I invite you to turn with me this morning to Matthew chapter 3. What I want to do this morning is to use the ministry of John the Baptist to show you the message of every true gospel preacher. I read Mark's account of John the Baptist to you earlier because I wanted you to see that his ministry The ministry of John the Baptist marked the beginning of the gospel of Christ. Mark said, this is the beginning of the gospel of Christ, and then immediately started talking about John. John was the forerunner of Christ. And this gospel, which we've come to know as the person of Jesus Christ, would not be manifest until John came and John preached. I believe this in my heart. A little known fact in our day is that the gospel is a person. It is a person. I hear men talk about the gospel, but they are referring to decisions. They are referring to an act of acceptance. They are referring to this, that, and the other, keeping of the law, commitments, baptism, all kinds of things. But they are not talking about the person of Jesus Christ. And He is the Gospel. If you miss that, you miss the Gospel altogether. The Gospel is Christ. And that is what John came to do. This religious world had made things crooked. Men in their fallen nature under the influence of Satan had made things crooked. They took the way of God and they had it upside down. They had it sideways. It was a crooked path. It had nothing to do, nothing even similar to what the gospel of Christ really was as it was set forth by the prophets. And John came to straighten that path out. Straighten out his ways and make his ways clear to this world. In 2 Timothy 1, verse 10, speaks of God's eternal purpose of grace being manifested by the appearing of our Savior. That's where it was manifested. By the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who has abolished death, now listen to this, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. He is the gospel. And the four testimonies of the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ are called the four Gospels. The four Gospels. And John marked the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. John's ministry was to make the way of the Gospel plain and clear, to straighten out that which had been made crooked, and to fill in all the low places and level out all the high places. Turn with me to Luke chapter 1. Luke 1. And look over here at verse 76. Let's look at what Luke had to say about the ministry of John. Luke 1, verse 76. And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the highest. For thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways. Now watch this. to give knowledge of salvation, salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins. That is not a hidden knowledge, but an experiential knowledge which they receive by hearing the gospel and being born of God's Spirit. And verse 78, through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the dayspring on high hath bested us, talking about Christ being born, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace. Do you know one of the things that Paul said in Romans chapter 3, talking about being under sin? Is that the way of peace? We have not known. They have not known that. And John came to tell them that. He came to guide their feet into the way of peace. In short, John was sent to preach the gospel of Christ who had already been born in Bethlehem. Well, why must John be sent? Why couldn't Jesus of Nazareth herald His own coming? He did stand up one day and read some scripture from Isaiah and said, this day is a scripture fulfilled in your ears, declaring Himself to be the Savior and the Christ. But why couldn't He herald His own coming? Well, I'll give you two reasons. First of all, because the Scripture said John would. That's the first thing. You know, we often wonder about things that are plainly declared in the Word of God. We don't need to wonder about them. This is how God said it was going to be. That's why John came. That's why John was covered with the Holy Spirit in his mother's womb. Listen to this, Matthew 3, verse 3. For this is he that was spoken of the prophet Isaiah, this John, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare you the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Over in Isaiah 40. And then secondly, he came for this reason. John marked the beginning of the gospel age. And he'll set forth the means whereby all God's elect should be called to see the manifest glory of God in Christ. And as John was the forerunner of Christ and plainly declared his coming and work, so every preacher called of God in this gospel age marks the revelation of Christ in the hearts and minds of all that believe. Preaching. I want you to hear me. Preaching always precedes the revelation of Christ. And God establishes that in this man, John. Establishes it. Right there. It always precedes the revelation of Christ to chosen sinners. And when these men came, and when they do come and preach, they make five bold declarations to all who are brought to hear. May God the Holy Spirit be pleased this morning to press these claims upon you and press them upon your heart and upon mine. John came and he made five bold declarations. And men didn't like it, especially religious men. They didn't like it. They didn't like it. And the first bold declaration is that every man, every woman, every child born into this world is a sinner