Prepare the Way 1973

I'd like to read from Luke chapter 3, starting halfway through verse 2, and going all the way to the end of 17. Verse 17. The word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness.

He went into all the region about the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin. And as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

He said therefore to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, you brood of snakes, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit that be fit repentance, and do not begin to say to yourself, we have Abraham as our father. For I tell you that God is able from these stones to raise up children of Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees.

Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. And the multitudes asked him, what then shall we do? And he answered them, he who has two coats, let him share with him who has none. And he who has food, let him do likewise.

Tax collectors also came to be baptized, and he said to them, and they said to him, teacher, what shall we do? And he said to them, collect no more than is appointed you. Soldiers also asked him, and we, what shall we do? And he said to them, rob no one by violence or by false accusation, and be content with your wages. As the people were in expectation, and all men questioned in their hearts concerning John, whether perhaps he were the Christ, John answered them all, I baptize you with water.

He who is mightier than I is coming, the thon of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

We professing Christians seem to think that if we talk about a thing earnestly enough, that's the same as doing or having it. So there are multitudes of people who gladly will come together at least once a week, to hear somebody talk about how Jesus heals, how Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit, how Jesus sets the captives free, even though they never see any of that stuff happen. And there are men and women who make a very good living, talking about how Jesus changes lives, even though their words are rarely, if ever, confirmed with any solid evidence.

But the kingdom of God is not talk, but power. People didn't follow Jesus to hear him talk about healing. They came after Jesus to be healed, and then had their loved ones healed.

They were drawn to him because they could see that he actually had and exercised the power that they needed to bring about changes that had to happen in their lives. Now there's a very great difference between having that power and talking about it. And so if in any of our fellowships people aren't getting healed, if lives aren't being changed, if there's no solid evidence that that man or that woman has been baptized in the Holy Spirit, if the captives aren't really coming free, let's not pretend that they are.

Notice, when the blind man came to Jesus, and Jesus laid his hands on that man and said, can you see anything? And the man said, I see men, but they look like trees walking. Jesus didn't say, praise the Lord, brother, you're healed! Hallelujah! Jesus came back again and touched that man's eyes. He was not satisfied until he could actually, clearly see.

Never do we see Jesus exaggerating the truth. And Jesus isn't satisfied until we actually have those things which the kingdom of God is quite capable of giving us. See, faith isn't pretending that the answer has come when it hasn't.

Faith isn't saying, thank you, Jesus, glory, hallelujah, I can see clearly, when in fact you can't see clearly, when in fact men still look like trees walking. Faith is believing that God will do exactly what he says and not being satisfied with anything less. If our lamp of faith, for instance, is not actually burning, if we say it's burning, we pretend it's burning, but it's fairly flickering, what kind of shape are we going to be in when the bridegroom comes? We go dancing up to the doorway of the banquet hall with our phony burned-out lamps, but the man at the door isn't going to play our game with us.

He's going to say, where do you think you're going? You can't get in here with that lamp, it's not burning. All of us know very well that the power of God in all of our fellowships is not moving the way it was promised, the way we know it ought to be. And it's not God's fault, it's not that God got tired or fell asleep, you know, or changed his mind, you know, the problem is on our side.

In the days of John the Baptist, the religious people of Israel were playing the same game that most of us are playing. They were pretending that great things were happening up there in their beloved temple, and they were pretending that they were very eager to see the return, or the coming, rather, of the Messiah. But in their hearts they knew that most of this was mere talk.

Along comes John and announces, the things that you people are talking about and praying about so much are soon actually going to happen, and better be ready. The Christ is coming, and he's going to baptize with the Holy Spirit, and he's going to baptize with fire, and he's going to clear his threshing floor, and he's going to separate the wheat from the chaff, and if you're not ready, you're going to be burned along with the chaff. Never since those words were first spoken on the banks of the Jordan have they been more active than right now.

What John said to those multitudes, the Elijah spirit is now saying to the Church of Jesus Christ on earth. He is saying to us that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is about to baptize his church on earth in the Holy Spirit in a way that it has never experienced since his early days. This will be followed by a baptism of fire, which is not the same thing.

Don't ever let anybody tell you that it is. The baptism of fire is a baptism of suffering, persecution, and that will be followed by the judgment of the earth. Now the baptism of the Spirit of God that is about to come on the Church of Jesus Christ on earth will bring into the church all the power that it has been talking about but not manifesting.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, the Word of God in the midst of his people will cause blind eyes to open, the lame to walk, broken hearts to be healed, the captives to come free with a consistency that we have never seen. Those who open their hearts obediently to the Spirit's influence, who receive what the Spirit is trying to do to them, will very rapidly be transformed into the moral likeness of Jesus Christ. Their moral life, and that's more than their sexual behavior, but that's included.

But their entire behavior, inside and out, their attitude toward God, their attitude toward their fellow man, patience, hospitality, thoughtfulness, kindness, all the things that go up to make up our daily life, these things will begin to bear the mark in those people of Jesus Christ and it will be known that that man indeed has been baptized in the Holy Spirit, not only because he prays in an unknown tongue, although he may well do that, but because that man's life, his walk, what he does, stay in and stay out, the way he is led, hour by hour, these things bear the stamp of the Son of God, as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God, not the ones that stand still and do this but don't follow. Then will come the baptism of fire, and the saints of God who have been anointed with the Spirit of God will be up to that baptism of fire, as persecution and trial and suffering and death for many. Come upon the church, instead of being overwhelmed by these things and crushed by them, the saints of God will simply rise up in the flames and bear all kinds of, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies and abides alone, but if it dies and brings forth much fruit, God will prepare the earth for the return of his Son through a baptism of fire on his church.

