Seeking once again the help of
God, I'd like to draw your attention to the chapter that we read together,
the Gospel according to John, chapter 1, and the text you'll
find in verse 23. He said, I am the voice of one
crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord,
as said the prophet Isaiah. On Wednesday we looked at Psalm
29 of the voice of God. It's the
voice of God that maketh the hinds to calf and discovereth
the forests and in his temple does everyone speak of his glory. The voice of the Lord was likened
to a great thunderstorm that came through Lebanon and destroyed
the proud cedars and to cause them to move like a young calf
skipping in a field. And then the Lord brings the
lightning, he divides the fires, he brings the lightning and there
is that great fear that is felt by many and I told you of the
old man Mze Masudi in Kenya who used to hide under the bed at
the sound of the thunder. Such he trembled at the sound
and so it is with the voice of God there is that trembling trembling
of the sound of an offended God, that we have broken his law,
that we tremble at the sound of the proclamation that all
have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But then
also there is that comfort. Not only is it a voice of trembling,
a voice of judgment, but it's also a voice of mercy, a voice
of pardon, that the same judge is able to pronounce one guilty
and is able to pronounce one pardoned. And so the voice of
the Lord brings about that eternal separation on that great day
of judgment when all the nations will stand before him and he
will divide the sheep from the goats and he will send some into
eternal torment where they will be terrified for all eternity,
weeping and gnashing of teeth. there will be those some who
will be brought in safely into heaven at last. Well done my
good and faithful servant and there they will be forever with
the Lord. And it's thinking about the voice
then of God. God has his word, which is his
written down voice, and it still thunders today. John the Baptist
was raised up to be a messenger, a prophet of God, to proclaim
the word of God, to make way for the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ. As he was beginning his ministry,
the multitudes came to hear him. Jesus said that the publicans
and the harlots came to hear the preaching of John and they
repented at the preaching of John the Baptist. But the Pharisees,
as they came to hear the preaching of John, they came with their
questions They wanted to ask him who he was, what he was doing. Did he have the authority to
proclaim this message? And as they came to question
the Lord Jesus Christ, they came to ridicule and to pull down
his message and to try to accuse him of not being who he said
he was. And so they come to John the
Baptist and they ask him, a question, what do you say about yourself? And he said, I am the voice of
one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the
Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah. In other words, he says, I am
nobody. I'm just a man in the wilderness
dressed in camel's hair eating honey and locusts. I'm just a
voice crying in the wilderness but I'm a voice that has been
prophesied hundreds of years ago that would come by the prophet
Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 40, as Israel
is coming to the end of their Babylonian captivity, as we looked
at a few weeks ago, the prophets begin to change their message. There have been years of judgment
that they would... The people of Israel must be
taken into captivity and then the allotted time came, that
70 years when the tally of their sin, the consequences of their
sin, the wrath of God was coming to an end. And so the prophets
then begin to proclaim a change. there is going to be that deliverance.
The voice of God thunders but also the voice of God is merciful
and so the prophets begin to proclaim comfort to the people
of God. They're going to speak comfortably
to Jerusalem that her warfare has been accomplished, that she
has received the allotted punishment for her sins. there is this cry
that goes out. Make a way. Isaiah 40. The voice of him that crieth
in the wilderness. Prepare ye the way of the Lord.
Make straight in the deserts a highway for our God. Every
valley shall be exalted, and 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. And so there was this prophecy
that was to be declared, that there was to be a way made in
the wilderness for the Lord's people. And often you find with
prophecies that they have a double meaning. There is the short term
or the immediate prophecy and then there is a secondary or
a long term prophecy. And so with this prophecy there
was that deliverance from Babylon. They were going to have to walk
across the wilderness to Jerusalem and the way was going to be made
clear, the way was going to be made smooth, the mountains were
going to flow down, every obstacle that was in their way was not
going to be an obstacle anymore, there was going to be no problems,
no difficulty in getting them back to the Jerusalem. And we see with Ezra and Nehemiah
how the Lord makes those steps and makes that way for the people
of Israel to end up back at the promised land, at Jerusalem. So they were there in Babylon,
captive, and they were called to go out. and the Lord tells
them that there is going to be a voice, prepare ye the way of
the Lord, make straight in the deserts a highway for our God. And so for them it was an immediate
prophecy that was going to take place and that the Lord was going
to deliver them and bring them to Jerusalem and all those obstacles
and things that had been holding them back there were now going
to be removed and they were going to be free to return back to
their original place. And in the prophecy of Malachi
it's a similar prophecy but regarding the New Testament era. Malachi
chapter 3. Behold I will send my messenger
And he shall prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom
you seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger
of the covenant whom you delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith
the Lord of hosts. I will send my messenger. And so they waited. for this
messenger and obviously the Pharisees having studied the scriptures
knew that there was going to be a one that would come and
so they ask the question, art thou Elias? He says I am not. Are you that prophet? He answers,
No. Then said they unto him, Who
art thou that we may give an answer to them that sent us?
