Will you please turn to the Gospel according to Luke, Luke chapter 1? We will read from Luke 1:5-17.
There was in the days of Herod, king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abijah: and he had a wife of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.
And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.
Now it came to pass, while he executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his course,
according to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to enter into the temple of the Lord and burn incense.
And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the hour of incense.
And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of altar of incense.
And Zacharias was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him.
But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: because thy supplication is heard, and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.
And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth.
For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and he shall drink no wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.
And many of the children of Israel shall he turn unto the Lord their God.
And he shall go before His face in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to walk in the wisdom of the just; to make ready for the Lord a people prepared for Him.
God was going to change the time. He was going to conclude the time of the law and the prophets, and He was going to introduce the time of the Messiah. He was going to put an end to the old dispensation of law and bring in a new dispensation of grace.
God was going to introduce His King, the Messiah, into the world. But for this change to come about, God needed a vessel—a vessel that could be used by God to make this change of time. We call this vessel an epoch-making vessel.
If God cannot get such a vessel, God has to wait before He will make that change. Thank God, we find that God did find that vessel in a person by the name of John.
So we know that John is more than just a prophet. Our Lord Jesus said that he is greater than a prophet. Why? Because John was an epoch-making vessel of God. He was chosen by God to prepare the way of the Lord, to conclude the law and the prophets, and to introduce the Messiah, the King.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, I do believe that we all feel that we are on the verge of another change. As you talk with God’s people everywhere, you find there is a common feeling among God’s people that we are at the very end of this age. The age to come is quickly coming in.
As the Spirit of God moves among God’s people and gives them this kind of sense, we believe that God is going to do something. God is going to conclude this age and introduce the age to come. Even this dispensation of grace is coming to an end, and another dispensation is coming in. Shall we call it the dispensation of righteousness? In the millennial kingdom, righteousness shall rule over all the earth. How we long to see that day.
God is going to do a great thing. He is going to reintroduce His King into this world. Our Lord Jesus is to return as the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and He shall establish His kingdom upon this earth. We know that the change is coming. We can sense it; we can feel it.
But, dear brothers and sisters, God has a very definite way of working. Before God will make this change—and He will—He will first find a vessel on earth, a vessel whom He can use to make that change and to bring in the King.
I do believe that two thousand years ago God raised up John to be that vessel. But I believe that in our time, as we are coming to the fullness of everything, that vessel will not be an individual. It will be a corporate vessel with the same character as John.
God is looking today among His people for a corporate vessel, a vessel whom He can use to make this great change and to bring in His King. I do believe that this is something God is looking for among His people today.
So this morning, we would like to spend a little time—not to review the whole life of John the Baptist, but to find in John certain characteristics that God is looking for in us, if by His grace we are chosen among those who form the corporate vessel of God.
In the Gospel according to Luke, we find that there was, in the days of Herod the king of Judaea, a certain priest by the name of Zacharias, and his wife’s name was Elisabeth. This elderly couple feared God. They walked before God in holiness. They kept all the commandments and ordinances of God, and they served God very faithfully.
But the Bible says that they had no child. Probably, when we read this today, it does not mean much to us. But if you were an Israelite living in the old days under the law, you would know that under the law God promised that those who feared Him would be blessed by Him.
The blessing of God in Old Testament times, under the old covenant of law, was material and physical blessing, because the children of Israel were God’s earthly people. God’s promises and blessings were earthly, material, and physical.
If people feared God and obeyed God, God would bless them with many blessings. Their baskets would be full, their cattle would raise many young ones, and they would have many sons and daughters. But if people did not obey Him and displeased Him, they would be cursed. One of the curses was that they would have no child.
Now, this couple feared God and served Him very faithfully, and yet they had no child. It was unusual. No doubt they prayed and prayed and prayed, asking God to give them at least a child—to remove their shame and reproach. But their prayer went unanswered.
They could not explain why. They were greatly misunderstood by other people. Other people would say, “Well, you appear to be very godly, but why do you not have a child? There must be some secret sin somewhere.” You see, that was the concept under the old covenant.
So this elderly couple lived under a very embarrassing situation. Their prayers went unanswered. They got older and older; they were advanced in years, and they had absolutely no hope of having a child. Probably they gave up praying for a child.
