John's Testimony of Christ

Welcome once again to the midweek service on Wednesday night from the auditorium of Beacon Baptist Church, Kirkpatrick Road in Burlington, North Carolina. Tonight is the last Wednesday when we will be doing our service this way, as we've been doing it for a year now with COVID, namely live stream without people present for the most part, except those occasional visitors who have come to visit us.

They have dropped in and always are welcome to join us. But starting next Wednesday night, we'll be having a regular midweek service. At least for a while we'll be having both. We'll continue to live stream as well as have a service in the auditorium. But eventually, I expect we will phase out the live stream because the nature of the Wednesday night service, some of the more informal things that we normally do, do not really lend themselves very well. to a live stream situation. But for a while, we'll do both. We'll continue to live stream for those of you who are listening at home.

And I know there are quite a few of you who are doing that. But eventually, as I say, we will return entirely to our format, which we had before COVID. But starting next Wednesday at seven o'clock, you are invited to come. And I hope you will be here. We'll look forward to gathering together at that time.

I will be back leading the service next Wednesday night because Pastor Carnes and Carley are scheduled to be on vacation. The Lord looks from heaven. He sees all the sons of men. From the place of His dwelling, He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth. He fashions their hearts individually.

He considers all their works. Well, our Sunday morning schedule continues as it has for a good many months now. Meeting at 930 with people present, we're grateful for the good attendance that we have had. And we look forward to your presence here at 930 this coming Sunday morning, followed by Sunday school.

And that's the new event. We started that a few weeks ago, maybe three weeks ago. And that is well attended, and we're very grateful for that. So both services on Sunday morning, worship at 930, Sunday school to follow at 1110. It will not be long, I expect, until we'll be doing regular Sunday night services as well, but that's still being held off as we add things gradually to our schedule and make sure they're all working smoothly before we add something else to our schedule. So for now, Sunday morning people present, Sunday school people present, Wednesday night starting next Wednesday people present, Sunday night live stream only, except for those appointed special meetings that we've had several of when we gather people together for the Lord's table or other purposes on Sunday night. The Ocean City Bible Conference in New Jersey is being conducted this year.

It had to be canceled last year because of COVID, as you know. But they are planning to convene this September 12 through 15, but they are limiting the attendance to about half what they normally have in order to be able to socially distance, which means that if you're interested in attending, you need to get your intention communicated to Pastor Michael Carnes as quickly as possible, because as soon as registration opens up, the spaces are going to be filled up very quickly. Pastor Kay told us today at our weekly elders meeting that as of now he has seven people who are committed to going and several others who have shown an interest. I'm holding in my hand a baby bottle, as you can probably see on your screen, to remind you that the annual baby bottle boomerang for Alamance pregnancy services begins a week from this Sunday, not this Sunday, but the following week on Mother's Day, and continues until Father's Day. And the idea is to pick up one of these empty bottles, put whatever you can into it, change bills, checks, all are welcome, but put whatever contributions you are able into it, return the bottle, and they'll all be collected. And it becomes the major fundraiser of the year for Alamance pregnancy services.

I forget how much they raise, but it is into the tens of thousands of dollars through the change and generally small bills that are placed inside these bottles. I do make note of the fact that John and Hannah Kosovich did successfully move on, I think that was Saturday of last week, Marty and I were in Pennsylvania, but they are now at 3410 Copper Trace Drive, Hall River, North Carolina, 27258. Please make a note of their new address and welcome them into their newly constructed home. Ladies Coffee and Courage will not be meeting this coming Tuesday, but they will resume the following Tuesday, May 11 at 915 in the Fellowship Hall.

