because His life is found in the New Testament. But He was the last prophet to prophesy to the nation of Israel before the New Covenant begins and before Jesus dies on the cross. If you look, this is really this intertestamental period that's found between Malachi and the book of Matthew. There's only probably one blank page in your Bible. But there was a lot that took place in that small little blank space in the Word of God. A lot of the times they're referred to as the 400 silent years because from Malachi to the preaching of John the Baptist, God did not speak to His people in any way at all. Depending on how many you count, there would be some debate about this, but there were about 19 prophets, Old Testament prophets, from Elijah all the way to John the Baptist, and that's how God had designed to speak to his people, was through the prophets, and then the work of the sacrifice was done through the priest. That was the two main offices that were the spiritual offices in the nation of Israel, was priest and prophet. And yet all of these prophets throughout the Old Testament of the prophecy that God had given them. Some of it was toward judgment of the nation of Israel. Some of it judgment toward other nations. But they had a message of prophecy. And they prophesied, prophesied. You were always hearing a word of God even though the nation of Israel didn't obey it. And they lived a lot of the judgment that had been prophesied from those Old Testament prophets. But there was a word of God that was being spoken to His people. But when you enter that intertestamental period, or what we refer to as the silent ages, there's 400 years of God not speaking. And John the Baptist was the one that broke the silence with a message after 400 years, a message of hope. It was a message of repentance, but it was a message of hope in the fact that God was speaking to His people again. It was an incredible light. In fact, the Gospel of John talks some about the ministry of John the Baptist, and he said he was not that light, but he was sent to bear witness of that light. And that was the message that he preached. Those silent years were very, very dark years, not just in the fact that God didn't speak to the nation of Israel, but they were some wicked years. When you leave Malachi, it's so interesting to me, and I won't get into much of this for sake of time, But it's so interesting to me how that just one page in the Word of God, so much has changed. When you leave Malachi, you have the nation of Israel under the Persian Empire. And they have went back and they have seen restoration to a certain degree by building the temple and rebuilding the wall. The temple never was what it had once been when Solomon had ordained it and he had committed it to the Lord. But they had seen a measure of restoration. But when you leave Malachi, you go from the Persian reign and now you find the world authority at this time is the Roman Empire. There's a lot that took place between that. You have, just not long after the Old Testament closes, you have Alexander the Great who brings in that Grecian Empire and he overthrows the Persian Empire and he rules for a little while. And then you have... A man by the name of Antiochus who was a wicked, wicked man in history. And he came and he ruled over this area that was in Judah, in this area that was Israel. He desolated the temple. Some horrible, horrible things he did. Basically he outlawed Judaism. He completely done away with the Sabbath. No practicing the Sabbath. He burned the scriptures. At one point he took a pig and sacrificed it on the altar of the temple. which was just the height of desecration to the things of God. He was so wicked he banned circumcision from any of the Jews circumcising their children on the eighth day as was practiced. One of the stories that you'll read about Antiochus is that he just kind of highlights his wickedness is that they say there was two women who decided to rebel against his command of no circumcision and they circumcised their boys. And Antiochus had both of those boys brought before him. He killed those boys, tied their dead body around the necks of those mothers, had the mothers paraded through the streets to show their disobedience, took them to the wall of Jerusalem and threw them off the wall and killed them for their disobedience. He was a wicked man. It was a dark time in the nation of Israel. In fact, if you look at the reign of Antiochus, that was what led to the rebellion of what was called the Maccabees, turned the Maccabees, and they rebelled against His power and had a little bit of a success. In fact, right before the New Testament picks up, you'll find that Judah was somewhat of a free state until Rome comes in and completely conquers it. So you leave in a Persian Empire, just to say this, you leave in a Persian Empire and then you open up in the book of Matthew and you have this Roman authority, this Roman rule that's taking place. And even though it wasn't terribly harsh, at least as harsh as it could have been, The nation of Israel, they're still in bondage, they're still in captivity under a Roman Empire. So many things change, even in regards to the religion. You'll find that synagogues were developed during these silent years. When you read the Old Testament, you'll never see a synagogue. But