Latest / Admonition Podcast / The Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness - Aaron Cozort - 09-21-2025

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The Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness - Aaron Cozort - 09-21-2025 · Admonition Podcast

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Take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to Mark chapter 1.
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Mark chapter 1, Mark opens his record of the life of Christ with these words, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
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Mark opens saying this is where it started.
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The good news, the heralded message of Christ begins here.
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Mark does not begin with a genealogy the way Matthew does.
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He doesn't begin with the events of the birth of Christ the way that Luke does.
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He begins with John the Baptist.
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Our lesson this morning is entitled, The Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness.
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So we seek to gain some lessons that are found here in Mark chapter 1 from the life of John.
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Verse 2, we read as it is written in the Scriptures, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you, the voice of one crying in the
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wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
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This quotation comes from Isaiah chapter 40.
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We'll spend some time in that passage before we're done.
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But we notice some things about John as we consider this text.
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We notice first that John had a prophesied purpose.
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John arrives on the scene as Mark describes it in the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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beginning the declaration of the good news of salvation to all mankind, but John comes on the scene with a purpose, and that purpose had been spoken of centuries before.
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In Isaiah chapter 40, Isaiah is going to describe the fact that God would address
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Jerusalem and His people and comfort them, console them in letting them know that they had paid the things that they needed to pay because of their sin, that they had received
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double for all their sins.
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Go back to Isaiah chapter 40 and notice what we read in this text.
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Isaiah chapter 40 verse 1, comfort, yes comfort my people says your God, speak comfort to Jerusalem and cry out to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, for
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she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins the voice of one crying in the wilderness.
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Now notice the message is to Jerusalem.
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The message is to God's people, but the messenger isn't in Jerusalem.
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The declaration of comfort comes to Jerusalem, comes to God's people, but the messenger isn't coming to God's people.
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They're going to have to come to Him.
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the voice of one crying in the wilderness.
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when you think about
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evangelism.
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We often think about people going to others.
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yet in the beginning of the story of the Angalea, which is the gospel good news message from which we get our word in English, evangelism.
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in the beginning of that story, it's not one going to people, it's one standing in the wilderness and them coming to him.
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God says, have a message of comfort for you, but you have to do something to hear it.
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God tells His people, I have hope for you, but if you stay in your comfortable places, in your comfortable couches in Jerusalem, you'll never hear it.
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God says, have hope for this nation.
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I have salvation to offer this nation.
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I have good news to offer this nation.
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But if you continue in what you've always done, you'll never receive it.
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John did not go town to town preaching his message.
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John went as was prophesied, as was his purpose, into the wilderness.
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But we read as we consider the text of the New Testament that all Israel came out to hear John.
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Over in Matthew chapter 11, Jesus asked those crowds, what did you go out to see?
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Did you go out to see a person in fine garments and and luxurious clothing?
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No.
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Did you go out to hear soft, sweet, comforting words?
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No.
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Consider what the passage says in Isaiah chapter 40, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our
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God.
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Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low.
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The crooked places shall be made straight, the rough places smooth, the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all
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flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
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in this prophesied purpose of the one who's the herald, the messenger coming before the king.
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The picture is given that here comes the messenger.
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He's coming throughout the country.
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He's telling the people, get ready, the king is coming.
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The long anticipated, waited for, for centuries, king is going to arrive.
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The Messiah is coming.
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The one that God told
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David, I will raise up a son who will sit on the throne and his throne will be everlasting.
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The one of whom God told Israel in the days of Moses through the words of Moses, there's one coming who will be a prophet like unto Moses, a lawgiver, him you shall hear.
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One who was prophesied all the way back in the days of Jacob when Jacob said of Judah that from Judah would come a lawgiver and that peace would be a fundamental part of his rule.
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one who had been prophesied about all the way back in the Garden of Eden.
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when God promised that Satan would never be victorious, but would receive a death blow from the son of woman.
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This one, who God had spoken about for 4,000 years,
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John has the task of going ahead of him and saying, he's coming.
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and yet John was sent with a message that was not...
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Just make sure that you're ready.
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Nope, that wasn't John's message.
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Now John's message was quite different.
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John's message was repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
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When the text tells us that every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill brought low, you do not bring hills to become flat land without effort.
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without a great deal of energy and expenditure and generally some trauma.
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I grew up in Eastern Kentucky.
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in the hills of the Appalachians.
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And growing up in the hills of the Appalachians, we knew how to get a road from here to there.
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Now here to there was a mile.
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The road was going to be six miles because you're to go back and forth and back and forth and back and forth around over up down mountains.
