this afternoon to John chapter 1. John chapter 1. I'm going to be reading verses 19 to 28. John chapter 1 verses 19 to 28 as I continue in this series on the book of John. And today we come to this particular passage which I've entitled, The Voice in the Wilderness. The Voice in the Wilderness. Hear the Word of God. Now this is the testimony of John. When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you? He confessed and did not deny but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, what then? Are you Elijah? And he said, I am not. Are you the prophet? And he answered, no. Then they said to him, who are you that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself? And he said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said. Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees, and they asked him, saying, Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet? And John answered him, saying, I baptize with water, but there stands one among you whom you do not know. It is he who coming after me is preferred before me, whose sandal straps I am not worthy to loose. These things were done in Bethabara, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, again, we come to you this afternoon and call upon your name, such a worthy name to call upon, such a great name. And Father, we're thankful that you have given us your holy word that we can read and understand and come to know you. And Father, we're thankful that we have this particular passage about our Lord Jesus Christ and about his great forerunner, John the Baptist. And Lord, I pray that you would help us to understand that you would help us to come to understand not only about John, but about our great Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, in a deeper way today. In Jesus' name, Amen. In this particular passage, by way of an introduction to it, in this particular passage, there are some extraordinary things that are happening for John the Baptist. Some very extraordinary things. For one thing that we see in this passage, in the last verse that I read, that he has gone to an extraordinary place. Now I don't know if any of you know where Bethabara is, but Bethabara is across the Jordan. If you were to look at the country of Israel and on a map of Palestine, you would see that to the It would be to the east of the Jordan River and about just a little bit north of the Dead Sea, but directly across from Jericho is this place that we see where John the Baptist was, that was beyond the Jordan, where he was baptizing. It's out in the middle of nowhere. There's really nothing else around it. In fact, when you go further toward the Dead Sea, it becomes even more desolate. And as you cross over into the Jordan, over the Jordan into that area, around Jericho and beyond, that's the area that's known as the wilderness area. There's just nothing growing there except for where there's a few little springs coming out of the ground and a few little plugs of grass every once in a while. It's a very desolate place. It is a wilderness as you can imagine, but it was an extraordinary place. We also find that John is dressed extraordinarily. We find out in another passage that he himself was clothed in camel's hair and had a leather belt around his waist. Not exactly what we would call the best of fashion today, right? He also had an extraordinary diet, which we find out about from the book of Matthew, that his food was locusts and wild honey. We also find out that there were extraordinary things that were happening in another particular passage, where it says, "...then all Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him, and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins." All of Jordan? Or excuse me, yeah, all around the Jordan, all the region around Jordan, all Jerusalem, all Judea, every single person? Well, probably not every single person. It is a figure of speech, just like we have places, figures of speech in generalizations sometimes in the scriptures, not all the time. Sometimes all does refer to every single person, but many times it refers to all as in general. But here we have all of it. There were enough of them going out that it seemed like everybody was there. We also see that John had an extraordinary preaching subject that he had. He was preaching about the coming Messiah and the people's need to repent. If we were to look in Matthew, we would see what he was preaching about. We are told directly some of the things that he was preaching. Matthew says that he was preaching, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And as those scribes and Pharisees came out to come and see him and to be baptized, he looked at them And he preached some really interesting things. He said, Brutal vipers, you snakes, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father, for I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the axe is laid at the root of the tree, therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Speaking of them, of course, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, and he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Extraordinary preaching, wouldn't you say? Looking at men, religious men of the day, saying, you Brutal Vipers, repent. I mean, these were the religious guys of the day. It's an extraordinary preaching. And then he's talking about Messiah, who's coming, who's going to baptize them with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Such extraordinary preaching. But again, John, as we have learned in the past, was preaching. He had a particular purpose in his life. to preach the message of the Messiah, to be the forerunner of the Messiah, and to call