before God. They come forth from the womb, the Scripture said, speaking lies. Now, here's what John said. Now, he said, is the ax laid to the root. When you preach the Gospel, the Gospel is God's axe. And He lays it to the root of man. He cuts man down at the bottom. He doesn't trim off a few dead limbs. He doesn't go up there. He's got a few limbs up there kind of looking scabby like they used to look on those old apple trees my dad had. He doesn't go up there and trim a few limbs. He lays the axe to the root. The whole tree is bad. And he lays that axe to the root and chops it down. And that's what the gospel does. It takes man down. It shows him that he's a sinner before God. That's a bold declaration. This world don't believe that. We don't have to believe it. We're sinners before God. Sinners. Speaking of John the Baptist, Isaiah said this, the voice said, cry, cry. And John said, what shall I cry? And the voice said, cry, all flesh is grass. And all the goodliness thereof is the flower of the grave. What's the flower of the grave? That's a dandelion, isn't it? That's what it is in Kentucky. I don't know what it is down here. But up there, it's just a dandelion. You know what happens to a dandelion? It comes out and blooms yellow. And I don't care what you spray them with or what you do, pretty soon they turn white and you can take them in your hand and blow them away. They're gone. That's man. That's man. All of his goodliness is just like that dandelion. It comes forth and you see it for just a season and then it's gone. Gone. The grass withereth, and the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it." Where does he do that? He does that in the preaching of the gospel. The Holy Spirit of God blows on the glory of man, and he just turns it into dust. Turns it into dust. So the first straightening out of the crooked and perverse ways of man is the conviction of sin. Until God the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Gospel convinces men of sin, they'll remain right where they are. They'll stay right where they are. They'll keep on thinking exactly the way they think in that minute. They'll continue to walk according to the course of this world and continue under the influence of the Prince of the power of the air. You can read about that in Ephesians 2, verses 2 and 3. That's where God finds all his elect walking according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now worketh in the children of disobedience. So the first word of the gospel to those who gather to hear it is that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Why is this so important? Why must every God-called preacher insist on telling his hearers that they're sinners before Holy God? Well, I tell you, first of all, because they're ignorant of it. That's right. They're ignorant of it. Now, I always knew that I had sinned. I always knew that. I took something that wasn't mine or told a little fib about something or stole somebody's watermelon or done something. I knew I was a sinner. But I didn't know what sin was. I didn't know what sin was. I didn't realize that sin is a nature. Sin's not near so much what you do. It is what you do, but it's not near so much that is why you did it. Only sinners sin, did you know that? If you wasn't a sinner, you wouldn't sin. Men are ignorant of this. They're ignorant of it. We're sinners. Sinners before a holy God. Zen is a state of being. By nature, he tells us in Ephesians 2, we're by nature the children of wrath, even as others. And then Romans 3 tells us plainly that the great advantages given to the Jews that were withholding from the Gentiles didn't do them a bit of good. He said, what then, for all these advantages, all these things that was given to them, what then? Are we any better off than they are? No. He said, no. Why? Why? Because we have before proved both Jew and Gentile are all under sin. Then he goes on to tell you what he's talking about. They're non-righteous. Non-righteous. Now, wait a minute. Wait a minute. I used to go to that church. There's an old lady down there, she'd give you anything you needed, she'd do anything. There's none righteous. Isn't that what it says? None righteous. None that understandeth. None that seeketh after God. None good, no not one. In Romans 8, verses 6 and 7, he tells us that to be carnally minded, naturally minded is death, because the carnal or natural mind is enmity, hostility toward God. Not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. And then in Ecclesiastes 9.3, he said, the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, And madness is in their heart while they live, and after that, they go to the dead. You're sinners. Sinners. Now, why do I have to preach that? I have to preach it because men are ignorant of it, first of all. Secondly, I have to preach it because God can't do you any good. Nothing I'm going to say to you is going to do you any good until He convinces you that you're a sinner. If you're a pretty good feller, if you're a pretty good Lady, boy, girl, here this morning, this salvation is not for you. This salvation is for sinners. And here's what our Lord told them. We forget sometimes that these Pharisees, they would put us to shame with their moral lives. Their moral lives were spotless. Absolutely spotless. And our Lord, when they came to Him, He did the same thing John the Baptist told Him to do. He