What sayest of thyself? He said, I am a voice, the voice
of one crying in the wilderness. And so he comes to make way make
the way plain, the crooked places straight and the rough places
plain and the mountains to prepare the hearts of the people for
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in those days and
even in today, today's times when there is an important figure,
a king or an army making its way through the countryside,
those messengers would go before they would make sure the road
was clear, made sure the potholes were filled in, made sure the
streets were clean, there was no obstacles for the army or
for the king, there would be that smooth progress through
the country and even if you go to London and you see one of
the MPs or one of the royal family coming, the motorbikes, the police
motorbikes go before, they block off the roads and make sure there's
no hindrances to the movement of that important person. And so John the Baptist comes
as the one to make the way for the Lord Jesus Christ, the most
important one that would ever walk this earth. And the Lord
Jesus said, didn't he, of John the Baptist, there's no other
man like John the Baptist, filled with the Spirit of God from his
womb. And he came crying in the wilderness,
make straight the way of the Lord. Came to prepare the way and to
prepare the hearts of the people to receive their king, his birth
was a miraculous birth. The angel Gabriel sent from God
to his father Zechariah as he is going about his service in
the temple, standing there at the right hand of the altar,
speaks to him and tells him that he is going to have a son and
that the son is going to be called John. And he tells him that,
and Zacharias filled with unbelief, how do I know that these things
are going to be so seeing I'm old and my wife is old also.
And he tells him that you are going to be dumb until these
things are to take place. In Luke chapter one. Verse 11 it says, and there appeared
unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of
the altar. Verse 66, and all they that heard
them laid up them in their hearts saying, what manner of child
shall this be? And the hand of the Lord was
with him. Verse 76, and this is the reason
why he came, and thou child, shall be called a prophet of
the highest, 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 or forgiveness of their sins, through the tender
mercies of our God, whereby the day springs from on high has
visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and
the shadow of death to guide our feet unto the way of peace.
And the child grew and became strong in spirit and was in the
deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel. And so he comes
as this forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ to make the people
aware of this great one that was going to come. this light
that was going to come into the darkness this day spring from
on high The day spring is just like the rising of the sun in
the morning. What a beautiful and glorious
sight it is after a long night as you look out of the window
and you see the sun rising up and the light shining over the
countryside and we see what a glorious gift it is this day spring on
high. The Lord Jesus Christ after years
and years of ceremony and then darkness, then waiting for the
coming of this light into the world, the Lord Jesus Christ
and John the Baptist sent to make way for the coming of the
Lord. What a blessed job he had. There is one coming after me
who is preferred before me. As Jesus says, before Abraham
was, You see, he didn't proclaim a
limited Christ. He proclaimed an eternal Christ,
whoever was and whoever will be the Son of God. He was not
ashamed. He was crying in the wilderness
the truth about the true and living God and about his Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And multitudes came to see him. In the chapter that we read from
verse 13 and 14 it says, or from verse
12, but as many as receive him To them gave he power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which
were born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the
will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the
glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth. John, bear 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. And so as John was raised up
to bear witness of the Lord Jesus Christ, that is exactly what
he did. He testified of the Lord Jesus.
