![]() John saw that some faces were still turned to himself. His heart leaped up with joy at the sound of those words. He could have thought with indignation, “Why is He preaching the same thing? Why are they turning to Him instead of following me?”īut no, the sound of Jesus Christ crying out those unoriginal words was like heaven’s music to John. ![]() Why, those were the same words John himself had been crying for months. What was the sound of the voice John heard? That new voice cried, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand!” John had been crying, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand!” But now he had turned his own ear to another voice, a voice that made him catch his breath and strain to listen. This is how my joy is made full: by His ascending and my receding.” Then, when I hear the Bridegroom’s voice calling for the bride that I have brought, I rejoice at that sound, because He is the one who is supposed to claim the bride. My job is to prepare the bride for His coming. In fact, in the verse just before that one he explained himself: “I am the friend of the Bridegroom. Rather, he proclaimed these words as a joyful declaration. He uttered it not as a purposeful display of humility. When the absolution of grace gives the kiss of peace to the broken-hearted, the morning star fades into the dawning of the day.John the Baptist made this famous statement not just as a word of resignation to the inevitable. The stern spirit of rebuke and warning is still indispensable yet the voice of him that cries, "Repent!" knows that his voice may fade away into faint echoes and stillness, so soon as the promises of redemption and salvation are uttered by the Divine Lord. There is a Johannine message still required to disturb the fleshly equanimity and to break up the narcotized sleep of the unbeliever. However considerable their powers, they are serviceable only as they contribute to the glory, and succeed in unveiling the thee, of their Lord. ![]() They hide themselves behind the greater glory of their Lord. The ministers of the New Testament all take up the same note of Divine praise and of self-depletion as they prepare the way of the Lord to human hearts. He cannot lay down his commission, but he knows that, like prophetism, priesthood, Nazarite asceticism, and the like, it will be merged in the grander life of which he was the herald. ![]() Yet this is in complete harmony with John's repeated and continuous recognition of the preparatory and transitory nature of his own work. Some have felt the improbability of the great prophet, the ascetic reformer, acquiescing so patiently in the diminution of his influence or the virtual cessation of the primary importance of his career. I must decrease not become annihilated, though through the very completion of the purpose of my calling of God, my scope must, by the nature of the case, become narrower and smaller. His is the beginning of an eternal blessedness. His enemies must become the footstool of his feet. 7, 14 John 9:4 John 10:16 John 20:9 Revelation 1:1), he must - increase augment in power and following and great joy. He must - by a Divine necessity of things (cf. Isaiah 53:2,3,12 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him…Īcts 13:36,37 For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: …ġ Corinthians 3:5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?Ģ Corinthians 3:7-11 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance which glory was to be done away: … The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. Isaiah 9:7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. Psalm 72:17-19 His name shall endure for ever: his name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed… 'Him it behoveth to increase, and me to become less He must grow greater, but I must grow less. It is necessary Him to increase, and me to become less He must become more important, but I must become less important." He must become more important while I become less important." He must increase in importance, while I must decrease in importance. Jesus must become more important, while I become less important. It is necessary for him to increase and for me to decrease. It behooves Him to increase, but me to decrease. He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less. He must become greater I must become less.”
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