It has been wonderful to be with you here in Seattle in these days. Oh no, this is Richmond. I forgot.
Let us turn to some Scriptures related to John the Baptist. Let us begin at the end of the Old Testament, in Malachi 3. We will read a few different sections in this last prophecy before the years of silence.
Beginning in Malachi 3:1, this is obviously referring to John the Baptist:
Behold, I send My messenger,
And he will prepare the way before Me.
And the Lord, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to His temple,
Even the messenger of the covenant, in whom ye delight:
Behold, He is coming, saith the Lord of hosts.But who may abide the day of His coming?
And who shall stand when He appeareth?
For He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:
And He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver;
And He will purify the sons of Levi,
And purge them as gold and silver,
That they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.
Then let us go to Malachi 3:16:
Then they that feared the Lord spake one with another:
And the Lord hearkened, and heard,
And a book of remembrance was written before Him
For them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name.And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts,
Even Mine own possession, in the day that I make;
And I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked,
Between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not.
Then, in Malachi 4:1-6:
For, behold, the day cometh, it burneth as a furnace;
And all the proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be stubble;
And the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts,
That it shall leave them neither root nor branch.But unto you that fear My name shall the sun of righteousness arise
With healing in His wings;
And ye shall go forth, and gambol as calves of the stall.And ye shall tread down the wicked;
For they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet
In the day that I make, saith the Lord of hosts.Remember ye the law of Moses My servant,
Which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel,
Even statutes and ordinances.Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
Before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.
And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children,
And the heart of the children to their fathers;
Lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
Let us turn to Luke 1, reading some of the statements made about this messenger who would come, even John the Baptist. In Luke 1:13, the angel is speaking to John’s father, Zechariah:
But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zechariah: 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.
Then, in Luke 1:59, John the Baptist is being circumcised, and they are asking his name:
And it came to pass on the eighth day, that they came to circumcise the child; and they would have called him Zechariah, after the name of the father.
And his mother answered and said, Not so; but he shall be called John.
And they said unto her, There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name. And they made signs to his father, what he would have him called.
And he asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, saying, His name is John. And they all marvelled.
And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake, blessing God.
Fear came on all those who dwelt around them, and all these sayings were discussed throughout all the hill country of Judea. All those who heard them kept them in their hearts, saying, “What manner of child shall this be?” And the hand of the Lord was with him.
Now his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied:
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;
For He hath visited and wrought redemption for His people,
And hath raised up a horn of salvation for us
In the house of His servant David,
As He spake by the mouth of His holy prophets
That have been from of old;
Salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;
To show mercy towards our fathers,
And to remember His holy covenant;
The oath which He sware unto Abraham our father,
To grant unto us that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies,
Should serve Him without fear,
In holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.
And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Most High:
For thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to make ready His ways;
To give knowledge of salvation unto His people
In the remission of their sins,
Because of the tender mercy of our God,
Whereby the Dayspring from on high shall visit us,
To shine upon them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death;
To guide our feet into the way of peace.
So the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts until the day of his showing unto Israel.
Then, over in 2 Peter 3, just by way of reminder of why we even come and address such matters together as a group. Peter senses that his martyrdom is soon to come, and he begins to tell the saints to be on their guard.
Peter, this great gospel preacher, says:
Beloved, this is now the second epistle that I write unto you; and in them I stir up your sincere mind by putting you in remembrance; that ye should remember the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and the commandment of the Lord and Saviour through your apostles:
Knowing this first, that in the last days mockers shall come with mockery, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? For, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
For this they wilfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth compacted out of water and amidst water, by the word of God; by which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
But the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
But forget not this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness; but is longsuffering to you-ward, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
Seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, by reason of which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
But, according to His promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Let us have another word of prayer.
Father, we gather together today in Jesus’ name, and thank You for the power of the Word of God to have its effect in our lives. We thank You for these saints who have gone before us and written down these things.
Oh, may it be that we would find ourselves among those who fear and esteem the Lord and speak of these things one to another, that You might remember us in this day and say, “Behold, they shall be Mine.”
We gather, Lord, for many reasons. We gather here, most of all, with a real heart to know You. We pray that in this session You will open our eyes continually regarding this matter of the link to Your coming.
Thank You, Holy Spirit, for being upon us and with us in these days. Oh Lord, now go even deeper into us, and continue to do Your work. Quicken our spirits, that we may see with eyes of wisdom and revelation our Lord Jesus coming for us even now.
We want to commit this time simply into Your hands. In Jesus’ name, amen.
As we look back in the Gospel of Luke, there is a marker in Luke 16:16. John the Baptist is credited and commended by God for being the one who, as it were, initiated and brought in this change of era—from the age of law to the age of grace.
The law and the prophets were until John: from that time the gospel of the kingdom of God is preached, and every man entereth violently into it.
