All right, brethren, let's be
turning to Luke chapter 1. Luke 1. Now John the Baptist
was called of God and he was greatly blessed by God to prepare
the heart of the people, to prepare the people for the coming of
the Messiah. He was called and blessed of
God for this purpose. And He's unique among all men
in that He Himself is the lone forerunner to Christ. God had
been silent for 400 years. That was the last time that a
prophet had spoken in Israel. 400 years. And that's recorded
in the book of Malachi. That's the last prophetic book
written. And it was 400 years until this
man's voice was lifted up in the wilderness. Our Lord was
speaking to the Jews. And he asked them, he said, what
did you go out into the wilderness to see? You guys went out into
the wilderness. What did you go out into the
wilderness to see? What were you expecting to see? Were you just out there looking
for wildlife and nature, reeds and grasses blown in the wind?
No. And he asked them again in Matthew
11, 8, he said, what did you go out for to see? What did you
go out there for? Were you looking for a man? A
fancy man clothed in soft raiment? He said, those people in brushed
Egyptian cotton, they're in king's palaces. These are important
people, great people among men. That's where you go to see them.
What went you out for to see? A prophet? Yea, that's why you
went there, to see a prophet, and more than a prophet. You
see, when John began his public ministry, when he began to lift
up the voice in the wilderness, he came with a much-needed message. He came with a much-needed message,
and God is the one who sent him so that God attended that word
with power and with great glory to the blessing of the people
that heard it. And he said in Matthew 11 verse
10, this is he of whom it is written, behold, I send my messenger
before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. He's quoting there Malachi 3.1,
who spoke of John the Baptist when he should come. Verily I
say unto you, among them that are born of women, there hath
not risen a greater than John the Baptist. Notwithstanding,
he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he."
Why are we greater than John the Baptist? Well, because we
have the revelation of God. We declare the redemption accomplished
by the Lord Jesus Christ. We're revealing the mystery of
God in the face of Christ. Now John knew him. John preached
Christ, but he preached a message of repentance and a message of
preparation for the coming of the Lord. We preach the accomplished
redemption of Christ. We preach what he has done for
his people so that the mystery of God is now plainly revealed
in the face and person of Jesus Christ. Now, we're told that
John came in the spirit of Elijah. Christ himself said this. He
said, this is Elijah, which was for to come. And he ministered
to the people, being called and blessed of God to fulfill the
scripture and to prepare the hearts of the people for the
coming of Christ. Now, brethren, our God has not
gone silent. He has not been silent since
John's coming. He continues to raise his voice
in the wilderness to teach the people, to prepare his people
for the coming of Christ into our hearts. He continues to speak
to his people. He gives them a new birth by
his calling. And He makes men great in the
eyes of the Lord. And He sends men of God to declare
this great salvation of what Christ has accomplished for His
people. And the world needs this message.
They need Christ. We need to hear what our Lord
has done and what He teaches us. We need Him to enter our
hearts, to come in and sit with us and sup with us and minister
His grace to us. Because we're needy sinners in
need of His grace. And so the Lord sends His preachers
to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. So let's look at
John's calling and there we see a relation in the spiritual blessings
of God for his preachers today and for all of you that labor
in this ministry and who are fellow helpers of this grace
of God declared unto us and to his people here in Christ. Now, in Luke 1, verse 13 is where
we'll pick up. Here the angel is ministering
this glorious truth to Zacharias, John the Baptist's father. And
he announces the conception and birth of John. It says, the angel
said unto him, fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard. And that's a comforting thought.
Your God is the God that hears prayer. It may be a long time
in coming, but he hears prayer." I'm sure this was the prayer
of Zacharias and Elizabeth for many years in the early parts
of their marriage. But I don't know that they were
continuing to pray that prayer. It had been probably years and
years since they prayed for a son. And though it was a long time,
yet God says, now's the time. I've heard your prayer. Your
God is the God that hears prayer. And he says, Thy wife, Elizabeth,
shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness,
and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great
in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor
strong drink. And he shall be filled with the
Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. Now, from the womb, what
the Lord is saying is this man's sanctified by God. He's given
power by the Lord for this purpose. He's called for a specific purpose,
and his purpose was to be the harbinger of Christ, the forerunner
of Christ, the one who signaled to the people that Christ is
near. The Messiah, the long-expected
Messiah, is near. He's near. He's right behind
me. And that's what his whole ministry
signaled to the people of Israel. And Christ said it this way.
