"and his mouth was wrapped around his waist, "and his food was locusts and wild honey. "Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region "about the Jordan were going out to him, "and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, "confessing their sins. "But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees "coming to his baptism, he said to them, "'You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee "'from the wrath to come?

"'Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. "'And do not presume to say to yourself, "'We have Abraham as our father, for I tell you, "'God is able from these stones "'to raise up children from Abraham. "'Even now the axes lay to the root of the trees. "'Every tree, therefore, that does not bear fruit "'is cut down and thrown into the fire.

"'I baptize you with the water for repentance, "'but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, "'whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. "'He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. "'His winnowing fork is in his hand, "'and he will clear his threshing floor "'and gather his wheat into the barn, "'but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.'" Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this morning. We pray, Father God, that your Holy Spirit would convict and lead us. And we ask, Lord God, that you give us fertile hearts, that your word would come, and that the enemy would not snatch it away, that we would understand, that our hearts may be changed, that we may have a clear vision of Christ.

So help us, Lord God, to give you worship that is acceptable. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Okay, Joe, can you check the air conditioning? Yeah. All right. You know, as we said that we wanna spend this week, and then next week as we're talking about Christmas, when was the last time that you wanted something so badly, you know, that you couldn't sleep, that you really wanted something?

And again, the older we get, it's harder for us to get excited about anything. Some of you guys who are close to graduation, you got like one more class, or six more units to go, and then you know you're gonna graduate, and you're just waiting for that day you can graduate, and you can have freedom, you don't have to wake up in the morning, you don't have to do papers, you don't have to worry about finals.

You know, some of you guys maybe got a Disneyland annual pass, and you know, you got next, you're gonna be on break in a couple weeks, and then you're waiting eagerly anticipating for that. Some of you guys just started dating, you just had your DTR, and then you know, you made your first date coming up next Saturday, and you're praying that Jesus would not come until then, at least, so you can experience your first date.

Whatever it is that you're eagerly waiting for, like when was the last time you were so excited, and so eager to have that, you know? If we're not careful, we can be dictated, our whole life can be dictated by whatever happens to catch our attention at that moment, you know?

And that's why, you know, again, you know, you guys are gonna think I'm picking on the Apple, but Apple's so genius, you know what I mean? Because they know how quickly we get satisfied or dissatisfied with something, so every six months or so, something new constantly comes, kind of like gather our attention, and you know, like that excitement of one phone, then it kind of dissipate three months later, and they build anticipation for the next phone, and then you get that, and then after a while you get tired of it, they build anticipation for the next, you know?

And that's the genius, that's the marketing genius, where you can have the same thing and just makes little, you know, switches, and then next thing you know, like, it's like, oh, I need that, and you're waiting for it, people are getting in line to get it. I think, in my opinion, that's a microcosm of life itself.

It's not just Apple, you know, I know I pick on Apple, but it's not just Apple, life itself. We have so many things to distract us in life. If we're not careful, whatever circumstance, whatever situation that you may be in, right? If you're a parent, there are certain temptations that come to you because you're a parent.

If you're a college student, there are certain temptations that come because you're a college student. There's certain temptations that come because you're single and you're working, you have money, right? When you get older, there's separate temptations that come. But if we're not careful, we can just kind of drift along in life, and then wake up one day realizing that you are going from one hope and one thing to another, and then you wake up one morning, and you know, you're in your 50s and you're in your 60s.

Now, I don't know when midlife really is, you know? I used to think midlife was somewhere in your late 30s, but it seems like people are living longer and longer. And I see people heading into midlife crisis sometime in their 40s. And I can understand, I didn't understand in my 30s, like, why are these guys all of a sudden getting a red Corvette and doing crazy things, you know?

And all of a sudden, these guys, you know, used to drive Priuses, and all of a sudden, they got a motorcycle, and they're driving all over the place in their 40s. I can understand now why. The reason why I think the midlife crisis happens, okay, is because you kind of, life just happens to you, you know?

