If you turn for a moment to the
book of Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament, I want
us to read the last words of the Old Testament. This makes
us significant. Malachi chapter four, verse five.
God says through the prophet Malachi, behold, I will send
you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful
day of the Lord. Look in chapter three. Behold, I will send my messenger
and he shall prepare the way before me. Now turn back to Isaiah. The voice said, verse six, cry. And that's the voice of the Lord
speaking to the prophet. The voice said, cry. And he said,
what shall I cry? Well, here's God's answer. All flesh is his grass. and all the goodliness thereof
is of the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely
the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, but The word of our God shall stand forever. Now look up in verse three of
Isaiah chapter 40. 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, 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 hath spoken it." Now go to Matthew
chapter 3 for a moment. Verse one, in those days came John the Baptist
preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, repent ye for
the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken
of by the prophet Isaiah that we just read, saying, the voice
of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord
and make his path straight. And the same John had his raiment
of camel's hair and a leather girdle about his loins. And his
meat was locusts and wild honey. Now, this was the dress of Elijah. He wore a loincloth. And God said, I'm going to send
Elijah. John the Baptist is Elijah. John the Baptist is not an incarnation
of Elijah. John the Baptist is the representative
of Elijah that God has sent before the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now in Matthew chapter 11, you're
there in Matthew. I want us to look at our Lord's
words with regard to John the Baptist. Verse two, now when John had
heard in the prison the works of Christ, stop right there,
John had this amazing, God-blessed ministry. People from all over
were coming to hear him preach. Now he's in prison, feeling like
he's been shut up. You can be sure that he wondered
why he was in this position in prison, in his mind, no longer
useful. And he heard of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he sent two of his disciples
and said unto them, unto him, Art thou he that should come,
or do we look for another? Now, wait a minute. John saw
the heavenly dove descend upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and he
saw how God gave the Spirit without measure unto him. It was John
who cried, Behold the Lamb of God, taketh away the sin of the
world." And now he says, are you he that should come? Was
John unbelieving? Yes. Yes. Was John doubting? Yes. I've heard people say, well,
he was just sending his disciples to confirm this to him. No, he
wasn't. John the Baptist himself was doubting at this time. You
say, how could he doubt? Same way you do. Same way you
do. He was no different than me or
you. So he says, art thou he that
should come or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said
unto them, go and show John again. There's the key, again. You know,
we always need to hear the gospel again, don't we? Go show John again. Those things
which you do hear and see The blind receive their sight, and
the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the
dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them,
and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me." Not by me, but in me. Do you realize that the only
hope that you have and that I have is that we're in the Lord Jesus
Christ? That is all of our hope and blesses
that one who's not offended by that. Let's go on reading verse
seven. And as they departed, these disciples
of John to go tell John about what they saw and heard. And
as they departed, Jesus began to say into the multitudes concerning
John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken
with the wind? Someone who could bend to public
approval? Whatever way the wind was blowing.
But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment?
Behold, they that wear soft clothing are in king's houses. But what
went ye out for to see? Remember how multitudes went
to the wilderness to hear him preach? What went ye out for
to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you
in more than a prophet, for this is he of whom it is written. That last verse in Malachi, behold,
I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy
way before thee. Verily, I say unto you, among
men that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than
John the Baptist. Notwithstanding, He that's least
in the kingdom of heaven. Who's that? The Lord Jesus Christ
became least. Oh, he's infinitely greater than
John the Baptist. Now go back to Isaiah 40. And here we have the Lord's words
with regard to this man, and this is what I've entitled this
message, when he said, the voice said, cry. And I said, what shall
I cry? What shall I cry? And John the Baptist was the
reappearance of Elijah that was prophesied in the Old Testament. And this man was One of only
two men who was prophesied would come other than Christ in the
Old Testament. John the Baptist, Judas was prophesied
as well. This is one of only two men who
was prophesied in the Old Testament. He was a very unique man other
than Christ. He's the greatest man, well,
not other than Christ. Christ only is great. But Christ
said, with regard to this man, of them that bore women, none
have risen greater than John the Baptist. He was miraculously
born of an old woman when she was barren. He was filled with
the Holy Ghost from the womb. None have risen greater than
John the Baptist. Now, Isaiah chapter 40, verse
three. Now, in studying this passage
of scripture, we find out what is preached when the gospel is
preached. And if this is not preached,
whatever it is or isn't that preached, it's not the gospel.
This must be the foundation of every message. If this is not
the foundation of every message preached, it's not a gospel message. This is how important this passage
of scripture is. Now, let's begin in verse three. The voice of him that crieth
in the wilderness. John the Baptist, Elijah. And here's what he has to say.
Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a
highway for our God, the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness."
I love this. John the Baptist made no attempt
to identify with man's accepted religion. He stayed away from
the temples. He stayed away from the halls
of Jewish learning. schools of the prophets. In order
to hear from God, you're going to have to go into the wilderness
to hear from God. And as far as we can tell is
this is the first prophetic word since Malachi. It was foretold
that he would be here in that last verse of Malachi. And here
he is, the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare
ye the way of the Lord. Now, how do you do that? Prepare
ye the way of the Lord. What in the world does that mean?
Prepare ye the way of the Lord. The word prepare means make clear. Clear away. Make clear the way
of the Lord. Remove the obstacles that would
hinder men from seeing the way clearly. That's what it means
to prepare the way of the Lord, make it clear. Now, let me give
you one verse of scripture, and there's not a verse of scripture
more important than this verse of scripture in all the word
of God. The Lord said in John chapter 14, verse six, remember
he said, prepare you the way of the Lord. He said, I am the
way. He didn't say, I'll show you
the way. He didn't say, I'll lead you along the way. He didn't
say, I'll tell you what the way is. He said, I myself am the
way. I am the truth. Not, I'll teach you the truth.
Not, I'll preach to you the truth. Not, I'll tell you the truth.
Not, I'll reveal you to the truth. I myself am the truth. Me being the way, that is the
only truth. There is no other truth. I am the life, not I'll give
you life, Not I'll teach you what life is. I myself am the
life. My life is the life. The only
way you can be accepted by God is if you have my life as your
personal life before God. It's the only way. And the Lord said, no man cometh
to the father, but by me. Now that word by, It's quite
often translated in. Listen real carefully. No man
cometh to the Father, but in me. When I come to the Father,
those in me come to the Father. The only way you're going to
get to the Father is by being in me the way. That's the truth. That's the only life you'll ever
have, the life of God, the righteousness of Christ. No man cometh to the
Father, but in me, but by me. That doesn't mean I'm coming
to the Father pleading Christ, although I am. I am. What that means is the only way
I get to the Father is I'm in the Lord Jesus Christ and He
brings me into the Father's presence. When He comes into the Father's
presence, I come into the Father's presence. Prepare ye, make clear
the way of the Lord. Now, this truly is the way of
righteousness, Christ being the way. This is the way of peace. The only peace I have is Christ
is the way. I come to the Father in Him.
This is the way of salvation. There's no other way of salvation. This is the way of grace. This
is the way of truth. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Now, what I just said, if that's
not the truth, and if I preach something else, all I'm doing
is hiding the way. This only is the way to the Father. And that's what John the Baptist
came preaching, preparing the way of the Lord. And then he says in verse three,
make straight in the desert, the place of sterility, the place
of no life. That's what desert means. No
life comes out of the desert, no life. But what's he say to
do? Make straight in the desert of
men's hearts, a highway for our God. A straight highway that
leads to Christ. Now here's what this straight
highway that goes through this desert, it says to look away
from everything else and look to Christ only as all that God
requires of you and don't look anywhere else. Looking unto Jesus,
the author and the finisher of our faith. Verse four. This is the voice of John the
Baptist. Every valley shall be exalted. In preparing the way of the Lord
and making straight a highway for our God, every valley, every
low place shall be exalted. Now, what does that mean? Every
low place? Because you can come into humanity
And you can find a lot of people who are feeling low. And I would
be sympathetic and empathetic toward that. I'm not being harsh,
but there are people who feel low, but that's not the lowness
he's talking about. There's people who struggle with
insecurity and they feel like they don't measure up. That's
not really what the Lord's talking about. There's people who struggle
with their views of themselves. That's not what the Lord's talking
about. He's talking about the lowness of sinfulness. Sin-full-ness. Like I said, you can have all
those other feelings of being in the valley and being down
and being depressed and all those things, and I wouldn't in any
way be hard-hearted toward anything like that, but what he's talking
about is someone who sees that they are the lowest of the low
in and of themselves. They are completely sinful. That's what he's talking about.
Do you see yourself in that light. Now you might look pretty good
to everybody on the outside. We can keep it covered up. We're
good at that. But I'm talking about what God sees, what you
know you are, what God knows you are. Everyone like that, that can
see no reason as to why God would ever look in favor toward them
based upon anything in them, that's somebody that God's going
to exalt. You see, Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners. He came into the world to save
everybody that's low. Now everybody that's low, every
valley is gonna be exalted with the grace of God. You're gonna
be wondering what grace to me. Every valley will be exalted
with the grace of God. And every mountain and hill shall
be made low." All self-righteousness, all pride, it's gonna be leveled. The Lord's not gonna have it. It's going to be leveled. Look what it says next. And the crooked, and that word
has something to do with deceit. The crooked. Like Jacob, the
crooked, a deceitful man. The crooked. Would that be you? No, I'm always honest. Well,
not talking about you then. The crooked. The crooked shall
be made straight, upright. How's that? I can answer that
question real easy. For he hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. For he hath made him crooked,
that we might be straight. That's exactly what that means.