in these 400 years the nation of Israel had decided that instead of everybody having to come to the temple and to travel to worship and to do their offerings and their sacrifices that they would have synagogues. The scribe was developed during this time. The scribe's purpose was to go back and to read the law and interpret the law. And there wasn't a scribe in the Old Testament. When you get to the New Testament you'll find scribes. You find the two major sects of Judaism was the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And those were the two divisions. There were no Pharisees and there were no Sadducees in the book of Malachi. But you get to the book of Matthew. And all of a sudden, I mean, if you don't understand what took place in those 400 years, you think, how in the world in just one blank page did the nation of Israel go from this to that? But it was just an interesting time and a transforming time, and of course you'll find in a lot of ways it wasn't for the good. They were still dealing with a lot of the effects of their rebellion against God. So it was a dark time, but John the Baptist was the one that was sent to be a light in the middle of that dark time. I think about who he was, I think about what his message was. One of the things you'll notice, you'll see this in our very own text. In chapter 3 in verse number 2, the Bible says this, he said, this was his message, repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. John's focus was on repenting. You'll find him mentioned in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to a certain extent in all four Gospels and everywhere it highlights that his message was a message of repentance. Now there are a lot of twisted doctrines that get taken from the preaching of John and a lot of controversies that surround his life, but really that's always been the message of revival is repent. That was the message to Nineveh when Jonah preached. That was the message to the nation of Israel when they were facing judgment and exile. It's always been the message that if you're going to escape judgment, you have to repent. So he was known for repentance. He was known for his preaching of the kingdom of heaven. You'll see that as well in verse number two of our text. That was one of the things that they said, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It seems as if, and I'm definitely not as learned in this as I should be, and I wish I knew a lot more about this, but it seems as if that John was preaching the kingdom gospel. and that if Jesus would have been received by his own people that Jesus could have established his kingdom and he could have reigned but of course we know it was even in his perfect plan. This is the part I have a hard time with because it was even in his perfect plan to blind the eyes of the nation of Israel that they wouldn't receive him so that he would go to the cross and he would bring salvation to the entire world. So it's just the plan of God being unfolded but he was preaching the kingdom of heaven. Not only that, but you'll also notice, of course, by his name, because there was a lot of Johns. If you study the Word of God, you'll understand that. It's easy to mix up the Johns of the Word of God, several different ones that were prominent characters throughout the New Testament. But he was known as John the Baptist, or John the Baptizer. His life was identified by that symbol of baptism. A lot of times you'll think that John began baptism, but he really didn't. It's said historically that the nation of Israel had began, Jews had began to practice baptism to a certain extent even in those silent years. Now you don't read about any baptism in the Old Testament, but it's very likely that because the priest would wash very thoroughly before he went into the temple and he did his work, that baptism had become It had kind of become a symbol to them as being cleansed. So there were some baptisms that had taken place. But John came with this baptism. And there are people, and wherever you follow this is fine. Again, I'm not as learned in this as I should be. But there are people that think that in John's day, baptism is what saved them. The actual act of baptism. I don't believe that's true. This baptism was just evidence of their repentance. That's all it was. God gave signs to the nation of Israel. And those signs in themselves didn't do anything for them. Same with circumcision. We know that in the life of Abraham. That's not what saved him. But it was just an evidence of his faith in God. So what John was saying is repent. And this baptism is going to be a symbol of your repentance to God. A public profession that we're repenting of our sin. So people I think just get kind of caught up too much in the technicality that took place. But John is just preaching the message of repentance. Baptism is an incredible symbol because of the fact that it represents a new birth. We know that when the earth was created that it was brought forth out of water. That's what the Bible calls it in the book of Genesis. The world was birthed from water. One of the things that happens, you've seen it on the movies a thousand times, a lady's water breaks when she's expecting and it's get to the hospital. I can still remember our first kid when Katie's water broke and I had seen all the movies