What we have here this morning is God's preacher. God's preacher. If God is going to save a person, if he's going to save a people,
God is going to send them a preacher. And that preacher is going to
be called of God equipped of God and sent of God. I think the greatest, probably
one of the greatest blessings that God can give to anyone is a preacher of the gospel. The greatest blessing God can
give to a community is a preacher of the gospel. I was saying back
in the study, We were about to go on the radio
and preach the gospel of the grace of God. I said, this community
doesn't realize how blessed, how blessed that God, that God
Almighty is gonna send the gospel out to them. That's astounding
to me, astounding. Now in the close of chapter two,
Christ had been taken to live in Nazareth in order to fulfill
the scriptures that was written of him. He shall be called a
Nazarene. And then we do not hear about
him other than when he was 12 years old in the temple. We don't
hear about him for about another 28 years. And although we don't
know what went on, we do know this, Isaiah 53 says he grew
up before the Lord. And I know this, for all those
years that we don't hear anything about Him, He's keeping the law,
He's working out a righteousness for His people. All those years
that are silent, He is obedient, He's the obedient servant, and
He's working out a righteousness for His people. Our Lord, during
those years, experienced what we experienced growing up. He
experienced childhood. He knows what it is to be young.
He knows what it's all about, being a teenager. He was a teenager. And then He knows what it's about
to be an adult. Adam did not know anything about
childhood. He didn't know anything about
being a teenager. Adam was created a mature man. But our Lord can
identify with us from the cradle to the grave. We have a high
priest that can be touched with our infirmities from beginning
all the way to the end. He can be touched. He knows every
stage of our lives, every stage of it. It is now the appointed
time for him to enter upon his public ministry. But before he
does this, there is a prophecy of John the Baptist. There's
a prophecy of the forerunner, and he must come first. He must
herald the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, as prophesied over
in Malachi 3.1. Now it says in verse one, in
those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of
Judea. John came preaching in the wilderness. There were six cities in the
wilderness, and that's where he was preaching. He preached
to the people who were living in those places. He was not sent
to the place of organized religion. That's not where he was sent
to. He preached to people like you and me. That's what he preached
to. The scripture says, the people
who sat in darkness have seen a great light. Grace finds us where we are. Grace, the grace of God finds
us where we are. We may be in the gutter. We may be in religion, but grace,
the grace of God finds us where we are. Matthew Henry said this,
no place is so remote as to shut us out from the visits of divine
grace. The scripture says he is able
to save unto the uttermost. And as someone has said, unto
the gutter most, them that come unto God by him, seeing he ever
lives to make intercession for them. The prophecies must be
fulfilled that's written in the Old Testament. I will plant in
the wilderness the cedar. The wilderness shall be a fruitful
field and the desert shall rejoice. That's what's going to happen
here when John the Baptist starts preaching. And he came preaching,
that was his business. That's all he was supposed to
do. That's the only purpose for John the Baptist to ever be born
on this earth. was to preach, to point out to
Israel the Lamb of God. And that's my only business.
That is my only business, is to preach the gospel. He came
not to fight, he didn't come to dispute with the religious
people. A young man asked me one time
about preaching, and I told him, I said, don't get caught up Don't
get caught up fighting false religion because false religion
will be false all the way to the end and it's futile. Preach
the gospel and God will call some sheep that he has out there
in false religion. Just preach the gospel to them.
Just preach the gospel. God has ordained that through
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. What
the world calls foolish, not foolish preaching, but what this
world calls foolish, they call what I'm doing this morning foolish,
foolish. Now here's John's message in
verse two. He came preaching and saying, repent ye for the
kingdom of God is at hand. The kingdom of God has come.
It's among us. But he says, repent, change your
mind. That's what repentance really
is. It's a change of mind. It's a change of heart. Change
your thoughts about God. God's not who you think he is.