What the Lord accomplished on Calvary Street. And the rough
places, plain. impassable places, leveled. And the glory of the Lord shall
be revealed. John's chapter 17, verse four,
the Lord said, I've glorified thee on the earth. That's going
to be revealed. If anything's revealed to you,
I, the Lord Jesus Christ, I have glorified thee on the earth.
That's your only hope. I have glorified thee on the earth.
I finished the work thou gavest me to do." Do you know that's
revealed to every believer? The glory of the Lord, the salvation
that glorifies Him and exalts Him is revealed to every believer. And all flesh shall see it together
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. This is why it is
so certain and true. Now we come to verse 6, the voice
said cry. Now that is God speaking and
he tells his prophet, cry. He tells the John the Baptist,
cry. He tells Elijah, cry. And I love the question. And he said, what shall I cry? Now this is true with regard to every
gospel message. The voice said, cry. And I said,
what? What am I supposed to say? What
shall I cry? Y'all wish all of us would ask
that question before we open our mouths. The voice said cry. What shall I cry? And then the
Lord answers that question. Now this is I suppose we could
call this, this is the message of evangelism. This is gospel
preaching. If it's not this, whatever else
it is, it's not gospel preaching. This better be in every message
I preach. It better be the foundation of
every message I preach, and it better be in every message I
preach, or I'm not preaching the gospel. This is how important
this is. I don't care what the subject
is. I don't care what the text is. If this is not in it, I'm
not preaching the gospel. Now you can just write that down,
that's so. What shall I cry? Well, here it is. All flesh. Not most flesh. Not 99% of the flesh. All flesh. My flesh. Your flesh. Everybody
in this room's flesh. Everybody outside of this room's
flesh. All flesh is grass. Not most flesh, all flesh, rich
flesh, poor flesh, religious flesh, irreligious flesh, educated
flesh, uneducated flesh, influential flesh, insignificant flesh, white
flesh, black flesh, brown flesh, yellow flesh, flesh, all flesh
is Christ. Romans 8, 7 and 8, the carnal
mind, the fleshly mind, the mind you were born with, the way every
man thinks, unless God gives him a new heart, the carnal mind
is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the
flesh cannot Please God, all flesh is grass, cut down, dried
up grass, no life, cut down, dried up, no power. Romans 3.22 says there is no
difference with regard to the flesh. You know, we might get
intimidated by somebody, we might look down at somebody, all the
different things that we may think. Here's what God says,
there's no difference. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Now look what he says next. All flesh is grass and all, note
those words all, all the goodliness thereof. the beauty thereof,
the righteousness thereof, what we would consider good, all the
goodliness thereof is as the flower of the grass, the good
part. I love what Isaiah said in Isaiah
chapter 64, verse six. Listen to these words. All our
righteousnesses are as good. filthy rags. And we all do fade as the leaf. Our iniquities, like the wind,
have taken us away so much for our goodliness. Cry! What shall I cry? All flesh is
as grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the
field, the grass withers, dries up and dies and rots and decays. The flower thereof, what we would
consider the beautiful part of the grass, what does it do? It
fades. It's, let me give you the way
this word is translated, it's disgraced. It's dishonored. It's come to naught. It's made
vile. And that's what the word of God
says about all the flower and the goodliness of the grass. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth. Don't miss this. because the
Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it." You know, when the Spirit
of the Lord blows life into you, you'll know that all flesh is
grass and that all your flesh is grass. And all the goodliness
that you have is nothing more than filthy rags. If the Spirit
of the Lord blows upon you and He blows the breath of His life
in you so that you have life and you see, you'll see this
way. Somebody might hear this and get upset and get angry.
Not somebody the Spirit of God is speaking to. They know that
this is the way it is with them. I don't know about somebody else.
They seem like awful good people. I understand that. But I know
with regard to me, all flesh is grass. and all the goodliness
thereof is as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, the
flower fadeth because the word of the Lord blows upon it. Now in making this cry with regard
to man, we are crying the utter impossibility of salvation by
works. Now what does salvation by works
mean? Well, somebody might think, well, that means you think you're
saved by keeping the Ten Commandments, or you're saved by being baptized,
or you're saved by joining the church, or you're saved by fill
in the blank. But let me tell you real simply
what salvation by works means. If you believe there's anything
that you must first do before God can do something for you,
that is works. That is salvation by works. And I don't care where you put
it. You might put it at the beginning of salvation. Well, I have to
exercise faith before God can save me. I have to make a decision
to believe before God can save me. That's salvation by works.