Ever since John the Baptist proclaimed, “The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, prepare yourselves. There is One coming whose sandals I am not worthy to unloose,” multitudes have been pressing into the kingdom.
I think most of us here this morning can count ourselves so full of thanksgiving that we heard this gospel preached. It is a gospel, a great gospel. As a matter of fact, its content is the gospel of the greatest linkage of all time.
When God came down and linked up sinful man through a Mediator, through a Reconciler, through a Redeemer, through the precious blood of the Lamb, we were saved. We were linked forever to heaven—not in judgment and condemnation, but forever to be with God because of the link, even Jesus Christ our Lord. He is the link.
We have heard, even from our brother Lance last night, as we rehearsed the gospel and began to look behind the scenes in Colossians 1 and John, that this whole gospel comes out of love.
The Father and the Son, in eternal loving fellowship with one another, one day purposed with a divine and eternal purpose: “Let Us make man in Our image and likeness. Let him share as sons among sons in a kingdom of glory. Let them take dominion and learn how to be sons in glory.”
This was God’s plan out of love from the beginning: to link men to Himself, even through Jesus Christ. Well, of course, we know the story. Man sinned and fell short of this glorious, eternal calling. Because of his sin, and because of the rebellion of the enemy, even Satan himself, things became a mess upon this earth.
But God’s gospel of love did not have to go to Plan B, really. He went to Plan A-plus. His previous plan was to reveal the love of God in creation, in care, and in fellowship with these sons of glory. Now that they had fallen and been disqualified, Plan A-plus was, “Let Us show a love that cannot even be understood—a greater grace, a greater mercy.”
We need a Lamb. We need a sacrifice. We need a Redeemer. We need a Mediator. And the Son said, “I will go.”
This is what John is beginning to tell us of: this great gospel that we know happened in history. These are historic events given to us. Jesus came down and lived. The incarnation revealed the glory of God. Then He died on the cross.
He took us, forgave us, justified us, and redeemed us. Then He rose and went to the Father, and sent down the Holy Spirit with two fantastic, loving jobs.
You know, we would have to have a good fight, and maybe in heaven we will have a dialogue one day: who loves you more—the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit? I think it will be a draw.
The Holy Spirit said, “But let Me finish the work. You said, ‘It is finished.’ The Son of God said, ‘It is finished.’ Now the Holy Spirit says, ‘Let Me finish it up. I am going to take each one of these individual souls, and I am going to justify them, sanctify them, and change them from glory to glory until they are sons in glory, so that You can enjoy them forever.’”
Wait. Let us do something even more glorious. Let us take an innumerable multitude of those who are saved from every tribe, nation, kindred, and people, and make them together into one new creation—many made one by one Spirit.
Let Me build into them the unity of the faith as they learn to walk together. When this one entity is ready, we will call her the bride, and then the Son can come and get her. Can I do that?
Well, you know, the plan is already quite far along.
When we talk about a clash of wills, God has the most stubborn will going. If you have a strong will, well, you are just a strong-willed child. But we are dealing with a God who revealed His will, and that is that in the fullness of times He is going to gather together into Christ all things in heaven and earth, even into Him.
When we read in the book of Revelation, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ,” this is a prophecy that will soon take place.
On this earth, there is actually only one more thing that has to happen for this whole gospel to run its full course: the King must return.
We stand in this age when the final link will happen, and our Lord will return and gather all of this up into His kingdom, a kingdom of righteousness for which everybody awaits.
But the church today, unfortunately, is not all watching and waiting for His soon coming.
Peter, the greatest of evangelists that we know, told us that even by the end of his life there were already scoffers coming along, saying, “Hey, hey, hey, what is this business about the nearness of His coming? People have died, things have gone on, and things are going on like they have always gone on. What is this promise of His coming?”
Scoffers have come. I do not know why the church ever turned its ear to listen to scoffers, so that even within this larger church, among people who preach the gospel, they do not preach the second coming of Christ.
You know, some people say that they have a four-square doctrine, four basic foundations of doctrine. The fourth one is always the soon coming of the Lord Jesus.
When you read in the Gospels and the book of Acts, the various apostles preaching the gospel are always talking about that judgment which is coming soon, when the Lord Jesus will return to this earth.
There are even some who preach the gospel today, but they do not preach the second coming; or they preach the second coming, but not the imminent second coming. They preach a second coming, but by the time you look at their chart, you see that it cannot possibly happen until there are four or five sets of hoops that the enemy starts jumping over and we start jumping the other way.
So it is not immediate. It is just going to come someday. How many Christians vote for Jesus coming back? Amen. Everybody says, “Yeah.” How many believe He is coming back soon—any moment? Well.
Like one preacher always used to say, “I believe in going to heaven. I just do not want to go out the next busload.”
