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this is our second period class the teacher is brother john martin his subject the prophet of the highest john the baptist this is the first day's class and the title is in the spirit and power of elijah brother john martin

my daily beloved brother and sisters in our lord jesus christ let me first of all say how absolutely delightful it is brother and sisters to be amongst you again after 15

years absence and to see those faces which i'll never forget

you know like bob lloyd you'd never forget that

and to meet those people that we endeared ourselves to and were endeared to 15 years ago let me apologize to you for not coming earlier let me tell you the reason why i am a coward

i developed the problem in 1969 with an airplane when we were in the middle east tour bob was on the same tour so that'll probably help you understand her as well

and from then on i have been grounded i went to england two years ago and it took 12 brethren to get me there and they carried me on the plane and sat on me all the way i went to south africa last year with four other people and this year all i've needed is clemmy weeks one so i'm getting better and better and better but though that may sound funny to you brother and sisters

it is to me a great trauma because i've come here to tell you about faith and courage and believe me that weakness makes me feel about one and a half inches high

but i believe that it's affliction which i probably deserve it keeps me in perspective and i thank god for it and i hope and pray that we're able to be able to overcome it one day and perhaps come more often

but for the time being let's get immersed into the life of this man john the baptist

and this is one of the most thrilling studies i've ever done in my life i say it about every one of them but it is particularly true about this one i always wanted to do john the baptist because wherever i get stuck into the word brethren scissors i get involved in the character i can't help it i just love the people of that book

and he's a remarkable character and the reason that i did this study for our glenn locke easter camp was because i feel it is a very great need today because we are laboring under a curse

and if you were to ask me the greatest single problem we've got in australia today i would have no hesitation whatever in telling you what that is

it is the curse of materialism

it might sound strange to you people here who live in perhaps the pinnacle of materialism but it's coming in our country and the effects of materialism are marked upon our community and if ever there's a study brothers and sisters which would shake us out of our lethargy and apathy induced by materialism it is the story of john the baptist as god chose this man who they must have seen as a radical a recluse an extremist

and yet one who stood before them the epitome of the simple power of that book

and what an enormous power that is

i could go do no better brother and sisters to introduce this subject and its importance by telling you this

that in accordance with the opinion of our lord jesus christ

no lesser than he

the man that we're going to study is underscored and important by these words

among those

born among women

there have not risen a greater prophet than john the baptist the theme over the top of the stage brother and sisters is that we should hearken to god's prophet if ever we should hearken to a prophet it's this one because according to our lord jesus christ he's the greatest of them all and so he was

there's only one way to introduce this subject

and that's to link him up with elijah in whose spirit and power he claims

and brothers and sisters i invite your closest attention to this opening address because it is the absolute crux of his life

it is the very center of his life if we can grasp the significance of what we are now going to learn together we will understand the purpose of john's life

what did luke mean when he said that he came in the spirit

and in the power of elijah

and for years i considered well as elijah proceeded

elisha so john the baptist preceded our lord jesus christ

that elijah was a sort of a prototype of john

and that is elijah of course came before christ at his first event so elijah will proceed him at his second advent that's what i thought it meant

and i suppose in a sense

but brother and sister that is not the essence of it what is the spirit of elijah what is the power of elijah that john came in well listen to this

take power first of all he came in the power of elijah

in the 10th chapter of john and pardon me for not turning all these references up because you know they're there in the 10th chapter of john verse 41 it says of john the baptist he did no miracle

not one

and yet he came in the power of elijah who did it

so it was not that sort of power that he came

it was a different form of power britain and sisters

what about the spirit of elijah what was the spirit that john came in well you may recall on one occasion recorded in the ninth chapter of luke that the lord jesus christ was making his way to the village of the samaritans and they would not receive him

and the two sons of thunder james and john said shall we bring down fire from heaven and consume them like elijah did and the answer came brethren sisters you don't know what banner of spirit

you are of

for the son of man came not to destroy men's lives

but to save

the spirit and power of elijah brothers sisters

was not physical

terrible

or inspiring

it was persuasive

it got to the heart of madness

and what luke is trying to tell us is this

that john came in a spirit

and in a power that elijah should have but never did get around to exercising in his day but which he most assuredly will

when he comes again to lead that great second exodus up the valley of acor to face the lord jesus christ with those jewish people the representatives of the nation that crucified

and they will only get their brother and sisters by the persuasive power of the spirit of that book and that's what luke meant

and therefore we come and see job dressed in nature as elijah wash very much light him in appearance and exercising that spirit and power which god fully intended that elijah should exercise and so brothers and sisters in order that we won't appreciate that what we've got to do is take him back to where elijah learnt that lesson and we want bounce through the record first of kings 19 isaiah 40

straight into matthew and you'll see the connection it's so plain

elijah has raced down the valley of jezreel before the chariot of ahab

that action brother and sisters was not one to show that he was faster than ahab's horses

that was not the point at all everywhere in the bible where people ran before chariots it was to illustrate that those running in front

recognize the one behind to be superior

and elijah was recognizing he thought the king had been converted he thought the power of god from heaven had converted the king he thought the prophets of our being the nation was repentant he thought that i had from then on would lead them to glory and in deference to the royal majesty of the kingdom he raced down the dust bowl of the valley of jezreel to the gates of jezreel stood aside and the king swept into that city and the door slammed

and from behind those doors

that imperious woman jezebel fired their verbal thunderbolts at him and the man that has stood up on mount carmel listening to his own name shouted by the people the lord he is god

was next found beneath the judiciary saying hold on a time

and he went brethren and sisters inextricably to mount sinai

it's the only time in his life he ever moved without being told by god where to go

ten times the record said do this or do that in the name of the lord only once ever did elijah ever direct his steps without that word and he went to sinai because he was bitter in his heart he was disappointed he was shattered he felt that god had let him down and he thought if he could get them outside eye he could get god back on his side didn't god understand what was going on

and the angel said woke him up fed him twice

and said the journey's too great for the elijah

who told him where he was going

that angel knew where he was going

how did he know

god knows everything and he's waiting for him and when he got there brother and sisters

in the first of kings 19 but we'll pick the record up now and this is where you're going to learn about the spirit and power of john the baptist

when he got there he had to learn a tremendous lesson

and in the first of kings chapter 19

we read this

in verse 9

and he came this unto the cave

the original hebrew language there has the definite article he came to the cave and lodged there and behold the word of the lord came unto him and said what doest thou hear elijah

now brother and sisters vk what's that k

we wouldn't know for absolutely certain we couldn't be dogmatic about this but look when you look at the whole spirit of what happened here what earth could it really be but the cave where moses stood when he went down there brother and sisters and ascended into that mount to pray for israel

and to say to god

bless me out of the book but save them and the apostle paul putting his finger on the spirit of elijah at this moment said watching not what the scripture says of elijah how he went to make intercession

against israel

it's a dangerous practice

and there he came to make intercession against israel standing in the very cave where moses stood i believe to make intercession for israel and the question is and this is the great question brethren sisters what are you doing here

in this place elijah

what god was trying to ask you brothers and sisters was what is it elijah about me

that you associate with me at this place

and elijah of course had remembered that place hadn't he when the earth was shaken with the earthquake when the law was given and the mountain was all on fire and the cloud descended and there was blackness

and thunder and lightning and darkness and tempest and the voice of words which voice they heard they could not endure that even an animal approaching the mountain they couldn't even kill it with their hands but speared it because they stood in all of god and that's what elijah had associated with mount sinai and that's how he saw god's character what are you doing

here elijah what is it about me that you think that you'll get me to agree with you here

and it all came out

it all came out i have been very jealous for the lord

god of hosts and there's his problem

there is his problem in a nutshell

lord god brothers and sisters

as we would understand it with the expositions of our brother thomas he who will be the mighty ones

the covenant name of god god will become

clearly seen all those who've got like characteristics

the wonderful covenant name

but elijah attacked on the end of it the word for armies

and that's the only second time in the whole record of the bible that that's found

and what elijah was saying brethren sisters

that he thought

that god's purpose was

that he would imprint his character on men and women if he couldn't do it by persuasion he'd fostered on them the lord god of armies

and in that

he was tragically mistaken

for this

is the covenant which i will make with them in those days saith the lord

not like the covenant i made with them when i brought them forth out of the land of egypt which covenant they break

even though i was a husband under them

but this is the covenant i will make with the house of israel in the house of judah in those days said the lord i will write my law on their hearts and in their minds i will print it

and that's not done by force president sisters

that's not done by miraculous power

though it is miraculous

it is the miraculous power of the persistence and insistence of the powerful spirit of this book

and how you tell me

how that for centuries god dealt with that people and never could get that law in their minds and hearts do you think brothers and sisters that we who love god with all our hearts soul and mind are any better flesh than them what is it about a jewish heart and a christian heart that's so different nothing

well how did god finally get that into our hearts

well you see when he took israel out of egypt

he released them from slavery

by killing another man's son

he fed them with manner he didn't allow their shoes to wear out their clothes upon their back

he took them into the round of canaan drove jordan backwards conquered seven nations of canaan gave them judges and then set up over them kings at their request

he did all those things

and still

that law was not written in their hearts

so the prophet eyes eye an exasperation said what more could i do for my vineyard

what more could i do

well brother and sisters

it wasn't so much a question of exasperation

as a question of fact that there was

just one little thing that could be done

my beloved

hath a vineyard and a very fruitful hilt

and in mark chapter 1 12 the lord's parable he said unto them his well beloved

as i have five

what more could be done one more thing

and if that doesn't get the law in our hearts and minds brothers and sisters

then we are hopeless

for while we were yet sinners christ died for us it may be for a just man

we might respect the just man a stern dignified man we might stand in awe of him says the apostle never die for him

a benevolent man a kind man

we might uh get here to die for him said the

but it would have to be a daring act it would have to be a moment's decision talk a deep breath and do it we might dare to do that for a good man says the apostle but god and his love and mercy brethren sisters

for at least 4 000 years of history that we know

measured that off

and waited until mankind had reached his worst stage

in due time

in what time due time he died for who the ungodly

they weren't even just they weren't even kind and god didn't have to do it with a daring act he measured it off for four thousand years of human history

and if you wanted to go back further than that before the world was our lord had a glory with the father

and the father in the heavens brothers and sisters looked out upon that brutal murder and allowed it when he could have sent 12 legions of angels and prevented it and we come sunday morning by sunday morning to talk about the sacrifice of christ and rightly so have you ever scared a thought for the sacrifice of the father

and that's what it was

that finally wrote that law in our hearts and god can do no more you can't go further than that

and that's what elijah had to learn brother and sister the lord god of hosts

he's not going to enforce it by physical might or power

but by the persuasion

of the power of his word

epitomized in the son of his life

as elijah protested

his case before god

he was sent back into the cave

and an earthquake shook that mount you can see elijah in that cave the whole of that mountain shaking

whether it's all over

god's not there not in that earthquake

fire raids up that mountain brothers and sisters there's nothing there to burn

but fire burped that granite as if it was tender and the throwing heat would send elijah to the back of that cave and he'd feel the heat and when the heat was gone

he was still lonely

god was not in the fire

the wind came

not wind that bends trees as i did at shippensburg while we were there snapped them off at the base

bad enough this wind picked up rocks

hurtled them past the mouth of that cave and smashed them against the granite walls of sonia

reverberating in elijah's ears

all over

god was not in the wind

and what he was trying to tell elijah

you've brought down fire from heaven the river kishon has run blood red with the blood of the prophets of baal

but what have you done that's positive except it be the widow of xanathan

and then brethren and sisters a remarkable verse of scripture verse

13. and it was so

when elijah heard it that is the still small voice

in verse 12 will go back a verse and after the earthquake of fire but the lord was not in the fire and after the fire a still small voice you know in the hebrew it means a thin crushed voice perhaps just the opposite the mind

rotherham renders it a gentle whisper

and when he heard it he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out

he went out he went out brother and sisters it was the voice that got him out in the open

and when that voice sounded in the wilderness a voice crying when they heard that voice again the record in matthew says and all judea went out to hear him

he drew them inexorably to him with that very voice

as we'll illustrate to you as we proceed

it got him out of that cave but not before

he wrapped his face in his mantle

and the mantle of course a garment of hair as it was called earlier was a symbol of his prophetic office

he's a little ashamed of it brethren sisters

because now you see the question comes again from god what are you doing here but the question is with a difference

and note the difference

in verse 9 the word of the lord came to him saying what are you doing here elijah

but in verse 13 halfway through the verse and behold there came

a voice to him saying

what are you doing here

elijah

and he repeated his defense

almost like a prepared statement

i have been very jealous for the lord god of hosts but you can say you can see him now brethren sisters saying it with his eyes to the ground

because that voice that's talking to him is nothing like what he had been doing in israel

when he had gone through his prepared statement

the answer of god to him was you go back to your way

to the spirit and power of that voice

you know brothers and sisters do you think that i got all of that out of my own head

do you think that's the true rendition of that record

listen to the last words of the old testament

remember ye

the law of my servant moses

which i commanded him in horror but all the statutes and with all the judgments behold i send you elijah

why send us elijah to remember moses

because moses the elijah brother and sisters for this purpose is far better educated