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But if there was no good way to put a road around the mountain, we would blast the mountain apart until we could put a road through the mountain.
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or over the mountain or around the mountain.
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something that some people who've lived in a lot of other places have never seen.
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They're used to things like in the winter the snow falls and then it melts and it goes away.
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And the Appalachians where you blast the side of the hill off so you can put a road there, the snow falls, it starts to melt, but it's still cold and the water starts running down
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the sides of these mountains that are fully exposed on the side and you just get this sheer sheet of ice.
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hanging off the side of the mountain.
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First time, Eddie and I were still dating.
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We traveled up into Kentucky and she saw it she's like, that's so cool.
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She had never seen that before.
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It doesn't come from natural landscape.
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It comes from the fact that someone took the mountain off.
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John didn't come to leave the natural landscape in Israel.
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John didn't come with the purpose of leaving Israel looking like it was when he arrived.
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John came to change the very face of the nation, the very nature of their existence, by calling them to repentance.
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And for a message so fundamental for Israel's future and hope in the Messiah, he didn't even come to their city to tell it to them.
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He made them come to him.
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turn back to Mark chapter 1.
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And you see that when John arrived, he did not just come with a prophesied purpose, but he came with a plan for reconciliation.
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The message that had been decreed by God in the days of Isaiah 800 years before was, Comfort my people!
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But you cannot comfort a people who are not reconciled to God.
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You can give them a message of, as Jeremiah's day people gave, peace, peace, but Jeremiah said there is no peace.
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Because they weren't reconciled to God.
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Because they weren't in a right relationship with God, but that wasn't John's message.
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John's message was not comfort at all cost.
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John's message was not peace at all cost.
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John's message was reconcile yourself to God and you will have comfort.
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Notice verse 4, John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
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John came with a plan for reconciliation.
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It wasn't John's plan, it was God's plan.
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And John came preaching a message telling the people they needed to be immersed in water for the remission of their sins.
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if that was his message.
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then the implication of his message was that Israel was lost in their sins.
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The implication of the message was that Israel was not in a right relationship with God.
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That Israel was not in fellowship with God.
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That the individuals and the people in the nation who were going to come to John were those who needed to change.
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John offered them a solution.
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Many of them heard him.
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Many of them received the message and obeyed it.
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Not all.
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for he also came with a proclamation of peace and division." You wait a minute, how can you have peace and division?
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How is it that a preacher can come and say, I'm coming to declare comfort, I'm coming to declare peace, I'm coming to declare division?
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Those two things seem diametrically opposed to one another.
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Go back to Isaiah chapter 40.
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God's message of comfort.
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was not just a message of comfort.
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Verse 6, the voice said, cry out.
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And he said, the prophet says to God, what shall I cry?
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God replies, all flesh is grass.
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and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
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The grass withers, the flower fades, but the breath of the Lord blows upon it.
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Surely the people are grass.
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The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of God stands forever."
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The figure of God and His breath blowing upon the grass is an Old Testament figure of God's judgment.
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God's declaring, I can give life to you because my word abides forever.
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Or I can judge you and destroy you from the face of the planet because my word abides forever.
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God declares through His prophet that they would receive comfort if they would be reconciled and they would receive judgment if they would not.
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Verse 9, read, O Zion, you who bring good tidings, get up into the high mountain, O Jerusalem.
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You who bring good tidings, lift up your voice with strength.
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Lift it up, be not afraid.
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Say to the cities of Judah, behold your God.
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the messenger is going to come and he's going to point and he's going to say, Behold your God!
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The question would be, what would they do then?
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In Mark chapter 1.
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We read in verse 5, then all the land of Judea and those from Jerusalem went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River confessing their sins.
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Seems like it was a
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very successful time.
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Seems like John accomplished his mission.
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If you just read Mark's record of it, everything seems to be smooth sailing from here.
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except it wasn't.
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We turn to Matthew chapter 3.
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Matthew chapter 3.
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We read in verse 5, and Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan confessing their sins.
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But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
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Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance and do not think to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father.
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For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.
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And even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees.
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Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
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John came with a message of peace, of consolation, of reconciliation, of good news, of salvation to those who were willing to repent.
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and of judgment, destruction, division, and separation from God from those who would not.
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and the people.
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who during John's day were anxious to hear John, would travel to hear John, would go out into the wilderness to the very banks of the Jordan River to hear John and be baptized of
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John, would eventually succumb to the influence of these evil teachers.
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and the very same people who anxiously anticipated the arrival of the Messiah would cry out in the streets of Jerusalem, crucify Him.