There are a lot of people who want Jesus to come back, but just not right away—not until I get married, make my million-dollar goal, retire, or finally get that home I have been trying to get.
So we come back to the first beginning point for those who would be watching and waiting. The final link—the generation, those people who will bring in the Lord—are a people who are watching and waiting with faith.
They have to look past the clouds of the scoffers, the skeptics, and the wise theologians who have reinterpreted the second coming to mean it is already here, or it already happened, or it is not exactly going to happen, or it is a spiritual happening, or whatever.
There is every kind of excuse to say, “I believe in the second coming,” without believing in the immediate second coming.
The first step for that generation which would see Him come back is for our eyes to be opened, to realize the imminence of His coming. How close is this coming?
Those people who will be that last generation and that link to His coming will be those who can see Him at the gates, who sense Him at the doors, who know He is around a corner, who are up on the walls of Zion saying, “Behold, here is your God. He is coming.”
It always gets back to vision, does it not? Our first overcoming is to see with a vision that looks not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.
The things which are seen are temporary and under the sun; the things which cannot be seen are eternal. And they are about to happen. A whole new age is coming in. It is working right over our heads. That battle is about to begin in the heavenlies, and maybe we do not even see it. We need to see unseen things.
Samuel, before he could be that link, had to see his God—to be a seer. Zechariah was as faithful as you can get, and we will talk about him some this morning, but he had to see what God was planning to do before he became part of that generation that brought in the Lord Jesus.
John the Baptist himself was brought to a vision before the Lord. The Lord said, “When you baptize somebody and you see the Spirit of God coming down and resting on Him, then you will know: that is the One.”
That man walked by faith, baptizing a whole bunch of tourists down there in the Jordan River. But when he saw the One upon whom the Holy Spirit came down, and the Father spoke in heaven, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God.”
He saw that, and he lived in preparation for that. Even before he saw Jesus, he was already baptizing people and saying, “There is Somebody coming. There is Somebody coming. I do not know what He looks like, but I know He is coming. You had better get ready. You had better get baptized.”
The generation that is really going to bring in the Lord are all people who are actively repenting right now.
Are you turning this week? I mean, shuv, a Hebrew word, simply means you are turning. The Lord is turning you from something.
This generation that is going to bring in the Lord repents. Why do they repent? Because they know they are not ready.
Our dear brother Lance has shared some things so simple and so profound that every evening should be a turning point. If we are not ministering to the Lord, and we think we are the generation for which the Lord will come back, we do not have time to minister to the Lord? Without that first love, what? Repent.
I know there are some churches where people talk repentance all the time, and your repenter wears out. We think repenting means, “Oh, I have to go through some kind of Pentecostal ordeal. Okay, down to the altar. I am on my knees. I have to cry for a half hour, then it is repentance.”
No. Repentance is really seeing the truth and turning from what was false. If you do not believe Jesus could come back even while we are talking right now, repent.
You are living in the wrong place. You are not seeing things unseen. You are not sensing spiritual pressures. Boy, it is hard, though, is it not? After two thousand years—“He is coming back soon. He is coming back soon. Behold, I am coming quickly.” That Scripture has been around two thousand years.
Now, if you have a good mind—and I see a few Chinese out here—I realize we are in mental territory, very sharp minds. We can figure out some kind of rationalization for how we can believe, “Yes, I am coming quickly,” without believing, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Repent of that.
Our first thing is that we have to see. When we see that He is coming soon, and when we see that we are not ready, well, we repent, and then we get ready. Duh.
This is what we are talking about as we mention John the Baptist. I want to talk about this final link in the last two times that I have to speak—this morning and tomorrow night—and I want to break it into two sections.
First, I want to talk about the hidden life of the prepared ones. That is today. Then tomorrow night, Lord willing, I will speak about the public ministry of the prepared ones. That will be John the Baptist.
Today I want to talk about the hidden ones: Zechariah, Elizabeth, Anna, and Simeon. Immediately, you see, I have a problem.
In our brother Stephen’s introductory message, he started his locomotive up and said, “The kingdom is like a locomotive. It is coming back. You just have to lay down the tracks.” Well, he laid the railroad tracks through my backyard. His choo-choo took every one of my people, put them on board, and left the station.
He left me with John the Baptist—the only guy still at the station. My brother graciously said, “I believe in him for data.” Thank you very much. He took all the rest of them away. His choo-choo goes by, and so he has already spoken on all this.
At that point, we either can stop for tea, or I can try to adjust my message. So I threw it out the window, began again, and the Lord help us. Wherever I end up, I am not sure.
I think this is a picture of the hidden life of the prepared vessel and the public life of the prepared vessel. I think it is given to us so that we may understand what it means to be ready for the Lord’s coming.
It seems like a bit of a contradiction to have a hidden life and yet have a public ministry. But indeed, this vessel of preparation, this vessel of linkage, will have both. There will be Zechariah, Elizabeth, Anna, and Simeon. There will be John the Baptist up in public.