remember ye the law of my servant moses which i commanded him in horeb and he'd gone there to stand in moses shoes

behold i send you elijah

before

the great and dreadful day of the lord

lust

i smite the earth with a curse

two words

quote as to what they're telling us about the spirit and power of john the baptist and elijah

i'm going to send you before

the great and dreadful day

yes i smite the earth with a curse and he went down there brethren sisters for the express reason to procure that curse of israel watching what the scripture says of elijah how he made intercession against israel and so there was a voice in the wilderness and it's an isaiah 40 isn't it

and it's isaiah the prophet in his 40th chapter that picks up that story

and here we have our voice brother and sisters and this is what john said they said how are you john he said i'm the voice and here it is and he quoted the 30th chapter of isaiah and i of course is picking it up from the voice in the wilderness

and what voice could have that been but the one that was heard at the very apex of that wilderness at mount sinai

and the voice said in isaiah chapter 40

and verse 1

comfort ye comfort you my people said your god speak to the heart of my people says the margin

and how do you do that

now brother and sisters we're getting near to the story of john the baptist's life we're getting into the purpose of his life and expressing that voice how do you get to the heart of people

well here's how you do it jose said

i will allure her into the wilderness

speaking of the restoration of israel hosea ii and the very words of hosea ii are couched in the terms of elijah's life great shall be the day of jezreel

i will hear the earth and they will hear the heavens and they will hear the hot corn and they will hear the wine the story of elijah on the ground bringing down rain upon a parched earth all the references to the life of elijah and jose says i will lure her into the wilderness

and i will speak to her heart and that brother and sisters is the lesson of our life

and believe me when i tell you this here i haven't come all this way from my family to illustrate to you that i can speak from the bible because i don't really

think but i tell you what i have come to say to you that if we don't get out into that wilderness from this cursed materialistic world god will never talk to your heart

and i say that on the authority of the word of god and by the experience that he can't talk to my heart because i am basically materialistic

and that brothers and sisters is not false humility it is a tragic fact

i am very much taken over with materialism not that i've got much but i think a lot about what i could get

and if god can't lure me into the wilderness he'll never talk to my heart

comfort you speak to the heart of this people that her warfare is accomplished the time of her hard service has come she has received

of it says here she has received of the lord's hand double for all her sins you know the words she hath received brother and sisters literally rented in the hebrew she has accepted the punishment she's accepted her punishment she's agreed with it and that's taken straight out of the 26th chapter of leviticus that what israel accepts the punishment of their iniquity

then i will remember the covenant which i made with jacob

with isaac with abraham that's backwards

because well god will remember them jacob isaac abraham that's backwards

and in hebrews chapter six paul says god is not unmindful to forget your labor of love

your service of hope

and your continuance in faith and that's backwards because god is not a minor mindful to forget you and there's the creator thinking back to them because we have accepted brethren and sisters the truth of the matter

that we are no good in god's eyes and that he can never speak lying in the wilderness it's a voice crying

and what's he saying

the voice is crying and it's reads like this

in the wilderness prepare you the way of the lord and make straight in the desert a highway for our god

the proof of it brother and sisters is in the parallelism

that's the proof of it

and the voice says what what does the voice say in the wilderness

prepare you the way of the lord and make straight in the desert a highway for our god that's the hebrew parallelism that's what it's got to mean

and so i die the provinces upon the soil the adamah

and inviting them all to come out there and listen to what god had to say

their brothers and sisters is the great lesson of that man's life god doesn't ask us to leave house at home he doesn't ask us to sell all our possessions that's not what he's trying to tell us brothers and sisters we don't have to go and buy a camel skin

we don't need to do that we can't escape our environment we're caught up in it we're like rats in a truck

but unless we get that head out of that environment we'll never learn about god's word

i can't do it

in older days when brethren of the pioneers went to the meeting and horse and trap and they went along jig jogging along with the horse and trap slowly to the meeting brothers and sisters they regurgitated things they zip here and zip there they can't spend two seconds to quietly sit down quietly and listen to the voice of god speak to their heart

and the truth is going downhill brethren sisters i don't know about your country i know nothing about your country i'm talking about my country the truth is going downhill because of the curse of that situation

and people come to me and they say how do you study the bible can you show us lessons what colors do you use to mark up your bible i say i say to them now look before we ever start talking about colors pens and inks or whatever i want to know are you prepared to spend hour after hour after after upper on that book if you're not forget it

because brother and sisters he will allure us into the wilderness and speak to our heart

and so john was there

in the wilderness prepare the way of the lord and down they came and looked down nature's amphitheater and heard the voice

every valley was to be exalted he would lift up the meat

every mountain was to be made low he would depress the mighty and the and the proud the crockett places would be made straight brother and sisters and all those lives that were crooked in god's sight would be made straight and the coarse rough natures of men

would be smoothed over

and do you know something

there were only four classes of people registered in the gospels that listen to john

the common people who heard him gladly and were exalted

the scribes and pharisees whom he leveled

the republicans with all their crooked dealings as tax gatherers he straighted out and down came the roman soldiers

with all their brutality

and he said do violence to know me

what a remarkable fulfillment of that chapter of scripture

only those four classes were mentioned

and the glory of the lord shall be revealed for his isaiah and all flesh shall see it together

all flesh would see it together you know that means brethren and sisters you read it and you say all christ will come

god's glory will be seen well all the world will be converted yes no doubt about that that's not really what eyes i say the word together means to be alike

all flesh will be alike and he's not talking about all flesh in the totality of brethren sisters what he's saying is this that when they saw the glory of god as john was telling that they would see it in our lord jesus christ all flesh and the sense of all kinds of people would see it and then i'll become a like

they'd become a like

is that what i think did i get there out of my own head brethren sisters listen the gospel of john says

and will saw his glory

the glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth so it was revealed

that's in john chapter one

john chapter 3 deals with nicodemus a ruler of the jews who thought that his blood was blue and everybody else's was red

and john chapter 4 deals with an immoral wicked woman of samaria

the other end of the sky

and the glory of god was revealed

and all flesh

from the blue blooded rabbi

to the poor destitute woman of samaria that he despised

saw that glory and when glory when the glory of god is seen by the mighty and perceived by the humble brethren sisters human distinctions disappear

and they become alike

because everything fades into insignificance status

importance

everything fades into insignificance in the view of that glory

that's what john come to do

to turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers

to quote luke's record to turn the heart of the fathers of the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just

and the heart of the fathers would return to the children when isaiah's prophecies fulfilled which said behold your children the work of my hands

and when abraham isaac and jacob rise from the dead as they most assuredly will

and we are presented to abraham as his children he being the father of the faithful

his heart will go out to us brothers and sisters because he will see that we are the work of god's hands

i can raise up of these stones children under abraham and so the heart of the fathers will go out to their spiritual children

and we as their spiritual children who one time were disobedient

have learned

that the fathers being justified by faith were wise

the disobedient to the wisdom of the just

and so john came

to demonstrate those things

elijah

full of power

full of fervent zeal and spirit came down to thine eye depressed

to be told brother and sisters

that god does not work through physical means to impress his law upon people

that it is by the still small persuasive voice of that spirit that the truth will finally get through

and the voice cried to

allured him down there that god might talk to his heart

isaiah picked that up beautifully

the voice crying and when they came to john to ask him who he was brother and sisters the more he said the less he said

are you the christ i am not the christ

are you elijah

i am not

well are you the prophet of deuteronomy 18

no

nor he said

the message

the answer

nothing

i am a voice

and there was the answer brother and sisters

and you see what he's saying don't you

the lower one gets in their own estimation

the less one is cluttered about with this world's good

the less distractions one has

the greater the opportunity

for god to speak through you

if someone comes up and dusts your coat and says that was a mighty address

and you run away with yourself and think gee well it really was a good address

won't be very long brother and sisters and you'll be dumb

if on the other hand we go on piling up in our house the the things that jesus called stuff

whereby we can't find time to get down to god's word because i've got to do this i've got to polish that got to clean that mend this make sure i've got enough money to buy that and so on there won't be very long before we're done

but john didn't have a motor car he didn't have a house

he had a very low opinion of himself

camel skin didn't have to be dry cleaned too often

grasshoppers didn't need much cooking

and he was available

he was available

i'm nothing i haven't got any status

i'm not very great

but i'm a voice

do you know brother and sisters

i believe

that john's voice was the greatest voice ever heard not only because of what he said but the quality of it what else could it be when he held those people in the gallery of nature's amphitheater riveted with attention looking at this hermit figure thinking to themselves well what could he do and when he lacked it up his voice

repaired can be baptized and it reverberated up with the wilderness of judea everyone was transfixed with that voice he might have been nothing else brethren sisters but he had a golden voice do you know we know this from the biblical record

that's so powerful was his influence that though he performed no miracle they opened up a school in egypt

to learn his teachings

we know that because apollos came from alexandria in egypt

where he had been skilled the record is in the greek in the teachings of john he had a college in egypt

so powerful was that voice

that came up that nature's amphitheater

that was the voice of him crying

you the way

he did come in the spirit and power of elijah in another way too brother and sisters look at the parallels in their life

both came at a time of extreme wickedness i have of whom it was said that no king before him have ever done so wickedly

so they both came at a time when the fathers had filled up the measure of iniquity ahab's father means to fill up

omri means to fill up and ahab means his father's brother so he had filled up the measure of his fathers so had the elders of israel by the time john got there

both men were dressed in nature

untouched by human hands

both men pronounce stern judgments

as elijah raced before ahab thinking that the nation had been converted to proclaim the royal majesty of the kingdom so john came before the royal majesty of the kingdoms of heaven

elijah stepped aside brother and sisters to give way to the gentler elisha

and john

in exactly the same locality stood aside to give way to the greater jesus

elijah's name means the salvation of isle or god and jesus name means the salvation of yahweh or god they had very similar names

and elijah gave way to him and john gave way to him and the mantle changed at exactly the same spot

elijah came to his the end of his career you might say as an effective career because he dared to denounce the unholy alliance of ahab with jezebel

and john was brought tragically to death

because he dared to denounce

the unholy alliance of herod with herodias his brother phillips was he wouldn't get two more lies brothers and sisters that echoed one another more than them

and the great difference was

it was the prophet from gilead like a piece of granite carved out of the escarpment of gilead had come to terrorize that nation

this one that was came through the wilderness through the line of the priesthood

drew all to him

by the power of that voice that wafted up that is that amply theater of the wilderness of judea and prix so many hearts

it's a wonderful parallel and a wonderful contrast and as we proceed with our studies brother and sisters it is our wish that we would go with him to become mentally involved in his life that by our vision together we might transport ourselves in those days and stand there and look at that man and say to ourselves could we ever could we ever in 1983

be allured into a wilderness solitude

quietness

in the midst of a mad

mad mad materialistic world and give god the chance

to speak to our heart

Transcript

this is idlewild 1983.

this is our second period class

our teachers our brother john martin from australia his subject for the week is the prophet of the highest john the baptist

his subtitle for today the second day gabriel's announcement brother john martin

[Music]

my beloved brother and sisters in our lord jesus christ

the apostle john brothers and sisters introduced john the baptist in a very simple way

he said

there was a man sent from god whose name was john

and of course john

is but an abbreviation of that wonderful hebrew name johannen

which really means

the grace

of the lord

you know brothers and sisters although these words that i'm going to read to you now are not directly related to john

they fit his life and his purpose absolutely beautifully the grace of god you listen

paul to titus in his second chapter from verse 11

for the grace of god that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men

teaching us

that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts

we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present age

looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great god and our savior jesus christ

those words brother and sisters could form could they not a caption over the life of john

looking for the grace of god and there he was

teaching us to live righteously soberly denying worldly lusts in this present age absolutely epitomized in the life of that man

the lord jesus christ referred to him on many occasions brothers and sisters

when john referred to the lord he says i am not that light that should come into the world

he said there was going to come that true light which would lighten every man that came into the world

but when the lord referred to john as a light in chapter five of john's gospel

he referred to him like this

and in the fifth chapter of john and at verse 35

the lord referred to john in these words

he said he was a burning and a shining light

and you were willing for a season to rejoice in his light

now there are two different words you know but used brethren sisters for the lord and for john the baptist john saw our lord as the true light

and the word in the greek in that place is foss which means a luminous light a permanent light like phosphorus glowing in the dark

but the lord described john

as a burning and a shining light and he referred to a little portable hand lamp

which was charged up with the oil and because it was a portable lamp it didn't have much oil in it i used to use that lamp brothers and sisters to go short distances

and so when they had to go to the in the dark like we sometimes do from the hall back to our rooms they would light this portable lamp and it would flare up

light up their path for a moment and then out it would go

and that's exactly what happened

he wasn't burning in a shining portable lamp he flared out for a while lit up the whole landscape and gave men and women a moment of time

to see themselves as they were

before they had to stand in a permanent light where they couldn't be hid

one of the disadvantages of living today brethren sisters is that we're not going to get a john the baptist before that permanent light comes

and it would be to our advantage

if we could have someone

to flare up in front of us that we might see ourselves for what we are momentarily

