Well, good morning. Happy New Year.
Hope you've had a good Christmas, good new Year.
It's good to see you guys this morning.
Patricia sends her love. She wanted me to make sure I
told you that she's home with the kids.
They're all down with sickness. We've had a little bit of ear
infection, I think flu, pink eye.
And so our goal is to make it through all of it in a week so
that we can just enjoy the rest of the year, right?
I feel a bit like Neo and the Matrix just dodging sickness all
around me. But this is where we're at.
So if you have your Bible, please open to Matthew chapter
3. As you know, we've been walking
through the Gospel of Matthew together.
We've been doing that in this series.
We've called the King and his Kingdom.
The Matthew is showing us that Jesus is not merely a teacher or
miracle worker, but that he's the promised king.
He is God's anointed son, and he has come to establish his
Kingdom and the call of people to himself.
And so in chapters 1 and 2, Matthew showed us that the King
has come. We saw the birth of Christ
there. We saw his royal lineage.
We saw his miraculous birth. We saw God's sovereign
protection of him in the face of hostility.
There's a lot that happened in chapters 1 and 2, and the king
enters the world largely quietly.
He enters certainly humbly, and he enters all according to God's
plan. Matthew's been faithful to point
that out to us as he highlights the message of the prophets
throughout. And so now as we come to
Matthew, chapters 3 and 4, Matthew turns our attention to
what we might call the King's preparation.
The King's preparation over the next couple of chapters.
Now before Jesus begins his public ministry, which is
preaching, healing, calling disciples, before all of that
happens, God prepares the way for him and he does so through a
messenger. Now this messenger is said to be
one who is a voice crying out in the wilderness, a voice crying
out in the wilderness. And that's where our passage
takes us today. Matthew introduces us to John
the Baptist. John the Baptist is the
forerunner of the king. He, he's not drawing attention
to himself. John's ministry is not self
promotion. It's not about who he is.
It's not about his baptism. It's not about those things.
His entire ministry is aimed at preparing the people to meet
someone greater. All right, This is what John
wants us to see. And so his message is really
simple. His message is very urgent and
his message is searching. And I think that's where the
text is going to land with some weight on our hearts today is,
you know, God's word is said in Hebrews 4 to be living, living,
living and active, sharper than any double edged sword that it
pierces down to the inner man, the joints, the bone, the
marrow, those sort of things. And it reveals the intentions of
the heart. It it, it searches us.
And so that is always true. But sometimes when you read a
text, it's it, it's obviously true, right?
It becomes very obvious. And I think the text today is
that as you hear John the Baptist proclaim, repent for the
Kingdom of heaven is at hand. And then we explore the ways
that this is important for us to see.
I think you'll understand how it searches us today.
Now the passage is going to force us to ask a sobering
question. Are we ready for the king, or
are we ready for the king? Not religiously informed, right
not, not mere mental ascent, not outwardly respectable, living
moral lives, but truly prepared for the king in both heart and
life. Are we prepared for him?
As we hear John's message, we will see that the nearness of
the Kingdom demands repentance. It demands humility, it demands
a life that bears fruits in keeping with that repentance.
So with that in mind, if you're able, would you please stand as
we hear God's word from Matthew chapter 3, verses one through
12. Today I want you to listen
carefully to the voice of the herald who prepares the way for
the king. As we read this.
In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness
of Judea. Repent, for the Kingdom of
heaven is at hand. But this is he who was spoken of
by the prophet Isaiah, when he said the voice of one crying in
the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths
straight. Now John wore a garment of
camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food
was locust 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 yourselves, 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 axe is laid to the root of the trees.
Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down
and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with 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 weed into the barn.
But the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you
each week for your word. We thank you, Lord, that we have
not been left without revelation, God, that you have
revealed yourself to us through Your Word.
You have revealed your Son to us through your Word.
You have revealed your work to us through Your Word, and so
much more. And so, Father, as we come to
this passage today in which we examine the ministry of John the
Baptist, oh God, would you search our hearts with Your Word
this morning? Would you help us, Lord, to see
clearly our own sin? Help us to see clearly our own
lives that we might examine them to see.
Are we prepared for the coming of the King?
Lord, we ask that you would help us in every way to be obedient
to Your Word. Lord, help us today to be active
listeners of Your Word. And God would you, by the power
of Your Spirit, apply these truths to our lives and help us
to live a life that honors and magnifies Your Son Jesus Christ
in every way. It's in the name of Christ I
pray. Amen.
You may be seated.
Well, in the ancient world, when a king was about to visit a
city, he he would not arrive unannounced, all right?
A herald would come ahead of him, be sent ahead of him.
Roads were cleared, obstacles would be removed, ceremonies
would be prepared. Be a lot going on.
And to ignore the herald was not merely rude, as you might
assume. It was dangerous that the King's
arrival demanded preparation. And the presence of the herald
was itself an act of mercy. It was a help to prepare the
people for the coming of the king.
Now, that is the role that John the Baptist plays in this
passage. Now, what we see is he's not
entertaining, he's not soft. He's not really even
accommodating. Rather, he's urgent.