all men upon this earth to repent and to come to Him. He probably preached other messages as well. I'm sure this is not the only one that he preached. In fact, in Isaiah 40, he asked, or with the quotation in Isaiah 40 that Franz read, it's asked, well, what am I supposed to say? And the answer is, behold your God. That's what you're supposed to say. You're supposed to say, behold, the Lord God shall come with a strong hand and his arm shall rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him and his work before him. He will feed his flock like a shepherd and he will gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and gently lead those who are young. An extraordinary message, wouldn't you say? I'm sure that he preached from the other passes that we have in prophesying of Christ from the Old Testament. So there was this extraordinary preaching that was going on as well. But there was something else that was extraordinary that he was happening. And again, all this is my introductory material, and I did tell someone today that it is going to be a long introduction. I'm sorry. John was doing some extraordinary things himself. He was baptizing. Now, baptism is not a new practice in the Jewish religion. In fact, the Old Testament priests, before the Day of Atonement, would go and bathe themselves. They would cleanse themselves. And baptism, in this particular instance, was that particular thing. It was a sense of cleansing. Now, there was a group that was very close to where John was in the era of Qumran that was across the Jordan River. And in Qumran, they actually had a group who was baptizing two or three times a day. They would go out and be baptizing. I've been there. They've got these big, huge baptismal pools where people would just walk in one side and walk out the other and cleanse themselves. It was a part of ritual holiness, as it were, showing that they were cleansing themselves from their sins for the day. But whenever John associates here baptism, it's moved up a step. In the Jewish religion, those who would come and be proselytites, in other words, they weren't Jews by birth, but they would join the Jewish religion, they had to be baptized as well, both men and women. But here, John is calling those who were Jews and saying, you need to be baptized. You need to repent, repent. Expressing and connecting together their need to be clean because of their sins. And John was calling all to be baptized. And his baptism was associated with a ritual baptism, but at the same time, it was something that was moving and changing. As even we read in the passage that we have in Matthew 11. that John baptized with baptism and repentance, but Jesus baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire. And there has meanings in all of that as well. And I'm not talking here about necessarily getting wet. Okay, so here are these extraordinary events that are taking place. It is a setting for this passage that are happening. But I want you to also see, as an introduction to this passage, that this is an extraordinary week of events that are happening. Something is happening every day that's mentioned here in this chapter 1, as well as into chapter 2. And I want you to see this, how these events are unfolding. Notice in our passage in John 19, we would call this day 1, where he is interrogated. by these scribes and Pharisees, or by these Pharisees, these Levites and the Jews who came to him. Day 2 happens in verse 29. Notice with me it says, and the next day John saw Jesus coming. The next day! So here are these people, they come up to him, he's interrogated, he tells them, look, There's one coming who is preferred above me, whose sandals I'm not worthy to untie. And the next day, Jesus comes. And he says, Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. I think this is extraordinary. I think it's very important that John emphasizes it's the next day. And notice with me also what happens on the third day. Verse 35. And again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples, and looking at Jesus as he walked, he said, Behold, the Lamb of God. So John's walking with his disciples, and he sees Jesus again. There's the Lamb of God right there. And they quit following John and start following Jesus. Guess who these two guys were? Andrew and John. And then he looked, and in verse 43, The following day, Jesus wanted to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, follow me. Do you see what's happening? And then, not only, it doesn't even stop there. There's another ordering of days here, and it's actually day five, although it says on the third day, that's, I think that that's just talking about the third day since Jesus appeared. But it says on the third day, in chapter 2 verse 1, and on the third day there was a wedding in Canaan and he performed the first miracle. You see the progression? These people came to him, he talked to him, they confronted him, he interrogated him. Next day, Jesus appears. Behold, the Lamb of God. The next day, disciples quit following John. The next day, other disciples joined. The next day, he performs the first miracle. What an extraordinary week! in the life of Jesus and in the life of John. John was standing as the man who stood up to the priests and the scribes and Pharisees and a lot of other people. He was, man, he was, all these people were following him. And guess what? In one week, they were following someone else. An extraordinary week in the life of John. Well, let's look at this particular passage. I can't get into all the other days of what all occurred, but let's look at this particular passage and see what happened on this first day and just see who