That has been their pattern, I think two weeks on, one week off if I'm not mistaken, so this coming Tuesday is a week off. Several of you have asked about messages from our recent Spring Bible Conference with Mark Webb, and the best way to access those is by going to our church website, click on, well there's something there that indicates sermons, videos, whatever, I forget what the exact word is, but you click there, it'll take you right to the site where you can download that message and literally hundreds, yes even thousands of others as well at that location. Don't forget our book of the month by Dr. Erwin Lutzer entitled We Will Not Be Silenced. That's a very important one for Christians to read in this age when there's growing hostility against all things Christian, Christian morality, Christian gospel witness, Christian beliefs, and we need to know how to address these things in a Christ honoring way, but nevertheless not to be afraid to be courageous, we will not be silenced. This hymn by N. Steele, Dear Refuge of my weary soul, On thee when sorrows rise, On thee when waves of trouble roll, My fainting hope relies. To thee I tell each rising grief, For thou alone'st can't heal, Thy word can bring a sweet relief, For every pain I feel. But oh, when gloomy doubts prevail, I fear to call thee mine, The springs of comfort seem to fail, And all my hopes decline. Yet, gracious God, where shall I flee?

Thou art my only trust, And still my soul would cleave to thee, Though prostrate in the dust. Hast thou not bid me seek thy face? And shall I seek in vain? And can the ear of sovereign grace be deaf when I complain? No, still the ear of sovereign grace attends the mourner's prayer, While may I ever find access to breathe my sorrows there. Thy mercy seat is open still, Here let my soul retreat, With humble hope attend thy will, And wait beneath thy feet. Let's look to the Lord in prayer. O gracious Heavenly Father, we confess that there are times when our faith grows weak. There are times when we are struggling to believe the promises of Your word and to apply them to our lives.

And yet, dear Lord, where else can we go but to You? You are the one true God. You are the one who sent Your Son to redeem us from our sins. You are the one who has made us gracious promises which have proved to be true in every case in our lives. And for that, O Lord, we give You praise. And to that, O Lord, we testify that You are a great and gracious God, and we have learned to rely upon You. So, Father, in the midst of trials and challenges, in the midst of this COVID pandemic that is improving and yet is still slowing us down and causing us concern, we commit our lives to You, our cares to You, our fears to You, and we trust You, O Lord God, to guide us, to guard us, to provide for us, and to bring us safely through. We pray, O Lord, that You will bless our meeting tonight by way of technology, that we may join our hearts together in worship to You, that we may lift our hearts together in praise to Your name, that we may hear with faith the word which You have given, and that we may honor You with our thoughts and with our lives this hour as we ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen. We're glad to report that Jeff Etheridge, the relative of Jane Latour, is improving. And also that Brenda Blanchard's sister, Elizabeth Lilly, has a good report from her recent cancer surgery. As we pray for our government officials, our government official of the week this week is President Joe Biden. Please uphold him in prayer. Pray for Drew Guthrie as she continues to battle cancer. Pray for Doris Loftus as she continues to recover from her broken arm. Pray for Debbie Red as she is undergoing therapy, physical therapy, for her gait ataxia and for Shirley Watkins who is home and has then made several trips, as you know, to the emergency room but has been able to return home safely from each of those events. We're glad to report that Nancy Ellis in South Carolina, the daughter-in-law of Paul and Gail Ellis, is improving, doing better.

Thank the Lord for that good report. Tony Honeycutt, the director of Piedmont Rescue Mission, underwent a heart catheterization today and is now recovering from that and awaiting the report. Aneum Meister had a traumatic brain injury, six years old. This is a friend of Sue Vestal. And also, Lee Vestal continues to have health issues, though did get some encouragement in his visits to the doctor this week. We've also been asked to pray for Reverend Benny Vickery, who has tested positive for COVID. I suppose some of you may remember when he pastored in this area, though it's been quite a while ago. I think he now lives in Rockwell, North Carolina. He would be about my age.

And my age is 73. My birthday is today, as you know. So COVID is more dangerous for people who are senior citizens, so please pray for Reverend Benny Vickery. And for David Williams, who is in South Carolina, Amy Freeman's father.

But Daniel and Amy are making plans to move her father and mother here to North Carolina to be close to them. We continue to pray for Laverne Waugh as she adjusts to the death of her husband, Stuart, and I'll read an email from her in a moment. We continue to pray for Mike Webster, missionary to France, as he is battling colon cancer, as well as Trevor Johnson, who is home because of medical issues from Indonesia, but doing better and reported recently that he's well enough now to begin to travel and to visit churches once again.

