Eric asked me to read from Isaiah
40. We're going to read one through
up to verse 12, the first 11 verses. Isaiah 40. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. The voice of him that crieth
in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, and make
straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall
be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. and
the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. And
the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall
see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. The
voice said, Cry, and he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is
grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the
field. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the spirit
of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people is grass, The
grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall
stand forever. O Zion, that bringest good tidings,
get thee up into the high mountain. O Jerusalem, that bringest good
tidings, lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up, be not
afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah,
Behold, your God. Behold, the Lord God will come
with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him. Behold, his
reward is with him. and his work before him. He shall
feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those
that are with young. Let's pray. Our heavenly and merciful Father,
we thank you for allowing us to come together, to gather at
this place with like-minded people. Father, what a great blessing
and mercy. And could it be, will you remember us? For simply coming
together and gathering is insufficient. But Father, will you pour out
your mercy and grace upon us as sinners and show us once again
that glorious gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ. And remember also,
Brother Eric, give him liberty and all that he needs in bringing
this second message that he may declare the fullness of this
gospel that we have. Father, remember us also pertaining
to receiving our own pastor. When we look to ourselves or
trust in our own flesh, Father, we can't trust ourselves. Give
us that we may rely on you. Father, will you guide us and
lead us into the unknown future? Do not leave us to ourselves.
Father, prepare a man and send him to us, to a prepared people,
that we may be fed as your sheep. Father, remember all your faithful
preachers wherever they are. Remember our loved ones also.
Father, remember those that are strangers to grace and to God.
Have mercy for Jesus' sake alone. Amen. Hello again. Okay, our text is
actually going to be in Luke 3, Luke chapter 3 this morning. I'm just going to read one verse
from what Joe read there in Isaiah 40. I'm just going to read verse
2. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received
of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Our title this
morning is Christ, John the Baptist's message. And we'll be looking
here this morning at John the Baptist, but really more so at
the message that John preached. He was preaching and preparing
the way of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that's who we want to
see this morning. And we'll have three divisions, God's choice
of a man, the way declared to the people, and the gathering
and comforting of God's people. And I would just remind you,
brethren, as we get into this message, John came to the people
of Israel. That's who he was sent to preach
to. And we read in that first hymn there, I love to tell the
story, for some have never heard the message of salvation from
God's own holy word. And just as those people, they
believe themselves to be the people of God. And they were
coming there to hear for the first time the message of salvation. And so we ought to always come
looking to the Lord, trusting him, like not coming high minded
and thinking that we know the gospel, that we have it down.
You know, we got all this taken care of. You know, I know Jesus,
I believe in him and all that. You know, I'm a Christian. Like
come, I would just say come for like you're coming for the first
time. Put your guard down and just hear what God has done through
his son, Jesus Christ. Look to him. and pray that God
enable us to hear the word that we need to hear this morning. The scriptures declare to us
that we have a Savior. God has provided a Savior in
His Son, Jesus Christ. We have many formidable enemies
that we can't beat. We can't defeat them. We can't
overcome our enemies. Death is one of our enemies.
Do you know any man that has ever cheated death? No, man's
laboring, they're trying to figure out a way to make man eternal,
but no man has ever yet cheated death, and no man shall cheat
death. The enemy, death, is an enemy because of our sin. Our
sin is an iniquity. I mean, our sin is an enemy of
our souls because we're lawbreakers. When Adam, our father, sinned
in the garden, we were in Adam. And therefore, just as Adam sinned,
we all sinned in Adam there in the garden. The scriptures say
that the soul that sinned it, it shall die. And the sting of
death is sin. And the strength of sin is the
law. And we're lawbreakers. And God
has to show us what we are by nature, that we too are lawbreakers. And Satan is our enemy. He's
the enemy of our souls, he's the accuser of the brethren,
he's the tempter. So that Peter was led to write, be sober, be
vigilant, because your adversary the devil has a roaring line
walketh about seeking whom he may devour. But Christ was given
of God to his people to deliver us out of the hand of our enemies.
Christ was given to deliver us out of the hand of our enemies.
So that in Luke 1.74 it says that we being delivered out of
the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear and holiness
and righteousness before him all the days of our life. And
the person who said that was Zacharias, the father of John
the Baptist. Brethren, all the scripture declares
that Jesus Christ is salvation. It's throughout all the scriptures,
throughout the entire Bible, Jesus Christ is the promised
one that would come to deliver his people from their sins. Right
in Revelation 3.8 it says that He is the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. And so that we can indeed see
that right from the beginning Christ was promised to the people.
