in North Carolina and eastern
Tennessee that suffered all these losses. We're doing what we can,
what little we can. It's going to be a long time
coming for those folks, I believe. Bless their hearts. But they're
mountain folk. They'll figure it out somehow.
Hymn number 242, Jesus, I Come. Out of my body Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come
into Thy freedom, gladness, and light. Jesus, I come to Thee
out of my sickness, Out of my want and into thy will. Out of my sin and into thyself. Jesus, I come to thee. Out of my shameful failure and
loss. Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come
into the glorious gain of thy cross. Jesus, I come to thee. of life's storms and into thy
calm. Out of distress to jubilant song,
Jesus, I come to thee. Out of unrest and arrogant pride,
Jesus, I come Jesus, I come into thy blessed will to abide. Jesus, I come to thee out of
myself to dwell in thy love, out of despair like a dove. Jesus, I come to Thee out of
the fear and dread of the tomb. Jesus, I come. Jesus, I come into the joy and
light of Thy home. Jesus, I come to Thee out of
the depths of ruin of Dove, into the peace of Thy sheltering home. Ever thy glorious face behold,
Jesus, I come to thee. Hymn number 477. Years has been in vanity and
pride. Caring not, my Lord was crucified. Knowing not, it was for me he
died on Calvary. Mercy there There my burden of soul found
liberty at Calvary. By God's word I've asked, my
sin I've learned. Then I tremble at the law I've
spurned. Till my guilty soul imploring,
turn to Calvary. Mercy there. ? And there was multiplied to me
? Where my burdened soul found liberty ? At Calvary ? Now I
give to Jesus everything ? Now I gladly own Him as my King ?
Now my raptured soul can only sing ? Mercy there was great and grace
was free ? ? Pardon there was multiplied to me ? ? That my
burdens all found liberty at Calvary ? ? Oh, the love that
blew salvation's plan ? ? Oh, the grace that brought it down
to man ? Oh, the mighty gun that God did spend at Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace
was free. Pardon there was multiplied to
me. By my burdened soul found liberty
at Calvary. you have your Bibles turn with
me to John chapter 1 again reading from verse 19 and read
through verse 28 and this is the record of John
when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask
him who art thou? And he confessed, and denied
not, and confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him,
What then? Art thou Elias, or Elijah? And
he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he
answered, No. Then said they unto him, Who
art thou, that we might give an answer to them that sent us?
What sayest thou of thyself? He said, I am a voice. I am the
voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the
Lord, as said by the prophet Isaiah. And they which were of
the Pharisees, were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said
unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not the Christ,
or Elijah, neither a prophet? John answered him, saying, I
baptize with water, but there standeth one among you whom ye
know not. He it is who coming after me
is preferred before me, whose shoe latching I am not worthy
to unloose. These things were done in Bethabara,
beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. Let us pray. Our Father
in heaven, Blessed King of Kings and Lord
of Lords, you who reign and rule over the
universe with absolute sway and control, we bow to your majesty
and your power and are truly and gratefully thankful for your
grace and your mercy for ruined, wretched, hopeless, and helpless
sinners. We pray for those of our company
who are sick and away for whatever reason. We ask, Lord, you'd be
merciful to them and comfort them and strengthen them in Jesus
Christ. Pray for our community and the
surrounding communities that have suffered such terrific loss
in these days of floods. We ask, Lord, you'd help for
them. We know that We cannot begin to understand the why of
things that say that you are on your throne. We bow our head
to your wisdom and knowledge. We are thankful that much of
Cherokee was spared. We pray for those who suffer
so. We pray for their relief. We
pray for ourselves tonight as we gather here, as we look at
your word. words of John the Apostle concerning
John the Baptist that you would teach us once again and cause
us to hear and learn the gospel all over. Help us, Father, to
know that in this world there is nothing that we can hold on
to that will last. How easily it is removed from
our grasp. We thank you, Father. for this
knowledge, knowing that this world is not our home. We are
traveling through, we are sojourners here. Our home is in heaven with
our Lord Jesus Christ and soon we'll be there in his presence
rejoicing forever in his goodness and his greatness. Help us now,
Father, to worship you as we consider who you are and what
we are. give us thankful hearts and loving hearts. We pray in
Christ's holy and precious name. Amen. Now this passage of scripture
are the words of John the Apostle the recorder of this gospel speaking
of John the Baptist and he said that this is the record of John
meaning a short synopsis of the person, attitude, and character
of John the Baptist Now this was set forth in a dialogue between
powerful religious detectives and the lone reclusive baptizing
preacher. The Jews had sent priests and
Levites to question John as to who he was. These men were Pharisees
of the order of the Sanhedrin, as it says in verse 24. The Sanhedrin
often sent out these groups of men, one or two Jews and Levites,
all Pharisees, to question men, especially when they saw that
something religious was happening somewhere. They were a judicial
body of the Jews, and one of their jobs was to ferret out
false teachers and judge new religious movements as to whether
or not they were real. Saul of Tarsus was a member of
this body of the Sanhedrin and he was sent out from them with
letters to put an end to Christ and to his church before he was
arrested on the road to Damascus. They viewed John's ministry with
peculiar interest because he practiced a new kind of baptism
that spoke of repentance and remission of sin. and that because
the kingdom of god this was his message wary of that they wanted
to find out more about it now the pharisees believed in the
coming of the messiah they also held to the resurrection of the
dead unlike the sadducees and the essenes who did not the pharisees
held to the resurrection of the dead they held to it doctrinally
And that is clearly revealed in their conversation with John
because they thought he might be Elijah, raised from the dead. So they believed in the resurrection.