He's direct and he's unsettling, and that's because the situation
demands it, that the king who is coming is unlike any king
before. The king is not coming.
Someday, though, I want you to see that the king is at hand,
and that is where the text presses upon us.
If you're taking notes, here's the main point of the sermon
this morning. Write it down.
The nearness of the king demands real repentance and true
readiness. That the nearness of the king
demands real repentance and true readiness.
And what we don't see here is a demand for religious
familiarity. We don't see a demand just
merely for outward association. We don't see anything about
inherited privilege. The demand is hearts that are
turned, lives that are changed, and people who are prepared to
meet the king who saves and judges.
All right, so as we walk through the passage, Matthew's going to
show us four things about this herald.
The 1st is we're going to see the herald's identity, a man
sent by God to prepare the way for the king.
Secondly, we'll see the Herald's message, which is a call to
repentance. But because the Kingdom has
drawn near, 3rd we will face the Herald's warning.
The religious privilege without repentance invites judgments,
not safety. And 4th, we will hear the
Herald's testimony, but the coming King will baptize with
the Holy Spirit and fire, gathering his people and judging
the unrepentance. Now, this is not a gentle
introduction to Jesus, but it is a necessary one.
All right. But before grace is received,
hearts must be prepared to receive, All right, Before the
King is welcomed, repentance must take place.
A heart should be prepared. So the question before us is not
simply, do we know about the King?
Again, the question is, are we ready for him?
And so we're going to walk through the text now.
Point #1 The herald's identity. A man sent to prepare the way.
Let me read to you again, verses one through 4.
In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness
of Judea. Repents, for the Kingdom of
heaven is at hand. This is he who was spoken of by
the prophet Isaiah, when he said, the voice of one crying in
the wilderness. Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight. Now John wore a garment of
camel's hair in the leather belts around his waist, and his
food was locusts and wild honey. All right, so Matthew doesn't
begin Jesus's public ministry with Jesus speaking first.
He begins with a herald. But because again, before the
king can be received, the people must be ready.
So John arrives in those days, as the text says, as God's
appointed messenger. Now Matthew's phrase in those
days may sound like a really quick transition from where we
just were with the birth of Christ, but I want you to
understand that it it covers a long silence.
All right. After chapter 2, we step out of
Jesus childhood and into the opening of his public work.
And what breaks the silence is not a new program, not a
political movement, not a religious trend.
Rather, God raises up a preacher.
He raises up a preacher to prepare the way.
John comes preaching in the wilderness of Judea.
Now that location matters, right?
If you think about wilderness and you think about scriptures,
there ought to be a lot of stories that come to mind,
especially from the Old Testament, right?
The wilderness is the place of testing.
Even Jesus will go into the wilderness where He will be
tested after 40 days of fasting. The wilderness is a place of
dependence, and throughout Israel's history, the wilderness
has often been a place where God begins again.
Right. So it's as if God is saying, if
you want to meet my King, you must come out of the illusion of
self-sufficiency and stand before me with nothing but your
need right now. John is a Baptist not because of
a denominational identity or a membership at First Baptist
Judea, right? Although maybe he was, but
because baptism is the hallmark of his ministry.
It's an outward sign calling for inward change.
John is acting as a public summons.
The king is near. You must be ready.
He's preparing the way, right? So God's Kingdom, I want you to
understand, God's Kingdom is not accidentally drift into our
lives. God in mercy sends a herald
before he sends the king in power, right?
And Romans 10 explains this to us in some way where it says
faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
We understand from that that it's the proclaimed word of God
that powerfully transforms lives.
There must be a herald, there must be someone who goes and
preaches, There must be someone who goes and evangelizes, one
who goes and spreads the gospel of Jesus Christ for lives to be
transformed. All right, So we should not
despise the wilderness. Let's say it this way.
We shouldn't despise the wilderness seasons of our lives,
all right? Those moments where you feel
dry, where, where you wonder if the Lord is still active in your
life. We shouldn't despise moments of
disruption, all right, where schedules get out of whack and
you know, we, we don't quite understand how to put our lives
back together. There's a lot of disruption, all
right. We shouldn't despise moments of
conviction where God is dealing in grace with our hearts by his
spirits. We shouldn't even despise
moments of humbling where the Lord brings us low.
As we saw last week with the story of King Uzziah, God often
does his best preparatory work in those moments of wilderness.
He's preparing us, right? We want to understand that God
is not being cruel. He's clearing the brush, so to
speak, so that you can see Christ clearly.
And so wilderness is not often a bad thing.
It's often very good for us. What we see also is that John's
life embodies his message. He's simple, he's serious, he's
set apart. And we see that there in verse
four that he wore a garment of camels hair and a leather belt
and all the men said ha ha ha, right.
And then he might lose us where he eats locusts and wild honey,
like have you ever heard of a cow?
But what we see is that Matthew describes John's clothing and
his food not as some sort of quirky trivia, all right?