So we rejoice in that. Please pray for his continued healing and full recovery and also guidance and direction about his next area of missionary labors, whether to return to his previous field in Indonesia, or he's considering possibly someplace like Malaysia as an alternative place. And then, of course, we're praying for Paul Snyder, likewise home from Indonesia because of medical issues and also making improvement.

And he is definitely making plans to return to the field whenever the doctors tell him that he can return. We express our sympathy to the family of May Chrisman. This is Dan Hemmings' grandmother.

Dan is the husband of Abigail Carnes Hemmings, and his grandmother was 90 some years old, passed away, apparently a dear saint of God. But please pray for the family. And also for the family of Marie White, an aunt of Sue Vestal, who passed away recently. We're praying for Andrew Fleming, Amy Freeman's nephew. We're praying for John Crumpler, who's recovering from liver surgery, friend of Eddie Driver. And we continue to pray for our shut-ins and particularly Betty Duncan, who is at the moment at Cone Hospital and is considering going into a rehab facility. Not sure exactly what's in store for her in the days to come. We will return to these requests at the end of the service as we remember them before the Lord in prayer. Now, a number of missionary communications, beginning with this one from Laverne Waugh. She writes, Dear Pastor B. and Marty, as far as my coming to the States, she had expressed a desire and a hope that she could come to the States for a few weeks this summer.

That's not going to happen. She says, I will not be able to travel at least until the end of the year, if then. President Biden has put a ban on people traveling from southern Africa to the USA because of the South African variant of COVID. It is far more infectious and contagious than the original strain. She says, I think President Biden is wise because this strain is wreaking havoc in the high-density areas of South Africa. It is not as bad here as our lockdown rules in Zimbabwe are very strict and strongly enforced, so our numbers have gone down. Pastor Bob Boyd wants to come at the end of June, but I'm not sure how he is placed as an American citizen, that is, whether he will be allowed to come in the country. He will have to look into it and also monitor the situation to ensure that he doesn't walk into a third wave.

And, of course, there's always the concern about returning to the States when you have been out of the country, a lot of concerns going on at this time. She says vaccination is taking place all over Zimbabwe. We had our first shot without any negative effect, and we'll have the second in a couple of weeks.

I'm not sure of the efficacy, but I think it's only around 54 percent. As we have only two ventilators in the country and our hospitals are dilapidated and very poorly stocked, the vaccine is better than nothing and the Lord is in control. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement. I miss Stu terribly after 49 years together and can hardly believe that he is gone. His quiet wisdom and deep commitment to the Lord were a great strength to me, but the Lord has graciously given us all we need to go on in his work here. His ways are perfect.

How privileged we are to be his children. My love to you both. I greatly look forward to seeing you again as the Lord allows. That was a letter to Marty and me, and then this one to you, the church family. I'm so thankful to you all for your prayers, love, and encouragement throughout the years, and particularly this past year. Stu has been with the Lord three months now, and after feeling sad and lonely and disjointed during this time, I am at last able to begin refocusing and pushing on with the work the Lord has called us to do. Thank you for your generous gift of $3,000, which has helped toward a number of costs. In bringing Stuart home to Zimbabwe for his final week on earth, he was able to see Sarah and Lee and Steve and Shiona and Sandy, as well as the grandchildren, and spent his final week exhorting us all to trust the Lord implicitly no matter what, and to remain faithful and steadfast in serving him.

I miss him so. The works are going well in Zimbabwe. People are coming to Christ. We were recently able to baptize new believers in the river because the Lord sent good rain this season, and the rivers are flowing again.