In college, you think about life, you say, "Oh, I got all these dreams. I'm gonna be a doctor. I'm gonna be this. I'm gonna be that." And then you graduate, and life isn't exactly the way that you thought it would be in high school, and then in college, you work hard to prepare.

And then, you know, you find somebody great, and you get married and have kids, and then you live like that for five, six years, and you realize, "Huh, that's it." It really wasn't what you thought. Whether you are making money or not making money, whether you have a good job or not, have a great job.

And then that, once you get to that point, next 20, 30 years, looks exactly the same. Okay? Are you depressed? Right? I thought you were supposed to encourage us. I'm about to encourage you, but I need to depress you first, all right? That's life. That really is life. And so, when that really hits you is in midlife.

When you're about halfway through, you're looking ahead, and then you're looking back, and you say, "I don't want the first half of my life to be repeated at the second half of my life." And so, what ends up happening is, and then you feel like, "Well, I can't change now.

What am I going to do? Is this it? Am I going to just keep going down this path, and that's it?" And so, when that thought hits you, you all of a sudden, "I got to do something." And then, so, if you're a secular person, I mean, you might think of like, "Okay, I'm going to do this." And maybe they cheat on their wives, get a motorcycle, and do crazy stuff.

They're going to travel. They're going to go bungee jumping to make something of their life. Even if it is superficial. So that when they hit their 50s and 60s and 70s, they can look back and say, "Oh, yeah, I did this." You know? "What was your life worth?" And it's like, "Oh, I did this." See, we live half of our lives hoping and thinking like, "If I do this, this is going to happen." And then we live the second half of our lives regretting what he did, and trying to make up for the mistakes that we did in the first half of our life.

And that's the sad state. That's the sad, true state of mankind. They're always thinking that something today, I mean, I'm not happy today, but something tomorrow. Something, if I work hard enough, there's going to be a pay-off tomorrow. Right? If we're not careful, we can live by the impulses of our flesh.

And one year goes by, two years go by, and the older you get, right? And I think you all would testify, the older you get, time goes by much faster. Because relatively, time gets shorter for us. Right? And here's the truth. If you're not careful, ten years, like that, it's gone.

You know? If you're not careful, boom, boom, you wake up and you're in your 50s and 60s, and that was it. That was your life. Right? That was your life. Went to church, you know? Like, you had to find some good places to eat. You know? Find the best yogurt shops in this area.

You know, new food coming out, new movie coming out. You know, the sports team, what sports team, to get, what are some exciting sports things that are going on right now? And then you live 20, 30, 40 years, and that's it. That's your life. If you were to put your life resume, it's like, became a Christian, went to college, got married, had kids, went, you know, binge jumping, I traveled to these places, ate some good food, and caught a huge fish.

That's your resume at the end of your life, if you're not careful. We have to be careful that we actually are pursuing the things that we profess to be the most important thing in our life. Now, we say it in our mind, we put it on paper, but if we were to examine what you really value by the amount of money you spend, the amount of time you spend, and how much time you spend talking about it with other people, based upon that, based upon the tangible things that we can see, can somebody look at your life and say, "That's a follower of Jesus Christ." They're pursuing Jesus.

When they talk to you for more than an hour, at the end of that hour, would they say, "That guy is a follower of Jesus." Or would they say, "You are a Lakers fan." Or, "You are a Warriors fan." That, "This guy loves hockey." "This guy has mastered all the video games that ever existed." Right?

What is it that we are pursuing? What is it that we are eagerly waiting for? The nation of Israel has been waiting for the Messiah for over 600 years. Right? To them, He was not just some theological person. He wasn't just some being that was going to come, who was going to be a leader among the Jewish religious sect.