In Genesis chapter 3, we see it right there in Genesis chapter
3 verses 14 and 15, right after man fell in his sin, Our Lord
declares the coming Savior to his people. Verse 14, and the
Lord God said unto the serpent, that's our enemy, Satan, because
thou hast done this. Done what? Tempted our federal
head to sin against God, to break his law. Because you've done
this, Satan, thou art cursed above all cattle and above every
beast of the field. And upon thy belly shalt thou
go, and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will
put, here it is, I will put enmity. between thee and the woman, and
between thy seed and between her seed. It shall bruise thy
head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." So that everyone that
was born into this world, every time a mother was suddenly pregnant
with child, and then when she gave birth and it was a male,
they thought and wondered, could this be the promised Messiah? Maybe not Cain's line, but I
mean the line that God revealed himself to, they were always
waiting expectantly, is this the Messiah? Is this the promised
Messiah? Is this the coming Messiah? They
waited expectantly for the Lord. And then God called out one day,
called out Abraham out of idolatry and out of darkness, saying,
I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed
after thee and their generations for a neverlasting covenant to
be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. And Paul tells
us in Galatians 3.16, Now to Abraham and his seed were the
promises made. He saith not unto seeds as of
many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. In this
I say that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in
Christ, the law which was four hundred and thirty years after,
cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. So that brethren, over and over
in the scriptures, We're always reminded that all the promises
that God gives to a believer, all the promises that God gives
to a believer are always found in Jesus Christ. Never, ever
are they found outside of Christ. So what this means is that even
though we understand and know what sinners we are, that we
are vile by nature, that our hearts are darkness, that we
sin against God, even in ways that we don't even understand
that we sin against God, none of that can disannul the promise
that was made with us in the Lord Jesus Christ. The law cannot
disannul it, so that we rejoice in him. As Peter says in 1 Peter
3, 18, for Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for
the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death
in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. And that's exactly
what Christ did. His blood was shed. In Revelation
1, 5, Christ washed us from our sins with his own blood. And God purchased the church,
the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. Over and
over again we see that it cost Christ his precious blood to
be shed for us that we might know God and that we might be
blessed of God and it's all in Christ Jesus our Lord. And Moses
spoke of this one. Moses spoke of Christ Back there,
the one who gave the law, he spoke of him, and Stephen quoted
him in Acts 7, 37, saying, That Moses, which said unto the children
of Israel, Prophet, shall the Lord your God raise up unto you
of your brethren, like unto me, him shall ye hear. And what did
God do over and over in the Gospels? Many times he said, This is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear him. And so often in churches today,
you go all around, And they're just talking about the good works
that you should be doing and doing a little bit more of this
and a little bit less of that. And they're not speaking of Christ
and what He has accomplished. So that when a sinner leaves
that place, they go away thinking, oh, well, I've heard now what
I can do to make myself pleasing to God or more pleasing to God
or more righteous with God. And they're looking to their
own works rather than looking to Christ who has accomplished
salvation for His people. The works are done. Alright,
now in Isaiah 40 verse 3 it says, the voice of him that crieth
in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight
in the desert a highway for our God. And that's where we come
to in Luke chapter 3 verses 1 through 3. Now in the 15th year, Luke
3, 1. Now in the 15th year, the reign
of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and
Herod being Tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip Tetrarch
of Iberia, and of the region of Trachonitis and Lysanias,
the Tetrarch of Abilene, and Isikaiaphos being the high priests,
the word of God came unto any of them? Nope. Came unto John,
the son of Zacharias in the wilderness, and he came into all the country
about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission
of sins. So that we see God passing by
all these men of renown, all these men of stature, all these
great people there in the world that were around that we can
look in history books and see were there, God passed them all
by to a nobody out in the wilderness. So that besides the fact that
we see that this flies in the face of carnal man's wisdom and
what man would do, we see God even giving us a small picture
of how he deals with his people, how he calls out the weak and
the worthless and the off-scouring and those that are rejected in
this world, that have no confidence in the flesh. How God is merciful
to come to us sinners, call us out of our darkness, out in our
wilderness, and call us to himself. We have nothing to offer him
and nothing to give back to him, and yet he receives us freely,
all because of his son, Jesus Christ. Brethren, we see there
that God chooses out a people for Himself. Listen to these
people. God chooses a people, He prepares a people, and He
gathers a people together all for Himself. Here are some verses
from Ephesians chapter 1. God choosing, preparing, and
gathering. Verse 4, according as He hath chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world. God's choosing a people. Now
hear how God prepares a people wherein He hath abounded toward
us in all wisdom imprudence. This is God doing this work.