We had to keep an eye open for crocodiles in that particular river, but all went well. Our people continue to walk with the Lord and to trust him in these economically disastrous times. Your contributions have gone a long way in alleviating the hunger and sickness that these difficult times bring, and I'm extremely grateful to you for your help. A new work is beginning in Hwangi, that's where Stuart was buried, where there is a great hunger for the word of God. I will be traveling there with different pastors to establish the Bible studies and to hold evangelistic meetings. Please pray with us for a pastor to shepherd this new flock. We now have 12 churches, and I'm very thankful for my son-in-law, Leah Rasmus, who works tirelessly with me to organize pastor salaries from South Africa because the Zimbabwe banking system has collapsed.

Most of our people live from hand to mouth in great poverty, and Leah helps me in sourcing and delivering food aid and medicine to them, most of whom have no access to any medical help. He really is a blessing and a faithful and committed servant of the Lord. I'm thankful to Sarah, too, who encourages him in the work and is happy for him to be away from home when he travels to South Africa and to the bush areas.

Once again, dear friends, my grateful thanks to you all for your constant encouragement and support for all of us in Zimbabwe, loving Christ in the world. Now, a short note regarding Tom Chapman in Chile. It says Tom Chapman spent a short time in the ER in a hospital in Antofagasta, Chile, in March, as a result of a severe headache and dizziness. He seems to be doing better now.

His headaches and eye strain problems had been worse during the last few months, limiting his reading and study time. I pray for Tom Chapman, a faithful minister of the Lord. From Jesse and Hannah Green, who thought they were already going to be on the field of their missionary service, but it hasn't happened because they're going to a country which is closed, and they have been denied access to it, and I'm not going to mention it because it's going out over the Internet, but most of you, I think, will know what country that is. And so as an alternative, they're going to a nearby country that has the same language where they can learn the language, and they've been waiting for visas to allow them entrance into that neighboring country, and this letter tells us that the visas have now arrived.

I have been excitedly waiting to send out this month's update. We were told a few weeks ago that our visas for neighboring country have been approved, but that we would have to send a couple more items before they would release them to us. Due to our experience of thinking we would get to move to target country last year, only for that to fall through, I wanted to make sure that we had visas in hand before I updated you all on this progress. Thankfully, we received our visas two days ago. This means that from a paperwork standpoint, we are ready to move to the neighboring country. We do not have specific dates yet but are looking to move in the next few months. Please pray as we plan for this move, and we'll be doing a lot of packing.

I will let you know when we have a definite date of departure. One other exciting bit of news is that Hannah is currently 15 weeks pregnant. We found out last week that we will have another boy.

He is due in the middle of October. We're thankful for your constant love, support, and prayers for us in Christ Jesse Green, along with Hannah and their two children, soon to be three. From Silas and Vonger Campos in Brazil.

Warm Christian greetings. The bad news is that as of today, COVID-19 has killed 378,530 people here in Brazil. But the good news is that more than 12 billion people have recovered. I think that probably means million. And 33 million have received the vaccine. It has to be million.

There aren't 12 billion people in Brazil. Slowly, things are getting back to normal. This coming Sunday, the government allowed us to have in-person services again, but only with 25% of our auditorium capacity.

We are happy about this return. We are, of course, spacing our seating at half capacity, 50% capacity here in our auditorium, and that seems to be working well, though as the attendance slowly, slowly increases, it has been a bit tight at times. I'm hoping we'll soon be able to open up all the pews to relieve that situation. He goes on to say, this month, our publishing ministry has released a book by Pastor Kevin DeYoung. He pastors now in Charlotte, North Carolina, formerly in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Pastor Kevin DeYoung entitled A Hole in Our Holiness.

The purpose is to denounce that among evangelicals, there's a flood of gospel-centered discussion with great focus on personal depravity, but very little emphasis on the pursuit of holiness. We pray God will use this book to edify His church in Brazil, Portugal, and Mozambique, the three countries where Portuguese is spoken. More good news is the birth of Sophia Jane McMillan. That would be a grandson of theirs. Barbara and Todd had already given us Leo and Alex, and now they gave us our 12th grandchild, five boys, seven girls.

Due to government restrictions, we were not able to be with our daughter at Sophia's birth, but through the Internet, we were able to watch her baby shower and birth. We thank God for the love and assistance they received from their local church in Lynchburg, Virginia. Folks, thank you for your prayers and support. We love you in Christ.

