Our lesson this morning is in
Luke chapter three, and I wanna read verses seven through 20. Luke chapter three, beginning
with verse seven. Then said he to the multitude
that came forth to be baptized of him, this is talking about
John the Baptist, Old generation of vipers, 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. And
now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees. Every
tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn
down and cast into the fire. And the people ask him, saying,
what shall we do then? How are we going to produce this
fruit? How are we going to? What does that mean? when you're talking about the
fruit of God. 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 publicans to be
baptized and said unto him, master, what shall we do? Tax collectors. 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 no violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely,
and be content with your wages. And as the people were in expectation,
and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he was the Christ
or not, John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize
you with water. But one mightier than I cometh,
the latchet of whose shoes I'm not worthy to unloose. He shall
baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. whose fan is in
his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and he will
gather the weed into his garner, but the chaff he will burn with
fire, unquenchable. And many other things in his
exhortation preached to the people. But Herod the Patriarch, being
reproved by him for Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, And
for all the evils which Herod had done, added this yet above
all, that he shut up John in prison. I'm up in the air as
to what to title this. I first thought I would title
it The Preacher's Preacher. But I think also I might want
to say this is a Baptist preacher. God setting before us a Baptist
preacher, one who baptizes, one who knows how that believers
are to profess faith in Christ, and what did this man preach?
I think you'll agree with me when I say that John was no,
that he was an extraordinary man. He was no just ordinary
man. And he was a remarkable person
in every aspect of his life. But perhaps the greatest thing
about John, that which makes him stand head and shoulders
above all men, was his preaching. This was a cross-section of people. These were professed believers,
people who heard him preach and said, we believe what this man's
preaching. They come to hear him. They wanted
his advice, they came to him for counsel. And there was soldiers
in that mix, Roman soldiers, and there was tax collectors
in that. Boy, you wouldn't see any tax collectors in the temple
or in the synagogues, but there was tax collectors there. There
was a cross section of everybody in that area, there was a cross
section represented here. The Lord himself said, among
them that are born of women, there has not risen a greater
than John the Baptist. He was no ordinary man. Well, what did John preach? Now,
we know that he was God's voice. We talked about that last week,
God's voice crying in the wilderness. But what did he cry? What was
his message? Brother Henry Mahan, who was
then my pastor, brought a message from Isaiah 40, concerning the
message of John the Baptist. And he titled the sermon, The
Two-Fold Message of Evangelism. In Isaiah 40, verse six, the
voice said, cry, and he said, what shall I cry? Now here's
what God told him to cry, all flesh is grass. And all the goodliness thereof,
the goodliness of the flesh is like the flower of the field. What's the flower of the field?
Thistles, dandelions, mustard, go on and on. All the goodliness
of man, you look out at that pasture field and you know everything
in there is not edible. You can't get it out. I don't
care what you do to that field, it has weeds in it. tears in
it. And you look out there on it
and all the goodliness of that weed is just its little flower. It comes forth and puts forth
a flower in its season and then it dries up and withers and it's
good for nothing. Good for nothing except to cast
into the fire. Now he said that's flesh, that's
man. That's the condition of man. The grass withers, the flower
fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. And then
the second thing he said is this. Be not afraid. Don't stand up
there and tremble at the people. Don't cower down when a bunch
of people gather together to hear you. I don't care who they
are. I don't care what office they hold. Be not afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah,
behold your God. Now he's your God, I don't care
who you are. I don't care what you believe.
God is God and he's your God. Paul said in him we live and
move and have our being. He's your God. Ruling over all
things. Doing for sinners what no sinner
could ever do for himself. And don't be fooled here. He's not talking about God in
the abstract. He's talking about God come into
the flesh. Of course, we don't have any
other way to know God except for that. Everything else is
speculation. No man has seen God at any time. So what did John preach? Well,
let me give you just a few things. He preached, first of all, the
total depravity of man. That's what he preached. Now
these people were raised in legalism. These people were raised in self-righteousness. That's all they'd ever known.
They'd been told to keep the Sabbath, to love your parents
and so on, love the Lord thy God with all. Nobody ever told
them that they couldn't do that. That their best efforts was just
filthy rags. Man at his best state altogether,
vanity. Nobody ever told them that. They
just said, do this, do this, do this, do this. Don't do that,
don't do that. That's all they'd ever know.
And I'm gonna tell you something, if you was raised in religion,
that's all you ever heard either. Don't do this, don't do that. Do this, do this, do this. They've all got a formula for
being a Christian, don't they? You do this, you do this, you
do this. Now you're a believer, now you're a believer. John preached
the total depravity of man. All flesh is grass. It's nothing
but dandelion blooms that you can soon hold in your hand and
blow the seed out in the air. John didn't come pruning branches. He laid the axe to the root.
