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Well, praise God, I'm so thankful that we have a visitor this morning. Eddie, so glad that you chose to worship with us this morning from Memphis, Tennessee. He comes from Memphis anyway, and he's here in the Powder Springs area, so praise the Lord.
Thank you for coming and worshiping with us. It's so good that we are journeying through the Gospel, this fourth Gospel, the Gospel of John. A wonderful, wonderful Gospel. And I just love it because there's no other, I would say, record or witnesses that we have.
There's four writers, witnesses, and the Scripture says two or three makes that established. But there's four writers that gives the story. It's all the same story, just a different perspective. And isn't it wonderful that we have four, basically, books, four Gospels, one Gospel really by four different writers that tells the story of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And actually, if you read through the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation, it's all about Jesus, right? But here, it's like, it's all focused on the story of Jesus Christ. And we are just about to the text, Lord willing, next week, we're going to be beholding the Lamb of God.
Now, we behold the Lamb of God every Lord's Day, don't we? But that's going to be actually our text. And that's where we are as we're looking at the testimony of John the Baptist. The testimony of John the Baptist.
And I'm basically just finishing up what I didn't finish last week. So, there's a lot here. So, let me read the text to you and then we'll have a word of prayer. Let's go to the Gospel of John, chapter 1.
Let's look at John's testimony, his record. And we will look at beginning at verse 19 through 28. Hear the Word of the Living God, verse 19 through 28. The Word of God says this, now this is the testimony of John.
When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who are you? He confessed and did not deny, but confessed. I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Are you Elijah? He said, I am not.
Are you the prophet? And he answered, No. Then they said to him, Who are you that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.
Make straight the way of the Lord. As the prophet Isaiah said. Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees. And they asked him saying, Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?
And John answered them saying, I baptize with water, but there stands one among you whom you do not know. It is he who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.
These things were done in Beth Barah, beyond Jordan, where John was baptized. Please bow with me as we seek our Lord in prayer. Our Father and our great God, once again we cry out to you, and our cry is what the psalmist says, Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to your name, Lord, give glory.
And it's all because of your mercy, your tender loving compassions toward us, because of your truth. Lord, I pray today you would sanctify each and every one of us wholly, through and through, with the truth of thy word.
Brand it within us, Lord, and may it change us forever. And as John the Baptist said, May Jesus increase, and may we decrease. We ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, for your honor and glory.
Amen and Amen. Praise God. Wonderful text before us, from verse 19 to 28. This text actually shows us that John the Baptist was a man of God, and he was sent from God, and he was very clear on who he was not, and he was very clear on who he was.
Those two must be paramount before us. We must know, as servants of the living God, who we are not, and we must know who we are. And John the Baptist was absolutely certain about this. He was certain who Jesus was, which enabled him to point others to the Lord Jesus Christ, as the one and only Savior of the world, and whom they desperately needed.
And that's where we are today, right? We must know who we are not, and who we are, within the kingdom of God. We must have that right. I like what R .C. Sproul says, before we get the gospel out, we must get it right.
It must be pure. It is pure. But on our end, we must make sure that the message that we are conveying to the world is a crystal clear message, and we are to speak it in clarity and in power. This world is in desperate need of Jesus Christ.
As you well know, we live in a very fallen world, and such as we were once, and the mercy of God rewrote our lives. He rewrote our lives, and rescued us, and brought us up out of the mire of clay, and set our feet on the rock to stay.
Praise to His name. Now, the rest of this chapter 1 presents the record, basically the witness, of the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ. His name is John the Baptist. Again, and we're going to see basically today why he's called the Baptist.
And it was way before the Baptist denomination ever came along. I can tell you that now, but there's a reason why he is a baptizer. And we're going to see that today. Now, again, I'd like to bring this out.
I'm going to recap a little bit what I mentioned last week, and then we're going to pick up basically with verse 24 to verse 28, and primarily just focus there. But let me recap a little bit here. Number one, as again, this text points out two purposes for this important section.
Number one is to show John's witness to Jesus at the inception of Jesus' ministry. They overlapped. There was a transition that takes place here. John the Baptist was a powerful witness for Jesus Christ, and actually at this point, people do not know exactly who Jesus is.
He has not come on the scene, but we will see, Lord willing, next week, verse 29, the Lamb of God comes on the scene. And he points people, here He comes. Look, behold, the Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world.
But as of right now, Jesus has not come on the scene. He's still hidden in obscurity. But there will be an overlap of ministry here, and John's disciples will be pointed to go to Jesus, and they are kind of not quite comfortable with that, but John actually says that's who you are to go to.
Can you imagine a preacher today said, the Lamb of God, my ministry fades. Jesus' ministry shines more and more. That's the way ministers should be. We're just a voice. As Brother Keith mentioned, we're worms.
We're nothing. Jesus says, without me, you could do nothing. So we point people to Christ. It's not about the preacher. It's not about the ministry per se. It's not about the man behind the pulpit. It's not about us.
It's not about me. It's about Christ. And that's our desire at Redeeming Grace Church, is for Christ to be lifted up and glorified. But that's the first part of this, is basically to show John's witness that Jesus, at the inception of Jesus' ministry, number two is to clarify John's relationship to Jesus as one of witness rather than rivalry or antagonism.
