John the Baptist is one of the great characters of the Bible. His purpose was simple,

to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Jesus himself said of John

that he was the greatest of those born of women.

This greatness was not in himself, not his personality, not talent,

but his greatness was in his task, introducing people to Jesus.

Join Scott Pauley now as he leads us in a study of this great man.

Music Paulie now as he leads us in a study of this great man.

There is a term that gets used frequently for certain prominent people that I think frankly gets misused, abused, and it is this term. I hear people say, oh, he's a great man. That was a great man,

or she's a great woman. Well, the word great is a very, very relative term. In comparison to what?

In comparison to other men, perhaps that's possible. But when you compare every man to a great God,

you come to the conclusion that there's none great but God himself.

May we say it this way,

great men are people who are consumed only with the greatness of God.

The only great man is the God man, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the only great thing in any of us

is the Lord Jesus. John the Baptist understood this principle. Now, he stands on the opening pages

of the New Testament. He did not have nearly the opportunity and the understanding that we now have with the finished revelation of the New Testament scriptures.

He was looking ahead.

We are looking back.

We have more perfect understanding by the Holy Spirit.

That's why Jesus said in Matthew 11 that even the least in the kingdom of heaven would be greater than John the

Baptist, who was the greatest ever born of woman. We talked about that in our last study.

I want to bring you now to one of the things that made John the Baptist such a man, a man that

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