to have that moment of time

to prepare for standing in the permanent light

and that's what israel got

and they needed it

micah had said that the sun would go down over the prophets and it had

for 400 years

and in the chapter that i've just alluded to the third chapter of micah and verse 6 where he said that the sun would go down over the prophets he said in the eighth verse of that same chapter but he said i am full of the power

and the spirit of the lord

and the son had gone down over the prophets but here was one brother and sisters who after 400 years of darkness had come in the spirit spirit and power of elijah which was the spirit and power of his god

that's what micah had said

and during the course of those 400 years

judea groaned under the iron heel of the of the yoke of rome brother and sisters

and jewish nationalism

seized and fermented with discontent

and in that very very bad situation

the jewish people who were the ecclesia in the wilderness at one stage god's people divided

and they divided into several sections

and john was to come to all of them and expose them momentarily that they might have their opportunity to put matters right

there are the pharisees

superstitious hypocrites

zealous of traditions

over and above

the scripture

so proud

they were even too proud

to submit themselves under the iron yoke of rome

there are sadducees

a rich influential group who had for the moment the office of the priesthood

and as such they had the key to the treasury box in the temple

and feasted at the expense of others

they were men who believed that this life only could give hope

they didn't believe in spirit angel they didn't believe in supernatural powers

you lived for this life you got out of this life what you could get out of it and depending how well you did in business that was to them a measure of the way which god blessed you

i hope brother and sisters that as we delineate these various groups

that we will find somewhere in our body somewhere

an empathy for some of these things that we might have an opportunity to correct it i've found them i know where my problem lies

there are the scribes and the lawyers

legal parasites

trading in religion to the highest buyer

they're the zealots

hot-headed fanatics

who would stop at nothing

and slit throats at the drop of a hat

there were the herodians

who were formerly scribes

and who even changed their garments that they might have an alliance with herod now

for politically political expediency

prepared to sell the truth

to keep roma by

men of no principle whatever complete traitors to the jewish courts

there is the population at large brethren sisters in which there was no middle class

there was no middle class in israel

the parable of the rich man and lazarus was absolutely true of that generation

you were either very very rich

or you were very very poor

and amidst all of all that division

of thought and action

there still existed an expectancy of the coming of messiah

among the old people

the anas

and the simians

people who could remember

better guys

and who groaned

and tortured their soul

for all that was going on in the world

to all those classes brother and sisters

there was a man sent from god

whose name was john and god offered to every one of those classes his grace if only they would see themselves for what they were in that momentary flash of light

which gave them that opportunity

and we pick up the record in luke's gospel

of the way in which john was announced that he would come into the world

it's a wonderful record brother and sisters of two old people

in luke chapter one we'll pick up the record say from verse five

and luke of course that brilliant historian

says that there was in the days of herod the king of judea a certain priest named zacharias of the course of a buyer

and his wife was at the daughters of aaron and her name was elizabeth

very interesting brother and sisters to learn that it was in the days of herod who earned the title the infamous title of herod the great

he was known as herod the great

he was impious and cruel

and he reigned over judea for nearly 40

years

he was an edomite

of the hated egymians and edomite

there was a mutual hostility between him and the jewish people and he was a fulfillment of bible prophecy

because years before moses had told them

that when israel had requested their king and would be disobedient that a stranger

would rise above them and become ruler over them there he was and there couldn't be more stranger to israel than an edomite

he married

ten times

he was a product of his age

one of his wives

was miriam a maccabean princess

a jewish girl

he built the temple which took 46 years to complete

and gained the favor of the jewish people

by giving them a great object of materialism

and he was known as herod the great

and there appeared down in the wilderness of judea

of the one that we've been talking about brethren sisters of whom it is said in verse 16 15

that he too was great for he shall be great

in

the sight of the lord

and in no one else's sight

so in the days of herd the great who was great in everything that men called greatness

in his cruelty his in his impiety

his materialistic ways in which he built that temple and in following the fashion of being having 10 marriages he was great in everything that made man great and down there was one who was great in the sight of the lord

and the only one

who would ever recognize that greatness

was his god

now he was the son we read of a certain priest named zacharias

now very interesting brother and sisters the details of john the baptist's parents

these are not coincidental things i'm going to mention to you now

they are wonderful things

you see because zacharias his name means yah hath remembered

yah hath remembered

his wife elizabeth her name means the oath of god

and john of course means the grace or if you like the mercy of god and later on in chapter 2 of this 72 of this chapter in 273 there is an obvious play upon the names of that family

when in the great eulogy the great prayer of zacharias he said in verse 72

that god would perform the mercy

promise to our fathers to remember his holy covenant the oath which he swear to our father abraham

zacharias yah hath remembered

elizabeth the oath of isle

john the mercy of god and whilst there are times i know brothers and sisters usually you can string a lot of names together make a sentence out of them which may or may not be the case that's fairly obvious isn't it that that little family was tied together and in the very words of zacharias there is a deliberate play upon the names of those of that family of mum and dad and of the boy that was born to them

we learned that zacharias was a priest so john was of the priestly class how unusual it was then brethren sisters to see him down in the wilderness of judea dressed as he was

when he had all the qualifications according to exodus 28

to be dressed in glass garments of glory and beauty

it wasn't as if he was from some obscure tribe that had no connection either with kingdom or priest he was a priestly class but look at him

he's not dressed like they were dressed and yet he had a divine right to dress like that in garments of glory and beauty but he didn't take that right

we learned that the course of zacharias was the cause of abaya

a buyer

and of course you may recognize in that name brothers and sisters the two hebrew names abba father abbay ah or yah

god

is his father

and you know mean for the divine intervention in the case of those two aged people john would never have been born

more than that brethren sisters

so important is that that luke mentions it that when we go back to the first chronicles chapter 24 and we look at the 24 courses of priesthood that david organized that they might do their periodical service in the temple

we find that the course of a buyer happened to be

the eighth course

and of course we're all familiar or should be

that the eighth day

was the day of circumcision

and that circumcision was given to abraham primarily to teach him

the children born of him would not be born by natural descent

for immediately upon his circumcision

abraham could not have produced a child

and so stephen in his defense reported again by that brilliant historian luke puts the two incidents together he gave him the covenant of circumcision and so abraham begat isaac

many years were of course separating those two incidents but luke puts them together to teach us that isaac also was a child of the spirit brother and sisters not as jesus was not born of a virgin but had not god intervened in his case or in john the baptist they had never seen the light of day

and so his father was yahweh and the eighth course spoke of that day of circumcision of which it speaks of the cutting off of the flesh that the seed to come would not be borne by humankind

it's rather interesting brother and sisters that as you pass between the pages of malachi to matthew

the eighth day which is really an anomaly in the old testament because there's no such thing there's only seven days in the week but that which is called the eighth day which was a peculiar anomaly when you pass the division of testaments becomes the first day of the week in the new testament because there is its fulfillment its proper title

and our lord was born of god

both in his conception of mary and from that tomb on that first day of the week he came forth a product of divinity

so all these things are terribly interesting

not only do we have this with his father

but here's another fascinating thing

elizabeth brother and sisters is the greek equivalent of the hebrew elisheva

and as we pointed out eli sheba means the oath of ale

ale sheba

the oath of isle the oath of god

but the fascinating thing about that is this

that elizabeth or eli sheba was the wife of aaron

the high priest of israel the first high priest of israel and here is a new beginning as it were god has remembered his people

the oath which he swore to their fathers

and the boy was born of eli sheba

the very name of aaron's wife

quite incredible really

she we learned brother and sisters in verse seven had no child because elizabeth was barren and they were both now well stricken in years and you know so much so notorious was the fact that elizabeth had no child that she became called

they used to call her the barren one if you look at verse 36

of luke chapter one

you read there

and behold thy cousin elizabeth she has also conceived a son in her old age and this is the sixth month with her who was called baron but in the original greek is surrendered by rotherham's translation it's like a proper name she was called the boring one

and as we would well appreciate sisters particularly in israel it was a joy to have children

it was a wonderful joy and a privilege to have children because they all wanted to bear did they not that child that would lead to the line of messiah

and they all wanted to experience in their life the joy of that and here's a poor woman who goes around known as the barren one

but the previous verse says

concerning mary that her child the latter portion of that verse therefore that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called

the son of god and so here is that poor woman with her title of the barren one and the one that was coming was going to be called the son of god and she had the great privilege brothers and sisters of being able to bear that boy who would announce his coming

so there is a great joy coming for elizabeth which of course she at this stage that we're reading about had no conception of

now another thing that's very interesting in that first chapter of luke in verse 8 is this

but we read and it came to pass that while he executed the priest's office before god in the order of his course

according to the customer the priests offered his lot his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the lord

now that's very interesting brother and sisters because what happened was this that as each of those orders of priesthood came up to the temple they did so periodically so they all relieved each other for a period of time and in that course that whole course would go home and another course would take over but when they came up

the great privilege which everyone considered a wonderful privilege was to burn incense in that holy place

and because there were many priests who sought that honor they drew lots for it

and in his book ersheim's book on the temple and its services in the time of christ a remarkable book dr edersheim himself was a christian who was originally a jew i used the curve christian inverted commerce but he was a christian who used to be a jew and a very eurodiete jew and he wrote very wonderfully of jewish customs and he pointed out brothers and sisters that tradition has it but if you drew a lot to burn incense in that holy place once that was done you never got that opportunity again because it was so much of a privilege that your name was then taken away and when they drew lots again your name was not included because you had your privilege and so what a wonderful coincidence in history it was that on the only time ever that the old man would go into there to burn incense there was gabriel standing at the right hand of that altar to meet him

what a remarkable thing that was

and we know that all the people were outside praying at the time of incense now they burnt the incense of course as the evening deepened and as the morning sacrifice was coming to an end as it ascended up to god in its last stages when the whole thing was consumed as a whole burnt offering they went into that temp temple or tabernacle be whatever the case may be and they offered up incense to god and it was the time of prayer

and david says in the 141st psalm in verse 2 let my prayer he says be like unto incense and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice so he combined the two together didn't he his prayer with others incense and the lifting up of his hands as the last smoke of that evening sacrifice and so it was a time of prayer in israel and they're all out there praying i believe for both zacharias and elizabeth and of course the startling revelation when he got in there in verse 11

and there appeared unto him an angel of the lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense

now from verse 19 brother and sisters we learned that that angel was gabriel

gabriel

there are special angels

two we know of michael the archangel

and gabriel

is

his hebrew name

a mighty one of god

and how fitting it was that gabriel should be the one to come to both to announce the coming of john the baptist and our lord jesus christ

because some 500 years earlier brother and sisters he appealed to he appeared to daniel to give him these very details

of the prophecy of the seventy weeks

when jesus christ the messiah would be born into the world

and they would become the time of the manifestation of the end of all things as far as the law was concerned and the setting up of everlasting righteousness

how fitting that that angel should bridge history to be there to tell daniel that and to tell zacharias this we haven't got time brethren and sisters to turn up the ninth chapter of daniel but if you read it in your leisure this is what you will find

that in daniel chapter nine the verses one to three daniel prays for god to remember

that the seventy years captivity had come to an end

in verses in verse 4 he appealed for god's mercy

and then verse 11 he acknowledged

that israel was suffering because they did not understand the oath of the law

and here were the names of this little family to whom that same angel appeared that epitomized

all that daniel was praying for

it took 500 years for that prayer to get answered brother and sisters

and we've got to learn patience

when we pray to god

500 years

god hath remembered his holy covenant the mercy he swore to our fathers the oath

here it all is and they were the very things that daniel was praying for 500 years before when that same angel came to him and here he is

what a remarkable thing that is

now the fact that gabriel was standing on the right side

of the altar of insects was incredible

because you see it matters not to god brother and sisters as far as lending his strength is concerned be it on the right hand or the left

but you see the right hand if you look through the psalms you'll find particularly in the psalms the use of the right hand was used as a symbol of that which is the most dexterous of our of the of our two arms we may be left-handed like the benjamites were whose name means the son of god's right hand they're all left-handed

so we might be left-handed but most of us would be right-handed

and the fact that he was standing on that right hand of the altar he was telling zacharias as the psalm said his right arm has gotten him the victory

there is strength and power there

now let me tell you something about the altar of incense brother and sisters that is also intensely interesting

you'll pardon me if we don't turn all these references up because of the time factor

now he gave the details for the building of the altar of incense that small order that stood before the veil in the holy place

it was described separately from all the other pieces of furniture in the tabernacle

and when it was described in exodus 30

if you look at that in your leisure you'll read that when it talked about the top of it and the sides of it it didn't the margin gives you an alternate rendering in the hebrew

and the top is described in the margin in the hebrew word for ruth

and the side of the order of incense is described in the margin in the hebrew as the walls

so the order of incense was described in the terms of building a house

in the 22nd chapter of deuteronomy and at verse 8 israel were told that every home they built had to be of the same pattern they had to build it with a flat roof they had to put a a balustrade around the roof to prevent accidents and they had to have an outside staircase that they could get to the top of that brethren sisters without in interfering with the domestic circle so they could have privacy so jesus said let him that is upon the house stop enter not into the house to take the stuff he could do that by coming down the outside staircase and going

