back to index2022-09-04 Baptism of Repentance
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If you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 3, I'm going to be reading starting 00:00:14.360 |
But we're going to be dealing with the whole section all the way up to verse 14 today. 00:00:25.920 |
"And he came into the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance 00:00:32.040 |
And it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, 'The voice of one 00:00:35.560 |
crying in the wilderness, "Make ready the way of the Lord. 00:00:38.960 |
Make his path straight; every ravine will be filled, and every mountain and hill will 00:00:44.640 |
The crooked will become straight, and the rough roads smooth, and all flesh will see 00:00:50.840 |
So he began saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized by him, 'You brood 00:00:54.520 |
of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come. 00:00:58.120 |
Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, "We 00:01:03.720 |
For I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. 00:01:08.640 |
Indeed the axe is already laid at the root of the tree, so every tree that does not bear 00:01:12.320 |
good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.'" 00:01:17.920 |
Heavenly Father, we pray for your Holy Spirit's power to move us, guide us, open our ears 00:01:26.600 |
that we may hear from you, soften our hearts that we may be easily molded to be what you 00:01:35.240 |
You are the potter, we are the clay, and we are ready to hear your word. 00:01:43.240 |
You know, I didn't mention the two things I, again I forgot to mention is next Sunday 00:01:49.640 |
the cry room is going to be moved to the other side, okay? 00:01:53.240 |
We're trying to prepare for the students coming and so we're going to get all that ready by 00:01:59.240 |
And so starting from next Sunday we're going to be having the cry room. 00:02:03.400 |
It'll be a little bit easier to, if you have children you need to watch. 00:02:06.840 |
There's going to be a big screen set up, so just kind of be ready for that. 00:02:11.720 |
And then we're going to be opening up that area, at least the windows are going to be 00:02:14.240 |
gone and we're going to take extra seats to be seated over there. 00:02:19.440 |
The other thing is we're picking up India Mission trip again this winter and so the 00:02:27.560 |
We only have a few more spots left and so there's going to be a short trip where we 00:02:31.280 |
leave on the 20th, come back on the 20th and come back on the 28th. 00:02:34.760 |
If you are an eye doctor, we need you more than ever so you'll get first priority because 00:02:44.560 |
It is a medical mission trip but we need more assistance than doctors normally but it just 00:02:49.520 |
happens that this year we need some more eye doctors to go. 00:02:54.680 |
And because there's only a small space, I actually need to know today. 00:03:01.840 |
So during service just raise your hand and I'll know, okay? 00:03:05.280 |
So actually Cross Life has always joined us in this and so they're going to tell me a 00:03:10.320 |
few people that they're able to go so we're going to have to lock up the spots today. 00:03:14.560 |
So if God is speaking to you now, right, just as soon as possible if this is on your heart 00:03:20.720 |
and again especially if you're an eye doctor, please let us know, okay? 00:03:25.040 |
Well along with that, you know years ago when we first started going out to India, we were 00:03:31.660 |
actually warned not to go and the reason why is because this place that we were going was 00:03:37.520 |
so deep in the boonies that even the missionaries who were stationed down in the big city in 00:03:42.640 |
Bangalore were telling us that they don't venture out beyond two hours because after 00:03:49.880 |
There's Hindu nationalists who basically has free reign and they're telling us that this 00:03:54.680 |
road is going to take us five hours into the boonies and so if something happens, it's 00:03:59.440 |
going to be very difficult to get us out because there's nobody there to help us. 00:04:02.880 |
So you know, prayed about it and we thought this work is important enough and so I remember 00:04:08.440 |
the first year we did go, you know, we had the pastors not just here but outside the 00:04:13.980 |
church praying for us and those of you, there's some of you who are here that went that first 00:04:18.640 |
year in particular, we kind of had to tell people to make sure you get everything in 00:04:23.880 |
You know, if something happens, make sure that you know, that people are able to be 00:04:29.600 |
prepared and I remember before I left, I had to leave like, you know, make sure Esther 00:04:35.680 |
There's nothing hidden and then so you know, I didn't want to scare her but at the same 00:04:39.320 |
time where we were going was not a safe place to go. 00:04:43.340 |
And so when we got there, we got on onto a car and about there was about an hour worth 00:04:49.360 |
of road that was paved and after that it was like basically one road, dirt road, another 00:04:54.500 |
four hours into deep part of where we were going and all of us, even though we're laughing 00:05:01.960 |
You know, we're nervous because we don't know if something does happen here, you know, man, 00:05:05.000 |
this is a long way to go on this dirt road to come back. 00:05:08.260 |
And so, you know, that's kind of how it started and so obviously each year we got more, more 00:05:13.840 |
accustomed and so one of the things that I've noticed through the years, especially in the 00:05:18.680 |
