Hope it is a joyous morning for you. Your burdens have been lifted. The prisoner has been set free. What else can we ask for? Hallelujah.
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
That is not just a word given by John the Baptist thousands of years ago. It is a word for today. Repent: the kingdom of God is at hand.
This morning, I want to share from the life of John the Baptist. The title would be John the Baptist: The Man and His Message. This morning, I will be considering John the Baptist, the man. Next time, in a number of weeks, we will share on John the Baptist and his ministry.
You know, there are times in life—and it happens numerous times—when you either read something or somebody says something, and it just really grabs you. That happened to me the other day as I was preparing for this ministry. It was actually a saying on a T-shirt:
Normal is not coming back. Jesus is.
That kind of summed it up for me. That is John the Baptist’s ministry, and that is where we are today.
We know we are living in what is referred to as troubling times. Obviously, there were troubling times when John the Baptist came into his ministry. Today, we have experienced the virus over the last couple of years, and now the war going on in Ukraine. The nations are in turmoil.
The Lord has encouraged us that when we see these things, we are to look up, for our redemption draws nigh. So, as we come together and hear John’s words—“Repent, for the kingdom of God draws nigh”—that is a very current message for us, a very imminent message concerning our Lord’s return.
John the Baptist was the last of the prophets. Jesus was the Prophet, but John the Baptist summed up the Law and the Prophets. When the Lord Jesus was asked concerning the sum of the Law and the Prophets, He said to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your being.
John the Baptist comes on the scene as the Lord is about to transfer the age to what we refer to as the age of grace, the age of the church.
If you read the prophets, you discover that this age of grace was a mystery. It was hidden from the prophets and was not revealed until Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Through the apostles and prophets, we discover this mystery of the church, the body of Jesus Christ.
The age was about to change. But the people of that day, including John the Baptist to a great extent, thought that when he gave his message that the King was at hand, the millennial kingdom was about to occur. They thought the King would come, immediately overthrow the Roman government, and that the Jewish people would rise to prominence once again. They thought the Jewish religion would become the religion of the world.
God was preparing His people. He had to prepare them, because they were not ready at that point. John was a transitional man.
Today, I want us to see that we are like that man. We live in an age of transition. Soon, indeed, the Lord will end the church age, and we will go into the millennial kingdom they were expecting—a kingdom in which the Lord will reign upon this earth. It will be a spiritual kingdom as well as an earthly kingdom.
John the Baptist became the voice to prepare the way of the Lord. I want to say right up front this morning: that is our calling, our ministry, and our purpose in this age and hour in which we live—to prepare the way of the coming King.
Brothers and sisters, it is a tremendous calling that we have. I hope the Lord will enlighten us.
John was the voice. John was like a herald. In those days—and I guess even today, when the queen of England comes to make an address—there is a herald who goes before and introduces the queen. That is what a herald does. They are not someone of great prominence themselves, but they introduce the king.
That was the voice. That was John’s ministry. It was an imminent call.
John’s message was:
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
There had also been a prophet called Malachi, the last prophet in the Old Testament. Four hundred years earlier, Malachi had called God’s people to repent. That message was not merely to the world; it was specifically to God’s own people, the Jewish nation. Even more specifically, it was to those who had returned from Babylonian captivity.
The remnant returned to Jerusalem. They restored Jerusalem, built the temple, and restored the priesthood and sacrifices. Yet a few hundred years later, Malachi came with a message of repentance. Basically, he said, “Return to God, and He will return to you.”
It was a call to repent from a lukewarm life with the Lord—a life not really given to Him. They continued in all their religious activities, but they had basically become religious rather than lovers of the Lord.
That had been going on for four hundred years. Yet the King was about to come, and the people were not in the right condition to receive Him. They were expecting the Messianic kingdom, but they did not understand what we understand today: you cannot have a Messianic kingdom unless you have a spiritual people.
That is why we are of the kingdom of God today, the Lord’s kingdom: because we have been born into that kingdom. That is why you have to be born again. His spiritual kingdom had to be established before His earthly kingdom could come upon this earth. There had to be that spiritual element of His kingdom.
John the Baptist rose up in that period and time. He was an instrument of change. He was the herald. He was the voice. He was the one chosen and called to serve as the transitional man for that hour.
