Alright brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to Luke chapter 1. I want to pick up here in verse
13. The angel said unto Zacharias, fear
not. Zacharias, for thy prayer is
heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou
shalt call his name John. The Greek lexicon says that the
name John means Jehovah is a gracious giver. And it was grace for the
Lord to give John the Baptist, and it's grace for the Lord to
give His only begotten Son. Last week I touched on His name,
and we'll do that more in the next chapter, but I want you
to focus on verses 14 through 17. And right now I want you
to look here at verses 14 and 15. The angel said, And thou
shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at His
birth. Here's why. Because he shall
be great in the sight of the Lord. This is what would cause
Zacharias and Elizabeth joy and gladness. This is what would
make many rejoice at his birth because he shall be great in
the sight of the Lord. Our subject is true greatness. True greatness. We're going to
see in our text what it is to be great in the sight of the
Lord. Great in the sight of the Lord.
Now when the worldly man thinks of what it is to be great, he
thinks of carnal things. Carnal things. Great possessions.
a great estate with lots of land, lots of money and investments,
honors from men. John the Baptist had none of
those things. He had none of those things.
He was despised of men. Herod cut his head off, but yet he was great in the sight
of the Lord. When the unregenerate religious
man thinks of being great, he thinks of being born to religious
parents, having a great pedigree. He thinks of he's in the right
denomination, and maybe he even has a position in that denomination. For men, he's blameless. He keeps
the law. He tries to dot every i and cross
every t outwardly before men. And he does so many wonderful
works. He thinks of that as being great.
Saul of Tarsus had every one of those things. But when the
Lord called him, Paul said, I counted all dung that I might win Christ
and be found in him. I'd have in mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the righteousness of God by faith. The Pharisees
had all those things. And this is what the Lord said
to them. If you had judged outwardly looking at the Pharisees, you'd
have said, Oh, they're great, they're righteous, they're holy,
they're great men. But the Lord judged righteous judgment. And
this is what He said. The Lord said to them, you're
they which justify yourselves before men. This is from Luke
16, 15. You're they which justify yourselves
before men, but God knoweth your hearts. For that which is highly
esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. Remember
Isaiah 29.13, he said, This people, they draw near me with their
mouth, and with their lips they do honor me, but have removed
their heart far from me. And their fear toward me is taught
by the precept of men. The angel said, John the Baptist
shall be great in the sight of the Lord. This has something
to do with the heart, doesn't it? It has something to do with
the heart. And remember when the Lord sent
Samuel to anoint David, the Lord said, look not on his countenance,
nor on the height of his stature, Because I've refused Him. I've
refused the One who has a good countenance and a great height
in His stature. I've refused Him, the Lord said.
For the Lord seeth not as man seeth. For man looks on the outer
appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. He looks on the
heart. The angel said, John the Baptist
shall be great in the sight of the Lord. This has to do with
the heart. That's the first thing we see
here. To be great in the sight of the Lord is to be separated
and consecrated to Christ in the new heart. Separated unto
Christ. Consecrated unto Christ from
a new holy heart. Look here in verse 15. Luke 1
15. He shall be great in the sight
of the Lord. And here is why. He shall drink neither wine nor
strong drink, and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even
from his mother's womb. Now what does this mean when
it says he shall drink neither wine nor strong drink? Well,
it refers to the law of the Nazarite. The law of the Nazarite. It means
John the Baptist was set apart, he was sanctified and consecrated
to the Lord. That's what it means. Number
six is where you can find the law of the Nazarite. Let me just
read this to you. The Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Speaking of the children of Israel, and say to them, When either
man or woman shall separate themselves, to vow a vow of a Nazarite to
separate themselves unto the Lord, he shall separate himself
from wine and strong drink." That word Nazarite is from a
word netzer. and it means branch. Just what
you read, Greg, the true Nazarite is Jesus Christ, the branch.
He's the true, he was perfectly faithful to God the Father, perfectly
consecrated to God the Father from a perfectly holy heart,
all his days from the womb, all his days until the death of the
cross. And he did it for his people.
