All right, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 3, we're going to jump back into the study of Luke, Luke chapter 3. And this is going to be a two-part series, and I'm going to finish the second part next week. So read for us Luke chapter 3 verses 1 through 6.

I'm reading out of the NASB. 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 a tetrarch of the reign of Eturea and to Trachinus, and Lysania was tetrarch of Abilene.

In the high priests of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. And he came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the word of Isaiah the prophet, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord.

Make his path straight, every raven will be filled and every mountain and hill will be brought low. The crooked will become straight and the rough road smooth and all flesh will see the salvation of God. Let's pray. Gracious Father, we thank you for the privilege that we have to be able to come and worship you.

We pray that you would guide us and lead us and allow your word that you have ordained to speak to us, your word and only your word. In Jesus name we pray, amen. As we continue our study in the gospel of Luke chapter three, we're in a section where John the Baptist and his ministry is being introduced to us.

And then shortly after Jesus is going to be introduced. And then obviously we're going to be spending the rest of our time in the book of Luke focused on the Messiah, Jesus Christ. But today as John the Baptist is now being introduced to us after his initial introduction in the beginning of his birth, it starts out by introducing some very powerful, famous people.

Tiberius, Pontius Pilate, Herod, Annas, Caiaphas, all of these people would have been very significant at that time. But the interesting thing is they're not the main point. If you would have somebody introduced to you and saying this is somehow connected to, you know, the president, the governor, the mayor, right?

And you would think that some time would pass introducing, well, how are they connected? And so the significance and your ears would perk up to hear about like, what does he know? Is he their son? What's going on? The only reason why they're even mentioned is because they're trying to highlight when John began his ministry.

So the whole point of introduction of all of them is John himself. And remember who John is up to this point. He's just an obscure guy out in the wilderness. Nobody knows who he is. I mean, other than the fact that he was anointed to go ahead of Jesus, outside of that, John's a nobody.

He's not well educated, doesn't come from a particular pedigree. I mean, he's not famous for any other reason other than the fact that an angel said that you're going to go ahead of Jesus and you're going to prepare for the way of the Lord. In fact, all of human history, the central figure in all of human history is ultimately tied to Christ.

So whenever we study Caesar, whenever we study the Middle Ages, whenever we study whatever it is what we're studying, the real point of every authority, every human history, every government is to recognize that God is in the midst of that, in the context of that, redeeming his people for his glory.

And that's exactly how John is introduced today. All these great people are here, but again, that's just a side point. They're not going to come up again until there's some tie to them to what Christ is doing. But John the Baptist shows up on the scene, and obviously everything that we're studying here is to prepare for the coming of Christ, who's going to come in about six months.

John the Baptist was a walking indictment to the nation of Israel. Everything about him made the leaders of Israel uncomfortable. And so we're going to see that this morning, and how his presence shook up the nation of Israel before even Christ ever came. He caused such a stir that many people saw John the Baptist, like maybe he must be the Messiah.

And so he had so many similar qualities. And again, I think because he was the cousin of Jesus, maybe there was also physical qualities similar to him. And there was some confusion as John ended his ministry and Jesus was beginning his ministry, and people were beginning to ask, is that the Messiah?

Or Jesus is John the Baptist? He did such a great job. Whether it was physical, whether it was preaching about his presence, who he called out, his message, everything about him, he did such a good job preparing for the coming of Christ that there was some confusion. They had to identify he is or he is not.

Well, John the Baptist was loved by Israel, but he was also very much hated by the nation of Israel, just like Jesus. People who believed what he was saying, repentant, was baptized, they knew who he was. And they were coming to him from long distance to be baptized by him.

And then there were who were coming who John the Baptist would call out, and we're going to talk about that next week, about his message of repentance. And when they were indicted and they refused to repent, they ended up hating him as well. We're going to look at this morning, John's calling into ministry, and there's four parts that we see here.

