God Announces the Shepherd Pt 2

If you would, let’s go back again
to the book of Isaiah. And I need just about as much
reminder as you do that that is in the Old Testament. I don’t
have or I haven’t taken opportunity near enough to preach in the
Old Testament. Some of those times are certainly
at the advent season, and we have been in the book of Isaiah
a number of times. Over the last number of years,
preaching those messianic passages and what a purpose to do this
season is try to attack the entire chapter of Isaiah, chapter 40,
a rich chapter, and that will take us six to seven weeks, I
think, is what we had. Forecasted. In Isaiah chapter
39, just by way of a brief reminder from last Lord’s Day, what happens
there is that Isaiah had just rebuked King Hezekiah because
he had proudly boasted of what God had blessed him with in front
of essentially heathen kings and messengers and He boastfully
showed them all of his treasures and Isaiah rebukes him and he
essentially does so by prophesying that one day Babylon would come
and plunder all of that treasure and decimate the nation. This opening address in Chapter
40 follows immediately on the heels of that, and as such, it
has been characterized as a comfort that was primarily designed for
Israel with regards to that Babylonian captivity. Well, there certainly
is that immediate reference, that immediate fulfillment to
these prophecies, but there is very obviously a more remote
reference to the salvation that was brought by the Lord Jesus
Christ. One commentator characterized
that immediate reference in these terms. The theme of the whole
is this comforting announcement of the approaching deliverance
and its attendance summons to repentance. Deliverance for those
who remained true in the midst of affliction while redemption
was delayed. And so what he points to is that
there was this immediate reference to Israel to be comforted to
take comfort in the fact that God was going to intervene that
God was going to step in and God did all that. God prompted
Cyrus the future king to release Israel and they could return. And so Israel directly attributed
this to that redemption to that release. But these prophecies
as we saw they absolutely belong also to the future. There was
an immediate reference but there was also a distant reference
and that distant reference is obviously to the Messiah himself
to the coming of the Lord Jesus. And we began to sense that last
week. What we have done is is basically
begin to look at God’s announcement of a shepherd, a shepherd like
no other, even as I was pleased to hear, even as was referred
to in our reading of Revelation, where God points to a shepherd
that is far above and beyond all others. And what we have
come to is what I’ve been entitled to, perhaps a subtitle, the glorious
truths that surround the Messiah’s advent. Last Lord’s Day, we began
to look just at the opening verses of this great chapter where we
referred to them as the comfort of peace. Essentially, God gives
this announcement, it’s God, the one that is speaking. And
it’s as if he has led us into the very throne room of God himself. And though it is a very brief
scene, it is profound and it seems to be almost a proclamation
that is being spoken to angelic messengers or perhaps even to
Isaiah himself. What he does is give this threefold
command comfort. Speak kindly. and call out. It’s essentially one command,
but it takes three different forms. And as it is a threefold
command, it also has three parts to that comfort. What exactly
was the messenger supposed to communicate? Well, Isaiah details
that here. Call out to her. Call out to
the people that are hurting. Call out to the people that are
so discomforted, call out to them that their warfare has ended. God has enacted a peace treaty. Obviously, in the local sense,
the Jews grabbed hold of this and believed that the fulfillment
was full. That Cyrus, in having released
them, had essentially put an end to the warfare between Israel
and Babylon, a war that was not being waged. Israel had lost
the war years earlier and now just suffered the indignity of
this captivity. But there was a deeper meaning
to this warfare and we talked about it last week. It’s the warfare that every individual
ever born is engaged in with his God. It’s the warfare of
sin. It’s the warfare of wanting our
own way. It’s the warfare of our own selfish
and sinful desires. God says, go comfort her, speak
kindly to her and call out to her. And when you call out, tell
her that her warfare has ended. Christ has ended the warfare.
Christ is the one in whose blood that peace treaty was signed.