God's coming out to us. He's reaching out to us and calling
us to himself. Now here's God gathering a people
in. Verse 10, that in the dispensation of the fullness of time he might
gather together in one all things in Christ. It's always in Christ. Never lose sight of the fact
that everything we have with God is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Our enemies are too great for
us. We're not going to defeat death. We can't undo our sin. We can't overcome our sin. Even
if you put away one little thing here, there's a multitude more
in your heart and in your thoughts and in your lust and your desires
that are right there to take its place. We're never going
to overcome sin in this flesh. And we're not stronger than our
enemy Satan. He takes captive those sinners
at his will. Whoever he wants, he can just
take captive them at his will. But carnal devil religion would
have you believe that, oh, God, you know, he died for everybody.
Christ shed his blood for everybody, and that he wants to save everybody.
But it's up to you now, sinner. You're the one who's got to do
the work. God's done all he can do for you now. But won't you
please, pretty please, just believe on little Jesus. There's nothing
more he can do. You've got to do the work. You've
got to add the gasoline to faith and pull the cord to get the
engine going. He's done it all, but you've got to do something
more. And that's what carnal man, believe a man to believe,
that he can now change God's mind, that he can get God to
do what, you know, manipulate God and get God to do what he
wants him to do. That when he wants, when it's convenient for
him, then he'll believe on Jesus, when it's a convenient time.
But it's never a convenient time for the sinner. Man will live
and die in his sins and never come to a knowledge and faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. The sinner cannot do anything,
and that's why So often they're looking to excite the flesh and
motivate the flesh because they're trying to get people, trying
to mimic the power of God through their ability to speak well and
to motivate people and get them to do what they want them to
do. But they're willingly ignorant of the fact that man left to
himself, carnal man, even sitting in a religious ceremony, can't
get man to do something that he just doesn't want to do. And
no man wants to come to Christ. This is what Christ himself said,
search the scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal
life, but they are they which testify of me. And what do you
say after that? And ye will not come unto me
that ye might have life. No man comes to Christ, not of
his own will. His will is to believe any other
God or believe any other thing that he can believe, but to just
rest in Christ? That's crazy. You're telling
me that Christ did all the work. Well, what about me? Don't I
have to do something? Don't I have to believe? Yes, you do have
to believe. But it's not a work of your flesh.
Christ will give you that faith. And that means, yeah, that there's
another one sitting right next to you that the faith isn't given
to. God gives his faith, his power, and his gifts according
to whom he will give them to. In John 6, 43, You know, because
man hears this and they hate this message and they don't want
to hear this message because they want to believe that there's
something they can do. They don't want to fall down
on God's feet and worship God and beg God for mercy and grace. They want to think that God is
down here so that they can just meet him on their own terms and
do with him what they want. But in John 6, 43, it says, Jesus
said unto them, murmur not among yourselves. No man can come unto
me except the Father which hath sent me. draw him. And that one
that comes to me, I'll raise him up at the last day. And it's
written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. And so that God's declaring there
that God must teach a man if he is to come to Christ. And
all whom that God the Father teaches They will come to Christ. They will not refuse Him. They
will come to Christ. So to put it another way, if
they're not coming, it's because the Spirit of God isn't teaching
them. Because when the Spirit of God teaches them, they will
come to Christ, and they'll believe on Him, and they'll fall down
at His feet and beg Him for mercy. And the reason is that man, by
nature, is the servant of sin. He's just a servant of sin. He's
going to do what he loves to do. Jesus said, verily, verily,
I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin, that's all of us, is the
servant of sin. So all of us by nature are servants
of sin. And man being bound in his sin
is taken captive by Satan at his will so that they'll argue
and complain against this thing and they'll fight against it
because they just want to believe that they can pick up salvation
and put it down whenever they want to. They don't want to believe
that God is a sovereign God who does whatsoever He wills and
get all the language of scripture declares that very fact, that
God does what pleases him, not what pleases man, because then
we'd all be doomed. Paul said to Timothy this, and
the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto
all men, apt to teach, patient in meekness, instructing those
that oppose themselves, if God, peradventure, will give them
repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may
recover themselves When are they going to recover themselves?
