Mike Owens. I just wasn’t close enough, I guess. Is that good, Jack? He got the thumbs-up. All right.
Let’s again begin with a word of prayer this morning.
Lord, what a precious time to be around Your table. Lord, like Mary, just sitting at Your feet, looking at You, receiving from You, worshiping You, and thanking You. Lord, may we forever be a deeply grateful people in response to Your great love and mercy that You have shed toward us.
Lord, we thank You that we are a people of relationship, a people with whom You desire to have fellowship and relationship. Lord, we thank You for that. Lord, we are truly family. We are truly ones who have the Father, a good Shepherd, and our elder Brother, our Lord Jesus.
We ask this morning, Lord, that the Holy Spirit would anoint our time—both to be able to share Your Word and to be able to hear and respond to Your Word. We ask in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
Well, the last time I shared, I spoke on John the Baptist, the man. Today, I want to share on John the Baptist—his message.
There are three Scriptures:
“Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
—Matthew 3:2
“Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men.”
—2 Corinthians 5:11
“For the love of Christ constraineth us.”
—2 Corinthians 5:14
Well, last time, as we got together and I shared on John the Baptist, the man, John was a man called of the Lord. He was called to be a messenger, to be the herald of the Lord, to welcome the Lord in and announce His arrival.
He was also chosen and prepared to prepare the way of the Lord. He was a chosen vessel. He was called, he was chosen, and not only that, he was anointed by the Holy Spirit to carry the message and to be the voice God called him to be. God prepared this man, even at a young age.
I have to say, we do not know exactly when he went into the desert to be before the Lord, but I would say probably in his early twenties. His parents were old when he was born. It was a miracle that he was born, and yet God called him. It says He anointed him from birth.
The thing that was on my heart as I shared last time was this call to be a voice, to prepare the way of the Lord. Brothers and sisters, we also are called by the Lord with a holy calling—not an earthly calling, not a man’s calling, but a holy calling from the Holy Spirit.
You have been chosen, just as John was. It says we were chosen even before the foundation of the world. Before you were born, God chose you. And He also anointed you. When you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit came upon you, and you were anointed by the Holy Spirit.
Brothers and sisters, we are called to prepare the way of the Lord. We know that John, in the age in which he lived, was in an age of transition. There was going to be a new age. The age of the Law and the Prophets was coming to an end.
John was the prophet who summed up, so to speak, all the previous prophets. The Lord Jesus said of John, “He is the greatest of the prophets.” Now, why was he the greatest? He was the greatest because all the other prophets had spoken of a coming Messiah, a future Messiah. But John’s message was, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The Messiah is here. He is among us. He is in our midst.
In other words, there was going to be that great transition from the Law and the Prophets to the age of grace—the church age, the age in which the King has come, and He is going to build a spiritual kingdom, not merely an earthly kingdom.
My burden is that today the Lord Jesus Christ will be coming back soon. He needs a voice. He needs those who will prepare the way of the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, that calling, that anointing, is upon His church. But we know that so much of the church today is really not following the Lord. I do not know how else to say it. So He has called us in this last day. He calls people to overcome all the lukewarmness, to really follow the Lord, and to be a voice to prepare the way for the soon return of our Lord Jesus Christ and the literal setting up of His kingdom upon this earth.
Well, that is what we shared last time. This time, I want to share on John’s message. Let me say that John really had one message, and that was: repent.
That message actually had two parts:
“In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, and saying, Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
—Matthew 3:1–2
And in Luke 3:3–4, speaking of John the Baptist, it says:
“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.”
—Luke 3:3–4
So the message was, “Repent. The kingdom of God is at hand. The King is at hand. Repent. You need to repent for the forgiveness of sin.”
Brothers and sisters, repentance was the message, and repentance was the key to preparing the way for the Lord’s first return. I want to say today that I think repentance is the key that prepares the way for the Lord coming the second time.
You know, we think a lot of times that repentance is just for unbelievers. But we know that is not true. There are many times in our lives when we have had to repent.