I want to talk about this community. I am going to take these people and put them together as if they were in one assembly. Of course, they were scattered about, living in the Judean hills in various places. But I do this just to make a point, and just so that we may know what sort of persons we ought to be in holy conduct and godliness, as we are waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God.
What does this people look like? What does this preparatory group look like, these people who are laying the tracks even now? When those final ties are put down and those stakes are driven into the track, the Lord Jesus is coming back. Now we are working on the railroad. What sort of people ought we to be? How should our lives look?
Before we begin in Luke and talk again about these people that our brother already mentioned, I would like us to go back to Psalm 83. The first question we might have is, “What does this mean, hidden ones? What does this involve?”
The Lord mentions His hidden ones in many places, including Psalm 83. Asaph had a peculiar revelation and insight into things, and he saw things the way they really were. Often, as Israel was all worshipping, celebrating, and feeling good, Asaph was seeing that there were problems.
O God, keep not Thou silence:
Hold not Thy peace, and be not still, O God.
For, lo, Thine enemies make a tumult;
And they that hate Thee have lifted up the head.
They take crafty counsel against Thy people,
And consult together against Thy hidden ones.
They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation;
That the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
“That is actually the more proper translation in Hebrew,” he says: “against Thy hidden ones.” This crafty enemy has finally ferreted out that the reason Israel continues on, despite these foreign invaders, is because there are some hidden ones.
The whole nation, as we read the history of Israel, went up and down, up and down—sometimes feverishly righteous, and more often backslidden and cool. But then there were the hidden ones.
Sometimes the enemy is crafty enough to realize, “If we can just take out the hidden ones, we will have all the rest.” These hidden ones get targeted.
Now, who are these hidden ones we are talking about? For the most part, they remain under the radar. The media does not know about them. Fox does not know about the hidden ones. CNN does not know what is going on. The powers that be do not know.
Was it not amazing? King Herod was king of his kingdom, and suddenly somebody came to him and said, “Excuse me, King, I think a king has been born in your neighborhood.”
Jesus was born in such humility, among the hidden ones, under the radar. It shook Herod up. Hidden ones—not prominent, not huge.
That is not to say hidden ones have to be a group of under twenty-five people. No, it can be a large assembly of God’s people. But they are hidden ones nonetheless to all that the world counts important.
They are hidden more specifically because, no matter whom you speak about—Zechariah, Elizabeth, Simeon, or whoever—they were all righteous.
They were righteous. That means two things. It does not mean perfect. No, no. But it means, first, that they were truly pious. They were keeping the law, praying the prayers, and they meant it. They were doing good deeds.
When God has His hidden people, they are not sitting frozen somewhere, isolated, stymied, and paralyzed. No, they are people of good works and people who are righteous.
If you trace down through the history of the church or the history of Israel, you will not find one of God’s vessels in an epoch-changing time who was not righteous.
We have today a version of super-grace, as it is called, which flaunts its unrighteousness because they say it just shows how much God can forgive. The Lord will have none of that among His hidden ones.
These are ones who, today, if they are waiting for the Lord Jesus, are dead, and their life is hid with Christ in God. A hidden one.
A third reason we could say they are hidden is because they have found the focus of life to be in the hidden, secret place. In other words, they were praying people.
How do we find our sustenance? We pray. The ravens came to Elijah—one of the hidden ones. You do not know much about Elijah’s life, do you? He just showed up one day. He had a whole hidden life.
Samuel was a great prophet who stood prominently and judged Israel. Yes, but how about all those silent years when he prayed and ministered to the Lord?
Hidden people know where the resource is, where the answer is, and where their supply is. They have checked it out.
I do not know how John the Baptist found out that locusts and honey were a good meal. He must have had one of those stark reading health books they come out with today. They say anything that tastes good is no good.
But however he did it, he knew who his Supplier was. He went like this, grabbed the locusts, and said, “Thank You, Lord.” Amazing man. Amazing man.
Of course, the main reason they were hidden ones is because the Lord hid them in His hand. “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High”—hid by the Lord.
We often love to sing that song: “One thing have I desired of the Lord.” You know the second verse? “For in the time of trouble He will hide me in His pavilion.”
How the Lord cares for these hidden ones. How the Lord remembered those dear saints in Malachi 3.
Malachi is a tragedy. What do you do when the remnant comes home serving God, and then two generations later they get cold? What can you do with them?
They were asking questions: “How have You loved me, God? Enumerate the ways. I have forgotten. I am living here in this tough situation.” “What do You mean, I have robbed You? I gave You an offering. I know it was a three-legged lamb, but…”
It is a tragedy, really. When the remnant goes cold, where else can the Lord turn? The parents sacrificed; the kids have attitude. Boy, there needs to be repentance there.