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Crucify Him.
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but then consider as well.
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that you have in the picture of John and the life of John a prioritized life.
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Verse six of Mark chapter one says, now John was clothed with camel's hair and with a leather belt around his waist and he ate locusts and wild honey.
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John didn't come into this world interested in all the world's possessions.
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He didn't come into the world interested in all the world's glory.
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He wasn't interested in a fine mansion on a hill in Jerusalem.
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He was satisfied with a robe,
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and the food that the wilderness provided naturally.
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As the people came to John, as the crowds surrounded John, as the people were baptized of John, John didn't say
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now that I've brought you salvation, you need to do something for me.
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oh
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No, John's life was prioritized on what he was about.
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It was focused on what his mission was
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and he didn't need anything that didn't involve his mission.
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But then consider verses seven and eight.
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that we find there was for John a place of service.
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John was surrounded by those who would travel just to hear his voice.
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just to say I heard John.
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just to be able to be those who said, was baptized of John in the Jordan.
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And yet, John never let it go to his head.
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for he knew that he had a place of service and not prominence.
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In verse seven we read, he preached, saying, there comes one after me who is mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down and loose.
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I indeed baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
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as John spoke of the Messiah, as he spoke of the things that were to come, as he spoke concerning the one who had been prophesied about, he said, I'm not him.
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If turn over to John chapter 1.
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You read in chapter 1 verse 1, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
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He was in the beginning with God.
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All things were made through Him and without Him.
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Nothing was made that was made in Him was life and the life was the light of men.
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The light shines in darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it.
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Now this five verses right here describes Jesus, the Christ.
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the Messiah and the fact that He was not just man.
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That His existence did not begin when He was conceived or when He was born or when He was brought into fleshly existence.
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His existence was before the world began.
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and it was with God, for He was God.
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And yet, we read in verse 6, there was a man sent from God whose name was John.
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This man came for a witness to bear witness of the life that all through him might believe he was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light that was the true light
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which gives light to every man coming into the world.
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John knew that his message was not about
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Him, that He was there to point to someone else.
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And he did.
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John realized that his place was a place of service.
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His message reiterated to the people over and over and over again, I'm not here to be the person you follow, I'm here to point you to the person you are to follow.
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and I don't even compare to him.
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I'm not even worthy to stoop down and be as the work of a servant or a slave and loosen the straps of his sandals.
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That's how much difference there is between me, John, and him, the Messiah.
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But he also promised that this one who was coming was coming with a different message.
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He says, I indeed baptize you with water.
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John says, I have authority that is this far and no further.
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I have a message of salvation.
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I have a message of redemption.
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I have a message of repentance and remission of sins, and I have the authority over that.
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There's someone coming.
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who can command the very Spirit of God.
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and it will obey.
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Turn back to Isaiah chapter 40.
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Isaiah chapter 40.
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Isaiah will write.
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Verse 10, behold, the Lord God shall come with a strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him.
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Behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
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Notice the picture here, that the one who's coming, the one who's being pointed to, will rule, and he will rule with the hand and the strength of God.
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His reward will be the reward of God.
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His work will be the work of God.
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He will be the shepherd of God.
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He will feed His flock like a shepherd.
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He will gather the lambs with His arm and carry them in His bosom and gently lead those who are with young, who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, measured heaven
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with a span and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure, weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance, who has directed the Spirit of the Lord.
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in the description of the Messiah that is coming.
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Isaiah says, one who's crying in the wilderness is going to prepare the way for the one who can direct the Spirit of the Lord.
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and the Spirit will do it.
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He asks who has directed the Spirit of the Lord or as his counselor has taught him.
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Which individual, which man, which messenger, which prophet ever said to God, let me teach you something?
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John says, I'm not even worthy to stoop down and loosen his sandals.
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I'm not the one you're looking for.
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but I am here to prepare you for the one you're looking for.
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but also consider.
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verses 9 through 13, he was a prophet who witnessed the Messiah.
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Verse 9, came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
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The indication of much of the text is that John, now bear in mind the Jordan River runs from north of Israel, north portion of Israel all the way down to the Dead Sea.
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from the Sea of Galilee down to the Dead Sea.
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There's a lot of Israel that's covered by an area that is right on the edge of the Jordan.
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But the likely place where John was baptizing was in the region of Judea near the Jordan.
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Jesus comes out of Nazareth, the north point of Galilee, travels to where John is in the Jordan, and immediately coming up from the water, he saw the heavens parting and the
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Spirit descending upon him like a dove.
