The Gospel of Luke: Preparing The Way

Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church

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Well, again, good morning, beloved. The Lord bless you and keep you this morning as we go now to the preaching of his word.

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If you please can turn to Luke chapter 3. We're going to be examining verses 1 to 6. When you have that, please stand for the reading of God's word.

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Again, the main text for this morning, Luke chapter 3, verses 1 to 6.

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Hear ye this morning the word of the Lord. In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being the tetrarch of Galilee, his brother

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Philip, tetrarch of the region of Arteria and Tricontus, and Linaceus, tetrarch of Abilene.

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During the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness.

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And when he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, the voice of the one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the

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Lord. Make his path straight. Every valley shall be filled. Every mountain and hill shall be made low.

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And the crooked shall become straight. And the rough places shall become level ways.

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And all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Amen. This is the word of God.

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You may be seated. Let us pray.

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Father, we do come before you thankful for this word, that there is a voice in the wilderness that is crying out, prepare ye the way of the

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Lord. And that that way was made straight, that path was paved even for the feet of our blessed

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Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came in a fullness of time, born of the Virgin Mary, to live the life that we could not live and die the death that we all rightly deserved, was raised again on the third day, and is now ascended and is enthroned as Lord evermore.

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We do give thanks to you, our blessed and ascended King, for all that you have done and all that you will continue to do, not only in the lives of your people, but for the glorious praise of your grace as you administer this new covenant in this kingdom for all ages to come.

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We pray, Lord, that you would help us even now in this place and time to receive this word of preparing the way for the

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Lord. It is in your name we pray. Amen. Well, here we come to an important junction in life and ministry of Jesus.

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We have now the appearance of the promised forerunner, the promised one who would come to pave the way even for the

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Lord Jesus Christ, for the Savior. Now, what I want to bring to your attention, again, as we go through the book of Luke, the gospel of Luke, is how intentional

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Luke is in regard to his details. Again, when we find ourselves in the first opening verses of Luke's gospel, notice again what

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Luke says in Luke chapter one, verse one. He opens up his gospel narrative by saying this, inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us.

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Luke's concern here is with compiling right information in regard to the life and ministry of Jesus.

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He says, just as those who have from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed right good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past to write an orderly account for you,

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O most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

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Notice the attention to detail that Luke has in the narrative of this particular work of the gospel.

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In chapter three, verse one, he's not giving us a narrative of fantasy by saying, a king from a long time ago in a land far, far away, he's not giving us those immature, incomplete details regarding the life and reign and circumstances of Jesus Christ.

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He's saying with precision in the 15 year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, an actual historical emperor of Rome, and then

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Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea. Now did you know that it wasn't until the 1940s that most skeptics believed that Pontius Pilate did not even exist.

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Most people believe that Pontius Pilate was just a figure, a figment of the imagination of the gospel writers, because up until a certain point, there was very little, if not no evidence for Pontius Pilate being the governor of Judea.

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Up until around 1946, 1948, there was a discovery made in Judea of a plaque with the name

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Pontius Pilate, governor of Judea. And so for many years, many decades, skeptics looked at the

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Bible and said, we can't trust the Bible, there's no evidence for a guy named Pontius Pilate. And yet, as it always is, it's archeology that has to keep up with the

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Bible and not the other way around. You see, what we find in the gospel narratives is not mere fantasy.

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The apostle Peter puts it this way in 2 Peter 1, it's not by fantasy or by words or cleverly convised myths that we have brought you this narrative, but it is by the being eyewitnesses of the majesty of Jesus Christ.

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Luke, having taken his time to compile all this information in regard to the life and circumstances of our

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Savior, he takes great care to give us time, places. He's setting the stage, as any good historian would, as any good writer would, he's giving us the stage of who was in power when these events were taking place.

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And so he's giving us intricate details in regard to the life and circumstances of the

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Savior. Now what's of importance here that I want you to notice and I want you to write down in your notes is during the beginning of John's ministry,

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Israel was under Gentile rule. Now you might ask yourself, okay, why does

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Luke go to such great lengths to describe to us who's in charge at this particular time in history?

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In the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being the governor, Judea, Herod being the tetrarch of Galilee.