I think of Job. Even God said he was the most righteous man. He challenged Satan with Job’s righteousness. He said, “Have you ever seen a man so righteous?” We know the trials of Job. There are thirty-some chapters concerning the trials of Job.
It is very interesting: Job, the most righteous man that God had ever seen on this earth, in the end said, “I repent in dust and ashes.” He said, “I have previously heard of the Lord, but now I have seen Him.”
In other words, Job was a righteous man, but God showed him who righteousness was. I have to say, it does not say it this way, but what Job really saw was Jesus Christ, the righteousness of God. When he compared that righteousness with his own, he fell down as one dead and said, “I repent in dust and ashes.”
Brothers and sisters, I think of David. David was a man after God’s heart. That is what the Word says about David. There is no doubt that he was a man after God’s heart. But David also committed some serious sins, and he needed to repent.
We know, as you read the Psalms, how crushed his heart was and how he returned to the Lord. The remnant who had come back to build the wall, set up the house, and restore Jerusalem—they needed to repent, as we will see today.
Think about the church. What was the word of the Lord in Revelation to His churches? There were seven churches. We know that the great word was, “He that hath an ear, let him hear,” and He says that to all seven. But in five of the churches, He calls them to repent.
I think particularly of the church in Laodicea. Laodicea represents the church age that we are currently living in. What was the key issue, the key problem, in Laodicea? It was lukewarmness.
The Lord said, “You are not hot; you are not cold. I cannot stand it. I am going to spew you out of My mouth.” What a tragedy for this last church age.
Lord, brothers and sisters, I think we all realize that this is a critical issue in this day, even in our own hearts. There are times when we sense that lukewarmness, and brothers and sisters, there is the need to repent.
Now, one thing today: you may not hear one word I have to say, but I want you to read this book on Malachi by Stephen Kaung. It is a tremendous book, and it really does apply to us today individually. So I would recommend that.
Interestingly enough, in that book on Malachi, repentance was his whole message. Four hundred years before Jesus came, the word was, “Repent.” There was no other message until Jesus came, and when He came, the message from John the Baptist was, “Repent.”
In Malachi, the Lord’s heart just poured out to His people. He condescended, in a sense, to tell the people what the issues were, but they did not see the issues.
He challenged them because of their lack of love. They had grown insensitive to the love of God. He challenged them, saying, “Where is My honor?” There was a lack of even respect for the Lord.
He challenged them on a lack of purity. They were serving out of duty and not out of love. He challenged them on the issue of faithfulness. They had become weary of serving the Lord, and really it was because, to them, it was a duty. It was not something out of love.
The Lord said, “Return unto Me.” He was almost begging these people, saying, “Return unto Me.” And they said, “Wherein shall we return?” In other words, “Do we really need to return? Where have we gone astray?”
He also challenged them on the issue of priority in their lives: the Lord and His interests, or their own interests. As it turned out, it was their interests that they were most interested in.
He challenged them on the issue of reverence, of holding the Lord in proper regard. There was a lack of fear of the Lord. I need to say at this point that the fear of the Lord God was speaking about was the fear of disappointing the Lord. That is really what the Christian’s fear is: the fear of disappointing the Lord.
So I would encourage you: read the book. It is much better than anything I could say this morning.
As I said, four hundred years before the time of John the Baptist, the Lord spoke to the remnant in Israel. Now, they think Malachi the prophet actually spoke during either the interval between Nehemiah’s first and second returns to Jerusalem, or at his second return to Jerusalem.
That was almost one hundred years after the initial return of the remnant to build the house of God. These were ones who had given themselves to the house of the Lord—to restore the house, the wall, and the sacrifices. The Lord had a burden, and it came through Malachi. That burden was: repent.
The whole book is about repentance. In Malachi 3:7, the Lord said:
“Return unto Me, and I will return unto you.”