It's not just meant for us to look, look at and kind of gawk
and think, yeah, that's interesting or weird or, you
know, I need to keep that here for when I'm playing trivia with
the youth Group One day. Right now, John, John looks like
a prophet. He's in the wilderness preparing
the way, the Lord crying out, He's echoing the ministry of
Elijah and both appearance and posture and he's a living
rebuke. He's a living rebuke to the
generation that is drunk on comforts, image and applause and
he looks nothing like them. And John's whole life says this
world is not ultimate. God is near repent, prepare and
his whole life is saying that now when God prepares a people
for Christ, he often confronts them with a messenger and that
messenger typically lives a life that refuses and he preaches a
message that refuses to flatter their idols.
Right. And often this is how God does
his work is he tears down the idols of the day through the
messengers. It's it's good and right.
It's a good and right work, all right.
So we need to ask, as we look at John and we look at the people
coming out, what what dulls our readiness?
Like what? What hinders our readiness?
Comfort can numb us. All right.
If you're living a comfortable life, you might think I don't
really need the Lord. We saw this again last week with
King Uzziah. If success is happening around
us, if we're prospering, we might think, well, the Lord is a
nice addition to the rest of my comfortable life.
All right, so comfort can numb us.
I think busyness can desensitize us.
We, we can be so busy with life and all of its things that we
can become desensitized to our need for a king, to our need for
the Lord, right? Our heads just spinning in the
busyness and the whirlwind. And we're not really giving
thought to eternal matters, not really giving thought to the
condition of our heart or the condition of the hearts of those
in our household. And so we should be careful with
busyness. Respectability is another thing.
It can often disguise our need, right?
If you're a respectable person, right, you live a morally
upright life. For the most part.
You're looked on well by your Co workers and your boss and your
friends and your family. That respectability can disguise
your need. You can begin to convince
yourself and even become convinced that I'm not really in
need of anything and I'm not in need of a king.
But John, his severe life, reminds us that eternity is
real, right? That eternity is coming, The
King will come again. John's life reminds the people
then, and it really reminds us now that the King is near.
And so we ought to wake up, but we ought not be desensitized.
We ought not think that we're not in need, right?
Another thing that we see here about John is that he's not the
word. He's the voice, right?
Scripture defines his identity. Look at verse 3 again.
For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he
said the voice of one crying in the wilderness prepare the way
of the Lord, make his paths straight.
So Matthew is very quick to anchor John's identity in
prophecy. For this is he who was spoken of
by the prophet Isaiah. What does that tell us?
John is not self appointed, right?
You can look at the Gospel of Luke and see that John is not
self appointed. It was chosen by God to be a
forerunner. We also see that he's not self
branded, right? He didn't create this image or
this brand of ministry. No, he's, he's just imaging the
prophets who have gone before him.
He's doing the work of the Lord that God had given to him.
And so he is scripture shaped. He is scripture sent even.
All right, so Matthew quotes Isaiah, the voice of one crying
in the wilderness. Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his path straight. So John is not the Word.
You know, in the Gospel of John, chapter 1, we see that Jesus is
the word and that the word became flesh.
John is not the word. John is called a voice and he's
a voice. And so that means he has one job
and that's to make another heard.
His his job is to prepare the way of the one who is coming,
who is the word and who will speak so that people are ready
to hear him right. So Matthew Henry nails the
humility and the authority of it when he says that John is the
voice and that is all God is the speaker.
Amen. All right, so the Gospel of
John, even John the Baptist says there in the Gospel of John
chapter 3. He must that Speaking of Jesus,
he must become greater. I must become less.
He is greater than I, and so His very clearly His ministry was to
announce the coming of the One who is great to not be great in
himself. Spurgeon says it similarly when
he says that John the Baptist is not.
I am the Word, but I am the voice, right?
Christ is the essential Word. Servants are only the voice that
carry Him. And notice what the voice cries.
Prepare the way. Make his path straight, right
the the picture is not mainly road construction, but heart
preparation. Obstacles are being removed.
Crookedness ought to be confessed, resistance to the
Lord ought to be laid down, and Calvin captures the idea when
the spiritual reality appears. John has, since Calvin says, to
remove obstacles, right? So preparation for Christ is not
simply cosmetic, it's not road construction, it's moral and
spiritual. It's hard work.
God does not merely ask for attention.
He is demanding full surrender, right?
A surrender to the lordship of Christ.
So this is where the main point again begins to press on us,
where we see that the nearness of the King demands real
repentance and true readiness. Straight paths are not about
tidying up your image. Right here in the Bible Belt, we
can be really good about thinking that things are mostly
moral and about our good works and about tidying up our image.
Straight paths are not about tidying up your image.
They're about turning from sin. They're about laying down
excuses. They're about yielding to the
lordship of Christ. So again, before we ever hear
John's sermon in Fool, Matthew has already told us what kind of
moment this is. God is keeping his promises.
Yet again, God is keeping his promise.
He's sending his herald, and he's clearing the way for his
King. And now the question becomes
unavoidable. If this is who John is, then
what is John saying? And that takes us to point #2
the herald's message. Repent for the Kingdom is at
hand. Look at verses 2 and then five
through 6. Repent for the Kingdom of heaven
is at hand. Verse 2.
And then verses 5 through 6 in 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.