To them, the coming of the Messiah was the answer to all their problems. Remember, at 730 AD, the Assyrians came and they basically took the southern kingdom into captivity. So, the ten kingdoms went and they disappeared in 730 AD, at least for the most part. And then about 100 years later, the Babylonians come and they conquer the Assyrians, and they take the other two tribes, the tribe of Judah and Benjamin, and they go into captivity.

So, for over 600 years, the nation of Israel did not have a legitimate nation. And it was the most evident during the time of the Romans. Even, and where that was most evident was when they went to worship at the Temple, and bowed down to the statue every time they entered the Temple.

And what that signified was, that no matter how great you think your God is, our leader is greater than yours. And so, they had to live under that, because they had no power. And so, that's why when Jesus came, and He was getting all this popularity, one of the first questions they asked, "Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?" Basically, what they're asking is, "The money that you're giving to Caesar is giving them power to do this to us." So, for 600 plus years, as they were under the domination of foreign nations, grandparents, parents to their children were saying, "Yes, because our forefathers sinned, God judged us, and this is the state that we're in.

But, one day the Messiah is going to come, and the Kingdom of Heaven is going to be restored." And when that happened, all this will come to an end. And again, you have to understand that position that they were in, that if the Syrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, whoever was in charge at that time, anytime you say, "You know what?" The king decides, "You know what?

All the girls who are at the age of 20 to 30, who are the prettiest in the land, or the most talented, and most gifted, I want them to marry Persian men." And it was done. Here's a guy who comes, and he becomes a billionaire. He's like, "Hey, you're a Jew.

You don't have any, you have too much money. And I'm going to come and put a tax on that, and take all your money." You have to understand that to live under a foreign, foreign government that was oppressing them, meant that they didn't have the kind of freedom. They had to worship the gods that they established, or even the god that you worship had to be within the parameters that they established.

So their hope was that one day Messiah was going to come, and they were going to deliver them. Zechariah 9, 9-12, you know that passage about Jesus coming in, riding on a donkey. It says, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you, righteous and having salvation, as he, humble and mounted on a donkey." Jesus said from the very get-go that he was the Messiah.

When he rode on that donkey coming to Jerusalem, that's 700 years of prophecy. More than 700 years of prophecy that he's going to come and make everything better. I want you to listen to the rest of the prophecy. He says, "Humble and mounted on a donkey, honor called the fall of a donkey.

I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the war horse from Jerusalem. And the battle bull shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nation. His rule shall be from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth." In other words, he's saying that all the battles, all the war that suppressed you, that he's going to finally conquer all of them, and then he's going to bring peace with the other nations, and he's going to bring peace within the nation.

In Micah 4, 6, "In that day," declares the Lord, "I will assemble the lame, and gather those who have been driven away, and those whom I have afflicted. And the lame I will make the remnant, and those who were cast off a strong nation, and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion, from this time forth and forevermore." He said he's not only going to bless the rich, the aristocrats, he says the lame who are outcast, even they will benefit when this Messiah comes, when the kingdom of heaven is restored.

Amos 9, 11, 15, "In that day, I will raise up the booth of David that has fallen, and repair its breaches, and raise up his ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old. I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them.

They shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruits. I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them, says the Lord your God." See all this is the description of the kingdom of heaven.

And so the whole purpose of John the Baptist was to come to prepare, because this Messiah that we've been prophesying, in fact, if you read any of the prophets, majority of the prophets are pretty dark, it's pretty depressing. You think I'm depressing, they're much more depressing. If you read the prophets, almost every prophet is warning the nation of Israel, judgment is coming, judgment is coming.

Those of you who've been studying Isaiah with us, we're in chapter 9 now, it's 9 chapters of judgment. And we have about 40 chapters to go, right, of judgment. And in between we're going to have some hope about the coming Messiah, but majority of it is about judgment coming to the nation of Israel.