After God gives them repentance to acknowledge the truth. That's
when a man will recover himself out of the snare of the devil
who are taken captive by him at his will. Satan's will, not
man's will. So you have a will, right? You
think you have a free will? Satan's will is stronger than
yours. And if you're a servant of sin, as all men are by nature,
then Satan can take you at any time and do with you what he
wills. Let thanks be to God that his will is greater than your
will. my will and Satan's will and that he saves his people
as according as it pleases him for his sake and for his glory
and for his name. So God chooses out of people
for himself in Christ. Listen to this in Ephesians 1,
verses 3 through 6. This is God choosing out of people
for himself. This is the word of God declaring
this. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places, here it is again, in Christ,
always in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good
pleasure of his will. Not according to the will of
man, because the will of man doesn't want to be saved by Christ,
but as it pleases him according to his good pleasure, his will. to the praise of the glory of
His grace, not to the praise and glory of my decision, but
to the praise and glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us,
made us accepted in the Beloved." Alright? And God, so God chooses
out the Savior, the way of salvation for His people, He chooses out
a people for Himself, and then we see here how God chooses out
a prophet to declare His Word. So that, we see here it's not
the world's choice, not even the man's choice. God will give
him a desire, but God will call out a man and he'll fit him with
various gifts and that man will go forth preaching the word of
God, not his own word, not just a word to excite your flesh and
to motivate the flesh, but he'll preach the word of God because
that's whose servant he is. He's God's servant. The word
of God, therefore, we see came unto John, the son of Zacharias
in the wilderness. All right, so now the Lord He's
saving His people and He's gathering His people, calling them out
of their ways, bringing them into His way, and causes them
to hear the Word of God. He causes them to hear for the
first time what God is saying. Luke 3, 3 and 4, And John came
into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance
for the remission of sins, as it is written in the book of
the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying
in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord make his
paths straight. So that these people weren't
there, they weren't just there out in the wilderness, they came
out into the wilderness to hear what John was saying. And John's
out there and he's preaching the word so that they might hear
it, and that word is the gospel which is preached to you this
very day. They were literally out there,
you know, they literally went out into the wilderness, but our
God will bring us all into a wilderness. So often, especially in this
country where there's so much religion around us, you know,
you can go to so many different churches and you think, you know,
I know, I know about Jesus and I believe on Jesus and that's
good. You know, I got that taken care of now and you know, now
I just go and do the best I can do. And so we're here in this
world, but the Lord will take us out of that place in our life
and bring us out into a wilderness so that we feel lost, and we
come to realize, I don't know the truth. I thought I knew Jesus.
I thought I knew the truth. And the Lord will bring you down
a way to where you start realizing, I don't know where I am. I don't
think I know the way to God. I don't think I know the truth
and how to save myself. I don't think I can do this.
The Lord will just keep breaking you down and bring you down to
a wilderness to where you're lost in yourself. And you think,
I'm undone. I'm lost. God hates me. I thought
I knew God and I thought He loved me, but now I don't know. I think
God maybe has cut me off. Because the Lord knows that the
way of man leads to death. And if He leaves you there in
your religion, that's a curse. If He leaves you there feeling
good about your decision for Jesus and what you've done, that
there is a curse. But if He shakes you to the core
and shows you that you don't know Him and He strips you down
naked so that you've got nothing to boast in and nothing to feel
confident in, And you think you've just offended him so violently
that he's cast you out to the point where you realize and you
beg him and you think, Lord, I'm sorry. What can I do? I try
my best. I keep coming to church. I keep
reading my Bible. I keep hanging out with my friends who believe
the gospel. What do I do? I don't have faith. I don't even know what to do.
And you just feel cut off. That's not necessarily a bad
place to be because the Lord will bring all his people down
a way that they don't know, a place where they are very uncomfortable.
and very unsure, and for the first time they realize, I don't
know God, and I don't know what to do to save myself. I don't
know how I'm going to be saved. I've just offended a holy God. So he brings them down a way
that they knew not. Turn to Isaiah 42, verse 14.
We'll see this. Isaiah 42. Isaiah 42, verse 14. Our Lord says, I have long time
holding my peace. I've been still refrained myself.
And it had been a long time since the word of God had come to a
prophet. And then one day he came to John
the Baptist and he says, now will I cry like a travailing
woman. I will destroy and devour at once. I will make waste mountains
and hills and dry up all their herbs. And I will make the rivers
islands and I will dry up the pools. And I will bring the blind
by a way that they knew not. I will lead them in paths that
they have not known. I will make darkness light before
them and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them
and not forsake them. They shall be turned back. They
shall be greatly ashamed that trust engraven images that say
to the molten images, ye are our gods. Hear ye death and look
ye blind that ye may see. So that Our God just does things
in such a way that those who are blind that come to hear the
Word of God, they're blind and they don't know Christ and they
don't know anything, they go away having seen that salvation
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And those that come saying, I
can see, I see, I've seen this before, I know what's going on
here, they go away blind, not seeing anything. And those who
come that are deaf, and say, I don't know. I don't know how
to save myself. I don't know the way of salvation.
I don't know what to do. They go away having heard the
gospel and having heard the rejoicing that is in Jesus Christ, because
Christ saves his people. He did the work of salvation.