So .1 showed us who John is, .2 now confronts us with what he
says, Right? And Matthew wastes no time
getting to the heart of it. John sermon is short.
I know many of you are like, why can't we just do this each week?
All right? Yeah, that's supposed to laugh
at that. That's that's like an Amen right
now I don't wear camel's hair and or camel's fur and eat wild
locusts either. So here we go.
John sermon is short, it's sharp, it's unforgettable.
There is no warm up. There's no introduction.
There's no let's get the people on board.
No, it's just direct and it's, he's proclaiming repentance, but
he, he gives the action and then he gives the reason for the
Kingdom of heaven is at hand, right?
There's no pleasantries, there's no attempt to soften the blow.
Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Now, this is not a suggestion. I don't want anyone in the crowd
today to hear this as a suggestion.
This is a summons from God through his preacher.
Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand all right now.
Repentance is the necessary response is what we see here.
It's the necessary response to the nearness of the king.
But the command is clear. Repent.
The reason is urgent. The Kingdom of heaven is at
hand. Repentance here is not merely
feeling sorry or resolving to do better.
Sorry, Lord. I'm sorry and I'll do better
next time. Repentance.
That the word literally means a decisive change of mind that
leads to a changed life. It's transformation.
It's turning from sin and self ruled living toward God and his
rule over your life. That's repentance, right?
John is not calling for religious adjustment.
Just change a few things about your life, change a few things
about the way you're living, then you'll be ready for the
king. No, he's saying be transformed.
He's calling for heart level transformation.
Right. And notice the logic doesn't
John does not say repent so that the Kingdom might come.
No, he says repent because the Kingdom has drawn near.
It's here. Repentance is not what brings
the King, brothers and sisters. It is what prepares us to meet
the King who has come right. This is where the main point
again comes into short focus. The nearness of the King demands
real repentance and true readiness.
John Piper once observed that repentance is not just the first
step into the Christian life, but the daily posture of the
Christian life. We daily repent.
We daily confess our sins to God.
We daily seek the mercy of the Lord, that the closer God comes,
if you've lived for the Lord, for, you know, just a even a
short amount of time, what you find is that the closer God
comes to you, the more clearly you begin to see him, the more
clearly you begin to see your own sin.
It's exposed, right? And so the more urgently
repentance is required, You've heard me quote Thomas Watson
before. Be as quick to repent as you
would be to have the Lord show you mercy, right?
So God's grace does not eliminate repentance.
It it makes repentance necessary and it makes it possible.
If not for the grace and mercy of God, there would be no
repentance. We we should understand that
clearly. So nearness to the King
intensifies your responsibility. It does not excuse your
responsibility. It doesn't take it away, right?
We often want nearness without change.
We, we want to be near to God and not have to transform our
life. This is why churches are filled
with people who will proclaim Christ and yet never live for
him, yet never live a life that honors God.
They they want the nearness to the miraculous.
They, they want the nearness to the holy right.
They want the nearness to the people of God and the
association that comes with that.
But they do not want to transform their lives.
They don't. They don't want to live
altogether different. They don't want to submit
themselves to the Lord right. They want comfort without
conviction. But John will not allow that.
John's message doesn't allow for that.
If Christ is near, something must give.
Either our sin will go or we will go.
Something must give. We also see here that repentance
is public, humble, and honest before God.
All right. Matthew tells us that people
from Jerusalem, Judea, and the region around the Jordan went
out to John. This is remarkable.
The religious center, the religious hub goes out to the
wilderness that the crowds leave the familiar, leave what seems
spiritually right, leave all of that to respond to God's call,
right? And how do they respond?
Well, they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing
their sins. Now, it's important for us to
understand what is happening here and what is not happening.
John's baptism was not the final Christian baptism that we know
today. Acts 19, one through 7.
You may just write that in your notes.
You can read it later, but but you see that in real time, the
conflict of John's baptism with Christian baptism that had been
instituted in that day. What we know about John's
baptism is it was a baptism of repentance.
It was a preparatory sign calling people to turn from sin
and make themselves ready for the coming king.
It pointed forward. It did not yet impart new life.
It just pointed forward to the one who would come to give new
life, right? John is washing repentance,
sinners, and anticipation of someone greater who is about to
arrive. And as we'll see John himself,
we'll be very clear that what he's doing is temporary and
preparatory because the king who is coming will baptize in an
altogether different way with Spirit and fire.
So what we see here in the text is that confession becomes the
companion for repentance, right? These people are not defending
themselves. They're not going out to John
and and arguing their case. Well, you don't understand.
I've attended the temple week in and week out.
I've heard the teachings. I believe them.
I've tried to live a moral, upright life.
All right. They're not the rich young ruler
who stands before Christ and says I've obeyed every one of
the commandments. No, they go out not defending
themselves, not minimizing their guilt, not blaming others for
who they are. They go out agreeing with God
about their sin. They're coming down into the
water as a visible acknowledgement that we are
unclean. We need cleansing, all right.
Matthew Henry helpfully notes that confession is the necessary
preface to pardon. Not because confession earns
forgiveness, We are not Roman Catholics, right?
