You recall our first four verses
of this chapter we looked at. Luke declares that others had
undertaken to set forth a declaration of the things that are most surely
believed among us and that he was going to do the same thing.
And of course we know that the book of Luke is a history, an
account, an eyewitness testimony of the
person of our Lord Jesus Christ, all that he said and all that
he did. That's the things most surely believed among us, the
things of Christ. And now here we have the story
of John being born. And we pause to think about this. After our Lord had descended,
had ascended from this earth, after he came down, we know that
The book says, who is he that ascended but he that descended? We know where he came from by
his grace and we know where he is now by his grace, by revelation. We do know the way. We know where
he is and we know the way there because he is that way. He is
that truth. He is that life. But after that
he had ascended from this earth, he impressed and inspired, finally
inspired Luke. to write these things, and that's
what verses 1 through 4 are about. But then in this passage we see
that before our Lord ever came, much less before he ascended,
before he ever descended, he sent a preacher to tell about
him. So he's told about before he
came, he's told about after he came. He, when he was here, told
about himself. He taught the things concerning
himself. So he sent this preacher named
John. And the way that it's described
in verse 17 is that the Lord sent John to prepare a people. And this is instructive, I believe
this will be a blessing and instructive to us in the things of our Lord. And this raises questions that
has to be answered and are answered in the word of God. He sent someone
before, a forerunner. That's what John has called a
forerunner of Christ. Why do we need a forerunner?
Who was he? What did he do that prepared people? What is it to
prepare people? What did he do in order to do
that? What was he preparing them for? Well, according to Christ
himself, John the Baptist was the greatest man ever born of
a woman. But If we leave it there, you
might think that means that he had the characteristics and accomplishments
that are considered great by this world. If we just say, John,
the Lord said, John's a great man, you might think, well, okay,
you know, we might think of the things that this world thinks
of when they think of great men. But John wasn't great that way.
He was just the opposite, really that way, just like our Lord,
the greatest, Man, capital M, that ever lived was the God man.
But he was of no reputation in this world. There was no beauty
about him that anyone should desire him. And John was the
same in that. He was a plain, just unnoticeable
in himself. But he was great according to
God. And that's who is truly great.
By what standard was he great? He had no college degree. He
had no endorsements from men who were considered great in
this world. Great by whose standard? By God's standard. What does
that amount to? What did John do? Why did our
Lord call him great? What was great about him? John
really just did one thing in this world. That's all he did
as far as we can tell. He preached Christ. He declared
the gospel, the good news of God's son, who he was and what
he came to do and how that he did it. As far as we know, that's
pretty much it. John ate locusts and wild honey. He wore camel skins and a leather
girdle. And we know as we read here,
the Lord said that he would go forth in the spirit of Elijah. And we know that in 2 Kings 1
8 that Elijah the prophet dressed similarly to this. It says there
that he wore a leather girdle. And what does this tell us about
John? What difference does it make
what he ate and what he wore? Well, most people live to make
a living. Most people live to eat and to
wear nice things and to have nice things. And that's why our
Lord said don't take any thought for those things. Don't worry
about what you're going to eat and what you're going to wear.
The things of this world. Most people work for that reason.
To promote and support themselves and their families. John did
all that he did for the glory of God and food and clothing
were just incidental necessities that were provided for him by
God along the way. I wish I was more like that,
don't you? There's a camel. I think I'll,
you know, make a coat out of that. There's some wild honey
over there. I'm a little bit hungry. You remember what our Lord said
in Matthew 6 31. Therefore take no thought saying
what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal shall
we be clothed? For after all these things do
the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth
that you have need of all these things. John didn't run around
naked and starving to death. The Lord provided them just simple
basic needs But seek ye first the kingdom of God And his righteousness
And all these things shall be added unto you therefore take
no thought for the morrow for the morrow shall take thought
for the things of itself Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof
Seek ye first the kingdom of God. So we see even in the things
that John wore and ate, we see that he epitomized in a great
way this teaching of our Lord, but also our Lord said, seek
you first the kingdom. What was John's message? In those
days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea and
saying, repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. What did John do? That's Matthew
3, 1 and 2. What did John do? He came preaching.
He came. In those days came John the Baptist
preaching. And why is that important again?
Because the Lord said he's a great man. He's a great man. What did he preach? John chapter
1. Turn there with me if you would.
John chapter 1. Verse 1, In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him.