said, now you go learn what this means. I'll have mercy and not sacrifice. For I'm not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Now you go learn what sin means. You go learn what mercy means. You go learn that and then you come back and we'll reason together. And so John tells them. He told those Pharisees. They came out to him to be baptized. They didn't want to be baptized because they had been led of God to repentance and believed in Christ for the remission of sins. They wanted to be baptized because they were jealous of those crowds that went out to hear John preach. And they wanted to identify with him to get in good with the crowd. And when they came out, John told them, he said, well, you vipers, you vipers, that's what he called them. He didn't call them good folks. He didn't call them folks that, you know, we're all just folks in a wheel. We're coming from different directions, but we're all headed... That ain't what John said. He called them vipers. And he said, you go back and when you come back to me, you bring fruit, meat for repentance. Job said, man drinks iniquity like water. And David said, at his best state, he's altogether vanity. And listen to this, Jeremiah said, his heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Man is a sinner, and because he is a sinner, he is under the wrath of God, under the condemnation of God, and bound in chains of darkness. David prayed and confessed his sins to God. He confessed that his sins were ever before him. before his eyes. He couldn't get shed of what he was. He was a sinner, a sinner before God. And that his sin was against God wasn't so much against me as it was against God, against his nature and against his authority and against his law and against his testimony. And in spite of the promise of punishment, David said he confessed these things and justified God in his judgments toward him. And we will, too, if God ever convinces us of sin. We'll get on God's side in our own condemnation. We'll say in our own hearts, He ought to send me to hell. I'm not talking about wanting to go to hell, but you'll say God will be just if He does. You'll agree with Him. God's preachers will tell you the truth about sin. There's none righteous, none good, none that understand it, no fear of God before their eyes. That's the first bold declaration that He gives. And He gives it because men are ignorant of it. And He gives it because it's necessary to the receiving of grace. The first work of God in the conversion of a man is conviction of sin. He said when He sends the Holy Spirit over in John 16, when the Holy Spirit has come, what's He going to do? He's going to convince us of sin. That's first. and then of righteousness and judgment. All right, here's the second bold declaration that God's preachers preach to men, is that a true knowledge of sin is in the light of a holy and just God is sufficient to turn him from his sin. Now, I've got people that will stand right beside me when I talk about sin, but it's never been sufficient to turn them from their sin. There's something wrong with that. There's something wrong with that. If my faith in Christ and my conviction of sin is not sufficient to turn me from sin, then I've never really known what sin is, and I've never really known what the grace of God is, else I'd turn. That's what Paul told those Thessalonians. He said, I know your election of God over there in 1 Thessalonians 1. I know your election of God because you turned to God from your idols. You turned. This matter of conviction of sin and faith in Christ has turned you. Turned you. I'll tell you what I've learned. You're not going to swim in a cesspool, are you? Huh? You're not going to swim in a cesspool. You're not going to hug a hot stove, and you're not going to lay down in a thicket of thorn. And you avoid these things because you know better. And those who know what sin is, who see the exceeding sinfulness of sin, they don't lay down in it. They don't swim in it. You see what I'm saying? They don't rest in it. They don't follow after it. They turn from it. They turn from it. You avoid them because you know better. You know their nature, the danger of it. And you know what will happen if you don't turn from them. Those who profess faith and repentance but go on in their sins deny the true work of God in repentance and faith and have got no fruit. of repentance. And that's what John was telling them. Listen to what he says here to these Pharisees and Sadducees who came and sought baptism. Matthew 3, verse 7. When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits and meat for repentance. You see, they professed repentance. but they clung to their old beliefs. They professed repentance, but they wore those broad phylacteries on their robes. They professed repentance and faith, but they still held to their old titles and positions. They came to confess faith in Christ and repentance from sin, but they still preached salvation by works and salvation by law. And when God leads a man to repentance, He takes out his old righteousnesses, all his old concepts of God and all his old hopes, and he throws them out on the dung heap. That's what Paul said he did with his. Takes them out there and throws them on the dung heap where they belong. And I'll tell you this, you might lie to God's preachers about repentance and faith, and they may baptize you. I'll baptize you. You