last maybe about three to four years, that there was a big sign, I think starting from 00:05:25.860 |
So you know, before all the factories were out in China and Vietnam and so a lot of them 00:05:30.460 |
are starting to come into India and Hyundai bought a huge, you know, part of land over 00:05:35.300 |
there and so every year we went, we saw a little bit more, a little bit more being developed 00:05:39.580 |
and now when we take that road, it's become actually one of the best highways, better 00:05:45.540 |
It's like four lane highways on both sides and because it's headed out to nowhere other 00:05:49.180 |
than to Hyundai that it usually doesn't have much traffic. 00:05:52.900 |
So you have what used to take us about five and a half hours to get to where we go, now 00:05:57.020 |
it's about three and a half and it saved us maybe about an hour, hour and a half of driving 00:06:01.540 |
and right up to Hyundai, you know, right all of a sudden in the middle of nowhere you'll 00:06:06.220 |
see Korean barbecue, you know, Korean spa, Korean, you see Korean signs everywhere in 00:06:12.060 |
the middle of India, you know, and then all the roads right up to that and then right 00:06:16.660 |
as you pass Hyundai, it gets back to the old roads, you know. 00:06:21.880 |
Obviously we knew something important was coming because of these roads, right? 00:06:26.380 |
Hyundai has invested so much money right there and then they said over 30,000 people who 00:06:33.400 |
have come just to work in that area and obviously they're, you know, wealthy people, executives 00:06:38.560 |
and so they have to build all this infrastructure just to get this company to come in. 00:06:42.560 |
Obviously you know where I'm going with this, right? 00:06:45.820 |
This road was invested because without these roads you can't get there. 00:06:50.340 |
The text says in Luke 3, 4 to 6, that was the whole purpose of John the Baptist. 00:06:56.020 |
Before Christ can come, John the Baptist was sent ahead of him to prepare the best roads 00:07:01.260 |
to get to the Messiah and the way it was explained, he says, every ravine will be filled and every 00:07:06.940 |
mountain and hill will be brought low, the crooked will become straight and the rough 00:07:10.740 |
road smooth and all flesh will see the salvation of God. 00:07:14.720 |
So he was to basically prepare the road for the coming of the Messiah. 00:07:19.940 |
So when we think of John the Baptist's ministry, right, when he comes on the scene, he doesn't 00:07:28.780 |
Their caterpillar, you know, wasn't there at that time. 00:07:36.920 |
In fact, there's no record of John the Baptist performing any miracles. 00:07:41.840 |
So this that he's been called to do, to do, you know, basically lower the mountains and 00:07:46.740 |
fill the ravines, all of this was by one thing. 00:07:51.180 |
All we know about John the Baptist that he was a preacher. 00:07:55.100 |
The way he was going to prepare for the coming of Christ, the way he was going to prepare 00:07:58.240 |
the road that's going to lead to Christ was through his preaching. 00:08:03.440 |
And so we need to recognize what his preaching was. 00:08:06.980 |
If his preaching and his message was primarily to get us to God, what was the content of 00:08:16.620 |
His preaching is described for us in that prophecy of Isaiah as voice of one crying 00:08:26.020 |
You know, the funny story about when we were doing construction in this building, we had 00:08:29.660 |
contractors here, you know, putting windows and fortifying that room over there. 00:08:34.380 |
And it used to be a racquetball court in that room that where everybody's in right now. 00:08:40.500 |
And they would ask him, what is this room for? 00:08:46.480 |
And you can see the confusion on their face, like, oh, cry room, cry room. 00:08:50.780 |
And they didn't ask me right away, but eventually they got, they were curious and it's like, 00:08:59.420 |
And it never dawned on me that that's how they would hear it because they're not Christians. 00:09:03.900 |
And so I initially, I was like, you know, for the babies, right? 00:09:09.260 |
And so now I have to explain to them, so, you know, young parents who have young children 00:09:13.420 |
and if they cry, so we call it the cry room, but it's really for parents with young children. 00:09:17.060 |
It's like, oh, that's what that means, right? 00:09:19.780 |
When he says crying in the wilderness, it's not just referring to John the Baptist went 00:09:28.180 |
Crying meaning like he was proclaiming with passion, crying, like crying out loud. 00:09:36.220 |
And you know, when I think of John the Baptist being described as preaching, crying out, 00:09:42.380 |
I think of Jonah, you know, the prophet, maybe exactly the opposite, you know, a reluctant 00:09:48.700 |
prophet who literally had to have his arms twisted to go into Nineveh and preach a message 00:09:55.620 |
of repentance, knowing that if they repented, that God would forgive them. 00:10:01.580 |
So when he went to Nineveh, I would imagine that Jonah was not crying. 00:10:10.180 |
He whispered, you know, as he was walking along, it's like, "Have you ever repented 00:10:19.620 |
Somebody who is saying something that they really don't care, they're just going to do 00:10:24.460 |
I can see Jonah is the exact opposite of John the Baptist. 00:10:29.580 |
And despite the fact this weak preacher, revival broke out in Nineveh. 00:10:35.260 |
Well, John the Baptist was sent and he was crying out and he was pleading with the nation 00:10:44.460 |