And those who come saying, I've heard it all before. Preacher,
you're saying the same thing that that guy says down the street
there. I've heard it all before. There's
nothing more I can hear here. And they go away having heard
nothing, just death shut up to the things of God and the way
of salvation. And that one who is bound in their sin and tormented
and frustrated and in prison and in darkness, they go, they
hear the gospel and they go away a free man in Christ, rejoicing
that Christ has set them free. But that one who comes saying,
I'm a free man, I've never been in bondage to any man. Don't
tell me, I got a free will, I can do what I want, I can choose
Jesus when I want. They go away bound and shut up saying, I don't
know what I just heard. I don't understand what he said
there. And that's how they go away. So John the Baptist comes
to them in the wilderness, and the people are all leveled, made
one. There's no one who can boast
of being anything with God in and of themselves. Luke 3, verse
4 through 6, as it's written in the book of the words of Isaiah
the prophet, it's quoting from Isaiah 40 now, saying, the voice
of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make his path straight. Every valley shall be filled
and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked
shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth,
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. So this crowd comes out
there, and they're going to John, thinking, I'm going to do another
religious work. I'm going to hear what this prophet
has to say. I'll do what he says. I can put
another little notch in my belt, another little religious thing
that I can say I did. And John says, don't. Don't come
out here to do another work. What are you coming out here
for? Why are you coming here to this?" So he preaches to them the baptism
of repentance, right? Luke 3, 3. And he came in all
the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for
the remission of sins. I want to say two things on this.
First, the baptism of repentance, and then for the remission of
sins. John was looking for a profession
of repentance from their dead works. They had been doing all
these religious vain works for a long time. And he's saying,
you're just coming out here to do another vain, dead, religious
work, as though our works and keeping the law is an end in
and of itself. That by keeping the law, men
thought, well, I'm pleasing God. This is how God receives and
accepts the sinners. And he's shaking it up, and he's
saying, no, no, no. It ain't by your works. You're not pleasing
God by the things that you're doing. The end of the law is
to bring you to Christ, is to bring you to the end of yourselves,
and to bring you to the Lord Jesus Christ. Look in Luke 3
verse 7, he says, Then said he to the multitude that came forth
to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, you serpents, you
tricky little devils you, who hath warned you to flee from
the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits
worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves,
We have Abraham to our father, for I say unto you, that God
is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham." In
our day, he'd say, say now within yourselves, I've been going to
church my whole life. Baptist church, the Presbyterian
church, I was baptized as a baby, or I was baptized when I was
12, or whatever it is that you're having confidence in. My parents
believed, my grandparents believed, I just believed. It just was
natural for me to believe. He's saying, don't have confidence
in that. Don't trust in those things. Just because you've gone
to church your whole life and made a profession, of faith,
don't trust in that. Verse 9, and now also the axe
is laid unto the root of the trees, every tree therefore which
bringeth forth not good fruit is hewn down and cast into the
fire. And many people think, oh, I better be doing more and
more good works then. That's not what he's saying.
He's not saying go out and just do more good works and try to
do better. That's not what he's saying.
And the people asked him, saying, what shall we do then? So many for the first time were
hearing for the first time the Word of God that their works,
all their works, are a stench in God's nostrils. That God is
not pleased with their religious works. He's not pleased with
them trying to do their best because they're trusting in their
flesh, in their own fleshly works. They're not trusting in the work
of God. They think that their flesh can
produce the work of God and just like grass gets burned up, so
the flesh is worthless and gets burned up. Look back there in
Isaiah 40 verse 6, or I'll read it to you. The voice said cry
and John the Baptist said, I'm putting that word in there, and
he said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass and all the
goodness thereof as the flower of the field. The grass withereth,
the flower faded because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon
it. Surely the people is grass. The
grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall
stand forever. And brethren, this is why you
gather together here, why it's so important, why Joe prayed
that God would raise up a pastor and gather you together and keep
you because you're fearful for yourselves, for your spouses,
for your children. You want them to hear the gospel
because you know the gospel is life. It's how God preserves
you. and keeps you, it's how He's
communicated life to us is in His Son, Jesus Christ. So that
you're willing to do whatever it takes that the Lord would
establish His light here in the gospel among this people in this
dark part of the world. It's our life. Because in that
gospel, when we hear what Christ has done, we realize it's not
the works of my flesh. It's not me doing the best that
I can do and that God will receive me because I'm doing the best
I can do. No, the flesh is worthless. The flesh is not doing anything
to please God. Christ has pleased God. Christ
is our salvation. Christ has done all the work.