Now the importance they placed on John's ministry is also seen
in that they traveled 26 miles on foot to question him. So this was no small thing. They
were concerned. Now for John to see this group
approaching was like viewing a mobile courthouse descending
on him. However, in this instance, their questions were not necessarily
judgmental or condemning. They simply asked, Who art thou?
Now, there is an underlying principle or an underlying motive in what
they say, but that was the question they asked. They were not asking,
however, for his ID, for him to identify himself as John the
Baptist. They had heard of his ministry.
and that he had gathered quite a dedicated following to him,
called his disciples, all of whom he had baptized. And their
first impression was that he might be claiming to be the Messiah. That's why they asked him, Who
are you? They were thinking, because he
had this group of men, and because he was baptizing, and because
they were following him, and they were disciples, and they
were dedicated disciples, They thought he might be claiming
to be the Messiah, the Anointed, the Christ of God. John knew
what their question meant, so his answer was to the point.
It was concise. The way it is worded here, it
says he confessed, he denied not, and confessed. He confessed
that he was not the Christ. He didn't hem and haw. He didn't
beat around the bush. He said in no uncertain terms,
I am not the Christ. Now, they didn't ask him if he
was the Messiah. But when he said, Who art thou? He knew what
they were asking. He said, I am not the Messiah.
In one sense, this would become the mantra of everyone who ever
preached the gospel. I'm not Christ. Don't look at
me. Look to the Savior. Christ must increase and I must
decrease. He convinced them of that fact
that he was not the Christ. But they still needed answers
because he had such a following. And they said, what then? What
then? They asked him if he was Elijah.
Why did they ask him that? They asked him if he was Elijah
raised from the dead. Why? Because Elijah was prophesied
to appear. before the coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ. In the last book of the Old Testament,
in Malachi chapter 4, verse 5 and 6, this is what it said of Elijah
in the very last book of the Bible, the Old Testament, and
the Lord did not speak by prophet for 400 years after this. So
this was the last word of prophecy that these people had. The last
two verses of chapter 4 says, Behold, I will send you Elijah.
the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day
of the Lord. And he shall turn the heart of
the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children
to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."
I'm going to send Elijah. Now you think about it. Four
hundred years have passed. They're looking for the Messiah. And John says, I'm not the Messiah.
So maybe they're thinking, well, maybe he's that Elijah. prophesied
so many years ago we answered no this does not contradict the
words of our Lord because our Lord said something about John
the Baptist being Elijah if you look over Matthew chapter 11 verse 7, our Lord is speaking
and He says, and they departed and as they departed Jesus began
to say unto the multitudes concerning John, that is John the Baptist,
what went you out to see in the wilderness? A reed shaken in
the wind? Because they were complaining
about the harshness of this man. He said, what did you go out
to see? A nobody? A sissy? A mama's boy? Is that what you went out to
see? But what went you out to see? A man clothed in soft raiment?
He wore camel hair. Behold, they wear soft clothing
or in king's houses, not out in the wilderness preaching.