The Word was a Him. It's not talking about the Bible
here when it says the Word. It's talking about a Him that
was with God and was God. And He created everything that
was created. Without Him was not anything
made that was made. And in Him was life. He said,
as the Father quickeneth whom He will, even so the Son of Man
gives life to whom He will. And the life was the light of
men. When He gives you life, you'll
have light to see Him. You'll see the glory of God in
His face when you're alive. If you don't see Him, If you
don't see God's glory in his faith, it's because you're dead.
And the light shineth in darkness. That's us. The darkness comprehended
it not. I'm not talking about physical
darkness. I'm talking about darkness that comprehends or doesn't comprehend. And this darkness had no idea
who he was. There was a man sent from God
whose name was John. the context of those wonderful
monumental words that we just read God sent a man named John
and the same came for a witness to bear witness of the light
that all through him might believe God sent John so that sinners
would believe on that light the Lord Jesus Christ John was not
that light But he was sent to bear witness
of that light. The greatest man who was ever
born of a woman didn't give much thought to what he ate or wore.
But his continual business in this world, on this earth, was
to bear witness of Christ, the light of the world. What else do we know about John?
Well, he was very clear and careful to refuse any glory for himself.
You know where I'm going, don't you? You remember this about
him, don't you? He made sure that Christ got
all of the glory. Look at verse 15 of John 1. If
you're still there, verse 15. John bare witness of him and
cried saying, this was he of whom I spake. He that cometh
after me is preferred before me for he was before me. He came
after But he was before me. And of his fullness have all
we received. And grace for grace, for the
law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time. And this is the witness of John
now. This is what John is saying. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. And this
is the record of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites
from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you? And he confessed and
denied not, but confessed, I'm not the Christ. Who are you? I'm not him, that's what you
need to know about me. Isn't that something? Who are
you? It's who I'm not that you need
to know. I'm not that Christ. And they asked him, what then,
are you Elias? And he said, I am not. Some people say he was Elijah
reincarnated or something. No, he went in the spirit of
Elijah. Because God gave him that spirit of power to witness
of him. Are you Elijah? I am not. Are
you that prophet? No. He answered, no. You see
that? Somebody that's great now. They'll
let their light shine before me and He wasn't that light,
but he was a light. The Lord called him a shining
light. He wasn't the light, though. He just reflected that light.
He just shone the light of the Lord by witnessing of him, by
telling about him. And he said, I'm not that light. But he was a light. Why? The
Lord said, let your light shine before men that men may glorify
your father which is in heaven. That's the kind of light John
was. What about us? And then they said unto him,
who are you that we may give an answer to them that sent us?
What sayest thou of thyself? They pressed him. Who are you?
Who are you then? If you're not them, if you're
not Elijah, if you're not the Christ, if you're not that prophet
sent from God, then who are you? I'm a voice. Just a voice. Just a voice. Crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the
Lord. As said the prophet Isaiah. I'm saying what these prophets
said. And I am in fulfillment of what
they said. But I'm not them. I'm just a
voice. Just like they were by the way. That's all they were. And they which were shunned were
of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said
unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ,
nor Elias, neither that prophet? And John answered them, saying,
O I baptize in you with water, that there standeth one among
you, whom you know not. He it is. Don't glorify me, because
I baptize in the name of him. Glorify the one in whose name
I baptize. I'm just getting you wet as far
as what I'm accomplishing here. But there's one coming after
me who's preferred for me, whose shoes latch it. Oh, if the greatest man on earth
wasn't worthy to untie his shoes, then what am I? Whose shoes latch it, I'm not
worthy to unloose. These things were done These things were done in Bethabara,
beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. And the next day John
seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold, there he is. There's God's Lamb. There's the
one I'm not, right there. There's the one who's worthy,
and I'm not. And there's the one whose shoes
latch it, I'm not worthy to unload. There's the one that takes away
sin. I'm just baptizing you with water. Water can't wash away
your sin, but if he baptizes you, I'm just baptizing in his
name. If he baptizes you by his spirit, you won't have any sins
anymore. 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 and I knew him not. but that
he should be made manifest to Israel. Therefore am I come baptizing
with water. And John, bear record, saying,
I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode
upon him. And I knew him not, but he that
sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom
thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same
as he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bear
record, now I know who he is now, I didn't, but I know now
who he is. This is the Son of God. This
is God the Son. Again the next day, after John
stood and two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus as he
walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God. And the two disciples
heard him speak. Now you think about this. Here's
a great man here. They heard John say something
and they followed Jesus. Does that have anything to do
with true greatness? In God's estimation now. Well
Chris, why do you want to be great? You shouldn't want to
be great. Oh, I don't want to be great as far as this world's
definition of greatness. I don't have much desire for
that. The flesh does. My flesh does. But we're not
talking about that. We're talking about the greatness
that God calls greatness. Does that have anything to do
with it? They heard John and they followed Christ. What John
said and did caused people to turn to God's Son for forgiveness
of sin and righteousness. What is this about preparing
the way of the Lord? I don't want to be long today
because you're just like me. You're going to get about two
things that I say today if God blesses us. You're going to remember
about one or two things. And I pray that God does bless
us. And I pray that I can, that the
Lord would give me wisdom and power, that it would be with
his power that I preach and not mine. What is this about preparing
the way of the Lord? In what way did John prepare
people and why is that necessary? Let's look at some of the specifics
of John's preaching and see if we can understand that by God's
grace. Look at Matthew 3 and I know we're reading a lot of
scripture and that's important. Who is this and why did he come?