This is what is great in the sight of the Lord. John the Baptist
was separated and consecrated unto the Lord. Now let me ask
you this. Does it seem odd to you that the Lord says that first,
and then He says He will be filled with the Holy Ghost even from
His mother's womb? To us, from our perspective,
it seems like He first needs to be filled with the Holy Spirit,
born again, And then he'd be consecrated unto the Lord to
be a Nazirite. But the Lord, the angel is giving
this to us from God's point of view, from God's perspective.
And he's declaring here that before the foundation of the
world, before God made anything, God chose John the Baptist, and
He sanctified John the Baptist, and He ordained that he would
be consecrated to the Lord Jesus the whole of his life, before
the world was made. That's what God did. It's like
what He did with Jeremiah. He said, before I formed thee
in the belly, before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. Before thou camest forth out
of thy womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet
unto the nations. That's from old eternity, brethren.
That's before God created anything. God knew all His elect from eternity. He chose us. He loved us. He
chose us in Christ. In doing so, He sanctified us
unto Himself. He sanctified us to Himself.
He predestinated us to be adopted unto Himself by Jesus Christ. And that He ordained that we
would be consecrated to the Lord and we would believe the Lord
and serve the Lord after the Lord called us. Look over at
Romans chapter 8 with me. He told Jeremiah, before I formed
thee in the belly, I knew thee. Look here at Romans 8.29. 8.29.
For whom he did foreknow. It didn't say what he foreknew. It's not saying he looked down
through time and saw what you would do. It says whom he foreknew. Before I formed thee in the belly,
I knew thee. and I sanctify thee, and I ordain
thee, that's what he's saying, for whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Now brethren,
This word that's true of John the Baptist is true of all God's
elect. God separated us, sanctified
us unto Himself by choosing us in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what God our Father did. And when God called you in time,
His grace was new to you, but it wasn't new to God. It was
new to you, but it wasn't new to God. God knew you from before
the foundation of the world. To be great in the sight of the
Lord, is to be separated by God in Christ from eternity. Great,
because great is our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the greatness, our
Lord Jesus. And He put us in Christ, chose
us in Christ, and we were great in His sight before the foundation
of the world. Holy and without blame, accepted
in the beloved. And then we see here, to be great
in the sight of the Lord is to be born again of the Holy Spirit,
given a new heart and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse
15 says, And he shall be filled with the
Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. and he shall be filled
with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb." Now John
the Baptist, he fell in Adam just like all men did. He fell
in Adam just like all the elect did. And John the Baptist was
conceived in sin in his mother's womb just like every sinner in
this world is, just like all God's elect are. But while John the Baptist was
still in his mother's womb, he was filled with the Holy Ghost. He was given a new heart. by
the Holy Ghost. Now preacher, you said to me
that while he was in his mother's womb, he was born again of the
Holy Ghost, and he was given a new heart by the Holy Ghost,
and he was given faith to believe on Christ by the Holy Ghost.
That's exactly what I'm saying. But more importantly, that's
exactly what God's saying. That's what God's saying. Now
listen, Romans 10, 17 says, faith cometh by hearing. and hearing
by the word of God. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. So you know what God did? God
ordained that the very first bones that would be formed in
a baby in the womb is those bones in your inner ear. That's the
first bones to develop. And those bones at six months
old in the womb, a baby can hear the voices of those speaking
without. Now, when the angel came and
told Mary that she would give birth to the Lord Jesus, the
Holy Spirit would come upon her. It was different than Elizabeth. John the Baptist was conceived
in sin of Zacharias. But the Holy Ghost would come
upon her and that holy thing formed in her womb would be the
Son of God. Well, when the Lord told Mary that, Mary hot-footed
it across the field and went over to tell Elizabeth this. Let's look at Luke 1.36. Luke
1.36. Here's what the Lord told her. He said, he told Mary, behold,
thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old
age, and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God, nothing shall be
impossible. At six months, a baby can hear. A baby can hear. Faith comes
by hearing. Hearing by the Word of God. So
Mary runs to tell Elizabeth this good news. And verse 41 says,