He said, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear, so that those
that were prepared of the Lord, they saw the coming of Christ.
They didn't miss him. He came to them, and they saw
him. They witnessed the Savior of men. Now, others have been
noted in scripture as well of being called by God from their
mother's womb. For example, the prophet Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 1, verse 5, it says, the Lord says to him, before
I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. And before thou camest
forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet
unto the nations. Paul also speaks of this calling
as well. He said it this way to the Galatians.
He said, when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's
womb, and called me by his grace to reveal his Son in me, that
I might preach him among the heathen, immediately I conferred
not with flesh and blood. What is the Lord saying to us
in speaking of these men who are called from the belly of
their mothers, from the womb? It's to assure them. It's to
say to them, you men whom I've raised up and I'm sending out
to this wicked world, you're going to face fierce opposition. You're going to face fierce opposition
from those who will not hear, who will not bow to this glorious
message of my salvation. It's to comfort them. and to
assure them that I've raised you up, I've sent you. That's
what the Lord is saying to these men about their being brought
forth and called from the womb. It's to say that to us, for us
to understand. And there's many scriptures which
cite this from the Psalms. And they say the same thing,
that the Lord calls his people from the womb, as opposed to
the wicked. which were told are estranged
from the womb. They go astray right from the
womb. The Lord's speaking to us of
His calling, of His choosing, of His divine election of His
people. And so the scriptures declare,
thy people, thy people shall be willing in the day of thy
power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning,
Thou hast the due of thy youth. All these scriptures are given
to us to reveal to us, to make known to us the mystery of God
that He gives a new birth by nature. We don't understand the
things of God. By nature we are dead in trespasses
and sins and the Lord is telling us, I call my people from the
womb. from the womb, thou hast the
dew of thy youth." That is, his people, think about this, Johnny,
his people have the vigor of life forever in Christ. That vigor of youth forever in
the Lord Jesus Christ, so that by the resurrection of power
that raised our Lord from the dead, is the same power of our
calling. It's the same power which gives
us life, giving us the Spirit of God and raises us to newness
of life in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're given a new birth, a new
birth by the Lord Jesus Christ who came and fulfilled, established
the covenant of God's grace with His own blood. with his own blood. And so that same power raises
every chosen child of God from the dead and gives us life in
the Lord Jesus Christ. What's our womb? Where's our
womb? What womb were we called from? Well, the scriptures teach, the
apostles tell us that our old man was crucified with Christ. We died with him. We are in Christ. He is our womb. We died with
Him and when He was laid in the grave, we were laid in the grave. And when He rose from the dead,
we rose with Him and are born again, born anew. That life is
promised to us. It's our inheritance in Christ
by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we're called of God. And
every preacher of the gospel, therefore, is born again, called
of God from the womb, just like John the Baptist, called unto
this grace in Christ. Now being born again and called
of God, our God makes his children to know what true greatness is. Back in Luke chapter 1, Luke
1 15, for he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, in the
sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong
drink, And he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from
his mother's womb. You want to know what true greatness
is? Greatness is that greatness which is great in the sight of
the Lord. That's true greatness. Men of
this world don't understand what true greatness is. That greatness
is contrary. The greatness of God is contrary
to the greatness of this world. It is. It is contrary to the
greatness of what men call greatness in this world. For example, our
Lord says to us, My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither
are your ways my ways saith the Lord." Many think that they're
aligned with God. Many think that they understand
God, and they know the way to the Lord, and they know how to
make themselves righteous and acceptable with the Lord. But the scriptures reveal that
the thoughts and the ways of man are carnal ways. They're fleshly ways. They're
ways of death. The thoughts and the ways of
man are the ways of death and they don't lead to life. We need
the grace of God to give us life. We need God's mercy and grace
which is only given to sinners in Christ. Many think they're aligned with
God, but they're not. Our Lord said it this way, whosoever
hath not, and he's saying hath not the spirit, hath not the
life of God by the spirit, from him shall be taken even that
which he seemeth to have. Because a lot of people can be
religious, and a lot of people can have a form of religion and
be dead. The Pharisees were called white-washed
supplicants by our Lord. On the outside they looked clean
and white and pretty, but inside they were full of dead men's
bones. We need the grace of God. We need Him to deliver us from
a form of religion, a dead letter form of religion. And we won't
see it unless he gives us eyes to see it. We're not going to
figure it out. We're going to justify ourselves
and assume that we are right on track. until the Lord reveals
to us who the true and living God is and shows us our God and
our Savior and what He's accomplished for me, the sinner. He's gonna
show that to His child. He's gonna make us to know what
He's done. The scriptures tell us that the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Why? Because they're foolishness
unto him. They're simply foolishness. Neither
can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. And by nature, we won't discern
them. We'll come so close to the truth
and yet miss it by a mile. We'll seem like we're right there
and yet not see the Lord who's standing right in front of us.