But the wonderful thing was that they were not offended by God. Most people would be offended. Why? Because God had His promise, and God did not fulfill His promise. When people are in that kind of circumstance, certainly they would turn against God.
But this elderly couple were not offended. They wondered; they were puzzled; but they were not offended. How do we know? Because we find Zacharias continuing to serve in the temple very faithfully.
Then something happened. He belonged to the course of Abijah. The priests in the temple served under twenty-four courses. A group of priests would serve in the temple for a month, and then another course would come and take over. Zacharias was serving in the temple at that time under the course of Abijah.
Probably that was his last time of active service in the temple because he was at the age of retirement. Before dawn, the priests who were serving that day gathered together in a room and cast lots to decide who was to serve in what capacity. All the services in the temple were decided by the casting of lots.
It happened that on that day the lot of burning incense at the golden altar of incense fell upon Zacharias. Of all the services in the temple, burning incense at the golden altar of incense was the highest privilege a priest could ever have in his lifetime.
Why? Because the golden altar of incense stood right before the veil, before the ark of the covenant. It was the nearest place to God. Only the high priest could go behind the veil once a year, but as far as the priests were concerned, to burn incense at the altar was the nearest they could get to God.
Many priests served throughout their lifetime and never had that privilege. If that privilege fell upon a priest, he could do it only once in his lifetime; it was never repeated. Zacharias had served all his life, and at the end the lot fell upon him.
When the priest entered the holy place to burn incense at the altar, there was nobody else in the temple proper. Everybody was in the outer court. Zacharias was there, burning incense, representing the whole nation and offering prayer for the whole nation. All the people were in the court praying, but he was there representing them before God. What a privilege it was.
As Zacharias put the incense on the altar and offered prayer for the whole nation, suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared by the side of the altar. The angel said, “Zacharias, your prayer is answered. You shall have a son.”
Brothers and sisters, could Zacharias offer a personal, private prayer at that time, when he was representing the whole nation and praying the prayer of the nation? Impossible.
What was the prayer of the nation of Israel? Even today they are still praying this prayer: “Oh, that God would send the Messiah.” At that time, the nation of Israel—Judah—was under Roman control. They were not a free people.
No doubt that prayer went up to God day after day, morning after morning. It was the prayer of the children of Israel. They prayed that God would quickly send the Messiah to them. When the Messiah came, they expected to throw off the yoke of Roman rule, become a free people, and become the first of the nations. All their hope was in the Messiah.
So no doubt Zacharias was praying that prayer: “Oh, God, send the Messiah.” But the angel said, “Your prayer is answered. You shall have a child.” Now, what is that?
When he and his wife prayed for a child, their prayers were unanswered. When he was praying for the Messiah, all the prayers that he had prayed privately before were answered at that time. Why? Because that child was related to the Messiah.
There is nothing wrong with praying for our own needs. When we have needs, we go to God and ask Him to supply them, because He is our heavenly Father. If we do not ask our Father, whom will we ask? Our heavenly Father will certainly supply all our needs. He knows what we need even before we ask.
But, dear brothers and sisters, as you grow more in the Lord, you may find something strange. When you are a new believer, your prayers may be answered very quickly. Even before you finish your prayer, it is answered. The Father rushes to you and supplies your need.
But as you grow a little more in the Lord, do you find that your prayers are answered slower and slower? Do you find that sometimes your prayers go unanswered for years and years? You may think something is very abnormal, but this is not so.
Why? Because God is training you. When we are young in the Lord, we only know our needs, and God has to supply our needs or we are offended. But if God always catered to our needs, we would never grow up spiritually. We would grow up as selfish children, babes in Christ.
Do you know that God has a need too? God wants us to know that He also has needs. We are not just to ask God to supply our needs; we should see that God has needs too. God wants us to ask that His needs may be met.
But we will never think of that until our needs are not met and our prayers are not answered. Through this, God brings us to the point where we see how selfish we are. We are always asking for our own needs, forgetting that God has His needs too.
When we begin to pray for God’s need and forget to pray for our own needs, our needs are supplied. But remember: when our prayers are answered, it is always connected with God’s glory. You see that the answer is related to God.