What did he do? What is greatness? Matthew 3 This preparing of people. What
is involved in that? Well, look at this, Matthew 3.1.
In those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of
Judea and saying, repent ye. Repent ye. That's a negative
term, did you know that? Repent. Stop thinking the way
you think. Stop going the way you're going.
Quit it. No more. Turn. Change. Change your mind. Change your heart. Change your
ways. Change what you think is true. For the kingdom of heaven is
at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet
Isaiah, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
Prepare ye the way of the Lord, and make his path straight. And
the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern
girdle about his loins, and his meat was locusts and wild honey.
And then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region
round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing
their sins. That's how you confess your sin,
before men, is by baptism. To show that my only hope before
God is the death, burial, resurrection of my Lord Jesus Christ. And
in him, I'm no longer alive to sin and dead to God. I'm dead
to sin and alive to God. Because of his death and resurrection. So they confessed their sin.
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism,
he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you
to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits,
meat for repentance. And think not to say within yourselves,
We have Abraham to our father, for I say unto you that God is
able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And
now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees, therefore
every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down
and cast into the fire. And I indeed baptize you with
water unto repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier
than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear, He shall baptize
you with the Holy Ghost and with fire, whose fan is in his hand. And he will throughly purge his
floor and gather his wheat into the garner. But he will burn
up the chaff with unquenchable fire. That's kind of a negative
sounding message, isn't it? Not if you're the wheat. Not
if you're the wheat, it's not. Not if you're a sinner, it's
not. Because this is God's Lamb that takes sin away. John's ministry in a sense was
a tearing down. Repent. Stop. Change. Quit. It was not believe, but repent. Now of course it wasn't that
he didn't preach concerning faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He
preached on Christ. But his message was characterized not by believe. He didn't go around saying believe,
believe, believe. He said repent, repent, repent. This is a preparing
of the way of the Lord. This teaches us something about
how God saves a sinner. You cannot have true repentance
without faith, of course. But think of it this way. His
message was predominantly repent, repent. He said the axe is laid
to the root. Think not, verse 9. Did you notice
verse 9 there? He said quit thinking like you
think. Why do you think he said quit thinking? You know, our
fathers were Moses and Abraham. Quit thinking like that. Get rid of your religious superstitions
and your false refuges. That's a tearing down. This is
like the farmer breaking up the soil first. He's preparing the
way for the one who's going to sow the seed. He's breaking it
up. There must be a tilling. There
must be a breaking. There's going to be planting
and watering, but there's got to be preparation first. That's
what this is. And listen, John preached the
kingdom of God, and that's Christ. It wasn't all negative. And Christ
preached repentance. just as John did but there was
in God's providence a preparing in John's message that's instructive
to us there was a tearing down there was a breaking up look at verse 10 in some cases
look at verse 10 and now also the axe is laid to the root of
the tree well I'm going to plant a garden over here but there's
a tree there that It's not going to belong there. It's going to
take away from the garden. It's not going to add to it.