But because forgiveness is only meaningful to those who know
they need it. True repentance brings sin into
the light because it trusts God's mercy more than it fears
exposure. All right, The apostle John and
his first letter, first John 1, five through 10, he writes this.
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaimed to
you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.
If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in
darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have
fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus cleanses us
from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in US.
Verse 9 Listen closely. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we
make Him a liar and His word is not in US.
Brothers and sisters, we live in an age that is highly skilled at
concealment. We live in an age that is highly
skilled at image management. All right, there are people
again professing Christ, who are just seeking to manage their
image and not really surrender themselves to the Lord.
Now, it's true that we live in an age that cares nothing about
concealment or image management as it pertains to right and
wrong and what is sinful and what is righteous.
But those people are not also confessing Christ typically.
All right. John's baptism reminds us that
readiness for Christ begins with honesty before God, a confession
that I am not God, I am not the Lord, I have no rights of my
own. I've sinned against the holy,
just, righteous God, and I deserve hell.
So hidden sin, if you're carrying hidden sin in your
heart today, if you're trying to conceal that thing and keep it
for a little while, I want you to understand that hidden sin is
not a small problem. You might think it's small
because you feel like it's only affecting you and you can kind
of get away with it. But hidden sin is not a small
problem. It's a preparedness problem.
All right? We need to make straight the
path. We need to confess our sin to
God, bring it into the light, and trust that He is merciful
and just and will forgive us all sin.
I think what this passage also shows us is that repentance is
not merely an emotion, all right?
It's a turning that prepares the heart.
Look at verse 6 again. And they were baptized by him in
the river Jordan confessing their sins.
So John's ministry shows us that repentance is not merely inward
or momentary. It is decisive.
And hear me, it's directional. It transforms the heart.
It transforms the life all right, the the people come out,
they confess, they submit to baptism and and that movement
accompanies conviction. Now later in the message or the
passage, John will demand fruit in keeping with repentance.
But but even here the shape of repentance is clear.
It moves a person from comfort and what they think is
stability. It moves them out of that toward
God and away from sin. John Calvin warns that
repentance without life change is a contradiction where where
repentance is real, readiness follows, obedience follows.
The heart is being cleared, it's being leveled, it's being
straightened to receive the king in our repentance.
So repentance again is preparation.
It clears the rubble so that Christ might reign over our
lives. What should I ask yourself
plainly? What is repentance costing me
right now? What is repentance costing me
right now? Ask yourself, if it costs
nothing, then it may be nothing all right.
Real repentance loosens that grip that you have on your sin
and it tightens your submission to Christ.
Imagine that you're told a surgeon is about to enter the
room for a life saving procedure that you need, but you refuse to
remove the infection. You welcome the surgeon's
presence, He's allowed in the room.
Why not? But you reject the necessary
operation. Well, let's not trust.
That's self deception, right? John is saying the great
physician has arrived. He's here, repent, let him do
his work. But not everyone who heard John
welcomed this message, right? Some came confidently, secure in
their heritage, their status, their religious credentials.
And to them John delivers his sharpest words.
Which leads us to point #3 the Herald's warning.
Religious privilege cannot replace repentance.
Look at verses 7 through 10 yet again.
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 yourselves, we have Abraham as
our father. For I tell you, God is able from
these stones to raise up children for Abraham.
Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees.
Every tree, therefore, that bears or that does not bear good
fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Hope. To this point, John's ministry
has drawn crowds. It's stirred conviction.
But now the tone sharpens. Matthew tells us that the
Pharisees and the Sadducees, those religious leaders of the
day, they come out to John's baptism and instead of welcoming
them, John confronts them. This is a reminder, just kind of
a side note here. This is a reminder that the
Gospel does not only comfort the broken, it also exposes the self
assured. John exposes false confidence
with prophetic clarity. He sees the religious leaders
coming to his baptism and immediately addresses them in a
really nice way. Brood of Vipers.
It's not name calling for shock value.
I do want you to understand that it's, it's not the Christian's
job to name call for shock value, but it is the Christian's
job to proclaim truth and to confront evil and to call
evildoers to repent. And sometimes that requires a
really sharp diagnosis of the problem.
It's a spiritual diagnosis. Snakes flee danger
instinctively. And so John is saying you were
running from judgments, you're not running to God, right?
They, they want the symbol without the substance.
They they want safety without surrender.
They want external participation that does not equal internal
transformation. Again, just think Bible Belt
culture. We must ask ourselves honestly,
why do I come? Why do I come out to the Lord?
Why do I come to see the Lord? Why do I show up to worship week
in and week out? Why do I attend a Home group or
Sunday school or participate in biblical manhood?
Or why do I do any of what I do? Is it because I want God?
Or is it because I want what God can give without repentance?
The the warning is clear. Religious proximity can mask
spiritual danger. We can begin to feel comfortable
because we're around religious people.
This is why you you cannot in your mind right now, immediately
start pointing fingers and thinking of someone.
You know who this is talking about.
You have to, brothers and sisters, examine your own heart
against the word of the Lord. You.
You have to start there. John goes on to say that true
repentance is evidenced by fruits, not pedigree, right?