But there is not repentance. You know what there is? There are a few people talking to one another about the Lord, who still esteem His name. The Lord remembers them and says, “They shall be Mine.”
In that day, I will prove those people who are not faithful and those people who are, and you will shine in the sun of righteousness. You remember that in Malachi. Wonderful promise.
There are those hidden ones—hid by the Lord, supplied by the Lord.
In the Gospels, Matthew and Mark, in order to focus upon the Lord Jesus—and rightly so, as He is the main link in the gospel—simply begin with the pronouncement of the coming kingdom by John the Baptist.
They show John immediately coming on the scene and proclaiming repentance: “The kingdom of God is at hand.” Then the gospel of the kingdom of heaven begins. Wonderful gospel. John had his wonderful part. He was a prophet of the Most High.
But Luke, our dear brother Luke, who we assume, after he got saved, decided as a labor of love to begin to gather notes upon all the events regarding Jesus—somewhere in his travels, some people think it was in Caesarea, but we do not know—met Mary.
In meeting Mary, the mother of Jesus, the first two chapters of Luke were unearthed from the secrets she had treasured in her heart. Out came these treasures of what went on behind the scenes among the hidden ones before John ever came on the scene.
What a wonderful story this is. We realize that it is so typical, because the truth of these hidden ones can be seen throughout the Old Testament and the age of grace.
Israel was up and down—sometimes united as a nation, sometimes divided. But underneath that larger scheme of things, there was always a remnant who were faithful.
When Moses came down the mountain and saw the children of Israel dancing, having an orgy, and worshipping a golden calf, he wrote the first line of a famous hymn we sing today: “Who is on the Lord’s side?”
The Levites rose up with swords and slew three thousand idolaters. They were a remnant who stood with the Lord. Who is on the Lord’s side when things are really necessary? Suddenly these Levites revealed themselves.
After the nation was divided, the northern tribes of Israel immediately plunged into the worship of Baal. Despite all Elijah’s best efforts, he was quite discouraged. The Lord said, “No, no, no, Elijah. There are seven thousand just like you, and they have not bowed the knee.” The hidden ones—they are still around.
In Daniel, we see hidden ones still praying for the return from captivity. When Cyrus finally made a decree, there were hidden ones whose spirits stirred them up to sacrifice all and go back to Jerusalem and build the house of God.
They have always been there in history, sometimes not seen right away, especially in times of prosperity. But when times are tough, you see who the real ones are: the hidden ones.
Throughout church history, it is the same way. Down through the Dark Ages, when the church grew big and fat and thought it was the kingdom of God on earth, there were these little ones, these hidden ones—most of them, I am sure, unknown to us.
Some of them, because of history, leave us little traces of groups here and there who did the heretical thing of wanting to do what the Bible says—wanting to worship the Lord the way the Bible says, and wanting to believe in salvation the way the Bible says.
For this, these little groups of pilgrim churches, as one writer described them, were persecuted, dogged, and purged from city to city and country to country all over Europe, down through the centuries of the Dark Ages. But there have always been those hidden ones.
Even after the Reformation, when the good news was that we are all saved by grace, the Protestant church soon split apart into a thousand pieces. Now there are so many denominations among Protestants that you cannot even find a list of them. They just put a big infinity sign.
Still, there are the hidden ones—the precious ones. They have always been there. Here Luke gives us a little picture, and I want to go over some of these things because in this little picture we see some of the characteristics of that generation which will bring in and hasten the return of the Lord.
The first thing we see, as we look over the whole group, is a little surprising. These were the most ordinary, humble, simple, prosaic, colloquial people you could find.
Paul said, “Not many noble, not many wise, not many mighty, are called.” God loves to find these little people who are sincere and simple, and then do great things through them.
We have been hearing about Samuel and Hannah—just little people. All of those we find in the record of the first two chapters of Luke are little people. They have nothing to recommend themselves as being something great. Oh, but God loved them.
When God began to do something, none of them even pretended to understand what was going on. But they had one thing in common: as simple as they were, they heard what the Lord asked and they obeyed.
However it fit into the larger scheme of things, most of them had no idea. How could you grasp this great plan of bringing the link down from heaven to save all mankind? It is impossible. But the people said, “I am the handmaiden of the Lord. Do unto me according to Your word.”
They were all very human and very humble. Some books concerning being an overcomer are pretty exotic. There is an elite, avant-garde force. They are all crack troops, Navy SEALs for God.
They are going in there. They know their Bible forwards and backwards. They can spit it out in Hebrew or Greek. They can preach the gospel and evade the enemy. They can do all kinds of things. There is a great and noble group of them—yes, God’s Navy SEALs.
Then you look in the record, and who do you find? Zechariah.
It is a shock, but it is not a shock. It is telling us that the generation which will prepare for the coming of the Lord is just a regular bunch of people—with these things we have already mentioned: they were righteous, and they obeyed.