God has enacted the peace treaty and the war is over. Not only
that, and essentially these three things all roll into one, two,
don’t they? These three comforts that Isaiah
was to provide, that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity
has been removed. Well, obviously only in Christ. To the Jews in Babylon, they
felt that their iniquity had been removed through this period
of chastisement, being carried off and held captive in a foreign
nation. And to them, their sins had been
distilled, as it were, and watered down and eliminated over time
through God’s chastening of them in this captivity. But we know
that only God can remove sin and only God can wipe it away
and only through the blood of Jesus Christ, only through the
righteousness which comes by faith. We looked at the third
and final comfort. Comfort, speak kindly, call out
to her, not only that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity
has been removed, but that she has received of the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins. We saw last week that there is
no one. No one stands in an incapable place, a perfectly incapable
place where God cannot reach them. No one stands so condemned
that they cannot be redeemed. No one stands So sinful before
God that Christ’s blood could not and would not cover that
sin. No one is hopeless. No one is beyond God’s gracious
forgiveness. But the message has only just
begun. The message was a message of comfort and the commissioned
messenger was to go and to begin the message with these words,
but the message is far from over. And if you glance down at verses
three through five, we come to the next section, which is which
I would entitle the preparation for glory. How does a sinful
individual prepare to receive the glory of God? If you would,
verses three through five, where Isaiah says a voice is calling
clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness, make smooth in
the desert a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted
up, and every mountain and hill be made low, and let the rough
ground become a plain, and let the rugged terrain a broad valley. Then the Lord will be revealed,
and all flesh will see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has
spoken.” Here in this section, just referred to as a voice. And it is very deliberately undefined,
this voice. It could be that of the prophet
Isaiah himself. It could perhaps be an angel.
But it’s the sense that we are left with that it is completely
undefined and in a sense unimportant as to who this voice is. It’s
not the important thing. It’s not the messenger that is
important. It is the message that comes
to the forefront. And this voice begins to ready
the people for the Lord’s coming by calling them to repentance.
That’s how we prepare for glory. That’s how a sinful individual
receives God himself. It is by repentance and only
by repentance. Even as we reviewed and recounted
at our time of prayer the other night, there had been a lengthy
season, more than 400 years since the prophets had spoken. The
communion, that close, intimate fellowship with God himself,
seemed to be a far distant memory to most Israelites. The prophets
had seemingly ceased to speak. Since Malachi, there had been
almost four centuries of silence. God seems to have lost interest
in his people, and now they have been carried away and have been
essentially held captive for long seasons. The silence had
become oppressive to God’s people to the point where they hardly
felt like they were God’s people. But once more, God would speak
once more, God would break the silence and burst onto the scene
and intervene. With a message, that message
began with comfort, but ultimately, as. As the message unfolds, it’s
a message that probably would not have been welcome to the
average Jew. Because ultimately it points
to the fact that not every child of Abraham would have a right
to enter the kingdom. They always held that the joys
of the kingdom were for the Jews and the Jews only. And Jews by
divine right. But now this message, this message
from this messenger seems to run counter to that. Likewise, God’s word carries
through that not everyone. Not everyone will come into the
kingdom, but those who repent, those who turn their hearts toward
God, those who soften their heart and turn from sin. And if the
only sure entrance into heaven is repentance, a change of heart
and unless and until they repented, no Jew, no person, would ever
answer the kingdom of God. It wasn’t a mere sorrow. It wasn’t
a mere sadness because they had sinned, because they knew that
they had offended God. But it was a purpose of heart,
a resolution, if you will, to break from sin, to be rid of
sin, the purpose to follow God by His grace. See, as one said, conversion
affects not only the emotions, But it affects the mind and the
will. It is a radical change of mind and heart that leads
to a complete turnabout of life. And that’s what the messenger
was calling them to. He was calling them to repentance.