The calling of John the Baptist, the timing of John's calling, the place of John's calling, and the message of John's calling. Those are the four things that we're going to be looking at. I'm going to be covering the first three, and then the fourth one, we're going to spend the most time on because most of the text that we're looking at is going to be dealing with that.

So calling of John, the timing of John's calling, and then the place of John's calling. All of these things are significant because every single part of this was an indictment against the nation of Israel. First of all, the call of John. If we look at the second part of verse two, he says, after he introduces all these people, he says, "The word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness." Now to us as modern readers, the word of God came to him, we can just take that as he read the word of God, or he read Isaiah, or something must have happened.

But first century Jew would have known very clearly when Luke says that the word of God came to John the Baptist, knew exactly what he was talking about. The interesting thing here is the word for word, right? Typically what's a Greek word for word? Lagos. It's not the only word though.

There's another word, rema, right? And so we know the word lagos because it's often talked about in the Bible and talking about when we're talking about the Bible itself, it's lagos. When it said, you know, in the beginning was the word, and word was with God, word was God, it was lagos.

But there's another word for word, rema. And I think it's much more nuanced than this, but the easiest way to understand the distinction between lagos and rema is lagos is the written word and rema is the spoken word. Now that doesn't really do justice, but just for our sake, that's probably the easiest way for us to distinguish it.

Lagos is the written word where God reveals his word. And again, it's not exact because sometimes God would give lagos to his prophets to go and speak. But in here in particular, when it says the word of God came to John, it uses the word rema, meaning that God spoke to him, that God specifically called him.

And the reason why this is significant is because in almost every instance that a specific prophet is called by God to represent him and speak to his people, that phrase exists, that God spoke to him. First Samuel 15.10, the word of the Lord came to Samuel. Second Samuel 7.4, the word of the Lord came to Nathan.

First Kings 16.1, the word of the Lord came to Jehu. Jeremiah 1 verse 2, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. Ezekiel 1.3, the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel. To Jonah, to Haggai, to Zechariah, again and again and again. So a first century Jew, when they read this, they would have known very specifically that Luke is saying he's not just a guy who was speaking for God.

He wasn't like the priests and the scribes and the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. He was the prophet that they've been waiting for. This was the fulfillment of Isaiah chapter 40 when he said that there's going to be a front runner that's going to go prepare the way of Christ.

And he's that man. The word of the Lord came to John the Baptist. Now you have to remember, the last time that happened was with Malachi 425 years ago. So for over 400 years, this phrase was not given to any other human being. There was no prophet speaking for God.

God kept silent. There was nobody coming before God. So everyone who spoke said, "Oh, I'm speaking for God." They were just regurgitating things that they heard. They were taking things that were already said and just kind of passing it along. And in that process, in those 400 years, the word of God was completely perverted.

Everyone did what they thought was right in their own eyes. They created a religion that was independent, so independent of God, that when the Son of God actually showed up, he didn't fit. So for 400 years, the nation of Israel has been drifting away from God because God did not send his prophet.

And so when Luke introduces John the Baptist to us, as one who has received his word, he was the last prophet, the last prophet that God would send to the nation of Israel from the old covenant. See, in Jeremiah 23, 21 to 22, God indicts the nation of Israel and specifically the so-called prophets and the leaders of that time.

And he says this, "I did not send these prophets, but they ran. I did not speak to them, but they prophesied. But if they had stood in my counsel, then they would have announced my words to my people and would have turned them back from their evil way and from the evil of their deeds.

If these were my people, they would have turned from their sins." Instead, they were more concerned about the response that they would get from people and tickling people's ears. He said, "If they were my prophets and they were speaking on my behalf," he said, "they would have turned them from their sins.

But because I did not, they went and they ran and they spoke whatever they felt that they wanted to hear." Sad to say, I believe we're in that generation today. Sad to say. You speak the word of God and people feel uncomfortable, you're a false prophet. If you say something that causes people to think twice and be convicted or feel bad about the way that they're living, that can't be from God.