That's basically the point in everything that's being said here. So we need to be clear on this great truth, on who we are and in God's kingdom so that we can be effectively used of God. Not to be used of God, I think, is the most horrible tragedy there is.
But to be used of God for His glory is a great privilege. And to effectively point others to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. Now, this messenger of God, John the Baptist, he was a man, as we've already seen, he was a man sent from God.
He knew who he was and he knew who he wasn't. Others here had questions about John the Baptist, but John did not have questions. He knew exactly his mission and his commission. And he knew God personally.
He knew God in an intimate way. And I believe God made this man in the wilderness. He made him in the desert. I never will forget a godly man, he was my mentor, Dr. Ruben Sequeira. He was a great missionary and a pastor.
He had such a pastor's heart. And at Bible College years ago, and I was standing right beside this other young man, and he happened to look at this young preacher right beside me,.
And he said,.
Son, why are you here at Bible Seminary? And he said, well, he said it in a humble way, but his answer was wrong. He said, I'm here to be a preacher. And he looked at that young man and he said, Son, I'm going to tell you right now, God doesn't make preachers at seminaries.
He said God makes His preachers in the desert. And that boy's eyes was like, whoa. And I took in every bit of that, and I didn't understand a lot because at that moment, because as being a young man, being in the ministry and studying for the ministry, I come to find out they just give you the tools to help you in the ministry.
God is the one that makes the preacher. God brands them in the desert, and I come to find that out later on that God had a journey for me, and I praise Him for that. I praise Him for the hard times. And I look behind me and I say, I thank God for the hand of God, of the hardships and the hard times that He's put me through to bring me down low, that Christ will be doing a work within me and through me, that Christ may be seen.
Because that's all we are. We're just channels of blessing. Channels and conduits for God, His energy and power to flow through us. So, John the Baptist was a powerful messenger that was made in the desert, in the wilderness.
And we're going to look at that a little bit. He knew God had sent him into the world for a specific ministry. He was sent from God. He was called by God. He was commissioned by God. He knew exactly who He was, and He knew exactly what He was doing, and He also knew who He was not.
Now, we looked at that last Lord's Day. Look at verse 19. And it says this. Now, this is the testimony of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem, the headquarters basically, to ask Him, Who are You?
And then verse 20, He confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. John was saying basically, I am not the Messiah. I am not the anointed one. And next in verse 21, they continue. And they ask Him, What then?
Are You Elijah? That's interesting to bring up the prophet of Elijah, because there must have been in something John the Baptist's ministry very similar to Elijah, the prophet of fire, bold for God. Even his dress was very similar to Elijah's.
He was almost like a very radical, eccentric, wild man, we would think, if they were to come in our day today. We would look at them and say, What a strange character. But these were men of God that God called and branded and used them and also worked within them.
And in verse 21, and they ask Him, What then? Are You Elijah? And He says, I am not. I'm not Elijah. Now, Elijah was expected to return to proclaim the coming of the Messiah. And he was expected to do several things, mainly to warn people, as we looked at God's prophets in this period of time, in which now, today, there's no apostles and prophets.
There are basically, there are bishops, pastors, and teachers. But the age of the prophets and the apostles are basically over. And I'm talking about hand-picked, anointed, godly men like this because the canon of Scripture has been closed.
And these are special people. They gave us the word of the living God. No one can give us any more revelation.
Than this.
It's closed.
So if anybody gets up and tries to claim to be a prophet for the Lord or an apostle, don't listen to that. I don't care how well they speak and how much so-called anointing they may have. The days is over there because these were holy men of God.
And God used them as God was breathing upon them to give us this Bible, this word, and this holy word of God. So nothing can be taken away from it. Nothing can be added to it. But, at this period of time, when God raised up prophets like Isaiah and Ezekiel and Jeremiah, the weeping prophet,.
Moses,.
And many, many others, you have these prophets. And they were God's alarm clocks. They were God's warnings, spokesmen to speak for God and to warn the people of God. And usually it was about the coming judgment because of their sins and their idolatries and their rebellions and not keeping the commands of God.
But they were God's warning alarm clocks. They mainly warned the people. And also, Elijah, supposedly, if he was to be sent, was to anoint the Messiah to the kingly office. Miracles to help select those who were to have a part in the Messiah's kingdom.
Now, John the Baptist denied that he was Elijah in person. Now, again, we looked at this last week. It should be noted that, and I'll just say it in short here, but we looked at the scripture that Jesus mentioned about John the Baptist and referred to him as Elijah.
But he was not Elijah in person. That's the deal. Look at the text very closely. He basically identified John the Baptist with the prophet Elijah. And you can read it in Mark 9, verse 11. However, there's no contradiction.
Jesus was saying that John the Baptist was Elijah in spirit. He was in spirit. He had the spirit and the power of Elijah. That's the way this man preached. He was a powerful spokesman for God.
And that's what he said,.
I'm just a voice. And he says, I'm crying in the wilderness. He's crying in the wilderness and prepare you the way of the Lord. Make his path straight. That was his message. Now, notice with me in verse 21b.
Are you the prophet? Well, he's not the Messiah. And he's not Elijah. And now they ask him, are you the prophet? John was not the prophet. Now, he was a prophet, but not the prophet. There's a difference.
We know who the prophet is. The prophet of all prophets. High priest, king, and God in flesh, Jesus Christ. But this prophet that they're speaking of here was thought to be another forerunner of the Messiah according to John 7 .40.
