(John 1:23)
�He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.�
Did you ever watch the Court TV channel. There are some interesting and informative shows on that station. I don�t watch it often. Well, I don�t watch T.V. all that much. I remember one show where the channel discussed the methods which the police will use to interrogate a suspect. One of the methods related was that the police would ask the same question several times using a slightly different angle to the question. The responses are then compared to see if there is any inconsistency in the answers.
John the Baptist did not display any inconsistency in his answers to his questioners. He continued to assert his own role was simply that of a forerunner to the coming Messiah. He played down his own importance.
That, playing down his own importance would seem to have been a hard thing to do. Considering the great crowds which thronged to hear this man preach, and the multitudes who consented to his baptism of repentance, it would take a man with a strong sense of just who he was, and of He Who was to come, to be able to handle such a chore.
John was that man.
God generally does a pretty good job of picking out the right person to handle the job at hand. Back in the time of the exodus God called a man named Moses. Moses would not have seemed the right man for the task.
We often talk about how Moses was prepared for his calling by his childhood as the adopted son of the Egyptian Pharaoh�s daughter. That much is true. But, consider that Moses was on the backside of the desert when he was called because he had fled Egypt after the murder of an Egyptian overseer. Consider that Moses may have had a speech impediment. Consider that Moses didn�t want to go; he asked that his brother Aaron, be sent instead.
Do you think it at all possible that God used these flaws in the character of Moses to dust off a little of the pride of his palace upbringing? I do. It is good that we be as prepared as possible for the task to which God has assigned. But, it is better to be humble and realize that the victory is not of our talent; it is of God�s power and leading.
Moses had learned these lessons.
John the Baptist picked up on the truth of those lessons. We have no record of any flaws in the life of John prior to this point. Those flaws were there, I am sure. But, probably more important was that John was a student of the writings of the Old Covenant. He had read the stories of Moses, and Job, and Jonah. He understood the truth of God which was written down in the Book of God.
To those questioners John gave a simple reply. �He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.�
Notice that John used his voice to prophesy.
We often mistake prophecy for fortune telling. True prophecy may include the prediction of a thing to come. But, that would only be part of the equation. True prophecy is telling the message of God to mankind.
I just checked the weather program on this computer to see how cold it was going to get tonight. Sometimes, when the weather gets too cold, I have to leave the water in my kitchen running slowly so it will not freeze in the pipes. The people at the weather site were not dealing in Biblical prophecy even though they were giving me advance notice of what was going to happen. They were making prediction, not prophecy.
Similarly, one working in an occult setting would not be giving true prophecy even if their projected outcome were to come to pass. Their message would not be from God; it would be from another spiritual entity. We are commanded not to seek to access false gods or false prophets.
Moving away from the predictive aspects, however, each of us has the opportunity - more importantly, the mandate - to speak in the prophetic manner. We are to give forth the message of God to the world of men.
We are to tell people, warn them!, that Jesus Christ died in time so that we might live in eternity. We are to be heralds who prophesy of the gospel message of sin and salvation.
John prophesied when he gave forth the message which had been entrusted to him as part of his ministry.
John also provided a yielding of his will to that of the Spirit of God.
John could have talked about how great of a ministry he was carrying out for God. He could have accurately posted himself as a special prophet. He did not. He simply gave the message which God had given him.
In military terms we could say that John followed orders.
I�ve told you the story before that I missed the airplane bringing me home from my army tour in Viet Nam back in 1969. It caused me some trouble. The worldly military wants one to be where they tell him to be, when they tell him to be there. His job is not to assess the situation and make his own decision; his obligation is to simply follow orders.
So, also, is that our obligation to God. We are not to lag behind, refusing to move forward when He gives us the mission to step out for Him. We are not to rush ahead of His will as though we were the one�s running our ministries. Our duty to Him is to be where He wants us to be, doing what it is that He has given us to do. No more. No less. No questions about His right to lead us where He wills.
John proved, with his life, his dedication to the leading of God. He did not seek to make a name for himself. He simply sought to uphold the Name of the coming Messiah. God did give John an important role to play. It was the dedication of John that allowed him to rightly fill that role.
Look at the searching request of John. �...Make straight the way of the Lord...�
A few years before her death, Linda and I were on vacation out in Colorado. As we were out driving around we came upon a sign that directed us to a drive up to the top of Pike�s Peak. Linda was driving - a very good idea on this trip.
The gravel road ran straight up, or so it seemed! It cut back left, right, and around every few feet. There were drop-offs of hundreds of feet on each side. No guard rails - not that it would have done much good! Linda had no problem with the drive up to the top. I, on the other hand, had worn a hole in the floor of the passenger side by stepping where I hoped a brake would be! It took us a long time to make the short, in terms of milage, trip because Linda had to drive so carefully.
John didn�t want a path like that to lead to the Savior. He wanted a straight road.
John knew that the road to the coming Messiah was a desired path. Throughout the long history of mankind we have been estranged from the God of Creation. Man had trouble, and trial, and temptation, and heartbreak because he was away from the fellowship of the One with Whom he had been created to enjoy fellowship.
Someone gave my grandson a �thin mint� today. As he looked at it in the hand stretched out toward him, Eli didn�t seem all that interested. It didn�t look like much of a toy to him. Then he took the candy. At this stage of his life, everything he gets in his hands heads toward his mouth. It was no different with this wafer. He wasn�t all that interested in it until it struck his tongue. Then he was able to taste the candy. His previous attitude toward that funny looking little thing was over. He wanted more!
Many people do not understand just how good God can be. When they finally come to Him they find that the straight path is a desired path when it leads to the King of Glory.
John also wanted a direct path to the Savior. There was no need for interchanges and detours on a straight road. He knew that the coming Messiah would be calling people to Himself. John�s task was to point them to the place where they could respond to His call.