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Jesus came and was baptized by John.
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Other texts tell us that John said to Jesus, knowing who he was, I need to be baptized of you, not be the one who's baptizing you.
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Yet Jesus told him to do it to fulfill all righteousness.
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So Jesus comes and is baptized by John and immediately upon coming up out of the water he saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove, then the voice
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from heaven, You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
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Immediately the Spirit drove him into the wilderness and he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with wild beasts and the angels ministered to him.
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as Mark quickly proceeds beyond the life of John and into the beginning of the ministry of Jesus.
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He's not quite done talking about John.
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but he tells us that John witnessed the Messiah.
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If you turn over to John chapter 1.
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You remember that the message was, he would be the voice of one crying in the wilderness.
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He would be the one who would declare to Israel, your God.
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In John chapter one and in verse 19, we read, now this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you?
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He confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ.
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And they asked, what then, are you Elijah?
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He said, I am not.
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Are you the prophet?
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And he answered, no.
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Then they said to him, who are you?
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That we may give an answer to those who sent us.
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What do you say about yourself?
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John said, I am the voice of the one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord.
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As the prophet Isaiah said,
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Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees.
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And they asked him, saying, Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?
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John answered, saying, I baptize with water, but there stands one among you whom you do not know.
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It is he who coming after me is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.
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These things were done in Beth Arba, beyond the Jordan where John was baptizing.
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The next day, John saw Jesus coming toward him and said,
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Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
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This is he of whom I said, After me comes a man who is preferred before me, for he was before me.
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I did not know him, but that he should be revealed to Israel.
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Therefore I came baptizing with water, and John bore witness, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and he remained upon him.
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I did not know him.
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But he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.
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And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God." John.
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was a prophet who witnessed the Messiah.
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But then consider lastly from this passage verses 14 and 15 that John was a persecuted prophet.
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John was sent with a message.
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Speak comfort to my people.
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Declare hope to my people.
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Declare salvation to my people.
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Declare hope for all people.
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And yet John's message of repentance and preparing the way for reconciliation with God cost him his life.
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Verse 14 of Mark chapter 1, now after John was put in prison,
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Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying, time is fulfilled and the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
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Repent and believe in the good news.
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The gospel.
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John would never come out of that prison alive.
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John was put in that prison because he not only taught the people to repent, those who stole, that they should cease from it, that they should repay what they had taken.
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He taught the centurions and the soldiers to do good to others.
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He taught them that they needed to prepare for the Messiah.
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and he didn't just teach the common people, he didn't just rebuke the religious leaders, he went into the very courts of Herod and told the king that your marriage is not right
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and it is not lawful and you need to repent.
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and for that Herodias had him imprisoned and then killed.
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But remember, his message was of peace and division.
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He was a persecuted prophet.
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He was a prophet with a purpose.
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He was a prophet with a plan.
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He was a prophet with a proclamation.
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He was a prophet with a prioritized life.
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He was a prophet with a place of service.
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and he was blessed to be a prophet who witnessed the Messiah.
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Jesus would say of John that he was the greatest prophet.
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But Jesus would further say that the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John.
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John did all these things, proclaimed all this message so that the nation would be ready for the Messiah.
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and they denied him and killed him anyway.
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but that was part of God's plan all along.
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That was part of what God was doing to bring about your salvation and mine.
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It was part of what God was doing to bring forth the kingdom that John prophesied about that Jesus promised.
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Jesus when asked or when he asked his disciples, who do men say that I am?
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And when Peter responded, you are the Christ, the Son of God, the same testimony that John gave.
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Jesus said, blessed are you, Simon Marjona, for flesh and blood is not revealed as to you, but your Father who is in heaven.
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but he also said that he came to build his church.
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His assembly of called out ones, called out from the world, divided from the world, divided for the purpose of God.
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and that the gates of hell, the gates of death, would never prevail against His Church.
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So Jesus would say, the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John.
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You're here this morning and your life doesn't look like John's.
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not that you need to wear camel skins and eat locusts.
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But if your life doesn't look like it's patterned and planned and provided for after the cause of the kingdom.
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then perhaps it's time to reevaluate your life.
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Because John said, you need to get reconciled to God.
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and John gave his life for that message.
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If you're separated from God, why stay there?
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Why not repent?
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If you're outside of the kingdom for which Jesus died and John died, why stay there?
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We can baptize you this morning the same way John baptized you, would have baptized you in the Jordan River for the remission of your sins.
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If you have need of the invitation of Jesus Christ and of John, why not come now as we stand and as we say,