He was calling them to prepare for glory, and the only way they
could do that was by repenting of their sin. Now, it is vital. We’re going to take a little
tour of the New Testament Gospels. It is vital to acknowledge from
the very start that by the Holy Spirit’s direct influence, all
four gospel writers cite this very passage in their introduction
of John the Baptist’s ministry. All four bring about important
revelations. And so if you would turn to the
Gospel of Matthew to begin with, keep your finger in Isaiah. Especially
if it’s clean and the pages tend to stick together, you’re going
to want to return there here shortly. Matthew, chapter three. And here in Matthew, chapter
three, Matthew. Again, by clear direction of
the Holy Spirit, Matthew points out some things about this passage,
and in a sense, he elucidates or even clarifies, he interprets
Isaiah. And by the Holy Spirit’s design,
he clarifies a few things that were previously undefined. The
Gospel of Matthew here reveals that John the Baptist is the
voice. The voice no longer remains undefined. Now we know who the voice belongs
to, the voice referred to by Isaiah, and that truth is ultimately
echoed in both Matthew and Mark’s gospel accounts that the Holy
Spirit showed them as well that John the Baptist is the voice.
Look at verse one. where Matthew records now in
those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of
Judea saying repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this
is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said the
voice of one crying in the wilderness make ready the way of the Lord
make his paths straight. The Holy Spirit highlighted to
Matthew two clear connections, two elements that reveal the
identity of the one to whom Isaiah had pointed. First of all, that
the forerunner would be in the wilderness. And John the Baptist
was literally in the wilderness, and secondly, that that ministry
would be a ministry of repentance. That is essentially what Matthew,
by the direction of the Holy Spirit, that is what he seizes
upon here. We’ll come back to that repentance
element in a moment. This little word for look at
the start of verse three, that little word for points to the
reason why John appeared in the wilderness and why he urged the
people to prepare for the Messiah. And the simple reason is this,
because he’s the very one spoken of by the prophet. Now, this
little phrase in the wilderness. You might notice a little subtle
difference if you have your finger in Isaiah, flip back to Isaiah,
just one moment. In Isaiah. That little prepositional
phrase. The voice of one crying in the
wilderness stands there in verse three of Isaiah as pointing to
essentially the locale of the preacher. But if you flip back
to Matthew. Flip back to Matthew you have
that phrase also in verse three of Matthew’s gospel. where the
voice says the voice is calling clear the way of the Lord in
the wilderness and so you have essentially here not an error
on the part of the gospel writers but a clarification to what the
Holy Spirit intended from the very beginning. Now you could
append that little prepositional phrase to either element. It
could either be the voice of one crying in the wilderness.
Or it could be the command clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness
or through the wilderness. Either way fits. But what the
gospel writers do is clarify what was intended from the very
beginning that this individual this voice would be one who resided
or at least occupied himself through preaching in the wilderness. And neither does that take away
from the alternate connection, because
ultimately we are or rather the voice was to clear the way through
in and by the wilderness. And so that connection, though
it fits both ways, the gospel writers clearly seem here to
clarify that it was John the Baptist operating in the wilderness
and he was calling out, calling out to clear the way. So the synoptic writers, all
three. By the revelation of the Holy
Spirit, all three identified John the Baptist as the voice,
and they do so largely because he was operating in the wilderness
and he was preaching a message of repentance. But the gospel
of the apostle John, John’s gospel, go ahead and turn there real
briefly. I had to clarify what John I’m
talking about, because we’ve got a whole bunch of them. In
the gospel that was written by the Apostle John, he offers some
detail that the other gospel writers don’t include, and it’s
crucial details. In the other gospels, It was
the synoptic writers themselves, by direction of the Holy Spirit,
that pointed to John the Baptist as the one fulfilling that office
of the voice. But in the gospel of this Apostle
John, John the Baptist reveals that truth about himself. John
the Baptist doesn’t shy away from it. John the Baptist boldly
proclaims, I am the voice. Look at John chapter one, beginning
in verse 19. This is the testimony of John,