so I thought we've got to get there as fast as we can. So we threw everything in the car and then I think 12 hours later he decided to be born. But when you look at water throughout the scripture, it's a sustaining of life. You have to have water to have life. So what that was, that baptism, it wasn't anything in its physical self, but it was just a sign of a new birth. And that's what Jesus was going to tell Nicodemus. And of course, John's message was that I baptize you with water, but there's one who's coming who's going to baptize you in the Holy Ghost. So it was all just a symbol that was pointing toward Christ. So that's who John was. That's what his message was. What his purpose was. You even see this. I'll show you verse number 3. This very clearly. You'll find this verse almost exactly quoted in a couple of the other gospels. But verse number 3, it says, This was spoken by the prophet Isaiah saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his path straight. If you want to know what John's purpose was, here it is, to go before Christ and to pave the way for him to begin his earthly ministry. John was probably only about six months older than Christ, but he had begun preaching. And when he began preaching, later on, he prepares that way. In fact, I would say this, as we get into just the practical part of this message, I would say this, that John's purpose and our purpose is pretty similar. You know the purpose that God has given us here in this world? It's to prepare the way of Christ. Now, He's not coming to establish His kingdom. He's going to do that someday in the millennial reign. But we have been here to try to spread the gospel, to preach the gospel, and to prepare the way for Christ to affect someone else's life. I think that pretty much, even though it's a different dispensation and different technicalities to John ministry and the gospel that we preach, our purpose is to tell others about Christ. Our purpose is to give Him a path. God has chosen us. You know what you are tonight as a Christian? You are a path for Him to come into this world. For Him to express Himself, for Him to display Himself, and for Him to show Himself to a lost and dying world. He has chosen us as that path. So your life, your life should be preparing the way of Christ. In a very simple truth, that's what it should be. So let's look at John. What about John? I'm just going to go through this really quickly. I know I say this is a simple message like all of my messages are not simple messages. I'm a simple preacher. But you know, we've had some heavy, I felt like just through Jubilee, we had some heavy messages that were just really, really good. And I'm thankful that this is not a heavy message. This is just a simple message. I want to make some application about John the Baptist. How should we be like John? First of all, I want you to notice that John was a peculiar person. One of the first things that we notice about his life is that there was just something different about this guy. You'll notice, first of all, that he was peculiar in his garments. Look with me in our text, and we'll turn to a few other passages here in just a moment, but look with me in our text in chapter 3 and verse number 4 of the book of Matthew, and here's what the Bible says, that the same John had his raiment of camel's hair and a leathern girdle about his loins. Now while all the Pharisees and all the Sadducees and all the scribes and the high priest and all the people in the temple, they were all very kosher and they were all still following the Old Testament. Most Jews in this day would have still been following the Old Testament law that had been given about how the apparel was to be made. And there's nothing wrong with that, nothing wrong with them following the law. But here's a guy that comes out of the wilderness and he's wearing camel skin on his back and he has this leather girdle, this leather girdle across his loins and that's how he was identified as being John the Baptist. You can even go, there's a few passages, I don't remember the references, but there's a few passages in the Old Testament to a couple of the Old Testament prophets of being clothed with camel's hair. It was rough and it was coarse. This was just a very rugged way of dressing. And you could have known just by looking at John the Baptist that there's something different about this guy. He was different in the way that he dressed. He was different in his diet. Verse number four, the last part of this verse, it says he has this leather girdle about his loins, and his meat was locust and wild honey. Again, if you pick up some books, you'll find they say there's still parts of the world where this is a common diet, but this is a strange way to eat. This is a strange way to live, locust and wild honey. And we look at John the Baptist, there was just, you had to look at him, you'd say, this man is a peculiar guy. Now again, I'm not saying that to be like John the Baptist we have to wear camel's hair. I probably wouldn't recommend that. I've never tried it. I doubt it's very comfortable. I'm not saying we have to wear camel's hair and we have to eat loaves. All I'm saying though is John wasn't trying to fit in with the world. He wasn't trying to be popular. He wasn't trying to be cool. He had embraced this ministry