and the order of incense having its walls and its roof flat roof

also had a round about it a crown of gold

and what god was saying brother and sisters is this that every house in that ecclesia in the wilderness or in the land or now ought to be

a house of prayer

and standing right alongside that altar was gabriel in answer to a man and a woman whose house was exactly like that altar

that is a wonderful detail

of the law of moses

and so the chapter went on to describe what this boy would be like

first of all in verse 13 that zacharias is reminded that his prayer was heard and that elizabeth would bear a son brother and sisters we read that very quickly you know we think well he's a man of great faith he he his wife was barren and he prayed to have a child so he's got great faith well let's just add to that somewhat brother and sisters and think of this that he was an old man his wife was an old lady

she would have got past the age of childbearing and he's still praying for a child

so it's the quality of that faith that we're going to think about

he's still praying for a child and he gets the promise in verse 14 that they would have joy and gladly and many would rejoice at his birth which they did in verse 58 the neighbors and the friends came there and they rejoiced in his birth

and in verse 15 he shall be great in the sight of the lord and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink and he shall be filled with the holy spirit even from his mother's womb in other words brother and sisters he would be a nazirite from birth

now there's something very remarkable about that

very very remarkable about john the baptist being a nazarite

and this was what was remarkable about it

because the nazirite vow was given for a singular reason

there was one thing why the reason why the nazarite vowel was given

now here's your reason when israel stood at the foot of mount sinai god said to them ye shall be unto me

a kingdom of priests

then he gave them a law which said it could never happen

because the law said

that unless you were from the family of aaron which of course was from the tribe of levi you could never be a priest

and previous to the law in genesis 49

the principle was laid down

that royalty would come from judah

so even if you were from the tribe of judy you couldn't be a priest if you could be a king if you were the family of aaron you could be a priest but you couldn't be a king and if you were a family from any other tribe you could be neither

but you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests what god was telling the brethren sisters as long as that law was in existence that promise could never be fulfilled and so peter in writing to people who now were no longer in the law but under grace said ye are a kingdom of priest and a holy nation

not only futuristic brothers and sisters but we are at present kings and priests in the sense

that we have the word of god and we represent god's thinking to men and women now john was of the priestly line yet he had to be a nazareth

and the purpose of the nazirite was singular in that the god gave the the the nazarite vow for no other reason than that men and women

when either man or woman

takes upon themselves and as a right thou the purpose was that they might imitate the high priest for any period of their own designation

so the high priest was never to uncover his head so they grew the hair long the high priest was never to drink wine nor strong drink so they weren't permitted to drink wine or strong drink the high priest was never going near a dead body so they were permitted to go near a dead body and what the nazarite bow was doing brethren sisters was offering brothers and sisters in the truth the opportunity during the course of this life of their own choosing to imitate

their high priest

and we've seized that opportunity

and we come every sunday morning to renew that vow because we want to imitate our high priest john had no need of that vow because he was born in the priestly line

but brethren sisters the nazarite the nazarite doing what he did imitating the high priest under the law was really in a sense greater than the high priest because the high priest was there by a carnal commandment

by descent of flesh and blood

the nazarite was there by being a volunteer

and even though john had the authority of the carnal commandment both mother and father both in the family of aaron

he brothers and sisters chose to stand out there as a voluntary priest

that was what was so wonderful about that absolutely wonderful and he lived out the terms of that nazarite vow

jesus said of him on one occasion john came neither eating meat nor drinking wine

and he didn't and so he lived to the terms of that nazarite vow and in verse 16 we read brother and sisters

in verse 16

and many

of the children of israel shall he turn to the lord their god

not all

not all

but many

what a wonderful thing it was that he was able to accomplish what elijah would never accomplish but when you think about it brother and sisters there's a progression in god's purpose isn't there you see elijah really apart from the widow of zarephath

and of the seven thousand of course and elijah he didn't affect them they were already a remnant according to the election of grace that wasn't elijah's work apart from the widow of zarapath elijah turned nobody to the lord their god

he left an indelible impression upon the nation he shook them to their foundations but when he was taken up in a storm out of this world brethren sisters he left nobody

except the widow of zarape john caines comes along and many shall he turn to the lord their god because he will express that still small voice that elijah didn't

but brethren sisters

an even greater destiny is ahead

for malachi says he shall turn the five heart of the fathers of the children and the heart of the children of the fathers he'll convert

all of them

not all in the sense of the totality because some of the rebels will fall in the wilderness ezekiel says but of all those that elijah will bring the multitude of the scattered tribes of israel back to their land to meet messiah the prince of all those who come with him all of them he'll have

so there was none in the first instance

many in the second instance all of them finally

what a remarkable progression that is in the divine purpose

now zacharias of course was overwhelmed with all this brothers and sisters

he was absolutely overwhelmed

and in verse 18 he said unto the angel whereby shall i know this

for i am an old man and my wife is well stricken in years

you may remember that the words whereby shall i know this really were said almost exactly those words many many years ago by another very faithful man so faithful that he became known as the father of the faithful

when abraham in genesis 15 was told so shall thy seed be

he believed it with all his heart and soul it was accounted unto him for righteousness righteousness therefore brothers and sisters is defined scripturally

in believing in the humanly impossible that's what abraham did

when we believe in the humanly impossible god says that i define as righteousness

if we imagine that by human prowess ability we can ever reach god's kingdom when we're going to be shattered

but when abraham had said that he also said later on whereby shall i know that i will inherit it but god didn't condemn him for unbelief you know why brothers and sisters because his problem was different than zacharias's zacharias's was just simply he was overcome for the moment and he just couldn't believe it it was so great it wasn't abraham's problem

abraham's problem was so shall i seed being looking up at those stars he said i believe it but then looking at that body he said

how can it be

because i'm a mortal man what god is talking about is immortal life i'm a sinner there's no perfect man except our lord jesus he was a sinner like everybody else is a sinner in the sense that he was not perfect and so he thought how can god give me eternal life look at the principles of the deity how can we get past them and god immediately showed him a sacrifice

to divide those animals

and he met abraham as the burning lamp passed between the pieces so the very expression whereby shall i know

in the mouth of zacharias was those very words that abraham used but they were vastly different in character

and poor old zacharias and who could ever blame him brethren and sisters we know he was praying we know he had great faith but isn't it true that when god does answer our prayers we sometimes just are so aghast in unbelief we just can't accept it

and then the angel said this in verse 19

and the angel answering said unto him

i am i o gibbon

the mighty one of god

that stands in the presence of god

and am sent to speak unto thee and show thee glad tidings

the gospel

and because he didn't believe it brother and sisters in verse 20

he was struck dumb

why was he struck dumb for not believing the gospel

why strike him dumb for not believing the glad tidings

well of course there was nothing else the angel could do

because the gospel brethren sisters is not a new testament thing it's an old testament doctrine

lift up thy voice with strength

lift it up

and say under the cities of judah

behold your god bring good tidings of good things

isaiah 40.

and so the good tidings of good things that were said to the cities of judah behold your god were said with a voice that was lifted up

because he didn't believe it

he was dumb

and exactly the same thing brethren and sisters is said in isaiah 52

the watchmen shall lift up the voice

with strength

they shall cry together

say undesired

good tidings

thy god reigneth

and because it had to be said with a loud voice and he didn't believe it he was struck dumb

you know brethren and sisters one other time in isaiah it is said the spirit of the lord god is upon me for he hath anointed me to preach good tidings

the gospel under the meek

and that gospel was the day of vengeance of our god

and in the three places where that is found

in isaiah you have what paul called in romans chapter one the gospel

of god

and in isaiah 40 the good tidings were behold your god

in isaiah 52 the good tidings were behold our god

in isaiah 61 the good tidings were behold your god

and the personal pronoun brethren and sisters is attached to god's name in every case the good news to you and i is that he's our god not just simply any god not the god or a god but your god my god our god

that's good news

and because zechariah failed to believe it

and because it had to be said in a loud voice

he was struck down

it was scriptural that it should be so

and you know when his mouth was opened

one of the first things that he said in verse 68

is blessed be the lord god of israel for he hath visited

and redeemed his people

as soon as his mouth was open brother and sisters he saw the point of that gospel of god the good tidings that he become your god my god thy god god had visited his people

and he announced that wonderful gospel of god

which of course isaiah had so beautifully put before him so many years before

and concluding our first session brother and sisters

we come back to that first chapter of luke

and we read in verse 24 the fulfillment of god's promise

and after those days his wife elizabeth conceived and hid herself five months saying thus hath the lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me to take away my reproach among men

she hid herself brother and sisters

for five months

to think about

the grace of god

and i know that we can stretch

biblical numerics

i am not one of those

fanatics about that brother and sisters

i sometimes think that that sometimes can be overdone but believe me when i tell you that there are plenty of places where the number five is used of god's grace

and she went away to hide herself for five months to think about the grace of god which was to be born into her house johannen

for he shall be great in the sight of the lord and you know brethren sisters when he came along to announce the coming of the lord jesus christ he said

that we have received grace

for

grace

so that he was the grace of god there was one coming mightier than he and when he did come along they did receive grace

for

another form of grace

even greater than that which they received in john the baptist

Transcript

this is idlewild 1983

the teacher's brother john martin enfield australia the subject the prophet of the highest john the baptist and the subtitle for today is the day of his showing unto israel brother martin

our beloved brother and sisters and our lord jesus christ

it seems quite remarkable brother and sisters that

of him of whom it is said that there had been no greater prophet born among women

than john the baptist

that we should only have one single verse of scripture

that spans 30 years of his life

very similar of course to our lord jesus christ isn't it we did get a glimpse of him at the age of 12

sitting at the feet of the doctors of the law in the temple

but the verse of scripture in question brother and sisters though it stands 30 years of john the baptist life

is absolutely

eloquent as to what it says concerning god's purpose in him and i would like us all now to focus our attention upon that verse of scripture in luke chapter 1 and verse 80.

what this verse says is eloquent brethren and sisters it really is

and after zechariah had finished his great praise of of his heavenly father for the mercy performed in providing john the baptist to him

we read the last verse of that first chapter

and the child grew

and waxed strong in spirit

and was in the deserts

till the day of his

showing

unto israel

you just contemplate that brethren sisters

i believe there are two very important things we're told in that verse about that man's life

the first one is this

that he was in the deserts

and that was his message

as we pointed out he's not a voice crying in the wilderness that's not what the hebrew is saying at all he's a voice crying

and the message of that voice is in the wilderness prepare ye the way of the lord and make straight in the desert a highway for our god

and the proof of what i'm saying brother and sisters is so obvious because that's the parallelism

and so here was one who was saying that if we're ever going to understand anything about god

we must at least be able to isolate ourselves from this world and our mind

i do not believe brother and sisters for one moment that god ever expected any of us to live like john the baptist

he was an extreme case for an extreme circumstance

god does not ask us to do that

we're taught in the in the book of ecclesiastes to live a normal happy life

was sufficient that we might have security with ourselves and our families what god is saying in that man

is that unless in the circumstances of life we can isolate our thinking that we might go out where we are uncluttered by this society god can never speak to our heart

and that was his message

in a world that seized in intrigue in hatred

immaterialism and in all class distinctions

and his point was the voice was crying to them crying crying to them come out here and learn something about god and where was he in the deserts

he was not a hypocrite he was doing that yes to the extreme

that he might

galvanize them out of their apathy and indifference towards the word of god and we need that brethren and sisters i need that you need that in this dark and degenerate age in which we live that's one thing

but remember what we said about him in our opening talk on the introduction that john claimed to be nothing else but

a voice

now i understand that when you've only got a voice you listen

but here the record is saying he was in the desert until the day of his showing

unto israel

isn't that remarkable and that is not a coincidental word brethren and sisters the greek word means an exhibition

until the day of his exhibition unto israel

and the lord jesus christ himself picked that point right up and he said what went she out to

see

so it wasn't only a voice though john claimed to be just that

but it was a voice brother and sisters

that was on exhibition in that man

please understand me

i haven't got a phobia about materialism

i haven't come over here brother and sisters because i think you're materialistic because i never even considered that when i chose this subject

but i know what we are

because i live there

and we need every day of our life to go out in our mind and have a look at him

the exhibition that god showed in that desert

what went he out

to see

and that's a very very important thing well let's have a look what we ought to see matthew chapter three here it is brethren sisters this is what they went out to see

and bear in mind

everyone would have seen him

now before we quote this verse i'd just like to draw your attention to that chart at the back there if you i hope you can all see it now that was drawn by our young people it's not entirely accurate of course but it's supposedly to represent the wilderness of judea as it leads down to the dead sea the on the other side of the water is that little peninsula you see on the dead sea that sticks out into the end of the water and it was down there behind those mountains brother and sisters that john stood on the floor of the valley of jordan and people went down to hear him and to see him and it was nature's amphitheater because they would have been looking down like we were looking at that fellow the other day taking our picture

they'd all been looking down this way though we'd have been up on that ladder we'd all and we're all looking down at john right there wasn't anyone who couldn't see him

and there he was this god figure

and have a look what they're looking at and this was god's exhibition

now it says here in matthew chapter 3 in verse 4

and the same john

had his raiment of camel's hair

and a leather girdle about his loins and his meat was locusts and wild honey and that is the sum total