When that child was given, it was given in relation to the Messiah. It was not merely that God gave this elderly couple a child to take away their shame—though their shame was taken away and all misunderstandings were dispersed. More than that, the child was an answer to the prayer of the nation, because he was to be a forerunner of the Messiah. He was to prepare the way of the Lord.
Therefore, John was the product of the travail of his parents. John was the product of the prevailing prayer of his parents. We may apply it this way: this chosen vessel of God, this epoch-making vessel of God, has a character, and that character is prevailing prayer.
Dear brothers and sisters, we believe that God is going to make a change of time today. But in order that He may make this change, He needs a vessel. In that vessel there must be a character, and that character is prevailing prayer. We must know how to prevail for God.
We must know how to prevail in prayer, that God’s will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. The apostle Paul says in Colossians that he was to fill up that which was lacking in the afflictions of Christ for His church, His body.
Out of the travail of the soul of our Lord Jesus, the church was born. In Isaiah 53, we find that He shall see the fruit of the travail of His soul. In order that the church might be born, how our Lord Jesus had to prevail.
How He travailed in the garden of Gethsemane. How He travailed in prayer until His sweat came out as great drops of blood. How He had to travail on Calvary’s cross. He poured out His soul as water. But out of the travail of His soul, the church was born.
The church was born through the prevailing prayer of our Lord Jesus. Without travail, nothing will be born. Without prayer, nothing will be brought about by God. As we look back into the history of the church, we find that whenever God is going to do something, He has to find a people who will pray—and not only pray, but prevail in prayer.
When God’s people realize God’s need, when they are willing to take up God’s burden, to sympathize with God in what He is going to do, and really give themselves to prayer and travail in prayer, God will do something.
What is lacking among God’s people today is a people who know God’s need, a people who know how to bear God’s burden, a people who will give themselves to prayer, and a people who are willing to prevail in prayer. If God should obtain such a people, He has the vessel to change the time.
When John was in his mother’s womb, his mother was to drink no wine nor strong drink. Why? Because John was to be a Nazarite for life.
In Old Testament times, when God delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt, He brought them to Mount Sinai. In Exodus 19, God said that if they would keep His covenant and obey His law, they would be a peculiar people of His possession and a nation of priests.
All the redeemed Israelites were to be priests unto God; they were to serve God. But, unfortunately, while Moses was receiving the law on the mountain, the children of Israel worshiped the golden calf. Because of that, the whole nation was disqualified from serving God.
Only one tribe, the tribe of Levi, and only one family, the family of Aaron, were chosen to serve God. All the rest of the people were barred from the service of God.
Yet God opened a door of service. The front door was closed: only the family of Aaron could come to the holy place to serve God, and only the Levites could serve in the tabernacle. But God opened a back door in Numbers 6.
God said that if any man or woman desired to consecrate himself or herself, to set himself or herself apart, and to devote himself or herself to the Lord, he or she might do so by taking the vow of the Nazarite.
A Nazarite is a person who is set apart, separated, and devoted to God. Anyone who has the desire to do this may do so. First, he should abstain from wine, vinegar, and anything related to the vine—no raisins, no grapes, no wine, no vinegar.
Second, he must abstain from having a razor upon his head. His hair must grow long and remain untouched. Third, during the days of his vow, he should never come near a dead body. If he did, the vow was interrupted; he had to shave his head and begin all over again.
Sometimes a man would make a vow for a month or for three months. But only a few in the Bible were Nazarites for life. Samuel was one, and John was another. John was a Nazarite for life. Even in his mother’s womb, his mother had to abstain from wine so that he might be devoted to the Lord for life.
It is very strange when you read Numbers. God does not tell us what a Nazarite was to do as he was set apart for God. Nothing is mentioned. He separated himself for God, but what did he do during those thirty days or three months? In what capacity did he serve God? It is not there at all.
Why? Because serving God is not merely doing something for God; serving God is living for God. A Nazarite lives for God. Of course, he must do something for God, but the essential thing is that he lives for God.
John was a Nazarite for life. There must be a Nazarite character in the epoch-making vessel of God.
Today, as the spiritual people of God, all these things become spiritual in application. What is the Nazarite vow to us today? It simply means consecration.
We who are redeemed of the Lord have no right to live for ourselves. We should all present ourselves to Him as a living sacrifice. That is our Nazarite vow, and it is something that every believer should have.