That's legalism. God is about love and grace and peace and rest. He said that when John the Baptist showed up, they were in such poor condition. His very presence in the nation of Israel made people feel uncomfortable. So his introduction to us begins basically by saying, "Pay attention to John.

Listen to John. What he has to say is life and death." That's the very reason why Apostle Paul, in every letter, he begins by saying, "The servant of Christ, the slave of Christ, an apostle of Christ." And the reason why he's saying that is, "What I'm writing to you are not just my words." Whether it is of encouragement, whether it's about salvation, whether it is a rebuke, this is coming from God.

So that's why every letter that is written in the epistles in the new covenant isn't coming from the mouth of a human being. We'll look at that when we study the second Peter. This is God speaking to you. And so John is introduced to us making sure that this was not just any ordinary man.

This is not somebody who's self-willed. This is not somebody who just kind of thought of like, "Hey, you know what? I prefer this." This is coming from God himself. That was his calling. Second, the timing is important. Because in the timing, it highlights for us what is going on at that time.

We see the same thing in Haggai chapter 1 verse 1. And in many of the other prophets, where the word of the Lord came to them, they would describe for us who was the king, who was the governor, what was happening at that time. Haggai 1.1, it says, "The second year of Darius the king, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel, the son of Shertiah." And then he goes on, "The governor of Judah." This is very common.

If you read the Old Testament prophets, you'll see that this is the way that they're introduced. Now they're not just trying to put a pin in the historical timeline and saying, "Well, this is how they dated things," which is true. But by telling us who was the ruler, they're also telling us what they're speaking to, the context, the context in which the prophet is speaking.

What is going on spiritually? What is going on politically that that prophet needed to say these things at that particular time? See, you can have somebody say the right things to the wrong people and be a false prophet. You could say the wrong things to the right people and be a false prophet.

You can say peace, peace to people who are under the judgment of God and you are a false prophet. You can say judgment is coming from people who are in desperate need of encouragement and you're a false prophet. You have to know who you're speaking to. And so when John the Baptist shows up, the part of the reason why all these people are in the situation, it kind of gives us a background of what is happening at that time.

In fact, the New Covenant, in the New Testament, it goes even further than that. It says Galatians 4, "For when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law." The fullness of time. So all of the things that he's describing here is describing the fullness of time.

God waited. This was not some random thing to happen. God didn't wait until all the right things happened in order for him to come. He said, no, he ordained this time. All these other things took place because God ordained it and now all that God has done has been fulfilled in order for John to show up and for John to show up to prepare for the way of Christ.

So the question we ask is what made this the fullness of time? What made this the fullness of time? What made this God ordained time in particular? Remember, if you study through, again, I think you're doing the Old Testament survey now, right? As you are working your way through the Old Testament, you will see when you get to the prophets, repeatedly God says over and over again, the primary penalty for their sin is what?

You don't have to yell it out loud, but those of you guys who know. What was the primary thing, the consequence of Israel if they did not turn from their sins? That they would be under suppression of foreign kingdoms. That's what he said. That you will be taken away.

Nations that are pagans who do not know God are going to overpower you. That your men and women are going to be carried on and they're going to become servants. And every prophet that comes that warns the nation of Israel, if they do not turn from their sin, that they would lose their nation.

See, the highlight of what is happening here is that the penalty of the culmination of their sin has reached its peak. See, it started with Assyria, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and then now the Romans have been ruling over them. So for over 700 years, because they would continue to rebel against God, foreign nations would dominate over them.

And the prophets kept on telling them, they're dominating over you, not simply because you didn't have the right military or the power or because you didn't have the right leaders, it's because you were disobedient to God. For 700 years, some of them treated them well, like the Persians. Some of them treated them horribly, like the Assyrians.

The Romans were the ones, the superpowers of this time, and they were under their suppression. Tiberius Caesar, the emperor of Rome, he was particularly effective in ruling their vast universe, their domain. Their problem was that they conquered so much land that they had a difficult time keeping them under their control.