But his primary message, in fact, we don't have many things that we know about what John 00:10:50.740 |
His primary message is recorded in verse three. 00:10:52.700 |
It says, "He preached the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins." 00:11:01.020 |
Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 00:11:04.380 |
Now, preaching repentance is not new to John the Baptist. 00:11:10.220 |
If you study any part of the Old Testament prophets, their primary message was the same 00:11:21.980 |
That because you've rebelled against God, yet you do not obey his commandment, judgment 00:11:27.160 |
But what makes John the Baptist's preaching unique? 00:11:34.340 |
Again, in order to understand exactly what's going on, why baptism of repentance is described 00:11:41.420 |
to his message, is baptism, the ceremony in and of itself, was not created new from John 00:11:49.660 |
In fact, that ceremony of being dunked into the water and come out, in fact, the word 00:11:59.280 |
That ceremony was kind of similar to what we do today in our society, like an invocation 00:12:07.180 |
Many of you who are in the medical field, after you graduate and before you become, 00:12:12.000 |
you know, like sent out to do your work, you have a white coat ceremony where they put 00:12:16.580 |
that coat on you, and that's to kind of separate you from your civilian life so that you can 00:12:23.260 |
And so it's an act of dedication, that now you're getting special permission to do this 00:12:31.060 |
Well, baptism ceremony itself at that time in the secular world was used kind of like 00:12:37.020 |
And in particular, when somebody decided to serve as a servant in politics in Athens, 00:12:45.380 |
they would have the ceremony signifying that they're putting down their civilian life and 00:12:53.200 |
So they're no longer civilians, but they are being ordained specifically to serve their 00:13:00.440 |
And the reason why they dunked is to signify exactly what it signifies to us, that your 00:13:05.040 |
old life is dead and that now you're going to begin to live a new life. 00:13:09.360 |
So just by saying baptism, people would have understood that that's what it is, is a special 00:13:17.380 |
But John's baptism is not just described as baptism, but the baptism of what? 00:13:26.960 |
But baptism, the word in and of itself, metanoia, means to change your mind. 00:13:31.600 |
So meaning it wasn't just an external where you are living externally one way, and then 00:13:41.480 |
It required repentance, a complete transformation and putting away internally and externally 00:13:50.080 |
In fact, John became so prominent in his generation, Josephus, a Jewish historian who's not a Christian, 00:13:57.800 |
who recorded much of what was going on in Christianity at that time. 00:14:02.600 |
Josephus in his writing actually mentions John the Baptist, and he says this, "John's 00:14:11.320 |
You know, all the other baptism, it was just, they were just kind of going from dedication 00:14:15.660 |
from one way of life to a new way of life externally. 00:14:18.040 |
But it says John's baptism required a cleansed soul. 00:14:21.860 |
Even Josephus, a non-Christian historian watching what was going on, understood what it meant 00:14:32.600 |
I think one of the best illustrations that I see in the New Testament of true repentance 00:14:37.600 |
is Apostle Paul, you know, where he, before he met Christ, you know, he was willing to 00:14:43.120 |
murder in the name of God, thinking that he's doing God a favor. 00:14:46.640 |
But then he meets Jesus and the road to Damascus, and he completely is thrown off. 00:14:53.640 |
Everything that he knew was wrong, and he becomes blind for three days. 00:14:58.200 |
Can you imagine for three days what was going on in his mind? 00:15:02.120 |
He's probably sifting through the law, that everything he understood about the law may 00:15:07.120 |
Everything he understood about the Messiah was wrong. 00:15:09.280 |
In fact, everything he did, he committed murder in the name of God, was wrong. 00:15:17.540 |
Can you imagine what that must have been like? 00:15:24.080 |
He didn't just see that, oh, I shouldn't have done that. 00:15:26.000 |
Oh, maybe I should have been more vigorous in doing this. 00:15:28.360 |
So everything after he met Christ was completely different. 00:15:32.640 |
In fact, he was so different that even the apostles had a hard time believing. 00:15:39.520 |
How can be this the same guy who took responsibility for the first martyr in the church? 00:15:43.880 |
How can be this guy be the same guy who took soldiers to go and get Christians? 00:15:51.000 |
And it took a while to warm up to his conversion because it was so radical. 00:15:55.920 |
See, the idea of repentance, baptism of repentance, is double-fold because baptism in and of itself 00:16:05.660 |
But repentance is exponentially above that, not only externally, but internally. 00:16:12.120 |
In every way, he's a completely new creation. 00:16:14.920 |
And that was the preaching of John the Baptist. 00:16:18.760 |
He was so effective in his preaching that even leaders traveled far distances, Pharisees, 00:16:26.200 |
Sadducees, scribes, and just regular people started to come out to where he was, to some 00:16:31.440 |
strange place in the wilderness because of his preaching. 00:16:37.640 |
Remember we talked about last week, it says the word of the Lord came to him, and that 00:16:42.560 |
was very specific about an anointed prophet who's going to come and speak for God. 00:16:48.700 |
So it wasn't that they didn't have the word of God. 00:16:51.900 |