—Malachi 3:7
These were the ones who had given themselves to the Lord, and yet they needed repentance. The Lord was saying, “You have drifted away from Me. Return unto Me, and I will return unto you.”
But, brothers and sisters, they did not respond to the Lord. God was silent for four hundred years. He did not speak to them again.
His love caused Him to send this message to them four hundred years earlier. He was quite frank with them, but they did not respond. That was God’s love reaching out, but they did not respond. He was silent.
Brothers and sisters, is the Lord silent in your life? Sometimes we may mistake His silence to mean that everything is okay. I think that happened to Israel. But most likely, it means there is an issue, and God is still waiting for us to respond to His last word to us: repent.
God knew their hearts. He knew there was a lack of reality, a lack of life, and a lack of fellowship with the Lord.
I think it is interesting that in Malachi 3:1, while Malachi is speaking a message of repentance, he speaks of John the Baptist. Let me read it:
“Behold, I send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, He cometh, saith the Lord of hosts.”
—Malachi 3:1
John the Baptist was that messenger who would prepare the way before the Lord. The messenger of the covenant is the Lord Jesus, in whom they delighted.
But Malachi’s message does not end there. In Malachi 3:2, he says:
“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.”
—Malachi 3:2
Then in Malachi 3:5, He says:
“And I will come near to you to judgment.”
—Malachi 3:5
There is quite a difference in the people’s reaction in the days of Malachi and in the days of John the Baptist.
One problem the people had—even the scribes, Pharisees, and those knowledgeable in the Word—was that from the Old Testament prophecies, they saw only one event in the Lord’s coming. They did not distinguish between His first and second coming.
There were references to His coming as the Lamb of God, but they did not pick up on them. They saw the Messiah’s coming as the immediate establishment of the kingdom.
From the words of Malachi, they knew that when the Lord, or the Messiah, came, there would also be judgment. They were expecting that. The Messiah would come, His kingdom would be set up, and there would be judgment.
In Joel 2:1–2, it says the day of the Lord is coming—a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. You would think that would be a day of rejoicing, but here it says it is a day of judgment.
The second thing was that, from the prophecies, they were expecting the establishment of the Messianic kingdom.
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon His shoulder:
and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and of peace there shall be no end,
upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom.”
—Isaiah 9:6–7
So they were expecting the kingdom and the Messiah, but they also knew there would be judgment.
What they did not understand, brothers and sisters—and sometimes there is a misunderstanding even today in the church—is that God could not have His Messianic kingdom, His earthly kingdom, governed and ruled by an unspiritual people, by a people of the flesh.
He needed to have a spiritual people, a spiritual kingdom established, in order to bring in His earthly kingdom. He could not afford to have His kingdom filled with people of the flesh, living under Jewish law. He wanted us to be a people of faith.
“The just shall live by faith,” not by fulfilling the Jewish law. The sins of man and the sinner needed to be put away. Brothers and sisters, a new humanity had to be brought in through His only Son.
I think that explains so much. Remember the story of Nicodemus, how he came to the Lord? Nicodemus was a Pharisee. Most Pharisees were really legalistic, but it appears that Nicodemus, even though he came to the Lord at night because he did not want anyone to know he was going to see Jesus, was not like the hard-shell Pharisees.
He was really interested. He had been drawn in some way to the Lord Jesus. Obviously, he had probably heard John the Baptist. He may even have been in the crowds listening to John the Baptist proclaim that the kingdom of God was at hand.
John the Baptist was the one who, when speaking about the kingdom of God being at hand, saw the Lord Jesus show up in the crowd. He pointed to the Lord Jesus and said:
“Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!”
—John 1:29
So I think Nicodemus probably came with a good heart and a good spirit. But most likely, being a good Pharisee, he probably felt he was in good shape—that he was going to make it into the kingdom. Yet he also knew about this judgment, so he was probably concerned: “Am I really ready? Is there something else I need? Maybe a little adjustment?”