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Why is those little details of importance here? Because not only is he giving us a time, place, circumstances in regard to the narrative that he's building, but he's also making a very important distinction that Israel is under the heavy hand, the heavy burden, the heavy rule of Rome.

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That there's this powerful empire that is reigning and ruling and suffocating this small little kingdom called

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Israel. And so the importance here is that John is, or that what's being marked under John's ministry was that Israel at this point in time is under Gentile rule with a

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Roman emperor, a governor, and three tetrarchs. And a tetrarch, which basically means a subordinate ruler or small ruler.

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So if you want to put that in notes as well, tetrarchs, which were subordinate rulers or small rulers.

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So think of it as today, we have a president, we have governors, and then you have mayors, you have different levels of administrations.

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And so in the time of the first century, you had the governor, or really you had the emperor who was supreme,

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Caesar, Kaiser. And then you have, of course, under him governors who he has appointed.

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Now governors were not elected in these times, they were appointed from Rome. And they were meant to keep the citizenry in line.

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They weren't governors who heard the pleas of their people. They weren't governors who were duly elected in order to serve in the best interest of the people.

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These were people who were appointed, set up to enforce the dictates of the

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Caesar, of the king, of the ruler. And then under the governors were tetrarchs, or rulers, subordinate rulers, who were given authority over certain lands, which is why we see throughout the scriptures in the narrative of the

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Gospels, you have a person called Herod, and Herod is someone who has authority and power.

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In fact, Christ is brought up to Herod to face trial, and then Herod has no interest, and he takes him back to Pontius Pilate.

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And you see this power structure that's at play, that's working the background of this narrative of the life and circumstances of Jesus Christ.

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Now, what's interesting in regard to what is being mentioned here also, in regard to who reigns in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, what should also be working in the background of a

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Hebrew reader is a reminder that in those days,

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Israel had no Davidic king on the throne. This statement almost serves as a reminder, almost like a smack in the face of reminding the prideful people of Israel, those whom

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God had chosen among the nations, whom God made a covenant with, who God had given a king in David, and said to David that there would be a king forever that would reign from his lineage and from his throne.

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And yet, here we have in the first century, there is no Davidic king on the line.

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There's no Davidic king sitting on the throne at this point in time. Why is that?

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Why is it that there was no king on the throne? Instead, there's a foreign power,

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Rome, that is now lording, that is now ruling over Israel?

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I want you, if you can, please turn to the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel chapter 21.

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Keep your finger in the loop, but we're gonna take a quick detour to Ezekiel chapter 21. In Ezekiel chapter 21,

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I want you to look at verses 24 to 27 with me. This is

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God's word of judgment against the covenant breakers and against Israel. And notice what he says.

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Therefore, thus says the Lord God, because you have made your guilt to be remembered and that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your deeds and your sins appear, because you have come to remembrance, you shall be taken in hand.

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And you, O profane, wicked one, prince of Israel, whose day has come, the time of your final punishment, thus says the

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Lord God, this is God speaking to the king of Israel, remove the turban and take off the crown.

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Things shall not remain as they are. Exalt that which is low and bring low that which is exalted.

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A ruin, ruin, ruin, I will make it. This also shall not be until he comes, the one to whom judgment belongs, and I will give it to him.

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The prophet Ezekiel here receives this word from the Lord to the king of Israel saying, remove the turban, remove the crown from your head.

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The kingship shall be removed from you. And things will not be the same anymore.

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God is proclaiming a word of judgment against his people, but instead he says that this arrangement will not last forever.

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This arrangement of there being no Davidic king on the line will last only until he who has the legal right appears, to whom judgment shall be given.

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That judgment, that promised one is the Lord Jesus Christ, the one whom

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John the Baptist is preparing the way for. You see, Israel's transgressions and the imperfect wicked rulership by the kings of Israel led to the removal of the kingship and the trampling of the nations upon Israel.

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This is what Jesus later refers to as the Gentile times in Luke chapter 21.

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The times of the Gentiles ruling over the people of God, ruling over the nation of Israel.

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And this arrangement would continue, this ruin would continue until he to whom belongs a judgment comes.