With the children of Israel, because of their failure, they had to take a Nazarite vow in order to be recovered as priests to serve God. But with us today, because of the finished work of Christ, we are being brought back to the very beginning—to God’s original purpose.
Therefore, every child of God should take this Nazarite vow. We present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, and this is our reasonable service. When we consecrate ourselves to the Lord, it is not so much a matter of what we will do for God, but how we shall live for God.
A Nazarite could not touch anything that came out of the vine. Now, brothers and sisters, to us today, of course, this does not mean that you cannot eat grapes. Even if you abstain from raisins, you may not be the chosen vessel. Today, it is the spiritual application.
In John 15, the Lord says:
I am the true vine, and ye are the branches.
Why did the Lord say, “I am the true vine”? Why did He not simply say, “I am the vine”? If He says, “I am the true vine,” there must be a false vine. What is the false vine? The false vine is the world.
The world is like a vine. It is an imitation, a counterfeit. The world has something to offer to the hungry, the thirsty, the sorrowful, and the weak. If you are sorrowful, you may drink wine to forget your sorrow. If you are weak, you may turn to the world for strength.
The world has pleasures to offer—the pleasures of sin. They gratify the flesh for a time, even though they sting later on and poison. The world is like a vine, a resource to which people turn for their supply.
Do not tell me that the world has nothing to offer. The world does have something to offer. That is why people love the world and conform to the world: it gives pleasure, satisfaction, strength, and many different things. But it is only temporary. It is false; it is counterfeit.
It gives an appearance of satisfaction, but it makes things worse, because you become thirstier, hungrier, and weaker until you die. That is what the world is.
But, dear brothers and sisters, we have the true Vine. Our Lord Jesus is our all. He is the true Vine; He is our resource. We turn to Him for our every need. He is our comfort, our strength, our satisfaction, our pleasure, our joy. He is everything to us.
That is the reason why, to be a Nazarite, you should abstain from everything connected with the vine. You are to find all your resources in Christ. That is a separated life.
How sad it is that we find Christians today turning to the world to fill their void and emptiness, as if Christ were not sufficient for them. Because Christians love the world, even though they love the Lord a little, they are not qualified to be epoch-making vessels.
In order to be an epoch-making vessel, we must be a separated people. By separation, it means that we despise what the world can offer because we have found something better. We find all our supply in Christ. We return to Him. He is the true Vine, and we are the branches.
When you find a need of any kind, do you turn to the world for supply, or do you turn to Christ? Do you find Christ all-sufficient, or do you find that He is not sufficient for your every need, so that you must get your supply somewhere else?
I think it is something we really need to consider. Are we faithful to the Lord as Nazarites? This is the second character that must mark an epoch-making vessel.
He shall be great before the Lord. He shall have the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous. So, third, an epoch-making vessel must have the character of the spirit and power of Elijah.
John the Baptist was not Elijah. People wondered whether John the Baptist was Elijah because, according to the Old Testament prophet Malachi, Elijah must come before the Messiah comes. Elijah would first come to prepare the way and turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers.
When John the Baptist came out to preach, people began to wonder whether he was Elijah. Even the disciples asked our Lord Jesus whether Elijah had come. The Lord answered that Elijah had already come, but they did not know him. Because they rejected him, Elijah had not come in the way they expected.
Why? Because John the Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elijah.
What is the spirit of Elijah? Before Elijah was taken to heaven, Elisha stayed with him throughout his last journey. Elijah tried to send him away, but Elisha said, “Wherever you go, I will go.”
They went from Gilgal to Bethel, then to Jericho, and finally to the Jordan. Elijah took off his mantle, rolled it up, struck the water, and the River Jordan was divided. They walked over on dry ground to the eastern side of the Jordan.
Elijah told Elisha that God was going to take him. Elisha said, “I know it.” Before he went, Elijah asked, “Is there anything you want to ask of me that I can give you?” Elisha said, “Yes, I want a double portion of your spirit.”
Elijah said, “Thou hast asked a hard thing. But if thou seest me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee.” As they walked and talked, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire came and separated Elijah from Elisha. Elisha saw him going up and said, “My father, my father!”