We won't see it by nature. Now, another way that men miss
it is, just look at this world for a moment. Men look at greatness
as having wealth, having education. They look at greatness as being
influential and having power. and influence over other men,
that's the greatness of men. And so they go into politics,
they wanna be a president or a prime minister or a bureaucrat. They wanna be corporate CEOs,
superstars, rock stars, and entertainers. And they say, that's greatness.
Look at them, they're recognized by so many people in the world. That's the greatness of man. But turn over to Luke chapter
three. Look at Luke chapter 3 and we'll just read verses 1 and
2. These are verses that we typically just move right on past very
quickly as we read them. But it's saying something to
us. The Lord is saying something to us here in Luke 3, verse 1
and 2. It's in the 15th year of the
reign of Tiberius Caesar. That's a man that the world says
is great. Caesar, wow. Pontius Pilate being
governor of Judea, and Herod being Tetrarch, or the king of
Galilee, and his brother Philip, Tetrarch of Ituria and of the
region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias, the Tetrarch of Abilene. Annas
and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John,
the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. Luke numbers seven
men considered great in the eyes of people in the world. These
are popes and cardinals and these are great men, kings and rulers
and despots and tyrants of the world, rulers of the world and
kings. and their own eyes. And these
men, the world says, they're great. They're great. And that's
what the world aspires to. They want their children to be
like these people. And they teach and train their
kids, their sons and daughters, you do whatever it takes. to
be just like them, to be great in the world. You make any sacrifice
for these things, for the riches and the power and the recognition
of the world, they tell them, you bear and you partake of anything
they have you do. You make any sacrifice that you
need to make so you can be great in the earth. And yet we see
here that God passed by all seven of those great persons. He went
right on by every single one of them and he goes to a little
unknown man in the wilderness and there he gives that man his
word. This precious word that we need
of the salvation of God and the rest of them remained in darkness. Now what do you want for your
children? You want your children to be great in the world and
yet have no inheritance in eternal things? Or do you want them to
have the inheritance of eternal life? That's the greatness. That's what we want to teach
our children. And we want to be careful with
that to teach our children what true greatness is. It's what
the Lord calls greatness. It's what the Lord gives to his
people in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord said that which is highly
esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. It's actually
abomination in the sight of God. My thoughts are not your thoughts,
and neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. And so
God is the one that makes men great, and he makes them great
according to eternal things. And they're great men and women
who live forever. They live forever in and by the
Lord Jesus Christ, because of the great God and our Savior,
Jesus Christ. He's our salvation. He's our
inheritance. He's our all. And so God makes
all his saints, first they're born again, and he makes all
his saints to know what God highly esteems. He makes all his people
to know the greatness of the Lord. He makes His people to
know who the greatness of God is. And what I'm getting at is
He makes us to know Christ. He makes us to know Him who is
the very greatness of God. And He tells us, you know, that
the Lord, who is the greatness of God, He says, He was despised
and rejected of men. A man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from Him. He
was despised and we esteemed him not. If you would be great
in the sight of the Lord, it's going to come through the blood
and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's going to come
in the humility of humbling ourselves. And the Lord's going to do it.