when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to
ask him, who are you? And he confessed and did not
deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. They asked him, what
then? Are you Elijah? And he said,
I am not. Are you the prophet? And he answered,
no. Then they said to him, who are
you so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do
you say about yourself? He said, I am a voice. I am a voice of one crying in
the wilderness. Make straight the way of the
Lord. As Isaiah the prophet said, John the Baptist didn’t shy away
from this title. John the Baptist didn’t shy away
from this truth. John the Baptist seized hold
of it by the direction of God himself and identified himself
as that voice. I am that voice. The voice of
one crying in the wilderness. We’ll come back to that thought
in a moment. Turn, if you would, to the Gospel
of Mark. I told you that all four gospel
writers cite this passage from Isaiah, all four gospel writers
bring forth even just a little bit of revelation, a little bit
of different information, each one of them, as does Mark. Look at Mark. Chapter one will
start at the very beginning, but essentially what Mark does
here, Mark reveals That Isaiah was pointing to the very beginning
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the start. And he uses as his proof. Isaiah
chapter 40 verses three through five. Look at Mark chapter one,
verse one, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son
of God, as it is written in Isaiah, the prophet, that is his proof.
How can you say that this is the start of the gospel? Because
this is exactly what Isaiah was pointing to. As it is written
in Isaiah, the prophet, behold, I send my messenger ahead of
you who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the
wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. John the Baptist appeared in
the wilderness. Preaching a baptism of repentance
for the forgiveness of sins. Now there’s an element here that
has hung people up for centuries. We’re not going to get hung up
on it. He clearly cites Isaiah as it is written by Isaiah the
prophet. That’s that’s Mark there citing
the the prophet Isaiah. But there is a blend here of
two prophetic statements one taken from Malachi. In Malachi,
it says, behold, I am going to send my messenger and he will
clear the way before me. That seems to be clear. That’s what Mark is alluding
to in that opening sentence. Verse two. In verse two, behold,
I send my messenger ahead of you. But ultimately, he does
land and seize upon that same passage, which is quoted by all
four of the gospel writers. And he does so by that formula
as it is written, he’s pointing us back, he’s giving us proof
that was the standard formula for introducing one of these
quotations. And it marks the precise fulfillment, which had
been prophetically announced that a voice was going to come
and a voice is going to essentially bring forth a message of repentance.
That salvation is offered only to those who turn from their
sin. Finally, turn to the Gospel of
Luke. The Gospel of Luke and to chapter
three. Now, lastly. The Gospel of Luke
brings forth some new and different information, information that
Matthew and Mark and John did not provide us. Matthew essentially
told us that it was in the wilderness and that it would be a ministry
of repentance. John gave us the information that it was John
the Baptist himself who owned that idea that he was the voice. Mark likewise brought us new
and different revelations of this message. But Luke likewise,
Luke likewise brings some interesting revelation that the others do
not. The Gospel of Luke highlights the baptism of repentance for
the forgiveness of sins, but he also points to the nature
of the glory that Isaiah declares all will see. What was this glory
like? Pick it up with me, if you would,
in verse one of chapter three. Now in the 15th year of the reign
of Tiberius Caesar when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea
and Herod was Tetrarch of Galilee and his brother Philip was Tetrarch
of the region of Igeria and Triconensis and Lysanias was Tetrarch of
Abilene in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas. The word
of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. And he came to all the district
around Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness
of sins. As it is written in the book
of the words of the Isaiah, the prophet, the voice of one crying
in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord, make his
path straight. Every ravine will be filled and
every mountain and hill will be brought low and the crooked
will become straight in the rough roads, smooth and All flesh will
see the salvation of God. And so we see that it was in
the wilderness that the word of God came to John. The comment here about John being
spoken of in Isaiah is spoken here again by Luke under the
direct influence of the Holy Spirit, both Matthew and Mark.