The Lord did not even let him ask that question. As soon as he said, “Rabbi,” the Lord responded, “Look, Nicodemus, in order to be ready for the kingdom, in order to enter the kingdom, you have to be born again.”
Of course, he had no idea what the Lord was talking about. We do today. Brothers and sisters, the Lord Jesus needed a born-again people for the kingdom.
He needed to obtain a people for the kingdom. That is why He came as the Lamb of God, to be the sin-bearer of the people of the Lord. He was the One through whom, brothers and sisters, the old man is put away and a new humanity comes in.
I do not know if you realize that, but when you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ, you were actually buried in God’s eyes. You were put away. Yet you were raised in Christ. That means a new humanity has come into your life.
Now, you can live off the old humanity if you want, but God calls us to live from this new humanity that is available to us in Jesus Christ. These are the ones who make up His kingdom.
So after four hundred years, the people had not changed. When John the Baptist came on the scene, it was a sovereign move of God. There was no reason why the Lord should once again call them to repentance.
What I am saying is that they had not done anything concerning repentance. Their hearts really were not any better. In fact, they had grown harder and worse. Yet the Lord, out of His love and mercy, called to them once again.
After four hundred years, He spoke through John the Baptist, and the whole nation was awakened. That is the difference, brothers and sisters. What a difference between the speaking of Malachi and John the Baptist.
They were joyful, but I want to say this: they were also a little terrified. Their joy was because the Messiah was coming. In their minds, He was going to set up His kingdom right then. He was going to overthrow the Roman government, sit on the throne, rule over Israel and the nations, and they would be God’s people.
In their expectation, everybody would have to come under the Jewish law and live under the Jewish religion. So, in that sense, they were joyful. But remember, that was their concept.
When the Lord did not begin to meet that expectation, the crowds turned on Him and said, “Away with Him! Away with Him!” It was because their expectations were wrong, and their expectations were not met.
But brothers and sisters, they were also terrified. Fear came upon them. They knew that if the kingdom was at hand, judgment was at hand, and they were fearful of that.
What was the difference between the movement under John the Baptist and what came before? There was a great difference. From what I can see, the Holy Spirit fell upon the people with the spirit of conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment.
That is what the Gospel of John says: the work of the Holy Spirit is to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. I think that Spirit really fell upon them.
Remember, when the Pharisees came to John the Baptist, he looked at them and said:
“Ye offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”
—Matthew 3:7
They had been warned. It had been four hundred years, and now judgment was at hand. That is what they began to awaken to. It was now. It was not merely in the future. It was imminent, and they were scared.
Because Malachi had said, “Who can stand at the judgment?” This reminds me of Nineveh and Jonah.
Remember, Jonah was sent out as a prophet to a Gentile people, the Assyrians. The Assyrians were the enemies of the Lord’s people. They had destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel. Eventually, of course, Babylon took Judah.
But the point is, as far as I know, this was the only Gentile nation to which the Lord sent a prophet. And He did.
What was Jonah’s message after the Lord finally convinced Jonah that he needed to give it? Jonah’s message was this: “In forty days, the Lord is going to overthrow Nineveh.” That was his message. He did not even ask them to repent. He simply said that in forty days judgment was coming.
They awoke, and they repented. Jonah did not even have to ask them to repent. They came under such conviction that they repented, and the Lord did not destroy Nineveh at that point.
I think that is amazing, brothers and sisters. But that is the difference. The Lord began with Malachi to draw them with His love and mercy. They did not respond. Then the kingdom of heaven was at hand, the Lord spoke to them of judgment, and the Holy Spirit convicted them. That was the difference.
Now, I do want to say one thing in defense of the ones Malachi spoke to. It is really wonderful: out of that remnant of people came another remnant.
This is what Malachi says in Malachi 3:16–17:
“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.”
—Malachi 3:16
Remember, I said that fear means the fear of disappointing the Lord. Those who feared the Lord spoke often to one another, and the Lord heard them. The Lord wrote a book of remembrance for those who feared Him.