At this time, the Septuagint, the Old Testament was translated into Greek, and they had more 00:16:57.300 |
access to the Bible, the Old Testament, than they ever had in history. 00:17:01.860 |
I would say it would be, at least up to that point, it would be very similar to today for 00:17:08.780 |
We have more access to the written word and the preaching of the written word than we 00:17:13.820 |
have ever, any Christian has ever had in history, ever, especially me and you. 00:17:20.540 |
We have, our problem is what translation we should use, what Bible program, what pastor 00:17:28.380 |
We can wake up three in the morning and hear the best preachers of our generation, just 00:17:32.260 |
click of a button, in our car, in our ear, we can download all of that. 00:17:36.620 |
We have access to the written word of God more than anybody has ever. 00:17:41.220 |
See the period that the first generation Jews had was very similar to that, because there 00:17:47.820 |
was a period when they didn't have access to the scrolls. 00:17:51.220 |
But during that period where they allowed, the Romans allowed them to practice their 00:18:00.500 |
But the problem was when Amos said that part of the judgment, and one of the last judgments 00:18:06.620 |
that's going to come upon the nation of Israel, is that there's going to be the famine of 00:18:10.660 |
That they're going to be staggering from place to place to hear the word of God, but 00:18:16.140 |
And he wasn't simply talking about they're going to lose the scroll, or they're not going 00:18:24.640 |
But they didn't have a man of God speaking, speaking directly to them. 00:18:31.500 |
Again it's much like today where we have the word of God, access to the word of God, but 00:18:34.780 |
we are more ignorant to what the word of God says than probably ever in history. 00:18:41.160 |
When John the Baptist began to speak, people began to recognize this guy is not like the 00:18:53.180 |
They could tell that he was a prophet sent from God. 00:18:56.020 |
And so people out of curiosity began to come, and some very prominent people. 00:19:00.340 |
It doesn't mention here, but in the other gospels it mentions that Pharisees, people 00:19:05.820 |
with authority, leaders of Israel, were coming to this guy at New Widener. 00:19:17.820 |
So you would think that when John saw these people who were coming and the crowds were 00:19:21.580 |
growing that being aware of who is in this crowd that John the Baptist may have addressed 00:19:28.380 |
them, saying, "My distinguished guests, thank you for traveling long distances to 00:19:36.380 |
You would think that that's what he would say. 00:19:39.500 |
"You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" 00:19:51.380 |
These distinguished people were coming to listen to him. 00:19:54.780 |
In fact, that's probably one of the worst things that you could have called a Jew at 00:20:02.420 |
But not only is it filthy, historically, snakes is how Satan was presented at the Garden of 00:20:13.100 |
So to call somebody a viper, and again, not only is he a snake, but a viper is venomous 00:20:20.700 |
He doesn't say it here, but later on, Jesus will call them out and say, "Because of their 00:20:24.860 |
sins and their hypocrisy, they're ruining all of Israel." 00:20:28.180 |
And he says, "Watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees." 00:20:32.860 |
Leaven is basically another word of saying the poison. 00:20:39.780 |
He says, "You brood of vipers, not only are you a snake, your mom's a snake. 00:20:53.460 |
So this is the worst, most offensive thing that you could probably say to a Jew. 00:20:59.140 |
You think about today, what's the worst thing that you can say to somebody? 00:21:08.540 |
I mean, there's a lot of things that we could think of, and in our generation, you can get 00:21:13.500 |
away with a lot of things, but you call somebody a racist, that's almost like the worst thing 00:21:27.740 |
Jesus himself uses this term repeatedly to the Jews. 00:21:31.820 |
Matthew 23, 33, "You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence 00:21:37.700 |
This encounter with these fake Jews who are saying, who thought that they believed him, 00:21:42.380 |
and Jesus encounters them in John 8, 44, and he goes straight to the matter too. 00:21:46.380 |
You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. 00:22:01.060 |
He sees right through, and this is what he says in the verse saying, the reason why he 00:22:05.380 |
He says, "Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to 00:22:09.260 |
yourselves, we have Abraham as our father, for I say to you that from these stones God 00:22:16.300 |
Indeed, the ax is already laid at the root of the tree, so every tree that does not bear 00:22:20.380 |
good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." 00:22:24.820 |
He's cutting through their hypocrisy because they believed that they were safe, and the 00:22:32.740 |
people who are in the most danger in our generation are people who are in the church, may have 00:22:41.460 |
been baptized superficially, maybe even serving in the church, maybe even leading in some 00:22:51.220 |
They do not know God, and so they can live their whole life thinking that they are in 00:22:55.740 |
the front of the line in the kingdom of God, and yet when the judgment comes, the judgment 00:23:03.780 |
John the Baptist was calling through all that fluff, all that deception, and he's cutting 00:23:11.780 |
He said, "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath that comes?" 00:23:15.180 |