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And the Bible promises that God will give it, the kingship, the reign to that promised one, even the

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Lord Jesus Christ. So you're following the notes. In those days, Israel had no Davidic king on the throne.

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This was God's judgment upon Israel for their disobedience. And if you know anything about the later kings of Israel leading up to the defeat of the northern tribes by the

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Assyrians and the southern tribes by Babylon, you'll see that there was a succession of wicked kings who began, as we're going through Isaiah, began to make alliances with foreign powers of Syria and Egypt to find their protection, to find their sustenance in those foreign deities.

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And yet God was not pleased with such arrangement. Instead, God removed the rulership of Israel and gave it over to the

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Gentiles until he who has the legal right should appear. And that was our

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Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. And so this was God's judgment upon Israel as the crown was removed until the promising of David appeared.

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The crown representing the kingship of David would be removed from Israel until, again, the

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Savior, Christ, would appear. And this is what is working in the background of Luke chapter three, this reminder that Israel, as Luke writes this, is under the dominion of a foreign power.

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There is no Davidic king, but the Davidic king, he is on his way. And John the

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Baptist is the forerunner. He is paving the way for this promised king.

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How incredible is that? In verse two of Luke chapter three, we read again that during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness.

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The word of God came to John. This is very reminiscent of the call of the prophet in the

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Old Testament. The call of the Old Testament prophet was that oftentimes, like Elijah was, in the wilderness,

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God spoke to him. God's word came to him. And John, being the last prophet of the

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Old Testament, being the last prophet of the old covenant, is receiving this word from the Lord of spiritual revival.

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Now that word revival is a big word today. Maybe you've been following along online what's been called now the

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Asbury Revival. Has anyone heard of this so far? This revival service that kind of started in Kentucky at a college where there was a chapel service and people started to gather.

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And what seems to be pretty incredible, they've been going at it for about 12 days now.

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Unbroken succession of worship and praise and preaching that's been happening. And the question that's been raised often, especially in the

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Reformed community, is what do we do with this? Is this a revival? Is this, what is this? How do we categorize this?

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And for me, the way I simply look at things is if Jesus is exalted and is being worshiped, that's a good thing.

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That's awesome. We should encourage that. But we should also have a healthy dose of skepticism.

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What is being taught there? What is being said? What is being exalted? These are fair things to measure and to weigh.

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And I think we ought to weigh and measure those things rightly. But revival is something that is unique because it speaks to the desire of the human heart.

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Every one of us here would love to see a revival, amen? Every single one of us would love this thing that's happening at this college campus in Kentucky to spread around the world if it's a true revival.

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We would want to see that. We'd want to be a part of that. But brothers and sisters, recognize this about revival.

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That revival always begins and ends as a work of God, not of man.

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You can't manufacture it. You can't force it. You can't even produce it, whether by preaching or by good music or by religious fervor.

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Fervor, it has to be a work of God in order for it to be a genuine revival.

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And in the Gospel of Luke, we see God paving the way for true revival.

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He's doing it through John the Baptist, by the word of God coming to John.

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The word of God, as it comes, it does not come null and void. It doesn't come without purpose, but it comes to fulfill

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God's purposes. And God's purpose would be fulfilled in the prophet John, in John the

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Baptist, as he begins to prepare the way for the Lord. You see, in the midst of both political and spiritual corruption in Israel, God called

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John to the ministry by the word of God. I want you to write these things in there in the notes.

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In the midst of both political and spiritual corruption, God called John to the ministry by the word of God.

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And that's the beginning of revival. You see, why is revivals necessary?

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It's because corruption comes into the world, comes into the world by sin, by deceit.

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Therefore, the need for revival, to be revived, to be brought closer to God, is made necessary.

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Now, one of the ways you can judge a revival is by looking at history. One of the great revivals of American history happened in the 1700s, under the preaching of a man by the name of Johnton Edwards, whose preaching swept through New England and brought forth the fruit of repentance, similarly to what we see

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John preaching in the next couple verses here. Notice what it says in verse three. And he went into all the region around the

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Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of what? Repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

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You see, when Johnton Edwards began preaching the gospel, he started with this fiery little message called

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Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Maybe you may not wanna sign up to hear that message.