Go to Ezekiel, it's no different. Jeremiah, it's no different. But the glimmer of hope that we see in all the prophecies is that in the midst of God declaring judgment, He says, "But God will not stay angry forever. He's going to send His chosen one. He's going to send the Messiah, and on that day..." So what I read to you are three verses out of hundreds of verses that I could have chosen that the nation of Israel was clinging onto for dear life.

John the Baptist, it says in John 1, 6, 7, "There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light." Jesus says of John the Baptist, Matthew 11, 11, "Among them that are born of women, there has not risen a greater man than John the Baptist." Just think about that.

Think about how exaggerated of a statement that may sound. What do you know about John the Baptist? He wore strange clothes, had a strange belt. He lived out in the wilderness, and he liked to be in the water. I mean, what do you know about John the Baptist? That he'd say, think about who he's talking about.

He's talking about greater than Abraham. Greater than Abraham? Abraham left everything. He was a rich man in the world of Chaldeans, walked out into the desert, risking his life because he believed in God. He was willing to sacrifice his own son. The only way that the promise of God could be fulfilled through his son, he was willing to sacrifice that to God.

And Jesus says, "John the Baptist is greater than him." Oh, come on. Greater than Abraham? He's greater than Moses. Moses lived in 40 years out in the desert, leading a million people, complaining every time they got hungry, every time they got thirsty. 40 years he led these people. And he didn't volunteer for it.

God chose him. And at the end of his life, because he hits the rock, and he misrepresents God, he doesn't get to go to the Promised Land. And he's probably the greatest leader that Israel has ever had. And Jesus says, "John the Baptist is greater." I would think if Jesus said that, I would say, "Wait a minute.

Are you really saying what I think you're saying?" Well, that's what he said. I mean, if anybody else said it, I'd say, "Oh, okay, he's not talking the truth." Jesus said that. What made John the Baptist greater than everybody else? We don't know, because the Bible doesn't describe his childhood.

It doesn't describe much. All we are told is, John the Baptist came to prepare the way for Jesus to come. The only thing that I could think of that makes John the Baptist greater than anybody else is the proximity to Christ. He was the very last prophet to be sent to prepare for the coming of Christ.

We know that he was a cousin of Jesus, was born six months earlier. And again, we don't know a whole lot, but his whole ministry was to go prepare. Jesus is coming. The Kingdom of Heaven is coming. Prepare. Now, how did he spend his time preparing? He didn't go and decorate.

You know, "Go decorate your house, because the Messiah is coming." So when he comes, it will be festive. You know what I mean? It's like we have the President of the United States coming into, you know, whatever, and then you clean up the streets and put the lights up so they know.

He doesn't do any of that, right? He didn't say, "Hey, prepare for the coming of the Messiah. You know, go read your Old Testament verses and make sure that you know these verses." Again, none of these things in and of itself is wrong or God is displeased with. But that was not his primary message.

His primary message to prepare them was to repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. The thing that you've been waiting for, for 600, 700 years to come, and it's about to come, and the way that you need to prepare is to repent. If you notice, if his message was to prepare the way for the Messiah, you would think, we would think the natural thing to do is go to the Temple, because that's where the Bible is being taught.

That's where the people were being discipled. That's where the rabbis hung out. So you would go there and you would discuss with them, because that's where the religious people were gathered. Instead, he goes out to the wilderness of Judah, and he's living like a homeless guy. And I'm not sure exactly what drew people to him, because it doesn't talk about any miracles.

He wasn't out there healing people. We don't hear about miracles of John the Baptist. He was just a strange guy out in the wilderness. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and I baptize you as baptism of repentance. And hundreds of people, thousands of people are coming out to the wilderness.

What was it about John that people were so intrigued that even the leaders of Israel left their Temple, their comfort zone, and went out to see him? I think it was something about John that they recognized in Jesus, they recognized in John. He didn't speak like the other Pharisees.

He didn't speak like the other scribes. There was a kind of authority in him, because the Holy Spirit anointed him. And he was preaching repentance. Prepare for the coming of the Messiah by repenting. See, the Temple itself was the problem. Part of the problem why people were not able to receive the Messiah is because of what was happening at the Temple.