Selos and vonger campos. I have one more letter. This is from the Gutamans in Alaska. We had a bunch of snow towards the end of March and the beginning of April. Snow melting now, and we have swapped snow boots for rubber boots. Andy is finishing up CFI. That would be, let's see, some kind of flight instruction, commercial flight instruction, and plans to take his check ride soon.

Lots of aircraft maintenance happened over the winter months. Summer preparation is well underway, and we are looking forward to a full summer season of ministry. And they have a lot of pictures, a lot of photos here, which I can't share with you, of course, but it's good to look at them and see Andy and Trish and the children are growing, growing, growing.

You wouldn't believe how big they're getting. And then this, pray for ministry connections and meaningful relationships. Much of our work is behind the scenes, but please pray for opportunities for us to be a witness for Christ. Pray for the interactions that Andy has through KIC ministry, but also our relationships with the people in Palmer.

That's the city where they live. Pray that we might manage the moods of the season in Alaska. Summer and winter hold different challenges.

That, of course, is because of the extreme hours of daylight in the summer and the extreme hours of darkness in the winter, the summer where it's almost all light and never gets really dark or only for short periods, and the winter, it's just the opposite. It takes a real toll on people emotionally, psychologically. We need to be aware of how we are affected during these times and how to take care of ourselves. Overall health and wellness is doing better as we prioritize exercise and healthy living.

We are not strangers to healthy living, but it has not been in its rightful priority over the past year. Please pray for our children. Pray for all the kids' things you can think of. Pray for the Kingdom Air Corps missionary families. Pray for summer preparations which are underway as we are praying for a fruitful summer. And in regard to financial support, we always take our requests to the Lord and ask that He meet our needs.

Pray for wisdom in all situations, ministering, parenting, finances, marriage, schedules, and decision-making. And that is love in Christ from Andy and Trish Goodman in Alaska. And now open your Bibles with me to John chapter 1. We've been working through the prologue of the Gospel of John on Wednesday nights. We have completed our study down through verse 14, which was our study two weeks ago, the last time I was in the pulpit on Wednesday. And tonight we're going to look at the final verses of the prologue, verses 15, 16, 17, and 18. The first 14 verses are basically a revelation of who Jesus is, namely the eternal God, one with the Father, creator of the world, and so forth. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The last four verses, 15, 16, 17, 18, are about the proclamation of who Jesus is.

We'll see that tonight. Let me read the prologue and then we'll get right into tonight's study. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness to bear witness of the light 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, which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.

He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, This is He of whom I said, He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me. And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. John is writing this gospel, as you recall, to convince his readers that Jesus is the Christ. That Jesus the man, the babe born to Mary, the young man who grew up in Nazareth in a carpenter shop, the man who walked the hills and valleys of Galilee and walked the streets of Jerusalem and preached to the multitudes and performed many miracles.

This man, Jesus, is, was and is the Christ, the Messiah, the appointed one by God to be the Savior of the world. And John writes his gospel to convince his readers that that is true so that you might believe. He tells us in the next to last chapter of his gospel that these things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life in His name.

Well, having now in the Proglog log set before us this amazing portrait of who Jesus is, the Word, the eternal Word, one with the Father, Creator of the universe, who nevertheless left heaven's glory and came to earth, the Word was made flesh and dwelled among us. And now having presented this one whom he calls the Word, he now gives us four testimonies about Christ and what are they? Number one, the testimony of John. Number two, the testimony of the apostles. Number three, the testimony of Moses. And finally, number four, the testimony of God the Father. First of all, the testimony of John.

Back to verse 15. John bore witness of him and cried out saying, This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me is preferred before me, for he was before me. What does John tell us about this one? Well, John's testimony is characterized by at least five things. Number one, his testimony was a faithful testimony.

John bore witness of him. That's what he was sent to do, of course. He was sent as the forerunner of Christ. He was sent to proclaim to the nation of Israel that the promised Christ had now come. He was sent to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord.