And He fixes our hope and our faith in Christ to rest that,
yes, indeed, Christ did it. There's nothing more for me to
do. And He gives us a rejoicing in that because the flesh is
weak. So when the Spirit of God attends that word, as it's preached,
as the truth goes forth, not lies, but as the truth goes forth
and the Spirit of God is pleased to attend that word and communicate
that to the heart of one of his people, the Lord there is, at
the same time, he's giving life to the new man which is formed
of Christ, he's blowing upon the flesh so that the flesh just
withers. So that the flesh, you're like,
yeah, it's not my works, it's not what I'm doing. It's the
Lord Jesus Christ who's done all that work, and the Lord just
blows upon the flesh, and the flesh just withers and dies under
the preaching of the gospel. As Peter said, 1 Peter 1.23,
being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by
the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all
flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of
grass. The grass withereth, and the
flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth
forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. So that by this gospel, as God
is growing us, as he's teaching us by his spirit in that new
man which Christ formed in us, not by our works, not by our
good works, it's what Christ has formed in us. He teaches
us by the spirit, as it says in Romans 8, 8, that they that
are in the flesh cannot please God. And he convinces us of that. And he shows us that, yeah, my
flesh, the works of my flesh, I can't whip myself up into a
frenzy and do more good works. The flesh cannot please God. The flesh cannot please God.
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. It so be that
the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he's none of his. And if Christ be in you, The
body is dead because of sin, right? It's just withering as
the Spirit of God blows upon it. He's just withering this
flesh. But the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But
if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell
in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken
your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. So that
it's by the Spirit that we are brought to this repentance to
turn from our vain dead works of religion and to look to Christ
and to trust Him and rest in Him. That's all the work of the
Spirit doing that for us. Because by nature, we won't do
it. We'll deceive ourselves, we'll think we're doing it, but
we won't do it. We'll keep trusting in our own
works. Now the baptism, it was just a profession of what God
had done. All you're doing is professing, yeah, Christ has
done this for me. It's not another good work. And that's why I want
to talk to you about that second phrase, the remission of sins.
We know, brethren, baptism doesn't save us. That's not washing our
sins away, not baptism. That doesn't do it for us. And
John knows that. John's not telling them, hey,
come be baptized for the remission of your sins. That would just
be another vain, dead works religion. Another act of religion there.
So he's not telling them that, but rather we should read it
as unto the remission of sins. He's saying you're looking to
the coming Messiah who's going to remit your sins, who's going
to put away your sins. Believe him. You're trusting
him. That's why they're being baptized. It's just a profession
of it. So John's just telling them, look, you're waiting for
Christ. Christ is coming. Wait expectantly for him. So it's not another way of salvation.
When Peter being full of the Holy Ghost, was preaching on
the day of Pentecost. He said words very similar to
this, right? He was expounding to the people
the way of God more perfectly. And he said in Acts 2.36, therefore
that all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath
made the same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Now when they heard this, the Spirit of God moved upon them.
They were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and to the
rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Peter
said unto them, Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in
the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins. He was
always looking to the Messiah that was coming for the remission
of sins. And ye shall receive the gift
of the Holy Ghost. So John knew that salvation was
in baptism. That's not what John is saying.
Because even he, when he saw Christ, it says in John 129,
the next day, when John seeth Jesus coming, saith, Behold the
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. He knew
that salvation was in the Messiah. It's not in our works. It's not
in our dead works. So when we read that the men asked John,
what shall we do? John's not telling them, OK,
here's another work for you to do, and God will receive you
because of this work. Uh-uh. But he does say, turn
from your vain dead works, quit your sinning, don't go on doing
your vain dead works, and don't go on living in sin. He's just
being honest with them. He's just telling them, don't
do these things, right? Because no gospel preacher is
going to encourage you in your sin. Just because Christ put
away our sin, we don't go on living in open rebellion against
what God has revealed to us that we ought not to do. He'll correct
us. He'll teach us what we ought
not to do. We don't need to be going around and telling everybody
what they should be doing. The Lord will teach us, and He'll
instruct us and turn us away from those things that are just
a distraction from the gospel, and that turn people away from
the gospel. All right, Paul said it. What
shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that
are dead to sin live any longer therein? But the Lord will chasten
us, and he'll correct us as we have need of it. Hebrews 12,
6. For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the father
chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement,
whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons.