Let me read John 7 .40. This is an interesting text. The people there, therefore many, many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said, truly, this is the prophet. That comes right out of the text.
This is the prophet. And speaking of Jesus Christ, absolutely. He is the prophet. But we know that he's more than just the prophet, right? He was the Lord of lords, the Lord of glory, come from heaven, sent from the Father to come to this world to redeem his people.
So, some persons at that time thought he would be either Jeremiah or even Isaiah. This was based again on Moses' prophecy as we looked at, that there would be a prophet like unto himself in Deuteronomy 18 .15.
Next, in verse 22. Look at verse 22. Then they said to him, Who are you that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself? Now, that's a legit question there. What do you say about yourself?
When this crowd, these people, these Levites and priests, when pressed to identify himself, John the Baptist claimed that he was the fulfillment of Isaiah 40 .3 in which I just quoted. But verse 23, John 1, he said this, I'm a voice of one crying in the wilderness.
Make straight the way of the Lord. Make straight the way of the Lord. And as the prophet Isaiah said there, and it goes on. Now, I'd like for you to focus a little bit with me on this little word, wilderness.
Wilderness. It's a barren land. It's a dry land. It's desolate. Here is also not only a literal meaning, which I do believe it's literal, but I really do believe that there's a spiritual allusion here as well to the barren state of the Jewish religion.
Because you've got to keep in mind, when this section was written, at this period of time, Jesus is about to come forth, and John the Baptist, the forerunner, is going to introduce the disciples, the world, the religious people there, the Jewish people.
Behold the Lamb of God. And John was the forerunner of Christ, and for the first time in 400 years, think of that, 400 years of silence between the pages of Scripture of Malachi until the Gospels come, there was no word from God.
John the Baptist comes on the scene, the courtroom of earth, and he proclaims the testimony and the witness, here's Christ. He comes on the scene. He's sent from God. There's a voice from God. And the voice, and he's got one, his ministry's all about one.
And we see that it's coming to a climax real soon. There's going to be an overlap. And then we're going to see as John, when he cried out and said, he must increase, I must decrease, he meant every bit of that, folks.
He just wasn't saying it, just to be saying it. He meant every single bit of it, and it came to pass, and we'll see later as he was put in prison, that's exactly what happened. He was decreasing, he was fading away as a star, and the heavens would fade out, but the sun was coming out, shining and shining, Christ Jesus.
Don't you love it? Now, there is a barren state of the religious people, of the Jewish people here. J .C. Rowe, I love J .C. Rowe, in his expository thoughts of the gospel,.
He says this, quote,.
It had degenerated into religious ritualism and legalism. Rather than a personal relationship with the living God, it is the tendency of all religions, including Christianity, to devolve from knowing God, and walking with Him on the heart level, into an outward observance of rituals and rules.
Whenever that happens, whenever that happens, he says, God raises up spokesmen to call people back to walking with Him, and to do that, we have to clear away the obstacles of sin, and fill in the ruts of ritualism that have robbed us from reality with God.
End quote. And I said, wow, J .C. Rowe, no one can quite say it like Rowe, but he's absolutely correct.
Amen?
And I believe that's where we are today. We've fallen into the ruts of ritualism and legalism, and there's also another extreme,.
Antinomianism,.
Against the law of God, and also a cheap grace that's being preached, where grace is trampled underfoot, because we have so much light in America. But basically, it's the same devil, and it's the same flesh that has drawn us away from the living God to know God personally.
So, God always raises up men, doesn't He? Now again, like I said, no more apostles and prophets, but we do have the Word of the living God. And if you look back in history with the great reformers, that's what God did, raising up those godly reformers at the time of the dark ages to call people back to this right here, the Word of the living God.
Don't we need this?
To come back to God's Word. As Spurgeon says, this is the only authority for the church is thus saith the Lord. And that's what I hunger for. I hunger God's Word. God, speak to us through Your Word, through Your servants, the prophets.
And I basically mean that in the sense of God's called men. Now, we see from the text here that John the Baptist saw himself as one who baptizes. We're going to pick up here. One who baptizes the repentant.
The repentant in water. Look at verse 24 to 27. We're going to focus on this a little bit. Now, those who were sent were from the Pharisees. Basically, the Sanhedrin. And they ask Him saying, why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ nor Elijah nor the prophet?
And John answered them saying, I baptize with water. But there stands one among you whom you do not know. It is he who coming after me is preferred before me whose sandal strap I'm not worthy to lose.
Now, we're going to look at this and there's a lot here. You know, John answered them. He says, I baptize with water. But there stands one among you whom you do not know. Now, it is he who is coming after me is preferred before me whose sandal strap I'm not worthy to even lose.
Think of it here. The Pharisees, they were the delegation. They were still not satisfied with John's answer. They just were not satisfied. Sounds like people today, don't they? Even within the churches.
Never satisfied with the answers. They always got to be hair splitting and bringing up conflicts. The Pharisees, and that's what they did. These Pharisees at this time in history were what you would say a conservative.
They were a dogmatic. They were very dogmatic. They were the theologians of the day. Influential. A sect that numbered about 6 ,000. There was about 6 ,000 at that period of time. They were very strict in interpreting the law in Israel.
