John the Baptist Looking Up in the WildernessBible World
1:4Mark 1:4
John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
John is the promised forerunner who prepares the way for the Lord, baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. He was appointed to the great work of preparing the way of the Lord, and God fitted him for it in the wilderness away from the cities because no school on earth could teach him. His study books were the Old Testament Scriptures, God, and the nature God had created, while the customs and practices of men were not his education and worldly engrossment had no part in the formation of his character. There in the wilderness he received from God the message to prepare the way for the Coming One, and he lived and preached there on locusts and wild honey.
He lifted up his voice in the wilderness to proclaim and prepare the way for the Messiah rather than going to men where they were, because people wrapped up in the delusive enchantments of this life are next to impossible to reach. He calls them away from scenes of a temporal character and from the hurry and bustle and confusion of the cities, bringing them into the wilderness standing under heaven's canopy where they can behold the things of God in nature. There the God of nature imbues him with the Holy Spirit to give the message of warning to prepare the way, a message of mercy to the world. He preached with earnest, fervent appeals, warnings, and reproofs that drew crowds from towns, cities, and villages, stirred consciences, and caused his fame to spread throughout the land. He drew people not by outward display to attract admiration, for his plain, coarse clothing and simple diet resembled Elijah's, eating locusts and wild honey and drinking water from the hills.
His baptism in the Jordan was a sign of cleansing from sin accompanying his call to repentance. It declared that even those who claimed to be God's chosen people were defiled by sin and needed purified hearts and lives to share in the Messiah's kingdom. People responded by coming to him in the wilderness, confessing their sins, turning from their sins in view of the announced kingdom of Heaven, and being baptized. Baptism accompanied repentance as its evidence, given only to those who repented. His work thus prepared people for Christ's ministry, for his mission was to prepare the way for Christ, whose work would complete what he had begun.
His message was God's means to prepare the way for Christ's first coming, which God would have had His church, His chosen people, unite with Him in preparing. Receiving the message and co-operating with God would have prepared the Jewish nation for the greatest Teacher the world ever knew, bringing hope, revival, and conversion. Many Jews recognized John as a prophet sent by God and received his baptism, but those who rejected the light he brought became more deeply hardened and ready to reject the evidence that Jesus was the Messiah. The priests and rulers did not receive Him, and because of pride a backsliding people rejected the Saviour, so the advantages offered to the Jewish nation passed from them to the Gentiles. Only the remnant of Israel who had kept the faith and were humble before God, Israelites indeed in whom was no guile, received Christ and became His true followers. His work of baptizing and preaching repentance in the wilderness is an experience to be repeated in every place where there is a city and where there is a town, among black people as well as white people, and the work for black people must not be abandoned in discouragement.
John is the promised forerunner who prepares the way for the Lord, baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. He was appointed to the great work of preparing the way of the Lord, and God fitted him for it in the wilderness away from the cities because no school on earth could teach him. His study books were the Old Testament Scriptures, God, and the nature God had created, while the customs and practices of men were not his education and worldly engrossment had no part in the formation of his character. There in the wilderness he received from God the message to prepare the way for the Coming One, and he lived and preached there on locusts and wild honey.
He lifted up his voice in the wilderness to proclaim and prepare the way for the Messiah rather than going to men where they were, because people wrapped up in the delusive enchantments of this life are next to impossible to reach. He calls them away from scenes of a temporal character and from the hurry and bustle and confusion of the cities, bringing them into the wilderness standing under heaven's canopy where they can behold the things of God in nature. There the God of nature imbues him with the Holy Spirit to give the message of warning to prepare the way, a message of mercy to the world. He preached with earnest, fervent appeals, warnings, and reproofs that drew crowds from towns, cities, and villages, stirred consciences, and caused his fame to spread throughout the land. He drew people not by outward display to attract admiration, for his plain, coarse clothing and simple diet resembled Elijah's, eating locusts and wild honey and drinking water from the hills.
His baptism in the Jordan was a sign of cleansing from sin accompanying his call to repentance. It declared that even those who claimed to be God's chosen people were defiled by sin and needed purified hearts and lives to share in the Messiah's kingdom. People responded by coming to him in the wilderness, confessing their sins, turning from their sins in view of the announced kingdom of Heaven, and being baptized. Baptism accompanied repentance as its evidence, given only to those who repented. His work thus prepared people for Christ's ministry, for his mission was to prepare the way for Christ, whose work would complete what he had begun.
His message was God's means to prepare the way for Christ's first coming, which God would have had His church, His chosen people, unite with Him in preparing. Receiving the message and co-operating with God would have prepared the Jewish nation for the greatest Teacher the world ever knew, bringing hope, revival, and conversion. Many Jews recognized John as a prophet sent by God and received his baptism, but those who rejected the light he brought became more deeply hardened and ready to reject the evidence that Jesus was the Messiah. The priests and rulers did not receive Him, and because of pride a backsliding people rejected the Saviour, so the advantages offered to the Jewish nation passed from them to the Gentiles. Only the remnant of Israel who had kept the faith and were humble before God, Israelites indeed in whom was no guile, received Christ and became His true followers. His work of baptizing and preaching repentance in the wilderness is an experience to be repeated in every place where there is a city and where there is a town, among black people as well as white people, and the work for black people must not be abandoned in discouragement.