of the inventory of his possessions or his lada

all in that verse

now this is what they saw of course looking down there if you and i were crowded on the slopes of judea watching him you'd say to your neighbor to your brother alongside you doesn't he remind you of elijah

of course you would whoever looked like that but there was a difference brother and sisters there was a difference

see other elijah it is said

that his coat was a skin of an animal doesn't say what it was but this one you know what it is

so i'd say to my neighbor yes he does look like john the better have you noticed the difference why what's the difference got his coat in a different shop

it's a camel one

why does the scripture note that

because the camel brother and sisters

is made by the creator to be adapted to the desert

that's where he was living come out here and he was adapted to his circumstances

the camel has foot pads

that spread out so he can walk on the terrain on the sandy terrain and he can do that with great dexterity you put him on rocky ground and he's hopeless

but on the desert he's absolutely sure

he's got a hump on his back brother and sisters in which he stores his food

he's got a three chambered stomach in which the stories water

his lips

are thick and they're like leather so he can eat thistles and cactus

he sheds his coat

he sheds his coat before the summer

his nostrils are all pinched in

so that the sand of the storms can't penetrate

he can go brother and sisters a hundred miles in 12 hours

and for four successive consecutive days he can go at a trot for the whole day for four consecutive days without a respite

he's adapted to his circumstances

look at him

what a great lesson there isn't that for you and i brother and sisters

i realize that what i'm saying of course is unpalatable to us all

i've i've grown under this burden just as much as you do

i like my comfort

but you know brother and sisters if we're going to be useful to our creator we've got to be adapted to the circumstances of hardship

made that creature for the deserts and john's clothes with him what went ye out to see

well that's what i'm looking at that's all i know about him i've only got one verse that describes him so i've got to be adapted to my circumstances i've got to learn to go through a bit of hardship

we've just got two brethren sisters

we've got to have our feet adapted to go through difficult terrain we've got to have our minds stored up with the power of god's word

and the water of god's word has got to be in several chambers of our thinking that we can always draw upon that in difficult circumstances

we've got to be prepared brothers and sisters to eat anything at any time even the food at idlewild if it means we're going to endure under the end

it means that we can't always have our comforts of life

we've got to be our nostrils are going to be pinched against the grating sands

of criticism and we've got to have all these things we're going to be adapted in the summer to to prepare for the hot and we've got to have our coats on in the winter to prepare for the cold

and if necessary we're going to go for hour after hour in god's service without respite on the trotters that were keeping going and keeping going and keeping going

if that's what it means to serve our creator and believe me brother and sisters i haven't done anything of course that's what that's worthy to boast of but i have had circumstances in my life when i didn't think i could go any further but i always found that you could do it if you put your trust in god

we must become adapted to our circumstances if we're going to do anything worthy of the name of the creator which we serve what weren't you out to see and that's what i said

i don't i got no other description nothing but that

locust was his was his food brothers and sisters locusts was his food

who'd live on locusts nobody

before we get onto the local server let me just i forgot to mention one thing about the camel the camel was unclean under the law of moses he's a priest

they were dressed for glory and beauty according to the details of the law there is a priest down there and he's got an unclean garment on him but what god had cleansed brother and sisters none was to dare call common or unclean now come on to the locusts

now you know locusts were a form of food

actually they taste very much like almonds i've never tasted them i just you know i believe it i don't want to put it to the proof but they they tell me that they taste very much like almonds but the whole point that's being made is that they were found in the deserts see everything about that man is described about his environment and that's what he's saying come out here to me and listen to god's word it's not whether it's just as if he's dashing up in the into the judean hills to go to the nearest drug store to buy himself an ice cream he's got everything he wants down in that desert he's not asking you to do any more than what he's doing himself that's the whole point of that exhibition now locusts under the law of moses were a clean thing depending on what type

not all locusts were unclean and the term locusts of course covered a variety of insect life

and the thing which made the locust clean it one single attribute it must have to make it clean under the law of moses and edible it must have the ability to spring above the ground

if it didn't have that ability it was unclean god never ever authorized him to eat anything that grovelled in the dust

but if a little creature could go ding like that you could eat him so don't worry about your rue burgers in america they're quite okay

it has the ability to get off the ground

and of course there in li was the lesson wasn't it if we have the ability to rise above the things of life then that's what makes us clean but again i believe the emphasis was on the fact that that belonged to the desert

and then we learned that he also at wild honey

which doesn't mean of course that honey you know come out and scrambled all over you in a vicious way it wasn't wild in that sense it meant really the greek means natural honey

not that honey which was then gleaned by the beekeeper

who cultivated that bee and kept it of course in aprilies and so on and therefore cultivated in that sense not that sort of honey brethren sisters but the honey that you would find in the desert and strangely enough in the land of israel where virtue was not great was not extensive like you have here in the idle wild pines it was the practice of some of the bees to build their nests in a rock

to build their hive in a rock and operate out of that rock so that deuteronomy 32 says

that i gave them honey out of the rock and listen to this present sisters listen to what this says in that same context

i brought him

into a waste howling wilderness

that i might instruct him

that's exactly that message

and the wild honey the natural honey in deuteronomy 32

in verse 13

is in the context of verse 10

that i brought him into a waste howling wilderness that i might instruct him

and that brothers and sisters again is god's exhibition of how we go about understanding his word

please understand me we are not saying god is not saying that we have to go into a literal wilderness but unless we are going to find the time

to close off in quietude we will never come up with the thoughts out of the scripture that you learn at bible schools

we've got to go into that study and i'm talking out of the brethren who of course upon whom devolves this great responsibility of feeding the flock and it applies to everyone in general of course who listens to but more appropriately to those brethren who have got the ability to feed the flock unless they are prepared according to this word and it's not my exhortation brethren sisters to go down and have a look at that exhibition they will never be able to prepare the way of the lord close that door

life is behind it and beyond it and we're in that study and we're with god

open up his book

pray for understanding and help

and then brethren and sisters walk out where there is no distractions and let your mind assimilate to the wonderful thinking that is there but how on earth could i ever understand that bible if i'm in my study saying

uh i wonder if the car is clean i should clean um what does it say here um i i should really get in the street and get some of that now how on earth am i going to understand the bubble like that

you see what i'm doing i'm being drawn away all the time what i've got to do what i must buy where i've got to go finish that

get out there with josh

isolate yourself in your mind and god will speak to your heart

as hosea said i will allure her into the wilderness and speak to her heart

now we're going to see the day that came in luke chapter 3 brother and sisters when the great day of his showing unto israel and what a day that was

what a day it was when the day when he came for his showing unto israel

there are some parts of the bible brothers and sisters that need no exposition

they are the exposition of them is on the surface itself not all the bible's like that but there are some parts of it what all you need to do is read it

and here's the great lesson of john's life and i will read these verses to you i will read them in an exaggerated way

i won't read like brother mcgill did the other night i've never heard such a reading like that i compliment him upon that was a magnificent reading if you listen carefully last night i won't read it quite so well as that but i will read it in an exaggerated way and i won't have to tell you the meaning of it because luke introduces god's exhibition by giving us a list of the great men in the world now you listen to me read the opening verses of luke and you'll get the point

now in the 15th year of the reign of tiberius caesar

pontius pilate being governor of judea

and herod being the tetrarch of galilee

and his brother philip tetrarch of ichiria and of the region of trachonitis

and lysanias the tetrarch of abellini

anis and cahiaphus being the high priests

the word of god

came unto john

the son of zacharias

in the wilderness

that doesn't need any exposition brethren sisters does it

here's all the world's greats

here's all their territory

far as the eye could see

and the list finishes brethren sisters with the high priests of god

and unto none of those greats

did the word of god come

but under job

whose

territory nobody wanted

in accordance with a man's importance of himself brother and sisters

so god cannot speak through him

are you the christ i am not the christ are you elijah i am not are you the prophet

no

the more he said the less that he said what are you nothing god says i can speak through you

could never speak through tiberius caesar or herod or philip or lysanius or anas or cahiapus because god's voice brothers and sisters wouldn't find room in their life

why do you think it was when jesus said in the 16th chapter of john he said i will send you the comforter when he cometh he will convince the world of sin of righteousness and of judgment of sin because they believe not on me

of righteousness because i go to my father of judgment because the prince of this world is judged when he cometh he will do this peter stood up on the day of pentecost brothers and sisters and his diac in his speech in acts chapter one rather acts chapter two is divided into three sections of sin by wicked hands you have crucified and slain of righteousness because he said he's gone to the father of judgment because he said save yourself from this underwater generation why was it that peter was the spokesman on that day because he was the most eloquent of all the apostles

because he could speak better than james and john

no brethren sisters because he was the one that swore and cursed that he didn't know his lord

and they all knew it

and there was in peter that day none of peter god was able to use his mouth

it's a wonderful and a marvelous lesson he was able to speak to peter's heart because peter got out of himself into a wilderness he was ashamed of what he had done and that made him available that's why he was the spokesman when he cometh he will say this that's not peter talking

that was the spirit of the comforter the spirit of our lord jesus christ speaking through him what a remarkable lesson that is in life brothers and sisters and luke says in verse 3 of this chapter

that this john came

into all the country about jordan preaching the baptism of remittance repentance for the remission of sins well we might say well to a christian elephant that's very very familiar and to us of course we said oh well that's very doctrinal but you see brothers and sisters you've got to appreciate what that meant to that crowd standing in the amphitheater because you see you've got to understand what the scribes and the pharisees taught

because they thought you see that there was a difference between jews and

well we'll call them gentiles but they called them dogs

quite a difference really

and when they do of course came to maturity uh he was certain that he was circumcised the eighth day and then he came to the age of about 13 and he was inducted as a son of the covenant of the law in a very elaborate ceremony

but this chap here he might want to become a jew too a proselyte

gotta wash him

baptism brother and sisters was in vogue long beach or before john king

baptism is not just a christian doc doctrine it was in vogue long before john came and was reserved to wash filthy gentiles to come into the truth of israel's covenant and here's john standing up there and telling all of them

that unless they're prepared to get into the muddy waters of jordan and confess that all flesh is grass not just gentile flesh

then there's no way

that they're ever going to find repentance

that was john's power brothers and sisters imagine a pharisee

lowering his dignity to that with years of tradition behind him of that act speaking of washing filthy gentiles

imagine the audacity of that one down there suggesting that but that's what he suggested brother and sisters

and you know despite the unpopularity of that doctrine

that man's doctrine went all over the world

he never performed a single miracle we learned that in john chapter 10 and verse 41 as we saw before

but this we are told in the 11th chapter of mark and verse 32

that all men counted john a prophet there must have been something very compelling about that message as unpalatable as it was to them we learned in the 18th chapter of acts in verse 25 that apollos came from alexandria in egypt

and he was

skilled

in the teachings of john the baptist and the greek word that is chosen there is really the word of one of our of uh one of our pieces of literature catechesis

he had categorized john's teaching so there was a school in egypt

teaching what john taught so powerful was that the apostle paul came to ephesus which was really the capital of asia minor brothers and sisters and he found certain disciples who knew about the baptism of john it had penetrated into asia minor

and as unpalatable as this doctrine was

it must have been altogether powerful as it came reverberating up that wilderness of judea

matthew it is don't turn away from luke because we want to stay here for a while but it is matthew who gives us his opening words which luke doesn't

and in the diagram version of his opening words he says the royal majesty of the heavens hath approached and of course he was announcing the fact that the lord jesus christ or the christ as he would understand it he wouldn't know he was jesus but the christ the messiah was about to appear now you imagine i mean if if the if israel were told the messiah was going to appear well of course the pharisees would all get dressed up in their in their paraphernalia with their phylacteries and they would tie their little things little leather

boxes around their foreheads with the law in there and they would look very lovely wouldn't they and they would go down the streets of jerusalem and they would proclaim with the silver trumpets and with the ramshorn of jubilee but the royal majesty of the kingdoms has approached have a look who's telling you that the royal majesty of the kingdom is on his way

look at him think wow the royal majesty of the heavens is approaching look he's saying it

the apostle paul says they wandered in sheepskins and in goat skins

they lived in the caves and dens of the earth of whom this world was not worthy

and although he was proclaiming the coming of a royal majesty

yet look at him brethren and sisters thus says the high

and the lofty one that inhabits eternity

he that is holy

i will dwell with him that is of a poor and a contrite spirit

and to proclaim the coming of the majesty

i don't want to turn these references up i want to conserve our time brother and sisters but isaiah that you know isaiah the providence says preparing you the way of the lord in the wilderness prepare you the way of the lord make straight in the desert a highway for our god do you know how they made highways isaiah 62 tells us cast up cast up the highway behold thy salvation cometh and their majesty was approaching and the way that people made highways in those days brothers and sisters was that as you made your way to jerusalem the first pilgrims would find the easiest path

and as they went along they would pick up the stones and pull them out of the way so their brother wouldn't trip over them

and as they did that they would define the path which stonewalled my hand they would define that path that's the way walk in it and when you came along the pathway was defined

and it was defined by the stumbling blocks that your brother had taken out of your way that's what defines your path to the kingdom