is coming and what parties are there and the questions that are asked. First of all, we're going to see here how that there were three questions and that there were three answers given to John. Here was the first question that these Levites and the priests ask of John. We find this in verse 19, where he says, Who are you? Who are you, John? You say you're John, but what's behind you? I mean, all these people are coming. Good grief, what are you doing? You're baptizing all these people. This is weird, John. You look weird. What are you doing? You eat weird. Your message is weird. Who are you, John? Well, I think by them asking, who are you? I think that John very quickly would want to say, and he answered and confessed and did not deny, I am not the Christ. He wanted to make sure that they knew that He was not the Christ. Now, why would they even be thinking that He might be the Christ? Well, as you go back and look at some of the Old Testament passages, you see who this Christ is, who the Christ is, the Anointed One. And you see, like in Isaiah 9, how there's a child who is born, and the Son is given His government, shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Now the increase of His government and peace, there will be no end. Upon the throne of David, and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forth and forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. And if you think about that, that is an extraordinary passage. It talks about someone who's coming in to rule and to reign, who is going to bring judgment. And I'm sure that they've probably looked at John the Baptist and said, could this be him? I don't know. This guy's kind of weird, but maybe that's what we need to be looking for. Somebody like this. Or maybe the passage in Daniel chapter 7 where it says, then to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples and all nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away in his kingdom, the one which shall not be destroyed. Wow! What an extraordinary prophecy of the Christ in Anointing 1. Is this Him? Is this Him? Maybe He will deliver us from these Romans who are ruling over us. Or maybe it was from Jeremiah chapter 23 which says, Behold the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will raise up to David a branch of righteousness. John's preaching righteousness, is he not? A king shall reign and prosper and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell safely. Is this the man? But here is John. He says, I'm not him. I will confess to you. I will not deny it. I am not him. I mean, they were anticipating that this particular time in history, the Jews were anticipating something taking place, that the Messiah was going to come. You look back in that intertestamental period, you go back and look to where they found the Dead Sea Scrolls, there's all kinds of writings and all kinds of different things that they had that are there in pots that they found that were writing about the Messiah who's coming. Some of them were very much anticipating that the Messiah was going to be coming very, very soon. And I'm sure that it could have been a temptation to John to say, you know what? I can make something out of this. I may have a little gain here. Maybe I can get a little fame and fortune and power. Hey, they're coming to me and saying, are you Him? Maybe I can take this up a little bit here. Maybe I can take up a collection, make a little money here. But that's not John. John was a humble man. John knew his mission. John knew that he was the one who was to take the back seat. That he was to point the way to the Messiah. The second question that they ask him then, which we find in verse 21. What then? Are you Elijah? Why would they say that he might be Elijah? Well, it's because we have, there's a prophecy in Malachi 4 that speaks of Elijah coming, where it says, Behold, I will send Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse. Elijah coming? Was John the Baptist Elijah? Well, Jesus said that he was. Did he not? He said, indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things. But I say to you that Elijah has already come. And they did not know him, but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise, the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands. And the disciples understood that he spoke to them of John the Baptist. But was Elijah the same person as John the Baptist? No, he was not. John the Baptist was a type of Elijah. When this prophecy was given, the true Elijah would not come. He did come at the Mount of Transfiguration. But John was a type of Elijah that Jesus associated with him. Again, though, think about John. He could have taken this. I mean, well, I'm not the Messiah, but hey, I'm the Elijah, buddy. And he really was. He could have taken it into his own hand. He could have plowed some corn, right? But he did not. And then they ask him, are you the prophet? Notice with me in verse 21. What then? Are you the prophet? And he answered, no. What prophet? Well, you know what? There was a prophecy that Moses made concerning someone who would come along. This is found in Deuteronomy 18, 15. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you will hear according to all you desire to the Lord your God in Horeb and in the assembly. And he goes on and on talking about this. Here is a prophet who is going to come. This prophet himself was Jesus. But Moses prophesied of him. And they wanted to know, are you the prophet then? Because they didn't know the association there. None of these things were to be. There were three questions asked of him. And he gave three negative answers. So they still don't know who John is. So my first point was, was who John is not. My second point is who John is. See verse 22. Then they said to him, Who are you that we may give an answer to those who sin us? What do you say about yourself? In other words, we don't know who you are, buddy. We don't like it. We got to answer back. We got to go back to Jerusalem. We got to tell all the officials there what's going on. You better confess that and tell us what's going on or you're going to be in bad trouble. What was John's answer? Well, he didn't tell them directly his name, did he? He just told them what he was to do. But he did say in verse 23, I am the voice of the one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord. What an extraordinary passage for him to quote here from the Old Testament. But it is a passage that is most indicative of John's life in ministry. John was to point to the Lord Jesus Christ. He was, as it were, to clear a pathway to Jesus. He was in the desert. I mean, it even talks about in the wilderness, in the desert. And He was to make straight the highway to our God. He was to point to Him and tell others about Him. It was His clear function in life. What He was called to do, even before He was born, He was called to do this. To clear the way of the Lord. That all flesh may see this wonderful Savior, the Christ. My third point is this. Not only do we find out who John is not, secondly, we find out who John is, but thirdly, in this passage, we find out who is greater than John. Notice the next question to him, which we find in verse 24. Now, those who were sent were from the Pharisees. And they asked him, saying, why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet? What was behind that question? Was it control? Was it that they wanted to be pushy and say, who gave you authority to do this? How dare you be preaching in this way without our permission? Who told you could do this? Why are you baptizing these people? They're Jews. Good grief. You shouldn't be baptizing Jews. You should only be baptizing those who are coming into our faith. This is so humiliating to them. Who said that you could call us a brood of vipers? Who said that we needed to repent and be baptized? Who gave you the right to do these things since you say you're not the Christ, you're not the prophet, or not Elijah? What authority are you under? they ask. Well, how did John answer them? In verse 26, he answered them saying, I myself baptize with water, but there stands one among you whom you do not know. It is he who coming after me is preferred before me. whose sandal straps I'm not worthy to loose." It's very interesting in the Greek language here, the emphasis upon John's first person pronoun, I. He's basically saying, I myself baptize with water, but there stands one among you whom you do not know, it is he who coming after me is preferred before me whose sandal I myself am not worthy to loose." He is looking at himself, I myself, compared to this one who is coming and he is saying, I myself have nothing to brag about. There is one who is preferred above me. There is one who is better than me. And basically he's saying, he's the one who gave me authority to do this. And in a sense, I think it's probably almost a warning to them, you better look out because he's coming. I don't have the authority to say, I don't have the authority to do this, but he has given me authority to say these things. I myself. Can you imagine in John's day how that really inflamed these people? That John would not fess up and say, you know, you're right guys, I should have been saying these things, I'm sorry. In one way, it was almost deflective. You know, it's somebody else who's coming who said, I could do this. Can you imagine how angry that probably made these people? These religious leaders who thought themselves to be the ones who are pompous, the ones who were in authority, the ones who had had so much teaching. Here's John. He's just a priest, right? That's all he is, right? But here are these others coming along telling something different. But John did not get angry with them. He did not get mad with these people. He simply told them the truth. He boldly spoke to them, told them who Jesus was and pointed to them who the Christ is. As we think about this particular passage today, I was gripped by what was taking place and the order of what's taking place. On one day, he's interrogated. The next day, behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. And the next day, John's walking with his disciples, and he tells them, this is the Lamb of God. And they say, okay, we'll see you. We're going over here. This guy, this is the one we want to follow. And the people exited John. And then the next day, these particular people went to tell somebody else, and they're following him. And then the next day, Jesus comes on the scene, and he's performing his first miracle. And John is beginning to fade away, is he not? Into the background. And that's what he was supposed to do. That was his job. He was declaring, prepare the way of the Lord. And that's what he was doing. Here is the great king coming in. Well, what can we learn from this particular passage today? I have several things that we need to think about. The first is this. Do not miss the Lord. Now we, in reality, we will not miss the Lord in the sense that when God calls us, He does effectually call us to Himself. He will regenerate us, as Brother Ken talked about this morning. He will make us new on the inside. But you know, God does use means as well. And people do reject the call. Not the effectual call, but the call that's given every Sunday for people to follow Christ. But don't miss the Lord. You