Worship at that time became a ritual. It was just something that you did because it was something that they've always done. You just do it, because that's what good, faithful worshipers of God do. It was mainly done so that they can see, it's like, "Oh, I went." Kind of like us, like you go to church, and if you don't go to church, people are going to ask, "Where were you?" And so on, that's, "I got to go." That's not the only reason, but a lot of what we do sometimes is because that's the expectations of people.

Well, that was the Temple worship. They did it for themselves to be seen by other men. And then the worst part of it is that they used the outer court where the women and the Gentiles were supposed to come, that they converted, and they were selling, and they were bartering things in there so that they couldn't worship.

They made it a den of robbers instead of a place of prayer. So the only place where we see Jesus absolutely lose it is at the Temple. He started his ministry by cleansing the Temple, and then he ended his ministry by cleansing his Temple. And he was making a point.

What is happening in this Temple is not pleasing to God. And that's why John the Baptist, he doesn't come to prepare the religious people. He goes out to the wilderness, and he calls out the sinners to himself. In fact, when the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the priests started to come to him, remember what he said?

"You brood of vipers, bear fruit in accordance to your repentance." Your repentance is not genuine. He says to repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. It's coming. And the only way that you're going to be able to recognize it is if you repent. You know, some of the songs that we sing, like the Christmas songs that we sing, and sometimes we sing it when we're young, and we don't really think about the lyrics.

I want to go over one of the lyrics to you. It says, "You better watch out. You better not cry. You better not pout, and I'm telling you why. Santa Claus is coming to town." He's making a list, checking it twice, going to find out who's naughty or nice.

Santa Claus is coming to town. He sees you when you're sleeping. He knows you when you're awake. He knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake. So you better watch out. So you better not cry. You better not pout, because I'm telling you why.

This is a song that we learn when we're little kids, and we sing it, we don't really think much about it, but it's absolute heresy. Don't say that to the children, you know. They go to school and say, "This is heresy, teacher." Basically what this song says is, "You better get your act straight." Because if you're not perfect, if you're not doing these things, the problem with this song is, He knows those who are naughty and nice.

But the problem is, if the Messiah was coming, if God was coming to judge between right and wrong, and say, "All the good people stand here, all the bad people stand over here," we would all be in big trouble. We would all be in big trouble. The Scripture clearly says that we are all naughty.

That we're all naughty. And so, if you look at the book of Romans that we've been studying, right, for three chapters, for three chapters, Paul's been preparing the Jews in Rome to be introduced to Christ. Three chapters. He's preparing a foundation so that he can say, "Here's Jesus." So basically, in a nutshell, what Paul is doing in the book of Romans, the first three chapters, is exactly what John the Baptist is doing.

He's preparing the way for Christ. He's calling people to himself. In fact, Acts 19.4, when Paul describes John the Baptist's ministry, he says, Paul said, "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the One who was to come after him, that is, Jesus. Jesus Himself said," Luke 19.10, "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." He didn't come to distinguish between good or bad, because we were all bad.

He came to seek the lost. Matthew 9.12-13. When these Pharisees said, "Why are you spending all your time with these tax collectors and these sinners?" Jesus says to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, go and learn what this means.

I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I came not to call the righteous, but the sinners." John the Baptist was preparing the way for the Messiah to come, because without repentance, you will not recognize Him. And everyone who was unrepentant, when the Messiah came, they saw, of course they saw Him.

They saw the miracles. Many of them ate the miraculous bread. But when Jesus came, not only did they reject Him, many of them crucified Him. They were that blind. So the way that John the Baptist and Paul is preparing the way to receive and see the Messiah is to call them to repentance.

See, 2 Corinthians 4.4, as you guys know, it says, "The God of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel, the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." What authority does Satan have over the world that he is able to keep their eyes blind?