Isn't that what he said? And I read to you a few moments.
He said, but now, now, the axe laid to the root. What's that
ax? That's Christ. Laid to the root. Laid to the root. He ain't pruning
branches. He didn't come to clean up your
house. He come to tear it down. People talk about the Lord repairing
your house. I heard a man talking about it
the other day. Repairing your house. Doing a remodel job, a
facelift on your house. I'm gonna put some tile in it,
paint the walls, put some carpet in here, some new furniture,
a picture or two on the wall. Now you got the house of your
dreams. Well, that's all it is, is a
dream. He come to tear it down. He gonna tear it down. And I'm gonna tell you something,
until our sin is brought into view, we'll go on business as
usual. Sure we will. We just go on,
Russell. We go on just business as usual. But when God the Holy
Ghost reveals what's in man, that enlightened sinner will
begin in earnest to seek the Lord for mercy. All of his options
are gone. All of what he thought he had
is gone. It's banished. It's history. Now what are you going to do?
You got no refuge, you got no, that little aisle you walk, that
peanut preacher's hand that you shook, that little card that
you signed, all that's gone. That vanishes away when God reveals
to the sinner his sin. Now he knows something about
what he is and who God is. And he got no other plea but
mercy. He's not making deals with God,
he's not bowing his head and saying, Lord, if you save me,
I'll do this, I'll do that. You're just lying to God, that's
all you're doing. A fella told me one time, this
is a true story, he told me, he was my bricklayer, and he
told me, he said, I was laying on the battlefield, my throat
was cut ear to ear, and the blood was gushing out, and he said,
I knew I was gonna die. And he said, I told the Lord,
if you spare me, if you'll keep me alive, I'll serve you till
I die. Big tears rolling down his face, and I said, I just
wanna know one thing. He said, what's that? I said, did you?
He just bowed his head. You lying to God. You can't please
God. My soul, he's God. You ain't
gonna please him. And listen to what God said. He's looking to see if any did
seek Him. He's looking to see if there's
any righteousness. He's looking to see if there's
any goodness. He said there's none. But listen to this. This is my
beloved Son, now listen, in whom I'm well pleased. Who God pleased
with? His Son. His Son. John preached the total depravity
of man. These so-called religious people
with all of their promises and lies and falsehood and they're
coming down to John to be baptized and they're up there chewing
their gum or tobacco or whatever it was and spitting and having
a good time and talking about fishing and racing and who knows
what else on the river. And they're coming down the aisle
and John said, you bikers! Who warned you to flee the wrath
to come? He preached the total depravity
of man. You know in Romans chapter three,
he said this of natural man, both Jew and Gentile, the poison
of ass, is under his lips. Did John tell him the truth when
he called them vipers? You bet he did. What else did John preach? He
preached man as a hopeless, helpless sinner, shut up to the mercy
and grace of God. And secondly, our text tells
us that he preached redemption through the blood. In Luke 3.3, he came preaching
the baptism of repentance. Now listen, for the remission
of sins. But where there is no shedding
of blood, there is no remission of sins. No salvation until the
sin debt is satisfied. That's what redemption means.
When you're talking about the redeemer and redemption, redemption
has to do with settling the debt We all owe a debt to God. Just
like if you go out here and you shoot somebody and they arrest
you for murder, that judge and justice has to be satisfied.
And that's nothing compared to the justice of God. And when
you start thinking about it, that there's none righteous,
none good, that all our righteousnesses are filthy rags, what kind of
a debt must we owe God? And that debt just piling up,
piling up, piling up every day, piling up, because all we can
do is sin. The best prayer we ever prayed
is full of sin. The best message I ever preached
is full of sin. We're sinners. Redemption has
to do with settling the debt. The debt has to be paid. And our sin debt is so great
that it's beyond our ability to pay. Simply turning over a
new leaf or sacrificing a good portion of our living or identifying
ourselves with some religious cause cannot satisfy God. Baptist, if we could keep the
whole law, Now, Larry, listen to me. If we could keep the whole
law, I mean in every jot and tittle, from now to the grave,
we still couldn't satisfy God. Here's what he says. We're unprofitable
servants. And he's talking about if you
could keep the law, that's all you'd be is an unprofitable servant.
It was yours to keep. It was yours to keep. In Luke
17, 10, our Lord said, so likewise, when you shall have done all
of those things which are commanded you, saying, we are unprofitable
servants, we have done that which is our duty to do. The justice of God demands the
death of the sinner, nothing less. Scripture said, the soul
that sinneth shall surely die. Not gonna get out of it. Gonna
get out of it. God's not gonna overlook it.