He's going to bring us to be humbled before the Lord and to
seek Him. The Lord saved me. He's going
to give us a new birth because our first birth isn't sufficient. It doesn't matter who your parents
are. It doesn't matter what estate you're born to or what you can
or can't do naturally. That's not salvation. Christ
is salvation. And He's going to give His people
a new birth. And He's going to give His people to know Him who
is the very greatness of God. And they who come to God in Christ,
they're great in the sight of the Lord. They also are great
in the sight of the Lord. We come in the blood and righteousness
of Jesus Christ. So great men are made so by the
grace and the power of God through Jesus Christ. And great men are
sent of God with this glorious gospel message of Jesus Christ. We come declaring the good news
of the king. We come declaring what he has
sent us to say which is salvation has come, the salvation of God
is here, God saves sinners. God sent his son, the son of
God came in the flesh Which is to say, he came, like you and
I, to suffer and to die for the sins of his people because we
can't save ourselves. We cannot work ourselves out
of this. We can't pay off our debt. We're
sinners, condemned before God by our own works, even the best
of our best works. They're insufficient to save
us. And so the Lord has sent this
good news that sinners, salvation has come. Christ has redeemed
His people. Our King has laid down His own
life to pay the price for His people, to give His people life
in and by Himself. And God is pleased. How do you
know that? Because God has raised Him from
the dead. And you that hope in Him are raised from the dead
in Him. And Christ is your inheritance.
He's your life. He's your greatness. Trust Him. Come to God. him now Luke 1 16
chapter 1 16 says many of the children of Israel shall he turn
to the Lord their God there's many in Israel and we know this
because we see the the Pharisees and the scribes and the Sadducees
and the lawyers and those people that were of power and and and
were in the the the chief in that whole group there of the
officers and the people who controlled things in Israel. And they didn't believe the message
of God, of John. And they didn't submit themselves
to what John was preaching. And they weren't baptized. They didn't receive that baptism
administered by John to the people. But there were multitudes that
did. There were many that heard his word and that believed and
delighted in what he said. Our Lord said there were many
that, for a time, rejoiced in the light that John shone forth. They rejoiced in that light.
And it's because when John came, he was showing them that it's
not our works that save us. It's not our form of religion
that saves us. It's Christ that saves. And so
God's faithful ministers, like John, that same message is needed
today, that through the preaching of Christ crucified, that's how
we turn the hearts of the people to the Lord. That's how we turn
God's people to the Lord, is through the preaching of Christ
crucified. This is speaking here of the
Messiah. A prophecy declares that John
would go before Christ. It says he shall go before him
in the spirit and power of Elijah. John is the voice of him that
crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make
straight in the desert a highway for our God. And what it declares
to us is that all men and all women, Jew or Gentile, educated,
uneducated, rich or poor, whoever you are, all need this salvation. And Jesus Christ alone is the
very salvation of God for all his people throughout the world.
There's one Savior. There's not many religions, not
many paths, not many ways to God. There's one way, and that
way is the Lord Jesus Christ. And so our God sent his son who
took upon him flesh in the form of a servant. He came as a nobody,
a nobody. And people who were great in
their own eyes despised him and rejected him and esteemed him
not. And yet he came in the form of
a servant and died as the substitute of his people. put away our sins
from us forever, and to give us life in Himself, and to give
us an understanding and a knowledge of our God and what He's done
for us in His Son, Jesus Christ, so that we know the salvation
of God, we know the Savior, we know the greatness of God is
the Lord Jesus Christ, who's come and delivered us from the
eternal wrath and judgment of God. And we're told in Luke 1
verse 17, that he shall go before him shall go before Christ in
the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers
to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to
make ready a people prepared for the Lord. And so when John
was sent to the Lord, the Lord was using him to preach repentance
to the Jews. He was preaching repentance to
the Jews. What does that mean? He was saying to them, stop trusting
in your birth for being the natural descendants of Adam. That's not
your salvation. Stop trusting in your works under
the law of Moses. That's not to righteousness.
You're missing what those things were given to say, what they
were given to declare to us. Stop trusting your fleshly understanding
of looking for a temporal, carnal, fleshly Messiah like unto yourselves. Because that's not how he's coming.
He's spiritual. He came in the flesh, but he
gives life in the spirit because by nature we're dead in trespasses
and sins. The one who you're looking for
is an eternal Savior. The one who you're looking for
is sent of God to save sinners, not people who have made themselves
righteous by their own works and by their birth and by their
lineage and by their will, but Christ came to save sinners. And he's going to make you and
I to know that we ourselves, I'm the chief of sinners. is
going to make me to know I need this salvation. I need His blood.