The burden on my heart this morning is for us to realize that today we are that transitional vessel, that voice needed on this earth to bring in the coming King.
Normal will not return. The Lord Jesus is coming back.
When the Lord came, He did not set Himself up as King upon this earth. He came as the Lamb of God. He came as a Lamb because He would have to give His life to have a spiritual people and a spiritual kingdom.
We know the Lord is coming soon. If we are not yet awakened to the Lord’s imminent return, we have become spiritually sleepy. It should be obvious to everyone that the Lord’s return is very soon. The nations are in great turmoil.
Particularly to our young ones: it is at hand. I shared recently, during our open time, how people in Ukraine were interviewed three or four days before the actual invasion. They knew troops were all around. They knew everything was ready to invade. Yet people said, “We do not think they are going to invade. Everything is going to be okay. We are fine.”
People were milling around as though they were going to the mall—buying things, looking at things. Everything was normal, until two or three days later. Now Ukraine is being practically wiped off the map physically.
The point is that we need to be awakened to this hour. I know we have said it many times over the years. Our brother Stephen has carried this burden: “Are you ready? The Lord is coming. Are you ready?”
Brothers and sisters, we need that voice today. We need that herald. It is the responsibility of the church to be that voice, that testimony to the coming King.
In general, the church has failed. Even among those who have returned to honor and love the Lord, there can be lethargy among us at times. In my own life, I confess that I can lose that sense of awareness of the Lord’s soon return.
In the Book of Revelation, we remember the repeated message:
He that hath an ear, let him hear.
But in all but two of the churches—Smyrna and Philadelphia—another word is very prevalent: repent. At the end of the first century, that was the Lord’s word to His people: repent.
Think about Laodicea. What was His message to Laodicea?
Thou art lukewarm.
“You are lukewarm. You are not ready. Repent.”
Brothers and sisters, I do sense that this is the hour in which we live.
I want to take a few minutes this morning to go over John’s life. I have quite a few Scriptures to read, but we need to see the fullness of John’s life and ministry. I decided to do it in chronological order, drawing from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
John the Baptist was born to a priestly family. His father was an active priest, and his mother, Elizabeth, was also a descendant of Aaron.
Luke 1:5-7 tells us:
In the days of Herod, king of Judaea, there was 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.
Many were religious in that day, but for John’s parents, it was not just religion. They were not merely following rules. They had a heart for God, a heart for the Lord.
As Zacharias was serving in the temple, preparing to burn incense and offer prayers for the nation, the angel Gabriel appeared to him. Luke 1:13-17 says:
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 the wisdom of the just;
to make ready for the Lord a people prepared for Him.
Remember that: “He shall be great in the sight of the Lord.” That is what the Lord is calling us to. John was to be a Nazarite, filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth, and he was to bring many of the people of Israel back to the Lord.
When Elizabeth was about six months pregnant with John, Mary came to visit her. Luke 1:40-41 says:
And entered into the house of Zacharias and saluted Elisabeth.
And it came to pass, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb;
and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
The baby was John, and I am sure John was filled with the Holy Spirit too. Mary was probably newly pregnant with the Lord Jesus. It is interesting that even in the womb, John the Baptist responded to the entrance of the King.
Eight days after John was born, they brought him to be circumcised. They expected him to be named after his father, but Elizabeth said, “His name is John.” Zacharias had been unable to speak since his encounter with Gabriel, because he had not fully believed that he would have a son in his old age. He wrote on a tablet, “His name is John,” and then the Lord opened his mouth.
Zacharias prophesied over his son in Luke 1:76-77:
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.
What a message for such a voice. Is that not our message today to the lost world? Salvation through the forgiveness of sins by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Luke 1:80 says that the child grew and became strong. That is all we know of his childhood, other than that he was raised by very elderly parents—perhaps more like grandparents to him. The verse says that he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel.
We do not know how long John was in the desert. His public ministry began when he was about thirty. Perhaps he entered the desert in his late teens or early twenties after his parents passed away. He spent those years in a secret life with the Lord, reading the Word of God that he had and being before the Lord.
He was full of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit was feeding him with revelation during that period. He was being prepared for a ministry that seems to have lasted only about six months publicly.
At age thirty, John made his first public appearance. Luke 3:2-6 says:
The word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.