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Most of the world, if they saw that to be the title of the message, would probably scoff and not wanna hear what the preacher had to say.

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But yet, with that fiery message, Johnton Edwards was able to ignite, by the spirit of God, a fire that led to one of the greatest revivals in church history.

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One of the greatest revivals that is still looked upon today as the gold standard of spiritual revivals that swept through New England, swept through the early

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American colonies, before we were even formed truly as a nation. And it's that, where these spiritual revolutionaries saw their wickedness, their depravity, and their sin, and saw the need for a savior.

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That, brothers and sisters, is revival. When poor, humble sinners see their need for a savior, and they come to that savior without haste.

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You see, one of the things that marks revival is not only acknowledgement of sin, but it's coming to Jesus hastily, knowing that He's the only answer, knowing

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He's the only way. Because so often in our culture today, maybe, maybe the person will acknowledge that they're a sinner.

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And when we tell them, come to Jesus, they tarry. They don't come, they don't rush, they don't see the need.

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They think tomorrow is still promised. When the truth of the matter is, tomorrow is never promised.

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Tomorrow is not promised to any one of us here in this room. For there is a day appointed, by which we will die, by which we will see the

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Lord, by which we will stand before Him in judgment. And what will you do then? Should you not have the protector and lover of your soul,

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Jesus Christ, as your true and only advocate? This is why, brothers and sisters, it's so important that if we want to see revival, we must preach, without shame and without hindrance, the pure, unadulterated word of God.

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Just as that word of God came to John the Baptist, so must we also be faithful in preaching this gospel, this good news, this message of repentance and faith towards Jesus Christ.

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John was called by God from the wilderness. From the wilderness,

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I want you to write that in the note as well. God called John from the wilderness, which is a fitting description of the state of Israel at that time.

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It was a wilderness. A wilderness meaning that this was land that was untamed, land that had not been taken care of, that man had not yet dominated.

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And notice what is the prophet's command. The voice of the one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the

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Lord, make his path straight, build a highway, tame that wilderness, tame that creation, that served evil of the world, and create a highway, create a straight and narrow path so that that which was once wilderness is now a highway for our

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Lord. That's the message here. In the midst of political and spiritual corruption,

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God calls the right man at the right time, John the Baptist, to preach the word of God, bringing forth what can be accurately described as one of the first revivals recorded in the

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New Testament. As people heard this message from this fiery preacher named

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John, and he went and he preached, proclaiming the message of baptism of repentance as we taught this morning at our

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Sunday school. Baptism, or what seemed to be the right or ritual baptism, would not be strange or foreign to the average

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Jew. All around Israel, especially outside the city walls of Jerusalem, existed these pools for ceremonial cleansing.

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Another fun fact, most people, or archeologists, prior to, of the last century, in the 20th century particularly, did not believe many of the gospel narratives surrounding some of the locations of the pools because they could not find them.

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Recently, many of these pools, just within the last 10 years, have actually been found, again, correlating with the biblical description of what the gospel says in regard to the geological location of said areas.

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But the average Jew in the time of Jesus or in the time of John the Baptist would not be unfamiliar with ritual washing, as it is commanded both in the law and the

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Torah, and also seen practiced throughout Old Testament history. But what was unique about John's message was that he wasn't just preaching a message of ritual washing.

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Ritual washing meaning particularly if you had touched something unclean or had become unclean by various means, before entering into the camp of God's people, before entering into the holy city to render sacred service and worship, one had to clean themselves ritually, would also need to wash their clothes prior to entering as well, so that they would not track in any unclean thing in the presence of God's temple, which was essentially the hotspot of God's glory and of His grace towards His people, and as in that time, worship centered around the temple.

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But what was unique about John's call was that he wasn't preaching about ritual washing as so much as he was preaching about repentance and associating the cleanliness of God's people as this thing of the heart that is manifested outwardly, rather than trying to manifest the outward cleanliness inwardly.

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John is the first to begin to proclaim this message in the New Testament of an inward change than being manifested by an outward ritual of baptism.