that God had given him and he decided that he was just going to serve God no matter what anybody else thought about it. And I'm telling you, and again, I'm not saying that you have to be weird to be a Christian. Sometimes that's a misconception, that you can't wear anything that is culturally relevant and you have to just look odd. And there are people that believe that. I mean, there are still groups of people that think you have to be, and you don't have to be odd, but I'm telling you, I'm afraid that a lot of the times as Christians, we waste a lot of time trying to be cool, when if you're a Christian, you're not gonna be cool. I tell you one thing that'll help your Christian life. Do you know what the word cool, this is my definition, I don't know if this is the Webster's definition, but this is my definition. The word cool means that the majority likes it. That's what it means to be popular. And if you're a Christian, you're not gonna be liked by the majority. The majority of this world is not going to think that you're awesome. Sometimes I think we need to just accept the fact that to be a Christian, Believe it or not, there's going to be people that think you're weird. If you try to serve God, and you don't have to wear no makeup, and you don't have to keep your hair in a bun, and do anything like that. You just try to live by the Word of God. And there's going to be people that think you're weird. You're weird that you go to church three times a week. You're weird. You would take your vacation and go on a mission trip. You're weird that you wouldn't say these words. You're weird that you address all the things that happens. But I'm telling you, if you serve God, you're going to be weird to a certain extent. And so you've got to come to a place, and this is tough, especially when you're young, because everybody wants to fit in. But you've got to come to a place where you're willing to say, you know what? Even if some people think I'm weird, I'm going to serve God. Even if it's not popular and even if I'm not the coolest because you're never going to be cool no matter what you do. There's always going to be somebody that has a problem with what you're doing. Just decide that you want to please the Lord. You can't please God and man. Just decide, hey, I'm going to please the Lord. I'm going to be like John and if I'm weird, I'm weird. John was a peculiar man. He was a weird man, but the Lord used him. He leaves a great example. He wasn't worried about what the Sadducees and the Pharisees and everybody else thought about him. He was just preaching the gospel, serving God. Not only was he peculiar, also notice this. I want you to look with me in verse number five. John the Baptist was simple. And I don't mean this with any degradation to him or any kind of slight to him. But you'll see where his ministry was based. So back in verse number three, and this phrase is used over and over again according to his life, it would say the voice of one crying in the wilderness. That was where his ministry was. And look at verse number five. Now again, this is the silence being broken and God is talking to his people after 400 years of silence. And in verse number five it says, Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan. So these people were leaving the city and they were coming to the wilderness to hear John preach. Before these people had left Jerusalem and the big cities, he was preaching to just country people. It says he was in the wilderness. When the Bible says he was in the wilderness, it doesn't mean that he was just in a desolate place where no one was. But it would have been a sparse place. It would have been a place where there was just small villages. He was with country people. That's exactly who John was ministering to. Common people. This really sets the stage for the ministry of Christ because that's exactly who Christ was coming to minister to. He was coming to minister to the nobodies, to the sinners, to the rejected. He was coming to minister to the people like the woman in the well who no one wanted to be around. And that's who John's ministry was to. He didn't have to be in the synagogue preaching. He didn't have to be rubbing shoulders with the Pharisees and the Sadducees and all the religious sects of his day. He just was to the common person preaching the gospel. And I'm telling you, sometimes I think we need to follow the example of John. Just remember that God has called us... You may be a simple person. You don't have to have an education to a certain degree. You don't have to be well-spoken. God has called every one of us with a purpose of preaching the gospel. And the gospel is simple. And there are people all around us that need to hear the gospel. And sometimes we need to quit just trying to impress everybody with our life and how much we know about the Bible and just follow John's example and just simply preach the gospel to the simple. to the people who are ordinary and average. Those are the ones that need to hear the gospel. In fact, I love it. Anybody that goes with us on visitation, I dread any time that I get stuck going into a development where it's half a million dollar houses because those are the rudest, most arrogant, generally, and you'll every once in a while come across a nice person, but man, sometimes those are the