And I think you and I know the answer to that. It's sin. Sin is what blinds us to God. Sin is what causes people to come to religious festivities, come to worship week after week, hear the gospel. We can dissect the gospel. We can talk about the glories of Christ, and you just don't see it.

You don't get it. You can hear the message week after week, year after year, and never see the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because once you see the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, you will change. You will change. It's just like if you've tasted something good, you want more of it.

The fact that there is no appetite for the things of God may be a sign that you have not seen, that you may still be blind. In Matthew 5, verse 8, Jesus gives a sermon at the mount, and on the message of the sermon at the mount, he talks about how to enter into the kingdom of God.

And in that sermon at the mount, the Beatitudes, one of the things that he said is, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." In other words, if your heart is not pure, you are blind. He didn't say, "Blessed are those who learn." He didn't say, "Blessed are those who know theology." He didn't say, "Blessed are those who do good things." He said, "Blessed are those who are pure in heart, for they shall see God." See, if Jesus is coming, and he's the Son of God, he's going to do fantastic things.

But to be able to see the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, to see who he is, he says, "Your heart must be pure." So John the Baptist was preparing their heart to make it fertile, so when Jesus came, and he preached about the kingdom of God, that they would recognize him.

Hebrews 12, verse 14, "Strive for peace with everyone, and for holiness. Without it, no one will see the Lord." If there is sin that we compromise, if there is sin that we justify, "Well, you know, why did you eat that?" And you say, "Oh, it's the woman that you put into the garden." "Why did you eat that?" "Oh, it's the serpent that you put in the garden." Any sin that you try to justify cannot be justified by God.

Let me say that again. Any sin that we compromise and we justify for ourselves cannot be justified by God. Because justification comes when we recognize that we have no ability to justify our sins. And we come and repent. And we recognize who we are. What prevents us from seeing the glimpse of the glory of the gospel, which changes us, is because we constantly make excuses for our sins.

We make excuses why we are the way we are. We make excuses for the impurity. We make excuses for the way that we live. It's because of our society. It's because of the way we live. It's because of life being hard. But any excuse that we make, any sin that we justify, will prevent us from seeing Christ as He is.

John 1, 9-10. "The true light which enlightens everyone was coming into the world." "He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him." Can you imagine the tragedy of this verse? That their own Maker has come into the world. It wasn't just the Messiah.

It wasn't just about some kingdom and Israel being restored. It was their Maker. Stood in front of them. Fed them. Healed them. Preached to them. And they didn't recognize Him. You know, I think one of the harshest diseases or sickness to deal with in life is Alzheimer. You know, the older I get, I hear more and more about it.

And you hear stories about how, you know, husband and wife, and the wife or the husband gets Alzheimer in the last 15, 20 years. They don't recognize their own wife. They don't recognize their own children. You know, it's part of living in this fallen world, but that's the reality.

I can't imagine waking up one day and seeing my children that I love, and, "Who are you?" Or vice versa, coming down, you know, try to give them a hug, and like, "Who are you?" And treating me like a stranger, because they don't recognize me, or my wife, or my family.

He says that was a tragedy of when Jesus came into the world as a light, and everything was made by Him, for Him, sustained by Him, and they did not recognize Him. What caused them to be this blind? See, in the Scripture, the sinful state is often described as blindness, right?

The greatest deception is you think you see when you don't see, right? You think, like, "Oh, I see a cliff, and I see a bridge, and there's no bridge there," right? That's a dangerous place to be. He says sin is what's causing us to not be able to see the glimpse of God.

Why is seeing God so important? And why is repentance so important so that we may see who God is? Because when we see Him, we change. We change. 1 John 3, 2, it says, "Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is." Why will we become like Him?