And actually, they misinterpreted it so much they added and subtracted. They actually added more to it. And Jesus said, by your traditions you've made the Word of God of none effect in the sense that basically you've added so much to it the traditions of men.
And you see this. They were extremely zealous. Think of that. For ritual, tradition. And we've got to be careful not to fall into this same trap, folks. It's so deceitful. And a lot of people say, well pastor, not me.
Oh, you've got to be careful. By just saying not me, that's a trap because they're not being humble enough to say,.
You know, my flesh is weak.
The Spirit's willing, but that's why we must stay focused on the Scriptures. We must stay focused on who Jesus is. We must know who we really are too, because we're nothing. We're very weak. And it's very easy to fall into these traps of being interpreters of the law.
In Israel at that time, thinking we have the answers and we don't. And they were extremely zealous, but they were zealous for the wrong things. And we see later on as Jesus comes on the scene, He's zealous for the right things as He cleansed the temple.
That was a zeal of the Lord that was behind Him. And people say, yeah, but it became angry. And I had one guy I talked to years ago when I was working with in the produce department, and he said, yeah, he went in there and whipped people with the whip.
And I said, it's nowhere in the text that he said he whipped people. But he drove them out there. He drove them out, and he was very zealous for God's holy name because it was being used as a marketplace of selling and taking the sacrifices and making a mockery of God's name.
And Jesus, if you notice this in His ministry,.
We'll see this.
He cleanses the temple at the beginning of His ministry, and He cleanses the temple at the end of His ministry.
You see what He's doing?
There's a cleansing, a purifying, and this is God's heart. This is God's passion because God, not just for the temple itself,.
But for God's holy name.
And that's why Jesus says when you pray, we pray, our Father which art in heaven,.
Hallowed be Thy name.
You know, God's name is holy.
Holy, holy.
And if anybody truly gave reverence and honor to the name of the holy God,.
It's Jesus Himself.
Jesus.
Well, they came to John. They asked him, why do you baptize? Why are you baptizing? Well, this is important. Now, at this point, John could have easily gone into a lengthy discussion, folks. I think most preachers would have grabbed that bait.
You see? They would have said, you know, yeah, this is, let me tell you what I'm doing here. I'll give you one, two, three, four, and give you an outline. No. John didn't take that. Like I said, he could have easily gone into a lengthy discussion of himself and his ministry as his important role as the baptizer.
And he was the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ. Was he qualified to say a lot about it? Oh, absolutely. But this shows you what kind of humble man this man of God was. Again, his reply with regard to himself as brief as possible, folks.
It was brief.
I'll tell you what, we're going to see this in application because he was a true, humble man of God. You see, and then he directs everything, and I'll say that with emphasis, directs everything to the Lord Jesus Christ,.
The Messiah.
I baptize in water, but among you stands one.
Whom you do not know.
You can just almost hear John saying that with such passion and fire. You know, John waits until the next day,.
Like I said,.
To draw a contrast between his baptizing in water to Jesus' baptizing in the Holy Spirit in verse 29 to 33, and we'll be looking at that, Lord willing, next Lord's Day. But here in verse 28, John the apostle, the writer here, identifies the location where John was baptizing.
Verse 28, these things were done in Bethabara, beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. There was lots of water. John's baptism was unique. Now, let's look at this for a little bit. Why is it unique?
Why?
This is important for us to get. Because it was common in that day for Gentile proselytes to Judaism to be baptized, and some Jewish communities practiced self-baptism for cleansing. But John the Baptist, as God's messenger, as the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ, was doing the baptizing, he was doing it on Jewish people.
Now, that's interesting, because even calling on the Jewish religious leaders to repent and to be baptized, according to Matthew 3, 7 through 12, even the Jewish religion, and then in that section, after he told them, they were asking him the question, what do we do?
What do we do? What do we do? Even the military, the military people that hurried, what do we do? And he told them. The religious leaders, he told them. The people, the common people, he told them. And he basically breaks down in a very simple way what repentance really is.
Fruits of repentance. And this surely would have been very offensive to the racially, religiously proud Jews of that day. I want you to think about this now. John's baptism has two facets. Has two facets.
Number one, number one, it was a baptism of repentance in which those that were being baptized confessed their sins. There was a confession of their sins, turning from their sins, that prepared themselves for the coming kingdom of God, and the king was about to come on the scene.
You see, the kingdom of God is going to be preached, and John the Baptist preached it, and he said, you repent, you turn from your wicked ways, and basically there was a preparatory, there was a preparation here for the kingdom of God, of coming into the kingdom of God.
John exhorted those being baptized, and what did he say? Bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance. Basically, in our words today, that basically means you obey, you bring obedience in keeping with repentance.
When you turn from sin and turn towards the living God, you obey and keep what the word of God is saying. That's the way it would be said today. As opposed to relying on their own Jewish heritage for right standing with God.
Turn with me very quickly, we'll see this just in short, in Luke, Luke chapter 3. I'd like for you to see this.
Luke chapter 3,.
Beginning with verse 7. I'd like to read it all the way to verse 20. Then he said to the multitudes, this is John the Baptist, that he came out to be baptized, that came out to be baptized by him, these people, the multitudes, that came out to be baptized by him.
And because his popularity was quite, very strong at this time. And notice what he says. He didn't hold nothing back. This man preached, I mean preached with passion and truth. He called them brood of vipers.
