we've been called, or realize that the Lord's appointed us for the ministry, anointed perhaps and appointed but not yet to be thrust into it, we can look back to many things early in life, even in childhood, that the Lord has been pointing that way, preparing that way.

We read of John Baptist, which right from his birth, right from the womb, that he had the Holy Ghost, and when his mother greeted Mary, then the babe leapt in the womb, or when Mary greeted Elizabeth. And we have God's people like Jeremiah, like some of the other prophets that were appointed from the womb. We may say all that God uses, whether as a deacon, as a minister, as a missionary, the Lord has appointed that person for that work.

Some of them may not want to do it. My uncle, Dicker, he told me that he felt persuaded that he would be a deacon, but he didn't want to be a deacon, so he thought, well, if I don't be a church member, then I can't be a deacon, so he refused to go forward. but the Lord saw to that he had to and he was a deacon for 26 years at Decca.

But the Lord does make a people willing in the day of his power and he prepares them for that position. Recently we were favoured with getting friends with a Dutch couple, a Dutch chap that had been caught by Grace later in life, and the Lord wrought a real change with him. But the Lord laid on him the persuasion that he would be a deacon one day. And he actually listened to one of my recorded sermons at Swayze, and the Lord used that to show him that that would come to pass. And sure enough in the church they had two that were put forth to be deacons and he was one of them. And he made known to the elders what his exercise and belief was. They in confidence held it until the church voted. But he was voted in as deacon and a few weeks ago he was ordained as a deacon in that church.

as a privilege to be in a way used in that preparation and to see that before it ever came to pass that is what he felt the Lord had appointed him to be. And of course I felt that with the ministry and each one of the Lord's people that are to be used of God. The Lord will make them willing in the day of His power here am I, send me, will be their eventual desire.

The Apostle Paul, it was said of him immediately that he was called, I will show him what great things, that he shall suffer for my name's sake. He was called by grace and called for a purpose, to serve the Lord. In one sense, all of God's people are to serve the Lord. We are all witnesses, we are all called to show forth the praises of Him who has called us out of nature's darkness and into His marvellous light. We are all called to be salt and lime in this world, but some are called to actually serve and serve the Lord in the way He chooses and that becomes their calling in life. I am a trained engineer for many years, was the chief mechanical design engineer in the company I was in. But all the time, while I was even in training, I knew that the Lord had called me and appointed me for ministry. But until that time came, I pursued that earthly calling. But as soon as that time came to be brought forth, Then there is that desire to fully serve the Lord in the ministry. Quite a few years before financially I could do that, but now I can fully.

Every one of the Lord's people though that he uses, their one desire will be that they might serve their day and their generation. David is said that's what he did. having served his own generation.

One of the words that was used was the headline of a hymn, when the Lord first laid the ministry upon me, the last verse, he blessed me in the first verse of hymn 906, and then I sung the hymn through, and the Lord laid the last verse on me, and only be living to publish his praise, and I hope and trust that that still is my desire, that is why I'm living, to publish His praise.

And though you might think, well, if I was still an engineer I could earn three times, four times the amount that I do in the ministry, that is nothing at all. The calling of the Lord is the highest calling man can ever be called to and the greatest blessing to be pointing sinners to Christ and to the way of escape from the wrath to come.

So God will use the people like he did Joseph, preparing him to be in Pharaoh's court and to send forth before his people to bring them into Egypt and provide for them in that time of famine. Moses, the Lord prepared him. 40 years in Pharaoh's court, 40 years in the backside of the desert, and then Moses felt unable to go. He said, I can't speak well. But the Lord called him, gave him Aaron, gave him the signs that he should work, that gave evidence that God had sent him. And you don't read through the wilderness that ever Moses turned back. No, once he was sent forth and called. The Lord helped him, supported him, and he led the people through the wilderness.

And we've already mentioned about the Apostle Paul. You might say, well, he was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel. He knew the Scriptures very, very well. As soon as the Lord gave him the key, as soon as the Lord showed who Jesus was, Everything fell into place of all the scriptures. It was a preparation.

You think of Philpott. Philpott was brought up in the Church of England, ordained in the Church of England before every is called by grace. But all his training and all that which had gone before, as soon as the line of the true gospel was shown in, and then everything else was used as well. God doesn't waste lives or waste time with his people. He uses right from the time they're born as a preparation for the work that he'd have them to do.

May we then be prepared for the gospel, may we be prepared for the Lord's return, and may we be prepared if the Lord has a work for us to do as well, and be willing, be willing to walk in the way that the Lord would have us to do to His honour and glory. It may be that we know first those times of rebellion or backwardness or defiance, that we will not go, but then the Lord is able to break that down. and prepare us so that we do, and we do His will. And if that is the case with any here, may that preparing work make it even more clear that it really is of the Lord and not of yourself.

May the Lord add His blessing. Amen.