And it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation
of Mary, Mary declared that she was with child of the Holy Ghost,
that she was having the Messiah. And we're going to see when we
get to this what Mary believed and this is the things that she
said to Elizabeth that day. And it says, when Mary said this,
the babe leaped in her womb. John the Baptist leaped in her
womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. And look
down at verse 44. Elizabeth said, Lo, as soon as
the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped
in my womb for joy. For joy. Brethren, with God,
nothing is impossible. Men that try to put God in a,
fit Him in a little box, can't do it. With God, nothing is impossible. He is able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or think according to His power that worketh
in us. This ought to be the greatest
comfort for any mother or father whose baby dies at birth or in
the womb. This should be the greatest comfort. God's able to do things that
are absolutely impossible with men. This ought to be the greatest
comfort for a parent or whoever has a loved one, a child or a
loved one that's way up in age and nearing death. You know,
you think about this. Here's John the Baptist, filled
with the Holy Ghost, born again of the Holy Spirit, given a new
heart and faith in Christ in his mother's womb, in his mother's
womb, and then you have the thief on the cross, just moments before
he drew his last breath, and he was filled with the Holy Spirit
and given faith in Christ. That ought to be comforting to
us, brethren. Wherever God has made somebody
to be alive the first time, God's able to make them be alive the
second time. The new birth, He's able to perform the new birth,
whether they're in their mother's womb or whether they're up in
years. You know, the Lord said the kingdom, He set that little
child in their midst, that was a baby. And He said, such is
the kingdom of heaven. Such is the kingdom of heaven.
But the point I'm showing you here is God looks on the heart
that He has created. That's what's great in the sight
of the Lord. A heart that has been born again of the Holy Spirit,
created of the Holy Spirit. A heart that believes on the
Lord Jesus Christ. A heart that gives Christ all
the glory. That's what is great in the sight
of the Lord. Listen to Psalm 147.10. It says, He delighteth
not in the strength of the horse. He taketh not pleasure in the
legs of a man. The Lord taketh pleasure in them
that fear Him and those that hope in His mercy. In other words,
He's looking on the heart and He takes pleasure in them that
believe on His Son. That is greatness in the sight
of the Lord. To trust Christ. Is that too
simple? For a carnal man, that's too simple. I've got to do something. You've got to believe on the
Lord. And that's only by the Spirit of the Lord. Only by the
Spirit of the Lord. That's what's great to the Lord.
To give His Son all the glory by trusting Him. Believing on
Him. Alright, there's a second thing
here. And only two things I'm going to show you. Only two.
One is to have a new heart, consecrated to the Lord, believing on the
Lord, trusting the Lord to be your wisdom, your righteousness,
your sanctification and your redemption. To be everything
you need to come into God's presence. And secondly, to be great in
the sight of the Lord is to bear witness of Christ. It's to bear
witness of Christ. and to do so depending on the
Lord Himself to make the word effectual. Look here in verse
16. He's showing us why John the
Baptist will be great in the sight of the Lord. In verse 16,
he said, In many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the
Lord their God. In other words, John the Baptist
was great in the Lord's sight because he preached Christ. He preached Christ. That's what
he did. He preached the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 10.14 says, How shall
they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And it says here,
many of the children of Israel shall return to the Lord their
God. They believe the Lord their God. So He preached Christ to
them. How shall they hear Him whom
they have not heard? He preached Christ to them. Look
at chapter 1, look at verse 76. This is what Zacharias is going
to say. He said, Thou child... I think this is Zacharias speaking.
Anyway, He's going to say, Thou, child, shalt be called the prophet
of the highest. That's why He was great in the
sight of the Lord. He was the witness of the highest, God Almighty,
Christ Jesus our Lord. For thou shalt go before the
face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation
unto His people by the remission of their sins. You see what John
preached? the knowledge and salvation unto
his people by the remission of their sins through the tender
mercy of our God. That's what John preached. Whereby
the day sprang from on high that is thus. That's Christ Jesus,
the son of righteousness. To give light to them that sit
in darkness. If you have light, he gave it.