Right? So in this light, in this light,
let's read what John says to the people here. In Luke 3, verse
10. The people asked him, saying, What shall we do then? And he
answered and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him
impart to him that hath none. And he that hath meat, let him
do likewise. Then came also the publicans
to be baptized, and said unto him, Master, what shall we do? And he said unto them, exact
no more than that which is appointed you. And the soldiers likewise
demanded of him, saying, and what shall we do? And he said
unto them, do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely,
and be content with your wages. Brethren, if the Lord's dealing
with you for your sin, that's fine. I mean, let a man be dealt
with by God. God will correct the man, and
he'll deal with him as he needs to, right? If you endure chastening,
then God dealeth with you as with sons. We've all been chastened
for our sin. The Lord knows exactly how to
deal with each of us in a way that only God can deal with us
and do for us what we have need of doing. But don't have confidence
that in putting away your sin that you're doing anything that
makes you more acceptable to God. It's not our works or lack
thereof that makes us acceptable to God. All of our acceptance
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. But Christ, we worship Him and
rejoice in Him because He fulfilled all righteousness on behalf of
the believer. When He came, He did that which we could never
do. We think, you know, in our religion,
we think that we do things that please God and that God accepts
us for those things, but that's not true. I mean, we sin left
and right on every Every way, in our hearts we sin, in our
minds we sin, in our thoughts we're sinning, outwardly in our
flesh we sin, we do all kinds of things against the Lord our
God. Christ, when Christ came, He's perfect and was without
sin. Everything He did always pleased
the Father. He did that which is right, that
which is righteousness, and that which is holy, and all things
that we needed to do, He did on behalf of the sinner, so that
we were in Christ when He fulfilled all righteousness. And we were
in Christ when He bore our sin. And when God poured out His wrath,
we were in Christ. And when Christ died on the cross,
we were in Christ. And when He was laid in the grave,
we were in Him there. And when God raised Him from
the dead, we were in Christ. So that everything we are and
have with God was in Christ. He did it all. He fulfilled all
righteousness on our behalf so that there's nothing more for
us to do. So that are there good works that we'll do? Absolutely
there are good works that we'll do. But it's all having been
wrought in the Lord Jesus Christ that he prepared for us and that
he prepared us for to do and to walk in those things so that
he gives you each hearts to serve him and to be with your brethren
and to encourage one another. All those things we think, ah,
that's nothing. No one's going to miss me if I'm not there.
One day, yeah, the brethren miss you because you're a part of
the body. And when you suffer, they suffer. And when you rejoice,
they rejoice. All these things, God's working
these works in us for his glory and for his praise. So that now,
brethren, it's not our works, but Christ is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. That's all made
unto us of God, right? And Isaiah 53 says that he was
wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him. and with his stripes
we are healed. And he shall see the travail
of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
He did all that work. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the
strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death, and
he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors. So that now, brethren,
Christ has made our salvation, our hope, our righteousness,
everything that we have before God is in the Lord Jesus Christ,
and that we believe our inheritance rests there with Christ. It's
there with Christ. Christ is our inheritance. When
we die, that's when we'll have our inheritance. Not so at all in this life. I
mean, the things that we have aren't even ours. And if you've
been blessed, thank God, but use those things for the furtherance
of His kingdom. His glory, because you find,
you know, when you're laboring in the flesh to build up your
kingdom here, the Lord's going to deal with you at some point.
If you're His, He's going to show you that these things are
all fading and crumbling away, whether it breaks or gets stolen
or rots and falls apart, whatever it is, these things all, everything
in this life tends to destruction and wasting away in misery. And that's all that John is saying.
If you look at what he says to these people that were coming
to him, he's not telling them, like, these good works that they
should be doing. He's just saying, look, if you got two coats, why
do you need two? Give one away to someone that
has a need. If you have extra meat, give some away to someone
who has need of that. Take care of your brethren. And
those who are in need, take care of them. Exact no more than that
which is appointed to you. So that, yeah, you have a job.
Some of you have better jobs than other jobs, you know. You
don't need to cheat and lie to get more so you can build up
your kingdom. He's just saying, be honest. Whatever you're doing,
just be honest in your dealings with men. Why? Wouldn't I get
more if I just lied and cheated a little? Yeah. But it's only
to build up your kingdom in this life, which is passing away.
So don't lay up for yourself treasure here on earth. Do violence
to no man. Don't accuse falsely. Be content
with your wages. There's people that are, you
know, believers supposedly that, you know, are angry with other
believers over business. You know, people get upset about
money and business all the time. Don't let those things come between
you. If you're wrong by one another, let it go. Better to suffer the
wrong and just trust God and love your brethren and move on,
because why? Is your inheritance here in this
life or is it in Christ? And if you look at those things
that he said to them, it's to say your inheritance is in Christ.
You trust Christ? All right, well, show that you
trust him. When you're wronged, Suffer the wrong. Why do you
got to do what the world does and be like the world and just
look like a vile, angry person that's accusing them and bringing
them to court and doing all these things? If it's going to just
shame the name of Christ, let it go. You don't need it. Just
trust Christ. People build up their kingdoms
here on earth. And, you know, to bring a pastor
here and to be established, you know, at some point you're going
to want a building, a place of your own, that takes sacrifice.