most hateful toward the gospel. But you can get somewhere where you can tell they don't have a lot in life. A lot of times they'll be the most friendly people and sometimes the most receptive. And I think that's the kind of people that John ministered. In fact, he didn't have any problems out in the wilderness. It was when these guys from the city showed up when he started having all of his problems. So he was just a simple man preaching to simple people. Let me show you this. I'm going to hurry real quick. Not only that, you'll see he was peculiar, he was simple, but he was bold. God give us the boldness of John the Baptist. He was willing to preach the truth. You understand what I mean? I'm not excusing hatefulness or being unkind or anything like that. We should be loving and kind. But John was a man who preached the truth no matter who he was talking to. Let me just highlight this very, very quickly. I won't even go into it much. Look with me in verse number seven of our text, Matthew chapter three and verse number seven. It said, but when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, this is the words. Now he's been preaching the gospel, repent for the kingdom of heaven. But now his message has changed just a little bit. The Sadducees and the Pharisees, the religious people show up. In verse number seven, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, Who hath warned you? It takes a lot of guts to stand in someone's face. Sometimes we read this as John having a bad attitude. The Bible doesn't say anywhere that he had a bad attitude or a mean spirit, but he's preaching the truth. He said, y'all are snakes. He said, you generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits of meat for repentance. Think not to say within yourselves, ye have Abraham our father, for I say unto you that God is able of those stones to raise up children from Abraham. And now also the axe is laid at the root of the tree, therefore every tree which bringeth forth good fruit is hewn down, bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with the fire. Verse 12, another message of judgment, whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his weed into the garner, and he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. John the Baptist told the truth. Even in the face of the most prominent of religion in this day, John the Baptist said, the truth is, gentlemen, you are facing the judgment of God if you don't get right with God. Let me show you another place. I think this is interesting about John's message. Turn over with me to the book of Luke. Luke records this same event that took place of these people coming out and listening to John the Baptist preach. Luke goes in just a little bit more detail about what happens in this moment. Look in Luke chapter number 3 and look with me in verse number 12. Luke chapter 3 and verse number 12. If you go back to the previous verses, you'll find they're very similar to what we've read, the same message. In verse number nine, the axe is at the root of the tree, judgment is coming. So he tells the pharisees and the Sadducees, you're vipers, you're facing the judgment of God. And then he has a message for the publicans. Who are the publicans? The publicans are the tax collectors. They're the ones that nobody likes. So here's what the Bible says, verse number 12. Then came also the publicans to be baptized and said unto him, Master, what shall we do? Here's his message to them. It's that no more than that which is appointed unto you. What were the publicans infamous for doing? They were notorious for taking money that wasn't theirs. They would add theirs to the top of the collection. And they said, John, what should we do? I tell you what you should do. You should stop stealing from people. That's what you should do. Not only did he say that to the publicans, but then in verse number 14, the soldiers come. Now, it's hard enough to stand in front of the most religious people and tell them they're vipers. It's hard enough to stand in front of the tax collector who's not intimidated by a tax collector. It's hard enough to look them in the face and say, stop stealing. But then the soldiers show up. I mean, this is the law enforcement. These are the guys with swords that kill people. And the soldiers show up in verse 14, and they said, Likewise demanded him, saying, What shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any man falsely, and be content with your wages. He dealt with all three problems that the soldiers had in this day under this Roman Empire, and to their face he told them the truth. It gets even stronger than that. You know this part of the story. Verse number 19, it said, but Herod the tetriarch being reproved by him. This is the king of this region. He said, being reproved by him for Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done. The Bible doesn't give us the exact instance, but the Bible tells us that he stood in front of the king and told him that what he had done in taking his wife, his brother Philip's wife, was sin and that he was facing judgment of God. So to the Pharisees, to the publicans, to the soldiers, to the king, didn't matter who it was, John the Baptist had the boldness to tell the truth. And I'm telling you, we need the boldness of John the Baptist in the day that we