What causes us to be glorified with Him? He says, "When you see Him." When you see Him as He is, He says, "You shall be like Him." And the reason why we only see traces or glimpses of it is because we're wrestling with sin. But one day, when we are glorified, and all of sin, inside and out, is dealt with, He said, "We will see Him as He is, and when that happens, you will change." 1 Corinthians 13, 12, "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.

Now I know in part, then I shall know Him fully, even as I have been fully known." Right now, we're seeing dimly, through a dimly lit mirror. And so everything that we are seeing of Christ is just bits and pieces. And so, what John the Baptist is doing is, the Messiah is going to come, but if you're going to recognize Him, you have to repent.

You have to own up to your sins. And not superficial like the Pharisees, who were confessing one thing, and doing something else. He says, "If you want to see God, you must repent. You must own up to the sin that is internal. You must own up to the compromises that you make.

You must own up to everything that you say, 'Well, I'm doing it because of them.'" Do you spend more time frustrated with the sins of other people than yours? Do you spend more time hoping, and maybe even praying, that other people around you will change, so that you can change?

Is that any different than Adam saying, "Well, I sinned because of that woman that you sent." C.S. Lewis describes his vision, his growing vision of Christ. And as a Christian, so I'm going to read it, and I'm going to explain a little bit, because I had to read it several times for me to really understand what he was saying.

But this is what he says. And this is about his experience, about a growing glimpse of the glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He says, "Up until now, each visitation of joy had left the common world momentarily a desert." Let me explain that, ok? So if you get it, ok, you're an A student.

So if you don't get it, you're like me, ok? Basically what he is saying is every time he had this spiritual encounter, like he went to a revival or whatever, every time he experienced this visitation of joy, the common world momentarily became a desert. In other words, it became rubbish.

It's just, I just, the more I experienced God, the less I wanted of this world. Basically that's what he is saying. "Even when real clouds or trees were in my vision, they have been so only by reminding me of another world." So even when I saw the beauty of creation, he said it reminded me, like, "Oh, one day I want to be in Heaven." "And I did not want to return to ours." In other words, it became harder and harder to want to live here.

But he says, "But, but now I saw the bright shadow of holiness coming out of the book into the real world." In other words, the Word of God was beginning to affect him. That it was coming into the real world and resting there. Instead of comparing, he said that the holiness that was resonating from the Scripture was coming out, and it was resting there, transforming all common things and yet itself unchanged.

Instead of now looking at, "Look how beautiful things in Heaven, or God is, and the future will be, and how bad the creation is." He says now, that the Word of God, the holiness, is coming out and is transforming everything. Everything common began to change for me. Or more accurately, "I saw the common things drawn into the bright shadow." Did you understand that?

In other words, it wasn't no longer just a comparison between what I'm going to have in Heaven and then this nasty place that we live. He said, "No." He said, "The holy things that I was seeing opened my eyes to see the beauty of His creation." A more simple way that he put it, he says, "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Son has risen.

Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." Why is seeing God, the ability to see our Creator, why is it so important? Because until we see the glory of our Father, everything else is tainted. Seeing God causes us to see everything else the way God intended.

And until our eyes get open to see our Savior, and I'm not just talking about understanding, I'm not just talking about reading, I'm talking about He illuminates us. Because the barrier between us and God is taken away, and we repent and He forgives us, and we have this free access, and we are seeing His glory.

It changes everything. You know, the story of Job is a heart-wrenching story. But the conclusion of Job, if you do not know Christ, will make no sense to you. Because here's a man who was righteous. He's chosen because he's righteous. Satan and God has a conversation. He says, "If you take away this hedge of protection, let me at it, and he's going to curse you and die." So God says, "Okay, I trust." And then He takes it away, and then all these horrific things happen.

He loses his children. He has the worst health possible. And then the worst part of it is, after all that has happened, the rest of the book of Job is his friends coming in three separate cycles. He says, "You know what? This doesn't happen to righteous people. You must have done something wrong." And Job is like, "What could I have possibly done?" He says, "There's no way.