Elijah’s mantle fell, and Elisha took it up and put it on. He received a double portion of the spirit of Elijah. When you read this portion, you may think that young man was ambitious. Was not Elijah the greatest prophet who ever lived? Did this young man want to be greater than his master?
But you misunderstand Elisha if you do not know what the spirit of Elijah is. What is the spirit of Elijah?
A person’s spirit is difficult to know. Here is the body; within the body is the soul; within the soul is the spirit. The more civilized we are, the more able we are to hide ourselves. You may live with a person for years and not know that person, because his spirit is deeply hidden.
You know a person’s spirit when he is off guard. When we come together on Sunday, everyone may be perfectly proper. We will never really know each other if we only come on Sunday and sit for an hour. We are all on guard. We put on our Sunday best.
It is when we are off guard that our spirit is really revealed. What is the spirit of Elijah?
Elijah did great things for God on Mount Carmel. How God’s name was magnified! There was such a victory, but it was very short-lived. Immediately after that victory, Jezebel threatened Elijah’s life, and Elijah fled.
He walked forty days and forty nights until he came to Mount Horeb. He went into a cave—evidently the cave in which Moses had hidden himself when God appeared to him and Moses saw God’s back. Elijah went back to that original place and hid himself in the cave.
God said, “Elijah, what are you doing here?” Elijah said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant, thrown down Thine altars, and slain Thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”
God told him to come out of the cave. There was a great wind, but God was not in the wind. There was an earthquake, but God was not in the earthquake. There was fire, but God was not in the fire. Then came a still, small voice: “Elijah, what are you doing here?”
Elijah replied again, “I have been very jealous, very zealous for God. But they have broken Thy covenant, burned Thine altar, and killed Thy prophets. I am the only one left.” Elijah was complaining to God. He was saying, “Look here: I am jealous for Your name. I put my life down for You. I did everything for You, and You did not back me up. Why?”
Now that is the spirit of Elijah. What is the spirit of Elijah? The spirit of Elijah is the zeal of the Lord. He was zealous for God. He was so zealous for God’s name because the whole nation had left God. He was zealous for God’s right and wanted God to have His rightful place among His people.
Therefore, he was willing to sacrifice himself. He was one person standing against the whole nation. That was the spirit of Elijah. He complained because he was for God and, evidently to him, God was not backing him up. But there was the spirit of Elijah.
Because he was marked by this spirit, what trouble he went through! He could have lived a very comfortable life, but he could not. He had to face the king, the displeasure of the king, misunderstanding, and hardship, because the king wanted to kill him. Why? Because he had the zeal of the Lord within him.
Remember our Lord Jesus. When He started His public ministry, He went to Jerusalem, to the temple. When He entered the temple area, He did something. He made a scourge of cords, drove out the cattle and sheep, and overturned the tables of the money changers.
He said, “Ye make My Father’s house a house of merchandise, a bazaar.” And what does the Bible say?
The zeal of Thy house hath eaten Me up.
At the time of Christ, merchants had set up their merchandise in the temple area under the auspices of the priesthood. The children of Israel came from all over the world to worship God and had to offer sacrifices. They could not bring sheep or cattle all the way from Europe to Jerusalem.
So they had to buy sacrifices in Jerusalem. Even if they brought their own, the sacrifices had to be approved by the priests. If there were any defect, they would not be accepted. The easier thing was to buy sacrifices in the temple area, because all these were already approved by the priests. Of course, they paid a higher price.
Then there were the money changers. The temple tax had to be paid in the shekel of the sanctuary, so people had to change their money. For the sake of convenience, these things were being done. Outwardly it was for convenience; actually, it was a very profitable business for the priests.
This had been going on for years and years, and nobody complained. “How convenient it is!” But when our Lord Jesus entered the temple area, He could not take it. Why? Because He saw that they had made the Father’s house—a house of prayer—into a bazaar, into a profit-making business.
At the end of our Lord’s ministry, He did it again, because it had become worse. They had made it a den of robbers.
Why did multitudes of people enter the temple and never seem bothered by it? They thought it was convenient. Only the Lord Jesus could not stand it, because the zeal of the Lord had devoured Him. The zeal for the Father’s house had so consumed Him.
