TOPIC:“Living In Wilderness Times”
by Rev. Dr. Reg Dunlap
TEXT:John 1:1-12, 19-23
“I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness” (1:23).
If one were to make an observation about life in this present world, I believe they may rightly describe it as a wilderness. Certainly no one has to tell any intelligent person that we are living in wilderness times - times of confusion, unrest, selfishness, complacency, and utter spiritual ruin. The plain truth is we want to live our own lives without God, without the Bible, and without any moral
That's where we are at this present time in America. We are a barren desert, desolate wasteland, adrift from all that God intended this country to be. And in wilderness times such as these there is a great need for guidance and direction to get us out of this mess. Like Israel of old, we need an army of both men and women like John the Baptist who stirred the citizens of Jerusalem and Judea as he tramped the hills of Israel proclaiming a message of repentance and deliverance.
For four hundred years God was silent. Then into that silence, into that Jordan Valley, God sent this fearless and flaming thirty-year old man to boldly proclaim the need for spiritual repentance. He was a fresh voice from God, clean and powerful for God to use in those wilderness days. This same God is looking for those He can use today. I ask: Will you be one of them?
Consider, first of all, living in wilderness times involves a DARING VOCATION. We read in verse 23 these words: “There was a man sent from God.” In that sentence there are three words that I want to call to your attention.
The words are “man,” “sent” and “God.” John the Baptist was just a man like you and me. And as a man he was “sent from God.” He was God-sent! These words describe precisely what each believer is as they live in wilderness times. We are not self-appointed ambassadors, but God-appointed . . .