They loved the Lord. They had a heart for the Lord. So there were some who responded to the Lord’s message, but by far the majority did not. They got worse.
When the Lord looked down upon those people four hundred years later, He had to say, “They have not responded. They have not gotten any better. But I am going to move.” He sent the Holy Spirit’s power of conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment upon them.
Thank the Lord. That was the Lord’s mercy. Was that not the Lord’s love? A lot of times, we think the message of judgment is just for punishment. But it is God’s mercy. It is God’s love calling out to His people and even to the world.
God moved, and the people cried out. The crowds came, and their cry was, “What must we do?” John the Baptist said, “Be baptized with the baptism of repentance.”
This, I guess, is the real point of all of this so far. Brothers and sisters, it is God’s grace that brings conviction to your heart.
It is even God’s grace by which you can repent once convicted. People can be convicted and not repent. True repentance is a work of God in your heart and life, a work of grace.
So, if conviction comes upon you, it is not something to run from, but something to embrace, because it is the Lord’s love reaching out in your life.
If we do not respond to love, we should be awakened because of judgment.
In 2 Corinthians 5:11, Paul speaks of “knowing the fear of the Lord.” In 2 Corinthians 5:14, he says, “The love of Christ constraineth us.” The love of God and the fear of God obviously do not seem to go together, but brothers and sisters, they do. They are two sides of the same coin.
The fear of the Lord convicts us. It awakens us to our condition, brothers and sisters. It awakens us to where we really stand with the Lord. It convicts us, and His love draws us to Himself.
Brothers and sisters, He becomes your way of salvation. So it is both the fear and the love of God in our lives.
Now, I also want to make this point strongly. The Holy Spirit was convicting these people of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and they were fearful. They said, “What can we do, John? What can we do?”
At that point, Jesus appeared in their midst—the Son of God, the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world.
Revival, so to speak, had taken place. The key was that the Spirit of conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment caused them to be awakened, and then the Lamb appeared. He is the answer. He was their answer. He is our answer.
I remember recently Matt has been sharing on the history of the church. It was either one or two sessions ago that he mentioned Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, both of whom were used by the Lord as voices during a great revival—the Great Awakening, as it was called in the colonies in the 1700s.
It was a great awakening. I want to read some excerpts from Jonathan Edwards’ most famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. This was in the 1700s.
He spoke of the impending judgment of hell awaiting unbelievers, and that the only way of salvation was through faith in Jesus Christ. In those days, a lot of people thought they were saved by works, and Jonathan Edwards corrected that. But he also emphasized this impending judgment. We would call him today one of the hellfire-and-brimstone preachers.
This is some of what he said:
“The wrath of God burns against them, their damnation does not slumber; the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is hot, ready to receive them; the flames do now rage and glow. The pit hath opened her mouth under them. The devil stands ready to fall upon them and seize them as his own, at what moment God shall permit him. They belong to him; he has their souls in his possession and under his dominion.”
He goes on to say:
“Experience shows that there is no evidence that a man is not on the very brink of eternity, and that the next step will not be into another world. Unconverted men walk over the pit of hell on a rotten covering. There are black clouds of God’s wrath hanging over their heads. God’s vengeance has been withheld, but your guilt in the meantime is continually increasing.”
He also mentioned that everyone was ready to slip into hell. There are eyewitness accounts that during his sermon, he had to stop numerous times because people were crying out and wailing, and there was great moaning in their midst.
Some were clinging to the columns so that they would not slip into hell. So great was the spirit of conviction, brothers and sisters. It was because they saw their nearness to hell.
When I came along, I had heard, at a young age, a little bit of this hellfire-and-brimstone preaching. Today, we really hear about the love of God. But brothers and sisters, I do say that there needs to be a balance.
We do need to know that there is judgment. There is a wrath of God. We see it all through the book of Revelation. In the end, what is not drawn to Him and cleansed by Him will be cleansed through judgment.