as we saw, declare the same thing about John in less detail. But then we see in verse 4 that
he came preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness
of sins. Not just repentance, but an outward sign of an inward
grace. An outward indication by this
rite of baptism that was an indication of something that had taken place
inwardly. It was an affirmation of what
they proclaimed with their lips. And it was a mark of an intent
to follow in a new and different way. So then let’s pause and
let’s summarize. The Gospels reveal that John
the Baptist was the voice referred to by Isaiah. who would initiate
the ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which would be
grounded in a call to repentance. Marked by this outward right
of baptism, and it would ultimately culminate in God’s glory. Wow, what a profound statement. Go back, if you would, to Isaiah,
Isaiah Chapter 40, and now let’s consider what Isaiah has to say. Here we have the heralds announcement
in the preparation for glory. And as Isaiah writes it, as we
we’ve already seen. The prophet Isaiah, perhaps an
angel, this voice begins to ready the people. We don’t know who
it is yet. Of course, we know, looking back, having now received
the clarification of The scriptures from the gospel writers, we know
who the voice is, but as Isaiah is writing, he’s writing intentionally.
To mask the. The identity of this voice, the
voice isn’t that of God, because ultimately it speaks of God. The voice, obviously, even in
Isaiah’s treatment of it has to be some kind of a created
being with a voice. But he leaves it undefined. And
he does so because he doesn’t want the message obscured by
the identity of the speaker. Here in this section, the voice
begins to ready the people with a crucial message of preparation
by repentance. The Gospels, as we’ve just looked
at, make it clear that John was the voice making known the word. that John was much more than
just a messenger. He was the forerunner for the
Messiah himself, but even once that voice is identified, the
truth still remains, the voice was still unimportant. The message
was what was paramount in John the Baptist ministry, even as
John himself would point out, he must increase. John said of
Christ, but I must decrease. John wasn’t the important one.
John was the forerunner in God’s economy. God had tasked him with
a indeed a crucial task, an important task, a high calling. But it
wasn’t John the Baptist that was in focus. It was the Lord
Jesus Christ that he was pointing the way. We get into his message,
clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness, make smooth In
the desert, a highway for our God. John the Baptist was literally
and figuratively in a wilderness. Not only was he literally in
a wilderness, in a waste place where things don’t tend to grow,
where heat prevails and weeds. He was in a literal wilderness. That’s what all four of the gospel
writers clearly point to. And yet he was also in a spiritual
wilderness, and that seems to be the play on words that even
the the prophet Isaiah proposes here. But this wilderness. That would ultimately be prepared
for the Lord was the wilderness, the waste place of the human
heart. The spiritual dearth that existed there, the need of the
savior, the sinfulness of the human heart is what needed to
be prepared. As one said, the desert is a
figure of the obstacles and impediment, as well as the difficulties that
had kept God from his people and his people from God. John
the Baptist brings out the fundamental meaning of the prophecy, bear
fruits in keeping with repentance. We’ll come back to that thought
in a moment. But when he says clear the way for the Lord in
the wilderness, there opens up this great image of the human
heart. Prepare the way. is the second
command, not unlike the first make smooth. As the older translations
have it, make ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. In that first imperative, when
he says clear the way, it points to this idea of of removing obstacles
that might be in the way. If a king were coming to a city
There would likely be those that went before him, foot soldiers
in the light, and they would clear the path, perhaps tree
branches, perhaps stones, large stones in the way or some other
debris. And they would go and they would
clear the path. That’s the image. And that image will be repeated
over and over and again in different ways. Make smooth is the second. Command here, and it essentially
calls to mind this idea of straightening. Why make a looping path through
the desert floor if it doesn’t need to be kind of straight path,
the shortest distance between two points, right? As one said,
the forerunner must not only announce Christ’s approach and
presence, but must urge the people to prepare the way of the Lord,
that is, by God’s grace and power to effect a complete change in
the mind and heart. There are many obstacles in the
human heart. The things that we love are affections, not the
least of which is our sin. He goes on to say they must make
straight his paths, they must provide the Lord with a ready
access into their hearts and lives, they must make straight
whatever was crooked, not in line with God’s holy will. They
must clear away all the obstacles which they had thrown into his
path. Self-righteousness, smug complacency,
greed, cruelty, slander. So you have this. Emissary of
the king, the forerunner. As I indicated, kings would send
these emissaries before them. They would go and make sure the
road was in good condition, condition rather. As one commentator characterized
it, He said the imagery is drawn from the great strategic works
of conquerors who sent a herald before them to call the people
of the countries through which they marched to prepare for their
approach. A king’s highway had to be carried
through the open land of the wilderness, valleys lifted up,
hills leveled, winding paths straightened for the march of
the great army. That’s the imagery. But it’s
also the imagery of repentance. It becomes the imagery of repentance.