come and tell me you believe what I preach, and you repented of your sins, and God's done a work in your heart. You come to me, I'll put you in the pool, but I'll tell you what I'm going to say when I put you there. According to your profession of faith, I baptize you. And you can lie to me about it, but I'll tell you this, you can't lie to Him. You can't lie to him. I'll tell you this, you can come lying to me, but you can't come to me in that facade of Phariseeism. I'll tell you to go somewhere else and get baptized. I'll tell you the same thing Paul did. You go bring forth fruit, meat for repentance. Then we'll talk about baptism. Alright, here's the third bold declaration that every God-called preacher makes to men, is that salvation is in the glorious person of Jesus Christ. Prepare, John said, the way of the Lord. Prepare that way. My friend Jesus Christ said, I am the way. Didn't He? Stating out the way is to declare plainly who He is and why He came and what He did and where He is. These modern day preachers, they got Christ sitting in some vacuum, some unsure vacuum, waiting on man's acceptance of Him to make His work effectual. And he's not up there pacing, Brother Mahan used to say, back and forth over the banisters of heaven, wringing his hands, wondering if somebody's going to do something for Jesus. He sat down. He sat down at the right hand of God. He's not worried. And he's sitting there, now listen, expecting until his enemies be made his footstool. He's not worried. His work's already accepted. You're the one who ain't accepted. His work's been accepted. It's not near so much your accepting His work as it is His work making you acceptable. That's where it's at. Jesus Christ finished the work. He finished the work He came to do, redemption. justified all His elect, took possession of their inheritance, and from His throne in glory sends them the means and the power to become sons of God." Peter told the Sanhedrin over there in Acts 5, verse 31, that God exalted Christ with the right hand of His power to be a Prince and a Savior. Now listen, for to give repentance. Well, I thought that was the work of man. That's the gift of God. And it comes from the exalted Christ. He exalted Him to be a Prince and Savior for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. You see, Christ is the Savior, not us. We don't save ourselves. He's the Savior. And Christ is the Savior, not the Pope or some priest or some preacher somewhere. Christ is the Savior, not a handful of water sprinkled on your head or a tub full or a pool or a river. They're none other name. That's what these early preachers said. They're none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. The Lord came to John and He said, baptize me. And John said, I'm not worthy to unloose yours, you let it. He said, I need to be baptized of thee. He said, suffer it to be so for now. Let the Scriptures be fulfilled. All righteousness be fulfilled. You suffer it to be so for now. But preachers preach Christ. They preach Christ. There cometh one after me. That was John's message. He didn't tell them to come after him. He said, there cometh one after me who is mightier than I. His message was this, behold the Lamb. That's what he declared. The Lamb of Lambs, the sacrificial Lamb, the substitutionary Lamb, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. And behold the Lamb is what preachers tell convicted sinners. who's turning from their sins. Look to Him. Look to Him. Believe on Him. Rest in Him. Come to Him. That's salvation. Well, how much does a man have to know to come to Christ? Enough to cause Him to come. That's what he has to know. How much is that? I don't know. I don't know how much it is. But you'll know. You'll know because you'll come. And then fourthly, every God-called preacher boldly declares that all true believers bow to Christ. There is no coming to Christ apart from bowing because Christ is Lord. The Gospel declares that He is Lord. He is Lord of the dead and He is Lord of the living. In our lesson this morning in Colossians, I showed the people here, He is before all things. He is the firstborn of creation. He is the reason for it. He is the glory of it. He is the hope of it. Christ is. In Him, all preeminence in Him. Why? Because it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. All true believers bow to Christ. Wherever there is an inward revelation of Christ, there is always an obedient heart. Listen to this. Paul said in Romans 6, verse 17, But God be thanked that you were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. And that form of doctrine is the doctrine of Christ. It's submission. That's the evidence of a new heart. Submission. Submission to Christ. We're told over and over in the Scriptures that the natural man will not submit himself to God. He won't do it. He won't do it. Natural Israel would not submit themselves to the righteousness of God in Christ. And the natural man, it says in 1 Corinthians 2.14, will not submit himself to the means of grace, to the things of the Spirit of God, because he believes them to be foolishness. God gave instruction to Natro-Israel, but they refused to hearken and pulled away the shoulder and stopped their ears that they should not hear. And then over in Proverbs 1, he said this, he said, I called and you refused. You refused. I stretched out my hand and no man regarded." I tell you this, nobody