Wow.
Could you imagine pastors and evangelists getting up and saying, you brood of vipers? To the religious groups? Snakes, vipers. Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance and do not begin to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father. For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees.
Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So the people asked him, as I've mentioned and paraphrased a minute ago, listen to this, saying, what shall we do then?
He answered and said to them, he's basically telling them in a simple way, this is what it means to repent. He said, he who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none. And he who has food, let him do likewise.
In other words, if God's blessed you with something, you're to help and give to the poor that's in need. Okay? And then the tax collectors also came to be baptized. Look at the groups of people here. And said to them, teacher, what shall we do?
He gives them an answer. And he said to them, collect no more than what is appointed for you. Just that one small text is loaded with such truth. In other words, you be honest, have some integrity and you don't rob.
Collect no more than what is appointed for you. Likewise, the soldiers. Here's another group of people ask him, saying, what shall we do? So he said to them, do not intimidate anyone. In other words, you treat people fairly, with respect.
Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely. And be content with your wages. Boy, that a preach. Now as the people were in expectation, and all reason in their hearts about John, whether he was the Christ or not.
John answered, saying to all, I indeed baptize you with water, but one mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I'm not worthy to lose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. And by the way, that fire speaks of judgment.
His winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor, and gather the weed into his barn, but the shaft he will burn with unquenchable fire. And notice what it says in verse 18.
And with many other exhortations, he preached to the people. But Herod the Tetrarch, being rebuked by him concerning Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, for all the evils which Herod had done, also added this above all, that he shut up John up in prison.
And that's actually what happens when you preach repentance. Get ready. Persecution's going to come when you preach repentance. And I'm telling you, I heard Pastor John MacArthur said this. Yes, we are to preach the love of God.
But how many times within the Gospel of John.
That it speaks.
There's one great text.
That says,.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. That's a great text. And we know that.
But how many times,.
Time and time and time again, folks, we hear the words,.
Repent.
Yes, we tell them God loves them, but we also say, we give them the whole counsel of God. You are to repent from your sins. You know, really, there's a main problem that people have. It's a sin problem, isn't it?
But you know what the biggest problem is? It's a God problem. People have a problem with God. And it's a self problem. And that's why Jesus said, You to follow Me, you deny yourself, take up your cross,.
And follow Me.
How many times do we hear that preached? We hear more about the love of God many more times than we hear about repentance. But you know our message is really, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.
But we love them, and we tell them with compassion,.
God loves you so much, He doesn't want to see you go to the flaming fires of hell. He desires you to repent and turn from your sin.
And turn to Him.
You see?
We must preach the whole counsel of God. Well, again, John's baptism is very important because of the baptism of repentance. Second, His baptism anticipated the coming messianic baptism. Again, with the Holy Spirit and fire, which we just saw briefly in Luke 3.
It was a sign to point people to the coming of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. John Baptist saw himself as a lowly slave, folks. A lowly slave. He was a love slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was an unworthy servant of the Messiah.
Verse 27, It is He that is coming after me, that is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I'm not worthy to loose. A rabbi by the name of Joshua Ben Levi, and he sounds so Jewish, doesn't he? In AD 250, taught this.
He said, quote,. All manner of service that a slave must render to his master, the pupil must render to his teacher, except that of taking off his shoe. Undoing the sandal strap was the job of a slave.
The Jewish Talmud even says, quote,. Everything that a servant would do for his master, a scholar should perform for his teacher, except the menial task of loosening his sandal thong.
End quote.
The reason I mention that is this, John the Baptist was basically saying that the Lord Jesus Christ is Lord. He is Lord, He's Messiah, He is the Anointed One. He's the Living Lord. He's the Living Lord.
And John was saying, I'm just a voice. I'm just a servant. I'm just a lowly slave of His.
Because He's Lord.
And actually,.
I'm not even worthy to stoop down and to unlatch His sandals. John saw himself as lowly. A lowly slave of Jesus Christ. And Jesus is such a worthy, worthy Master, folks. And that's the way we should have our perspective.
We are God's love slave. That's such an important word. And you see this word crop up, doulos, constantly. It's a love slave. It's a servant. There's a servant. But there is a difference between a servant and a love slave.
The love slave is bound in chains. But it's not the kind of chains that is torturous. There's a great binding of love that you want to be close to the Master,.
The Lord.
And John the Baptist saw Christ like this. John the Baptist even pointed out to his own disciples, to the Lord Jesus Christ. He wasn't trying to hang on to them, see. Even his own disciples. He said, no, you go follow Him.
We'll see that later on. And this is why John the Baptist says in John 3 .30, Beloved, this should be branded in all of our memories and hearts, but especially those that are voices for the church, for preachers.
He must increase, but I must decrease. That's the axiom. Underscore must. It must happen. It must take place. Christ must be exalted. Christ must be lifted up. And we should be falling back in obscurity.
And fading away. And we should see our task on this earth as one purpose. And that is Jesus. And Jesus alone. Lift Him up. Lift Him up. Because Christ says, if I be lifted up, I'll draw all men unto me.
And of course the text means Christ being lifted up on the cross. And this is why Paul says, I don't know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He must increase, but I must decrease.
Now as we go into our conclusion, this is the major point. We must be clear on who we are in God's kingdom that we can be effectively used of God and to point others to Jesus Christ. And this is why John the Baptist was used of God.