People were not worshiping God. It destroyed the spirit of worship and contradicted God. The Lord could not tolerate it; He had to do something. Because He did it, they wanted to kill Him. He got into trouble.
Look at the apostle Paul. In 2 Corinthians 11, what did he say? “I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy: for I espoused you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I fear lest by any means ye should be led astray from the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ.”
Because the jealousy of God was like fire burning in the bones of Paul, he had to contend with the Corinthian believers. They did not like it. He could have been very popular. He could have spoken a few soothing words, closed his eyes as if he did not see anything, and become very popular.
But he could not do that, because the jealousy of God was in him. God was jealous for His Son. If anyone tried to take anything away from His Son, God could not stand it. God is a jealous God.
Elisha asked for a double portion of the spirit of Elijah. In other words, he was not asking for something for himself to make him great. He was asking for something for God, and he had to suffer more for it. That is what he asked for.
Brothers and sisters, the epoch-making vessel of God must be marked by the spirit of Elijah. Many things are going on in the church and outside the church that have become so customary that we see them and do not see them. On the contrary, we feel that they are convenient and expedient.
We do not see how God’s glory suffers and how God’s honor is compromised. If we are not filled with the jealousy of God and the zeal of the Lord, dear brothers and sisters, God cannot use us as an epoch-making vessel, because we simply flow with the crowd.
But if the Lord opens your spiritual eyes and you see what is going on among God’s people, you see so much that is contrary to God, so much that brings shame to His name. If you are filled with the zeal of the Lord and concerned for God’s name, if you are filled with the jealousy of God, you will find something burning within your bones. You cannot help it.
Brothers and sisters, you begin to have the spirit of Elijah. If you have the spirit of Elijah, God will give you the power of Elijah.
What was the work of John the Baptist? The work of John the Baptist was to prepare a people for God. Scripture uses a very striking expression: “to make ready a prepared people for the Lord.”
The Lord is coming. But when the Lord comes, will He find a people prepared to receive Him? Outwardly, the whole nation of Israel, the Jewish people, seemed to want Him to come. They prayed, “Oh, that the Messiah would come.”
They had temple service restored. They seemed to be very godly people. They seemed to be waiting for the Messiah to come. They wondered why the Messiah did not come. They thought they were prepared for Him.
But, brothers and sisters, when Christ was born and the news became known in Jerusalem, Herod was disturbed, and all Jerusalem was disturbed. They were not ready for Him.
Who received Christ when Christ came? Only those people who were prepared by John the Baptist. All the early disciples of our Lord Jesus were disciples of John. John prepared them. They were a people prepared.
When the Messiah came, He found on earth a small group of people, yet these people were ready to receive Him.
Dear brothers and sisters, the same thing will be true at His return, at the second coming of our Lord Jesus. Outwardly, it seems as if the church in general and all the children of God are waiting for His coming and wondering why He delays, as if we are prepared.
But, dear brothers and sisters, do not be mistaken. God’s people are not prepared. If Christ came today, what would He find? Probably He would find the same thing He found two thousand years ago in Jerusalem: God’s people would be disturbed.
Therefore, the one work that must be done today is the work of John the Baptist. It is the work of making ready a people for the Lord. That is the most important work today: to make ready a people so that, when the Lord comes, there will be a people ready to welcome Him.
This is the work of the epoch-making vessel—the work of John. So, dear brothers and sisters, we have work to do. What is God’s work for us to do today? I believe the most important work is to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
Are we prepared? If we are, then we have a responsibility to prepare other people for the Lord. So may the Lord help us. Shall we pray?
Oh, heavenly Father, we do sense in our spirit that the time is going to change. It cannot continue too long. We rejoice in the fact that Thou art coming.
But, Lord, we do know that Thou art looking today for an epoch-making vessel. Lord, even though we know that in ourselves we are nothing and unworthy, yet for Thy sake, Lord, we are willing.
We are willing to offer ourselves as a freewill offering to Thee, and ask Thee to work in us that travail, that prayer, to separate us, that we may live wholly for Thee, and to fill us with the spirit of Elijah.
May we be marked by the zeal of the Lord, the jealousy of God. Oh, Lord, get us prepared and use us to prepare Thy people. It is the cry of our hearts: Come, Lord Jesus. Come quickly. In Thy precious name. Amen.