Isa. xl. 3.—Matt. iii. 3.
Seven hundred years before our Lord Jesus was born, in Bethlehem, the
Prophet Isaiah foretold that a man would live in the wilderness, and
would cry aloud, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord! Make straight in the
desert a highway for our God! . . . The grass withereth and the flower
fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand for ever! . . . O Jerusalem
that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it
up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!" That
was the prophecy, and we read the fulfilment in the Gospels of Matthew
and John.
"In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of
Judæa, and saying, Repent ye: for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. For
this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, The voice
of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make
His paths straight!"
Do you not think that John the Baptist must have felt greatly honoured
to know that he was this messenger of the Lord?
He was the cousin of the Lord Jesus. And before John's birth, an angel
told his father, Zacharias, that his name was to be John, and that he
should be great in the sight of the Lord, and should preach in the
spirit and power of Elijah, and make ready a people prepared for the
Lord.
It was John the Baptist who, you remember, had the great honour of
baptizing the Lord Jesus; and it was he who uttered one of the most
wonderful sentences in the Bible: "Behold the Lamb of God, Which taketh
away the sin of the world."