You know, probably some of them were thinking that if they came, John the Baptist is becoming 00:23:18.620 |
prominent, that so many people are going out to see him, and so they are so committed to 00:23:23.820 |
their own glory that maybe if we attached ourselves to this prophet, maybe that's where 00:23:30.460 |
So they were coming out to be baptized without genuinely repenting. 00:23:37.900 |
You think that just going into the water and coming out is going to cause you to be right 00:23:42.600 |
with God because you're descendants of Abraham?" 00:23:47.100 |
There's a reason why he says, "You brood of vipers." 00:23:51.780 |
The true spiritual descendancy that you're from is Satan himself. 00:24:00.760 |
And he says the consequence of their fake repentance is that the ax is laid down to 00:24:13.120 |
"Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that bears 00:24:17.320 |
fruit, he prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. 00:24:21.320 |
If anyone does not abide in me, and he is thrown away as a branch and dries up, and 00:24:25.600 |
they gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." 00:24:30.760 |
Now what is the consequence of somebody who has fake repentance and there's no fruit? 00:24:36.320 |
He doesn't say he does not bear any fruit that God is going to put him in timeout. 00:24:43.280 |
He doesn't say if you don't bear any fruit that your repentance is fake. 00:24:47.160 |
It's only external, but there's nothing, no real transformation going on, no real fruit 00:24:52.080 |
He doesn't say you shouldn't be a leader or you need better discipleship. 00:24:57.920 |
He said he who bears no fruit, he's going to cut down and be thrown into the fire. 00:25:19.720 |
Having no fruit or repentance is not just feeling bad. 00:25:25.600 |
Call to repentance is not to call to feel bad about what you did this week. 00:25:33.360 |
So much sometimes of our repentance is, "Hey, I struggle with pornography," and I say, "I 00:25:41.360 |
And then you fall, and then you go back two, three days later, and you go through the same 00:25:45.200 |
act and you go over and over and over, and all you're doing is commiserating with other 00:25:56.120 |
Repenting is not feeling bad about the situation that you're in. 00:25:59.080 |
Repenting means to turn away, to put that away, to do everything in your power to put 00:26:07.720 |
If we actually knew how God feels about sin, we wouldn't be so nonchalant. 00:26:16.280 |
You know, I know that there's people in this room who your internal clock is broken, right? 00:26:24.880 |
So we may have a meeting at 10, you show up at 10.15 or 10.20. 00:26:27.920 |
It's like almost predictable you're going to be 10, 15 minutes late. 00:26:36.200 |
But no matter how broken your internal clock is, if you knew the serious consequence of 00:26:44.820 |
So I don't know anybody who is late to everything else, but is also late to their flight. 00:26:52.040 |
Because if you're late to your flight, the door's closed and you're gone, whatever money 00:26:59.480 |
All of a sudden, you can help it because you're afraid of the consequence. 00:27:05.000 |
And all of a sudden, you show up to work on time because if you don't show up to work 00:27:11.280 |
So it's not that you can't help it, but you don't think the consequence is serious enough 00:27:19.460 |
If we understood how God views sin, we wouldn't be so nonchalant. 00:27:27.440 |
Call to repentance isn't simply, "You should feel bad about where you're at. 00:27:34.240 |
That's exactly what John the Baptist was cutting through. 00:27:42.400 |
If you're going to genuinely repent, turn from your sin. 00:27:51.400 |
Years ago, we were at Together for the Gospel. 00:27:54.600 |
At the Together for the Gospel, they would have the speakers come up and sit in a half 00:27:59.880 |
circle and they asked a question, Q&A session. 00:28:02.520 |
One of the questions that came in from the pastors was, "How would you counsel a guy 00:28:08.640 |
in the church who continues to struggle with pornography and he just can't conquer his 00:28:21.360 |
And you know what John the Baptist, John Piper, right? 00:28:28.200 |
John Piper basically said, "Tell him he's going to hell." 00:28:34.240 |
The whole room just erupted in laughter, thinking like, "Oh, it must be a joke." 00:28:38.960 |
So hyperbole, you know, John Piper is just kind of joking. 00:28:44.240 |
And after the laughter just started to die down a little bit, he said, "No, I'm dead 00:28:51.200 |
And then he took out Mark chapter 9, 43, says, "If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it 00:28:56.400 |
It is better for you to enter life crippled than having your two hands to go into hell, 00:29:01.880 |
into the unquenchable fire where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched." 00:29:08.360 |
Jesus says that about the hand, about the foot, and about the eyes. 00:29:13.280 |
And so John Piper basically was answering that maybe he doesn't understand the consequence 00:29:20.320 |
of continuing to sin without true repentance, that it may not be true, that his faith may 00:29:28.680 |
If he just confesses like, "Oh, yeah, you know, I didn't believe in God, but now I believe 00:29:33.240 |
I wasn't sure about the resurrection, so now I do believe in the resurrection. 00:29:36.880 |
I didn't believe these set of truths, but now I believe in these set of truths. 00:29:40.680 |
And the rest of it is one saved, always saved. 00:29:43.160 |
And so how I live, what I do, what I invested, it doesn't matter anymore because one saved, 00:29:52.600 |