So what Romans did was they appeased the nominal Jews by giving them money, by establishing them. And then the Jews who were serious about their faith, that we only have one God, that he would make sure that he would keep his foot on their neck so that they do not rebel.

And much of what we know about the cross came from this, their desire to control rebellion. So Roman citizens were never crucified. It was against the law. It was only given, and particularly for those who were rebelling against Rome. So just by saying Tiberius Caesar, any true Jew would have immediately had a knee-jerk reaction.

They knew where they were at because of this. Pontius Pilate, the governor who ruled on behalf of Rome, he was the one who carried out all the edict that came from Rome. Tiberius Caesar was a figurehead, but they never saw him. He rarely came into town. Pontius Pilate was the one who carried out justice.

He was the one who could make the decision whether someone was going to be crucified or not crucified. And under Pontius Pilate, we had three supposed rulers of Israel, Herod, Philip, and Lysanias, who were given certain parts of Israel. And the reason why they were given certain parts is because Herod the Great, who was not even a Jew, was established as the king of Israel by the Romans, Roman Caesar, again, the whole purpose to control the nation of Israel.

So true Jews were, again, just hearing the name Herod, it would stir in them animosity because they knew that this is the nation of God and we have somebody who's not even a Jew ruling over us. But all of these people, as bad as all of that situation politically, the situation was, Annas and Caiaphas probably did the most damage.

Most historians believe that they weren't even Levites. None of these people in position was what God said, what God promised to Abraham. This is all consequence of sin. In fact, you're only really supposed to have one high priest. And so the official high priest at this time was Caiaphas, and Caiaphas was the son-in-law of Annas.

And the reason why both of them are mentioned is because Annas didn't want to lose control. So he established a family member so that he can control what's happening in Israel through his son-in-law. So just by that definition, you can already see that these people were not ruling for the purpose of worshiping God or keeping the temple pure.

It was purely for their own power. So in every position, every one of these people that are mentioned here is a reminder to the nation of Israel that they're in this position because of their sin. This was a judgment against the nation of Israel. And this is the reason why these people are mentioned.

Again, we're 2,000 years removed, and we may just read that as, oh, these were the rulers of that time, and they just happened to be running the temple, and these were the rulers of Israel. But a first-century Jew hearing every one of these names would have stirred in them animosity because this is not what they desired.

It was a result of their own sin. So the fullness of time that is talked about in Galatian is in reference to the fullness of the weight of their sin upon Israel because the Bible says that God waited in order for what? The law to become utterly sinful so that they would recognize.

In other words, have its full course. It's not just the beginning of the rebellion. It's at the tail end of the rebellion that all that they have done, all the consequences of what they have done in rebellion against God has piled up to this point that not only the foreign emperor, not just the local governor, but their own kings and their own high priests were going against what God said in the Bible.

It was the fullness of time. In John 1, 1, it says, "He came to his own, and those who were his own did not receive him." You know, the nation of Israel talked about the coming of the Messiah probably more than any other topic. They talked about the Messiah more than anything that they talk about.

My guess is no matter what subject they were on, it would always end with Jesus is coming or the Messiah is coming. The Messiah is coming. You have political issues, you feel the suppression, oh, the Messiah is coming. You don't have money to feed your kids when the Messiah comes.

All the prophecies of what God is going to restore was fulfilled when the Messiah comes. So it was the top topic of every conversation, no matter what kind of Jew you were. The Messiah is going to fix everything. When the Messiah finally came, they were so far gone. They were so deep into their rebellion, they didn't even recognize him.

Not only did they not recognize him, they ended up rejecting him. In Luke chapter 9, 22, saying, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the third day." Why does Jesus say that he had to be rejected, not just by the nation of Israel, but he says by the elders and the leaders, the rulers of Israel?

Because the rejection of the rulers of Israel, it symbolized the complete rejection. It wasn't just some few people who didn't believe. It wasn't just a few pockets of people who didn't see it. It's like when he's rejected, he was rejected by Israel as a whole. That's what he was saying.