And he came into all the region about the Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance unto remission of sins;
as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,
The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
Make ye ready the way of the Lord,
make His paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be brought low;
and the crooked shall become straight,
and the rough ways smooth;
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
This King was also God’s salvation.
What was his message? Matthew 3:2-3 says:
Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
That message electrified the whole nation. It was like the world perspective changed when we saw the invasion into Ukraine. It changed the perspective of the people in John’s day.
John was not a wishy-washy preacher trying to preach what people wanted to hear. When the Pharisees and Sadducees came to where he was baptizing, John looked them in the eye and said:
Ye offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of repentance.
What a word to hear from this man.
John continued preaching about the coming Messiah. Luke 3:15-16 says:
And as the people were in expectation, and all men reasoned in their hearts concerning John, whether haply he were the Christ;
John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water;
but there cometh He that is mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose:
He shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire.
This was a voice preparing the way of the Lord: One was coming who would baptize them with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Then Jesus Himself came to be baptized. At first, John was reluctant. He saw the holiness of this Man and said, “I have need to be baptized of Thee.” But the Lord said that all righteousness needed to be fulfilled.
Luke 3:21-22 says:
Now it came to pass, when all the people were baptized, that, Jesus also having been baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened,
and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form, as a dove, upon Him,
and a voice came out of heaven, Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased.
God Himself was speaking.
After Jesus was baptized, He was led by the Holy Spirit into the desert and tempted for forty days and forty nights. While He was away, a delegation from the Sanhedrin—the legal authorities, the supreme court of the Jewish nation—came and questioned John about who he was and what authority he had.
John 1:20-23 records his answer:
I am not the Christ.
I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness,
Make straight the way of the Lord.
That was John’s calling.
The next day, Jesus returned. He had been tempted and had overcome. John 1:29-34 says:
Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!
I knew Him not; but He that sent me to baptize in water, He said unto me,
Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and abiding upon Him,
the same is He that baptizeth in the Holy Spirit.
And I have seen, and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.
The very next day, Jesus appeared again. John was standing with two disciples, whom we know to be Andrew and John. John 1:35-37 says:
Behold, the Lamb of God!
When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. These were the first two to follow Jesus.
There was then a period of perhaps six to nine months in which Jesus and John had parallel ministries. Jesus ministered in Judea, while John continued around Samaria, giving his message of repentance.
During that time, Jesus began His public ministry at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee, where He turned water into wine. He cleansed the temple for the first time and met with Nicodemus, telling him that one must be born again to enter the kingdom of God.
John’s followers became concerned because more and more people were following Jesus and being baptized by His disciples. They questioned John about it. John 3:28-30 records his response:
Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but, that I am sent before Him.
He that hath the bride is the bridegroom:
but the friend of the bridegroom, that standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice:
this my joy therefore is made full.
He must increase, but I must decrease.
What a humble servant of the Lord.
John’s public ministry ended with imprisonment. Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great and ruler over a region of Judea, had John arrested, bound, and put in prison because of Herodias, the wife he had taken from his brother Philip.
John had been saying to Herod:
It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother’s wife.
Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. Yet Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard John, he was greatly perplexed, but he liked to listen to him.
John was in prison perhaps ten to twelve months, maybe a little longer. Herod would call for John to be brought to him and would speak with him. Herod was a man who was drawn but never captured. Eventually, he called for both John’s death and the Lord’s death.
Many people are drawn to the Lord, but they never make that commitment. They do not come through. That was certainly true of Herod. His rejection of John’s words brought terrible consequences.
John had faithfully preached for at least six months. He was the Lord’s man, anointed from birth, and now he was in prison. That could be very discouraging. Along with the rest of the nation, John still thought the Messiah would establish the millennial kingdom then. I think he began to have doubts and became puzzled because he did not understand the Lord’s ways.
So he sent two disciples to question Jesus. Luke 7:19 says:
Art Thou He that cometh, or look we for another?
Jesus sent back this response in Luke 7:22-23:
Go and tell John the things which ye have seen and heard;
the blind receive their sight,
the lame walk,
the lepers are cleansed,
and the deaf hear,
the dead are raised up,
the poor have good tidings preached to them.
And blessed is he, whosoever shall find no occasion of stumbling in Me.
Some versions say, “Blessed are those who are not offended in Me.”