John commands them plainly bear fruit in keeping with
repentance. Repentance is not proven by
claims. It's not proven by credentials
or connections, right? My grandmother was a Baptist.
My grandmother wasn't literally. But I'm just saying we can't say
religious pedigree. We can't use religious pedigree
as something that makes us welcome before the Lord.
You can't stand on the shoulders of other Saints in this way.
Repentance is not proven by any of those things.
It's proved by a changed life. How do we know when someone's
truly repented and given their life to Christ?
Is it because they go into the the waters?
No, that's just the outward sign of something they're saying has
happened inwardly. It's a confession before the
church that I was once a Sinner of.
Christ has saved me and I'm committed to live for him.
But when we know that they've truly repented, you might see
some of it in that. But true repentance is observed
in the life that they live after.
This is why we have the Lord's Supper weekly.
This is why church discipline exists in the Scriptures.
There's all sorts of reasons for that, right?
So John strikes at the heart of their false security.
He says, do not presume to say to yourselves, we have Abraham
as our father. They're trusting their lineage,
right? That their confidence rested in
covenant heritage rather than in covenant faithfulness.
They're looking backward at what they come from rather than
forward at what all those things they came from are pointing to,
which is Christ. And they're not living a life
faithful to the Lord at all. They're living a life faithful
to themselves, faithful to what's best for them.
So John's response is devastating.
But I'll, I'll have you know, it's not even as clear as what
Christ will be later in Matthew. It's going to get worse for the
Pharisees and Sadducees, but it is this, it is devastating in
the moment. God, He says God can raise
children for himself from stones.
In other words, ancestry does not impress God.
He is not dependent on bloodlines or traditions to
accomplish his purposes. Charles Spurgeon once warned
this. He said that resting in
religious privileges, like leaning on a shadow, it cannot
bear weight. Matthew Henry notes that many
who make a fair show in the flesh still remain strangers to
repentance. Right.
So God's promises are never an excuse for complacency.
Covenant privilege increases responsibility from us.
It does not diminish it. It does not eliminate the need
for repentance. Again, this word lands close to
home in the culture that we live in and the county that we live
in. Church membership, baptism,
history, faithful parents, years of attending church, these
things cannot substitute for a repentant heart.
The question is not where have you been or where do you come
from? No, the question is what fruit
is being borne in your lives now?
The urgency of repentance is underscored by impending
judgments. John doesn't just provide this
urgent message of repentance, he underscores it with impending
judgments. John closes the warning with a
sobering image. Even now, the axe is being laid
to the root of the trees. It's not being laid to the
branches. It's being laid to the root.
Judgment is not hypothetical, brothers and sisters.
It is imminent. A fruitless tree is not merely
unhealthy. A fruitless tree is condemned,
and John makes the standard unmistakably clear.
Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down
and thrown into the fire. Now, this is not a denial of
grace. It is a proclamation of reality.
Grace does not make fruit optional.
It makes fruit possible. Amen.
And where there is no fruit in the life of a professing
believer, there is no evidence of true repentance and new life.
Martin Lloyd Jones, my grandfather?
Not really, but he often emphasized that the Gospel never
leaves a person unchanged. The gospel never leaves a person
unchanged. If Christ is near, neutrality is
not an option. That the nearness of the Kingdom
brings both opportunity and accountability, right?
Delay is dangerous when the King is at hand, so this is not meant
to drive the repentance to despair.
Not at all. It's meant these words here are
meant to be an awakening for the self sustained right That the
question before us is simple, but it is searching.
It's it's it's this is where I said earlier, the text is going
to search your heart this morning, if you'll allow it.
Is there fruit in my life in keeping with repentance?
Is there fruits in keeping with repentance?
Not perfection, not perfection, but direction.
Is it clear in my life that I'm living a life unto the Lord?
Again, Not sinlessness, not perfection, simply submission.
Have you submitted your life to Christ?
And is that evident by the fruit that it bears?
Think of an apple orchard. You think long enough, you get
kind of hungry. An apple orchard does not argue
its case. All right, How do you know it's
an apple orchard? There's apples on the trees.
There's fruits. A tree does not explain its
intentions, right? It just becomes what it was
created to become. And so fruit tells the truth.
And over time, the absence of fruit speaks just as loudly as
there being fruit presents. The absence of fruit speaks just
as loudly as there being fruit present.
John is saying God is not fooled by your appearances.
He inspects your roots, not your leaves.
And so John's warning leaves us unsettled and intentionally so.
If repentance is necessary and judgment is near, then we must
ask, is there any hope? If the king has come near, and
judgment is imminent, and my religious pedigree is not
enough, my good works are not enough, then is there any hope?
And if so, where does the hope come from now?
That is where John turns our eyes away from ourselves and
toward another, the one who is coming after him, who will not
merely call for repentance, but he will bring salvation and
judgment in full point #4 the Herald's testimony the coming
King will save and judge. Having confronted false
confidence and warned of coming judgment, John now does what
every faithful servant of God must do.
He points away from himself and toward Jesus Christ.