But what went ye out to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you,
more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is
written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall
prepare thy way before me, before thee. Verily I say unto you,
among them that are born of women, there is not risen a greater
than John the Baptist, notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom
of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the
Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence
and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the
law prophesied until John." He was the last prophet as it were
and the first Old Testament, New Testament preacher. He had
his one foot in each. He had his one foot in Malachi,
and here he had his foot in John. And our Lord says, and if you
will receive it, what? That's what Jesus talked about,
what he said about John. If you will receive it, this
is Elijah, which was for to come. He that hath ears to hear. That's
the catchphrase here. That's the caveat of this statement. Our Lord is saying, He that hath
ears to hear, let him hear. Our Lord is saying these words
squarely in the spiritual realm. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. He said that many times. Every time He taught a spiritual
lesson, He would say, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Now, who gives the hearing ear and the seeing eye? According
to Proverbs, the Lord giveth the hearing ear and the seeing
eye. That's how you get it. Until that time, there was one
John witness too who had to tell him that the light was on because
you were blind. He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear.
So our Lord has said in this in the spiritual realm, John
the Baptist being Elijah, if you receive this, this is Elijah,
he said. If you receive what? What I've
said about it, the word. You've received the word. If
you have ears to hear, then hear what he has to say. John the
Baptist, being Elijah, was conditioned on men receiving the Scripture
concerning him, being the forerunner of the Messiah. Now since natural
men receive not the things of the Spirit because of their foolishness
to them, they who receive this truth are they who have been
regenerated by the Spirit through the Word. John the Baptist, being
Elijah, is about the Spirit that indwelled Elijah being the same
Spirit that indwelled John the Baptist. And when Zechariah was
talking about the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ and the coming
of him in Luke chapter 1. If you want to turn there, Luke
chapter 1, verse 13 through 17, he talks about that. Luke chapter
1, verse 13. He says, But the angel said unto
him, Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard, and thy
wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son. Thou shalt call his name
John, and thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall
rejoice in 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 you know he left when jesus when mary came
into the room he left in elizabeth's womb and many of the children
of israel shall he turn to the lord their god and he shall go
before him in the spirit and power of elijah to turn the hearts
of the fathers unto the children of the disobedient to the wisdom
of the just to make ready the people prepared for the lord
so that's what it means when our lord said if you'll receive
this This is Elijah that was promised to come. He that hath
ears to hear, let him hear. And we know that he was talking
in the spiritual realm. Elijah did come in the same spirit
that gave Elijah the words of God. It was the same spirit that
gave John the Baptist the words of God. When John said, no, I'm
not Elijah, he was saying that he was not Elijah raised from
the dead. He was not physically Elijah.
they ask if he was that prophet. He says in verse 21, what are
they, a license? Are thou that prophet? That definite article, that prophet. He didn't say a prophet, though
some say he did. We'll look at that in a moment.
But he's talking about a particular prophet that was promised in
the Old Testament. A particular one. Many were promised. Many
were given. There were many, many prophets
in the Old Testament. but a particular one was being
addressed here. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 18. Look at verse 18. It says, I will raise them up a
prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put
my words in his mouth. Notice the word prophet is capitalized.
from among the brethren, and will put my words in his mouth,
and he shall speak unto them all the things that I command."
What did our Lord say? They said, Where did you get
your doctrine? He said, My doctrine is not mine, it's the doctrine
of him that sent me. And it shall come to pass that
whosoever will not hearken unto my words, which he shall speak
in my name, I will require it of him. Now we go over to Pentecost
in the book of Acts chapter 3. Simon Peter is preaching. Verse 22, he says, For Moses
truly said to the fathers of the prophets, Shall the Lord
your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me? Him shall ye hear in the things
whatsoever he shall say unto you. quoting from Deuteronomy 18,
and it shall come to pass that every soul that will not hear
that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people. Yea, and
all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after as
many as is spoken have likewise foretold of these days. You are
the children of the prophets, and the covenant which God made
with our fathers, saying to Abraham, In thy seed shall all the kindreds
of the earth be blessed. We know from Galatians 3 that
seed was Christ. Unto you first God has raised
up His Son, Jesus. That's that prophet, that prophet
in Deuteronomy 18. seen him to bless you and turning
away from your iniquities some translated this as a prophet
rather than that prophet some translations and that was probably
simply because you think about it all of a sudden these people are talking about
that prophet or a prophet and they're talking about Elijah
because it's been four hundred years four centuries since there's been
a prophet in Israel. So the question might well be,
are you a prophet? We haven't heard from one in
a long time. Nobody living at that time has heard from them.