live. Again, not to be hateful, not to be mean, but we need some Christians that's not so worried about upsetting somebody, not so worried about being popular, not so worried about being liked, not so worried about fitting in. We need some Christians that'll just tell the truth. I long for boldness in my life, to be able to just tell the truth. Because we understand that if you tell the truth, that that's the greatest form of love, when you tell the truth of the judgment of God. Now, here we go. He was peculiar, he was simple, he was bold. Another thing I'll mention before we close, this really highlighted his life. I know we're just skimming the surface, but this really highlighted the life of John the Baptist. He was humble. A man with so much boldness, that he could stand in front of the Pharisees and the publicans and the soldiers and the king and proclaim the truth. Yet he had a spirit of humility. You see this, you can look, you can go back to Mark chapter number one if you'd like to turn there. I'll read you this verse, you're familiar with this narrative. But Mark chapter one in verse number six through seven says that John, again clothed with camel's hair and girded about a skin, or with a girdle of skin about his loins, and he did eat locusts and wild honey, verse 7, and preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. When it came to Christ, John knew his position. John knew that he was nothing and even though he had the boldness to preach and he had the boldness to tell the truth at the end of the day he knew that he was just a forerunner and he knew that he was just a messenger and he knew that his life was wrapped up in Christ and in Christ's ministry and he kept humility. You can turn to John 3 as well. I won't read all of this for sake of time but John chapter number 3 You remember this was after the conversation that Jesus had with Nicodemus. And then there were disciples. There were disciples of John that had went and followed Jesus. When you look at John's ministry, he had his own separate ministry and his own separate disciples that were following him. But even John encouraged his own disciples to follow Christ. John chapter 3 and verse number 29, you've heard this quoted over and over again. He said, he that hath the bride is the bridegroom. He's talking about Christ and he's talking about the church. He said, he that hath the bride is the bridegroom but the friend of the bridegroom. That's all John considered himself to be. He said, the friend of the bridegroom which standeth and heareth him rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore is fulfilled. In this verse number 30, incredible verse, he must increase but I must decrease. That was John's life. If you had measured John's ministry based on the way we measure success in this world, then it would have really been a failure. Because he starts out strong and then it just dwindles to nothing. His disciples leave and follow Christ. He ends up in prison. We know later after this, this was before he was put in prison, but he ends up not long after this in prison because of his preaching. And John was willing to decrease to the point of death. We know that he was a martyr for the cause of Christ. That it was Herodias who wickedly advised her daughter when the king offered anything in the kingdom. She advised her daughter to ask for the head of John the Baptist. She hated that preacher. And John the Baptist gave his life. He was willing to go to nothing. He was so humble. And to me, that's just one of the distinguishing marks of John's life, that he could be so bold, but yet in the same sense, he could be so humble. He could be so bold to stand and tell the truth and to stand and preach the gospel, but in the same sense, turn and lay down his life completely for the Lord. That's the kind of humility that John had. Let me close with two verses and I'm finished tonight. One thing I think John leaves us as being an example is that he had an incredible testimony. There's two facets of his testimony that I want to point out. Look with me first of all in the book of Matthew. We'll turn to these two places as we close. Look back in Matthew chapter number 14. You'll notice that John had a great testimony with man. Now in Matthew chapter number 14, John had already been put to death by Herod. Even though it seems like Herod didn't want to have to do it, but because he had already given his word, he would give her whatever she wanted. He asked for the head of John the Baptist, and John the Baptist gave his life. That was the end of John the Baptist's life. But here in Matthew chapter number 14, this was the testimony of a wicked king. So in just a minute, we'll see what God thought about John the Baptist. But this is what man thought about John the Baptist. There was a wicked king who didn't know God from anything. And in verse number one, it says, at the time, Herod the Tetriarch heard of the fame of Jesus. So for the first time, he's hearing about this Jesus fella. For the first time, he's hearing about the miracles. And this is the kind of testimony John had that he said to his servants, Herod said to his servants, this is John the Baptist. He is risen from the dead and therefore mighty works to show forth themselves from him. John left such a good example. that when Jesus' ministry became