That's what John declared. and in the shadow of death, to
guide our feet in the way of peace. He's the one who leads
his people and who we follow by his grace. That's what John
preached. John preached that men should repent of their sins,
their immoral sins, their religious sins of trusting in themselves
and their will and their works. Repent from everything about
self. And he declared that they should believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ by whose blood we have remission of sin. He preached
to them salvation. He preached Christ who is our
salvation. Abraham said, my son, God will
provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. God will provide himself
a lamb for a burnt offering. And John the Baptist preached
to men and said, pointed at Christ and said, and there he is. There
he is. He said, he saw Christ coming
and he said, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the
sin of the world. That was John's message. Oh, he said a lot more than that.
He expounded upon that every time he would preach. But this
was his one message he preached. Behold the Lamb of God which
taketh away the sin of the world. That was his message. Christ
is that Lamb of God. He is God providing Himself a
lamb. And by His one offering on the
cross, by Him going to that cross and laying down His life for
His people, brethren, He took away the sin of His people. He
remitted the sins of His people by His blood, by shedding His
blood. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. This is what John preached, John
the Baptist. Hebrews 9.12 says, "...neither
by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. Once now, in the end of the world,
hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself."
John said, the Apostle John in 1 John 3, 5, he said, you know
that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him is
no sin. That's what Christ accomplished.
You remember when they were in the Mount of Transfiguration?
And they spoke about the decease that he should accomplish. The
decease that he would accomplish. What death would he accomplish?
The decease he would accomplish? Paul said in Romans 8, he said,
he condemned sin in the flesh. He put to death, death! That's
what he did. He condemned the sin. He made
the sin and the death of his people to decease by laying down
his life and shedding his blood and taking away all the sins
of his people. That's what he accomplished. He didn't try to
make it possible. He didn't do it for everybody
if they'll just accept him and avail themselves of what he's
done. No, he put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. He sanctified a particular people
by his one offering. By His will, we're sanctified
through the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ once for all time. That's what He accomplished before
we ever even knew about it, He did that. That's who the Lord
Jesus is. To be great in the sight of the
Lord is to preach Christ and Him crucified. Now brethren,
that doesn't only apply to His preacher. You that He's called,
every one of us, every saint that He's called and revealed
Christ in, you are a witness of the Lord. to speak of him
to men and women, to assemble together as his witnesses. You
know, by assembling here, you know what you're doing? You're
bearing witness that Christ is salvation to this world. By leaving here and going to
your jobs, and if men ask you, what's the hope you have? And
you declare Christ to them. You preach the scriptures to
them. Study this work so that if a man asks you that, you can
tell him and show him in the scriptures. And if you don't
feel comfortable speaking to him, be a witness this way. Say,
come see. Come, hear the gospel. Come with
me to hear the gospel. That's what it is to be great
in the sight of the Lord, is to bear witness of his salvation,
his son, his righteousness. To be great in the sight of the
Lord is to depend upon the Lord to convert His people, as you
bear witness. Look at verse 17. And he shall
go before the Lord Jesus in the spirit and power of Elijah. Now men, I guarantee you this,
you listen to preachers who give man glory, I guarantee you they
would preach and they would exalt Elijah. about, oh, what a spirit
and power Elijah had. The spirit and power Elijah had
was the Lord Jesus Christ. And the spirit power John the
Baptist had was the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the power of
God unto salvation. And it's by His Spirit that He
gives a new spirit, and sustains that new spirit, and renews us
in that new spirit, and keeps us preaching Him, and not fainting. Paul said, seeing as how we have
received mercy, the same way we receive mercy is the way we
don't faint. It's so of all God's preachers
and all God's people, all His witnesses. It's by Christ's power,
not our own. Look at Ephesians 3. Ephesians
chapter 3. This is what Paul said. Listen
to it now. Ephesians 3, 7. He said, And he's talking about the promise
in Christ by the gospels. And he says, well, I was made
a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given it
to me by the effectual working of His power. You see that? And
to me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace
given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ. Look over at Romans 15. Romans
chapter 15. Elijah, John the Baptist, Paul,
they gave Christ the glory. That's what all God's faithful
preachers do. They give Him the glory. It's by the Spirit of
the Lord, by His power, that He works this through the preaching
of the gospel. Look at what Paul says in Romans
15 and verse 18. He says, I will not dare to speak
of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me
to make the Gentiles obedient by word and deed, through mighty
signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that
from Jerusalem and round about unto Lycraeum I have fully preached
the gospel of Christ. Do you see that? He said, I'm
not going to speak of anything as though I did it. It's the
power of the Lord that did it. This is greatness out of the
Lord, not only to preach Christ and to bear witness of Christ,
but to look to Christ and pray to Christ and wait on Christ
to work effectually in power in his people. Paul said in 2
Corinthians 3, 5, not that we're sufficient to think anything
of ourselves. Our sufficiency is of God. He
said in Colossians 1, 29, I also labor striving according to his
working, which worketh in me mightily. Christ told His apostles,
when He sent His apostles out to preach, He said, It's not
ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh
in you. Christ said the words, I speak
their spirit and their life. John the Baptist wasn't looking
to himself. He wasn't saying, now y'all look at me, I'm great
in the sight of the Lord. No, he was like Paul. He said,
I'm less than the least of the saints. I'm the chief of sinners.