This is the high point of the passage, brothers and sisters,
that the herald fades to the back so that the king might rise
on the horizon. John's warning was severe, but
it was not hopeless. Judgment is coming, but
salvation is coming with it because the King himself is
coming. Now John, you'll see in verse
11, he gladly diminishes so that Christ may be exalted.
John begins with humility and clarity.
He says I baptize you with water for repentance.
John here is stating the limits of his ministry.
He's clear about it. His baptism is real, it's
meaningful, it's necessary, but it is not ultimate.
It is preparatory. It can call people to
repentance, but it cannot give them new life.
And then comes the contrast. But he who is coming after me is
mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.
Now, in the ancient world, carrying sandals was the work of
the lowest servant. And just think about it, all
right? Doesn't seem like a job a lot of
people sign up for. Leather sandals.
Dusty feet. Sounds stinky.
It's the work of the lowest servant.
Here's my sandals. You carry these.
John is saying. I am not even qualified to take
the lowest place in the presence of this king.
I can't. Not qualified.
I want you to know this is not false humility from our dear
brother. This is theological accuracy.
The closer a servant stands to Christ, the more clearly he sees
Christ's greatness and his own smallness.
Big headed, egotistical Christians ought to be an
oxymoron. A church is healthy when it's
leaders, it's preaching, and it's ministries consistently
point beyond themselves to Christ Jesus.
That's where churches become healthy.
If people leave impressed with the preacher, if they leave
impressed by the ministry or by the songs or by whatever, if
they leave impressed with anything other than Jesus
Christ, then something has gone wrong.
Now the crucial distinction is that John's baptism prepares.
Jesus's baptism gives new life. Now here's where John makes the
distinction explicit. And this is where we must be
clear for the sake of the church.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire, John says.
So John's baptism was by water for repentance.
Jesus's baptism is with the Spirit unto new life.
John's baptism called sinners to turn.
Jesus's baptism literally transforms sinners from the
inside out through regeneration. You may write Titus 35 in your
margin. So John could wash the body as a
sign, but only Christ can give the Spirit who regenerates
hearts. This is why we must not confuse
John's baptism with Christian baptism today.
John's was forward-looking and preparatory.
Christian baptism looks back to the finished work of Christ and
testifies that a person has been united to Christ by faith
through the Spirit. Right.
So repentance prepares us for Christ.
You're doing good, brother. But only Christ gives life.
Only the Spirit can make us new, right.
This protects us from 22 errors. All right, This protects us from
2 errors. First, we do not trust in
outward rights to save us. Wait.
We don't trust in baptism to save us.
We don't trust in the Lord's Supper to save us.
We don't trust in our attendance to weekly worship to save us.
We don't trust in our own good works to save us.
We don't trust in outward rights to save us.
But second, we do not minimize repentance as optional.
Repentance is not optional. John prepares the way Jesus does
the saving. And notice the word fire here.
Baptized with the Spirit and fire.
Fire speaks both of purification and judgments.
But the same Christ who pours out the Spirit on his people
will also execute judgement on the unrepentance the the King
brings final separation, salvation for some, judgement
for others. Look again at verse 12.
His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his
threshing floor and gather his weed into the barn.
But the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.
So John ends with this sober agricultural image.
His winnowing fork is in his hand.
Now the the image is clear. Wheat and chaff grow together
for a time, but separation, separation is inevitable.
The wheat is gathered into the barn with the winnowing fork.
It's tossed. The chaff falls out until the
chaff is burned. Now, this is not some harsh
rhetoric from John. It's loving honesty, right?
The king does not merely invite, He decides.
He does not merely warn. He judges.
Jesus is not only the Savior, He is the judge.
And Grace does not cancel judgment.
It provides a way for us to escape it.
So again, neutrality toward Christ is impossible To refuse
repentance, to say I do not need the Lord, I do not need to
submit my life to Him. I will carry on as I am.
I'm doing fine, preacher. To refuse repentance is to
remain chaff, but to turn to Christ in repentance through
faith is to be gathered as wheat into his barn.
So you might think of John like a signpost on a road that says
bridge ahead. The sign is necessary, but the
sign will not carry you across. Christ is the bridge Himself.
If you stop at the sign and you never crossed the bridge, you
miss salvation entirely. John has done his job.
He is prepared the way, He is warned the proud.
He's called the Sinner, and he is exalted, the coming King.
And now the question comes to us with full force, If the King is
this great, this holy, this near, am I ready for him?
Because the nearness of the King still demands real repentance
and true readiness, and Christ himself is the only one who can
save us and make us new. So John's voice fades from the
scene in Matthew's Gospel, but his message does not fade with
him that the herald has done his work.
He's announced the king. He's exposed false confidences.
He's made clear what is required to meet the King.
And now the message stands before us with the same force it
carried in the wilderness. The King is near.
And that reality leaves no one unchanged because the nearness
of the king always demands a response.
So my call from the text today to believers is this Live as a
prepared people. If you belong to Christ, if
you've been brought from repentance to new life by the
Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus, then this passage calls
you to live as a people who are ready for Christ to come again,
not complacent. Repentance, brothers and
sisters, is not something you leave behind at conversion.
It's not something that stays back there in the distance.