Oh man, this word obedience—it is not in the book anymore. People do not preach obedience anymore. Only simple ones obey.
You know what is a frightening thing? When you go to a developing country with the gospel, they start reading the Bible, and then they start doing it. You say, “No, no, no, no, no. Do not really do that.”
The church has learned to interpret everything that a new believer simply believes.
Our brother mentioned F. B. Meyer and his run-ins with C. T. Studd. He had another run-in with him. They were staying in the same house, and one early morning F. B. Meyer, this young, famous preacher, went in to see Studd’s room.
Studd was walking around with some kind of blanket over him. It is always cold in England; it always is. He was under the blanket, walking around with his Bible. F. B. Meyer said, “Is there something wrong? What are you doing?”
He said, “Ah, no, no, no, no. I am reading all the commandments to see if there are any the Lord wants me to do today, or any that I have done and can take off.”
How is that for obedience? It is not so strange. Oh, if we would turn and be obedient to the Lord’s call. Stop saying, “I heard somebody else call. Was that my wife?” No, Samuel, it is the Lord calling. Turn and say, “Speak, Lord; Your servant heareth.”
Though they lived in different places, mostly in the Judean hills, they had another thing in common. To a person, they were all awaiting the consolation of Israel.
What does that mean? It means that they were waiting for the Messiah to come. What does that mean? It means that they knew they were in Israel. As far as Zechariah was concerned, he was serving in the house of God and was faithful.
But they knew there was something more. They knew something more was needed. They knew that the place where they were was not enough.
Even though Israel called itself the kingdom of God, and even though it had a pretender on the throne—Herod, who would be king of Israel, so-called—they knew they needed a real King. They were not satisfied.
They were simple people. They were not people who decided to have a rebellion, leave the organized temple, and build another temple. All they knew was that even though they were there and obeying the Lord as He spoke to them day by day, they were waiting because they knew there was something more. It had to do with the coming of the Messiah.
I believe that if we are the generation really waiting for the coming of the Lord, then we are not satisfied. It sounds almost crooked to say that, because the Lord has blessed us all so much.
But has the Lord blessed you so much that He has brought you to repentance? Has the goodness, kindness, and forbearance of the Lord brought us to repentance, so that we realize we have the best that life can have, and we know it is not enough until our Lord Jesus comes back?
We must cry out with those widows for righteousness, for the Righteous One.
These dear ones were interceding. They had something deep in their hearts: a deep sense of something missing, a deep longing for righteousness, a deep longing that Israel could be Israel and a testimony, rather than this huge machine clouding the way to God.
The little ones sense that. Even when you have great Christian things going on, and many people sitting in large congregations, the little ones realize, “There is something that is not truly a testimony of Jesus.”
Sometimes I go somewhere to speak, maybe with my guitar, and once in a while I still sing. I get up and sing or share, and the people stand up and applaud. That is just something done today, but I find it undoes me. That is not right.
What are we doing? Are we applauding a performance? “Hey, that guy preached good. Let us give him a round of applause.” There is something about the church that is so gauche. There is no humility about the thing.
Anyway, this little group of hidden ones knew they were awaiting the consolation. There was something wrong. There was something more. There was something which could only come in by a move of God. Only God could really do this for us.
A third characteristic of this group as a whole is simply this: you would say that all of them had basically wasted their lives.
Think of Anna, remaining a widow all those years, just praying and praying and praying. What a waste. Zechariah and Elizabeth, what have you been serving God all this time for? You do not have any kids. What a waste.
All of these people seemed to waste their lives on the Lord—ministering to the Lord and awaiting the consolation of Israel. Their lives were a waste until the Lord showed up. Then their lives were a glory.
The fourth thing I would say about this little group of hidden ones is this: when God moved, they were overwhelmed and beside themselves with grace and joy.
These little ones had been faithful all this time. Can you imagine being little ones? Let us put ourselves in a little Judean hillside community. We are now in a Christian moshav. We have all been praying for years, serving God, and doing this and that.
Then, in your community there in the Judean hills, God begins to move. He moves His finger. An angel shows up. Can you imagine? You have been serving God as a priest for a long time, and suddenly an angel shows up. You might lose your voice.
Imagine Mary in the same condition. Imagine these little ones. This is the point: these are the little ones, suddenly filled with the Spirit and prophesying things as magnificent as the prophecies before the great centuries of silence.
Where did they get that gift of prophecy? Oh my goodness—these little ones.
As they were prophesying, only the little ones heard. Until John the Baptist came, John himself was hidden, as Luke 1 tells us, until the time he was manifested out of the wilderness to Israel.
But aside from that, these ones were so filled with joy when the Lord moved. When God moves, everything was satisfied in their hearts. Spirit-filled prophecies, angelic visitations—they were rejoicing. You know what they said? “God has visited us.”