He said, He must increase and I must decrease. They come to
him and they say, who do you say that you are? He doesn't
say, yes, I'm that prophet, that great prophet. He says, I'm just
a voice crying in the wilderness. I'm not the one that you want. There's one coming after me whose
shoelaces I'm not worthy even to tie up or to undo. the great
prophet of the law, the dayspring that is to come of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so his ministry was a Christ-exalting
ministry. Remember Jesus said, if I be
lifted up I will draw all men unto me. And that voice that
he cried pointed people to the Lord Jesus Christ, turned people
away from himself and pointed them to the Lord Jesus Christ. It was a Christ exalting ministry. The work of the Holy Spirit is
to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. John the Baptist. We read when
Mary testified of all that took place, John the Baptist leapt
in her womb, in Elizabeth's womb. And we read that he was filled
of the Spirit of God from birth. There was never a man like John
the Baptist. And that Spirit of God always
testifies of Christ. You know, sometimes you can have
an overemphasis of a doctrine. Think of the charismatics. They
overemphasize the Holy Spirit. Everything is about the Holy
Spirit, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the way in which someone
is saved is that you must speak in tongues, you must be able
to do this thing and that thing, and everything is about the Holy
Spirit. But the scripture tells us that
the work of the Holy Spirit is to take the things of the Lord
Jesus Christ and reveal them to us. And so John the Baptist,
yes he clothed in camel's hair, yes he ate locusts and honey
but he proclaimed Christ. He elevated the Lord Jesus Christ,
the greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal existence
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God that came into the
world, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. He
came to run before, to make the way as a voice crying in the
wilderness, pointing people to the Lord Jesus Christ. And he
says, As I've said already in John chapter 3 and verse 30,
he must increase but I must decrease. That's an unnatural thing to
say. There are some things that pull
down a minister. or even any Christian really,
but especially a minister. The Africans used to say, fame,
finance, and female. Fame elevates men. And when somebody's famous, people
begin to elevate them up. And John knew the danger of that,
and so he says, Christ must increase. Christ must be the one that is
seen in my ministry. I must be willing to take the
back seat. I must be willing to take that
low position. I do not want to be at the forefront
but I will be at the back. And as John began to preach and
people began to follow John, then he pointed them to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Then they began to follow the
Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't say, come back, I must
have my congregation. No. He said, I am not him, but
I told you that he would come. He came to prepare the way, a
voice crying in the wilderness. And as Christ came, he pointed
them to the Lord Jesus. And so they left following John
and they began to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. And so his
ministry was, you can say, self-abasing, Christ-exalting. to humble the
pride of man and to elevate the Lord Jesus Christ. Surely that
is the greatest style of ministry. Surely that is the way in which
or the example by which we are to follow. Christ exalting, self-abasing. He must increase and I must decrease. It was a fearless ministry. The fear of man, the scripture
says, brings a snare. Saul feared the people and didn't
wait for Samuel and took the sacrifice and offered it himself. And he says he feared the people. the fear of man brings a snare
and John he was not afraid of man he feared God he feared God
far more than he feared man even the king of that time he rebuked
him in Matthew chapter 3 we read there of again it repeats itself
regarding john the baptist and sorry matthew chapter 3 in verse
7 it says and 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 meet or suitable for repentance and think not
to say within yourselves we have Abraham our father to our father
for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise
up children unto Abraham and so when the pharisees the religious
people of the day came to his baptism he saw the hypocrisy
that was surrounding them, he saw that they were resting upon
their tradition, their ancestry and they said we don't need to
have repentance, we don't need faith, we're trusting in Abraham,
Abraham is our father, we don't need to listen to your message
and he says your vipers He exposed their false humility,
that they were filled with pride, that they rested on their traditions
rather than trusting in God. They rested upon their background. And what a dangerous position
that is, to rest upon our name, our family name, our Christian
heritage. rather than have a true relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ, we're resting upon our tradition of
what mum and dad or grandad and grandma or great grandad and
grandma or our husband or our wife, we're resting upon them. And John could see it. And he
said, it's all fake. You're just a generation of vipers. God is even able to raise up
from these stones children of Abraham. He says it means nothing. Our religion means nothing outside
of Christ. It's nothing. Yes, it's good
to come to church. Yes, it's good to learn of the
Word of God. But it needs more than that. There must be that
true relationship with Christ. We must have heard the voice
crying in the wilderness. must have heard the message of
the gospel, a Christ-exalting message, pulls down our pride
and elevates the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he wasn't afraid. He wasn't
afraid of man. Even his demise as he was beheaded
was because he was faithful. He rebuked the king regarding
taking his brother's wife, committing adultery, and he was placed in
prison. And so he was not afraid. He
feared God. He respected God's law, God's
word, God's ways. And he wasn't afraid to proclaim
the truth even to people who did not believe. And so it was
a Christ-centered ministry. He says, Behold, the Lamb of
God that takes away the sin of the world. A voice crying in
the wilderness. In Isaiah it says, what shall
we cry? All flesh is grass. John cries,
all flesh is grass, but there is a Lamb of God that takes away
the sin of the world. And next day John seeth Jesus
coming unto him and said, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh
away the sin of the world. And verse 36, And looking upon
Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God. And this is the message that
the Spirit of God uses, a message in which it is pointing to the
Lord Jesus Christ. as the only way, the only hope
by which sinners may be able to be reconciled to God is through
God's lamb, the Passover lamb given by God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who was crucified, slain upon the tree, but rose again
upon that third day. And John says, I'm a voice crying
in the wilderness. And look at the effect. It had. Multitudes came to hear him. Yes, it angered the Pharisees
and the Sadducees of the day. But many received the message
and were baptised. Many received the message and
in receiving the message, received the truth, the truth of that
message, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and truth comes
by the Lord Jesus Christ. In Luke chapter 3, verse 10, they had a question. You see, when your heart is changed,
like the apostle Paul, Lord, what will thou have me to do?
