The Man God Uses

THE MAN GOD USES

This morning I would like to speak on the subject, “The Man God Uses”.

- John 1:6, 19-23; 3:22-36

- Pray

I would like you to think this morning, about what a great time this was. More than 4000 years before this date, there in the Garden of Eden, God had promised the coming of One Who would crush the serpent’s head with His heel. Thousands of years had passed since that prophecy, and the Messiah had not come.

But now, in the fullness of time, only 30 years before, God had sent His Son, Jesus Christ to come as man’s Messiah. For 30 years Jesus had been growing in obscurity. Now, finally, Jesus, the Only Begotten Son of God, the Promised One, the Messiah, was about to begin His 3-year earthly ministry. And how did God decide to announce the arrival of His Son? How did God, in His infinite and infallible wisdom, decide to launch the work of His Son? He sent a man! There was a man sent from God whose name was John.

Many, wanting to start a new campaign, would advertise. They would post flyers. They would send a herald through the streets, but not God. God used none of those methods. He didn’t send angels dragging banners behind them. He didn’t send chariots, writing their flaming messages across the sky. God sent a man. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. God sent a man.

When God wanted to prepare the way for His people in Egypt, He sent Joseph, a man. When God wanted to deliver His people and carry them to the Promised Land, He sent Moses, a man. When God wanted the walls restored in Jerusalem and for worship to be reestablished, He sent a man, and when God wanted to announce the arrival of His Son Jesus Christ, He sent a man.

May God forgive us. While we spend time looking for better programs, God is looking for better people. “While men look for better methods, God looks for better men” (E. M. Bounds).

We look at the news, and we look at our nation, and we try to figure out what we can do to turn things around. Let me tell you; that turn around starts with God’s people living and acting like God’s people. That turn around will succeed, and America will be great again, not when a certain party is in power; but when God’s people are active in prayer.

What did the Lord promise?

> 2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Turning around our nation, begins with turning around God’s people.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John.

Dear Lord, please give us more men and women in love with You and on fire for You. Lord, please give us more men and women who understand that heaven is sweet and hell is hot, and who understand that we have a mission assigned by Jesus Himself; to not only go to heaven but to take as people with us as we can.

This morning I believe we can see in the life of John, the Herald of Jesus Christ, several characteristics that must be in place in the person, in the man God uses.

I. THE MAN GOD USES IS A MAN ON FIRE FOR GOD

- Matthew 3:1-2

“In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea.” Preaching. The word translated there as preaching means “to herald, to trumpet, to proclaim, to preach.” It is a word filled with passion. You see my friends; John was on fire for Jesus. There was passion; there was fire in his words and in his heart. He was on fire for Jesus.

Many of you remember the movie from several years ago about the Titanic. Let me ask you, “What was the difference between the water that floated that ship, and the iceberg that sunk it?” The only difference was the temperature. Warm or hot water would float the ship, and water too cold would sink it. (W. A. Criswell, in his sermon The God-sent Man).

What the church doesn’t need today is more lukewarm, Mama-called, half-hearted, half-committed, fair-weather, when it’s convenient, only-on-Sunday, Christians; without enough power of God in them to blow a fly off a fruit bowl. Our nation is filled with compromising, Christ-denying, chameleon-Christians; who are no longer serving as salt and light.

The man God uses will be so on fire for God that he is able to say with the apostles, “I am unable to stop speaking about what I have seen and heard.”