It's got to come down. It's got to come down. We'll chop it down. In some cases, God will cut down
people who have no root and bear no fruit for his glory. And this,
of course, is the reprobate. Like he pictured when he cursed
the fig tree that had no figs on it. What good is a fig tree
without figs? What good is a man that doesn't
glorify God? You know the answer to that,
don't you? Our Lord pictured it by saying they're just fit
to be burned. But this also signifies the old
man in me got to come down. The axe has got to be laid, doesn't
it? The old me had to be cut down,
too, when God saved me. If there's ever going to be a
resurrection to new life, there's got to be a death first. That's
the preparation. That's the preparing the way
of the Lord. If there's going to be a new robe, there's got
to be a stripping, a casting aside of the old, like Bartimaeus
cast off his rags and followed the Lord. If you are to lay hold
of Christ, you've got to let go of your traditions, your superstitions,
your idols, your false profession, your trust in your own will,
your own ways, and your own works. Got to go. So this, in a sense,
John here is a picture of every preacher. There must always be
a preparing of the way and a declaration of the one who comes after. This
doesn't happen overnight. And that's taught here too. I'm
not going to say that God can't save somebody the first time
they hear the gospel, because he just might. People say, what
would Jesus do? I don't know. I know what he
did. I don't know what he's going
to do here today to you. But the Apostle Paul declared
himself to be a pattern of all that believe, and God worked
on him a while. He prepared him. He goaded him
like a stubborn mule before he brought him into the dust and
turned the light on for him. And even before Paul saw the
light, he was blinded by it first. And our Lord said to the pharaoh,
if you were blind, you'd have no seeing. This is the preparing of the
way. Repent. Got to cut something down. There's
got to be a death so that there can be life. How does God prepare
a people for Him? That's what or who John was preparing
a people for, for Him, for the coming of Christ. What about
the coming of Christ into my heart? There's a preparation
for that too. And it's played out in every
gospel message. Number one, before you seek forgiveness of sin,
which is in Christ alone, you've got to first see your sin. They
that are whole have no need of the physician. John came preaching, repent,
repent of what? Your sins. Well, what are my
sins? Everything you've ever thought,
said, and done. All of it. Paul confessed in
the book of Philippians when the Lord saved him, my sins are
my righteousnesses. That's what was keeping me from
the Lord, my righteousness. When our Lord spoke to the woman
at the well, before he would give her the water that he told
her about, he said to her, go and call your husband and come
back. You know why he said that? She
said, I don't have a husband. And he said, that's right, you've
had five husbands and the one that you're with now is not one
of them. You see the significance of that?
The Lord's going to deal with our sins now. Our Lord showed
the rich young ruler what he was and told him how to inherit
eternal life. And he went away sorrowful. That
young man claimed to have obeyed the law of God all of his life
and yet his stuff was of more value to him than God's son. Now think about that. That exactly right there is what
has to change. That's what repentance is. If
your stuff is more valuable to you than God's son, repent. And I'm not talking about just
your possessions. I'm talking about your righteousnesses, your
heritage, your religious profession, your will, your faith, all of
it. When God saves a sinner, he shows
us that we would take 30 pieces of silver in exchange for God
himself. But then, if he saves us, he
breaks our hearts over that. Judas sought for repentance and
never found it, but the apostle Peter did. He betrayed the Son
of Man, too, and denied him before men. You know, our Lord said,
if you deny me before men, I'll deny you before my Father. Peter denied him before men,
didn't he? But then he didn't. Then he didn't, because the Lord
broke his heart. He wept bitterly over his sin,
but the Lord's going to show us what we are, isn't he? And he breaks our hearts and
he changes our hearts so that we would choose willingly the
reproach of our Savior over all the treasures of this world.
Repentance. Change. Cut your idols down. Go sell everything you have and
just give it to the poor. That tree got to come down. And
you with it. God says to sinners, come now
and let us reason together. What about Lord? Your sins are
scarred. You see what we're saying this
morning? You see it. There is a though, though. Though
your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white, as white
as snow. When John came, it says in Matthew
3, 4, the same John had his raiment of camel's hair and a leathern
girdle about his loin as the meat was locust and wild honey.
Then he went out to Jerusalem. And all Judea and all the region
ran about Jordan and were baptized of him in Jordan confessing their
sin Are you ready for the Lord? Are
you prepared? Are you a prepared people? Oh
God be merciful to me the sinner You're ready You're ready now. Oh You're ready Romans 5 6 for
when we were with yet without strength In due time, Christ
died for the ungodly. Is that you? Not for people whose
bad outweighed their good and they needed for their good to
outweigh the ungodly. Have you done some bad things?