Because he was truly a humble slave. A humble servant of the Lord. I'd like for you to turn with me as I bring this to a conclusion. And then I got a few applications to bring out. Go to Matthew 11. Please.
Matthew 11. Look at verse 1. Now it came to pass when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples that He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities. And when John had heard in prison, he's in prison now, about the works of Christ, He sent two of His disciples.
And He said to them, Are you the coming one? Or do we look for another? And notice how Jesus answers here. Jesus answered and said to them, Go and tell John the things which you hear and see. The blind see 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 who is not offended because of Me. And as they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John, What did you go out into the wilderness to see?
A reed shaken by the wind? Or what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings' houses. But what did you go out to see?
A prophet?
Yes, I say to you. This is the Lord Jesus Himself. Listen to this. Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet, for this is He whom it is written, Behold, I send My messenger before your face who will prepare your way before you.
Assuredly, I say to you, among those that are born of women, there is not risen one greater than John the Baptist, but he who is leased in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.
For all the prophets and the law prophesied unto John. And He says, If you are willing to receive it, it is Elijah who has come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. But to what shall I liken this generation?
It is like children sitting in the marketplaces calling to their companions,.
Saying,.
We have played the flute for you, and you did not dance. We mourn to you, and you did not lament. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He has a demon. And the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, Look, a glutton and a wine-bibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.
But wisdom is justified by our children. Now let me stop right there. There's much there. Don't have time to get into all that. But I'd love just to point out just a few things here that's very important for us.
You see,.
John's faith. What's happening here is, John's in prison. And John is expecting, John is expecting, as Christ the Messiah comes on, and he knew the kingdom of God is about to take place here, but he didn't have the full picture, the light that we have now.
He was expecting the kingdom to come. That's why in Acts 1, when Christ was ascending, the disciples came out and said, When are you going to restore Israel? And Christ says, It's not for you to know the times that the Father is basically going to be doing this.
In other words, we don't get caught up in the times. John didn't quite understand the time frame here of what was going on. He knew he was the Messiah. So what I'm trying to say is, John the Baptist was probably at that time expecting the fierce judgment.
You see what I'm saying? He didn't quite see the light that we have, that Christ being sacrificed. But he knew he was the Messiah. In other words, Jesus would bring fierce judgment. Think of it. We see the forerunner, John the Baptist, fading away.
He's in prison. And basically we know what happens to him. He keeps preaching against the sin that God hates, and then they take his head off and brings it on a platter. But he got his reward. So Christ here, in his ministry, Christ's ministry is being elevated.
Notice this. John's popularity goes down. Christ's popularity goes up. That's the way it should be. And John took joy in that. John chapter 3. He decreased. Christ increased. John the Baptist was fading away in obscurity.
Where Jesus was in obscurity, Jesus comes on the scene. And John says,.
Behold the Lamb of God.
You see what's happening. And here he's in prison. And his faith was not wavering, folks. His faith was not tottering. I'm going to show you something in just a minute. He was just confused with the turn of events.
He's in prison. Think of it. He's in prison. He's in chains. He's alone.
He's fading.
Christ was carrying on the ministry and healing. And then two of John's disciples, he sends them. There's communication. And he says, Is he the one? In other words, the judgment time, the final judgment, which we'll look into the second coming, hadn't come yet.
Jesus came to give grace.
And to save.
And this is why Jesus gives the answer. Go and tell John the things which you hear and see. The blind see. The lame walk. The lepers are cleansed. The deaf hear. The dead are raised up. And the poor have the gospel preached to them.
Basically, what he's saying, the king is here and the kingdom has come to you.
You see that?
And he's basically saying, and actually, MacArthur makes a very interesting point here.
He said,.
Evidently, Jesus performed these miracles in their presence just so that they could report back to John the Baptist that they had personally seen proof that he indeed was the Messiah.
And though Jesus offered no further explanation to John,.
Just go tell him that. In other words, that would be sufficient. And that basically tells us there that John's faith is strong. And exactly how strong he was. But he was a humble man. And Jesus says, Out of all the men that's been born of women, there's none risen any greater than John the Baptist.
But. Anytime. Remember what we said about the but? There's a hinge. Opens the door. And gives us the revelation. What's the revelation? He who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. What is he meaning?
Basically saying that the believers like you and me. In the church. After the cross. We're greater still because we participate in the full understanding and the full light of the experience of something that John only saw in the shadows.
The atoning work of Jesus Christ. John was a true humble man. Here's the application. Let's look at true humility. True humility is so essential. For a correct view of ourselves. But self-esteem is absolutely detrimental.
We see too much of this folks. We don't need more self-esteem. That's the problem.
Amen.
Satan had a lot of self-esteem and he still got it. And that's what made an angel, an archangel into a devil. We need to be humble. Proverbs 18 .12. Solomon says, Before his downfall a man's heart is proud.
But humility comes before honor. Don't you see this in John the Baptist? LSB translation says, Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty. But humility goes before glory.
Before glory.
Ephesians 4. Listen to this. And this is application to all of us. Including myself. Ephesians chapter 4. 1 -3. The apostle Paul. A man of God. Gave us over a third of the New Testament. Through the Holy Spirit of God.
He says,.