The leaders themselves were supposed to lead you to God, he's going to lead you away from God. Israel should have recognized the sign of the time, but they did not, because they were consumed with their own life, with their own thoughts, with their own pursuits. In the name of God, in the name of God, you sprinkle Jesus over it, give some prayer, and the Lord willing, of course God wants me to be happy.

Of course God wants me to be healthy. Of course God wants me to be a good father and a good mother. Of course God wants that. And we look at the scripture superficially and sprinkle some Jesus on it, assuming that must be from God, but when Jesus came, they didn't recognize him at all.

The whole time they were waiting for the Messiah, and they didn't recognize him. In Matthew 16, 1-4, the Pharisees, Sadducees came up and testing Jesus, they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. Prove yourself, because they couldn't tell what they were thinking he was going to be and who he was, they couldn't tell.

They couldn't connect the dots. So if you say what you say you are, and what other people are saying you are, give us a sign. And Jesus says to them, when it is evening, you say it will be fair weather, for the sky is red. And in the morning there will be storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.

Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times? How are you so aware of how this world functions? It's like, oh, if you buy the house now, it's going to go up, and if you don't buy it now, the house price is going to go down, and if you don't jump in and buy this now, the sale is coming next week, and you got to do this, and you got to do that, and you know when to buy the stocks, you know when to get into this and get into that, but he says when it comes to spiritual matters, you are so dense.

God is standing right in front of you, and you don't recognize him. The word of God is right in front of you, and you have no idea what it says. This was an indictment against the nation of Israel. The fullness of time was all that God was waiting for, to wait until the drowning man has no more power in himself.

He said it's the fullness of time. And so John is sent in the middle of this. That was the timing. And then third, the place of his calling. The place of his calling. It's also an indictment against the nation of Israel. Wilderness, again, if you study the Bible, you know it is a significant place.

It was where people were ministered. It was where Moses was, you could say, was trained for the great work that he needed to do. God didn't send Moses into the palace of Pharaoh and learn the latest technology and all the wisdom and knowledge that comes from going educated in Pharaoh's palace.

Instead, he sent them out to the desert, to the wilderness, humbling him, emptying himself. And when he realized he had nothing, he was ready. So we know that wilderness is a place of preparation. Where the nation of Israel, for 40 years, they marched around. I mean, they're about to conquer greater nations, and all they learn how to do is to march around.

He said, when I tell you to sit down, you sit down. When I tell you to get up, you get up. That was their preparation, to not to turn from the Word of God to the left or to the right. Don't be overly smart. Just read the Bible and do what it says.

That's what they were learning for 40 years. March. If I tell you not to touch it, don't touch it. If I tell you to go in, go in. If I tell you to come out, come out. Don't stand there and say, well, what does coming out mean? What is going out?

Why do I have to do it now? How come we're moving at night? Why do I have to be in this order? Why so many animals? For 40 years, they were in basic training. When your commanding officer tells you to jump, just jump. See the place of his calling to the wilderness where Jesus himself was tested before he came to ministry.

It says this is where John the Baptist grew up. He grew up there all his life. In fact, in the Qumran community, in the extra biblical history, there's a mention of a Yohanan, John, a prominent person. So most historians believe that it's a reference to John the Baptist. So he kind of grew up just like the Qumran community was an obscure community.

The only reason that we know anything about the Qumran community is because of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Outside of that, there's not much we know about them. And John the Baptist grew up probably in that community. And I think of all the things that we can highlight about what the wilderness was, I think the most practical thing that I believe that the reason why this is mentioned is because it was outside of the control of the leaders of Israel.

Because if somebody was going to be prominent in the nation of Israel, there was a system that you had to come through. You had to be a Jew. And if you wanted to be great politically, you had to work yourself to become a Sadducee. If you wanted to be a great teacher, you have to work yourself under their system and learn under the Pharisees and do what they tell you to do and grow up under that system so that they can place you in the place that they are in and maybe higher than that.