Well, probably in three or four generations before we heard from
a prophet except what was written. no man speaking for God, because
that's what a prophet did. John says, I'm not that prophet.
I'm not that prophet. The Pharisees had to return to
the Sanhedrin with some kind of report on who this wilderness
preacher was, so they asked him again in verse 22, then they
said, Well, who art thou that we may give an answer to them
that sent us? what's left now of last year
john pointed them to the words of isaiah the prophet and he
quoted as a chapter four in verse he says i am the voice one crime
this last make straight the way of the lord as said the prophet
he said that's who i am I'm a voice. He did not take
himself or take upon himself, though he was a man that many
followed, that many were baptized at his hands unto the repentance
of John. He did not take unto himself
any notion of a high office. He was a man that had some power.
He swayed people. People followed him, but he never
had a notion of a high office. He said, I'm just a man. Just
a man whom God sent with some words to bear witness of another
man. That's what I came for. The one
that I'm to bear witness of is God incarnate, the Word made
flesh. This is the language of preachers
throughout Scripture. Paul in the first Corinthians,
when people were arguing about who was the best preacher, he
said, Listen, I'm nothing. Apollos is nothing. it's God that gives the increase.
We're nothing and we're nobody. Paul said, I am what I am by
the grace of God, yet I labor more than all of you, yet not
I but Christ in me. Yet not I. Yet not I. In Ephesians chapter 3 and verse
8 he says, I am less to me who's less than the least of saints.
God has given this gospel to preach. He was an apostle. He was Paul the Apostle. He was
the one who wrote most of the New Testament epistles. He said,
I'm less than anybody. I'm less than the least of the
saints. John said, I'm just a man. I'm
just a voice. I'm just something you hear,
not something you see, not something you exalt. I'm something you
hear. Verse 25, the Pharisees asked an interesting question.
They implied that Christ the Messiah and the prophets baptized
men. This is interesting because there
is no reference to this being the case in the Old Testament.
The Messiah is never said to baptize. Never. And the prophets were never said
to baptize anywhere in the Old Testament. Where they got this
idea of this? It's kind of iffy. There's no prophecy of Christ
baptizing in the Word, and in fact, it's declared that He did
not personally baptize anybody. It's declared in Scripture. In
this very book, in John chapter 4, in verse 2, it says, Though
Jesus Himself baptized not, but His disciples baptized. He didn't
baptize anybody. so where they got this idea that
the messiah would come baptizing is interesting john gill said
they might have got the idea of the mass messiah baptizing
from two verses in the old testament and then you'd have to use kind
of stretch your imagination to get there in zechariah chapter
thirteen and verse one it says in that day shall be a fountain
open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem
for sin and uncleanness so sin and uncleanness is mentioned
there and John's ministry was about sin because it was about
the remission of sin repentance from sin so maybe that's why
they tied that to that but if you look over to Ezekiel chapter
36 in Ezekiel chapter 36 verse 25 our
Lord says of those who did not sanctify His name and profaned
His name ever were that He was going to save them anyway. He
said in verse 25, Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye
shall be clean from all your filthiness, and from your idols,
and I will cleanse you. But that clean water is represented
with a spirit there. Sprinkling is not baptism. Baptism
is immersion in water. my granddaddy, who I have no
real confidence that he knew Christ, but I say that, that's
none of my business really. But he's, him and another fellow
started, left the Moravian church and started the Baptist church.
Becks Baptist in Western South. They started that Baptist church
because of the rite of baptism. The Moravians doused or sprinkled. And my, my granddaddy said the
bible says they were buried in water, baptized and they said
well it doesn't make any difference. He said well when you die I'm
just going to lay you up against a tree and throw sand in your
face and say you've been buried and you ain't been buried. Baptism
is burial so this sprinkling is the word of God concerning
cleansing by the spirit through the word. through the word, the
washing of the water of the word. That's what that's talking about.
That's not baptism. But that may have been. That's
the only two verses where that kind of language might be interpreted
as somebody was baptizing somebody. These verses speak of repentance
and remission of sin, which was the emphasis of John's ministry.