For the human heart to acknowledge the sins that lie in the path
of the king, to acknowledge the sins that stand essentially as
ravines before him, chasms, if you will. This desert. If the desert had
to be prepared for a king, how much more does the human heart
need to be prepared? For his or her God. If there
are hills that lie in the path of a. Of an oriental king. How much more are there great
obstacles in the path of the human heart? And the spiritual
interpretation of this passage essentially becomes that God
would, by His Spirit, prepare men’s hearts. That God would
go before and, by His Spirit, bring them to repentance for
the sins of their heart. The things that stood in the
way of their Savior. The encouragement here was that
for all who were cast down, humility, they would be essentially humbled
before God and brought to stand by God’s grace. The meek would
be exalted, as one said. The proud would be made low.
Wrong ways set right. Rough nature smooth. That would
be the preparation of the coming of the Lord. All the obstacles,
all the things that stood in the way would be removed. Now, as we said, The immediate
reference of that prophecy. Was to the Jews who were held
captive in Babylon. And they would have seen this
in its most literal fashion. That they were in a very real
way to go and prepare the king’s highway. To go and prepare for
an earthly messiah who was going to have to walk these paths.
And as such, they must clear the way of weeds and obstacles,
debris. They must level out the path
so that the king’s chariot would have the smoothest transition
possible. And they would know this truth, eventually they would
see themselves released, not through some national. Savior. But ultimately, from the hand
of a heathen king, releasing them as it were to go and to
resume. Their lives. But the valley ultimately remained
in their hearts. The obstacles ultimately remained
in their hearts. The debris remained in their
hearts, the sinfulness remained in their hearts. And who was
to deal with that path? As one said, the valley was filled
when lowly and penitent souls received the assurance of pardon.
Mountains and hills were brought low and the pride of the Pharisees
and Sadducees was rebuked. The crooked was made straight
when the publicans learned to be honest. The rough places were
made smooth when soldiers were taught to do violence to no man.
In other words, there was this spiritual fulfillment. There
was, in a sense, a literal fulfillment in time in the release from Babylon,
but there would ultimately be a spiritual fulfillment to this
passage. And it was the coming of Christ.
In the forerunner of John the Baptist, who readied the way
by means of repentance. Where every heart was to own
their sin, every heart was to acknowledge their own sinfulness
and their desperate need of the Lord. And forgiveness. Those who trusted in themselves,
those who boasted in their own righteousness, those who had
hatred and contempt for God and his word, those who were puffed
up with pride and arrogance, would one day be humbled by God’s
grace and they would come to Christ and see themselves in
their desperate need of a Savior. Now, lest you think that I’ve
taken great liberties with the Scripture in interpreting this
passage, clear the way, make smooth, Let every valley be lifted
up and every mountain be made low, and I’ve taken this to point
to a spiritual truth that we are in desperate need of repentance.