I'm not saved because I'm standing here preaching to you. I'm saved
by the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ just
like you are. We come the same way. in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so John came saying, stop
looking to these fleshly, carnal, outward things that you think
is your salvation and look to Christ because you're going to
miss him. He's going to walk right on by
you. And so he preached that Christ
comes to give spiritual life. He preached Christ that he is
the Lamb of God sent to the Father to lay down his life for the
sins of the world, meaning his people scattered across the world,
Jew or Gentile. He saves His people. He described
Christ as Him which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. I can do
a form of religion. You and I, we can partake in
the outward form of religion. We can sing the hymns. We can
get baptized. We can come up to the table and
partake of the bread and the wine. But that's not our salvation. Christ is our salvation. Man looks at the form of his
religion to save him. And the Lord points out to us
that my form might be better than your form, or your form
might be better than my form. And yet, if you don't have the
spirit of God, you're on the outside looking in. And that
one whose form may not be perfect is rejoicing in Christ. because
the Lord saves his people by his spirit. And he makes us to
know, I can't save myself. And I don't even trust myself.
I trust Christ, that he's everything. And that's what he makes his
children to know, the true greatness of God, because I can make the
outward look great and white and shiny and clean and be dead
on the inside. We know it can be done because
we see it in the scriptures, making it known to us. And so,
John declared an everlasting and spiritual Savior. They were
looking for a carnal Savior. And when Christ came, the Lamb
of God, He pointed Him out. There He goes. And only a couple
of disciples followed Him. Only a couple of people went
off and followed, looking after Christ. And the masses didn't
even know it. And so God's preachers today,
we declare, the accomplished redemption of the Lord Jesus
Christ for his people. And we turn people from trusting
their good works in religion, in the name of religion, to save
them and to look to the servant of God, that lowly servant of
God who the natural eye doesn't see. and the natural eye misses
him, and we declare Christ and exalt him, and God, in grace
and mercy, gives life to his people, a new birth, so that
they see what God sees, and they see as God intends his people
to see, and they see the Lord Jesus Christ. John pointed out
Christ to his disciples, and that's what we're sent to do,
who he is, what He came to accomplish and for whom He did this for.
We show men and women Christ. The ministers of God were sent
to shine a light as a city on a hill. to show Christ, to preach
Christ, not dead letter forms of religion. We're sent to reveal
that hidden mystery, because there's a lot of form in here.
It's laid out. And people look at that and say,
there it is. I mean, the Jews looked at that
and said, this is what he said to do. It's right here in the
law. This is what he said to do. And
they didn't see that what the law was saying is, Christ. Look to Christ. He's everything. It's all speaking of Christ.
And that's the mystery revealed is that we can look in the Scriptures,
the whole thing, and miss Christ. But if God be gracious and merciful
to us, we'll see Him. and will turn from dead-letter
religion, trusting what we do or don't do, to believing the
Lord and Savior that God has sent, the Lord Jesus Christ,
our great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. And so, the grace
of God is what turns the heart of man to look into the face
of Jesus and to see the very light of God shining in the darkness
of this heart to know there's my life. He's my salvation. He's the very savior of God.
And then we follow him and he leads us out of darkness and
he teaches us and instructs us by giving us his spirit and giving
us that hope in Christ. And all those grave cloths and
scales fall from our eyes. And we're delivered through the
preaching of the gospel. And he unwraps those things and
takes us out of trusting in those things to trust in Christ. And he keeps us and leads us
in the way of his righteousness in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
that's what we're sent to do, but this is the work of the Spirit
of God. I can't turn your heart. I can't
make you do or not do, the Spirit of God is the one who comes and
takes up residence in your heart and turns you to the Lord Jesus
Christ to hear Him. And so this is our message, just
like John. Look to the Lord. There he is.
I want you to see that he is the successful Savior, that he
is the Savior who gives you his spirit, a new birth, not in the
oldness of the letter of the law, not in the oldness of this
flesh and this old man, but he gives a new birth and he makes
you great in Christ. And he makes you to see the greatness
of Christ, though you are lowly, and weak, and simple, and a fool,
and a base thing of the earth, and cast off and rejected by
the earth, that's okay if they don't like you. You're called
of the Lord, and you're His people. So look to Christ, and continue
in the Lord Jesus Christ, because that's what He does. He turns
us to behold the Lamb of God. And I pray that our Lord does
that for each and every one of us, in our hearts, turning us
to Christ. Amen.