Brothers and sisters, this is just about the fortieth conference that started in Richmond back in 1973 or so. About forty years. Some folks have been faithfully coming all these years, serving God, working with kids as long as they could work with kids, and now working in the geriatric department.
Faithful, faithful, faithful. I tell you, forty years of conferences would be worth it if God visited us.
The joy in our hearts, the repentance, the immediate sense of the coming of the kingdom, the reality of it all—how wonderful when God visits His people. It is overwhelming, even when it is in a quiet way, in a sort of byway where people do not know much of what is going on.
But when you sense the finger of God moving, it is a wonderful thing. You have been praying, and your prayers are being answered. God is showing up and beginning to move, and now the kingdom is moving.
What we are yet to see is a visitation—that God’s finger has moved and this final phase is coming in. Wonderful group of little ones. May we be so small, and may we know the joy.
Zechariah characterizes some things for us. He is a man of God. The interesting thing to me is that when you see the hidden ones, as God prepares to do something new and transition into something else, Zechariah was deeply committed and connected with the house of God.
You might think God would pull somebody who had nothing to do with the temple. But no, Zechariah was fully into the house of God.
When Samuel was being prepared in those secret years, where was he being prepared? In the house of God. It is interesting to me that when God does something new and raises up a generation of people who see, prepare, repent, and make ready, these are people who have been connected with the house of God and faithful in serving in the house of God.
There is a certain tribe of rebels who move from place to place, never satisfied, criticizing everything. But they are never obedient, faithful, giving parts of the house of God. I do not see how God can do something of His heart out of rebels.
But here is Zechariah. You could not call him anything but righteous, pious, and faithful in the house of God.
You young people, and those of you thinking, “Well, I am going to go to some better, easier place where I can just sit back. I am tired of the house of God. I am tired of setting up folding chairs”—I do believe that God’s eyes run to and fro across the earth, looking to show Himself strong to those who are loyal in heart.
Are you loyal to the Lord? Have you got a devoted heart? In the most secret and unassuming ways, are you there for the Lord when He needs help with hospitality, driving somebody somewhere, or these kinds of things?
One day God will visit you in your car. He will visit you doing the dishes. It is a good job. Well done.
Zechariah was faithful to the house of God. Yet you find brothers in various assemblies who have stepped up, taken the grace of God, shared words, shared Scriptures, and led Bible studies with the group they are in. Then they see the Lord.
The Lord has to readjust them in a period of silence, recalibrate them because of what they have seen.
After Zechariah saw the angel, he could not speak. He was set aside for, well, nine or ten months. But when he was released, he was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied.
Oh, dear brothers, I thank you for your faithfulness. I know many of you, by the grace of God, share the Word because you are asked. May the Lord touch you with a vision. Even if you have to go through a time of silence, may you come out the other side filled with the Holy Spirit.
Such an assembly can only be blessed when the hidden ones are willing to be dealt with by the Lord because of the vision that they have seen.
When we look at Elizabeth, the thing about her which amazes us is that she falls into a network of dear sisters who have been faithful in service and yet unfruitful in their own blessing.
Though the desire of her heart had not been fulfilled, she had served the Lord. Immediately this takes us back to Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Hannah—faithful sisters.
I do not know if Elizabeth was like a Martha—so able, except in the one thing she wanted to be able. She was frustrated in that one desire. She simply could not have a child.
There was this cloud over her, with some people thinking, “Well, she must have done something wrong.” Yet she lived faithfully, faithfully, faithfully all that time.
The Lord remembered her. There was nobody more gracious than her after she felt that life within her.
As I travel among assemblies, I see sisters who are so faithful. They do almost everything. The men sit at the city gate, watch the football game, and the sisters—they are doing everything.
There are so many Marthas, so many faithful ones. The wonderful thing is that at some point in their lives they are faithfully going along, yet sensing their own fruitlessness. Many of them have that feeling: “There is something more. I do not know.”
Then they discover the life of Christ within. Have you ever seen such a sister? Once she was busy and always trying to do something for the Lord, and then she finds Christ in her. Oh my goodness—so filled with grace.
There is Elizabeth now. She sees Mary and says, “Oh, praise God.” So happy, rejoicing, filling the hillsides of Judea with stories of the goodness of God.
Somebody who was barren for a long time—how interesting that the Lord sometimes withholds things from us because, as our brother said, His intention is to bring us to a higher fruitfulness for His kingdom and His service.
When we discover that and make the transaction with the Lord, saying, “Lord, I want Your fruitfulness, not just my fruitfulness,” something happens in our life. We see that in this precious, glowing Elizabeth.
Mary—I do not know what to say about Mary. She told all these stories in Luke 1 and Luke 2. That says to me that she treasured the Lord in her heart.
She was one of those treasures, one of those bearers of treasure in an earthen vessel, whom we find in so many assemblies.