And the Lord's going to give you, brethren, a heart for that. You know, you can't make, I mean,
don't give. If you don't have a heart to
give, don't give. But the Lord's going to work a heart in his
people. And it's not, you know, someone here isn't going to become
a millionaire and then just like drop in big, you know, swaths
of money into the bucket. I don't think the Lord's going
to do it. It's not going to be that easy. You're going to struggle and
you're going to make choices and you're, you know, there's
going to be times when you're like, I'm going to get this or I can give a little
more, you know, to the people one day. And the Lord will do
that. And just remember, Babylon has fallen. This place is judged.
It's already been put, Christ is, I mean this is, it's judged.
It's over. It's not going to last. We're not going to overcome
God. Satan's lost. So trust him that, you know,
I get it. When you're giving up something
in this life, what you're doing is you're committing it to Christ. You're saying, Lord, I trust
you that I'll have my inheritance with you in that day. You believe
in him. You're trusting him. To whatever
the degree is that you'd rather make sacrifices, pray the Lord
give you heart for it. Do things willingly, not grudgingly. Do it willingly and just trust
Him. If you don't have a lot, don't feel bad. Just keep coming. Give what you can. Pray that
the Lord help you and establish it so that you can give more
and one day when He prospers you, then you give more that
day. But just trust Him. But don't look to this world.
Don't set your heart and your affections on this world. And
that's what John's saying, is don't set your hearts and affections
on the carnal things of this world. You trust that the Messiah's
coming? Believe him and let it be seen.
You know, if you have extra, help out another. That's what
he's saying. And then real quick, the gathering and comforting
of God's people. Just for the sake of time, I'm just gonna
read verse 17, Luke 3, 17. Speaking of the coming Messiah,
whose fan is in his hand and he will throughly purge his floor
and will gather the wheat into his garner but the chaff he will
burn with fire unquenchable." The Lord's people that he loves,
they're precious to him. He laid down his life for us,
brethren. We're precious to him. And you
can be sure that all for whom he shed his blood and laid down
his life, he's going to gather them together, and he's going
to keep them. He says to them, is it riches that you want? Christ
says, I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that
thou mayest be rich. Is it clothing that you want?
Christ says, I counsel thee to buy of me white raiment, that
thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do
not appear. Are you blind, and do you need
sight of Christ? He says, I counsel thee to buy
of me, and anoint thine eyes with thy sight that thou mayest
see. What John the Baptist preached, it's still being preached today.
It's no different. Christ says, as many as I love,
I rebuke and chase them. Be zealous, therefore, and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice
and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him
and he with me. He'll make it right. He'll give
you a heart to serve him, to lay down your life for him. He'll
give you that heart. Just seek him. Trust him. To him that overcometh
will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame
and am set down with my father in his throne. He that hath an
ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
And you think, okay, you know, what's he saying there? He that
overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne. And you're
thinking, how am I going to overcome? This flesh is withered and dying. How am I going to overcome that
I may sit with the Lord on his throne? Brethren, you're right. This flesh is burned up. It's
worthless. It's not going to profit you anything. Trust the
Lord, though. He has accomplished salvation
for his people. Rest in him. That's what he's
saying. That's how you overcome. I think it was in 1 John 4, I
think it even says, if my memory serves me correctly, verse down
4-4. Ye are of God, little children,
and I have overcome them because, not because of you, but because
greater is he that is in you. than he that is in the world.
That's how you're going to overcome, is just looking at Christ and
resting in him and trusting in him. So that now because of what
Christ has done, he says that he shall feed his flock like
a shepherd. He shall gather the lands with his arm and carry
them in his bosom and shall gently lead those that are with him.
So that because Christ has done this, now the preacher, he can
stand up and say comforting words to the people of God. Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished,
your enemies are defeated, brethren, that her iniquity is pardoned,
for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her
sins. If you believe God, that Christ
is the Messiah, that he's come and done the work that he said
he did, then rest in him. rest in him and rejoice in him
and the works that you believe in him they'll follow they'll
produce them in you he'll give you the heart to serve him and
serve one another and he'll see to it gathering the lands with
his arm and carrying them in his bosom i pray the lord bless
that to the heart of his people encourage you brethren here let's
pray our gracious lord father we pray
that you would take these feeble words and that you would bring
them home to the heart of your people. Lord that you would show
us Jesus and that he has accomplished salvation and that he's all our
inheritance and all our righteousness and all that we need to stand
before you. Help us Lord to hear it and to
see even if it's for the first time that we would see Jesus
and be made to rejoice in him. We pray in Jesus name our Lord
and Savior. Bless this people, Lord. Bless them with a pastor.
Establish them. Bless them with a building and
a place that is their own to me. That you would grow this
people in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. Amen.