God said in Psalm 50, you thought I was altogether like yourselves. And that's exactly how we think
of God until God reveals himself to us. Our thoughts of God until
he reveals himself to us will be a whole lot like we are. It'll
be a whole lot like we are. That's the kind of God we will
conjure up. But change your thoughts, your mind about God and about
yourself. You know, the word of God says,
there's none good, no, not one. Now, if that makes you mad, take
it up with God. I didn't write the Bible. But
I believe it, I agree with it, and that's what it says. There's
none good, no not one. If you and I understand, can
have any understanding of what good is on God's standard, then
we'll realize that our standard is on the bottom. A snake would
crawl over it, it's so low. but change your thoughts about
God, about yourself, about the Lord Jesus Christ, about the
kingdom of heaven. Kingdom of heaven. They was looking
for a physical kingdom to be set up. They're still looking
for a physical kingdom to be set up over there. It's a spiritual
kingdom. The kingdom of heaven, the scripture
says the kingdom of heaven is within you. Speaking to believers. It's a spiritual kingdom. It's
not a kingdom made up of flesh. It's not a fleshly kingdom, it's
a spiritual kingdom. God said this. He said, my thoughts
are not your thoughts and my ways are not your ways. God is
so high above us. It's so high above us. We can't
comprehend God's ways and God's thoughts, God's doings, we can't
comprehend it. Can't comprehend it. And when
God saves a sinner, his whole way of thinking of God, of himself,
of this world, it's totally changed. It's totally changed. His heart
is broken over his sinfulness, and he's humble before God, and
he realizes for the first time that God is holy. God is just. God is not like me. God is not
like me. Repentance, John says here, repent
ye. Repentance is the gift of God. It's the work of God. It takes the power of Almighty
God to enable a sinner to repent. To repent. It takes the work of God to bring
about a willing surrender a willing surrender to God. Listen to this scripture here
in Psalm 110. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy
power. That's when a man or woman will
be willing to be saved. That's when a man or woman will
be willing to come God's way, which is Christ. It's when God
in His power makes them willing. He makes them willing. Now John
preached the kingdom of heaven is at hand, but it's not like
they thought. It's not like they, they was,
like I said, looking for that physical kingdom. They wasn't
looking. They wasn't looking for a spiritual
kingdom. Not at all. Not at all. It's a spiritual kingdom which
requires a divine work of grace, listen, in order to be in it. It takes a divine work of grace
in order to be in the kingdom of God. That's why the scripture
said, or the Lord said to Nicodemus, you must be born again. You can't
see the kingdom of God. You can't understand it. You
cannot enter into it unless you're born into it. The only way that
I was able to come into this world, I was born into it. I had to be born into it. And
now I'm here. I'm here. And that's exactly
how every sinner winds up in the kingdom of God, that's in
it. They're born into it. You must be born again. It's not inherited by flesh and
blood as they thought. We be Abraham's seed. John addresses
that here a little later on. We are Abraham's seed. That automatically
puts us in the kingdom. No, it doesn't. No. No, it doesn't. It is not inherited by flesh
and blood. We are not educated into it.
We're born into it. And he says this in verse three,
for this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying,
the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare you the way
of the Lord, make his path straight. This is the person spoken of
by Isaiah in Isaiah 40. John the Baptist, here is another
scripture fulfilled. That's what he said. Here is
another scripture fulfilled. He is the forerunner, Isaiah,
speaking of. Now listen to him, that's what
he's saying. Listen to this man. If God sends you a man, if God
sends you a gospel preacher, listen to him. This is not just another service.
We may never come this way again. And what he's saying, listen
to him. Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ did not sneak upon them.
God sent a voice to herald his coming. Just as he always does. If God
is going to save a sinner, he's going to send him a preacher,
him or her. And he's going to herald the
message of the Lord Jesus Christ. And notice here, John calls himself
a voice. That's all I am. That's all I
am. Just a voice. No title. No title. No acclaim to fame. Just a voice, but it's a voice
of one. Unity, harmony. There are many preachers, there's
several preachers, gospel preachers standing up this morning, but
there's only one voice. There's only one voice. Now, he gives something here
that you would think just doesn't really matter, but in verse four,
he gives John's dress, his dress. John had his raiment of camel's
hair and a leather girdle and about his loins and his meat
was locusts and wild honey. He said, well, what's that got
to do with anything? Well, first of all, there are no fillers
in the Word of God. It's not just taking up space. John did not dress like the rest
of the crowd. John did not dress to please
men. He didn't do that. He didn't
dress to make himself more presentable to the people. He didn't do that. He didn't outdress his Lord. and he did not outdress the people
he's preaching to. If Christ hath no form of comeliness,
neither shall his forerunner. But here, listen to this, John
wore the dress of a prophet. That's why he wore what he wore
and ate what he ate. His dress was plain, his food
was plain. John was committed to one thing,
and it wasn't, what am I gonna eat, what am I gonna drink, what
am I gonna wear? He was not committed to anything
but the Lord Jesus Christ. John was committed to the person
of Jesus Christ and proclaiming his gospel, proclaiming his person. This is the one. There was nothing
about John. He didn't have those broad phylacteries
that the Pharisees wore. They wore those big, broad phylacteries.
They'd stand on the corner and pray so they could be seen and
heard of men. That was not John's mission.