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So he says and he proclaims this message of baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, not just so that you can be clean enough to enter

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Jerusalem, not to be clean enough just to enter into the temple, but now so that you may have an actual forgiveness of sins, an atoning, foreshadowing

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Christ's perfect work on the cross of forgiveness of sins of repentance by faith in Jesus Christ, the one who he is crying out for, prepare the way of the

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Lord. John, again, went forth proclaiming a message of baptism.

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I want you to write this in the notes if you haven't already. John went forth proclaiming a message of baptism, repentance, and forgiveness of sins.

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Now this was a radical message. This message was so radical that quickly, John begins to make some enemies.

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Why is that? Well, because not only do you have in this time this foreign power called

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Rome ruling over Israel, but you also have amongst the Jews a religious establishment of the

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Pharisees and Sadducees, this class of religious zealots, who had now become essentially the lords of and keepers of the

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Torah of the Old Testament, of the law of God. And as the enemies of God, both politically and spiritually, begin to hear

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John's message, they are threatened by what he is saying and doing.

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Another mark of true revival is that it will stir up the enemies of God.

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Hear that again. A true mark of revival means that it will stir up the enemies of God.

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That's a powerful indication that this is a true revival. Did you know the same thing happened with Jonathan Edwards as he began to preach his message of repentance as well throughout

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New England? That he began to stir up the religious and political enemies of God in New England to conspire against him?

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Do you know that Jonathan Edwards' life didn't end particularly well with regard to his ministry and regard to his status?

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Died a very lowly, lonely death. A very sad death indeed, actually. Wasn't martyred, wasn't killed, but he became sick.

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And yet we see that in true revival, in true fashion, when God's word is rightfully proclaimed, it will stir up God's enemies against God's people and against his messengers.

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So we ought to expect that when we see true revival. Similarly, here we see that John the

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Baptist, faithfully, not only proclaiming a message of baptism, of repentance and forgiveness of sins, but as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet

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Isaiah in verse four through six, the voice of the one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the

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Lord, make his paths straight. What accompanies true revival is a making straight of God's ways.

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It's a making straight of God's people. So that God's people follow

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God's instruction. God's people must follow God's instruction, proving that repentance is at work.

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Again, John went for a proclaiming message of baptism, repentance, forgiveness of sins. And this baptism has a power, has a significance, as we've been learning in our

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Sunday school. Again, we encourage you to come to our Sunday school next week as well, so you may learn more about what it is that is so powerful and distinctive about baptism.

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If you're looking at the notes, baptism, I want you to put this, baptism equals renewal. I want you to put that in the notes.

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John preaches a gospel, a message of baptism, signifying, pointing to renewal, both inwardly and outwardly.

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We believe as Christians that baptism is of great importance. We are baptized, by the way.

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We believe in a believer's baptism and full immersion in water, signifying the death, burn, resurrection of Christ, and our being joined together with him in that.

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As the waters represent a watery grave, and our going down into that water represents our association with Christ's death, so too we also believe that as the believer is brought out from the water, not by his own doing or works, but by the hands of another, that God too can raise us from the dead, both spiritually and one day physically, so that as where Christ is now ruling and reigning, we too shall be translated and shall be changed and will be transformed like and unto his resurrection glory.

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That's the hope. The hope behind baptism is a message and a hope of renewal, that we will be changed and are being changed through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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And what's at the heart of John's message is one also of repentance. Repentance, I want you to put equals transformation.

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Without repentance, without a turning from sin, there can be no transformation.

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There is no forgiveness of sins. There is no baptism that will be of any good to you unless it is preceded by repentance.

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Repentance being again a turning away from sin. And what results in this repentance and in this baptism is this forgiveness of sins that John preaches.

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This forgiveness of sins being peace. I want you to write that in there, peace.

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Because what does forgiveness afford us? We've all done wrong in our lives. We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

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It says in Romans chapter three, verse 23, all have sinned and fallen short of the mark, every single one of us.

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And we will continue to do so in this wicked and fallen state that we are in. What then does forgiveness afford us?

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It affords us a peace with God. Notice what the Apostle Paul says in Romans 5 .1.

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Therefore, now that we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our

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Lord, through whom now we have received this reconciliation. This peace is what is afforded to us by this baptism, repentance, and forgiveness of sins.