If we read the scriptures for ourselves and instead of having security over sermons and 00:29:58.960 |
maybe articles or things that you've heard from other people thinking that your sin does 00:30:07.560 |
The same God who hated sin to the point where he abolished all of creation with the exception 00:30:13.520 |
of eight is the same God that we will meet when we die. 00:30:25.080 |
The same God who wiped out the earth warns us that when we meet him, unconfessed, unrepentant, 00:30:33.240 |
it is the same holy, holy, holy God that you will meet. 00:30:39.200 |
And if anybody has convinced you otherwise, they are a false prophet. 00:30:45.400 |
If you have convinced yourself that that is not the case, you do not know what the scripture 00:30:51.480 |
There is a reason why John the Baptist cut through all of that bull. 00:30:56.600 |
Because in order for them to be saved, they needed to know where they were. 00:31:02.760 |
If they left thinking they're secure because they have these external things that they 00:31:08.600 |
are doing, you have given security to somebody who's going to hell. 00:31:14.720 |
That's why men of the past who preached the word of God preached with the same kind of 00:31:22.360 |
John the Baptist preached crying in the wilderness. 00:31:26.960 |
He cried because he was crying for their salvation to prepare for the coming of Christ. 00:31:34.880 |
Jonathan Edwards, as you guys know, gave a sermon called "Sinners in the Hands of an 00:31:40.200 |
And it was a catalyst for the great awakening in America. 00:31:47.240 |
Consider what we consider a good sermon today versus Jonathan Edwards that caused the revival 00:31:57.160 |
And I'm only giving you a very small snippet of his sermon. 00:32:00.560 |
He says this, "The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider 00:32:06.120 |
or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you and is dreadfully provoked. 00:32:13.800 |
He looks upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire. 00:32:17.760 |
He is of pure eyes and to bear to have you in his sight. 00:32:20.720 |
You are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes than the most hateful venomous 00:32:27.140 |
You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince. 00:32:31.680 |
And yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire. 00:32:35.360 |
Every moment is to be ascribed to nothing else that you did not go to hell the last 00:32:40.000 |
night, that you were suffered to awake again in this world after you closed your eyes to 00:32:45.840 |
And there is no other reason to be given why you have not dropped into hell since you arose 00:32:50.020 |
in the morning, but that God's hand has held you up. 00:32:53.120 |
There is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell since you have sat here 00:32:58.600 |
in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful, wicked manner of attending 00:33:04.480 |
Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not this very moment 00:33:12.240 |
That's a very small portion of his whole sermon, "Sin is in the Hands of an Angry God." 00:33:16.840 |
Josh Moody, who is a historian of Jonathan Edwards, writes about this particular sermon. 00:33:22.100 |
He says this, "On this day in history, Jonathan Edwards started a sermon that he did not finish. 00:33:27.840 |
Such was the impact of his preaching that the people listening shrieked and cried out, 00:33:32.400 |
and crying and weeping became so loud that Edwards was forced to discontinue the sermon. 00:33:37.280 |
Instead, the pastors went down among the people and prayed with them in groups. 00:33:41.500 |
Many came to save knowledge of Christ that day." 00:33:46.600 |
Other pastors began to repent and they began to preach warning. 00:33:51.840 |
And many, many people began to come and gave their life to Christ during this period. 00:33:57.000 |
In fact, so many people came to Christ and there were so many raw emotions that broke 00:34:01.760 |
out in the middle of these preachings that Jonathan Edwards actually had to write a book 00:34:14.460 |
There's a lot of people who are crying and being baptized and so many things are happening. 00:34:18.740 |
So he had to cut through all of that and he had to, if you've ever read that book, half 00:34:34.080 |
And then after he does that, he begins to break down. 00:34:36.240 |
What does the Bible say about true repentance? 00:34:41.300 |
We have become so familiar with sin in our generation that we are more concerned about 00:34:47.280 |
offending sinners than offending a God who has been offended. 00:35:04.800 |
But we're so concerned that we allow all kinds of sins to exist in the church and so concerned 00:35:12.960 |
about sinners feeling uncomfortable with this type of preaching that we water down and misrepresent 00:35:20.640 |
There is no reverence of God in our generation because we have had to water it down to allow 00:35:26.040 |
the sinners to feel comfortable in the midst of our fellowship. 00:35:30.040 |
It is not that God doesn't want sinners in the church. 00:35:33.480 |
It is not that God doesn't desire to have the sinners come to Christ, but they must 00:35:47.680 |
Not so that majority of them can come without feeling offended, but by the terms that He 00:35:53.600 |
And the only way that we can get to Him is through true repentance. 00:36:01.640 |
You cannot live day to day unrepentant and wanting to fit in at church. 00:36:07.480 |
You cannot be a part of the fellowship unrepentant week after week, year after year, and desire 00:36:23.520 |
And He who destroys the body, the Bible says the judgment is coming upon Him as well. 00:36:28.880 |