Brothers and sisters, when we go into eternity, there will be no more sin, no more unrighteousness, and no more self-life. Is that not amazing? It is because of the Lord’s love and also His judgment.
I think sometimes we need to see the depths of the darkness of what we are as sinners. I know that Watchman Nee and Jessie Penn-Lewis spoke of the dark night of the soul.
These were Christians far advanced in spiritual life, and there came a point when that darkness was so great that they thought they had lost their salvation. Brothers and sisters, of course we do not lose our salvation.
But how much more we appreciate the Lord’s sacrifice on our behalf when we know what we have been delivered from—the great darkness from which we have been delivered.
Brothers and sisters, I can give you my personal account. As a child of twelve years old, I thought I was okay with the Lord. I did not know much about the Lord. Occasionally, we would go to a Protestant church, but that was only occasionally.
I had spent a summer with a young man whose grandmother was a Baptist. I spent a week with him, I think, and she was all the time trying to lead me to the Lord. I did not know that was what she was doing, but anyway, that is what she was doing.
But what really brought me to the Lord was that my mother came to me. You all have heard this before. She said, “Jerry, if you do not get your life right with the Lord, you are going to hell.”
Now, that woke me up. I knew Mom was dead serious. She was not just trying to tell me some Scripture. She was dead serious, and I knew it.
The Lord convicted me, and I did fall on my knees and ask the Lord for forgiveness. I did not even know it at the time, but that was when I was saved. I did not know what had happened, but the Lord met me there that day as a young man. It was all because of the fear of judgment.
So I want to say that this matter of judgment is not a bad thing. It is of the Lord.
If the Lord has been convicting you concerning anything in your life, pray that the Lord will give you a real spirit of repentance. I know I have been praying that lately. I said, “Lord, I just want Your spirit of repentance. I cannot work it up. I do not intend to work it up. But I do not want to be unaware, Lord, that I need to be clearer with You and before You.”
A spirit of repentance. I believe that if you do, Jesus will come in and say:
“Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!”
—John 1:29
Well, through John’s message, conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment had fallen upon the people. John was there, but Jesus was also there in their midst.
We know Jesus is greater than John. He is the One who is greater than John, and He is the One who can save us from sin and judgment, brothers and sisters. He is the Lamb of God. The Lamb of God was in their midst, and John announced Him.
John baptized with water for repentance of sin. In other words, these people were coming to John and saying, “I am a sinner. I need God’s salvation.”
But Jesus was there as the Savior, and that is whom John the Baptist pointed them to. Even though they had been baptized with water in repentance, John said, “This is the One—Jesus. He can baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
We know what that means. Being baptized with the Holy Spirit has a couple of results. One is that, as we would tell our children, Jesus comes into your heart. The Holy Spirit comes into your spirit.
That happens when the Lord Jesus baptizes us. We have the Holy Spirit in us and with us. We also know that the Holy Spirit can come upon us as an outward anointing for service, for serving the Lord.
I think all of us have experienced that to some extent. You get in situations where you are sharing a message, helping someone out, or giving them a meal. You are tired and worn out, and you say, “I just do not know if I have the energy to make this meal to take.”
Then the Lord quickens you, and you are able to do it. It is in simple things, brothers and sisters, but the Lord’s anointing is there.
The One greater than John also brings something else through this anointing. When you come into the Lord Jesus Christ, the old creation—the old man, the incapable man—is put away, and a new man comes into your heart. That new man is Jesus.
It is the new humanity that comes into your heart, which you live by. That is what being baptized with the Holy Spirit means. Not only that, but you are baptized into the body of Christ. You are now part of the family. You are joined with your brothers and sisters through the Holy Spirit in one spirit.
When Jesus came to John to be baptized, John said, “I cannot baptize You. You need to baptize me.” He obviously knew something about the Lord, knew Him as the Son of God. And John was right.
But the Lord said, “We need to fulfill all righteousness,” and He was baptized. John baptized Jesus.