But instead, John the Baptist, who God has sent to prepare for the Messiah to come, forsook all of that. He went out to the wilderness. This is where poor people, insignificant people, uneducated people, people who have no power, people basically dropped out of society, this is where they go.

And it says it's in the wilderness that he called John the Baptist. In fact, remember in Luke chapter 21 through 7, they were asking about who the John the Baptist is. They were asking Jesus, "What authority do you have to come into this temple and yell at us and clean the temple out and tell people to get out?

What authority do you have?" Well, Jesus, knowing what's in their heart, turns the table around and he asks them. One of the days while he was teaching in the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priest and the scribes with the elders confronted him and they spoke saying to him, "Tell us by what authority you are doing these things.

So who is the one who gave you this authority?" Jesus answered and said to them, "I will also ask you a question and you tell me, was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?" Jesus already knew that they can't answer this question because these leaders functioned by the fear of man.

So whatever and however they answer this, there's going to be a segment of people who's going to hate them for their answer. He said, "Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men? They reasoned among themselves saying, 'If I say from heaven, he will say, 'Why did you not believe him?' But if we say from men, all the people will stone us to death for they are convinced that John was a prophet.'" You see the leaders hated John the Baptist as much as Jesus because they would come to get baptized by him and he said, "You brood of vipers, who told you to repent without fruit?

If your repentance is genuine, show it by your life. Stop acting in public." And that's exactly what Jesus did when he confronted the nation of Israel. He would rebuke the leaders of Israel with the same indictment. They hated John the Baptist but they couldn't get rid of him because they knew that it would be unpopular whatever they did.

If they followed him, that means they would have to genuinely repent and admit that they were wrong. If they didn't follow him, all the people who loved John the Baptist say, "Ah, these guys." So it was a no-win situation. So they were probably very thankful that Herod got rid of him.

But with Jesus, he took what John did and took him at another level. I mean the whole nation was stirred. So we can kind of see what was going on, the spiritual background of what's going on. John the Baptist's very presence indicted the whole nation of Israel. And every part of what he says about his calling, that he was, the word of God came to him, he was unlike any other prophet, the scribes, the Pharisees, these guys are just kind of regurgitating information, saying what they think and add it to the law of God, their own traditions, and put that millstone on people's necks.

It had nothing to do with the word of God. And he said, "No, John the Baptist is speaking from God directly. These people who are there suppressing their worship, the nation, as a result of their own sins, John breaks into that. And he's going to now speak for God himself." And then again, finally, it's the place of his calling itself is an indictment, in particular to the leaders of Israel.

He went outside of the system that they've created. He went outside of the schools that they created. He was outside the seminaries. He went outside of their religious institution. He went outside the temple. In fact, even Jesus, as he was doing his ministry, because his own siblings didn't believe him, he said, "If you're doing all of these things, you should go to Jerusalem.

You should go to Judea. That's where the power is. That's where the authority is, so that more and more people, so you can become a prominent person. Why are you doing over here in obscure Galilee?" It was very deliberate. In James 3, it says, "Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment." Do not be so eager to represent God, because men have gone ahead of us with such confidence and ended up in greater judgment.

Teachers must first and foremost be fearers of God. If you represent God and you are in greater fear of how people will respond because of your words, you are no longer representing God. You're representing yourself. You cannot be a man who says, "God says this," and be filled with fear of what this may lead to.

You cannot, because from that moment on, your message will be tailored to what people desire to hear. That's what was going on at this time. When Jesus ended His ministry, He ended His ministry with an indictment against the leaders of Israel. Matthew 23, 13, "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people, for you do not enter in yourself, and nor do you allow those who are entering to go in." Because of your misrepresentation of God, not only are you not bringing them in, you're preventing them from coming in.

Not only are you not going in, He said, "Everybody that trusts you will be also led astray." Matthew 23, 15, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you yourselves." Working so hard to disciple people, to influence people, and at the end of the day, they're like you and worse.