Apostle Peter, after the resurrection of Christ, he began to preach the gospel. 00:36:35.440 |
And this is a man, before he met the resurrected Christ, was cowering in fear because he was 00:36:40.400 |
afraid the same thing was going to happen to him. 00:36:42.760 |
And yet, after the resurrection, being filled with the Holy Spirit, is speaking in front 00:36:47.120 |
of a similar crowd that crucified him, says this. 00:36:53.360 |
Jesus of Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs, which 00:36:57.880 |
God performed through him in your midst, just as you yourselves know, this man delivered 00:37:01.640 |
over by the predetermined plan and for knowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands 00:37:09.320 |
He didn't say, well, some of you guys weren't there, it's not really your fault. 00:37:22.440 |
He cuts through all of that and said, no, you did it. 00:37:29.880 |
And the reason why he says that is because you can't repent if you don't own up to your 00:37:37.520 |
If you come to God and say, well, I am the way I am because the way my mom treated me, 00:37:43.480 |
I am the way I am because my leaders did this. 00:37:47.600 |
I did what I did because of my circumstance, because of my past, because I've been backstabbed 00:37:56.840 |
Repentance is coming before God, beating our chest, asking for forgiveness. 00:38:20.400 |
Versus the Pharisee who came up and said, well, thank God I'm not as bad as that guy. 00:38:25.360 |
See, until we recognize the need, the desperate need of a savior, it's just an encouraging 00:38:39.560 |
It's just insurance just in case, after everything good that we've experienced here so that we 00:38:48.680 |
But when we actually recognize who we are and what we have done and what we deserve, 00:38:55.520 |
Christ is not somebody to be appreciated from a distance. 00:39:24.240 |
When Peter preached this sermon, there are peers to the heart in verse 37, it says, now 00:39:28.680 |
when they heard this, they were peers to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the 00:39:34.720 |
Peter said to them, repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for 00:39:44.600 |
When somebody wants to come to Christ, he said, well, find a good church. 00:39:50.160 |
Make sure there's people your age, similar, that can walk with you, you know, live with 00:39:55.840 |
You know, like make sure you have similar doctrines and, you know, somebody near you 00:40:01.760 |
so it's not so inconvenient that you have to drive so far. 00:40:04.320 |
Think about all the things that we tell people. 00:40:08.040 |
Again, if all of those things are available, great, blessing to you. 00:40:19.120 |
All that you need for a life of godliness has been given to you in the knowledge of 00:40:24.680 |
For those of you who already did Bible study, right? 00:40:28.680 |
Everything that you need has been given to you. 00:40:34.120 |
So if you're sitting there in want, I can't because of this. 00:40:46.440 |
If I can't pray, I can't pray because other people are not praying with me. 00:40:54.040 |
I can't pray because I wasn't taught to pray. 00:41:01.720 |
Because it says everything that you need for a life in godliness has been given to you. 00:41:05.680 |
Not will be given to you, but it has been given to you. 00:41:08.520 |
And the only thing that we need to do to get to Christ is true repentance. 00:41:14.400 |
Recognize our sins and repent and the doors will be open. 00:41:19.560 |
Recognize our sins and repent and the mountains will be cut down and the ravines will be 00:41:28.560 |
You know what's interesting is whenever strong sermons are given, the people who normally 00:41:36.840 |
And the people who I look at and say, wow, they're really doing well. 00:41:40.800 |
They're the ones who usually say, thank you for that sermon. 00:41:46.280 |
John the Baptist gives and he calls them out on their sin. 00:41:50.800 |
And the Pharisees and the leaders are offended. 00:41:53.840 |
And from that moment on, they're like, that guy is a false prophet. 00:41:59.960 |
They didn't have to get rid of him because eventually Herod gets rid of him. 00:42:03.760 |
But Jesus comes and he takes the baton and he goes even further than John the Baptist. 00:42:08.720 |
And they want to make sure that this doesn't happen again. 00:42:16.920 |
In verse 10, it says, and the crowds were questioning him saying, then what shall we 00:42:22.640 |
If you're calling us out and my repentance is not genuine, what shall we do? 00:42:27.080 |
He responds in verse 11, and he would answer and say to them, the man who has two tunics 00:42:36.540 |
If you look at Acts chapter 2, that's exactly what happens. 00:42:39.340 |
People who are wealthy were selling their possessions and they were passing it out. 00:42:42.040 |
And people were living together, being generous. 00:42:48.440 |
I mean, Jesus himself said you can't serve two mammons. 00:42:54.040 |
Either you will serve money or you will serve God. 00:42:58.740 |
If after claiming to know Christ and your spending habit is no different than somebody 00:43:04.920 |
who does not know Christ, then maybe there was a repentance externally. 00:43:10.020 |
Maybe you were baptized, but it wasn't true baptism. 00:43:14.720 |
Now the Bible didn't call everybody to live poor. 00:43:17.280 |
He didn't say you have to sell all your possessions. 00:43:20.160 |
And in essence, the fire actually get into trouble because of that, because they pretended. 00:43:26.880 |
But the reason why he points this out is because of that, that we can, we can sacrifice what 00:43:33.120 |