You may think, well, before God will bless me, before God will...
enabled me to grow, I first got to get this straightened up and
I got to start doing this and quit doing that. That's works.
If I can become more holy and more pleasing to God by the things
I do, then he'll bless me. That's works. That's all it is.
And there's not anybody in this room that hadn't thought, well,
I'm not being blessed because of my works. Well, you're right. You're right. God doesn't bless
because of your works. If you put works at the end of
salvation, you think, well, I'm going to earn a higher reward
in heaven because of my works here on earth. That's works. To him that worketh is the reward,
not reckoned of grace, but of debt. In other words, God owes
you this. If you work, God's your debtor. And my dear friends, God's nobody's
debtor. He's God. He's not going to be a debt to
any man. Let's say you were the best person
to ever live. What would that do for God? Would
it add anything to him? No. To him that worketh. How are you going to work with
dried, rotten grass? How are you going to work with
a flower that's dishonored and disgraced and made vile? If you or if I believe salvation
by works, we believe a false message. No one can be saved by a false
message. Verse eight, the grass withers,
the flower fadeth, but The Word of our God shall stand forever. There's only one thing or one
person that will stand on Judgment Day and be accepted by God. The Word of God. In the beginning
was the Word. And the Word was with God and
the Word was God. His name shall be called the
Word of God. He is the Word of the Lord. Who Christ is and what He did
is all that will stand on judgment day. And do you hear that? Who Jesus Christ is, And what
he accomplished is all that will stand before God in judgment. Are you glad it's that way? Who Jesus Christ is and what
he's accomplished as the word of God is all that will stand
before God in judgment. Paul put it this way. Oh, that
I may win Christ and be found in him. And he's talking about
on judgment day. Oh, that I may win Christ and be found in him,
not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness, which
is of God by faith. He hath made us accepted in the
beloved. That's all of those stand. To him that worketh not, but
believeth. On him that justifieth the ungodly. Now, I hope we'll all commit
this verse to memory, not just so we can memorize a verse, but
that this would be in our hearts. Remember this, to him that worketh
not. That means I know that I cannot
be saved by anything I do. I work not." That's not talking
about somebody who's lazy. No, that's talking about somebody
who has been made to see that all flesh is grass, all the goodliness
thereof is the flower of grass. The grass withers, the flower
thereof falls away. That person cannot be saved by
his works. To him that worketh not, would
that be you? I can't be saved by my works.
but believeth on him that justifieth thee ungodly." You believe that
what Christ did takes an ungodly sinner and makes them stand justified
before God. Sinless, having never sinned,
perfectly righteous. That's what justification is.
Sinlessness to Him that worketh not. You say you can't be saved
by your words, but you believe on Him that justifies the ungodly. All your hope is there. You have
no other hope. All your hope is there. To him
that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete." You. I don't feel very complete. You
are complete. plumb full, you can't get any
more shaved than you are in Christ Jesus. And it had nothing to
do with your works. You are complete. Where? In Him. In Him. That's your completion.
In Him. There's one singular reason for
salvation. Christ alone. Only the word of God will stand. Only he shall be accepted and
all of those in him. Of him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made into us. Wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption. And this is the message. Cry,
what shall I cry? Well, here's what to cry. And as I said, this
must be the foundation of every message preached. I don't care
what the text is. If it's not there, the gospel
is not there. Here it is. All flesh is grass and all the
goodliness thereof as the flower of the field, the grass withers,
the flower fades. Here's what stands, the word
of our God. shall abide forever. Christ is the word of God. He's
God. Only who he is and what he has
done will stand before God in judgment. And you know, the only
thing that would make somebody object to this is they don't
really believe that all flesh is grass. If you Stick at this and say, what about
this? What about that? You just don't believe your flesh
is grass. Because if you did, you would say with the apostle
Paul, God forbid that I should glory. God forbid that I should
have confidence in anything. Save the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what's going to stand
on judgment day, the day of the Lord, who he is and what he did. The voice said, cry. What shall I cry? All flesh is
grass. The word of the Lord. who Christ
is and what he did is going to stand forever and every believer
is accepted in him. That is the gospel message. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name that your spirit would blow on
us, that we might see that our flesh is as grass, and all the
goodliness thereof as the flower of the field, that the grass
withers, the flower thereof fadeth, and that the only thing that
stands before you is your son and all of those in him, him
who is the way, him who is the truth, him who is the life. We give thanks for him. Bless
this message for his sake. In his name we pray. Amen.