As indicated earlier, because of the problems in
the tent, some adjustments were made.
And our book tables are down below down.
You go all the way downstairs, then you
have to keep going.
And perhaps most of you haven't found your
way there.
And then added to the complications, the fellow
who was coming to look after the table
didn't arrive.
So some have reported that they were there
trying to secure some material, and there was
no one to take care of them.
Keep at it, will you?
And we have some books and material I
think you will find helpful.
Now, some of our material is extremely limited
in interest.
But the tiniest handful would, for instance, want
our large book entitled, Whitefield in Print, because
it's an annotated bibliography of thousands and thousands
of items about George Whitefield in that great
season of revival.
And dozens, even hundreds of small articles about
his associates and his enemies and about the
incredible things that God did in his day.
Another book like it is simply entitled, Revival
Literature, some 5,000 listings of books and
pamphlets dealing specifically with this wonderful, wonderful issue
of revival.
And we have a great many books of
history.
One that I cherish, I think, above all
the others is called, Scotland Saw His Glory.
And it's a history of revivals in Scotland.
Another one concerning Wales, Glory Filled the Land.
And several on revivals in this country and
other places.
And I trust that you will at least
look the material over.
I have always had great difficulty promoting this
material.
I always feel embarrassed and ashamed.
And yet, kindly people have said, do you
think the Lord led you to write the
material?
Well, yes.
Well, then it's absurd to write it and
have it published and have no one read
it because you refused to mention it.
Which is doubtless true.
But nonetheless, it is with a great deal
of difficulty.
I encourage you to get down to the
lowest level and look at our material.
There is another matter of which I wish
to speak before I speak.
And our dear friend, Ron Owen, and a
few of you at least know him, a
musician with whom we've had the great joy
of working in meetings in a great variety
of places.
Let us know a few days ago that
as a result of some cancellations, our revival
heritage tour, which is scheduled for the month
of July, has a few empty seats.
Now, the printed brochure says it's too late.
But the director assures us that we can
freely say to you if you can possibly
afford to go.
And all these international tours do tend to
be expensive.
But Henry Blackaby and his dear wife, Marilyn,
and Ron Owen, and his wife, Patricia, and
Maggie, and myself lead these revival heritage tours.
This, I think, will be probably our fifth
tour.
We'll be visiting England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales,
going to the places where God has moved
powerfully in the past.
All three of us will be preaching and
teaching.
And then many locals from the different countries
will join us and give us their take
on these wonderful movements of God.
So we have some brochures.
We haven't put them out, because some people
are just prone to pick up free literature.
And I'm one of those.
And we simply don't have enough for everyone.
But if any of you are seriously interested,
my wife, Maggie, is over here behind Sammy.
She's dressed in blue and pink.
And she's got some.
And I've got a few.
So if, indeed, there's any possibility of your
breaking away for a couple of weeks, we
would be delighted to have you fill those
few empty seats.
Now, as I indicated yesterday, it's been on
my heart in planning and praying over these
meetings to deal with the issue of divine
visitations.
And I sought yesterday to give you some
real help and encouragement by using that song
that Zacharias the priest wrote when he had
been informed that his son was to be
the forerunner.
And then after the son's birth and at
the time of the circumcision, he was mightily
moved.
And he sang that wonderful little song concerning
his praise first to God and then his
delight in the realization of the role of
his own son.
And I've thought in terms of that message
as divine visitation, man's greatest hope.
I don't know whether you've ever been moved
or stirred by that phrase at the end
of Psalm 73, the nearness of God is
my good.
Throughout my life, I have learned that, indeed,
the most precious seasons, the most wonderful days,
even the most splendid moments are those moments
of nearness when God himself draws nigh.
And there is no time in the history
of the church more wonderful than in a
season of divine visitation when God is near.
It is the craving of our hearts, is
it not?
And it is the need of our land
and the nations of the world.
Now tonight, the subject that occupies my mind
and heart is simply divine visitation, preparation.
And we're going to be using this evening
the passage in Luke chapter 3.
Now this is a passage upon which I've
often spoken.
Each time, I expect from a bit of
a different perspective.
But I'm thinking of it tonight from the
standpoint of preparation for a divine visitation.
And I have a number of things to
say, which I expect some of you will
find objectionable.
I have been told repeatedly by pastors that
you must not preach doctrine because doctrine is
divisive.
I say, hallelujah.
The church is filled with goats.
The preaching of doctrine separates the sheep from
the goats, not by any human hand, but
by the proclamation of the word of God.
Those that belong realize it.
And those that are outsiders either are brought
to life in Christ or removed.
And if there was ever a time in
the history of the church when there needed
to be a cleanup, it is surely today.
What could possibly be more tragic than a
church organized along congregational lines, and say Baptist
or congregational or Bible church or free church
or covenant church?
I mean, dozens and hundreds of our denominations
are organized along congregational lines.
Now, in the early days, it was clearly
understood if each member is given equal voice,
it is absolutely mandatory to maintain purity in
the church.
You cannot bring into a church fellowship the
unregenerate and grant them voice along with the
regenerate without huge problems resulting.
But the standards have been lowered.
And now it's not credible evidence of regeneration
that is demanded of those who wish to
become members, but it's merely confession.
And when I come later on this evening
to speak of that, some of you will
be alarmed.
In fact, any number have asked me to
clarify something I simply said in passing yesterday
in speaking of my own walk with the
Lord.
I distinguished between regeneration and conversion.
And for many, that's a great problem.
But hopefully tonight, I can put it in
proper perspective.
And I pray that God himself will straighten
out some of the kinks in our theology
which have led us to this hour of
degradation in the land.
And part of the tragedy is that our
influence is so great in the world that
every ridiculous notion that the American church adopts
gets exported around the world.
And every nation is harmed by the evil
to which we maintain great tolerance.
But that will come later.
Now, I also want to thank those who
are in charge this evening for starting late.
It always encourages me greatly if a meeting
starts three minutes late or seven minutes late.
I say, well, now, that is grand.
Well, who can frown on me for taking
a bit longer?
So I intend to take my time tonight,
and some of your time as well.
And I'm going to do so with a
very relaxed spirit.
Sometimes, you know, we have a clock right
on the podium, and it stares you in
the face constantly.
And some places, they've got it arranged so
that the thing is running down.
You start out with 35 minutes, and suddenly,
before you've gotten your introduction finished, you discover
you've got two and a half minutes left.
But I'm not going to be troubled by
anything like that tonight.
You've got nowhere to go, and we've all
got a lot to learn and a lot
that needs to happen in our minds and
in our hearts.
Now, from various conversations, it appears clear to
me that things that I have often said
in these HeartCry conferences need repeating.
And I'm going to mention some things in
my opening statements, which some of you have
already gotten settled long ago, and I'm grateful.
But others of us are here for the
first time, and we've never faced some of
these issues.
The first that I want to mention has
to do with what I call cycles of
history, and in particular, cycles of revival history.
We obviously live at a time that is
absurd as much as what the church is
and does is.
Nonetheless, we have multitudes in the churches who
are eagerly proclaiming that the next event on
God's calendar is the end of the world.
And I alluded to this fact yesterday when
I said there are multitudes among us whose
greatest prayer is, hurry up and come back,
Jesus, and take me out of this rotten
mess.
And you would think they didn't have an
unsaved family member or a lost neighbor or
work associate.
How can anybody be longing to escape the
mess when those they claim to love are
outside of Christ and on their way to
hell?
I am frequently told by folk that I
don't seem to understand that it's too late
for revival, that we're at the end now,
the end of the end, and the season
of revivals has passed.
And we've got but a little while, and
it's all over.
Well, that could be true, but I wouldn't
dare to be the one that said so.
Our Lord was quizzed on the subject of
His coming, and He refused to make a
statement other than to say that that was
held in the Father's hand.
Now, I wonder at those who call themselves
preachers of the gospel who pretend to know
more than the Lord Jesus Christ.
My understanding concerning the coming of Christ is
that we must all live in constant readiness.
For the moment when we think not, the
Son of Man cometh.
I concern myself with that simple phrase, occupy
until I come.
I refuse to be moved by those who
busily hang and crape and insist that doom
is all that we can hope for.
But part of their terrible confusion and error
comes because they do not understand history.
And constantly, we are being told, times were
never so bad before as they are now.
Now, that's ridiculous foolishness.
Were you around at the time George Whitefield
left the inn in Gloucester and journeyed to
Oxford and enrolled as a student and came
under a heavy burden for his sin and
went to the various pastors and to some
of his faculty members trying to find some
ray of hope, someone who could point the
finger in the right direction for a lost
young man?
And he found no help at all until
he encountered Charles Wesley, who invited him to
the Holy Club.
And the Holy Club was trying to save
itself by its earnest good works, none of
them having yet been truly converted.
And Whitefield got ill in fasting and in
praying and in trying to care for the
widows and the orphans and gave away every
little bit he had in an effort to
help others.
And he himself was not yet helped until
someone slipped a little book into his hand
by Scroogle.
And then the way of salvation was open
to him.
I don't believe there's a university town anywhere
in America where a student profoundly concerned and
convicted concerning his sin could not go and
find help from a number of direction.
It's silly to say times have never been
so bad.
Now, that's not saying times are good.
But why should we take a ridiculous stance?
Why should we push things to an extreme
that does not yet exist?
I doubt seriously that you could even find
a small town anywhere in America but what
you would find at least one true believer,
and in most instances, not only a true
believer but someone wrestling with God in fervent
prayer for revival.
And there have been many seasons prior to
this where the picture was not that bright.
Cycles.
In your minds, I hope you have good
imagination.
Some seem to act as if there's something
unholy about an adult using their imagination.
I don't happen to believe that.
I think God has blessed us with incredible
imaginations.
We can use our imaginations wrongly, but we
can also use them to the glory of
God.
The wall's not very straight, but find a
straight part of the wall over there, up
fairly close to the ceiling, and put in
a large eye hook.
And over on this side, do the same
thing and stretch a taunt cable between those
two eye hooks and envision that that taunt
cable is the norm.
And then ask yourself this question, where did
the Old Testament open?
Above the line or below the line?
And you remind yourself that Adam and Eve
walked and talked with God in the cool
of the evening.
But then they sinned.
Now understand that a revival cycle consists in
the crossing of that norm twice, once down,
once up.
And if you go through your Bible carefully,
you will find innumerable cycles.
I mentioned yesterday the pamphlet entitled The Solemn
Assembly, where I have listed 12 of the
revivals of the Old Testament.
There are seven of these cycles in the
book of Judges alone.
Did you ever read the book of Judges
in a single reading?
Just sit down and read it through.
Most of us don't really get ahold of
the Bible because we read it in little
pieces.
And surely there are times for reading little
pieces, but there are also times for reading
entire portions.
The first time that I personally can recollect
reading through Judges all at one time, it
suddenly opened up to me in a way
I had never seen it before.
For I realized that in chapter two, there
was a pattern laid out, which was then
repeated seven times between chapters three and 16.
And what chapter two made crystal clear was
this pattern.
The people of God begin in right relationship
with God, but they sin and do not
repent.
God then brings them under some form of
a righteous judgment.
When that righteous judgment becomes so severe, with
such immense difficulties for them, that they cry
out to God with all their hearts from
deliverance, God suddenly raises up a judge deliverer
and they're restored to right relationship with God.
Over and over and over in biblical history,
you see these movements crossing the line coming
down and then a turn and crossing the
line again, coming back up.
And just in terms of this nation, we
can readily trace out several of these cycles.
Now, if you don't know anything about these
cycles, if you don't know anything about this
pattern, you might reach the absurd conclusion that
the evidence is overwhelming, that it's too late,
that it's the end, that we'll never see
another mighty movement of God.
No, I'm not denying the possibility that it
is the end.
I'm just not gonna be the fellow that
goes way out on the limb and insist
upon something that is not revealed.
Instead, I'm going to live in hope that
the church, having sinned and it most certainly
has, having refused to repent and it most
certainly has, having been brought under righteous judgment
and it most certainly has.
Oh, you say, no, not that, that couldn't
be, we're still here.
You see, some of us have never learned
to distinguish between remedial judgments and final judgments.
A final judgment is a judgment in which
there's neither time nor opportunity for repentance, but
a remedial judgment is gracious.
It is a judgment in which God beckons
us in His holy love to repent and
return.
And of course, the most common of these
remedial judgments of Scripture and insofar as we
can tell even of history is the withdrawal
of His manifest presence from the church.
And I don't see how anyone who is
thoughtful and prayerful can deny that the church
across the land is operating very largely without
the manifest presence of God.
You say, how can you say that?
Well, now listen, when God is present, what
invariably happens?
There's an awesome sense of the terror and
the awfulness of sin and an incredible overwhelming
sense of the beauty of holiness and the
necessity of walking in holiness.
When you cannot distinguish between the sin rate
in the church and the sin rate in
the world, there's only one possible explanation and
that is God is not with us.
If He were, we would be radically changed.
We've got to face these cycles.
And I give this word about cycles tonight
in the hope of encouraging your heart instead
of acting as if it's too late or
instead of being influenced by the crepe hangers
and feeling any measure of discouragement.
People keep saying to me, don't you get
discouraged?
What have I got to get discouraged about?
I was not called upon to bring revival
only to proclaim the message.
It's the Father who will indeed bring the
results when His time is right.
But I want to ask you to be
sure now you understand this issue of cycles.
If I were to ask you, where does
the Old Testament close in relationship to this
norm that I've asked you to imagine?
Well, clearly it closes way below the line.
Now, I have mentioned that there are many
cycles in the Old Testament scriptures, but there
are certain sad observations that have to accompany
that.
There's no uniform distance of time between the
cycle, nor is there any uniformity in the
degree of the declension or in the height
to which the revived people of God rise.
But there is a general pattern nonetheless.
And that has the days of the Old
Covenant proceed.
They seem to slip deeper into sin and
to rise to lower levels with each cycle.
But clearly at the end of the Old
Testament, the people of God are way, way
below the norm.
And where does the New Testament open?
Well, obviously at the same place where the
Old One closes.
But nonetheless, with that bright note that we
were looking at yesterday, the proclamation of the
angel of the forerunner, the song of Zacharias
rejoicing and full of victory, the appearance of
the forerunner whose life we will be looking
at in a little while tonight.
And then the coming of the horn of
salvation and the sunrise from on high.
And one could even ask, where does the
Old Testament close?
If indeed it's correct to say the Old
Testament opens above the line and closes below
the line and the New Testament opens below
the line.
And I ask, where does it close?
Well, thank God, above the line.
Now there are severe warnings, for instance, the
seven letters in Revelation two and three or
the book of Jude or some of the
other epistles, severe warnings of what will come
if the people of God do not walk
in repentance and faith.
But since the close of the canon, there
have been these wonderful cycles, even in our
own country.
We even number them, the first great awakening,
the second great awakening, the third great awakening.
I think we're stretching the truth when we
try to describe the fourth, but I think
the numbering is wrong to start with.
Because some marvelous revivals occurred in our nation
before Jonathan Edwards was on the scene.
There was that amazing revival in Boston in
the days of the Puritans when the great
earthquake shook the city and the people fell
on their faces and cried out to God.
And a wonderful visitation occurred.
And of course, most of the great revivals
are not even matters with which we're conversant.
But I'm living in expectation of the fourth
or the eighth or the 19th, whatever is
the correct number.
Because it's my conviction that all the evidence
to me points not to the end of
the world, though as I've said already, God
is free to make it that.
But all the evidence points to me to
a time when we finally hit the bottom
in our declension and turn and begin to
see the spirit of God mightily at work
in our midst.
I live in expectation of it for years.
When I have packed my bag to go
on a ministry trip, I add some extra
things just in case I have to stay.
And oh, what a happy day when indeed
that is precisely what occurred.
So I will say no more about the
matter of cycles, but let that settle into
your heart and let it brighten your hope
and your expectation.
But there's another matter of which I wish
to speak before we turn to our text.
And that is an explanation numerous of you
have heard me give on other occasions, but
I think that for the sake of those
who are not really conversant with these things,
I owe this to you as well tonight.
And that is I want you to learn
to distinguish between the two types of revivals
that we find.
For want of better terminology, I refer to
these as experience-orientated movements and word-orientated
movements.
Now I've used the word orientated, and I
want you to understand that I'm not saying
that there is a revival that is of
the word and there's nothing of experience, just
word, or that there is a revival of
experience and there's nothing of the word.
I'm using the word orientated.
It's centered on.
There are revivals that are centered on experience.
And there are revivals that are centered on
the preaching of the word of God.
Now you need to understand an experience-orientated
revival will be short-lived and in all
probability will produce little or nothing of society
transformation.
The great revivals that have been so productive
of incredible good, we were talking earlier today
about the Ivy League schools and the revivals
out of which those sprang.
Many of you perhaps don't know that Dartmouth
was started by Eliezer Wheelock, who was so
profoundly moved and affected and drawn into the
labors of a revivalist.
He worked with Whitefield and others at that
time and was powerfully impacted and determined to
establish a school for the training of men
for ministry.
And some such story could be told about
virtually all of our earlier academic institutions.
Even the University of Pennsylvania was started as
a result of the life and ministry of
George Whitefield.
The anti-slavery movement grew directly out of
revival.
One could go on indefinitely describing the impact
of word-centered revivals on the issues in
society that need transformation.
We're all in danger of fouling things up
and focusing upon some item of need which
is of lesser consequence than a truly great
issue.
I want to speak respectfully, but I think
we've wasted a lot of time and energy
talking about racial reconciliation when our real problem
is we're unreconciled to God.
When we're right with God, we'll get right
with one another and not until, but let
me just spell out a few matters of
gigantic consequence.
I've already stated a word-orientated revival has
distinct differences from an experience-orientated.
Number one, word-orientated revivals generally endure for
protracted seasons of time.
If this were a classroom and a quiz,
I could ask you to give a list
of the word-orientated revivals and of the
experience-orientated revivals.
The Reformation itself, incredibly wonderful revival was a
word-orientated revival.
The revival of which I've just spoken under
Edwards and Whitfield and the Westleys and that
incredible army of men that God raised up
was a word-orientated revival.
Those men were great preachers of the word
of God and they understood what the critical
issues were and their preaching focused upon the
great issues of Scripture, the great doctrines of
Scripture.
One could generally say that revival began roughly
in 1730 and extended on until the death
of Whitfield in 1770.
That's a pretty good record for a revival.
Now, I'd like to ask you, do you
think we need a revival that burns itself
out in five days or that lasts six
months?
The depth of iniquity in the land is
so great and the foulness of the church
so absolutely terrible that one could hardly hope
that even God himself would turn everything around
in six weeks.
He could, of course, but normally he doesn't.
And what we desperately need is a revival
that is word-orientated.
And some of you men are lousy preachers
because you haven't yet sensed the importance of
preaching.
What a wonderful change would occur in our
land if every man called to preach determined
to preach as God has the capacity to
enable him.
Instead, some mutter in their beards or speak
to their notes and poor old folk like
myself can barely hear half of what they
say.
You get a headache trying to listen to
a preacher who's supposedly speaking for God and
yet he can't speak loud enough for the
first row to distinctly hear him.
We need to get serious about preaching, but
not just about preaching.
You attend a typical church today, typical evangelical
church, and you'll discover what the pastor has
done is to bring five rail cars, these
big tank cars, full, absolutely full, virtually to
overflowing of comfort.
And he'll spend his 26 minutes or his
35, whatever he thinks he's allowed, he'll spend
it spraying comfort over a congregation that is
sound asleep.
And he ought to set his heart to
rouse them out of their slumber and to
call them to return to God.
Now we have a particular danger at this
time because the church is so self-orientated.
And the revival that focused upon my experience
and your experience would only feed the great
evil that already exists.
We need, I say again, a revival of
the preaching of the word of God under
the power of the Holy Spirit, preaching that
is alarming, preaching that rouses those in their
lethargy and brings them to the edge of
their seat.
I don't pretend to be a very good
preacher, but God at least has enabled these
old eyes to watch congregations at the beginning
of a sermon, seated, leaned back against their
seats comfortably, and to watch the entire congregation
move forward an hour and a half, two
hours after the beginning of the sermon, every
single person gripping the back of the pew
or the seat and hanging on for dear
life for every single word.
Why not?
Why not all of us preaching with such
enabling by the Holy Spirit that our congregations
are turned into vital Christians who are shaking
the entire world for Jesus Christ?
Well, I needn't enlarge further.
An experience-orientated revival will burn itself out
shortly.
It'll have little impact upon society, and probably
many of its converts will fall away.
But the word-orientated revival will have long
endurance, and its converts, by the grace of
God, will be thoroughly rooted and grounded in
the faith of Jesus Christ, and it will
have mighty impact upon society.
I close this segment of my address to
you by simply helping you to grasp what
I'm talking about.
The land of Wales, as I mentioned at
a seminar this afternoon, knew something like 40
incredible movements of the Spirit of God.
Revival after revival after revival that came about
through the Spirit-empowered preaching of the Word.
But in 1904, 1905, preaching was pretty well
shut out.
You see, a ridiculous notion existed in the
minds of many, and that notion exists in
the minds of many today.
Over and over, people say to me, we
don't need more preaching.
We've been preached nearly to death.
What we need is some experience.
Nonsense!
How does a dead man hear the Word
of God?
We've got millions of those in our churches
who are dead in trespasses and sins.
They could hear 100,000 sermons and never
be touched and affected until God brings them
life.
And when God is moving and working, when
God draws near, when a wonderful visitation occurs,
there are people who are prepared to hear
the Word of God for the first time
in their lives.
And revival is always a wonderful opportunity for
the most earnest and profound preaching that is
possible.
Now, Lord, before I go on, may I
pray for my brothers and sisters.
Oh, what a tragedy if any of us
would be caught up in this silly end
times theology that has so fascinated the church
in America.
May we be absolutely, totally captivated with the
determination to be ready at any moment and
to occupy until you come.
And grant that not one here will be
content with renewed experiences, but that all of
us will pant even as the deer after
the water broke for your Word to be
broken to us in such a way that
we are literally captivated by divine truth.
Help me as I come in a moment
to the text that I may be faithful
and grant, Lord, that not one year will
err in failing both to give heed to
how they hear and to give heed to
what they hear.
Grant us grace for the sake of King
Jesus.
Amen.
I'm gonna do one more thing before I
move to the text.
I'm gonna give you a fairly recent illustration
of what I've been talking about.
Some of you know the name Dr. Martin
Lloyd-Jones, pastor for many years at Westminster
Chapel in London.
I had the joy many years ago of
fellowship with him and of sitting under his
ministry in the chapel for a protracted season
of time.
And it's dangerous for me to do what
I'm going to do, but I think God
will enable you to hear it.
One evening, seated up in one of the
upper balconies at Westminster Chapel, and the pastor
had followed that evening a practice which was
typical of him.
He most often began a sermon with something
that was in the minds of the congregation.
And that week, the Russians had for the
very first time sent a cosmonaut into space.
Some of you remember even his name, Gregorian.
And he traveled about in a nearby space
and he came back and he said, I
have absolute evidence there is no God.
I've traveled all over out there and I
saw no sign of any being whatsoever that
could be described as God.
And the doctor picked that up.
And that evening, he gave an incredible contrast
between man's view of salvation and God's view.
And while he was preaching, and many of
you don't know me at all, and none
very well, and you might think I'm given
to this type of thing.
But that night, I was carried away in
the spirit, feasting upon the word of God,
simply caught up in the truth itself.
And suddenly, I came back to where I
was and I realized the entire church was
empty.
Everyone had gone.
I had been so captivated by God's word,
so intently feasting upon it that I had
no awareness of where I was or who
I was listening to, save the word and
the spirit.
And I came away saying, Lord, I don't
humanly think it's possible, but oh, if in
your grace and kindness, you might let me
preach in such a way that the auditor
did not have simply a listening event, but
an encounter with a living God.
That has been my longing ever since, well
over 40 years of longing to be able
to proclaim the word of God in such
a way that people literally found themselves in
immediate contact with the Lord God Almighty through
the word and through the spirit.
How high are your hopes, those of you
who preach and teach?
Have you set your sight upon being such
a man of God that people literally meet
the Lord in his word as you proclaim
it?
Well, now I might even run later than
I intended if I don't hurry and get
to my text.
So let's turn please to Luke chapter three.
Luke chapter three, it's a wonderful passage.
Some of you no doubt have preached upon
it with great benefit and blessing to your
auditors.
Now in the 15th year of the reign
of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor
of Judea and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee
and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the
region of Aeturia and Trachonitis and Lysanias was
tetrarch of Babylon.
In the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas,
the word of God came to John, the
son of Zacharias in the wilderness.
And he came into all the districts around
the Jordan preaching a baptism of repentance for
forgiveness of sins as it is written in
the book of the words of Isaiah the
prophet, the voice of one crying in the
wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every ravine shall be filled up and every
mountain and hill shall be brought low and
the crooked shall become straight and the rough
road smooth and all flesh shall see the
salvation of God.
He therefore began saying to the multitudes who
were going out to be baptized by him,
you brood of vipers who are indutifully from
the wrath to come, therefore bring forth fruits
in keeping with your repentance and do not
begin to say to yourselves, we have Abraham
for our father.
For I say to you that God is
able from these stones to raise up children
to Abraham.
And also the ax is already laid at
the root of the trees.
Every tree therefore that does not bear good
fruit is cut down and thrown into the
fire.
And the multitudes were questioning him saying, then
what shall we do?
And he would answer and say to them,
let the man who has two tunics share
with him who has none and let him
who has food do likewise.
And some tax gatherers also came to be
baptized and they said to him, teacher, what
shall we do?
And he said to them, collect no more
than what you've been ordered to.
And some soldiers were questioning him saying, and
what about us?
What shall we do?
And he said to them, do not take
money from anyone by force or accuse anyone
falsely and be content with your wages.
Now, while the people were in a state
of expectation and all were wondering in their
hearts about John as to whether he might
be the Christ, John answered and said to
them all, as for me, I baptize you
with water.
But he who is mightier than I is
coming and I'm not fit to untie the
thongs of his sandals.
He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit
and fire.
And his winnowing fork is in his hand
to clean, to clean out his threshing floor
and to gather the wheat into his barn.
But he shall burn up the chaff with
unquenchable fire.
Now, I covered in part the background of
this passage yesterday.
His name was to be John, chapter one,
verse 13.
Many were to rejoice at his birth, chapter
one, verse 14.
He will be great, said the angel, in
the sight of the Lord, verse 15.
He will drink neither wine nor liquor, verse
15.
He will be filled with the Holy Spirit
while still in his mother's womb, verse 15.
He will be called the prophet of the
most high, chapter one, verse 76.
But now I want you to weigh this
very critical issue.
In this passage, John purposefully draws a contrast.
First, a contrast between himself and Christ.
Secondly, a contrast between his baptism and the
baptism of Christ.
Do you suppose that John had no idea
who he was?
Do you think that his mother Elizabeth kept
silent concerning that incredible experience of conceiving at
her advanced age?
Or what happened to her when Mary determined
to visit?
And as she called out her approach, the
babe leaped in her womb and she was
filled with the Holy Spirit.
Do you think she never breathed the word
to John of that incredible experience of his
father being struck, dumb, and remaining in that
condition all those many months?
Or do you suppose Zacharias never ever said
a word to his son about his experience
in the temple?
Never breathed a word concerning what the angel
said.
Never let his son see a copy of
the song that he sang.
Never ever indicated even slightly to his son
what happened at the time of his circumcision.
I, for one moment, do not believe that
John was ignorant of these things.
But as I said, John draws a contrast
in this passage.
The first aspect of it is a contrast
between his person and the person of Christ.
As for me, I baptize in water for
the forgiveness of sin, but when he comes,
whose sandals I'm not worthy to unleash, I
think some of us need to understand that
humility is not denying the truth.
Humility is being well aware of the truth
and deliberately choosing to take your rightful place.
Surely one of the most outstanding problems in
the American church is sheer pride.
Now, no matter how great you may think
you are or some other person may think
concerning himself, there isn't a single person here
in this room, nor is there a single
person anywhere across America or for that matter,
anywhere in the world who is the equal
of John.
Our Lord made this clear.
Of those born of women, there is none
greater.
But John drew this contrast.
As important as he was, as vital as
was his ministry, he understood that in comparison
with Christ, he was as nothing.
I repeat again, you don't have to undervalue
the truth to be humble.
In fact, the more realistically you face the
truth, the greater the prospect of humility.
Self-effacing is another form of pride, pride
in reverse of its normal pattern.
We pretend to be something less than we
really believe ourselves to be.
There's no sham, there's no hypocrisy, no pretense
in John the Baptist.
He knows who he is, but he also
knows who Christ is.
And knowing who Christ is enables him to
know that in comparison, he is nothing.
I don't think that many American Christians have
any idea how to even draw close to
the subject of humility.
Pride is always maintained by comparison.
A perfectly ugly girl will stand next to
a very beautiful one and will feel good
about herself.
And of course, the beautiful one will invariably
associate with one of considerable less beauty.
Men with strong muscles stand next to little
puny fellows like me and they feel very
good about themselves.
Persons with great brain power compare themselves with
the average like ourselves and they feel good
about themselves.
Pride is puffed and maintained by comparison with
the indifferent and the inadequate around us.
And the only real cure for pride is
to maintain the comparison not with your fellow
wretched sinners, but with the Savior.
And to whatever degree your eyes are fixed
upon Christ, you will discover your nothingness without
foolishly pretending to be something you are not.
Now, I happen to be a man called
of God.
I know that.
I've known that since I was a boy,
but I also know that I'm but a
servant of the Most High and that if
ever I should attain even slight stature, it
would be as nothing in comparison with Him.
I believe one of the most beneficial things
any one of us could do, and I
mentioned this to a few around the table
at breakfast time, I believe many of us
need to call a moratorium on the misuse
of the Bible.
We go to the Bible to get sweet
little tidbits to puff up our egos, to
sustain us so we can get through another
difficult day.
We use the Bible as if it were
written about us, as if we were the
prime character.
And we ought to call a moratorium.
I would suggest if you have not done
so to declare that the next solid year
will be given to fixing your eyes upon
the God who reveals Himself in Holy Scripture.
And keep the focus on God until you're
utterly overwhelmed with His greatness and have felt
deeply your foolishness and inadequacy.
John was a man of humility because he
knew better than to turn his eyes from
the One who really mattered.
But I said there are two contrasts in
the passage.
There's the contrast between John's baptism and the
baptism of Jesus Christ.
It's a shocking thing when you face it
squarely.
There are multitudes in America who put far
greater emphasis upon water baptism than the baptism
of the Holy Spirit and fire.
What an ignorant thing to do.
What a tragic failure.
And what an awful thing to do ourselves
to mediocrity by our failure to realize that
as important as water baptism is, it cannot
be compared with baptism in the Holy Spirit
and fire.
Now that's not my theme tonight.
And I shall not pursue it beyond this
point.
But if you have not done so, I
would urge you to.
I spoke a few moments ago about Dr.
Martin Lloyd-Jones and the incredible experience I
had there personally.
Every time I visit the United Kingdom, I'm
meeting men who were profoundly converted under his
ministry, a significant percentage of the godly leadership
in the United Kingdom today consist of men
who attended Westminster Chapel and encountered the living
God.
He was a man who had discovered the
contrast between baptism in water and baptism in
the Holy Spirit and fire.
I plead with you to concern yourself greatly
with John the Baptist and his declaration, his
contrast in terms of his person with Christ
and his contrast in terms of his baptism
with the baptism of Jesus Christ.
But now I ask that you turn back
to this text and let me remind you
of what the scriptures tell us the work
of John the Baptist was to be.
I have been speaking about his personage.
But now I speak concerning his work.
Clearly, John the Baptist was to turn back
many of the sons of Israel to the
Lord, their God.
There's a list embracing the work of John
the Baptist recorded in chapter one, verses 16
and 17.
The first, to turn back many of the
sons of Israel to the Lord, their God.
The second, to go as a forerunner before
him in the spirit and in the power
of Elijah.
The third, to turn the hearts of the
fathers back to the children.
The fourth, to turn the disobedient to the
attitude of the righteous.
The fifth, to make ready a people prepared
for the Lord.
The sixth, to go before the Lord and
to prepare his ways.
Chapter one, verse 76.
And the seventh, to give to his people
the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of
their sins.
That's his work.
And thank God he did it and did
it well.
Would to God, there were some forerunners in
our day.
Maybe that's why God drew you here for
this conference, to prepare you to be a
forerunner.
What is the sense of praying for revival
and not preparing?
If we really believe that the Lord is
going to visit us once again, do you
think that the situation is ready?
I'm horrified when I think of what might
happen if Christ came in a dramatic and
powerful visitation to America at this time.
Just think of the millions of those in
the church who believe the gospel consists of
their own health and wealth.
Think of those ridiculous persons who consider themselves
Christians, who actually suppose that Christ came to
save them from hell and to leave them
in the grip of their sins.
Have you ever considered the absurdity of teaching
and preaching that Christ will save a person
from hell and leave them in their sins?
What a statement concerning your knowledge of God
that is.
How dumb can God get?
Imagine a God who has such hatred of
evil that he actually prepares a hell in
which to incarcerate forever the unrepentant, and then
he sends his son and commands his son
to die for the unrepentant, and he leaves
them in their unrepentant state and delivers them
from the hell prepared for them.
That's the bulk of what is taught in
the church today.
The multitude of people who think themselves Christians
have only one interest, and that's a fire
escape from hell.
They love their sin.
They intend to remain in it.
They don't even like a preacher who speaks
against their sin.
We've got some real work to do before
there's any genuine sense in pleading for revival.
We need to prepare the way.
Oh, we could use some little visitations, but
oh, for a time when the whole of
the nation is shook by the manifest presence
of God, I expect that a revival coming
at the moment would burn itself out in
a matter of days, and in many respects
would leave us in worse shape than we
are now, because we don't know anything when
it comes right down to it about holiness,
and we don't care really seriously about repentance.
Oh, would to God that every person who's
come tonight might sense a call to serve
as a forerunner and to prepare the way
of the Lord.
There's a lot of preparation that's needed, and
there's no one man or even 1,000
men that can do it all, but let's
turn now to some of the specifics of
John's message.
You realize that we read a quotation from
Isaiah chapter 40, verses three to five.
A voice is calling.
Clear the way for the Lord in the
wilderness.
Make smooth in the desert a highway for
our God.
Let every valley be lifted up, and every
mountain and hill be made low, and let
the rough ground become a plain, and the
rugged terrain a broad valley.
Then the glory of the Lord will be
revealed, and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
The preparatory work that's needed is like road
building.
A highway of holiness needs to be prepared
so that the Lord can journey to us,
and we can journey toward him.
Now, if you were involved in road building,
what kind of thoughts would be in your
mind?
Do not road builders concern themselves with issues
like drainage, and durability, and capacity, and strength,
and safety, and speed, and accessibility?
There's a lot of work involved in building
a road.
I must say to your heart, I'm a
road builder.
I've got a task.
I've got to prepare the way of the
Lord.
Let's take note of some of the incredibly
significant specifics of this quotation.
The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
make ready the way of the Lord.
Now, John surely was a voice crying in
the wilderness, but frankly, that's where we're at
today, in an incredible wilderness.
You'll never become popular in our day, crying
out, prepare the way of the Lord.
But who needs popularity?
We need the Lord, and we need to
prepare the way for him to come.
There's a series of specifics here.
Number one, make his path straight.
The church today is pursuing a very crooked
course.
It winds in and out and around the
great truths of scripture, but there's no straight
path, and our task is to make the
paths straight.
We're commanded in this passage that every ravine
or valley shall be filled up, the valleys
of doubt, of unbelief, of self-pity, of
treasured hurts, of shame, of fear, of disordered
passions.
Let every valley be filled up.
We need to begin with ourselves.
Have I filled in the valleys of my
life?
And if not, get busy.
How can we hope to be used of
God when our own hearts are so disordered?
But not only is to every low place
to be filled up, but every mountain is
to be brought low.
The mountain of pride must come down.
The mountain of secret imaginations must be destroyed.
The mountain of stubbornness and rebellion must be
given a fatal blow, and surely the mountain
of dead works.
For a period of a number of years,
it was my joy to associate with J.
Edwin Orr in what were called the Oxford
Conferences.
Year after year, we met in Oxford, England,
and talked with one another and exhorted one
another and encouraged one another in revival.
And one night in a prayer meeting, following
our regular evening service, many of the men
were gathered in an upper room of Regents
Park College, and we were praying.
Oh, it was a lovely time.
I was having virtually the time of my
life.
There were men from all kinds of places
and backgrounds, and some of these brethren really
knew how to let loose in prayer, and
we were calling upon God to do all
these incredible and wonderful things, and I was
enjoying every moment of it, and then suddenly
and pressed upon my heart was the question,
do you believe that I'm going to move
the mountain?
And I don't think I cried out audibly,
but I cried out within my heart, what
mountains, Lord?