But he says, Jesus himself said, right, your heart is where your treasure is. 00:43:39.920 |
So he said, take your treasure and invest it in things that will last. 00:43:47.640 |
And he goes on and he says in Luke chapter 3 verse 12, and some tax collectors also came 00:43:56.560 |
to be baptized and said to him, teacher, what shall we do? 00:43:59.280 |
And he said to them, collect no more than what you have been ordered to. 00:44:03.120 |
Some soldiers were questioning him, questioning him saying, and what about us? 00:44:07.480 |
And he said to them, do not take money from anyone by force or accuse anyone falsely and 00:44:14.400 |
One thing I want to point out here is that he's referring to their jobs, right? 00:44:23.040 |
Because that's where they spend the most of their time. 00:44:26.120 |
You know, we kind of have a tendency to compartmentalize like we're righteous at church, but then 00:44:34.600 |
We're godly at church, but then at home we're a completely different person. 00:44:39.440 |
Or maybe you're good at home, but then you're lousy at work. 00:44:44.480 |
That's for some reason we compartmentalize where we bear fruit and then the other parts 00:44:50.880 |
where people are not watching, it doesn't really matter. 00:44:55.120 |
He doesn't say, make sure you come to the temple more often. 00:44:58.200 |
He said, make sure that your sacrifices are really clean, you follow the order. 00:45:03.320 |
And all of that is true and is important, but he goes straight to the matter where the 00:45:10.500 |
Make sure that there's true fruit in what you're doing, that the world may see that 00:45:23.000 |
You cannot have peace of God without having peace with God. 00:45:32.560 |
It is unbiblical to have peace of God without peace with God. 00:45:40.760 |
How much of your frustration in your walk with God that sometimes you blame God for 00:45:51.280 |
You want to have a relationship with God on your terms and God repeatedly tells you no. 00:46:03.960 |
You cannot come to God with unconfessed sins. 00:46:07.480 |
You cannot come to God when you sweep it under the rug. 00:46:10.720 |
When you can, you cannot come to God if repeatedly all you are doing is feeling bad and there's 00:46:16.620 |
no true turning from sins internally or externally. 00:46:25.740 |
You cannot have peace with God in your marriage. 00:46:29.000 |
You cannot have peace with God at church, with your relationships until there is peace 00:46:35.920 |
And the only way that you can have peace with God is true repentance. 00:46:43.080 |
The good news of the gospel isn't that a holy God looked at your sin and said, "You know 00:46:50.360 |
And then from that moment on, when you confess, you don't have to worry about sin. 00:46:55.360 |
The gospel is, the good news is that if you repent, he will forgive you. 00:47:06.160 |
It's not if you feel bad, he will forgive you. 00:47:14.800 |
Isaiah 29, 13, "And the Lord said, 'Because these people draw near with their words and 00:47:19.520 |
honor me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from me and their 00:47:24.160 |
reverence for me consists of tradition learned by rote.'" 00:47:31.720 |
Everything I know about my walk with God is just habit. 00:47:39.040 |
Jesus repeats those same words, Matthew 15, 7-9, "You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy 00:47:47.240 |
These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts is far away from me. 00:47:52.240 |
But in vain do they worship me in teachings and doctrines, the precepts of men." 00:47:58.800 |
John the Baptist's message is loud and clear. 00:48:06.440 |
Jesus comes on the scene, he takes the baton and he says, "Repent for the kingdom of heaven 00:48:14.000 |
He gave that baton to the apostles and the apostles began to preach, "Repent for the 00:48:22.400 |
And then he gave that baton to the pastors and evangelists and missionaries to say, "Repent 00:48:33.760 |
Whether that is in the first century or 2,000 years later, the message has not changed. 00:48:41.040 |
Even if you don't hear it, even if it's not a popular message, the commission that we 00:48:45.080 |
have been given to take to the world has not changed. 00:48:50.760 |
We can only come to Christ by the road that he has paved for us, which is repentance, 00:49:02.040 |
I pray that this message will be loud and clear to all of us. 00:49:07.400 |
Yes, we wrestle, we struggle, we get tempted, we covet, but do not ever think that that 00:49:19.040 |
The God who is holy, holy, holy calls us to himself and because of his grace, sinners 00:49:26.360 |
who are undeserving, when we repent, we'll find refuge in him. 00:49:54.080 |
Lord, if we have become low to sleep in our compromise, I pray you would open our eyes. 00:50:06.120 |
As Paul's scales fell from his eyes and he repented, was never the same. 00:50:18.840 |
Help us to see the things that we covet is leading us to destruction. 00:50:24.180 |
Help us to see and number our days that all that we rejoice over is temporary. 00:50:33.880 |
Lord, all the time, energy and money that we are putting in so that we can have a better 00:50:38.640 |
retirement, help us, Lord, to see eternity, that we may invest in things, Lord God, that 00:50:49.240 |
Lord, as you've called people to repent, to confess our sins, to cling to our savior, 00:50:59.120 |
that the only thing that can cleanse us from our own guilt is the blood of Christ, help 00:51:05.200 |
us, Lord God, cling to him with all our might. 00:51:08.800 |
Lead us that we may honor you, worship you in spirit and in truth.