That�s our job as well. When we pray for people to be saved, and then approach them with the Gospel message, we are �pointers.�
I used to have a black lab dog. He was a natural born retriever. But, he wouldn�t find things for me to have him retrieve. He just went after things I pointed out to him. A good hunting dog will �point out� the game for the hunter.
God covers both of those bases for us. He searches out men and women to call into His kingdom. He leads us, if we are really following Him, to the place where we can get them in our (witnessing) sights. We just pray for their souls, and witness to their persons, and God does all the work of retrieving them into His kingdom.
The only need of lost mankind is that they reply directly to Jesus. We do not lead people into a church for salvation. We can take them to church. But, we need to lead them to Jesus. We do not lead people into a �lifestyle� decision. We lead them into a relationship with Jesus. We do not lead people to a Bible study. We can teach the Scripture as a means of leading them to Jesus.
It is not their work, or our work, which saves their souls. It is their response to the wooing of the Holy Spirit as they are directed to Jesus and the Cross to effect their salvation.
That is important. John taught a distinct path.
The city is getting ready to do some road work on the road that is directly in front of our house. It is the road where our driveway is located. For several weeks we are going to have to park a block or two away, or go on to another street, jump the curb with our car, and drive over a lawn to get to our house.
We have no such prerogative to find another path when we come to God. We either approach Him through Jesus Christ or we do not approach Him. In the last few words of John 14:6 we hear Jesus saying, �...no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.�
We can only approach the Father through the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary. No one else ever lived a sinless life. No one else could have died a substitutionary death. Salvation comes only through Jesus. There is no other way.
My shoes have only one opening that I can use to put my foot through. If I try any other way I will not be able to get those shoes on my feet. That is not a �narrow� attitude. That is the reality of the situation.
Saying that Jesus is the Only Way to God and salvation is not a �narrow� attitude. It is not a bigoted religion which insists that one reach fellowship with God only through Jesus. It is simply the reality of the situation.
Notice that John had a Scriptural response. �...as said the prophet Esaias.�
I want you to look at that: �...as said the prophet Esaias.� If you have a center column reference Bible you will note that this verse refers back to Isaiah 40:3. So, why does our King James Bible say �Esaias,� when the reference is to �Isaiah?�
There is a very simple answer. The translation committee of the King James Bible carried a fidelity to the Word of God. They translated what was there. They did not, as will most of the newer English translations, decide to translate what they thought should be there.
The New Testament was written in Greek. �Esaias� is a translation of the Greek word which was, itself, a translation of the Hebrew name of Isaiah. The translators of the KJB were translators. They did not attempt to �correct� the Bible to make it �more easily understood.�
Would that we had more people today who had that same love of, trust in, and reverence for the Word which God has preserved!
This verse shows that John had an acceptance of others.
By that I mean that John did not consider himself, and his relationship with God as the thing which �made the world go �round.�� He was not so consumed with the pride of his own accomplishments that he refused to accept the guidance of others.
He would not go against the leading of God. But, he would also not simply dismiss another as inferior if they did not cross all their �t�s: and dot all their �i�s� the same way he did.
This is part of a lesson in humility which John taught us with his life and message. We know that he considered his part in the economy of God. We know that he saw himself, as he was, as inferior to the coming Messiah. But, he was also willing to take part of his own �valuable� time to talk with some people who did not believe his message; nor would they accept his Messiah.
He still talked with them. Who�s to say that he might not have had an effect upon them by his own nature; perhaps this could lead them to the Savior. We never know who we might reach by being willing to listen. We never know who we might lead into rejection if we just walk away from them as though they were too �dirty� for us to soil our hands upon their lives.
This verse shows us that John had a willingness to learn.
The King James Bible has only 791,328 words within It�s sixty-six Books. Yet, there have been more than that number of complete books written about the contents of the Bible. The Bible is the Living Word of God to mankind. We can constantly learn more about this Book as we continue to study within It�s pages.
Besides this, we are commanded to study God�s Word. Over and over comes the cry from the pages of this Book that we read, heed, and study the precepts found therein.
This is an important Book. We do ourselves a disservice if we fail to consider to study all that God has written to us.
This is a spiritual Book. We find our communion with God as we meditate upon the pages therein.
In this verse we see John make an appeal to Scripture.
When I first went off to Bible college, we were warned that there was a very liberal church in the town. �It is,� we were told, �a complete waste of you time to attend a service there.� They also let it be known that it was a danger to our soul to sit under the teaching of a false prophet.
Some of us boys, after being so warned, had to go to this church to see what all the ruckus was about. The preacher did give a nice talk. It wasn�t a sermon. He did not appeal to the Scripture. He did not appeal to God. He did not appeal to our soul need.
This liberal preacher did not, really, say anything wrong. Had it been a Monday night I wouldn�t have felt so flat. But, it seemed like such a waste of a Sunday Morning Service to sit in his congregation.
It is not our arguments for which the world longs. It is not our morality which is the great need of the day among humankind. It is not our intellect and learning which can cure the ills within the heart of man. What is needed is the pure, perfect, and preserved Words of God.
Only from the pages of Scripture can we show men the need of their souls. Only from the inspired Word can we give a true picture of the Only Savior of the World. Only the warmth of the breath of God, bursting forth from His great gift of the Holy Bible, can melt the hardened heart and save the sin encrusted soul.
John had an absolute trust that his message was God�s message.
We need to have an absolute trust that salvation comes through the shed blood of Jesus Christ as He performed His redemptive work on the Cross of Calvary.
Have you trusted Him? Is He your Savior?
It is not important what you might have heard about Him. It is eternally important what you have done with Him. Have you accepted Him as your Savior?
Do it today!