cast up cast up the highway was the words of the prophet

and the same chapter says brethren sisters the same chapter says that my salvation shall come as a lamp that burneth

and jesus said he was a burning and a shining light

and radiating along that path for a moment of history a short moment of history john the baptist went out up there putting aside all the stumbling blocks from people and flaring that path towards the coming of the royal majesty

and that's exactly the context of isaiah 62 cast up cast up the highway behold he cometh

and the chapter opens up with those words behold his salvation cometh as a burning light

what a remarkable context that is in the in the light of john the baptist coming and he fulfilled did he not brethren sisters the terms of that voice every valley shall be exalted luke chapter 3

and verse 10 he speaks to the common people

every mountain and hill shall be made low in matthew 3 and verse 7 he spoke to the jewish leaders

the crooked shall be made straight and in verse 12 of this chapter of luke he spoke to the publicans the crooked tax gatherers the rough places should be made plain and in verse 14 he smoothed over the soldiers

and are there any four classes that he spoke to

every valley the common people were exalted every mountain the pharisees were leveled every one that was crooked the republicans were made straight and the every rough one the soldier was made smooth

and they were the four classes that came to him what we now want to do brother and sisters

is to see what he said to each class

now in verse 7 of luke chapter 3

then he said to the multitude if you compare that with the with verse seven of matthew chapter three you'll read you'll read there that the first words were addressed to the pharisees and the sadducees

and to them john said to the pharisees and sadducees a generation of vipers who had warned you to flee from the rock to come now this was very interesting brother and sisters he called them a generation of vipers

the word generation means a brood or an offspring that's how the rsv and rotherham renders it a brood of vipers

they were snakes just born

they were just starting to manifest their true characteristics they were just beginning to be shown up for what they were later on when the lord jesus christ called them the same thing he said

oh ye generation of vipers ye serpents

by the time he came along they'd grown up

he quoted the words of john and added the mature word for serpent they had filled up the measure of their fathers

cruz warned you to flee from the rock becomes his job who's warned dutifully from the roth to come you know brother and sisters he was referring of course to the custom down there that in the wilderness of judea during the winter months it was covered with a very low virgin green for a very short period of time during the winter but quickly scorched by the sun

in the summer months and when it got hot down there and it got tinned to dry of course there was always the fire and out of the fire would come these vipers shooting out of that out of that grass and brushes and tearing off for their life and that's how he liked those scribes and pharisees

the day is coming said malachi

that'll burn as an oven and all the wicked of those that do wickedly shall be burnt up as stubble and i'll leave them neither root nor branch and the end of that chapter says behold i said you elijah and here is the one that's coming in his spirit and power

so the prophecy of malachi has been brought to the bear upon them and the words of verse 8 of john to the to this class of people were to bring forth fruit meet for repentance brothers and sisters

fruit is how you determine a tree it's not what our brother says

it's not his external appearance sometimes that can be very deceptive

we can be very oily we can be very smooth we can always be talking about the love of god

we may not be like that in our hearts

it's what we produce in life brethren sisters you look at your quality of your ecclesia look at the quality of your young people look at the quality of your families there's the proof

you bring forth those sort of fruits says john before i ever put you in that water

and that's what he had the words he addressed to these people and sisters and he said if you're not prepared to bring forth those fruits he says the axe is laid to the root of the trees

they said

that they had abraham to their father

they said we have abraham for us our father john says god is able of these stones to raise up children unto abraham you know brothers and sisters he took them from that wilderness further north to baptize them he didn't baptize him the dead sea he baptized him at bethebara

which which means the forts the house of the forts

and that's the place where israel crossed when they came into the holy land and when they came into the holy land god drove back the river jordan and picked up stones out of the the black oozy stinking mud of jordan and it was brothers and sisters that's no exaggeration jordan at that at that point is very very stinking river as it gathers up all the debris before it dumps it into the dead sea and god drove that water back and he blocked those stones out of the muck and forth and stood him up on dry ground

and john says in the very place where that was done don't you tell me that you're descendants from abraham god is able of these stones to raise up children under abraham and if we're prepared to go into the waters of baptism which we have and stand there or go under the water and say all flesh is grass

god will drive that water away bring us up to newness of life and from the muddy depths of our morality brethren sisters he will stand us with his son in unis of life that we should bring forth fruits worthy of repentance don't tell me that your natural descendants of abraham says john

everything john said was calculated to send their minds back to the word of their god

because he was nothing but a voice these were not his opinions the axe is laid at the root of the trees

where did he get that from brother and sisters where did he get that from now you look at the correlation this is marvelous you look at the correlation of john and jesus in their teaching

the axe is laid at the root of the trees

now what are they what did the law say

it says that when they plan the fruit tree this is in the 21st chapter of leviticus when you when you planted a fruit tree

god says i will give that tree three years

i'll give it three years

and if it doesn't produce food in the fourth year cut it down

john comes along brother and sisters

at the beginning of the three years

and he says

there's an axe at the root of that tree

and at the end nearing the end of his ministry

jesus said a certain man

planted a fig tree

and it didn't bring forth fruit for three years

and he's now getting to the end of three and a half years of his ministry

and he says cut it down

and they make an appeal

let it go a bit longer let's fertilize it and give it a chance

and that's exactly what happened look at the correlation

john says the act is there

they saw jesus pick it up

three and a half years later

and that's what the law of moses said

john wasn't telling them anything there wasn't back in that old testament

that's what he told the scribes and pharisees in verses 10 and 11 the people asked him saying what shall we do then you know brother and sisters i'm not trying to be dramatic really this is drama this is real drama let's try and put ourselves say this bible school and hundreds of other bible schools are all spread along those hills and we're all standing there we're looking down at god's exhibition and we're only common people all of us are only common people

and we're all pricked in our hearts we realize that our way of life is not what it ought to be we don't know much about god's word we're all cluttered up with this life's goods and we realize now how destitute we are of the understanding of god's word this high time that we separated ourselves if only in our mind we were able to get isolated from this world and think about god and being clicked in our hearts we say we call out down that wilderness john what a weed you want to do what are we going to do

and the answer brethren sisters was devastating

absolutely

devastating

oh rolling up those hills came that golden voice

he that got two cokes

give one away

and every eye

is on that coat

he's only got one

and you and i brothers and sisters

wouldn't be seen dead in it

he wasn't asking you to do

any more than he could do

he didn't have to

and if he offered you the only one he had you wouldn't take it

and the only other thing he said to the common people was

he that's got food

let him share it

and every eye is down there looking at that exhibition

and if he invited you home for dinner brethren sisters

you'd feel sick

because you'd never eat what he's eating

and the only two things he mentioned to the common people that they should do

were the only two details that we know about him in the whole of the record of his life about his personal details you heard my personal details last night you heard jim's

you heard her other brother

warren well all we know about him is his coat and his food

and that's all he asked us to do brethren sisters that's all

and i could imagine all of us going home from that in that night in the bitter cold of the judean hills

going up the hills and we might have called him anything in our minds we might have called him radical we might have caught him an extremist

we might have even said he was a hermit

we might have even said he was mad

there was not a soul in that crowd

that could have said that he was a hypocrite

i would love brother and sisters to have a life that i could stand up here and talk to you and have my life as an example of what i'm saying

sad to say that is not the case

but nonetheless

it is our duty to tell you what we believe that bible is saying and i looked down that exhibition and i can tell you that when i was in my study and saw that and listened to that voice telling me about those two things only i wept

because i don't do that i can't do that

but i could never ever say to him that he asked me to do what i couldn't what he didn't do himself

he that have two coats let him impart to him they have none and he that hath food let him do likewise

oh what a magnificent lesson

absolutely magnificent

to the republicans he said this brother and sisters in verses 12 and 13

he says and the republicans then came also republicans to be baptized they'd made a decision it didn't say that about the other crowd they'd come to be baptized why had the republicans made up their mind and the others hadn't because they were brothers and sisters i despised it a lot tax gatherers

farming system so a roman governor was responsible to someone higher than he who was responsible to someone back in the senate in rome who was responsible to someone higher in the government than he and each one of them had allowed each one to take a section of a portion of the taxation as long as someone got back to number one and so the poor little fellow at the end of the line the tax gatherer had to tax him enormously that he might get better

pass the rest onto his governor who passed it onto his superior who passed it over his superior who finally passed on to the government itself but everyone got a bit of it as it went along the line and these poor devils who live like that brother and sisters and they tax the people on behalf of rome that people walked past them and held their nose

oh they stank

and because they were an ostracized group and hated among the nations they came to be baptized

they wanted to be baptized their hearts were yearning to be baptized like the harlots were because everyone hated them and they flung themselves on their god for who else cared

they came to be baptized

and all the lord told them

exact no more

than what is appointed he didn't tell him to give up their vocation

he didn't say it was wrong

because he knew the miserable life that many of them left not all of them some of them were avaricious as others but those that came down there to be baptized like zacchaeus

living a miserable life

ready to throw themselves into the arms of their heavenly father because everybody else hated them

you go on with your work

but just don't do any more than what you're told you don't need more than what you need

soldiers came down there verse 14. the soldier said what are we going to do the rough places

what does it do violence to no man the margin says put no man in fear

accuse no man falsely and be content with your wages and i believe brother and sisters i can't prove this but i believe those three sentences all have to do with their material possessions because what they used to do was intimidate one another for extra provisions the provisions were all farmed out and they would intimidate each other that they might by brutality bullying their their fellow soldiers to get more rations

they were to be not informers against one another because there were rewards for informing which of course would increase their material possessions

and of course of all the things that a soldier a mercenary was never satisfied with his wages

and what about us brothers and sisters you satisfy your wages

in our country oh what a fool's paradise

what a fool's paradise i'm here on long service leave you've never heard about that some of you 13 weeks off extra

for 10 years service

four weeks and you'll leave a year and in those four weeks annual leave i get 17 and a half percent of my wages over and above that by my basic wage just in case i might miss out on some overtime while i'm on holiday

oh deary dearly me content with your wages that's the world we live in and if that was a problem then brethren sisters how much more is it a problem now

and of course as the crowd dispersed in verse 15

and as the people were in expectation and all men mused in their heart

look at the margin they debated reasoned or debated in their hearts of john whether he was the christ or not you know brethren sisters they weren't debating that because they were wondering whether he was the messiah whether he was not the messiah they were doing this in their hearts because this is what they would be thinking i'm being told to share me coats and he's only got one i'm being told to share my material provisions and that's all he's got to share i wouldn't touch it i don't want nothing to do with his life now because he's told me that i'm thinking in my heart oh dear

oh i hope he's not the messiah because if he's a messiah oh boy what about my life oh dear i hope he's not the messiah

others might have been saying brother and sisters who saw the point yes john that is an exhibition to me of faith i hope you are the messiah and i hope i can live up to at least a seminar to that ideal they mused in their hearts about that

and i said whatever they thought about him brother and sisters they could never have said that he was a hypocrite

and i want to conclude on a positive note

because you know luke adds a very beautiful touch to the finish of john's preaching and in verse 18 he said

and with many other things in his exhortation

preached he unto the people

and you know literally brethren sisters in the greek

literally in the greek it would read like this

and many other things in his exhortation did he bring glad tidings under the people so you see it's not all that he said the main issues are put forth by luke but you can imagine john that when he'd finished and there were tears streaming down the faces of the common people and republicans and those who came to be baptized stricken and smitten in heart and saying oh deary me what's my life like in relation to that

where am i going in life what am i doing with my time

and having reduced the brethren sisters to almost rubble on those mountains lurk says

but depart from the exhortation

he spoke glad tidings under the people oh i only wish luke had recorded that with that voice saying it because john would have looked up and said you people who listen to me you common folk who have got the message you who are determined to go away from this bible school to do what is right in god's eyes you people who want to isolate your mind from the mad rat race that you're in let me tell you what the kingdom's going to be like how beautiful are the feet of him that preached the gospel of peace

and there he was

how beautiful upon the mountains of the feet of him that preached the gospel of peace and they were all standing on the mountain yet he was down there

and i would have imagined brother and sisters that apart from the stern challenging words of john

there would have been the change of tone and emphasis for all those prepared to accept that message

a voice crying come out here

in your minds if only in your minds and prepare the way of the lord there would have been those eloquent under overtones of the glory of god's kingdom for all those who are prepared to submit themselves at least to the principles

of the day of his exhibition unto israel the question is brethren sisters what did we go out

to see

Transcript

this is idlewild 1983.