He must increase, I must decrease. That's what he said. He preached
Christ and him crucified, the salvation of God's people, and
he did so trusting the Lord Jesus Christ to make it effectual.
That's what it is to be great in the sight of God, is to depend
entirely upon the Lord Jesus Christ. His preacher depends
upon Christ to give the message. His preacher depends upon Christ
to give him the power to preach the message. His preacher depends
upon Christ to make the Word go forth in power and work effectually
in the heart of sinners. His preacher depends upon Christ,
and so do you. All of you who are born of Him
and bear witness for Him do so trusting Christ. Now look here,
to be great in the sight of the Lord, back in Luke 1, to be great
in the sight of the Lord is to preach that Christ fulfilled
the law for all His elect and made us one. That's what he preached. Look here, Luke 1.17, John was
sent to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. You see that in verse 17? He
was sent to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. Now this is from Malachi. I'll
just read it to you, Malachi 4, 5. He said, Behold, I will
send you Elijah, the prophet, before the coming of the great
and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of
the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children
to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
That's what God said. He's going to turn the heart
of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children
to their fathers. Now, how do you get from that that John the
Baptist preached that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes? Well, the elect Jews called to
faith before the elect Gentiles were the fathers. And the elect
Gentiles called to faith in Christ to the gospel were the children.
In other words, through the preaching of the gospel, by the Spirit
of God blessing their hearts and giving them a new heart,
he made his elect Jew and his elect Gentile one in Christ,
and made them know they were one in Christ. They hated each
other. So this is what John preached. John preached, John the Baptist
preached, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to
everyone that believes. I've heard men speak of John the Baptist
as though he preached a different gospel than we preach, that he
preached something different. No! There's only one message
by which God saves His people. That's the full accomplishment
of Christ's person and His work. Listen, Paul said, Christ is
our peace who hath made both elect Jew and Gentile one. He's
broken down the middle wall of partition, the middle wall that
divided us, that was the enmity between Jew and Gentile. What
was it? He said, he abolished in his flesh the enmity, even
the law of commandments contained in ordinances. In other words,
he fulfilled the law. He's in the law for righteousness
to his people. And he made in himself of two,
of the Jew and the Gentile, one new man. He made them one in
Himself, so making peace between them. And He reconciled both
unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.
That is, having fulfilled the law for His people. And He came
and preached peace to you which were far off, you Gentiles, those
Gentiles, and He preached peace to them that were near. That's
what John the Baptist was sent to do. and He made us one. Through Him we both have access
by one Spirit to the Father. Jew and Gentile have. We're in
peace in Christ, reconciled to God in Christ, and we have peace
with one another in Christ. You see that when John preached,
he preached to, don't forget this now, he was sent to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel just like Christ was. But same
as with the Lord Jesus Christ, Through John's gospel, the Lord
saved some Gentile publicans, and He saved some Gentile Roman
soldiers, and He saved some elect Jews. That's what He did. And He made them one. He made
them one. They stopped using the law. to
say, we're better than you Gentile dogs. And they bowed to Christ
and realized that in Christ there's neither Jew nor Gentile, bond
nor free, male or female, rich or poor, barbarian, Scythian,
none of that. We're one in Christ, made one
in Christ. That's what he preached. That's
what John preached. He turned the hearts of the elect
Jews to the children, the elect Gentiles, and the hearts of the
elect Gentiles to the elect Jews, their fathers. That's what he
did. He says here, to be great in God's sights, to preach Christ
as the wisdom of God who justified His people. Verse 17. He said,
and the disobedient, he turned to the wisdom of the just to
make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Who's the wisdom
of the just? Christ is the wisdom of the just.