And then Matthew 23, 25, it says, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence." You're eloquent with words. You speak many words. And all of it is a presentation. Your heart is filled with bitterness, anger, pride.

He said, "You're so concerned about the external, you're almost blind to the internal, what is happening inwardly." True worship, you know, is not raising hands and singing songs. True worship is what happens here and it leads to singing songs and raising hands. But going like this doesn't make it real worship.

Singing out loud doesn't make it worship. Having great music behind us doesn't make it great worship. Having the room packed with people doesn't make it great worship. Great worship is something that happens within us because God is sanctifying us. The Word of God is rebuking us, revealing the thoughts and intentions of my heart.

And again, as leaders, and I would say I'm probably the most in danger of this because I'm the lead pastor in this church, because it's part of my job to be concerned for your souls, that there is a great temptation for me to focus all my attention on what is happening with you and not enough on what's happening with me.

And it's not done deliberately, but my job, if I do it well, humanly speaking, causes me to become an expert of who you are and a dunce of what's happening in here. Because I go, "Yeah, yeah, I'm preaching the Word of God, so I'm in front of the Word of God all the time.

All the time, you know, Monday through Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I'm in front of the Word of God." But the temptation for me is when I'm in front of the Word of God, what's in my mind isn't what is God saying to me. How is God indicting me? When I'm in front of the Word of God, my temptation is what does God have to say to you?

Every once in a while, something will creep in to convict me, but majority of the time, it can easily be what is God saying to you? Because that's my job. And I admit, I am in the position of greatest temptation for that, but you are not free from that.

How much of your attention is your frustration with other people? How much of your attention is about you? About your heart? About your drifting? About your compromise? About your sins? See, these leaders didn't become this way overnight. The leader became this way as they continued to drift, and pride began to come in, and God no longer was speaking to them, and they kept on speaking anyway.

And not only did it ruin them, but it ruined the nation. It was in this that John the Baptist was breaking in. And every part of John the Baptist was to call out this sin. And that's why the people who are hungry for God loved him. People who are trying so hard to hold on to their power hated him.

So if there's anything for us to learn, again, you know, if you didn't like this message, you're going to hate next week's message, right? Because all of this is the circumstance surrounding his indictment. Well, he's going to open his mouth, and he's going to actually start to say it.

And we're going to look at that next week. But for this week, let me conclude with this text in Hebrews chapter 13, 11 to 14. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp.

Therefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the people through his own blood suffered outside the gate. So let us go out to him outside the camp bearing his reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come. Sometimes being overly concerned about conforming is what leads you to sin.

Sometimes being overly concerned about fitting in causes you to drift from God. And being overly concerned about how people react if I say this and don't do this leads us to become blind to the truth of the word of God. Just as John the Baptist broke into this darkness of Israel, when you hear the word of God, where does God take you?

What is he calling? What are the sins that we've compromised in? What are the areas that we are blind in? And obviously you wouldn't know that or else you wouldn't be blind to it. So we come before the Lord. What areas of my life have I hardened? In what areas have I cleaned the outside but yet inwardly?

I'm allowing all kinds of sins to come in, all kinds of compromise. I become blinded because of that. And as we meditate upon John the Baptist's ministry, and again like I said, if you are offended by anything I said today, don't come next week. Because next week is at another level.

There's actual words to what John the Baptist is going to say. He's going to go deep. But if we're going to see true revival, if we're going to truly worship God, we need to know what God thinks. Not what you want. We need to know what God thinks of our situation.

What God thinks about our life. What God thinks. And that we would align our lives according to what God desires. So that we would invite God into our life. Not just our church, not just our friends, not just our circumstance, but God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we praise you, we thank you.

Lord help each one of us to honestly pray. Search me and know me. See if there's any hurtful ways in me. In me, Lord. What am I blind to? What have I excused? Where is my indulgence? Where is my pride? Where is my attention? Where is my worship? I pray, Father God, that your word would continue to speak to us, guide us, convict us.

That we may have you and you alone. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.