In some assemblies, if the brothers went off for a three-week vacation and fished, they would come back and everything would be fine. If the sisters went off for two weeks and came back, it would be chaos in the assembly—babies crying, things left undone, a fight breaking out.
There are those Marys who are really, I do not know what you would call them, the guardians of the church. Their love, their reality, and their presence of Christ direct us sometimes in prayer and reading when we have gone astray. They bring in that million-dollar love when everybody else is—
Listen, Mary, you have to have Mary in your little hidden group. If she is there, you have some kind of stability, sometimes when the womb of the church is going through problems too deep for expression. Thank God for Mary.
Of course, Anna is another one who, simply, we could say, was somebody just faithful, faithful, faithful—praying, praying, praying.
Thank God for the brothers and sisters who are willing to pray week after week about things everybody else has given up on.
When we mention Simeon, that old prophet, there is something of a reward there for brothers who teach with prophetic vision and hold fast to the word of patience.
They say the Lord is coming. They show a vision of the Lord. They are faithful in that prophecy.
All that time, Simeon had that promise in his heart: “You will not die until you see the Messiah.” And you know, he believed it.
When everybody said, “Oh, for crying out loud, Simeon, how many years have you believed that?” and the scoffers told him to take it this way or that in interpretation, he said, “No, no, no, no.”
Among the hidden ones, we need a real prophetic word. It is the Word with insight and promise. That is what we need in the hidden place, and the Lord supplies a Simeon.
Let us turn to one more, because he is not on the immediate scene. In Luke 23:50, we find someone else joined together with the rest of them because of what he has in common:
And behold, a man named Joseph, who was a councillor, a good and righteous man—he had not consented to their counsel and deed—of Arimathaea, a city of the Jews, who was looking for the kingdom of God: this man went to Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus.
You see immediately why our dear Joseph of Arimathea is considered part of this band of hidden ones. There he is again: righteous. He had not consented to their counsel and deed. He himself was also waiting for the kingdom of God.
It is a wonderful thing, and it is all the sovereign hand and work of God, that sometimes among the hidden ones the Lord brings alongside somebody of stature—somebody of character like Joseph of Arimathea.
This was a man of means. This was a man of reputation. At the crucial time, he stood by faith among the people of God and was willing to ask for the body of Jesus when none of the hidden ones would dare to have gone.
He stood up. He came out in the open. He declared his faith.
We cannot sell anybody short. There are some people who are rich, who have been placed in high positions, and they love the Lord with all their heart. We cannot write people off according to their salary or the house in which they live.
If they are grouped together with those who are awaiting the consolation of Israel and the kingdom of God, then they are in the same family. They come forth at times in amazing ways. It is miraculous, really, how you see that happen among the people.
This is all that I really wanted to say: simply to present these as little character pictures of those who are in the assembly of the hidden ones.
How God loves the hidden ones. He is writing a book of remembrance about those little things—those obediences, those righteousnesses—that are being woven into the bridal gown.
He loves you. As small and out of the way as you may feel you are, if you are just human, humble, pious, and willing to obey, you can be part of this group. It does not take big people.
But finally, here is the thing: without this little assembly of hidden ones, John the Baptist could never have come.
I do not know what your fellowship group looks like, how long they have been meeting, or whether you meet in a big church or a small one. I do not know these factors. They are really not that important.
But I would like to say this: if the only thing that comes out of your assembling together over the years is hidden ones, as God raises up some John the Baptists, then you have done your job.
We sometimes look around and want to do things, to have some things we can tick off as great moments in our fellowship life. But if you raise up from your next generation those who love the Lord with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength, and who are willing to go all the way with the Lord—even as our brothers shared those absolutes—then you have been the womb for the coming of the messenger to bring in the kingdom.
May it be that our young people, through all that they go through in our assemblies, would find themselves fully prepared for that public ministry, that proclamation of the gospel needed in the last days.
I do believe that part of the last things that will happen will be a real proclamation of the living, true gospel from an assembly of people who bear a real testimony of the kingdom in their own lives.
Not just the life, but the proclamation. We need both. Then the end will come.
The Lord says in Matthew 24:14:
And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come.
May we be some of those awaiting the second coming of our Lord.
For this we pray, O Lord, as we come to You. We pray that You would roll back from our eyes the cataracts of unbelief, the putting off, and the sense that You are not coming back immediately.
Oh rather, Lord, we want to repent and be those who see that You are coming soon, and prepare ourselves by the grace of God to be those who lay the train tracks and prepare a highway for the coming of the Lord.
O mighty King, we know that You are waiting, and we want to hasten Your coming. But it starts with repentance.
Turn us, Lord. Turn us, and we will be turned. Remove us, remove our captivity, that we may serve You in holiness and righteousness, waiting on You until You are soon coming.
We pray in Jesus’ precious name.