When the leaders of Israel came to John and asked him if he were the Messiah, "he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ" (John 1:20). All he would claim to be was a voice, crying in the wilderness. There is a great difference between the voice and the Word: Christ was the eternal Word, come to perform the work of redemption. But since God’s plan includes not merely the offer of the Gospel to all the race but also the specific fulfilling in detail of all His promises to the Jews, it was necessary that the forerunner announce the Lord as the Messiah of Israel, and that Christ should come, first of all, unto His own.
When John the Baptist came to announce the Messiah, upon which set of prophecies did he draw for his preaching? A careful analysis of all the passages of John’s ministry up to the time he baptized Jesus Christ reveals the following facts: His quotations from the Old Testament are all prophecies of what we call the second coming of Christ, even though he came before the first coming of Christ. John spoke of Christ as Saviour only in one passage, and that on the day of the baptism of the Lord; and most significantly it is only in the fourth Gospel that this is recorded. "… he cried, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1: 29).
There is a great contrast between the early message of Jesus which was the same as John’s message of repentance and His later message which prepares the way for the great doctrinal utterances to be found in the epistles of Paul. There is a great difference between the Gospel of the Kingdom and the Gospel of grace. The Gospel of the Kingdom is a threat because of approaching judgment, men are warned to repent because the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. John’s ethical message was based on the nearness of the wrath to come. Men were warned to bring forth fruits meet for repentance. Those who had abundance of goods were to divide with those who had none. Petty officials were warned against betraying the public trust, soldiers were told that they were not to pillage, but to be content with their wages. This was not unlike the early ministry of the Lord Jesus. It was primarily an ethical message - "After that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the Gospel" (Mark 1:14-15).
What a wonderful sound! And yet they were terrified because sin separates. Here we see the pursuing love of God - He would not leave them in their misery and nakedness, he would speak to them. But when man is running away from God the voice of tenderness takes on tones of awe. “He uttered his voice, the earth melted” (Psalm 46:6). That is the way the voice of the Lord must have come to their fleeing hearts, in spite of the fact that all the tones of tenderness and mercy were there. And, worst of all, they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord. This is the worst of all sins. A sin against one’s own heart and life is bad, very bad. A sin that involves the soul of another is worse, much worse. But a sin that is an affront against the majesty and holiness of God is worst of all. That is why David, after he had committed such a series of sins—adultery, murder—and had betrayed his kingship by failing to lead the people and by sending his subjects to their death in battle—cried out, “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned” (Psalm 51:4). It was, of course, futile to attempt to hide from God, but sin will try any folly. “If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there!” (Psalm 139:8).
Satan says that God’s Word is not true, however the wreckage of earth and a million billion graves attest that God is true and Satan is the liar. He still clings to his lie, and it comes today in various forms. He denies the eternity of the lake of fire. He teaches the doctrines of soul–sleeping and annihilation. He preaches the doctrine of a second chance of salvation after death. Over against this, Christ said, “You will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he ...” “You will...die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come” (John 8:24, 21 RSV). The choice today is the same as it was for Eve—the Word of God or the denial of Satan.