our second period speaker is brother john martin his subject this week is the prophet of the highest john the baptist this is the fourth class and the title for the fourth class is to fulfill all righteousness brother martin

my daily beloved brother and sisters in our lord jesus christ

the last time we saw john brother and sisters together

was to watch him on that desert floor

giving us all a very very powerful exhortation

to live within our means

to live a quiet simple life

with the ability to be able to isolate in our minds ourselves from this terrible world

and give god the opportunity to speak to our heart

if we've learned that lesson brothers and sisters we've taken a gigantic step i believe towards the kingdom of god

or there is no other way to that kingdom other than that that and that that god should speak to our heart

let us all therefore give him that opportunity

but now a different phase is coming

the words of the prophet are about to be fulfilled

behold i send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me

and the lord jesus christ quoted that third chapter of malachi and applied it to john the baptist so we know it's speaking of john the lord being our authority

he shall prepare the way before me and the lord whom ye seek

shall suddenly come to his temple

and whilst john was at the banks of the river jordan brother and sisters baptizing others he was in a further of expectancy because god had told him that any day

one was going to walk up

in whom of course the purpose of god was to be focalized

what an era of aura of expectancy that would be fancy standing there like he was watching them come down by their droves into that into that water because it says all judea all around about jordan they came from everywhere to be baptized of him and you can imagine him watching them one after the other passed through those waters brothers and sisters wandering with his body quivering with excitement knowing that any time

he of whom the old testament had spoken would come

you know we're in that fervor of expectancy brothers and sisters

and how exciting it is to think about that and so we come to the first chapter of john and we learn here of that excitement that john must have felt building up within himself

the climax of his mission was coming

and in john chapter 1 and verse 33

john says here i knew him not

but he that sent me to baptize with water

the same said unto me upon whom thou shalt see the spirit descending and remaining on him

the same as he which baptizeth with the holy spirit

in verse 31 he says

and i knew him not but that he should be made manifest to israel therefore i am come baptizing with water and so you see brothers and sisters john's purpose was not only to baptize others but in the very process

messiah would appear he says i knew him not but that he should be made manifest to israel therefore i am come baptizing with water he was waiting for him it was absolutely necessary that messiah be introduced this way it wasn't that god had chosen at brother and sisters because it was an ideal opportunity because the crowds were all there and this would draw attention to jesus he had to come through that water

because scripture demanded it

and therefore john was waiting for him

and of course these words which are here are written in retrospect

john didn't know who he was when he first came what we're reading here is john's words in retrospect

and after the the next day we read in verse 29 of john chapter 1 that is the next day after his baptism john seeth jesus coming again he now know who's who he now does know who he is brother and sisters and he saw jesus coming unto him and he said

behold the lamb of god which taketh away the sin of the world

and that brother and sisters was a monumental statement

it was not an outburst of emotionalism

it was not that john looked at him and saw him merely as being meek and mild that was not the point at all

it was a calculated intelligence statement of fact

a startling

fact because the fact of the matter is this brother and sisters that you will search in vain

from genesis to malachi

in vain you will search

to find a male lamb

for a sin offering it isn't there

anywhere

it's not in the law it's not in the psalms it's not in the prophets

nowhere

does the old testament ever speak

of a male lamb

for a sin offering the nearest you'll ever get to it is isaiah 53 he was as a lamb led to the slaughter and even in that chapter

it says thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin and the word in the hebrew is trespass offering so it's still not a sin offering and the very words used in isaiah 53 the exact terminology is taken from the law of the trespass offering so not even that was a sin offering

and so when john directed all the eyes of those rabbis of the law who knew every jot and tittle what he was saying was here he comes of whom the lord knew nothing

as far as a sin offering was concerned

here's one above and beyond that law

the lamb of god

and because brother and sisters it was something that the law never offered

something entirely different

it had to be for the sin of the world

so there were monumental facts

being placed before them by this one who had come to john to fulfill all righteousness

what a wonderful thing that is

and they would have been arrested by that statement

the glory of god had appeared says john we saw his glory full

of grace

and truth

and you know brethren and sisters

those two words conjure up

the extent of god's character if we can say if we could ever use that word extent of god but of our knowledge of him it conjures up all that we know about god's character grace

and truth

and that's what was manifested to john

you know brethren sisters when you think about those two things

what are they well as i say they they represent behold the goodness and the severity of god

grace and truth

the characteristics of exodus 33 now embodied in this personality from nazareth

shone forth in all its glory in a man

who was able to bring together those almost opposite principles which we cannot exercise perfectly and yet which we are exalted to do by the words of zechariah the prophet execute true judgment

and show mercy and compassion every man to his brother

and there's no soul that's ever been born except the lord jesus christ who could make mercy and truth kiss each other as the psalm says and become compatible perfectly

because whatever judgment we make brothers and sisters and we have to make judgments

not about our brother's motive

but we've got to make responsible decisions

whatever judgment we make we're going to earth somewhere

between those two

we're either going to be unbalanced one way or another but here was one that was full of grace and truth that came to john we're going to be kings and priests brethren sisters aren't we you ever wondered why

because those two officers are those two characteristics he the rulers over men must be just

ruling in the fear of god

and every high priest taken from among men has ordained four men in things pertaining to god that he might have compassion on the ignorant of them that are out of the way kings

and priests

mercy and truth

if you like

and those characteristics magnificently presented in the case of our lord jesus christ and that's what john was waiting for and when one came who could balance those principles perfectly he had to be the son of god because there's no man woman alive that could ever do that in this mortal frame

and that's what john was waiting for

and he was waiting for him at jordan

i made the statement brethren sisters it had to be this way

it had to be this way for several reasons

not only because the lord was to manifest the fulfillment of all righteousness

in his own body that he might become the example for others

that was the primary reason of course

but i only know of three men in the bible

who were highlighted to israel by coming up out of jordan

now this is fascinating there are three men that i know who were to lead that nation and that god demonstrated their leadership out of that river

and those three men were joshua

elisha and the lord jesus christ i want you to have a look at them brethren sisters and then i'll tell you why i believe it's those three men joshua chapter three notice the language here

and when we see the principles we'll see how inevitable it was that jesus had to come to that jordan to be manifested to israel

joshua was to succeed moses

but there may have been doubts about that brethren sisters there may have been those in israel who felt that they should succeed moses

and so we read in the third chapter of joshua and at verse seven

and the lord said unto joshua

this day

will i begin to magnify thee in the sight of all israel

that they may know that as i was with moses so i will be with thee and thou shalt command the priest to bear the ark of the covenant saying when ye come to the brink of the waters of jordan ye shall stand still in jordan and so their brothers and sisters was the principal god says the people must know joshua they must know that you are the true successor of moses i will magnify you this day

get the priest to stand in that water and then we read in verse 11

behold the ark of the covenant of the lord of all the earth passes over before you into jordan and of course that ark represented the leadership in israel with which joshua was related now brothers and sisters you will see that the word in verse 11 for lord is in small print it's not in small capitals

where of course we have it in verse seven in capitals we know it is the hebrew name of our heavenly father he who will be but down in verse 11 the hebrew word is adon and it means the ruler of all the earth

behold the ark of the covenant the ruler of all the earth passes over before you into jordan and on that great day brethren sisters joshua was magnified

not that god would say that he would be the ruler of all the earth but most assuredly

as a shadow as a figure as a type that stretched forward of the substance

joshua prefigured him who would come brother and sisters to be the true ruler of all the earth and so it was necessary for god to demonstrate joshua's leadership by bringing up out of the jordan i hope you're paying attention because we'll have a climax to this

in the second of kings chapter two we have the other incident of the other man

who was manifest in the same way as he succeeded in the leadership

in the second of kings chapter two

in verses 13 to 15

elijah is departing this earth the question is who is his successor he had there were 50 aspirants for the job

51 if you count elisha but there were 50

great men standing by who thought that they might one of them might be the leader and we read in verse 13 of the second of kings chapter 2 that elisha took up the mantle of elijah that fell from him and went back and stood by the lip of jordan

and he took the mantle of elijah that fell from him and smote the waters and said where is the lord god of elijah

and when he also had spit in the waters they parted hither and this and elisha went over and when the sons of the prophets which were to view at jericho saw him they said the spirit of elijah doth rest upon elijah and they came to meet him and bowed themselves to the ground before him

and so again brethren and sisters when the question of the successor came

it had to be manifest through the river of jordan

and when that happened people acknowledged that i think you can see where i'm going

and the day came

when john's successor

was to be manifest all the people had been impressed with john

we learned later on that despite the words of john himself telling them to follow jesus they still wouldn't forsake him and there were such people known as john's disciples

even though he told them to follow the lord jesus christ

and so it was necessary with that sort of quality in him and leadership in him that god should make should make it known that day who is going to be his successor and how did he do it straightway when jesus came up out of the water he said this is my beloved son

now brother and sisters it begs the question why those three men

and why coming up out of jordan they are the two questions

why are those three men and why coming up out of jordan

because the three men's names

two of them are identical

and the other one is that close it doesn't matter

joshua yahooshua

yahweh will save is the name of our lord jesus christ jesus is but the greek equivalent

elisha

or elisha

is isle god will save

and so we find therefore the three men who are manifest coming up through jordan brothers sisters all had names basically meaning the same

that's answer question number one question number two is

why must they be manifest to israel by coming up out of jordan

we'll never understand that brethren sisters unless we understand the principle for which jordan stood

jordan means the descender

it rises at the foot of mount hermon

several thousand feet above sea level it bubbles out from right underneath hermann

and by the time you turn around from when you're looking at the springs coming out of hermann behind your back it's a very broad stream already

it is aqua blue

in places other places emerald green

as it represents the sparkling refracting water of the melting snows bubbling and gurgling and foaming over the rocks like the stream down there by the time it reaches the sea of galilee it's a dirty brown

and it's already at the sea of galilee 600 feet below sea level

as it makes its torturous way down the jordan valley brothers sisters like the winding of a snake

it's already there when you get to the top of the lake it's about 1392 feet below sea level at the dead sea no wonder it's called the descender

and because it's got such a steep descent and such a torturous course

when the snows melt in the thaw the river overflows all its banks so we learn in the first chapter of joshua the first of chronicles chapter 12.

quickly overflows its banks quickly recedes and you ever see a river do that it will leave on the banks all the bracken all the debris all the mud caked in layers baked hard in the sun on top but beneath oozy and black

jordan ever stood

for the flesh

as it started in all its purity and stagnated

in the dead sea

and about 15 miles north of the dead sea according to the third chapter of joshua and verse 16 was a little city called adam

and through adam it's stagnated

into death and nothing lives in that sea

jordan ever stood

as a symbol of the flesh

zechariah the prophet jeremiah the prophet looking down upon jordan from the heights of judea you look down upon it it's a beautiful sight the winding river and because the bracken grows up in the debris and it's got a green top

it looks beautiful brothers and sisters you look down upon a river like that from a great height and you're looking straight down at it you're looking at the top of the bracket it's beautiful a green sword seems to to converge and close both banks of the river as it flows peacefully towards the dead sea but when you get down there

on ground level and you see underneath

the dead looking branches which just got the green on the top and the oozy black mud and the slimy stuff there and the vipers making their way through that bracken it's a dangerous place it's also where the lions were very very prevalent down there and a very dangerous place to go and so jeremiah said if they have weary d with footman how will you contend with horses

and if in the land of peace you couldn't get on however will you do in the pride of jordan

in other words if you can't keep up with men running you'll never keep up with horses

if in the land of peace you can't get on you'll never get on when you get down to the pride of jordan and the word pride is used because it looked good but oh boy you get down there and you're all sorts of trouble and so when we understand therefore brother and sisters for what jordan stood we begin to understand why it is that god manifested his salvation by men who are able to climb out of its water

he who can get out of that water has to be god's salvation

not that joshua was

not that elisha was

they were but representatives of him who should come

but there was a man brethren sisters who came of adam

and he's with us or was with us i should say correcting myself he was with us in the stagnation of death

but he got out of it

and the only way he could ever get out of it

was by the power of his god

he was yah's salvation

and so that's why the men have got the same names and that's why they came out of the same river

if you can overcome the flesh if you can live a perfect life brethren sisters

then you are of god as he was of god but you're not and i'm not

and we will never ever in reality get out of that water until he comes to pluck us out

but he did and when he come up out of that water god says this is my son and you know brother and sisters that was not so much as a statement again of endearment although of course that's clearly implied in it this is my world beloved son what god is trying to tell us this is my son that's why he got out of that river

had he not been my son he had never got out of it he would have still been

in the grave with the rest of the stream of humanity that stagnated in that water and so john was waiting for that to happen

for the tide of humanity turned back from the first adam through to the second atom by one man came death by another man brother and sisters came resurrection to life john was waiting for that and god told him that's how he's going to be manifest prophecy demanded it principal demanded it type demanded it

and because he was god's son stepping up out of that water he stood there clean

pure

because the mighty power of his father operated in him in a manner which i could never understand or describe for which i could never match either

and so we come to the third chapter of matthew with that little bit of an introduction which took after session we'll have now look brother and sisters at the monumental occasion

when the lord came to that river in the 33rd chapter of matthew and we'll basically stay with this record perhaps with just deviating here and there to illustrate our principles

and in the third chapter of matthew we read

and listen to what it says

then cometh jesus

from galilee to jordan unto john to be baptized of him he almost traversed the whole course of that river

see the point he almost traversed the whole course of that river he descended

and he that ascended far up above all the heavens what is it first but that he descended

to the lower parts of the earth

he that will be exalted must first humble himself

if we want to ride upon the high places of judah and be fed with the heritage of jacob bregman sisters we must first walk the distance down jordan

he came from galilee and he descended the course of that river

now of course john was embarrassed wasn't he he was absolutely embarrassed

because although he didn't know that jesus of nazareth was the messiah as he himself confessed he didn't know he knew him as a person he knew him as an individual he knew him as a character and john was utterly embarrassed that this one should stand in that water with him and looking into those beautiful eyes

which of course was the light of the body and knowing behind those eyes that body had lived a life of utter perfection oh how embarrassing it is to stand there and have to baptize him into the baptism of repentance

what is john gonna do brethren sisters

lord i have need to be baptized of thee

cometh thou to me

john

john you must understand

john thus it becometh us the two of us

to fulfill all righteousness

what righteousness was fulfilled on that day that a perfect man should be baptized into that baptism

well you see brethren sisters john wasn't only preaching the gospel of repentance

you see sin

is the outcome of a cause is the cause right of an effect

sin is the cause of the effect

and so there's got to be something to be acknowledged what was the righteousness to be fulfilled well listen

they said who are you he said i'm a voice

and he identified himself with that voice in isaiah 40.

