Good morning, brethren. Let's
turn in our Bibles to John chapter 1. Now, We begin here in verse 19. It
says, And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests
and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? Now, there
were crowds who began to go out into the wilderness to where
John the Baptist was, and it got around. He was pretty popular. And word got back to these religious
leaders. And so they wanted to know who
he was. He hadn't been trained in their
schools. They hadn't sent him out. They hadn't given him authority
to be preaching. And so they sent these priests
and these Levites out to question him to see who he was. You remember how our Lord said,
if a man comes in his own name, He said, you would receive him.
Well, they come to see if John came in his own name. And if
he would have answered yes to any of these questions, they'd
have received him. Here's the first thing they asked him. It
says, verse 20, he confessed and denied not, but confessed,
I'm not the Christ. Now that would have been great
temptation for a false preacher. He had a following, a big following. And they said, are you the Christ?
He said, no. And verse 21, they asked him,
ìWhat then, are thou Elias?î And he said, ìI am not.î You
know at the end of Malachi chapter 4 verse 5, he said, ìBehold,
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 the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.î
Now, the Jews literally thought Elijah was coming before the
Lord Jesus came. There are some today who actually
think Elijah will come before Christ comes a second time. But the angel, when he appeared
to Zechariah, John the Baptist's father, the angel quoted Malachi. And he said of John the Baptist,
he shall go before his face in the spirit and power of Elijah. That's what that prophecy meant.
He's coming in the spirit and power of Elijah. And he'll turn
the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient
to walk in the wisdom of the just. Walk in the wisdom of Christ. The Lord, when he was transfigured,
they saw Elijah and Moses in heaven, talking with Christ. And when they came down out of
the mount, the disciples said, well, we thought Elijah was coming
first. We thought he was supposed to
come first. And the Lord said to them, he said, Elijah has
come already. And they knew him not. He's talking
about John the Baptist. And he said in Matthew 11, 13,
all the prophets in the law prophesied until John, and if you'll receive
it, this is Elijah that is to come. John the Baptist was the
one prophesied. He's Elijah that was to come.
He preached in the spirit and wisdom of Elijah. And he said,
he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. But these folks that
came out there, they didn't have ears to hear. They didn't have
spiritual understanding. And they didn't understand who
John the Baptist was. They thought he was literally
Elijah. So when they asked him that, John said truthfully, no,
I'm not. He wasn't Elijah. He came in
the spirit and power of Elijah. And they asked him, then, art
thou a prophet? He answered, no. Again, they didn't realize
when Moses said, I'm going to raise up a prophet like you,
Moses, they didn't realize, they didn't have spiritual understanding
and know he was talking about Christ. Christ is that prophet. John said, I'm not that prophet.
Verse 22, Then said they unto him, Who art thou, that we may
give an answer to them that sin us? What sayest thou of thyself?
Now listen to John's answer. This is what John considered
to be the greatest honor. And any true messenger that God
sent, this is what they considered to be the greatest honor right
here. He said, verse 23, I'm the voice of one crying in the
wilderness. Make straight the way of the
Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah. And they which were sent were
of the Pharisees, and they asked him and said unto him, Why baptizest
thou then, if thou be not Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet?
John answered them, saying, I baptize you with water, but there standeth
one among you whom you know not. He it is who coming after me
is preferred before me, whose shoes latch it I am not worthy
to unloose. These things were done in Bethabara
beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. A true messenger that
Christ sends doesn't preach himself. He preaches Christ and Him crucified.
He wants Christ to have all the glory, all the honor, and such
it was with John. First, let me ask you this question.
Why did these Or why did God send John the
Baptist to the wilderness? Why didn't He send him to the
temple? Why didn't He send him up there in the midst of religion?