is going to be saved until they are made of God to submit, to bow to Him. Bow to His Word. Bow to His claims. Bow to His Gospel. Bow to His means. Submit. Submit you, Paul said, one to another. Submit yourselves under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time. And I'm not talking about a perfect obedience. I'm talking about a spirit and attitude of submission. Actually, submission is what the believer craves. And he craves it because this is where he's the most blessed, when he submits. And this is where he's the happiest. This is where he learns. and where he finds peace. And then the fifth thing that every God-called preacher declares to his assembly is the sufficiency of Christ. I know lots of folks who talk about coming to Christ and then going to the law, or coming to Christ and then looking back on an old experience and all this kind of nonsense. My friend, Christ is sufficient. You'll know that if you ever learn who He is. You'll know that. You'll see that. See, I was told as a child that it had to do with my... I think the phrase they used was, keep on keeping on. And they're talking about your grasp, your hold, your dedication, your commitment, all of these things in your hands. But I kept losing it. I couldn't hold it. I'd lose it. I'd get it and then I'd lose it. And then I'd get it again and lose it again. Truth is, I never had it. Never had it. But you see, that's not the way it is. The way it is, he said, they're in my hand. No man shall pluck them out of my... He's not in my hand, I'm in his. That's where the security is. That's where the sufficiency is, is in him. And that's what Paul said, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. Rooted, built up, grounded in the faith. All of these things. Why? Because in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in Him. All sufficiency is in Him. Here's my sanctification. You know there's millions this morning going to church Trying to figure out what it is to be sanctified and then leaving that church and going home and trying to sanctify themselves through doing this and doing that and thinking this. And feelings, they're trying to drum up a feeling in their heart sufficient to give them a little peace. That's not where it is. I'm telling you, it's all in Him. You can read about it. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30. God hath made Him to be unto us wisdom, all wisdom, everything you need to know is in Christ. Righteousness, all my righteousnesses are as filthy rags, but in Him I have a perfect righteousness. And God hath made Him to be unto me wisdom, righteousness, now listen, sanctification. Huh? Sanctification. Over there in Hebrews chapter 10, I think it's verse 14. By one offering He hath sanctified us forever. He is my sanctification and He is my redemption. All sufficiencies in Christ. And when you see that, you lay hold of Him. You quit chasing all these play pretties and you quit chasing all these works and all these feelings and experiences and all these things that men try to push you to and call you to. I'm just calling you to one thing, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look to Him. Look to Him, not this pitiful Jesus this world is trying to preach, but the exalted King of glory in whom is all sufficiency, all the fullness of the Godhead bodily in Him, and you are complete in Him. If you're in Him, now He said, don't let anybody come out here and start talking to you about Sabbath days and tithing and all these other things of the law. You're complete in Him. Those things were just shadows. Those things were just pictures. Here's the body that gave the shadow right here. And you have the body. You have the fulfillment of all those things. Do you need life? He's the resurrection. You remember the two sisters Mary and Martha mourning over their brother Lazarus, and the Lord said, well, you believe he's going to live again? Oh yeah, we believe in the last resurrection. He said, I am the resurrection. Do you need life? He that hath the Son hath life. Do you need healing of the soul? He's the great physician. Do you need knowledge? He's the wisdom of God. Do you need forgiveness? In Him we have redemption. the forgiveness of sin. Do you need righteousness? He's the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Do you need rest? We which have believed do enter into His rest. He's the rest. And I'll tell you, Paul believed this so much that he actually said in the book of Colossians that Christ is all. That's an all-encompassing word, isn't it? All. to the believer. He's all and he's in all. And if that be so, and we know that God cannot lie and it must be, then why would we ever go anywhere else? Why would we ever look anywhere else? Why would we ever listen to anything else? Why would we ever preach anything else? God's preachers preach and insist on the full and complete sufficiency of Christ. Paul said this. He said, I'm confident in this. He's able to save us to the uttermost who come unto God by Him. So what are you saying, preacher? I'm saying look to Christ. That's what I'm saying. Turn from yourself. Turn from this world and look to Christ. Look to Christ. May God make it so. Our Father, I thank You for this opportunity this morning. to stand again this side of eternity, preach to eternity-bound sinners, and point them to Christ. Bless the message this morning for Christ's sake. Amen.