Christ is the power of God and He's the wisdom of God. He turned
the disobedient, that's you and me and everybody He saved. He
turned the disobedient to the wisdom of the just. Christ is that wisdom. And Christ
is the justifier of the just. That's who He is. That was John's
message. That's my message to you. That's
the message of all His witnesses. John preached the same gospel
we preach, brethren. Years ago, in England, when the
king was coming to a town, This was back in the days of horse
and buggy. When the king was coming to a
town, they would send a man before the king, and he would go through
the town. He was called a crier. And he
would go into the town crying, the king is coming, the king
is coming. Get ready, the king is coming.
And the people would be ready when the king came, and they
would bow their knee to the king as he passed through the town.
John the Baptist and all Christ's preachers, and you who are His
witness, we're criers. We're crying, the King is coming,
the King is coming. Every time we preach the gospel,
we're crying, the King is coming, the King is coming. We preach
what He's accomplished by laying down His life for His people,
and when it pleases Him, He comes into the heart of His child and
creates a new heart. and gives you faith to trust
Him. He grants you repentance from all that you trusted in
before, and all your dead works, and brings you to trust the Lord
Jesus Christ. So, what we see here, brethren,
to be great in the sight of the Lord involves these two things.
To be separated unto Christ, and consecrate it to the Lord
from a new holy heart." The Lord looks on the heart. That's what
He looks on. And to be great in the sight
of the Lord is to bear witness of the same One that God the
Father bears witness of. Who did He bear witness of every
time He spoke from heaven? This is my beloved Son. Hear
Him. That's what it's great in the
sight of the Lord, to declare the greatness of His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. I want to tell you two things. Two things. Don't ever let anybody
accuse you of being a hearer of the Word, not a doer. Because
God's witnesses, His preachers, are doers. And it's a great work
you're doing. It's a great work we're together
doing in preaching the Gospel of Christ. It's great in the
sight of the Lord. You remember when Nehemiah went back and the
Lord had delivered him out of Babylon. and carried them back
to Jerusalem, and Nehemiah was rebuilding Jerusalem, building
up the walls. He was doing that. And that's
a picture of this gospel age, once we've been redeemed by Christ
and the gospel going forth and the Lord building up His holy
temple, His people. His holy city, His people, that
was what it pictured. And Sanbalat and Gershom, they
heard about this. Gishom, they heard about this.
And they sent a message to Nehemiah. They said, come, let us meet
together. Let's compromise. Let's compromise. And let's meet
together in one of the cities, the villages, in the plain of
Ono. But they thought to do me mischief. Nehemiah said. And if you read
your bulletin, that proverb that's in there, you'll see to do mischief
is to do evil. They said, come to oh no and
let's compromise. And you know what Nehemiah told
them? Oh no. No, look here, listen now, this is what he told them.
I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work,
so that I cannot come down to you. If you compromise with this
world religion, you're coming down. You're not elevating, you're
going down away from the Lord. But he told them, I'm doing a
great work, I cannot come down to you. Why should the work cease
while I leave it and come down to you? That work he's doing
is a picture of what John the Baptist did preaching Christ
to him crucified. And let me show you this in Matthew
11. I'm done now. Matthew 11. Verse 7. Jesus began to say unto the multitude
concerning John, What wants you out into the wilderness to see?
A reed shaking with the wind? But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment?
The whole day they wear soft clothing or in king's houses.
But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you,
and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it's written,
Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare
thy way before thee. Verily I say unto you, among
them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater. What's great in the sight of
the Lord? He said there hasn't risen a greater than John the
Baptist. Notwithstanding, he that is least
in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. True greatness in the
sight of the Lord is to have a heart consecrated to Christ,
trusting Him alone, and it's to be a witness of Christ to
everybody you come in contact with. That's what God calls great.
All right, brethren. Brother Adam.