In a similar way that he prepared the earth for salvation through a baptism of fire on his only begotten Son on the cross. Now the message to the church at this hour is John's message. Prepare the way of the Lord.

Now he's not talking to the world first, he's talking to us. The Spirit of God is coming. Jesus is coming to his church in a special way and he's going to cause all the promises that he made to be clearly manifested in human life.

But if his coming is blocked by our crooked, stony, cluttered hearts, he will not come to us. Oh, but wait a minute. I already have the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

What are you talking about? If you want to say that, but at the same time our living a half-baked, irresponsible, self-righteous, undisciplined, vain life, then my friend, you better remember that once the ax is laid to the root of the trees, the fact that you pray in tongues, praise God verbally, do a good deed once in a while, will not keep that ax from chopping that tree right down. In order to have the power that you know we don't have, and to get the job done we know we have to do it, the way of the coming of the Spirit of Christ into our hearts has to be clear. And God isn't going to go around clearing that path.

We're going to clear it, or it won't happen. Bring forth fruits that befit repentance, says John. Don't just talk about it.

Let's see some changes happen in your life. And see, when the tax collectors and the soldiers came to him, he didn't just get satisfied when he saw them shed a few tears or run down to the front of the church and kneel. He was not satisfied until he saw them change their ways.

And that's what repentance is. It's changing. And if you think your life doesn't need any changes, all I can say, man, is you're in bad shape.

And if you're saying, but I don't know what changes, what you really want to know, the Spirit of God will show you precisely what changes he wants. For instance, there are many of us here right now who are inexcusably prayerless. We want God to do all kinds of things for us, but we never take the trouble to really seek his face.

And even among those of us who discipline ourselves to a set amount of time in prayer every day, we'll have to admit that much of the time all we have is our minds spinning around in neutral for 30 minutes. Many of us, followers of Jesus, are thoughtless of others, and we know it, and we feel bad about it, but we never seem to get around to actually starting to show some genuine concern for that brother, or for that sister, or for that child of our own flesh. And many of us are stingy.

I don't know of a better word. You know, we're great Bible scholars. Man, we know the Bible inside out and backwards.

But we're skinflints, and we're aware of this, and we're uncomfortable about it, but we never seem to get around to sending the money order to that brother or that sister we know to be in need. And many of us allow, in our thought life, the lust of the flesh to have free reign. We never make any effort to bring our thoughts into captivity to Christ in this area, but we go right on with our fantasies of lust.

And then we wonder why our spirits seem to be so dull, why we can't seem to concentrate on the things of God. And a good number of us are gossips. We love to spend the time ripping our brother or sister's spiritual life to shreds, and our words are more like a negative prayer that actually desires, if we were to admit it, all those ugly things to be true about our brother that we say.

As the Elijah spirit just searches over the body here right now, no doubt he finds some of us to be lazy. If the evil one pampered himself for one week the way we do, he'd be out of business. And some of us are ingrained pessimists.

We don't expect anything good from God or man. And some of us are absolutely super vain. If people had any idea, the vanity that hides behind our spiritual mask of humility, they faint right out.

And we know we're vain, yet we make no effort to bring this to our Lord and ask for some kind of help. And many of us, some of the most spiritual among us, no doubt, are unforgiving. We have tremendous willpower when it comes to holding a grudge.

And many of us who have all kinds of wonderful experiences with the Lord in our daily life are irresponsible. We're just not dependable. And we get quite hurt that nobody ever seems to put any confidence in us anymore.

And we can go on with this list. And we tell ourselves that these shortcomings, as we like to call them, our shortcomings, are going to be taken care of as this Holy Spirit continues to sanctify us. But I'm going to tell you something.

If you're listening carefully, I'm sure to the Spirit of God right now, you're hearing Jesus say to you, I want you to make those things disappear. I want you to do something about that. I want you to bring forth some truth that befits repentance.

You start doing something about these things that I point out to you, says the Lord, and then you will see my Spirit move on your life and in it. There is a baptism of the Holy Spirit that is coming on the Church of Jesus Christ, followed by a baptism of fire that are utterly beyond anything we've ever seen. In fact, it's already begun all over the earth where hearts are really making the path clear.

The power comes. May God cause light to burn inside us, that we may see clearly and admit this, those things in us that are getting in the way. And may the light of the Spirit continue to haunt us and hound us and keep us awake until the path is clear enough for the Spirit of the Christ to come to us also.

I really believe that as time goes on, and when I'm talking about time, I'm not talking about years. I'm talking about days and weeks. You know, believers like this assembly right now are going to be going in two directions.

There are going to be those who are going to get drowsier and duller and duller and duller until there's nothing left. And they'll go right on going through the routine and think everything's fine until they find themselves out. And the others, and may we all be included, are going to be waking up and becoming more alert and more alive and more obedient and more concerned and more sensitive to the leadings of God than we have ever been in our lives.

And as we respond to God, God will pour out on us His Spirit in a way, I don't care how you've been baptized before, that you've never seen it in your life. And He will confirm His Word with signs following in your ministry as you've never seen this before. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we just ask that the light of your Spirit will search our hearts and deal with those excuses that we raise up and deal with that dullness of mind that we use as an escape and rip our self-righteousness, oh God, to shreds that we may today, before we leave this place, see ourselves as you see us. And that we may get some eyesight for our eyes that we may really see. And that we may find ourselves, as we repent, clothed in the armor of your righteousness, Lord, and that our filthy rags may just come off and disappear in that pool of blood.

We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.