and the voice said cry and he says

what shall i cry

all

flesh

is grass

not some of it

all

flesh is grass

had not jesus submitted to that baptism brother and sisters he would be claiming to be a man from another planet

but for as much as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also

himself

likewise

took part of the sight

all flesh is grass john thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness for it became him of whom are all things and through whom of all things

in making the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering says the apostle in hebrews 2

it became him it behoved him to be made like under breath unto his brethren so paul says it became him in making him the captive of our salvation it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren if he's going to be a captain he's going to be a leader a captain represents his people as joshua did as elisha did as the lord jesus christ did and so when the lord stepped into the water brothers and sisters to fulfill all righteousness

there was two things declared

first of all his humanity he was a descendant with everybody else it was a stagnation of death and of himself he could do nothing

when the lord said that it wasn't pseudo-humility it was an absolute statement of fact he could of himself do nothing

and by the same token

to quote our brother jim playing on the front foot

he was telling everybody the real source of his strength

thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness back keeping a hand in matthew back to isaiah 42

here was the righteousness brother and sisters that was being fulfilled on that day

some wonderful things written in the prophets

isaiah 42 verses 5 and 6

thus saith god the lord he that created the heavens and stretched them out

he that spread forth the earth and that which cometh of it he that giveth breath unto the people upon it and the spirit to them that walk therein i the lord have called thee in righteousness

and will hold thine hand

and will keep thee give thee for a covenant of the people for a light of the gentiles see the point brothers and sisters i the lord have called thee in righteousness but in order to do that i've got to hold your hand

there's no way

that he could be called in righteousness unless god had hold of his hand

and god says i will keep you

give you

it was all the work of god brother and sisters

far be it for me to stand here and to to to detract from the remarkable wonderful loving cooperation of the son of god

never would i brothers and sisters ever want to hear depreciate the grandeur of his submission

but in accordance with his own wish

his own doctrine and teaching

it was his father where the victory belonged

his was but the submission to a power beyond him and his father grabbed his hand

kept him gave him in righteousness whose righteousness the chapter finishes in verse 21.

on chapter 42 of isaiah finishes with these words

the lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake he will magnify the law and make it honorable whose righteousness sake brethren sisters

rotherham i believe catches the spirit of that verse when he says the lord is well pleased for his own righteousness sake

and it has to be god's righteousness because it's a magnification of the law which was given before jesus as an individual saw the light of day

it was making something honorable

that came before the man

that god had instituted

and so the lord was pleased for his own righteousness sake

and when he took him by the hand and led him in righteousness

john

thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness and the lord felt brethren sisters the warmth and the strength of his father's arm holding him there keeping him there and then finally giving him to the people for a covenant

was also wonderful when the principles are discerned that's the atonement you know brothers and sisters it's a precious document doctrine i've never found you may correct me in this in all my experience and the truth i've never found anybody who believes what we believe in its purity on the doctrine of the atonement it's a gift

i will give him it's a gift to understand that doctrine

and so there was the fulfillment of all righteousness

and straightway says matthew as he came up out of the water

god acknowledged that and when he was baptized he went up straight way out of the water and lo the heavens were open unto him and he saw the spirit of god descending like a dove and lighting upon him

there was an acknowledgment brother and sisters in one decisive act

in one decisive act god acknowledged what had been going on during the whole course of his life

just as you and i in one decisive act of baptism

we give credence to the doctrines which we have been taught and are determined that that one decisive act will be but an epitome of all our life and that's what god was to to acknowledge on this occasion now i have a very wonderful matter to put before you it may not always be easy to grasp this but it is truly wonderful

when we put the gospel records together brethren sisters luke tells us that as that voice came to him from heaven he was praying

it was in the attitude of prayer that the lord received that acknowledgement isn't that wonderful

that's what luke says but i want you to turn to mark because mark says something different too about this incident and it's from mark that we're going to go to the old testament again for a remarkable application of scripture

now in mark chapter one

recording the same incident mark says this

in verse 10

and straightway

coming up out of the water he saw the heavens opened

and the spirit like a dove descending upon him he says almost the same with what matthew says with a difference brethren and sisters that if you look at the margin for the word opened mark's greek word is different than all the other gospel writers the word means as the margin says cloven or rent he saw the heavens rent and any brother who is familiar in any way with his bible will know exactly or may not exactly but he'll know that somewhere in the old testament it is said that god would rend the heavens

and mark with the choice of his greek word is sending us straight to that passage of scripture

why well let's have a look at it isaiah 64.

let's have a look at it brother and sisters

and i hope by this illustration brothers and sisters that we may be able to impress upon you as it has been impressed upon me the value of letting the bible speak for itself

so mark says the heavens were rent and in isaiah 64 in verse 1 o that thou wouldest render heavens that thou would has come down that the mountains might flow down at thy presence and it's a play upon the wonderful events of mount sinai but the prophet is asking brethren sisters for another manifestation in another spirit

and then we drop our eyes down to verses five and six

thou meet us to him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness

they that remember thee in thy ways

behold thou art wrath

for we have sinned

in those is continuance

but we shall be saved

but we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses

are as filthy rags

and we all do fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away

now brothers and sisters there's more in that that's on the surface than is on the surface

because you see the prophet is praying and try to follow this the prophet is saying oh that that would have ran to heaven what for well he says that you might meet him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness not their own because verse 6 says that's filthy rags

it's a different sort of righteousness brethren sisters but who are the people that isaiah is talking about

upon whose behalf is he appealing

i believe we can prove who it is by letting the bible speak for itself because you see the end of verse 5 says we have sinned in those is continuance and we shall be saved let me read that from the revised standard version and you will see the sense is much better

in our sins we have been a long time

but we shall be saved now brother and sisters let me put a proposition to you you just use your logic the prophet is calling for a rending of the heavens as it was when god came down in fire and melted mount sinai as it were

and he's asking for another manifestation of the same saving power

he's talking about god coming to meet people who work righteousness that's not their own

and he's talking about a people

who've been a long long time in their sins

but that god would eventually save who's he talking about

he's talking about the gentiles

israel had their manifestation

and the prophets crying on behalf of another people

another people have been left a long time in their sins but who are able to work the righteousness of god in their lives and to be saved now the proof of it brother and sisters is this

peter's on the house top

the sheet is let down from heaven knit at the four corners in which there are all manner of four footed beasts and creeping things leviticus 20 representing the gentiles and he's taken to the house of cornelius and he came in and he said

i perceive

that god is no respecter of persons

but that he that worketh righteousness

is accepted of him

64.

and straightway as he come up out of the water the heavens were torn asunder

and in him god meets everyone

who though they may have been a long long time in their sins

they can be saved

if they meet in him he that works a righteousness that don't belong to us

and that one word that mark uses

opens up that whole chapter

and there we have it brother and sisters the wonderful act of grace of which john was the witness that when all righteousness was fulfilled

when the lamb of god was presented that the law knew nothing about

it was so efficacious that it reached out to a people who had been left a long long time in their sins

a remarkable day it must have been for john to perceive all that

and matthew goes on and tells us that he saw the spirit descend upon him like a dove

rather wonderful brother and sisters the expression here used by matthew

he saw the spirit descend upon him like a dove but look what he says it happened and jesus when he was baptized went up straight way out of the water and lo the heavens were opened unto him and he saw the spirit of god descending like a dove and lightning upon him

do you know in the back in the story of elisha

that very word is used that the spirit of god came upon him and the word not that very word not that very greek word but a similar hebrew word in isaiah 11

when it says the spirit of the lord shall rest upon him the word is the same and that both words mean the settling down of birds

and so here we have the spirit settling down upon him like a dove

now brethren sisters

if we go to john's gospel we won't turn it up now because my time is going if we go to john's gospel john says i saw the spirit descending upon him and and remaining with him

and immediately after that happened

immediately after look we will turn it up because it'll be better for me to read it than describe it to you because i wanted to get this point

it's absolutely beautiful

in john chapter 1 and verse 33 look what it says

i was going to try and conserve time but it's better to do it this way because i want you to see this point here in verse 33 and john says i knew him not but he that sent me to baptize with water the same said unto me upon whom thou shalt see the spirit descending and remaining on him the same as he which baptized us with the holy spirit

and then over in verse taking up at verse 49

or verse 48 nathanael said unto him once knowest thou me jesus answered and said unto him before that philip called thee when there was under the fig tree i saw thee nathaniel answered and said unto him master

teacher there are the son of god they are the king of israel jesus answered and said unto him because i said unto thee i saw the under the fig tree believe us now thou shalt see greater things than these and he says unto him truly truly i say unto you hereafter you shall see the angels of god ascending

and descending

upon the son of man and so when that spirit came down like a dove brethren sisters and john records it stayed with him he goes to see nathaniel nathaniel was sitting under the under a tree and nathaniel was reading genesis 28

there's not a shadow of a doubt he was either reading it or thinking about it one of the two there's not a shadow of a doubt about that because genesis 28 records the incident when jacob laid his head upon the pillar at bethel the house of god

and he saw the angels of god ascending

and then descending upon him

in which case they were with him at the beginning and they were with him at the end had it been the other way brothers and sisters had they been descending and ascending it would have meant that they were not with him at the beginning and they were not with him at the end but it didn't say that it said they ascended from him and descended to him and god was telling him i will be with thee in all the way which thou goest and immediately after that spirit came upon the son of god and stayed with him he pointed his fingers straight at that chapter of scripture and said nathanael you say i'm the king of israel so i am

if that man was changed his name to israel i certainly am the king

because the spirit was with him and so this is what we read in luke's gospel brethren sisters skipping over the chronological order of our lord's life this is what we read in luke's gospel

the spirit drove him into the wilderness

to be tempted of the diabolos

luke then records he came out of the wilderness in the power of the spirit

and then ignoring chronological events luke then records his visit to nazareth he stood up in the synagogue and says the spirit of the lord god is upon me

so it took him into the wilderness

stayed with him during the temptation

came out with him and stood up with him in that synagogue

and all the way through that record in luke's gospel as he ignores the chronological order of details to present that thought that the spirit was always with

why did it come down brethren sisters in the form of a dove

there has been much

speculation upon that i suppose the idea that i will present you may think is speculation too that's your privilege

some say well the name of jonah is the hebrew word for a dove and our lord said that they would not get any sign but the sign of the prophet jonah and therefore the dove represented him as the fulfillment of the type of jonah maybe

doesn't impress me much

well i think brethren sisters and i put this forward respectfully

but it really is beautiful i believe that of all the characteristics we love about a dove harmless and everything else there are two

which on this occasion i felt i feel have a wonderful and remarkable application

the thing that the scripture notes about the dove is that is a very clean little bird

my dove my undefiled song of solomon it will not ever put its foot in dirt mud filth

it will hover around and flutter until it finds firm ground clean ground and it'll land

point number one

another feature the dove which is noted by the prophets which i think has peculiar application here

is that it has strong

homing instincts because it belongs to the pigeon family they shall fly as doves to the windows

says the prophet isaiah in his 60th chapter it's a pigeon family it has strong homing instincts

and putting those two things together brother and sisters when he came up out of the muddy waters of jordan and the water flowed from his body and he left his his humanity as it were back in that water denying his flesh and he stood up on clean ground

he was a morally

perfect man

never done a wrong thing in his life

and so a little dove came and settled on him

and because that dove had strong homing instincts the spirit of his father which had made that life holy it was the reason why his life was holy the origin of his morality was in heaven it homed in where it belonged

what else could it do

this is my beloved son

in whom i am well pleased

we've left john for a while haven't we brethren and sisters we've been making a study of our lord jesus christ really but it is one section of john's life

where he had a stand

as an awe-stricken spectator

and from that moment onwards it was inevitable that he must decrease

and as we follow him in the next study brother and sisters we will see how greatly impressed john was with that occasion and how he drew constant attention to him who was truly the lamb of god and the next day as jesus walked by with the disciples standing around him amongst whom were peter and andrew the next day they were clinging to john and john says look my disciples i'm telling you i've had i my work is finished there he is

there's the lamb of god which takes away the sin of the world and he said that as john said as jesus walked past and some of those disciples

left john including peter and andrew joined in the with the lord and walked away from him and the fulfillment of john's course of course was seen brother and sisters in the action of those disciples and it is our great and earnest prayer that the studies of john the baptist might help us to do exactly what they do he directed us to the lord as he walked past let's join in and follow in his footsteps