Now, I need to be very clear here: Jesus was not baptized because He was a sinner. We know that. He was sinless, the perfect Lamb of God. He was baptized because we are sinners.
Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist was His commitment to go to the cross—His commitment to carry out the plan of salvation, His commitment to deliver us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of God.
When He was baptized, the anointing came upon our Lord Jesus to carry out that mission of going to Calvary’s cross and overcoming the enemy.
We know that because it says the Spirit, like a dove, came upon Him. And the Father sealed it. The Father spoke from heaven and said:
“This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
—Matthew 3:17
He sealed it. Brothers and sisters, you have been anointed, whether you realize it or not, and you have been sealed. The Father looks upon His Son. He does not see what you were. He sees what you are in Christ.
The Father spoke to the Son. This is very important: the basis of the Lord carrying out His mission to save mankind was His relationship to the Father.
The Lord said, “I only do what the Father tells Me to do. I only say what the Father tells Me to say. Whatever the Father wills, that is My will.”
I remember when He was speaking to the woman at the well. He sent the disciples away, and He spoke to the woman. They were all hungry at that point. Even Jesus was tired and weary, but He took time to speak to this woman, who desperately needed the Lord.
When the disciples came back, they were astonished. They said, “Lord, look, we have brought some food.” The Lord said, “That is not My food. My food is to do the will of the Father.”
I would have to say, brothers and sisters, our becoming the voice and our preparing the way of the Lord depend upon our relationship to Him.
Do we do what He asks us to do? Do we say what He tells us to say? Do we do His will? Do we respond to His will when He says, “This is My will”? Do we agree with Him? It is all based on relationship.
Then our Lord Jesus went to Calvary’s cross, and He ascended back to the throne. When He ascended to the throne, He was anointed once again.
The Holy Spirit was poured out upon His head, and it went down to the skirts of His garments. That is the church. One hundred and twenty believers, individual believers operating independently before the Lord, all of a sudden became the body of Jesus Christ on this earth.
Brothers and sisters, what a transition for these people.
I was reminded this morning of something I read. The first miracle after Jesus arose from the dead was when the disciples went to the lame man. I think it was Peter who said, “We do not have silver or gold. But what I have I give unto you: arise and walk.”
It was a lame man. In other words, brothers and sisters, we no longer depend upon our terrible, weakened condition. We depend upon the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what that miracle is about. We are incapable, but He is capable.
One last thing. I am coming close.
The love of God constrains us, but the fear of the Lord reminds us that at His return there will be judgment, and we will all have to give an account.
Unbelievers will give an account at the great white throne judgment. They will be judged as a matter of eternal life or eternal death.
May I say this much? I do not know if anybody here is an unbeliever, but when you die, it is not over. It is eternal death. It goes on for eternity. It does not mean you are going to be unconscious. It means you will be alive, but dead in the deadness of your sin.
Brothers and sisters, it is a terrible, terrible death. It is eternal death. But in Christ Jesus, there is eternal life.
But in 1 Peter 4:17, it says that judgment will first begin at the house of God. Before the great white judgment of the nations, there will be a judgment upon God’s house.
Second Corinthians 5:10–11 says that we must all be manifested before the judgment seat—not the great white throne, but the judgment seat of Christ—that each may receive the things done in the body.
We also have to read the parable in Luke 19, the parable of the pound, or the parable of the mina, as it is called in some versions, and the parable of the talents in Matthew 25.
The parable of the mina, or the pound, is really the grace of God that has been given to all of us. We have all been given grace—great grace. We have grace to do the will of God.
Brothers and sisters, we have also been given spiritual gifts. You may not know what your gift is, but if you just respond to the Lord, that gift will come out.
We have been given these two things by the Lord Jesus Christ: grace and spiritual gifts. In both parables, the nobleman goes away, it says, to receive a kingdom. That is what our Lord is doing now. He has gone away to receive His kingdom.
When He comes back, He calls all His servants to account. He says, “I need you to give account. I have given you grace. I have given you spiritual gifts. I told you to go and exercise these gifts, that there might be increase in your life personally and in the lives of others.”