John said, I'm just a voice. And he did not dress in such
a manner that it drew attention to himself. Then went out to him, Jerusalem,
and all Judea and all the region around about Jordan. Power attended his preaching. If God calls a man to preach
the gospel, if he's God's man, power will attend his preaching. The gospel will go out not in
word only, but in power and in demonstration of the spirit,
if he's God's man. John preached in the power of
the Holy Spirit and things began to happen. Began to happen. As rough and as uneducated as
he was, because he was not educated in their school, that whole region
was moved by his preaching. God uses men of his making A
preacher is, a true preacher of the gospel is of God's making,
not the school. I'm not knocking education, we
need education. You know, I don't need to stand
here and be offensive by destroying the English language or grammar. These are tools that I use. But
the power is not in that. The power is not in my education,
the power is of God. And that's why he uses earthen
vessels, clay pots like me. Paul said, we have this ministry
in earthen vessels. That the power may be of God
and not of us. Not of us. God does not need
our refined speech, our philosophical slogans, just his word. That's all I need, just his word. John, I thought about this when
I was reading this. When those Pharisees and Sadducees
come out, there's John in his leather girdle and just come
out of the wilderness, speaking to these people. But John is
exactly what they needed. He is exactly the man for the
hour. Here come those Pharisees all
dressed to the nines. And there stands John. But a lot of them come out and
it says they were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their
sins. They confessed they were sinners in need of cleansing.
That's what they confessed. And those who believed, those
who believed the message, were baptized. I said this in
a message a time or two ago. That's how we identify with Christ.
That's how we confess Christ, is baptism. We follow the Lord
in baptism. We identify with his death, burial,
and resurrection. And that's what was going on
here. But when he saw many of the Pharisees
and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said to them, Old generation
of vipers. Boy, we need another John the
Baptist, don't we? We need another John the Baptist
in this day. Not worried about political correctness,
but truth. Concerned with the truth. The
truth. He said to them, old generation
of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? John never toned down his message
of repentance when he saw these Pharisees and these Sadducees,
which were the most upright people in town, these were the churchgoers. Now, these were the deacons and
the elders at that time. He said, who warned you? He didn't
tone his message down. Instead, he turned up the heat.
He turned up the heat. He called them vipers. He showed his utter contempt
for their false pretense to worship. He knew they were false. He knew
they were a bunch of hypocrites. He told them they were lost.
My soul. Lost. You know, God's gotta get
a man lost for his saving. You gotta get a man lost. And
God's the only one who can do that. And here's what he's saying,
yes, you church-gone people are lost. Well, what if I made that
the first radio message? But that's what he said to those
religious Pharisees, those Sadducees. He says, you men are lost. You're vipers, you're a bunch
of snakes. Poison, the poison of asp is
under your tongue. And that is exactly what religion
is without Jesus Christ. That's what it is. He called them what they were,
vipers and snakes. Unless we are honest with men,
unless we are honest with men and women, they cannot be saved. God will not save anyone by a
lie. It's got to be the truth. It's
gotta be the truth about God, about ourselves, and about Jesus
Christ. It's gotta be the truth. He's
not gonna use a lie. God will not do that. It is a
great mercy if God sends you a preacher, if God sends someone
along just to tell you the truth about God, about yourself, and about Jesus Christ. That's
one of the greatest blessings and the greatest mercies God
can do. Now John says to them, bring forth fruit, therefore.
Well, bring forth therefore fruits made for repentance. And what
John is saying here is that true repentance has works, it has
fruit. True repentance has fruit. And
it's evidenced, any repentance that does not produce a great
change in the heart is not repentance at all. It's not repentance at
all. If you are just as mean as ever,
you're just as lost as ever. That's the truth. If you're just
as mean as ever, you're just as lost as ever. And these Pharisees
were the meanest people in that day. They brought that woman
and called in a doctor. They set her up. And they dragged
her down there and they threw her at the feet of Christ. And
they were wanting to watch, they were desiring to watch him stone
this woman. And they were trying to trap
him. That is what religion will do
to you without the grace of God in the heart. It just make you
mean. If you like to run with the same
pack that you've always ran with, well, that's who you are. The
birds of a feather flock together. If the tree is good, the fruit
will be good. If the tree is bad, the fruit will be bad. A
tree is what it is. But repentance is evidenced by,
and what John's saying here, bring forth fruit that's evidence
that God has done a work of grace in you. He's done something for you.