Brothers and sisters, this is a word of caution. It is easy in our lives to come into very perplexing times. We do not understand the ways of the Lord. We do not always know what He is doing. The enemy can attack us with doubt, and certainly he did John.
After John’s disciples left, Jesus turned to the crowd and spoke about John. Matthew 11:7-13 says:
What went ye out into the wilderness to behold? A reed shaken with the wind?
But what went ye out to see? A man clothed in soft raiment?
Behold, they that wear soft raiment are in kings’ houses.
But wherefore went ye out? To see a prophet?
Yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet.
This is he, of whom it is written,
Behold, I send My messenger before Thy face,
who shall prepare Thy way before Thee.
Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist.
From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and men of violence take it by force.
For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.
And if ye are willing to receive it, this is Elijah, that is to come.
John was not a reed swayed by the wind—a wishy-washy politician. He was not dressed in fine clothes or living in a king’s palace. He had lived in the desert, eating locusts and wild honey. He was a prophet, and more than a prophet.
Herod later held a great feast on his birthday. Herodias’s daughter danced before the king, and he was so pleased that he promised to give her up to half his kingdom. She conferred with her mother, who hated John, and asked for John the Baptist’s head on a platter. We know that happened, and the voice disappeared.
But I always remember John’s own prophecy:
He must increase, but I must decrease.
That is the scriptural life of John the Baptist. Now, as to the application: John was obviously a chosen vessel. He was filled with the Holy Spirit, even in the womb. He had a miraculous birth, because his parents were elderly and had not been able to have children.
We would look at John and say, “Yes, he was chosen. He was a chosen vessel of God.” It is obvious. But what I want us to think about this morning is that we also have to carry and be the voice of today. We need to know, and it needs to hit us definitely, that we too are chosen.
Ephesians 1:4 says:
He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.
I want all of us to realize that we were chosen by God first. Often we think that we chose God, but He chose us. You are a chosen vessel to be a testimony, to be a voice of the coming King.
You were not only chosen after you were born; you were chosen before you were born. In fact, you were chosen in Christ in eternity past. You are a chosen vessel of the Lord. That is your destiny. God chose you, not because of any merit. You were not even born when He chose you. He chose you in spite of all your great demerit.
You had no merit, but you had plenty of demerit, right? Yet the Lord chose you in eternity past.
It is beyond human understanding, really, but it is like He looked at His Son and saw you there. He saw me there, and He said, “I choose you.” Look at His Son, and you are there, and you are chosen. You are a chosen vessel.
Brothers and sisters, you did not choose God first. He chose you.
Why did He choose you? I think John’s name gives us the clue. John means, “God is gracious.” The grace of God—that is how you were chosen. It was God’s grace. We sang of it this morning. Grace was free.
We have been chosen by the grace of God, by His unmerited favor. It is a great honor and privilege to be chosen.
When I was in school, they had that society for all the kids with high grades. What was it? The National Honor Society. I always wanted to be in that society, but I never got close. It was beyond me.
I remember sitting there as they called out the names. Even though I knew it was impossible, somehow I still wanted it to happen. But it never did.
Well, brothers and sisters, you were chosen. God Himself chose you—not the National Honor Society, but God Himself. That is the great grace of God.
If that hits you in any kind of spiritual depth—that you are chosen of God—it should make a great difference in your life. Out of all the people in the world, He chose you.
But do not let that go to your heads, because 1 Corinthians 1:27 says:
God chose the foolish things of the world, that He might put to shame them that are wise.
So maybe that is the answer. He chose the foolish things to confound the wise. But God has chosen you.
You have to choose Him. We may not fully understand the mystery of predestination, but we know that we must choose Him. What is on my heart this morning is that we must not only choose Him as Savior, but as King.
That was John’s life:
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
The King is in your midst. That was his message. How can you be a voice of the coming King if He is not King of your life? That is the decision we need to make, if we have not already:
Lord, You are not only my Savior, and I am so grateful for that.
I am grateful that You have chosen me.
Lord, I need to make You King.
You are the King.
I want to be the voice.
I want to be the testimony on this earth.
But Lord, I need You to be King of my life.
He chose you, and now we need to choose Him, brothers and sisters.