Lest you think that I’m embellishing this, go back, if you would,
to Luke chapter three. In Luke chapter three, we’ve
touched on only a part of it, we looked at only the initial
words of that introduction to Luke’s gospel, but there’s much
more that flows from it. But I want to go back, pick up
in verse two. The word of God came to John,
the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness, and he came into
all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance. This was real. This was powerful. This was a spiritual application
of Isaiah’s message. He quotes it. He came preaching
a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is
written in the book of the words of Isaiah, the prophet, the voice
of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord,
make his path straight. Every ravine will be filled and
every mountain and hill brought low. The crooked will become
straight and the rough road smooth and all flesh will see the salvation
of God. Now look at verse seven. So. So he began saying to the crowds,
Matthew points out that he was speaking directly to the Pharisees
and Sadducees. So he began saying to the crowds
who were coming out to be baptized him. You brood of vipers. What a great way to start your
ministry, right? I’ll try that one next Lord’s Day maybe. He
began saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized
by him, you know, we have this tendency to welcome in just anybody
and everybody, right? The modern church growth movement
says, you know, go meet him in the parking lot, help him get
the baby out, put him in the car seat and mollycoddle them
all the way. Drive them home if need be. Do
everything that you can to garner a new church member. Boy, not
John. You brood of vipers who warned
you to flee from the wrath of God to come. In other words,
they were coming out just as they had on every other occasion.
They were coming out to fulfill another right. R.I.T.E. They were coming out only to
go through the motions. OK, that’s what we got to do
this week in order to secure salvation. It was a work. It was nothing more than an empty
work, just like their lives. That’s why John the Baptist says,
let me apply this for you. Let me tell you what it means
to make smooth the way for the Lord. Let me tell you what it
means to move all those obstacles out of the way. Therefore, bear
fruits in keeping with repentance. You say that you’ve repented
of your sin. Why are we still seeing your
sin? bear fruits in keeping with repentance
and do not say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father.
For I say to you that from these stones, God is able to raise
up children to Abraham. In the mid 80s, there arose this
ridiculous controversy over what repentance was and the suggestion
that, oh, well, we do the work of repentance and then God does
the work of salvation and then we pick it back up and do the
work of sanctification ourselves. It’s ridiculous. The whole point
of those that raised the issue was that the same God that initiates
salvation is the same God who does the work of sanctification
and that same God is the one that does the work of repentance. Repentance and faith are just
two sides of the same coin. It’s a work of God. So don’t
go through the motions and call it repentance. Don’t go halfway
and suggest that it’s a very work of God, it’s not. We can
be just as self-deceived. As others are by our words. And
so John, John calls him, he calls him on it, he says, you brood
of vipers, you bunch of snakes. How can you come out here pretending
to go through the act of repentance marked by this right of baptism? Go back again and lay a ground
of repentance, go back and repent of your repentance and come before
your God. Look at verse nine, it gets better.
Indeed, the axe is already laid at the root of the trees, so
every tree that does not bear fruit is cut down and thrown
into the fire. We don’t bear fruit on our own.
It’s the same God who does the work of salvation. The same God
that does the work of sanctification is the same God who readies the
heart and prepares it by way of repentance. Well, The obvious
happens, right? The head scratching begins, the
pondering. What does repentance look like
to me? And that’s exactly what unfolds. The crowds were questioning. Then what shall we do? And John would answer them and
say to them, the man who has two tunics is to share with him
who has none, and he who has food is to do likewise. There’s
some practical repentance for you. Stop your greediness. Deal with your greediness. Deal
with the greediness of your own heart. We were talking politics
and the election the other day. It’s sad. It’s sad in this country
that we have to have a law enacted to force us to care for one another. Nobody likes communism. I don’t
like communism. But what Jesus Ultimately, is
pointing to here by way of John the Baptist is ready your hearts
through practical repentance and practical care of one another. Some tax collectors where they
get in on it a little nervous. A lot of nervous. And the tax
collectors also came to be baptized and they said to teacher, what
shall we do? They knew they were crooked.