know, many people in Jesus' day did not come to hear John. Some of them did not come out. There were some who didn't. Maybe they were infirmed. Maybe they had responsibilities in town. Whatever it may be, some did not come out to hear. It was just not on their radar screen. But many who did come, probably left and went back. Even, for instance, these religious leaders, they went back. Many who stayed and went back home, went back home empty-handed. I mean, they didn't stay there forever in the desert, right? But many of them heard the message, they heard their need to repent, but they went back home empty-handed, but not only empty-handed, but empty-hearted, still in their sins. And the same is true today. There are many people, just like these religious people, who are very religious. They go to church every Sunday. They hear the preaching of God's Word every Sunday. They're involved socially with their church. They interact with people. They may be involved with ministries. But they have not come to know the Lord. They are like What the scribes and Pharisees are in this passage where Jesus says, I baptize with water but there stands one among you whom you do not know. Don't miss the Lord. Don't sit here today and not cry to Him to come to know Him. I know that you're busy. I'm busy. I know that life seems to be going on and on and on and on. As Brother Ken said this morning, there's going to be a day when life stops. And what will it matter, all of these things that we're so busy and involved in, if we have missed the Lord? If we've missed the call to follow Him? You know, Jesus talked about in a parable about the sower and the seed. where the seed is sown out on the ground and there's various different situations that occur. But one of those particular parts of the ground were stony ground. And the Bible says that Jesus said that he who received the seed on stony ground, this was he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. Yet it has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the Word, immediately he stumbles. You know what? We've got to be careful here, my friends, and let not, as it says in this verse, the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke out the Word and become unfruitful in our lives. Don't miss the Lord. Secondly, religious people are not always godly. Religious people are not always godly. Just because somebody's been to seminary, wears the right clothes, and has a great ministry on TV, or does something great, does not mean that they are godly or of the Lord. Many of that way today we see about us. They're just like the Levites and priests of the day. They come with pomp and show, think that they have great power, think that they have great influence, when in reality, they do not know the Lord. We must take heed to what John preached. Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand, and we must bear fruit worthy of repentance in our life, and do not think to say ourselves that we are children of Abraham, when we may not be. We may just be religious people. Religious people are not always godly people. Thirdly, humble yourself before the Lord. It is Christ's ministry. He is to be exalted. And as we look at John, we see how humble he was. We see even in John chapter 3 and verse 30, where it tells us here in this particular passage, He must increase, but I must decrease. That was John's testimony. He must increase, but I must decrease. How easy it is for ourselves to think that the ministries that we're involved in is our ministry. It's Christ ministry, not our own. Christ is the one to be glorified. The Lamb of God is to be glorified, not glory in and of ourselves. Power, fame, and fortune will not profit us. Glory to the Lamb and not to us. There's a fourth thing here for us. We need to clear the way for the Lord. I know that John did that in his day. Did he not? He cleared the path for the coming of the Lord. My friends, we need to be clearing the path for the second coming of our Lord. We need to be preaching to others the true gospel, that He is coming. And the gospel that we have to repent ourselves and we have to believe the gospel and come to know Christ Jesus our Lord. We need to be the heralders of truth. We need to be like John and not be fearful of what men think. We need to make it our duty, our one calling, as it were, to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ and to give Him glory in all that we do and say. We need to clear the way for the Lord, as it were. And lastly, I want to tell you today that, again, if you miss the Lord, you've missed everything. For you see, when you stand before the Lord, If you don't have Him upon your side, if you don't have righteousness that is greater than yourself, then you will not get into heaven. Jesus Christ the Lord came to this earth. He came, the God-man came. God took upon Himself flesh and came to this earth and lived among us, lived a righteous and holy life among us. and then went to the cross and died in our place for our sins, that we may believe in this wonderful gospel and what he has done, that the righteousness of Christ may be laid upon us and imputed into our account. That is the only way that we can get to heaven. That's why he came. So we need to take upon ourselves and follow this wonderful gospel that He has given. And I call you to do that today, if you have not. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your mercy to us and Your grace. We thank You for how that You've given us the gospel. Father, we thank You for how that You've opened up our lives and hearts to understand Christ. Pray that You would bless these things to Your kingdom and glory. In Jesus' name, Amen.