Well, in Isaiah's day, when John quoted Isaiah, that he said,
he sent me to make straight the way of the Lord, when Isaiah
was given that prophecy and he gave that prophecy, at that time,
Israel was physically, literally taken captive by Babylon. And
that was a picture because when John the Baptist came, Israel
was spiritually taken captive by the harlot Babylon. They were
in false religion. They were totally lost in their
sins. They didn't come out to John,
they sent ambassadors because John was preaching repentance
and they didn't think they needed repentance. These men came and they didn't
believe John to be the Christ. They didn't believe him to be
Elijah. They didn't believe him to be that prophet. Our Lord
said why they came. He said he was a burning and
a shining light and you were willing for a season to rejoice
in his light. For just a little while, if they
could have taken John in with them, he would have given credibility
to everything they were doing. And that's all they were trying
to do. They wanted John the Baptist to unite with him so they could
get his following and so it would give credibility to what they
were doing. But the dignity of these ambassadors that came out
there and the dignity of those that sent them out who were the
most highest religious leaders, the Sanhedrin, no honor they
could have offered John. would make John stop doing what
he was doing. He was sent to preach Christ.
That's what he was concerned about. That's what he did. His
faithfulness to Christ uncovered their pride, though. As soon
as they found out, he said, I'm none of those. As soon as he
did that, they said, well, what gives you this authority to be
baptizing? We didn't send you out here.
Immediately their pride was discovered. God sent John the Baptist to
the wilderness because just like every sinner that God saved,
just like every sinner born in Adam, the whole religious host
was lost at that time. They were lost. They were taken
up with outward ceremony. They were taken up with their
position, their power. They had no interest in God from
the heart. Religion was just something they
did to soothe the conscience. And that's the same with religion
today. Religion today does not resemble true religion whatsoever.
At all. Not at all. The religion you
see in this world, vain religion, changes with the fads of society. And it's just to try to stay
in tune with the times. God's true religion doesn't do
that. His word doesn't change. His
gospel doesn't change. His church doesn't change. We
got one gospel and we preach the message of Christ crucified.
The Pharisees didn't believe. They had too much authority.
They had too much power. It had gone to their head. They
looked down their noses at these poor sinners that were coming
out and confessing Christ and being baptized and repenting.
They looked down their noses at them and thought, we know
these sinners. Where's their fruit? We know
these sinners. They're sinners. They don't keep
the law like we do. They don't make the grand sacrifices
we make. They're not in the synagogue
like we are. They need to bring forth some fruit. And John looked
at them with all their pious looking down their noses at these
poor sinners. And John said, O generation of
vipers, who sent you out here? Who told you to come here? You
bring forth some fruit. That's what John told them. A
broken and a contrite heart, that's the fruit that God produces.
And when He produces that fruit, a sinner is too low to look down
on somebody else. When He produces the fruit of
a broken and a contrite heart, you're too condemned in your
own self and loathe your own self too much to be condemning
others. You see you need Christ and you need Him alone and you
shut up to bow before Him and say, Lord have mercy on me, the
sinner. And that doesn't stop. He keeps
you there. He keeps you there. Faith and
repentance. This is the fruit God produced.
A broken heart, a contrite heart. Somebody that needs Christ and
Christ alone. Christ doesn't come to the temple
made with hands. He didn't come to religion that's
been made with hands. He's going to get the glory for
building the temple. He's going to do it by regenerating
His children and building us up one living stone at a time,
calling out His people and giving us life and fitly framing us
together. That's why He sent John the Baptist
to the wilderness instead of to the temple. We're not going
to get credit for making ourselves priests unto God. Christ is the
one that makes us priests unto God and He does it through His
precious blood. He's the one who who makes us
accepted, not we ourselves. That's why he didn't send John
in the midst of religion. He sent him out in the wilderness.
If they're going to come to the Lord, they're going to have to
come to Him. They're going to have to come to Him. Now secondly,
God sent John the Baptist to prepare the way before the Lord
Jesus. He said there in verse 23, I'm
the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the
way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah. Before Christ
enters the heart, He is going to send His preacher with the
gospel declaring the truth of Christ. He is going to declare
the truth of Christ. It pleases God to save through
the foolishness of preaching. And in this gospel age, when
He saves, He is going to save through the foolishness of preaching.
He is going to make His people hear the preaching of Christ
in Him crucified. And so He opened this gospel
age, how? By sending forth a preacher.
That ought to be a pretty good indication to us that that's
how he's going to save if the first thing he did before Christ
came forth publicly was send forth John the Baptist preaching
the gospel. He's going to save through the preaching of the
Word. He said, I'm the voice of one crying in the wilderness,
make straight the way of the Lord as said the prophet Isaiah. We may be in religion all our
lives or we may have never picked up a Bible. But I tell you this,
if Christ enters the heart, He's going to do it by sending His
messenger, announcing Christ the King, and then Christ will
go enter in. John was sent to clear the way.