They knew that they were on the take. And he said to them, collect
no more than what you’ve been ordered to see what they would
do is they’d pat it, skim a little bit off the top. They’d collect
for the king and for others what they needed to, but they’d also
collect a little bit extra for themselves. And some soldiers. Soldiers,
you know, typical soldier, corrupt at the core. Soldiers were questioning
and saying, and what about us? What should we do? He said to them, do not take
money from anyone by force or accuse anyone falsely, be content
with your wages. There’s practical repentance.
So when you go back to Isaiah. You see that what he’s talking
about there, this isn’t just the embellishment of one pastor,
this is this is exactly what Isaiah was pointing to clear
the way for the Lord in the wilderness. Make every make smooth in the
desert a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted up. And the rugged terrain become
a broad valley. So I come this morning. To talk to you about repentance. One of my favorite writers years
ago said that our gospel presentations are so pitiful. That we want
to declare somebody saved before they even realize they need a
savior. We don’t talk to them about sin, so how on earth would
they have to repent? And I don’t doubt that there
are people in this very room that haven’t even really practically
and truly and genuinely repented of their sin. Their sin is still
defended. Their sin is, in a sense, still
coddled, their sin is still embraced, nursed along, cared for. Repentance is real. Repentance
is life changing. Repentance is, as I said, the
flip side of faith. The two go together. You can’t
have genuine faith with an artificial repentance. You can’t have real
faith, vibrant faith in the Savior. If you have a pitiful repentance,
if you don’t hate your sin, if you don’t want to be so rid of
that sin that you’re willing to die to it, then you really
don’t want to place your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ because
the two go hand in hand. What is repentance? We have need of a deeper study
of what repentance is briefly. I would tell you that it is an
inwrought grace. Made by God himself, God gives
repentance. Second Timothy Chapter two, the
Lord’s bond servant talking to pastors must not be quarrelsome
to be kind to all able to teach patient when wronged with gentleness,
correcting those who are in opposition. If perhaps God. May grant them repentance. It’s
always God. It’s always God that begins that
work in the heart and mind of a believer. What would ultimately
be a believer, but if. If you haven’t repented of your
sin. Go to God. Pray that he would grant you
repentance, pray that he would show you the sinfulness of your
sin, pray that he might bring you to genuine repentance. For your sin, what does it look
like? Some have characterized it as a change of mind for the
better. A hatred not only of past deeds, but a longing to
be different in the future. As one said, repentance means
a change of mind and refers to that transformation registered
in our conscience of conscience, which mind, feeling and will
will turn from sin to God. It’s a genuine work of God, it’s
a thorough work of God, it’s a profound work of God. Genuine sorrow for sin. Said
one and an earnest resolution to break with evil. Looks forward
as well as backwards. Repentance is the negative side
of the aspect that the positive side is fruit bearing. And that’s
exactly what Isaiah called. Isaiah recorded the voices calling
to. Let every valley be lifted up
and every mountain be made low. Let the rough ground become a
plain and the rugged terrain become a broad valley. And then,
as only Luke points out, then the glory of the Lord would be
revealed and all flesh would see it together. What he points
to is the salvation that is offered by the Lord Jesus Christ. And
it is only through repentance and faith in Christ alone that
that salvation is offered. Let’s examine our hearts before
him. Our merciful King, we humble
ourselves and thank you for this message of the forerunner, which
is still just as true today. that we can’t work our way into
heaven? We can’t reason away our sin or downplay our sin and
think to get away with it? Well, Lord God, the only way
that any will ever be saved is by turning their back, repenting
of their sin, and placing their faith in the only One who offers
the glory of salvation, our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, if there
are any in this room Not only do the elders and deacons stand
ready, but any child of God stands ready to point any who have not
truly repented to the Savior. That they would place their faith
and be saved even today. Lord, we rejoice in the message
of the voice. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray.