John the Baptist's identity and purpose are explored through his own testimony when questioned by priests and Levites. He humbly identifies himself not as the Christ, Elijah, or "that prophet," but as "the voice of one crying in the wilderness," fulfilling Isaiah's prophecy. The sermon emphasizes John's modesty and his role as a forerunner, highlighting that the messenger is less important than the message itself. Ultimately, John points to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, stating that Jesus must increase while he must decrease.
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And now, as we continue with our study in the life of John the Baptist, I want to read to you today from the Gospel, according to John, chapter one, beginning to read at verse nineteen, John chapter one, verse nineteen, and this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? and he confessed and denied not, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he said, I am not.
Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No. Then said thee unto him, Who art thou? That we may give an answer to them that sent us. What saith thou of thyself? He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah. And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked him and said unto him, Why baptisest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet? John answered them, saying, I baptize with water, but there standeth one among you whom you know not.
Here it is, who coming after me is prepared before me, whose shoes latch it. I am not worthy to unloose. These things were done in Beth Abraa, beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and said, Behold, the Lamb of God... which taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is prefab before me, for he was before me. And I knew him not, for that he should be made manifest to Israel. Therefore am I come baptizing with water. And John bear record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.
And 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 baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I saw and bear record that this is the Son of God. I am sure the Lord will bless to us the reading of these verses. Let us bow for prayer. Our Father, we thank thee that we are able to come and bow our hearts in thy holy presence, making our requests known unto thee, and doing so with thanksgiving. Be pleased to accept of our thanks for everything thou has done for us.
Take our thanks for thy beloved Son, who left the splendors of the glory and came down to this earth, in order... to die on Calvary's cross and provide salvation for poor, perishing sinners. Help us now as we seek to study thy word. Bless thy word to all our hearts for the Lord Jesus' sake. Amen. And now as we continue with our study regarding John the Baptist, may I remind you again we have thought of John as a man. The man sent from God. We have sought to study a little regarding the message of John, and then we did consider the manners of John, and at this point now we're going to turn our attention to the modesty of John.
And what I've been reading to you here in the fourth Gospel, the Gospel according to John, And I hope you realize now that when we say John, we're not talking of John the Baptist, because the man who wrote the fourth Gospel was John the Apostle. And John the Baptist was dead and gone a long time before John the Apostle wrote this book. But in the Gospel, according to John in chapter one, we have certain things recorded here. concerning John the Baptist. Now I noticed that he was a man then mapped out by modesty.
So I was reading to you down through these verses and John was giving his message and giving his report and talking concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. And John bear record concerning the Lord And because of that there were those that came along and began to question him. Now, when John was questioned, it's very interesting to notice how he answered them. And this, I suggest to you, bears out the thought that John was a very modest man.
When they came along and they said to him, Who art thou? He confessed and denied not, but confessed, I'm not the Christ. And so therefore they began to question him again, art thou Elias? He said, I'm not. Are you then that prophet? He said, no. Then they said, well, tell us, who are you? Now it's at that point where John uses an expression which is very, very interesting. He said, I am a voice. You know, a voice is not the word.
He's simply a voice. But when I think of John here and his modesty, I begin to wonder if you or I had been in his place and people had come to us, oh, what an opportunity this man had to do a little bit of boasting. He might have boasted. He might have said, don't you know, my father was a priest. And did you never hear about what happened in connection with my birth? Did you never hear what happened to my father? Have you never heard the story about how I was born? And so John could have boasted regarding himself and regarding his parents and so on.
When the Cammon said, well, who art thou? That he didn't boast. John wasn't like that. John wasn't a vain man. John was a very, very modest man. Now, in fact, it has been well said that in several respects, John was one of the most remarkable characters that you read of in the Bible. And it seems that to me. Of all the men you read of in the Word of God, John had certain things about him most outstanding. For instance, now, have you ever thought that John was the subject of Old Testament prophecy?
We pointed that out when we read to you in a previous lesson from Isaiah Forte, where you have the prophet Isaiah prophesying concerning this one, who would come, who would be the voice in the wilderness. Then his birth was due to the direct and miraculous intervention of God. We read about that in Luke chapter one. John was a man who was filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb. And we pointed out in our first study he was a man sent from God. He was a man who was sent to prepare the way of the Lord. And of him, the Lord Jesus Christ himself said, Among them that are born of women, there has not arisen a greater than John the Baptist.
The reference, of course, that has been pointed out, is to his positional greatness as the forerunner of the Messiah, which is very, very interesting. That is, of all the prophets who had come, John takes the highest place because following him there's the Lord. He's the forerunner. He's preparing the way of the Lord. Now then, In the passage we have read to you from John's Gospel, Chapter One, it tells of a deputation of priests and Levites, those who took the high place of rule in Jerusalem, and they come along and they begin to inquire of John as to who he was.
Now you can quite understand that John's appearance and ministry was creating quite a disturbance. around Jerusalem and Judea. People were talking. Strange things were happening. Crowds were leaving the towns and villages and cities and going down to Jordan to hear this preacher. Some said he's a prophet. Some said, I think he's Elijah. Come back again and so on. But they were going out and they were listening to his ministry and they were being baptized. And we pointed out that when some of the religious leaders went, he refused to baptize them and reduced them and told them they ought to go and bring forth evidence in their life that they had really repented.
And then he said, I'll baptize you. But now they're sending down, as it were, a deputation. People are going down and they're going to question him. Now they said to him, Who art thou? Who are you? Now, you'll notice that it's in John's Gospel where we get these questions and answers, as it were, and you don't find them in Matthew, Mark, or Luke, but it's in John's Gospel. John tells us nothing at all about the birth of John, but he does tell us about this occasion when he's busy with his public ministry and...
The incident before us brings out the spiritual ignorance of the religious leaders among the Jews, because in fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy, the Lord's forerunner had appeared in the wilderness. But lacking in spiritual discernment, the leaders in Jerusalem knew not who he was. If they had known the Old Testament and if they had been acquainted with the prophecies, they would have known who he was. But unfortunately, they didn't recognize him. They couldn't place him at all in with any of the prophetic utterances of the Old Testament. And so they showed their ignorance. They came in and said, Now, who art thou?
And by the way, multitudes of people were flocking to heal this preacher in the wilderness, and many had been baptized by him. It was a great stir, as I have indicated, so much so that... Men were talking about this. Who is he? Do you think he's a Christ? Or who do you think he is? Do you think he's Elijah? Come back again? And so this deputation comes down to speak to him. Now, on this occasion, he confessed and denied not, but confessed, I am not the Christ. These words give plain intimation of the Spirit in which the priests and Levites must have approached John.
as also of the design of the Jews who had sent them. To them the Baptist was an interloper. You see, he had not been raised up in their schools. He was not connected with their particular religious systems in that day. He hadn't been sent out by them. They had not ordained them. He didn't belong to the group of the Pharisees, nor yet was he associated with the Sadducees. nor yet were the Herodians, and these were the three main groups of that day. And he was neither a Pharisee, a Sadducee, nor a Herodian. So they're saying, well, who gave him his authority? From whence then had he received his authority?
Who commissioned him to go for bidding men to repent? Who told them to preach this message? By what right did he baptize people? You can well imagine the tone in which they said to John, Well, Who art thou? No doubt they expected to intimidate him. This seems clear from the fact that we are here told and he confessed and denied not. He boldly stood his ground. Neither the dignity of those who had sent this embassy to John nor their threatening frowns moved him at all. Remember, he was a steadfast man. At this point he stood his ground. He confessed and denied not.
He is he was a man of courage. And he simply said, I am not the Christ. Now, it had been quite easy for him at this time to have made false claims. But he didn't. Even if the devil tried to tempt him to do it, John won the day. And so it was that they still wanted to know. They said, well, now, aren't thou Elijah? He said, no, I'm not Elijah. Why should they have asked John if he was Elijah? The answer is, of course, because... There was a general expectation among the Jews at that time that Elijah would again appear on earth. That this was so is clear from a number of passages in the Gospel.
For instance, when the Lord asked his disciples, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? They answered, Some say that thou art John the Baptist. That is, they thought John had risen again from the dead. Some say you're Elijah, and others say you're Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. That was at this time the Lord said, Who do you say I am? And Peter said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God? Now then, they said, Art thou Elijah? John replied emphatically, I am not. Of course, John had much in common with Elijah the Tishback, you know. He dressed something like him, and his ministry was something like him, calling men to repentance. It was similar in character to what was the work of Elijah.
Nevertheless, he was not Elijah. He went before Christ in the spirit and power of Elijah, because he came to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. And then his interrogators come to him again, and they're saying, well, now, are you that prophet that was to come? And you may say, well, why did they ask that? What prophet? The answer is the prophet predicted by Moses. The prediction is recorded in Deuteronomy eighteen. The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me.
Unto him you shall hearken. I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee. I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. This was one of the many messianic prophecies given in the Old Testament times, which received its fulfillment in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they're saying, Aren't thou that prophet? John was asking again, he said, No. Then said unto him, Who art thou? Hmm? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? These are searching questions, aren't they? Who art thou? What sayest thou of thyself? Now again, John might have answered at this time and given quite an oration about himself.
He might have said who his father was, Zechariah as the priest, and so on, and how he was filled with the Holy Spirit from the time of his birth. But no. John's reply is not like that. John replies with modesty. You know, my friend, it's not easy to take the humble place and give a modest reply when people leave the door wide open for a man to do a bit of boasting. You know, when you listen to politicians today, my, they love to boast, don't they? They love to boast of what they've done. And they love to boast of the things they say they'll do. Why, political men and military men, leaders amongst men, they've been great boasters.
I suppose some of you can recall even now speeches you've listened to, but someone's saying, yes, but what about those religious fellows too? Yes, I agree. A lot of men in religious circles have been great boasters. They love to boast. But when a man begins to boast, it's obvious he's not speaking in the power of the Holy Spirit. The man who speaks in the power of the Spirit will take a humble place. And he'll be like John. John was very, very modest. And I think we can take a lesson from him here in the answer that he gave. John says, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord.
has said the prophet Isaiah. You see, my friend, I drew attention in a previous study to the fact, how shall they hear without a preacher? And that's absolutely essential. If a message is to be delivered, then it will require the preacher to deliver the message. But the important thing is not the messenger. The important thing is the message that he delivers, isn't it? What's the good of a man being a messenger if he doesn't have the right message? When a man goes to another country as a representative of his own country, he carries the message.
If a man goes up to the United Nations and he's got to give a message there on behalf of the nation he represents, it's his message that really counts. If a man occupies a platform or a pulpit and opens the word of God, the important thing is not what the man looks like. It's not how the man is dressed, whether he's a big fellow or a little fellow. What really counts with the preacher... is the thing he preaches it's the message that is important john says now so far as i'm concerned i'm a nobody and yet the lord said of all that were born of women there were none to compare with john positionally here a great place but when it comes to giving an account for himself he's so modest he simply says i am only a voice crying in the wilderness makes straight the way of the lord And he refers back to, as said the prophet Isaiah.
Here was John's answer, and just the voice of one crying in the wilderness. As one has said, this is very becoming humility. Humility is of great price in the sight of God, and has had a prominent place in the men whom he has used. Paul, the greatest of the apostles, confessed himself less than the least of all saints. John here confesses much the same thing when he referred to himself as the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Now, I wonder if this was asked at any of us, what answer would we give? Would we start to boast?
Or would we simply take the simple place and say, well, I'm at my best. I'm only an unprofitable servant. I haven't done as much as I should have done. and I hadn't done as much as I could have done, and at my best I've been unprofitable. But John referred to himself, he said, I'm just a voice. He employed the very term which the Holy Spirit had used of him seven hundred years previously when speaking through Isaiah the prophet, the voice of him that cries in the wilderness, prepared you the way of the Lord, made straight in the desert a highway for our God. That's Isaiah chapter forty, verse three. And after all, He speaks here and says, I'm just that voice.
You see, the voice articulates the word. But the word comes through the voice. Now, understand this, in John chapter one, the Lord Jesus Christ is set before us as being the Word. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word became flesh and tabernacles amongst us. But John says, I'm not the Word, I'm just the voice. I'm just the channel that conveys the message. The real Word is He who is greater than me. And though we must come down to verse thirty of this particular verse. chapter because it's there at verse thirty that we find John saying something else John says he must increase but I must decrease now you see John had been very popular and John was popular with the people before ever the Lord Jesus Christ came on the scene that is before ever he was made manifest Now, John has said to us, according to verse twenty-nine of this chapter, Behold the Lamb of God, the
Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. And he says, This is he of whom I said, After me come as a man which is preferred before me, for he was before me. I knew him not, for that he should be made manifest to Israel. Therefore am I come baptizing with water. And it's from there that John begins to say, He must increase and I must decrease. You see, John could see that when the Lord Jesus Christ came on the scene, that he would have to take the second place. I don't know if you've ever been in a town or on a street where some great person was due to come.
Suppose it was the President of the United States, or suppose you were over in Britain and you were in London and you saw a lot of policemen there and guards and so on, and someone said to you, why, the Queen is coming along shortly, why, you would see those people coming in front, preparing the way, seeing that the way was clear, that all traffic was held back. But, you know, when you see those people coming, You don't stat and wave to the people who are the forerunners and you don't bow to them. No, they're simply preparing the way. Then all eyes are turned, not on those who are going before, but all eyes are turned to the person that's coming, whether it's the president or whether it's the queen or the prime minister or whoever it may be.
The eyes are turned not to the one that's preparing the way, but to the person who's coming. So therefore, John says, I'm just the voice. I've been preparing the way, getting the people ready, preparing the road, getting the crooked places made straight. Now he says, look away from me. Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. He must increase, and I must decrease. After all, he's the one who is from all time. He's the one who is greater than all, greater than the greatest, better than the best.
And John says, who am I but just the forerunner? And then again he says, I'm not even fit to lace his shoes. He is coming after me. He's prepared before me. And whose shoes latch it, I am not worthy to enloose. I'm not even fit to tie his sandal on. He is so great. And John says, I'm simply going to decrease, O the modesty of this servant of the most high God. God willing, we shall finish our study regarding John in our next verse.
lessons. Thank you for being tuned in today. This is Mr. McNeil bidding you good day.