But to use these verses to say the Messiah would come baptizing,
that is a stretch. This question was probably asked
in order to accuse John. Because they've done asked, and
he's then said no too many times. to accuse him of some new religion
or some new religious practice, and find him a false teacher,
under the notion that only the Messiah or the prophets were
qualified to baptize, because that was their notion. And since
John had declared to be neither, he must be a false teacher, was
what the natural following of that would be. This, too, was
strange, because baptism and washings were common practice
among the Jews in the law and the ceremonies. These were common
washings and called baptisms. And many times, if a person,
the Pharisees say, if anybody sees you in the marketplace,
because that's not a holy place, that's an unholy place, you better
go down to Jordan and wash the bad tithes you sell. That's what
they'd say. That was one of their practices.
So there was many practices. Without necessarily applying
anything sinister to their questions, the bailiwick of the Pharisees
ultimately was to catch you in something. that's the pharisee. How many times did they say they
wanted to catch our Lord? So they would ask questions that
were loaded that would cause him to maybe not be able to answer. Like when they brought the woman
who was an adulteress and stripped her down naked before the Lord
Jesus Christ and said, the law said we gotta stone her. Well,
the law said more than that. The law said you're not only
gonna stone her, you gotta stone the goddess with her. You gotta
kill them both. Our Lord didn't do any of those
things. He just squatted down and wrote in the sand. I don't
know what he wrote. It's not recorded. He may have
just doodled. I don't know. But he looked at all those Pharisees
who had brought that woman, not because they hated the adulterers.
The question is, what are they doing looking in the area of
town where the adulterers are, where the harlots are? What are
they doing there? So they're the ones that found
her, so they had to go looking for her. They brought her to Christ,
and our Lord says, Any of you, and He looked at them, that is,
without this sin, cast the first stone. And He says, one by one, they
all stood up and walked away. And He said to her, We're your
accusers. She said, No, my Lord. He said, Well, I don't accuse
you either. Go away and sin no more. No, you ain't sin no more. Your job was to catch him. Which is the greatest law, they
said in Matthew 22? Which is the greatest law? Why
do they say that? Because they wanted to catch
him, and so he would say the one thing, and then they'd catch
him. Well, no, that's a greater law
than this. Which is the greatest law? He says, well, the whole
law summed up in this, love God and love your neighbor. Love God and love your neighbor.
He said, well, I've got a question for you, Pharisees. Who's Jesus
Christ, the Messiah? Is he David's son or is he David's
Lord? Well, they wouldn't answer because
he was both. He was David's son, but according
to Psalm 110, he was David's Lord also. and say they're just not asking
no more questions, but they asked these things to catch him. This
was what the Pharisees were doing to John. They wanted to catch
him. They wanted to find him in some little area. John's answer
was his ministry. He says in verse 26, I baptize
with water, but there standeth one among you whom ye know not.
He it is. who cometh after me, is prepared
before me, whose shoe latchet I am not worthy to unloose." There are more of these words
recorded by the prophet Matthew in Matthew chapter 3 and verse
11. He answered and said unto him,
he hath, oh, that's Luke, I'm sorry. Got the wrong, oh, Matthew
chapter three. Verse 11, it says, I indeed baptize
you with water unto repentance, this is John speaking. But he
that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not
worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the
Holy Ghost and with fire. who's he talking about? He's talking about the Messiah.
John repeats what he said in verse 15 that he's going to talk
about the Messiah. He came to bear witness of the
light and in doing so he humbles himself, taking the lowest seat
possible. He takes the lowest job known
to men in that day concerning other men. He says this, I am
not worthy who shoelatch it, I am not worthy to unloose. To unloose the latches of sandals
was the job of the lowest servant in the house, doing the meanest
duties of all. It is by comparison to the masters. John says, I'm nobody. This one
that's coming was put before me. He's somebody, and I'm nobody,
and I'm not to be accounted of. You think he says I'm unworthy.
I'm unworthy to do the lowest job possible. Unworthy to do that base thing
is to be nothing and of no count. Maybe it's what David was talking
about in his psalm when he said man is lighter than vanity. Lighter
than emptiness. Spurgeon said add him up to zero
and you've gone too high. this is the heart song of every
preacher and every believer to make it his life's ambition to
be unnoticed in the matters of the gospel to be unnoticed Paul
said it this way in Galatians chapter 6 God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of Christ by whom the world is crucified
unto me and I am crucified unto the world Father bless us to
understand and pray in Christ's name