Or are you the bad thing? When you are the thing that you
hate. Then you are a prepared person. King David had to become the
thing that he hated, didn't he? He said, you tell me who that
was that did that, and I'll put him to death right now. It's
you, David. To confess your sins is to confess
that you sin because of what you are, a wretched, vile, ungodly
sinner that can't not sin. Number two, before you can follow
Christ, you've got to leave your false god. The rich young ruler
would have to first sell all that he had and then come follow
Christ. And that's not the only false God you'll have to leave.
That's just one of them now. Paul had to abandon not his sins,
but his goodness. Philippians chapter three, you
read that, it's your homework. Read Philippians chapter three. Here's one or two verses in it.
He said, this one thing I do, forgetting those things which
are behind and reaching forth into those things which are before,
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of
God in Christ Jesus. Before I can reach Christ, I
must leave something behind. What is it, Paul? Circumcised
the eighth day of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin
and Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the law of Pharisee
concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness
which is in the law. Blameless! I've got to leave my righteousness
before I'll ever reach Christ. But those things that were gained
to me, those I counted lost for Christ. You're ready now. Your
profession, your decisions, your religious heritage, your good
works, these are things that will keep you from the Savior,
not things that will bring you to Him. Remember that John said,
don't trust in the fact that you're the children of Abraham.
Don't think you've got a monopoly on God because you're a Jew.
Your religious pedigree will not save you. Quit thinking like
that. And you being a Baptist or born into a Christian home
won't save you any more than being an earthly Jew will save
anybody. These are nothing more than fleshly affiliations that
serve only to keep sinners from Christ. Deluding them into thinking
that they do not need him. You must come to Christ just
like you are. And you know how you are? Wretched,
sinful, needy, helpless, and broken. Number three, salvation
is by the power of God. It is a miracle of the love and
grace of God Almighty. You must be born again, and only
God's in the birthing business. Listen to what John said in Matthew
3 11 again. I indeed baptize you with water
into repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier than
I. Whose shoes I'm not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you
with the Holy Ghost. And with fire. I can baptize
you just like John baptized those in the text. And if you come
to me confessing Christ and asking to be baptized, I'll do that.
I'm no judge of whether of your standing before God. If you confess
him and ask to be baptized, I'll baptize you. But that's not salvation. You may take the Lord's table
and you should if you discern the Lord's body and blood. But
that's not salvation. You may yet be chaff and just
don't know it. But he does. Salvation is God's
work. The Holy Spirit must do something
for you and in you. He must take the things of Christ
and reveal them to you. I can preach Him, but God the
Holy Spirit must reveal Him. And this is how the Son, He said,
No man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever
the Son will reveal Him. How does He do that? He baptizes
you with the Holy Spirit of God. That's what He'll do. And that's the fourth thing here.
Everything I say must be used by God the Holy Spirit to cause
you to come to Christ. Where'd you get that from? They
heard John and they followed him. What is it to prepare a people
for the Lord? It is to say everything that
God has revealed concerning him. These are written that you might
believe. And so we preach Christ. It's to say everything that God,
to withhold none of the counsel of God. Paul said to them, I've
not withheld any of God's counsel from you. I've held nothing back. Why? In order that sinners might
follow him, believe on him. You are a sinner. But you know what his name is?
Jesus. Why? For he shall save sinners. His people from their what? You are an idolater. If you don't
know God, you're worshiping an idol. You say, well, I don't
worship an idol. Yeah, you do. You are an idol. If you don't
know God, your religion, your works, your will, or your trust.
And you honor yourself and not him. He is the true God and eternal
life. You have no power. He is the
wisdom and power of God. You are dead. He quickens whom
he will. You are vile and unclean, and
the more you do about it, the more wretched you are. But if
he will, he can make you clean. With a word, I will. Be clean. You know what he said when he
made this universe? Light be. That's the literal translation
of let there be light. Light be. You know what he said to that
vile leper? Hopeless now, no cure. He's a goner if the Lord
doesn't have mercy on him. You know what he said? Clean
be. And He was. May everything I say cause you
to follow Him, to believe on Him, by His grace. Let's pray.