Not only was John chosen; he was called by God. God called John to be this voice. It was God’s calling upon his life. Eight hundred years before John was born, God spoke through the prophet Isaiah:
The voice of one that crieth,
Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of the Lord,
make level in the desert a highway for our God.
That was John’s calling, made evident eight hundred years before he was born.
Not only have you been chosen in eternity past, but there is a calling upon the chosen. There is a calling in your life.
When the priests questioned John concerning who he was, they asked, “Art thou the Christ?” He said, “No.” They asked whether he was Elijah. The Lord Jesus said that John was the Elijah to come, but John was not Elijah raised from the dead. He could honestly say, “No, I am not Elijah.” Yet he came in the same spirit that Elijah had—the spirit of Elijah.
They asked whether he was the Prophet. He said, “No.” The Prophet is Christ. There was no pride in John. He was a humble man who lived a humble life.
John never tried to draw anyone to himself. It was not his ministry, his disciples, or his nation. It was the Lord’s. He never tried to draw anyone to himself.
I am so thankful the Lord gave us a voice here in Richmond that has never tried to draw anyone to himself or develop a great following, but has simply given the voice and the message of the Lord. I think you all know who I am talking about.
The voice is heard, but not seen. That was John. The voice comes and goes; it fades away. But the reality remains. Christ remains, brothers and sisters. That is our calling.
When John’s disciples were concerned that people were following Jesus rather than him, John said, “I rejoice. He must increase, but I must decrease.”
John knew who he was. He was not some great preacher. He was just a voice. He knew what he was not, but he knew who Jesus was. That is what he preached.
We are called ones as well in this last hour. Second Timothy 1:9 says:
God saved us, and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works,
but according to His own purpose and grace.
Romans 8:28 says:
We know that to them that love God all things work together for good,
even to them that are called according to His purpose.
God has not only chosen you, but He has called you. The calling is holy because it comes from God Himself. There is no other calling like God’s calling on your life. It is special, one of a kind, so to speak. It is your calling, and it involves you in God’s purpose.
I believe we are called to be a voice in this hour. But a voice is not merely what one says; it is not just the mouth. The voice has to come from a life. Certainly, John the Baptist had that life.
The testimony we give must come from our experience of Christ—not merely biblical knowledge, but our experience of Christ. It has to come from the life within you. Kenny recently spoke on that: Christ in you. That is where the voice has to come from.
What this meant to John, and what it means to us, is that we must have a life of repentance before the Lord. That is the key to being a voice. All our flesh must be dealt with—not only sin, but the flesh itself. All that we are in the self-life must be dealt with.
John said that all valleys must be filled. In other words, our sins of omission and commission, our depravity, and our corruption—all of that has to be taken out. Of course, it is in Christ.
He said the mountains must be leveled. That is the pride and arrogance of man, the independent spirit that is not able to be part of the whole.
Then he said the crooked places must be made straight: deceitfulness, manipulation, intrigue. All these things must be dealt with. There must be repentance.
When he spoke of crooked places made straight, he was looking at tax collectors. When he spoke of mountains being leveled, he was looking at the Pharisees and religious ones. When he spoke of valleys being filled, he was looking at the whole group. They asked, “What must we do?” They knew they were short, knew they were not ready for the kingdom, and did not know what to do. But John did. He said, “Repent.”
He also said to make the rough places smooth. We can be rough at times. We can be oppressive. We can demand of others what we will not demand of ourselves. When John said that, he was speaking to the Roman soldiers, who were so oppressive of men.
You have been called with a holy calling. First, you were called to come unto Jesus:
Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
But then the Lord said:
Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me.
That is your next call: the call to discipleship, the call to the way of the cross.
When you were born again, you were chosen to be a Nazarite. A Nazarite was not given to loving the world and its pleasures. A Nazarite lived a simple life before the Lord, but a dedicated and separated life. That is what we are called to. His whole life was centered on the Lord.
In Ephesians, you find another calling: the calling to be the body of Christ, to be a member of His body. We are living stones, not dead stones—active, not passive. You are called to that because that is the way Christ is manifested on this earth. That is the way the testimony is built in fullness: through our being joined together in the life of our Lord Jesus.
When we come to Revelation, we find that we are called to overcome—to overcome all that is in us opposed to Christ, and to overcome our enemy, who wants to destroy the testimony in our lives.