Look over at Isaiah 40, that's where he's quoting from. Isaiah
40 and verse 4. And here is where he is quoting.
He says there in 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. Here is what John was sent
to do. Every valley shall be exalted,
every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked
shall be made straight, and the rough places plain, and the glory
of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. Keep your place there
in Isaiah 40. Let me say a comment or two on
this. The picture there is of a highway
being made plain. The valleys brought up, the hills
brought down, the crooked made straight, the curves taken out,
a straight path, a clear path, a plain path. John was sent to
make the way plain, to say, Behold the Lamb. Behold the Lamb. Here He is. You've been hearing
about Him. You've seen Him in the types and the shadows. Here
He is. Plain message. Behold the Lamb. And while he's
calling and gathering out the sheep, he's throwing rocks at
the wolves. That's what he's doing as he's preaching the Word. He's humbling proud sinners.
He's declaring all our works are vanity and there's no way
we can save ourselves. You've got to make the way plain.
He's declaring every religious works unholy and unrighteous
and unjust except they be performed by Christ the Lord. He said there
in Isaiah 40, here's the message. The voice said, cry. He said,
what shall I cry? All flesh is grass and all the
goodliness thereof, the very best goodliness a man can muster
is as the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower
fades because the Spirit of the Lord blows upon it. Surely the
people is grass. The grass withers, the flower
fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. All we are
in our flesh is sin. Not one work is righteous. Not one work is righteous. Not
one thought is righteous. Not one religious work is righteous. We didn't produce it. It didn't
come of us. Without Christ formed in the
sinner, without Him formed in us, everything we do is vanity.
Without being robed in His righteousness, everything we do is sin. It has
to be from Christ. We don't even have spiritual
discernment unless He gives it to us. We have to have Him come in,
the Word has to enter in, the Word has to give us life, the
Word has to give us wisdom. Without Christ teaching us, all
our learning, all our study is just vain. It doesn't get its
glory from Christ and it doesn't run down to the glory of Christ.
It's vain. The obstacles in the way are
not so much the sins of adultery and the sins of stealing and
lying and murder. The obstacles in the way is self-made
righteousness, self-made holiness, self-made religion. Those are
the obstacles that have to be, it has to be all torn down. We
have to be made to unlearn what we thought we had learned. Our
vain imaginations have to be purged so that we can understand
truth. Our pharisaical pride and all
of that, we just have to be brought down. When Christ is clearing
the way, he makes us condemn our own wisdom. He makes us condemn
our own works, condemn our own, our very best deeds He makes
us condemn. And He doesn't stop doing that.
Even after He declares that you're righteous and declares you're
justified by His works, even after that, He still doesn't
ever leave His child to rejoice in our righteousness. Can you
do that? Can you say you're righteous
because of something you did? I hope not. I would think all
my preaching has been in vain if you thought that. We can't
ever think that about ourselves. Our righteousness is at God's
right hand. Our righteousness is Christ. I was talking last night to a
brother and we were talking about what sanctification is. Not how
you're sanctified, but what is the fruit of sanctification.
When a man's talking about him sanctifying himself and him making
himself holy and how much sin he's put away and how much better
he is and all the things he's done, he hadn't been sanctified. When you're sanctified, you stop
looking at you and you start looking at Christ. That's the
irony of sanctification. Men want to deny the work of
grace in their heart. They want to deny this necessity
of a new nature being created because they think, oh, that's
just going to make you look within. No, when it's done, you look
without. You start looking to Christ.
And until then, all we do is look within. Here's the third thing. Christ
is the one who works this work in spirit. John said, I baptize
with water, but there's one coming after me who's preferred before
me. He baptizes with the Holy Ghost. John's baptism in water
didn't regenerate a sinner. It didn't make a sinner alive.