God is just. God will not allow this injustice to happen to a righteous person. So there must be some kind of sin that you're hiding from us." And then one guy is done. The next guy would come. He's like, "He doesn't know what he's talking about. Let me tell you what's going on." Right?

It may not be you. It's probably your grandparents. It's your grandparents. It's some ancestors. "You must have done something wrong." So they go through three cycles. And then he's like, "Oh my gosh. I got the best friends in the world." And then they come back again. Right? And there's three separate cycles of this.

Four, 45 plus chapters. They're coming and say, "This is happening to you because of your problem." Can you imagine that? The worst horrendous thing that you can possibly think of. And then you're looking for friendship and some, you know, some sympathy. And they said, "Well, you probably deserved it." And he's arguing with them.

He's like, "No!" And then God shows up at the end. Right? God shows up at the end. And when God shows up, right, this is the part that's hard to understand. If you're not a Christian. If you've never seen God. God doesn't answer the question. Because all throughout his life, you're, they're trying to answer, "Why is this happening?

Why does tragic things happen? Why does God allow this?" And so you would think, "You guys are all dummies. You guys are all wrong." And finally when God shows up, you say, "This is why this happened." Never answers. God shows up and he says, "Pull up your pants." Right?

"Pull up your pants and take it like a man." Right? That's basically what he says in my translation. He says, "Pull up your pants. Take it like a man." And then all he does, he says, "Do you know who I am?" That's basically, in a nutshell, that's what he says.

"Who are you? Do you know who I am?" And so you're reading that. It's like, "Wait a second. I missed something." Right? Where's the answer? Right? Here's the answer. There is no answer. That's all he says. "Do you know who I am? Do you know who I am?" He says that over and over, basically.

At the conclusion of that, you would think Job would say, "Oh, man, forget this. I'm not worshipping God anymore. This is what I get? This is what I get for worshipping God? I lose all my children, my wealth, my health, and then these friends?" Right? And then he doesn't even answer.

He doesn't give me a solution to this. But his response tells everything. He says in Job 42, 5-6, "I had heard of you by hearing of the ear. All this time, I heard because people were telling me about you. I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you.

Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes." In other words, he's saying, "I'm done." You know, we want logical conclusion, logical answers. But the answer was God showed up. When God showed up, it was okay. When God showed up, he forgets. When God shows up and he sees God, "I heard of you, but now I've seen you." And he has the same response as Isaiah, "I am done.

I am unworthy of you." That's his response. He doesn't say, "God, you're not worthy of my praise." He doesn't say that. He says, "I'm not worthy of you." See, salvation happens when God opens our eyes and we see Christ. Isn't that why you come here every single week? Isn't that why you bought a Bible?

Isn't that why you put up with difficult people? Because you've seen the glory of Christ and you want more. And why would anybody want to go to heaven if you don't want Christ? See, the story of Job will not make any sense to a non-Christian. But every single one of you here, if God opened your eyes even just a little bit and you've tasted and you've seen who Christ is, this is why we come.

This is why we persevere. And this is why we change. That's why Jesus says, "I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life. And nobody comes to the Father but through me." He says, "Prepare the way for the Lord. Make His path straight." How are we going to pursue Christ?

How are we going to make this path straight so that we may have a clearer vision of our Savior and be changed? I pray that the next couple weeks that we have, that it's not just something that we think about, we talk about, but we make a decision that I'm going to pursue Christ tangibly.

How will we prepare for His coming? He says, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Would you take a minute to pray with me as we again welcome the praise team to come up? And I'm going to read a psalm for you, and I pray that this would be our prayer, not only today, but as we think about Christmas and as we think about the preparation of the coming Messiah.

In Psalm 139, and I pray that this would be our prayer, and I encourage you to pray this after I read this. It says, "O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down, when I rise up. You discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know altogether." And verse 23 says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Let's take some time to pray and make that a sincere prayer that we offer up to God.

Let's pray.