Remember the story: He rewarded those who had gained increase. But one, in the matter of the pound or grace, said, “I just put mine in a napkin and kept it until You came back. I did not really use it at all.”
The other one, in the parable of the talents, said, “I buried it, and now here it is.” There was no gain.
The Lord says that all that is not done is wood, hay, and stubble. In the last day, there will be that consuming fire in His judgment, and all that is not of Christ—the wood, hay, and stubble in our life—will be burned up.
What remains is the silver and gold that has come out through exercising the grace God has given and the talents He has given. To those who just buried it, hid it, or kept it, where there was no increase, He said there will be great weeping and gnashing of teeth.
What does that mean? There are different interpretations, but brothers and sisters, it does not mean they have gone to hell. It means they will be in deep regret. But they cannot repent at that point. They are in regret.
So during the millennium period, I always say the Lord is going to put them through remedial school, to bring them back up to the level they should have been at spiritually. It is really the Lord’s love and mercy.
But to the ones who have been faithful, who were fearful of displeasing the Lord and tried to honor and love the Lord, He will say:
“Well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”
—Matthew 25:23
That is what we want to hear at the judgment seat of Christ. But we all need to know that there is a judgment seat coming. The Lord is concerned about our lives, and we will give an account.
So, does the Lord have a word for us today—not only for us, but for the whole world? Does He have a message? I think He does. I think it is repentance.
I think He has been giving warning signs for quite a long time. We have seen that in this coronavirus thing that shut down the world for two years. It affected the whole world. It did not just affect America.
I think it is a sign. In America, we had September 11. We did not wake up. Brothers and sisters, we have had tremendous hurricanes, storms, and tornadoes, and still we have not awakened. The world has not awakened.
Russia is now invading Ukraine, crushing them with evil intent, with no real purpose except to gain power. Brothers and sisters, lawlessness is exploding. Is this not a wake-up call?
When the Lord brought judgment upon the world with the flood, what does it say? It says they were full of lawlessness and violence. Those are key indicators: lawlessness and violence.
Boy, are we experiencing that today in the United States. So I think there is a call. It is a wake-up call to the world. We hope the world does wake up. Judgment is at the door, and the wrath of God will follow.
For the church—even for those who are responding to the Lord—I think He wants us to have a repentant spirit. Not to hang our heads down and walk around saying, “Lord, I repent. I repent.”
I remember we used to see these people with signs saying, “Judgment. God’s judgment is at hand.” They carried them around, dressed in old clothes, and looked ragged. That is not what the Lord is looking for.
He is looking for us to raise our heads and say, “Lord, I need You. I need You. I need to return to You, Lord, in this last hour.”
The Lord says:
“As many as I love, I reprove and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.”
—Revelation 3:19
That is the Lord’s word to us in this last hour. Brothers and sisters, the last church age is Laodicea. Their issue, the thing that God called them to repent about, was simply being lukewarm.
That is a danger for all of us: to become lukewarm. So may the Lord encourage us. I pray that His spirit of conviction will come upon us, the spirit of repentance, brothers and sisters, for His sake—not just for our sake.
Well, Lord, we just come to You today. We have shared this word, and Lord, I pray that in this last hour You are calling us to be Your voice to prepare the way.
Lord, that word is repent. That word is to return unto the Lord, and You will return to us. Lord, I do not speak this to condemn anyone, but to encourage us all.
Lord, out of Your great love, You do discipline us. Lord, You do correct us. Lord, in mercy, when we get going in the wrong way, You do Your best to draw us back.
But really, it is because of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, laying hold of us, showing us what we are missing, and bringing us back to Your love.
So, Lord, we lift our hearts up to Thee today. Lord, only You can search our hearts. Only You can know our hearts. That is not our job. That is the Holy Spirit’s job.
Lord, we put ourselves into Your hand this morning. In Jesus’ name. Amen.