I believe we have a specific calling today: to prepare the way of the King, to be the voice and testimony that prepares His way. Second Peter 3:12 tells us that we are waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God.
The Lord is not merely waiting on certain world events to take place. He is waiting for His church to be made ready. He is waiting for us to be made ready. He is waiting for the bride to be made ready.
Brothers and sisters, we are called according to God’s purpose. Purpose is extremely important. It was important to our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord’s ministry on earth was overwhelming. Yet the Lord had purpose. It was God’s purpose for Him to become the Lamb. Through all the resistance of the enemy, the people, and everything else, He stood fast. He was strengthened because He was a Man of purpose.
We are not only chosen and called; we are called according to purpose. Look again at John the Baptist. Why was he such a strong man? Why was he able to be a Nazarite? Why was he able to give that message? Because he had a purpose.
His father prophesied of his purpose at his circumcision: that he would be one to prepare the way of the Lord. It gave great strength to John.
Purpose matters in our lives. I do not know what your personal purpose is, but I do know God’s purpose for you: to be a voice, to be His testimony, to prepare His way, to prepare the way of the coming King.
We gain much strength when we have that purpose from the Lord—an inward consciousness that we have that calling upon our lives. That purpose from God is the central purpose of your life. All other purposes must come under the umbrella of that great purpose of God for you.
Paul wanted to strengthen Timothy. Paul was in prison, just before he was to be martyred, when he sent his second letter to Timothy. Second Timothy 1:9 says:
God saved us, and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works,
but according to His own purpose and grace,
which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal.
That is Timothy, that is Paul, that is you, and that is me. We are all called with a divine purpose. There are no exceptions. We are all chosen, called, and called to serve a purpose.
Do you have that purpose? Are you in that purpose? Are you dedicated to that purpose?
We need that motivation in our lives, that sense of purpose.
The enemy knows the strength that purpose has. He wants to raise doubts and discourage us. He tells you that you do not matter. Yes, you are a brother or sister in the Lord, but concerning what God wants, you really do not matter. You cannot contribute anything to this calling.
To some, he says, “You are laboring for the Lord, but your labor is in vain. Where is the fruit from your labor?”
He will tell us that we are too old. “Jerry, your bones are creaking, your knees are weak, your back hurts. You are just too old.”
Then he hits us with this one: “You are not what you should be.” He always hits us with partial truths. That brings us down because there is truth there. Until we are with the Lord, that truth hangs around our neck like a heavy weight.
How do we resist all his tactics, doubts, lies, and fears? How do we come through?
This is the only answer I can give: it is not what you are in yourself. It is what you are in Christ that you must lay hold of in your life.
If you want to displace what you are apart from Christ—the old man—and put him off, you must put on the new man. You must lay hold by faith of what you are in Christ. The enemy wants to bring doubt because doubt puts a hole in faith.
Brothers and sisters, lay hold of what you are in Christ. Then He will make it true in your life. It takes faith.
The just shall live by faith.
If we lose a sense of purpose, we lose heart. Our testimony is weakened. Our willingness to serve the Lord and suffer for His name’s sake is greatly damaged. We can become passive. I think that is one of the biggest things that happens when we are hit with doubts.
Like John, we can become offended. John was attacked with doubt in prison. He had given himself totally to the Lord, lived for the Lord, prepared for his ministry, and served faithfully. He did not pull any punches with anybody. He told people exactly where they stood in the eyes of God.
He had such revelation of who Jesus was: the Son of God, the Lamb of God, the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit, the Bridegroom. Yet doubts assailed him.
The Lord said to John:
Blessed are those who are not offended in Me.
Whether we want to admit it or not, sometimes we can become offended with the Lord in our lives. Dire, desperate, unexpected things happen, and we cannot fathom what God is doing. It can really get to us.
The Lord did not rebuke John. He warned him. Basically, He said, “John, I know what I am doing. I have been raising the dead and healing. I am okay, John. It is all right. Just do not become offended. Do not fall away because you do not understand or cannot see it all. Stay faithful.”
And John did. He became a martyr for the Lord.
From my reading of the Word, all the martyrs are under the altar of God. That is a special group that the Lord recognizes and honors. There is probably no greater honor than to be a martyr for the Lord. I may be wrong, but I do not think so.
We may never be called to be martyrs, and I do not think any of us would really want to be one. But Brother Stephen has said this to us many times: we must live a martyr’s life before the Lord.