popular, Herod, looking at Christ, said, that has to be John. Now, it's something for us to be mistaken for Christ, but you imagine Christ being mistaken for you. That's a testimony right there. That's the kind of testimony that John had. He had a testimony among men that he was faithful and he had the power of God in his life. Go into this last place and I'm closing. Luke chapter seven. Verse number 24, you probably know where I'm going. But in Luke chapter number 7, this in fact was after John doubted. This is God's response to John sending his disciples saying, are you him or do we look for another? John was tucked away in prison. His glory days were behind him. His days of seeing people baptized, his days of having converts, his days of preaching the gospel were behind him. He was tucked in prison, and in just a few short days, he was gonna be beheaded for the gospel. And in Luke chapter number seven, he sends these men to the Lord. Are you him? This is verse number 20. Are thou he that should come or look we for another? That was John's humanity, that was his doubt. Jesus answered in verse number 22, go your way, oh tell John what an incredible response, the things you've seen, how that the blind may deceive, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, all these miracles. He said, John, this is the evidence that I am who I said I am. And lest anybody would say anything bad because that would have been a good opportunity for one of the disciples to maybe pop up and say, you know, I just didn't expect that out of John. We heard John preach and he was such a powerful preacher, but I never expected him to be doubting if you're the Christ. Even we don't doubt that. We know thou hast the words of life. So lest any of the disciples would say anything against John, Jesus gives them the response. And this is what he says in verse number 24. He says, What wind ye out into the wilderness for to see? A reed shaken with the wind. I was reading this this afternoon and I thought about just the poetic nature of what Jesus has to say about John. And this is an incredible little passage. He said, What wind ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken in the wind? But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? John was anything but that. He said, behold, they which are gorgeously appareled and live delicately are in king's courts. What went ye out for 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 shall send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. For I say unto you, among those that are born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist. Now it's something to know what man thinks about you. I would like to think, I don't mean this arrogantly at all, but the desire of my heart and I think the desire of every one of us in this building should be that we have a good testimony among men. I don't want to hurt the cause of Christ. I don't want to damage the gospel. I want to have the best testimony that I can among men. It's one thing to know what men think about you, but it's another thing altogether to know what the God of heaven thinks about your life. That's one of the things to me that's so interesting about those seven churches at the beginning of Revelation. You get to see a little insight of what God thought, the way God viewed those churches. And when God talked about John the Baptist's life, he summed it up that among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist." Not only did John have a good testimony among men, but John had a good testimony with God. John was a man. He wasn't putting on a show. He wasn't a hypocrite. Listen, it's difficult. I'm not saying it's easy. It's difficult to have a good testimony among men. But it's another thing altogether to have a good testimony with God. The one who sees us every single moment that we're living and breathing. The one that sees everything that we do. The one that knows every thought that we think. And Jesus' testimony about John was that man is the greatest preacher. to ever preach. Greatest preacher ever born of woman up until this point. That's the testimony of John the Baptist. Simply, simply, simply, I think John's left us a great example of how we should live our life. You may not be a preacher. You may not have a ministry as far as this world is concerned or opinion would be concerned. But you have the responsibility of carrying the gospel. You have the responsibility of representing Christ. In the very least, Brother Robert Murray preached one morning in Jubilee about us being ambassadors. That'd be a great term. That's what John was. He was an ambassador of Christ. He prepared the way for Christ. And you and I are ambassadors of Christ. And John has left us a great example to follow. Hey, you might be a little weird, that's okay. You gotta come to a point in your Christian life where you say it's okay if they think I'm weird. You might be peculiar, you might feel like you're simple, might not feel like you have a great ministry, but John was bold, he was humble, and he had a great testimony for the Lord. And I don't know about you, but I would like to be like John the Baptist. He's a great example. Let's stand together. Miss Regina, if you will, you make your way forward. You have the message tonight. I pray that the Lord would use it in our hearts.