The same effect happened to those who listened to the preaching
of John. In verse 10 it says, And the
people asked him, saying, What shall we do then? And he answered
them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath
none. And he that hath meat, let him do likewise. Then came
also the publicans or the tax collectors to be baptized. And
they said unto him, Master, what shall we do? And he said unto
them, exact no more than that which is appointed to you. And
the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, and what shall
we do? And he saith unto them, do violence
to no man, neither accuse any falsely, and be content with
your wages. This was the effect of the preaching
of John. What shall we do? You see, faith is useless without
works. Faith without works is dead. True faith produces a true desire
to walk in the ways of the Lord. True faith desires a true desire
for pleasing God. It is a spark which ignites in
the heart which desires progress and movement and fellowship and
union and pleasing the Lord. I've said to you before, sometimes
you get the children, you get a car, a car for Christmas, a
remote control car for Christmas. It's got no batteries. It's useless. I have to push it along. It's no good. But you must buy
batteries. Once you've bought the batteries,
then the car goes. There is movement. It's obedient. And so it's the same with Christians.
Without the spirit of God, they're dead. They have no desire, they're
deaf, they're dumb, their hearts are hard. But once the Spirit
of God has lit that fire within their heart, they have a desire.
They have faith in God, but they have a desire to please and to
walk in obedience to God. And so they ask the question,
what shall we do? And it's a life of sacrifice,
a sacrificial way of living for others. love thy neighbor
as thyself. If you've got two coats and you
see somebody who doesn't have a coat then give them your coat. If you see that you've got food
and you see that somebody else doesn't have any food then share
your food with them. It's quite simple And the tax
collectors came. The tax collectors, as we see
with Nicodemus, were swindling people, taking more and more
money than they should be getting. And so John tells them, be honest. Live honestly in the sight of
all men. And so he says, don't exact more
money than which is appointed unto you. Have a balance. that live consistently of your
life, that will be without reproach, have a good conscience, that
no one will be able to say, well, he swindled me here, or he took
too much money there, or he did a bad job here, or he did a bad
job there. John is saying you represent
Christ. that every aspect of your life
should be consistent with your calling. No good saying, I love
the Lord Jesus. Then you rip off a customer or
you love the Lord Jesus and then you've got your fridge filled
and your neighbor is starving. How dwells the love of God in
you? And so there must be that consistency,
faith and practice. The soldiers. There weren't Jews,
Roman soldiers known for being violent and aggressive. They
heard the preaching of John and they repented over their sin
and they were baptised. And they say, well, what do we
do? How are we going to represent Christ? How are we going to live
our new way of living in repentance in the military? And he says
to them, do no violence to any man. Neither accuse any falsely
and be content with your wages." Obviously the soldiers were known
for violence. So he says, don't fight. Don't be aggressive. Don't falsely
accuse anybody so that you may exhort them, extort them, or
accuse them falsely. And be content with what you
are getting paid. Don't protest, don't go on strike,
but be content with your lot. And that theme runs right through
the gospel. the church, the believers in
Christ, not to be aggressive, not to be brawlers, but to be
content with our lot and our pathway, that we're to have faith
and practice as to be consistency in our lives, the voice of one. crying in the wilderness. The
gospel has been proclaimed. Our hearts have been changed.
Our sins have been forgiven. We're walking in union with Christ
and so there's to be that consistency within our lives to live without
reproach. That people will say, oh yes
he's a Christian. He goes to church but his life
and his walk and his conduct and his speech is consistent
with the things that he proclaims. And so the effect of the ministry
was that the obstacles in their lives were broken down. Those
crooked places, those rough places, those mountains of unbelief,
those mountains of pride, those ditches were all levelled out. and they were enabled to believe
upon the Lord Jesus Christ and they were saved. The voice of one crying in the
wilderness. What stopped the Sadducees and
the Pharisees from hearing this voice? They were deaf. Yes, they heard
it externally. But they didn't believe it. They
were spiritually deaf. What has stopped us today from
hearing the voice crying in the wilderness? What has stopped
us from being changed by the message? Do we acknowledge that we are
deaf? Are we deaf to the sound of the
voice of God? Are we deaf to the sound of the
voice of the Lord Jesus Christ, the voice of the gospel? Those
people in the Gospel days, they knew that they had ailments.
Some were dumb, some were possessed, some were sick, some were blind. But they came to the Lord Jesus
and they asked for their sight to be granted
to them. They asked for their hearing,
they asked to be made whole. And the scripture tells us that
those that ask, they will receive. So if you know that you are deaf,
if you know that your heart is hard, then why don't you ask
for the Lord to soften it? Why don't you ask for the Lord
to open your ears so you may hear the gospel? And you'll be
surprised because your heart is already
soft. We learn in the Sunday school,
I love them that love me and those that seek me early that
they shall find me. And so deafness is no excuse
to not listening to the voice of one crying in the wilderness
because God is able to unstop the deaf ears. God is able to
create a new heart, a soft heart that you may hear and that you
may believe. Maybe it's too noisy. Maybe in
our lives there's too much noise going on that we can't hear the
voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the
Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah. What do you do if our lives are too noisy and
too busy? When Jesus was with his apostles
he said, come aside and rest a little while. They went into
a secluded place where there was no noise, where there was
no toing and froing. And they were enabled then to
sit with the Lord Jesus Christ. And maybe that is what you have
to do. Maybe there's too much noise. There's too much toing
and froing. And you're not hearing the sound
of the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare ye the
way of the Lord. Make his path straight. And you've
got to come aside. And you've got to rest a little
while. And you've got to meditate upon
the word. and you've got to listen. If everybody can hear my voice,
but only some are listening. Everybody could hear the voice
of John as he proclaimed in the wilderness, yet only some were listening. May the Lord then give us true
listening ears. Not only do we hear the sound
of the voice but we listen to the voice and we obey the voice. John obeyed the voice of God. He was the one called out and
chosen to bear testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ and he lived
in the wilderness And there he proclaimed a Christ-exalting
ministry, a self-abasing ministry. He elevated the Lord Jesus Christ
and through him multitudes were called to see the Lamb of God
that takes away the sin of the world. Multitudes were prepared
when the Lord Jesus Christ came to be with him. And today in
the ministry, Is it not what we do? Prepare ye the way of
the Lord. Is not the Lord Jesus Christ
going to come again? Do we not need to be prepared
to meet him? If he comes today, if he comes
tomorrow, if he comes next month, are we prepared? Are we like
the wise or the foolish virgins? When the bridegrooms comes will
we be prepared with the oil burning within our hearts? Or will we
be dim, just nominal Christians? Like the Pharisees, the Sadducees,
we want more evidences, we want more evidences. Who are you?
Who are you? the voice of one crying in the
wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord the Lord Jesus Christ
he is going to come again this same Jesus whom you've seen ascended
up into heaven will come again may we then be found amongst
those who have heard and listened and obeyed the voice of God and
that our life is both faith and practice and what shall we do
And what shall we do? I am the voice of one. Crying
in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as said
the prophet Isaiah. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen. May the Lord help us as we close
this service by singing hymn number 245 from Gaspis. We travel through a barren land
with dangerous thick on every hand, but Jesus guides us through
the veil that Christians hope can never fail. Hymn number 245
to the tune 305. With pages thick on every land,
How Jesus guides us through. Each sorrow's mental satsvika
And able's aim are overthrown The fallen fellows come prevailing
The Christians are ? Sometimes we're tempted to despair
? ? But Jesus makes us stand his guard ? ? Don't let this
force our souls astray ? ? A Christian's heart shall never fail ? sacred word, the unfet promise
of our Lord, and safely through each tempest, through the Christians
of you Almighty God, we thank Thee for
the voice of one crying in the wilderness, and we pray that
we may have our hearts prepared for the coming of the Lord. Thy
Holy Spirit may take down all the high mountains and the valleys
of discouragement and unbelief, and that, Lord, all things may
flow down at Thy presence. We pray that we may be ready,
for behold, the bridegroom cometh. let us go out to meet him. We
ask that we may be dismissed with thy blessing and do return
us here this evening in peace and in safety. And now may the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, with
the fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit, to be with
us each now and forevermore. Amen.