That was his commission. He carried it out faithfully. John bore witness of him.

And we say thank God that he did, but I pause to ask a question. Have you been commissioned to tell anything about this one, and have you been faithful to your commission? John's testimony was faithful. Secondly, John's testimony was fervent. John bore witness of him and, what does it say? Cried out saying, This was he of whom I said.

Cried out. He was fervent. He was insistent. He was energetic. He was enthusiastic. He would not be silenced. He was not timid. He did not hide his witness under a bushel. He cried out with this testimony about Jesus the Christ. His testimony, third, was clear.

This is he of whom I spake. The one he just described, or the one who has just been described by the apostle John, is the one that John the Baptist said, This is the one of whom I spoke. And on at least one occasion, he said something similar when Jesus was walking toward him across the plain to the place of John's baptism by the River Jordan. And as Jesus was coming to John, John pointed him out to the crowd that was gathered around him and said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Nothing could be more clear than that.

Nothing ambiguous. Nothing hidden, veiled, mysterious, unclear, perfectly clear who he was talking about, who he was identifying as the promised Messiah. Behold, there he is, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. His witness was clear. We can also note, number four, that his witness was humble. He was deferential.

What did he say? This is he of whom I said, He who comes after me is preferred before me, for he was before me. You might look at those words several times before we come to an understanding of exactly what he was saying. What he was saying is that he who came after me is greater than I. He surpassed me. But he's also saying he that came after me preceded me. He that came after me in birth, for as you know, John was born first and then Jesus came a few months later, about three months later, as I recall. So John came first. Jesus came second. But John says he preceded me. He came after John in ministry.

Who came on the scene first? John the Baptist. He came preaching, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

He called men and women to repentance and to the baptism of repentance, and crowds came to hear him and to be baptized by him. And then after that preceding ministry to prepare for Jesus, Jesus came on the scene. And so in terms of ministry, John came first. Jesus came second.

He came after me. And yet he says he is preferred before me, that is greater than I am, for he was before me. Now, in what sense could the one who was born second be before the one that was born first? In what sense can the one whose ministry came second be before the one whose ministry came first?

And the answer has already been given to us in the prologue. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through him, and without him was nothing made that was made, and so forth. He is before John because he is eternal. He is before John because he was with God before John was ever conceived, thousands of years before John was ever conceived. He is before John because he had no beginning, as John did.

In the flesh, of course, he had the beginning in the womb of the Virgin Mary. But as to his essence, as to his true identity, as to who he was, he is not only preferred before John, that is of greater eminence, of greater honor, of greater position, but in his existence, he is way before John. John recognized that. John stated that. John showed true humility. He said on another occasion, he must increase, I must decrease.

What other reaction could a God-fearing person have in the presence of the eternal deity who has come to earth? This, of course, could be the only proper position, to be humble before him and to take one's proper place, but how many of us, in our sinful depravity, find ourselves jockeying for position, wanting to be preferred above others, hopefully, surely not above Jesus Christ himself, but many times unwilling to take the servant's place, many times unwilling to esteem others better than ourselves, many times unwilling to be last, like Jesus taught us to be when he said that the first shall be last and the last first. But John showed the proper humility in his testimony. But his testimony was not only faithful and fervent and clear and humble, it was also effective. He bore witness. John bore witness of him. And his witness was effective. Many were pointed to Christ by the witness of John. Many continue to be pointed to Christ by the witness of John, recorded in the Bible and still speaking 2,000 years after John has left this earth. John shows us what it takes to be a good testimony, a good witness for the Lord Jesus Christ. What does it take?

It takes, number one, knowledge. We've got to know something if we're going to witness it. What does it mean to be a witness, to be a testimony? It means to testify, to tell of something that we know assuredly. What does a witness do in a courtroom? The witness says, I saw such and such. You don't testify in court unless you know something for certain. It takes knowledge to be a good testimony. It takes zeal to be a good testimony. You can't be excessively timid.