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We can have peace with God. And that's the gospel hope. That regardless of what we've done, where we've been, or even where we're headed, we can have peace with the

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Almighty Creator, knowing that our sins have been paid for, both past, present, and future.

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And this peace is the same peace that Paul writes about in Philippians four, that transcends all understanding and can guard even our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.

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This is indeed God preparing the way for Christ.

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For all these things are fully embraced and fulfilled in the life ministry, death, burial, and resurrection, and ascension of our blessed

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Savior, Jesus Christ, who affords us a baptism of fire, not only of water, who gives us the opportunity to repent and believe on his name for the forgiveness of our sins so that indeed we may have peace, peace even with God and be reconciled.

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John's ministry here in Luke chapter three is the beginning of the restoration or revival of Israel.

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This is true revival, where baptism, repentance, and forgiveness of sins, peace, where you see those three things, know that revival is at hand, that the restoration of God's people is at hand.

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And truly, John did bring forth a great revival at this point in time of redemptive history.

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So much so that later on in the life of Jesus, even after Christ's ascension to heaven, the disciples of Christ are still encountering the disciples of John, who had been baptized in John's baptism of repentance, who then later have to be filled with the

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Holy Spirit. So great was this work of revival that it opened the way for the

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Lord Jesus Christ to come on the scene and to preach his message, not only that the kingdom of God was near, but the kingdom of God was now at hand.

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Prepare the way of the Lord. This was John's work, this was John's cry, the voice of the one crying into wilderness, where again, where there was nothing but absurd, uncontrolled wilderness.

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God says and speaks, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Verse five says, every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low.

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This is the taming of creation. This is the taming of the wilderness and the crooked shall become straight and the rough places shall become level ways and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

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You see, John the Baptist was the foretold voice. I want you to write this in there.

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John the Baptist was the foretold voice into wilderness, the one who prepared the way for the

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Lord. And we've taught on this before as we've gone through this scripture several times, this quotation from the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 40.

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What's of great interest here is what this verse actually reveals about the one whom

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John is preparing the way for. Again, quoting from the prophet Isaiah, he says, the voice of the one crying into wilderness, prepare the way of the

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Lord. If you read it from the Hebrew, if you look at Isaiah chapter 40 in the

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Hebrew scriptures, it says, prepare the way of the Lord. If you're reading from the LSB, for instance, the new translation from John MacArthur's folks in the

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Master's Seminary, it says, prepare the way for Yahweh, Yahweh.

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Every time you see the Lord capitalized in the Old Testament, the Lord, L -O -R -D, capitalized, that in the

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Hebrew is a tetragrammaton, the Hebrew name of God, the four letters, yud, he, vav, he, meaning

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Yahweh, or sometimes translated as Jehovah.

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And notice in the Old Testament, it was Jehovah, it was Yahweh whose way was to be prepared, it was his pathway, it was his highway that was to be made so that all flesh may see the salvation of our

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God. And yet in practice, when John the Baptist comes on the scene and he takes this verse, and he's that voice in the wilderness crying out, prepare the way of the

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Lord, for whom is he preparing the way for? But Yahweh come in human form, in the flesh, in person, in Jesus Christ.

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Jesus is Yahweh, the one for whom

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John is making the paths straight. It is indeed a verse that shows the very divinity, the very

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Lordship, the very Godship of our Savior, Jesus Christ, that Jesus is the

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Yahweh, he is the Jehovah that was promised, who would come down, who would be the one for whom all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

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That word salvation in the Hebrew, Yeshua, Jesus. All flesh shall see the salvation, the

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Yeshua of our God, that Jesus is indeed Yahweh, he's

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God come in human flesh. This is at the heart of the gospel narrative, at the heart of John's ministry, was he was preparing the way for Yahweh, and Yahweh had come in Jesus Christ.

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So if you're following the notes, the one who would prepare the way for the Lord God, namely Jesus Christ.

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Jesus is God, he's Yahweh God. He's the

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God for whom it is said in the prophet Isaiah, that the voice of the one crying in the wilderness prepare the way of the

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Lord, make his path straight, every valley shall be filled, every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

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This language of taming creation is figurative and spiritually realized in John's ministry.