It didn't make them be born again. There's no work you and I can
do to give ourselves spiritual life. Absolutely nothing. The doctrine of baptismal regeneration
is a lie of hell, is what it is. And that's all it's going
to do is produce candidates for hell. That's all it's going to
produce. And there's a lot of people that think they were baptized
and that's how they were regenerated. That's how they washed their
sins away. In water of baptism. There's no The doctrine of free
will is the doctrine of the devil. Anything that's pointing us to
us and saying, we have to do the first step or make the first
step or it's of our sinful will that this takes place, that's
the doctrine of the devil. Do you realize that most of what
goes for religion at this day, how is it any different than
the devil worshiper out in a cave somewhere worshiping at night. How's it any different? If it's not the message that
exalts Christ and gives Him all the glory, but it's making the
sinner think he's the one that's doing something, that's the devil's
doctrine. I will. I will. I will. I will ascend upon her. I will.
Why was he cast out of heaven? He wouldn't submit to Christ
getting all the glory, the Son of God. He's a free will worshiper,
is what he is. And it's no different. It's devil
worship. It's not possible to prepare
the way yourself. It's not possible. Not by baptism,
not by study, not by prayer, not by fasting, not by self-mortification. There's no way we can prepare
the way ourselves. Christ sends His crier. And the
power and grace of Christ our Savior clears the way in spirit,
in the heart, with the gospel. His life makes us live. His light
makes us understand. His righteousness makes us righteous. His holiness purifies. The way
has to be made clear by Him. The message John came declaring
is, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin. He's the
one that takes it away. If I had a little knowledge,
if I had a little good in me, if I had a little something in
me that made God choose me or made Christ die for me, or I
just needed a little help from Christ, just a little extra help
to make up the difference from Christ, If that's what a man
says, he's lost, he's ruined, he's as dead in his sins as ever.
It doesn't matter how much he stays in a church pew and how
much he does for humanity. He's lost and he's dead in sin.
That way's got to be cleared. That crooked path's got to be
made straight. We've got to be made to flee
to Christ. Here is the fourth thing. This
works wrought when we are made to behold God's glory in Christ. That is how this works done.
We are made to behold God's glory in Christ. Isaiah says there
in Isaiah 40 verse 5, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. And all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. He said in verse 9,
Lift up the voice with strength, say, Behold your God. That's
what we're going to see next time John the Baptist declare
it. Behold your God. Behold the Lamb. Here he is.
Look what he said, Behold, the Lord God will come with a strong
hand, and His arms shall rule for Him. Behold, His reward is
with Him, and His work before Him. He shall feed His flock
like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead
those that are with young. John said, we saw the glory of
God, the glory of Christ as the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth. We saw God's glory in the face
of Christ Jesus. That's where we saw Him. And
that's what Isaiah said would happen. John is going to come
preaching and the glory of the Lord is going to be seen by all.
And He was seen by all. God sent Him forth as the propitiation. The Lord God has come now with
a strong hand. His rule, His arm has ruled for
Him. God set Him forth to be the propitiation. He set Him forth to be the one
sacrifice that satisfied God for His people. And that's what
He did. He paid the debt in full. And
He paid it for a particular people. And He brought in an everlasting
righteousness for His people. And then He comes with strong
hand and makes His people know it. He is not looking for a work
in you. He says in Isaiah 40 verse 10,
Behold, His reward is with Him and His work before Him. He is
bringing the reward. The reward He gives is Himself.
The reward He gives is His righteousness, His holiness, His wisdom, His
redemption. That is the reward He gives.
And here is the thing about His reward. We think of a reward
as being something we earn. his works before him. He did
the work and he rewarded his people for the work he did. He
did the work and then he gives us the reward of his work freely
by what he did, by his precious blood. What about the gathering?
Couldn't John boast? Well, if you're going to use
a preacher, then sure that preacher is going to get to boast that
he did something. No, John's message was he shall feed his
flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
His arm. He'll carry them in His bosom. He'll gently load
those that are with young. Even the gathering of His sheep
is to His glory. The feeding of His sheep, He
gets the glory. The leading of His sheep, He
gets the glory. He carries us. We don't carry
Him. That's the false God. That's the idol God. They have
to carry Him. He can't do anything what they permit Him to do. That's
not the true Lord Jesus. He carries His people. He leads
His people. He carries them in His bosom.