You can't be an introvert, though there are people, of course, with that personality. But with God's help and grace, they're going to have to push themselves out. They're going to have to push out of their comfort zone.

They're going to have to push out of their natural seclusion in order to boldly, like John, cry out a testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ. What does it take? It takes dependability.

It takes perseverance. It takes stick-to-itiveness, like John. We look at the ministry of John and we say, my, what an effective ministry, what a God-blessed ministry, what a large ministry.

Crowds followed him. But I am certain, because I know how these things go, that there were times when John said, I'm not accomplishing anything. I'm not seeing national revival like I hoped to see and thought I would see. I am not seeing the religious leaders repenting.

I've had to tell them to go away. Who told you to be baptized, come back when you bring fruits that are suitable for repentance? There are a lot of things about the ministry of John that had to be very discouraging to him. And there were times, I'm sure, when he felt like saying, I quit. It's no use. I'm not accomplishing what I wanted to accomplish.

I'm not accomplishing what God sent me to accomplish. But he didn't. He didn't stop. He kept on. He was dependable. He was persevering. He was a good testimony. What does it take to be a good witness for Jesus Christ? It takes clarity. We not only need to know something, but we need to articulate it clearly.

That requires some work. I'm amused from time to time thinking about myself. I'm amused from time to time when people who don't know much about ministry ask about the mechanics of preaching. I had a relative who is now no longer living, actually a relative of my wife, who we fervently hope and pray came to Christ before he died. We really feel like the Lord put us in contact with him after decades of no contact whatsoever.

He came right here to Burlington. We had a good chance to talk to him. But he knew nothing about the Lord, nothing about the Bible, nothing about the Christian religion, nothing about the ministry. And he said, knowing that I was a preacher, he said, What do you do for your servants? Do you just pick out a verse and just sort of talk about it? He was talking in terms of just winging it, just saying whatever comes to your mind, just gabbing about what comes to your mind.

And I said, No, my dear friend, it's not like that. I spend many, many hours preparing to preach. It takes hours of preparation to understand a text and, hopefully, to explain it clearly. It takes more than simply studying and understanding it.

That's step number one. You can't make clear what you don't understand. But it takes several hours, beyond studying a text, it takes several hours of whittling the confines, the contours of how this is going to be presented so that it will be clear, so that it will be understandable, so that it will be plain. That's part of what it takes to be a good testimony. I'm sure that I don't always do it well.

I'm sure that I often don't do it as well as I want to. I think I've told you that there have been a few times in my years of ministry when somebody has said something to me like, You've been preaching a long time. What's your best sermon? And my response is always the same. The next one.

The next one. I never, never preach as well as I want to. No sermon is as good as I want it to be.

But, hopefully, by God's grace, the next one is going to be better than the last one and better than any before it because I keep working for understanding and clarity to make the message clear and plain. Well, John certainly manifests that. And then, finally, what does it take to be a good witness of Jesus Christ? It takes humility. You can't be proud. You can't be boastful. You can't be full of yourself.

You can't be more interested in yourself than you are of others. You're not here to just lambast people with truth. You are here to humbly love them, to empathize with them, to feel their need, to feel their burden, to understand their bondage to sin, and to humbly reach out to them as one beggar to another. The only difference between yourself, if you're a Christian, and the person that you are trying to tell the Gospel to, the only difference is that God has given you bread. You are a beggar who has found bread by the grace of God, and now you are a beggar who is trying to point others to the source of that bread, who is Jesus Christ, the bread of life. And so we're all beggars, dependent upon the mercy of God, hoping, desperately needing to receive eternal bread, eternal life from God Himself. And we need to understand that as we humbly approach others with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And when we testify in this way, our labors by the help and grace of God will often be effective.

There are, as you know, no guarantees. We can't push a button and say, I do this, one, two, three, four, A, B, C, D. I will have these results, E, F, G, and H. There's no such formula in the Bible. It all depends upon the Spirit of God. It all depends upon the sovereignty of God. The wind, as Jesus said in John chapter 3, speaking of the Holy Spirit, the wind blows where it desires.