Prove your repentance by your walk and your talk. A profession of Christ, just
a profession of Christ, or even just being baptized doesn't save
anybody. Matthew Henry said this one time,
I've not forgot, I read it in his commentary. The name of a
Christian does not give you the nature of God. You can call yourself
a Christian all day long, but it will not give you the nature
of a Christian. Only God can do that. That is
the work of God. That's the work of God. A person
who does not walk in humility, who walks in pride, is lost. A person who lives in self-righteousness
is lost. It doesn't matter what you claim,
lost. A person who does not rejoice
in Jesus Christ is lost. And John says to them, now don't
think to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father.
They're gonna make an excuse here. They're gonna throw out
their attachment to Abraham as to the reason why they are in
the kingdom. For I say to you that God is
able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Don't
say within yourself, because God sees the heart, He sees what's
going on there. Don't imagine that God needs
you or me in order to fulfill His promise to Abraham. He said
God can raise up children out of these stones. In fact, God
would have less resistance making a child of God, or Abraham, out
of a stone than he would me. He would. That stone ain't gonna
resist him, but oh me. We have a natural enmity in our
minds against God. And that God must overcome. It's
no strain to his power, but he must overcome, he overcomes it.
Don't hold on to your ancestry. Salvation doesn't come through
your relatives. It does not come to you. Righteousness doesn't
come through your relatives. Salvation doesn't come through
your relatives. Inheritance into the kingdom of God doesn't come
through your relatives, it comes by the grace of God. Comes by
the grace of God. And now also, the ax, he says,
is laid unto the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree
which brings not forth good fruit, the fruit of repentance, is hewn
down, cast into the fire. Every time the gospel's preached,
the ax is laid to the root of the tree, every time, every time. Truth is the ax, and it's laid
to the root of the problem, which is my sin. whatever that may
be. Charles Spurgeon said this, he
said, I know that the absence of good fruit is as fatal as
the presence of corrupt fruit. It's just as fatal. What he's saying here, John is
saying that every false professor, every pretender, every poser,
is gonna be cut down. And he's gonna cut him down right
at the root. Right at the root. And indeed, he said, I do baptize
you with water unto repentance, but he that cometh after me is
mightier than I, whose shoes I'm not worthy to
bear. I'm not worthy to carry his shoes.
He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. You
know, all John could do is baptize you with water. That's all I
could do. If you came and asked me to baptize you, that you believe
the gospel, all I can do is follow the Lord's
command, His ordinance to baptize. But I can't give you the Holy
Ghost. I can't give you spiritual life.
I can't give those things to you. That's of God. The inward
work is of God. I can perform the outward ordinance,
but I can't perform the inward grace. That's a work of God. It's a work of God. It's all John could do. He had
power, but Jesus Christ has all power. And he will baptize you
with the Holy Ghost. You are sealed, everyone here,
everyone here who believes the gospel, you are sealed with the
Holy Spirit of God. He's in you right now. Right
now, you're sealed with him, he's in you. And I'll close with verse 12.
Whose fan, he says, is in his hand. He will throughly purge
his floor. This is speaking here of the
Lord Jesus Christ. This sounds so different than
the one that's being preached today. This one who just loves
everybody, wants to save everybody, won't you just let me save you?
No, he says his fan's in his hand. and he's gonna thoroughly
purge his floor, and he's gonna gather his wheat. Notice he doesn't
just say he's gonna gather wheat. His wheat, his sheep. That's what he's gathering. He's
gonna gather his wheat into the garner, and the rest he's gonna
burn up the chaff. He says he will burn up the chaff
with unquenchable fire. The scripture says our God is
a consuming fire. And he is outside of Jesus Christ. Everyone outside of that ark
died in the flood. Everyone outside of Jesus Christ
is gonna deal with God who is a consuming fire. But in Christ,
in Christ, we're able to deal with God's mercy, God's love.
We are accepted, but the word of God says in Ephesians chapter
one, he hath made us accepted in the beloved. What John does here, he sets
forth his Lord under another figure, that as a husband. The winner, the word of truth,
the gospel of Christ is the divider. He uses it as the divider. It
divides the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the chaff. We saw in Genesis, we've been
going through Genesis. God said, that's his word, and what happened? He divided the light from the
darkness. He divided the firmaments. He divided the heaven from the
earth. He divided the water from the land. And here, his word,
his word divides the sheep from the goats and the wheat from
the tares. Oh, that God, and I say this,
that God would send another John the Baptist who is not afraid,
not concerned with what anyone thinks, but to tell the truth,
tell the truth on God, on Christ, and on us. Just tell me the truth. God saves men by the truth, the
word of truth. Okay, great.