Not gonna wink at it. Cursed, he said, is everyone
who continueth not in all things written in the book of the law
to do them. Redemption demands blood. Without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission. Psalm 324, here's redemption. I mean, Romans 3, verse 24. being
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be the propitiation,
now listen, through faith in his blood. What paid that sin debt? His
death, his blood, his blood. In this way and no other. God
can be just in his justification of all them that believe. John's
baptism was a confession of this faith. And the first fruit of this faith
is repentance. Those who have this faith, they
come repenting. And there's fruits of repentance. Fruits of repentance. So what
did John preach? Well, he preached the total depravity
of man. He preached the redeeming blood
of Christ. And then thirdly, he preached
the glorious person of the Lord Jesus Christ. John had no room
in his preaching for some poor, defeated reformer. One who tried
but couldn't do it. One who was reduced in his message to
preaching a beggar. hoping men will do a little something,
help him finish his work. John knew nothing of a wanting
savior. He wants this and wants that.
No eyes but your eyes, no feet but your feet, no hands but your
hands. You've heard him preach this. John preached a man who
was God come into the flesh. The eternal representative, a
substitute whose coming was to accomplish the sovereign will
of God. That's what John preached. He
was truly God and truly man. He was the only revelation of
the God-man. He's the God-man. He's the only
revelation you ever get of God. And he alone is the arm of God,
sent to save, mighty to save. And many times John said this. He it is whose shoes lack it,
I'm not worthy to unloose. That sound like a defeated reformer
to you? He'll be wearing sandals, and
I'll baptize him. But I'm not worthy to baptize
him, and I'm not even worthy to unloose his sandals. He's
a God man. He said, I baptize with water.
But when he come, he'll baptize you with the Holy Ghost. and
with fire. He said, I'm just a friend of
the bridegroom. I'm not the bridegroom. I'm just
his friend. I'm just his friend. And I love to hear him speak.
And I rejoice greatly when he does. He must increase, John
said. I must decrease. I'm from the
earth and speak in terms that are earthy, live in terms that
are earthy. I talk about what I'm told. He
talks about what he's seen. I have the indwelling of the
Spirit. He has the Spirit without measure. You see what I'm saying? Him
preaching a little Jesus. John preached the glorious person
of Christ. And then fourthly, John preached
the reality of hell. Four times I read to you in our
text where he talks about hell. Four times in those few short
verses, John talked about hell. Who warned you to flee the wrath
to come, he said. They came to him being zealous
or jealous of the crowds and envious of the multitudes and
John sent them away. Fear of hell. Now listen to me,
fear of hell is not the true repentance. But I'm gonna tell
you something, you'll never repent until you have it. It's not the
main cause of repentance. The love of God leadeth us to
repentance, but you'll never know the love of God until you
know something about hell and the wrath of God. Hell is a reality
of every unbeliever. He that believeth not shall be
damned. Isn't that what the scripture
says? It's exactly what it says. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Whosoever
was not found, the scripture said, written in the book of
life, was cast into the lake of fire. And I could go on and
on. John didn't care who you were, even if it meant his own
destruction. He knew Herod would put him to
death if he said to him what he needed to say to him, but
he said it anyway, didn't he? He said it anyway. And nothing
more evident is the preaching of our day as the flippancy of
men and women toward the judgment and the wrath of God. It's offensive
when you talk about hell, isn't it? It's offensive. Now you can talk about hell in
general, men in general going to hell, but when you come down
home to people, and that's what he did, he pressed his home. And then lastly, John preached
the salvation that saves. One that bore the true fruit
of the spirit. What shall we do? What we gonna
do to show forth this fruit? Now remember what he's talking
about, he's talking about fruit. Not talking about your works,
he's talking about fruit. If you have the Spirit of God,
you're gonna bear fruit. But what kind of fruit? Well,
here's what he told them. Be honest. Huh? Just be honest with folks. Be
honest, be generous. Somebody have a need, give to
it. Be kind, be gentle, be forgiving. Live a life consistent with your
profession. Many women who profess faith
in Christ but live just like they always did, they live a
life contrary to the one they profess to have. These are not my words. But Christ,
he said, he that loveth not knoweth not God. Is that true? God said it. Faith, James said, if it hath
not works, is dead, being alone. It's just a profession, it's
just a word, just a word. What's he mean, alone? Well,
it's alone without the indwelling influence and knowledge of the
Holy Ghost. It's alone without a new birth
left to himself in his empty profession. It's alone, that's
what James said. Somebody comes along and he's
in need, and you say, well, I feel for you, partner. May the Lord
bless you and send him on his way. That ain't faith. They said,
what do you need? What do you need? May the Lord
help me to preach like John did and to live as John described.