I therefore a prisoner for the Lord. Listen to that. A prisoner for the Lord. Urge you to walk in manner worthy of the calling. To which you have been called. What is that? And he says it. With all humility.
And gentleness. With patience. Bearing with one another. In love. And eager to maintain the unity of the spirit. And the bond of peace. What is humility? What does it mean? To be a truly humble person.
Well before we unpack that very quickly. And not exhaust it by no means. Because my time is running out. But before we look at that question. I would like to unpack just a little bit. A biblical definition of pride.
Because to see what true humility is. We must see what pride is. Pride is seeking anything. As a definition here. For yourself. Above the interest of others. And against the worship of God. Let me say that again.
Pride is seeking anything for ourselves. Above the interest of others. And against the worship of God. You got a chapter and verse? Oh I got lots of chapters and verses. But I'm going to give you one.
God hates pride right? He hates it. James 4 verse 1. Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure? That war in your members? This is James 4. You lust and do not have.
You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. And you ask. In other words you ask. Do not receive because you ask amiss. That was ask wrong motives.
That you may spend it on your pleasures. Adulterers and adulteresses. Listen to that. To the point. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God?
Or do you think that the scripture says in vain the spirit who dwells in us yearns jealousy? But notice what he says. But he gives more grace. Therefore he says God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.
Resists the proud.
Gives more grace to the humble. The apostle Peter says basically the same thing in his epistle. Matter of fact we'll see this but true humility is a choice. It's something that God puts within us as children of the living God.
But it is our choice as well. You see pride basically exalts self. We exalt ourselves. Self esteem. The psychologist says get these children self esteem. Self esteem. Oh that's such a mistake. That's another gospel.
It's satanic. You see it does not pursue the glory of God's name.
Pride.
But the interest of one's own heart. Pride is thinking of ourselves as the creator instead of the creature. You can read Romans 1 18 -32 about that. Pride uses people to achieve our own ends instead of loving other people to achieve God's own end and God's glory.
How often we've seen even preachers do things like that in the ministry. Using people for their ministry. Don't you think God's not going to sit back and not let that go unnoticed. He's going to bring judgment.
His own praise and glory. God is jealous over His glory folks. He will not allow another. No flesh will glory in His presence. Pride is selfish because it does not seek anything outside of itself. That's why 1 Corinthians 13 opposite of all that is love.
Love does not boast. Love does not envy. Love does not think of itself. Love thinks of others. It thinks of God. You can read that most convicting chapter. But pride is selfish because it does not seek anything outside of itself beyond its own perservation.
So what does the opposite of pride look like? Well biblical humility. Biblical humility folks. It's not possible. Let me say that. From the work of God's spirit within us. The spirit of God must do a work.
In other words we must be born in the spirit of God. To even get a glimpse of what true humility is. It's not even possible. Unless the spirit of God. Unless we're born again. We cannot be humble unless we have a heart.
A new heart of flesh. And that God does a spiritual operation. Takes out the heart of stone. But humility is after that even a choice. Because Peter says clothe yourself with humility. You know what that means?
As I put my clothes on and you put your clothes on every day. By habit we must clothe ourselves. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Put on humility. We should be thinking like this. We should be thinking biblically.
Practicing it.
And beloved we cannot be humble unless we have that heart. A new heart. Jesus mentioned that to Dicodemus. You must start all over.
You're too religious.
You're old but you got to start over. You must be born again. That's what he said didn't he? And that means people in the church too. And living against the attitudes that are naturally prone to obey.
John 15 5 if I mentioned earlier. Jesus says without me you can do nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing. Nothing.
Here's a few points that will help us in closing. Number one. True humility. Biblical humility is the crowning virtue of the Christian faith. So humility. And that's what J .C. Rowell says. Humility is multi-faceted.
Time would not be able to afford us the length to explain every situation in which humility is required. But there's so much through the Bible about God gives grace. More grace to the humble. He resists the proud.
Look what he did in Nebuchadnezzar.
He lifted it up himself.
He said this is my kingdom. I built it for my glory. Then right then God allowed him to become like a wild animal and sent him out for seven years. And he lost his mind and his reason. It's like he became insane.
True humility is not about being a positive doormat. I'm sorry. A passive doormat. For others to walk on. Because actually a neatness is strength. Neatness is not weakness. Neatness is strength under control.
And Jesus had this. That's why Jesus said come unto me all you labor and heavy laden. I'll give you rest. For I am meek and lowly. Jesus says if you want to know what meekness is and lowliness of heart.
He said I'm the one.
Come to me.
So we must go to Jesus.
Sit at his feet.
So it's not about being a doormat for others to walk on. But being an active servant of the Lord for the sake of others. Look real quick to Philippians 2. You're very familiar with this text. I know. But it's so important.
Therefore Paul says if there be any consolation of Christ. Any comfort of love. Any fellowship of the Spirit. If any affection and mercy. Fulfill my joy and be like minded. Having the same love. Being of one accord or one of mine.
Listen to what he says. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition. Or conceit. But in lowliness of mind. Let each esteem others better than himself. Isn't that the key? Folks, you know why Paul is saying this?
This is what binds the cords of love. And strengthens the church. And the unity. And the bonds of peace. And let each of you look out not only for his own interest. But also for the interest of others.
That's what Christ. Christ came to give. Who can out give God? No one can. God is constantly giving. But look in Jesus Christ. He gave and gave and gave again. Should not God's people reflect God's attributes?