It becomes the rhythm of the Christian life.
A prepared people are a repentant people.
And John's warning reminds us that fruit matters.
It doesn't matter as the root of your salvation.
It matters as the evidence of your salvation.
So the question doesn't become again whether we are perfect,
but whether our lives are being shaped by the reign of Christ
Jesus as Lord. So let me ask you a few
questions. Just introspective style.
Are there sins that you excuse instead of confess?
Are there paths that you refuse to straighten?
Are there comforts that dull your alertness to eternity?
Believer, let me encourage you with this.
The King you love as both Savior and Lord live in such a way that
His coming would not embarrass you, but delight you.
Bear fruit in keeping with your repentance.
Walk humbly with your God. Confess quickly so that you
might receive mercy quickly. Obey Him gladly, cheerfully.
Let your life testify that Christ truly reigns.
But if you are not in Christ, you're an unbeliever.
If you're relying on familiarity with Christianity, I know the
name Jesus. I know that Jesus died for my
sins. I know that there's probably a
God in heaven who sent him to do that.
Unfamiliar with the terms repentance and faith.
If you're relying on familiarity, if you're relying
on moral efforts, look, pretty sure I'm not, I'm not like a
great man or woman, but you should see some of the people I
work around. I, I do better than they do,
right? I, I give occasionally to
ministries. I, I take my family to church
most of the time. I was even baptized as a child.
All right, you've got moral efforts if you're relying on
religious background. My grandparents were Christians,
my parents were Christians. I was raised to to live this
life. If you're relying on association
with the church, I've attended church most of my life.
I've always been a part of the church.
I understand that I should show up for weekly worship and
participate in some fashion. If you're relying on those
things and John's message comes to you with urgency and with
mercy, Brother and sister, repent, for the Kingdom of
heaven is at hand. This is not a call to clean
yourself up before God will receive you.
How many times have we heard this?
How many times have we said it? There's still time.
I'll get myself cleaned up, then I'll show up.
No, this is not a call from John, from the text to clean
yourself up before God will receive you.
It is a call, a very clear call, for you to turn from your sin
and turn to Christ while there is still time.
Let Christ do the cleaning through his spirits.
Let him wash you in the waters of regeneration and
sanctification. The King who is coming is
mighty, and he is merciful. He baptizes with the Holy
Spirit. He gives new life so that you
become new creations in Christ. Old man passing away, Newman
becoming more evidence. As you look to Christ, you
become more like Him and he welcomes to himself repentant
sinners. Christ says if you seek me, you
will find me, so do not delay. John has told us the axe has
already been laid to the roots. The winnowing fork is already in
his hand. Today is the day of repentance.
Today is the day to flee from judgment and run to Christ, my
final word for all of us. John has prepared the way.
Christ has come, and one day Christ will descend the heavens
and he'll come again. So hear the herald's voice this
morning and respond rightly. The nearness of the King demands
real repentance and true readiness.
And may you and I, may we, be found ready by grace, through
repentance, and by faith in the King who saves.
Would you bow your heads with me as we pray?
Heavenly Father, we come before you today, having been humbled
by your scriptures. We've seen clearly the call of
John the Baptist as he prepares the way for the coming King.
And so, Lord, would you help us faithfully respond to your word
today, Whether that's as believers as we seek to live
lives or we do not hide our sins where we do not try to protect
those hidden diseases within us, But we welcome the surgeon's
scalpel. We welcome the work of the
Spirit in our life. We welcome true change,
transformation from the inside out.
God, would you help us to live as those who are ready for the
King to come again. Help us to not be complacent in
our lives, but help us every day, every day to take up our
cross and to follow Him. Father, I pray for any
unbelievers in here. I pray that it is true that You
have shown them Christ through the Word today.
I pray that it is true that you are calling them through Your
Word by Your Spirit unto repentance and faith.
And Lord, I pray that nothing would hinder them from coming.
Not self assurance, not self-reliance, not good works
theology, not any of those kinds of things.
Lord, may they humble themselves before you, seek your face, be
found by you, and be saved eternally from their sins.
Today. Let me give you a moment.
Now they're in your seat to seek the Lord in prayer, to respond
to the word preached and the word read, to respond with
faith, with obedience. Maybe you need to confess your
sins this morning. Maybe you need to seek Christ in
obedience to Him in a new way. Maybe it's sure of you that you
have an unbelieving heart and the Lord is showing you,
revealing Himself to you, the way of salvation.
Would you respond in faith and repentance this morning?
Heavenly Father, again we come before you and we thank you for
your mercy and your grace. We thank you for the forgiveness
that belongs to us in Christ Jesus, that you send him to die
the death that we deserved. He incurred on himself the wrath
that was rightly ours, so that we might become the
righteousness of God, so that we might inherit Christ.
So, Lord, today, would you help us to believe in Him?
Would You help us to trust Him with all our heart and all our
mind and all our soul and strength?
Would You help us to be committed Christians, men and
women and boys and girls who love the Lord above all else and
strive to live a life that would honor and glorify Him unto the
good of those around us and His glory forever?
It's in the name of Christ I pray.
Amen.