You hear the sound, but you can't tell where it's coming from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. We can't save a single soul.

We are dependent totally upon the sovereign work of God. But He is in the business of saving souls. He is in the business of rescuing people out of their lost condition. He is in the business of taking the Gospel proclaimed by Christians and opening the hearts of sinners that need to be saved and enabling them to understand the Gospel and kindling them to life so that they might receive the Gospel and might believe in Jesus Christ and might be eternally saved.

He's in the business of doing that. And so we have the expectation, the hope, the anticipation every time we go forth with the Gospel that God by His mercy and power may very well use that message, that effort, that labor, that testimony to birth some sinner into His eternal kingdom. If He were done with the work of salvation, then surely the Lord would have already returned and eternity would have begun. But He tarries His coming.

Why? So that others who are now perishing will come to Christ. He's long suffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. What a merciful God. What a gracious God.

What a saving God. He uses our feeble efforts, weak and sinful though we be. Nevertheless, John the Baptist was not a perfect man.

He had some rather odd things about him. But God used him because he was faithful in proclaiming the message of the Gospel. And God will use His children who will witness for Him like John did with knowledge and zeal and perseverance and clarity and humility. We have great reason to believe that God will use that to the eternal salvation of souls.

And now let's join our hearts together in prayer. Father, You are sovereign in all the worlds You made. You are sovereign in the work of salvation. You alone, O Lord, are able to bring dead men to life, to give sight to the blind, to give ears to the deaf. You alone, O Lord, are able to take those souls that are broken and maimed by sin and heal them and bring them to health, to life, to vitality, to eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ.

You are able. You have done it for us. And You are able to do it for others. And for this we give You praise. We thank You that Jeff Etheridge is improving. Please continue, Lord, to minister to his needs.

We thank You that Elizabeth Lilly has successfully completed her cancer surgery and has received an encouraging report. We pray, O Lord, for the leaders that You have placed over us. We pray for the President of the United States, Joseph Biden.

O Lord, we know that he is in that office because You have appointed him to that position. And we realize, O Lord, that though he may not be consciously doing this, he is indeed fulfilling Your purposes in that office. But Father, we pray for him. We pray that You might guide him, that You might direct him. We pray, O Lord, that You might give him wisdom beyond which he has at this time. We pray, O Lord, that You will frustrate any desires and designs that he has that are not honoring to Christ and are not good for the people over whom he is President.

We pray, O Lord, that You will work mightily in his life as he has such influence and power in the United States of America. We pray for Drew Guthrie, this dear sister. Please draw near to her as she battles cancer. And Doris Loftus, that she might be brought to full recovery. And Debbie Redd, that you might help her as she learns to walk more freely, more capably again. And for Shirley Watkins, that you might strengthen her in her declining condition. We thank you that Nancy Ellis in South Carolina is doing better.

Continue to strengthen her. We pray for Tony Honeycutt that you might give him a good report from his heart catheterization and that you might keep him strong and able to continue to lead this ministry in our town that has been such a blessing to so many. We pray for Nahum Meister, the six-year-old with a brain injury. And for Lee Vestal as he battles various health issues. And for Reverend Benny Vickery as he's now dealing with COVID. We pray that you might bring him through safely through this disease that we know can take lives. We pray for David Williams, Amy Freeman's father, and for his special needs.

And also for her mother, Naomi Williams, and the different set of needs that she has. We pray for Laverne Waugh. We pray for missionary Mike Webster. We pray for missionary Travis Johnson. We pray for missionary Paul Snyder. We pray, Lord, for those who have lost loved ones. For the family of Mae Chrisman and the family of Marie White. We are also praying for Ander Fleming that you might work powerfully within his soul. And for John Crumpler, who's recovering from serious surgery. And for Betty Duncan, who is in a great deal of pain. And now, Lord God, receive our prayers. Receive them by the merits of your own Son, by the perfect righteousness which is His, which has been given to those who trust in Him. Receive our prayers and answer them according to your perfect will. We ask in Jesus' name, Amen.