Forgiveness.
Patience.
Humility.
Folks, this is what binds the cords of unity for the church.
This is it.
Humility. Number two. Humility is about taking criticism by the way. Of every kind. You mean I'm to take criticism? Well, if you stand up for the truth. And it doesn't mean to win a debate.
You get that?
It means we're to show love. And you know what matters more than winning a debate? Theologically? Being like Jesus. We want these people to see Jesus in us. I love this little song I love. Jesus be Jesus in me.
No longer me but the resurrection power. Fill me this hour. Jesus be Jesus in me. Above everything we should be conforming to the image of Jesus Christ. So it's not about winning a debate. It's taking criticism at times.
And not trying to justify ourselves. It's not about self. Didn't Jesus say when you come after me? What's the first thing he says? Deny yourself. It's not about self, is it? Matter of fact, self has to be put on the cross.
Self has to be mortified. And crucified. And I like what A .W. Tozer says. When you're on the cross, that man's facing one direction. He's not looking back. He's nailed on the cross. And he's being put to death.
In other words, he's dying.
He's dying.
Brother Keith and I shared this. And when we talk about this, he always sends me a picture of an electric chair. And I said, that's it. Right there. In today's language, that cross means an electric chair.
But we must, our self, isn't that the problem? Self. Stepping back to ask ourselves, what can I learn from this? Rather than winning the debate. It's asking the Lord, where is my heart in this? What can I learn?
What lessons can I learn from this? To be more humble and to be more like Jesus. And to serve. Psalm 139. Brother Keith brought this out last week. It's, search me, O God. Know my heart. This is a man after God's own heart.
Search me. As the little children's song says, not my mother, not my brother, not my sister. Lord, it's me that stands in the need of prayer. You know, this is how revival's going to come. Because everybody's pointing a finger that way, that way.
And there's four pointing back right here. And this is how revival takes place. When we start seeing ourselves, search me. And you think about if each person started searching their own hearts. What God would do in our midst.
It's incredible. Third is true humility. Biblical humility is not about retaliation. This is a tough one. It hits my flesh. How many times do we want to retaliate?
Just to fire back.
This person offended me, I've got to fire back. Lord, give me self-control.
Give me patience.
But it's not about retaliation so much as it is about reconciliation. Now, I realize sometimes reconciliation is not possible. Because Paul said this, Live at peace if it be possible with all men. Because it depends on that other person.
Because sometimes reconciliation isn't possible, is it? But the Bible does say, Follow peace with all men, And holiness with that which no one will see the Lord. That's a strong text. So in other words, Jesus said, Blessed are the peacemakers, For they are the children of God.
Right? So we are peacemakers in the right sense of to follow peace. But sometimes that peace is not possible. But we are to reach out and to try to reconcile, To forgive, to be like Christ, To do everything we can on our part.
Right? Well, I've got to close this because my time is already up. It's already gone. So a lot of times that means we step out and seek to make things right With our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.
Not about me. It's not about us. John the Baptist was such a humble man. True humility is counting the cost. We count the cost of discipleship. Luke 14, 28. We realize that we surrender our ownership and our rights To everything, to the Lord Jesus Christ.
In other words, we surrender our rights. Paul says, You're no longer your own. You've been bought with the price. We must realize we do not belong to ourselves. We belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. He has ownership over us.
Isn't that wonderful? And John saw this. In other words, that's why he says, I'm not even worthy to stoop down and unlatch a shoe. Because he is the Lord of glory. I could say much more there. The final one is the toughest and I've already mentioned it.
Humility is putting to death that flesh, that self, By the power of the Spirit. We can't do it within our own power, right? We do it by the power of the Spirit. Romans 8. Put to death our flesh. Galatians 2 .20.
Paul said, I'm crucified with Christ. No longer I that lives, but Christ lives in me. And the life I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me, folks.
That's the Christ life. Self, self must go. Self must die. So that Jesus may be seen and elevated. And that Christ may be all in all. When there's justification, I like what J .C. Ryle says, Don't tell me about your justification unless I see some marks of sanctification.
That's strong. In other words, we must show the marks. Fruits worthy of repentance.
Amen. Amen.
Praise God. Well, let's pray. Father, we thank You. And we praise You. We thank You that, Lord, You are worthy of all glory and honor and praise, thanksgiving, blessing and power. Lord, this is what the saints are doing right now in heaven.
They are falling down on their faces. And they're saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, Who is and who is to come,.
The Almighty.
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. Lord, we thank You for the Lord Jesus Christ. There was no one like Him that matches His humility. Perfect humility. Perfect submission. John the Baptist gave a small example, but he was yet still a man.
He even knew he needed a Savior. And he was the forerunner. How much more should we? Lord, I pray. I pray that we clothe ourselves with humility among ourselves, that Jesus Christ may be exalted. That He must increase.
We must decrease. Lord, thank You for Your Spirit. You have not left us as orphans to ourselves and our weak, frail flesh to do this. You have given us Your Holy Spirit to give us the power, the strength, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of holiness, the Spirit of power, the Spirit of resurrection to help us and encourage us in the truth and lead us right to Your Word in teaching us how to live and be pleasing to You.
We thank You for this time of worship together, Lord, and we praise You and we give You glory and honor. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. Praise God.