Luke 3:4-6

EARNESTNESS IN RELIGION

‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough wags shall be made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’

Luke 3:4

What John the Baptist was to the First Advent, ministers of the Gospel ought to be to the Second. The text suggests the idea of earnestness—earnestness in religion—and the earnestness of which I wish to speak to you consists in a ‘prepared way’ and ‘straight paths.’

What is earnestness?

I. A fixed conviction that God loves you, that God desires to have you, that Christ is waiting to come into your heart. It is to have this well laid in your mind as a fact; and then to feel about it, ‘There is nothing like this; there is nothing in the world to be compared to this; everything else is mere dust in the balance; this is all in all. Am I Christ’s? am I safe? am I ready?’

II. It is to have made up your mind that you will be a Christian.—It is to have this as the one great object of life—above all, absorbing all, ruling all.

III. It is to have made up your mind that nothing whatever shall stand in the way—no object, however dear; no sin, however pleasant; no habit, however formed; there shall be no obstacle—nothing to grieve God wilfully, and to grieve Christ—but it should go, go to the winds.

IV. It is to have some great object in view, something steadily in hand, something you are living up to, the conquest of some particular sin which you hate, the attainment of some point in the divine life which you see before you, some good work which you will enterprise, something for love, something for God.

V. It is to be faithful and diligent in the use of means, as one who feels very weak, whose new warmth makes him feel very cold, who, in proportion to his earnestness, is painfully conscious of his sluggishness.

VI. It is to do all as in a very short time—‘My Saviour will very quickly be here.’

That is earnestness. Between such a soul and God, it is evident that all is now open, that the heart is right with God. ‘The way of the Lord’ is ‘prepared,’ and His ‘paths’ are ‘straight.’