John was a man of vision. Vision reveals what your purpose is. It is through vision that you come to see that God has chosen you, called you, and given you purpose.
John had vision. When he baptized the Lord Jesus, he saw Him as the Son of God. His testimony was:
I have seen, and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.
That was an amazing testimony. They expected the Messiah, but they were not expecting the Son of God to be the Messiah. John’s eyes were opened: this is God.
Brothers and sisters, do you know Him as the Son of God? That is a great revelation. He is God of your life. He is also the Lamb of God.
I was so touched this morning that there was such an appreciation of the Lamb. The Lord gives us that revelation. It comes from the Father Himself concerning His Son. The Word tells us clearly that we cannot recognize Him as the Lamb of God unless God reveals it to us. That has happened to you. That is a great revelation.
I am thankful that every Lord’s Day we are called to come back and remember the greatness of this Lamb of God—what He has done for us.
John also saw Him as the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit. What does that mean? It means that when you accept Christ, you have the Holy Spirit. Do we have any idea how immense that is? You have the Holy Spirit in you to guide your life. You do not need merely to look up rules and regulations as a Christian. You need to listen to the Holy Spirit within.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts included tongues of fire and a mighty wind. Many focus on those things because they are looking for power. But what really happened was that we were baptized into the body of Jesus Christ.
When you accept Christ, the Holy Spirit puts you in a special place in the body of Christ, by which you are to serve the Lord and your brothers and sisters, build the house of God, build the priesthood of God, and prepare the bride for the Lord.
We need that fresh vision. We need continually to receive freshness concerning the vision the Lord has given us.
John also saw Him as the Bridegroom. Do you know the Lord as your Bridegroom? He is Bridegroom to the body. We, as His body, should love Him as our Bridegroom.
He loves us and wants us to be with Him, to serve Him as His helpmeet. You may have the knowledge, but has the Lord really touched your heart with the fact that He is the Bridegroom looking for His bride?
When He came to earth, He did not come merely to save people. He was looking for that bride, and she was not there. He had to call out a people. He had to die on Calvary’s cross to bring in the material to build the bride—us Christians trying to move on.
He became that Lamb that He might have the bride. He washes us with His Word that we might be without spot or wrinkle. My burden is that the Lord would give us freshness concerning what we have seen in our lives.
John was a man of spiritual character. As I said before, he was a Nazarite. You are called to be a Nazarite as well—totally committed to the Lord, whatever that may mean in your life personally.
The Lord testified concerning John that he was not a reed. He was not swayed by the world, by other people’s thoughts, or by opinions of him. He stood strong for the Lord. He had the testimony of a strong man.
The Lord also said that John was not one who desired rich clothing or to live in a palace. He was satisfied to live in the desert, living a simple life so that he could serve the Lord effectively. He did not indulge himself.
The Lord testified that John came in the spirit and power of Elijah. What was the spirit of Elijah? He was jealous for the Lord. You can read 1 Kings 19:10, 14. He was very jealous for the Lord, for the Lord’s purpose, and for the Lord’s people. He had great zeal for the Lord and for the rights of the Lord and His people.
What was the power of Elijah? James 5 tells us that Elijah was a man just like we are, but the prayer of a righteous man prevails with God. It was prayer—his prayer life—that was his characteristic.
Let me end by re-emphasizing this: I believe the Lord wants to awaken not only the world to its need for a Savior—that is part of what all the tribulation is about—but He wants to awaken us, His people, to the fact that the King is at hand.
He wants us to be the ones preparing the way of the King and hastening His return.
God Himself chose you. God Himself called you. God called you according to His purpose and according to His grace. You do not have the power to fulfill God’s purpose in your life, but by His grace you can. Lay hold of what you are in Christ Jesus.
Now we must choose Him. We must answer His call and serve His purpose.
Lord, we come to You. We thank You for this man, John the Baptist, the great example You have given to us.
Lord, in this hour in which we live, we are grateful to be chosen. We are grateful that we are called. We are grateful, Lord, that we are not only called, but called according to Your purpose.
Lord, we do not want to be found falling short of Your choosing for us, of Your calling for us, or of Your purpose in our lives.
Lord, I want to say that I am thankful that You named him John: grace, the grace of God.
In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.