He leads them, those that are with young. You know, remember
I was talking last night about this with somebody too. You know,
when he came down out of the mount the first time, Moses,
he came down and he told them, he said, if you keep all the
words of this law, you'll be a holy priesthood, you'll be
God's chosen generation, You'll be His peculiar people if you
keep all this law. They said everything He commanded,
we'll do it. And just a little while later, they're dancing
around a golden calf. But Christ came and did it all. And then
Peter quoted almost the same words that Moses delivered from
the Lord. And he said, now, you're a chosen
generation. You're a royal priesthood. A
holy nation of peculiar people. Why? Why did He come and do all
the work? That you might show forth the
praises of Him that called you out of darkness into light. He
did it this way that He gets all the glory, that we might
praise Him and Him alone. That's what John came declaring.
That's what he came declaring. Now let me finish with this.
Go back to John 1 and I want you to notice something. In verse 26, he said, in the
middle part of the verse there, or the end, he said, there standeth
one among you whom you know not. There stands one among you whom
you know not. There are some here that don't
know Him. There are some here that do not
know Him. But hear what John is saying here. I'm here today
to do what John was there to do, and that's to point him out
to you. That's what I've been trying to do, point him out to
those of you that know him and to those that don't know him.
But here's what John is saying. Don't be looking for him in future
ages. Don't be looking for him or thinking
there's something that you've got to do for you to meet him. He's right here among you. Isn't that what the Scripture
says? Look at Romans 10. He said that where He's gathered
His people together, there He is in the midst of them. And here's the gospel we preach
right here. And this goes for a believer
too. If you need Christ, there's not something you have to do
to find Him. There is not some great thing you have to do to
cast all your care on Him. It is not above or below. Listen to this. Verse 6, Say
not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven? That is,
to bring Christ down from above. Or who shall ascend into the
deep? That is, to bring Christ again from the dead. What does
it say? Verse 8, The Word is nigh thee. The Word is nigh thee. It's in
your mouth. It's in your heart. Verse 9,
that if you shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and
shall believe in thy heart that God has raised Him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved. Isn't that so much better than
those 615 or 620 laws He gave? Isn't that so much easier? That's
why he said, my yoke is light. That's why Peter said, our fathers
and we were able to bear that yoke. Don't put that yoke back
on, believers. This is the light and easy yoke,
Christ said. I'm near you, in your heart,
in your mouth, confession, believing with the heart. For with the
heart man believeth unto righteousness." Man believeth unto righteousness. And that's an ETH word. That means you don't ever stop
believing unto righteousness. You don't believe one time and
then you start with your works then. That's what religion does.
They have what they call their evangelical message, which is
what they would call what I'm preaching today, or which they
would call what I preach every time I stand here, but then they
have their other messages. But their other messages don't
preach Christ in them. It's okay to preach what they
call practical things, but preach Christ when you preach them. But this is the message, we never
stop beholding Christ. The twofold message is all flesh
is grass, Behold your God. Behold the Lamb. The message
is always, it's not works of righteousness which we do, it's
believing unto righteousness. It never stops being the message.
With the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the
scripture says, and this is so, now when He's come and He's cleared
the path and He's entered the heart and He's given faith, this
will be so. Whosoever believeth on Him shall
not be ashamed. They'll not be ashamed. They
won't be ashamed to confess Him. They won't be ashamed He's all
their righteousness. That's what you hear going on
in religion. They're ashamed to say He's all
their righteousness. That's why they keep butting
and saying, but we got to add some work. Oh, you're ashamed
to say you're that bad of a sinner that He has to be your all. The
man who boasts in his holiness, he's ashamed to say, I don't
have one ounce of holiness without Christ. But those that believe
are not ashamed. He's everything. I pray you'll
bless that. Let's stand together. Father, we thank you. Thank you
that you've sent forth the gospel to us. opened up this new and
living way to your presence. Thankful, Lord, that you've provided
your Son, provided us this gospel, and called us to faith in Christ.
Lord, we ask you to be pleased today to call one of your people
out of darkness into light. We thank you for those you have
called. We thank you, Lord, that you continue to teach us the
gospel. Thank you that you continue to hold us, look into Christ
and won't let us turn away. Lord, make us be so in love with
Christ that we want to live for him. Make us truly want to honor
him. make us truly servants of the
Lord, willing to part with this world and part with the things
of it for Christ, to further His gospel. Lord, help us to
always be looking to Him. We thank you, Lord, that you've
gathered us here. We thank you for your mercy.
Thank you for your tender care. Forgive us now our sins, Lord.
We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.