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We see also, for instance, in relation to the second coming of our Savior, in the book of Zechariah chapter 14, uses very similar language.

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It says that in regard to the second coming, we don't know if this is gonna be fully fulfilled spiritually or physically or maybe a mixture of both, but it says in regard to the

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Lord's return, that his feet shall touch the Mount of Olives, the mountains of Mount Olives, and of the surrounding regions of Jerusalem will be made low, there'll be a chasm that will be opened.

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Very similar to the language that we see from the prophet Isaiah. The mountains being brought low by the feet of Yahweh when his feet touches the

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Mount of Olives. Isn't that interesting? And yet, this was spiritually fulfilled in his first coming when

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John the Baptist made straight the paths of the Lord, not by literally bringing down mountains, but by spiritually bringing them down.

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As mountains in the Old Testament are often pictures of nations, nations shall be brought low in preparation for the coming of the

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Savior. And indeed, Israel, being that kingdom that was made low, now trampled on by the nations,

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Caesar reigning over Israel, governor, Pontius Pilate governing over Judea.

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You have Tetrarchs in Herod ruling over the people of God. These shall be made low as Christ is made king.

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And that is the heart of true revival, where all things are brought low and Christ is king and Lord of all.

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That's revival. That's restoration, brothers and sisters. We close by examining again the last two verses of Luke chapter three.

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Every valley shall be filled, every mountain hill will be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

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I want you to know this about John. I've told you before, but it's of such great importance that we understand this.

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John the Baptist is the last prophet of the Old Covenant age.

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And he's the herald of a new age, a herald of a new age, a new dispensation, a new thing.

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Not new age in the 70s way of thinking of new age, of crystals and all these crazy things, but a new age in that God in the personal work of Jesus Christ truly brought a new dispensation, a new era to light, where the crooked will be made straight and all shall see the salvation and glory of the

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Lord. Brothers and sisters, we live in such a time now. Now, you and I can see the glory and salvation of the

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Lord in the face of Jesus Christ. Jesus is now the glory and salvation of the

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Lord. Have you've come to behold his precious face? Have you've come to him to receive this baptism of forgiveness?

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Have you've come to him to receive forgiveness of sin and peace with God?

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Brothers and sisters, this is for you and for me and for all who the Lord our God shall call.

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May you today recognize that revival is not far from our grasp.

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Restoration is not far from our hands. Instead, it is near, even on our very lips.

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For the Bible says this, for thou would confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thy heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

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Thou shalt be saved. That's revival. It starts with the heart. And if you have not yet made that proclamation of faith, do not tarry.

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Do not tarry. For tomorrow's not promised to you or I. Every single one of us has been appointed a day in which we will meet our

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God face to face. May you stand before him complete in Jesus, knowing that your sins have been forgiven, knowing that you've received the baptism of the spirit, knowing that there is peace and reconciliation with your maker.

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Friends, you can do that today by confessing your sins, knowing that you're a sinner, receiving the

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Lord Jesus Christ by faith, and believing on his word. And the Bible says that you will be saved.

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And his death, burial, and resurrection is the foundation of our salvation. May you today come to recognize and see the salvation and the glory of our

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God in the face of Jesus Christ. Let me pray. Blessed Savior, we thank you that you have sent the way, that you prepared the way through the prophet

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John, and that the way, that highway that was marked and made is the highway that we stand on today, in which we too, with eyes of faith, can behold and see and taste the salvation and the glory of our

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God. We thank you, oh sovereign Lord, oh creator of all things, for all that you have done and will continue to do.

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We pray, Lord, that you would bestow on us a baptism of repentance, a baptism of faith, a baptism of full immersion into your spirit, oh

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Lord, that you would work in us that which is pleasing in your sight. Lord, that you would help us, Father, in our weaknesses to be strong.

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Father, we pray for the forgiveness, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding to guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus so that we may see revival in our hearts, in our families, in our church, in our city, in our state, in our country, and in our world.

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Lord, that you would do this marvelous work in our midst and that we too would find our place in preparing the way for the

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Lord who is to come again in glory, whose name is above every name, and by which every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that he is indeed

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Lord to the glory of God the Father. It is in your precious name we do pray, even you, our blessed