is Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neidert. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Sodden Ivers. I've entitled this morning's
message, Fruits Worthy of Repentance. Our text is found in Luke chapter
3, but first I'd like to read the third verse regarding John
the Baptist. It says, He came into all the
country about Jordan, preaching the baptism. of repentance for
the remission of sins. And then we read in verse 7,
people came to be baptized after hearing him preach. And he said
to them, in verse 7, then said he to the multitudes that came
forth to be baptized of him. Now you think about this. He
came preaching this message of baptism for the repentance the
baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And multitudes
came to be baptized of him. And look what he says to them.
Verse seven, then said he to the multitude that came forth
to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who has warned you
to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth fruits worthy of
repentance. And John wasn't a diplomat. John
was a prophet. He was God's prophet. And these
people come to him to be baptized, and he calls them a generation
of snakes. He said, don't come like this.
You bring forth fruits worthy of repentance. Who has warned
you to flee from the wrath to come? Now, don't kid yourself. There is a wrath to come, God's
wrath. It's a terrible thing to think
about, but the day of judgment is coming and there are two kinds
of people in this world, the righteous and the wicked. will enjoy the bliss of heaven
eternally in the presence of the Lamb. The wicked will suffer
the wrath of God. Now how is it that the righteous
are brought into heaven? Because Christ took their place
and He bore the wrath that was due them. Their sin became His
sin. He was their substitute and He
bore all the horrors of eternal hell on the cross of Calvary.
And the reason that the righteous will spend eternity in heaven
is because Christ took their hell and gave his righteousness
to them so that they are righteous before God. Now, the wicked will
be punished eternally. There's no annihilation. The
wicked will be punished eternally under the wrath of God. It's
a place called hell, a place of fire, a place of darkness,
a place of isolation. The descriptions Scripture gives
of hell are so frightening, but there is a place called hell.
The righteous will spend eternity in heaven, and the wicked will
spend eternity in hell. And it's not too severe. The
punishment fits the crime. And John says to these people,
he was preaching to you, who has warned you to flee from the
wrath to come? Oh, flee! from the wrath to come,
flee to the Lord Jesus Christ for deliverance from the wrath
to come. And then he says to these people, bring forth fruit
worthy of repentance. Now John's message was a message
of repentance. Verse three, let me read that
again. And he came forth into all the country about Jordan
preaching the baptism of repentance. for the remission of sins." Now,
what does repentance mean? Repentance means a change of
mind. When you repent, you change your
mind. You believe something, and when
you repent, you change your mind. You no longer believe that. Maybe
there's something you did not believe, but when you repent,
you change your mind. You now believe that John's message
was the baptism of repentance, a change of mind regarding the
remission of sins. Now, we all naturally believe that
the remission or the forgiveness of sins comes to us after we
repent or after we believe or after we get our lives straightened
out or after we do something. There's something that we do
and because of what we do we're given the repentance of sins.
I mean we're given the forgiveness of sins. That's what everybody
naturally believes. But John came preaching a repentance concerning
the remission of sins. Now understand this regarding
the Gospel. Salvation does not end with the
forgiveness of sins. God's salvation begins with the
forgiveness of sins. There's nothing you do to get
it. There's nothing you do to earn
it. There's nothing you do to achieve it. God's salvation begins
Before you do anything, God's salvation begins with the full,
free, frank forgiveness of sins. Now, this goes contrary to what
is preached in our day. Most preachers believe that God
loves everybody, Christ died for everybody, God wants to save
everybody, He died to forgive everybody's sins, and your sins
will be forgiven if you do this. Now, that's contrary to the Scripture.
That's contrary to salvation by grace. That makes salvation
by works. Salvation does not end with the
forgiveness of sins. Salvation begins with the full,
free, frank forgiveness of sins for Christ's sake. Now, most
people would believe in salvation by doing. There's a religion
of do. Do, do, do. There's always something
you need to do. And then there's the religion,
the true religion, it's done. It's accomplished by what Christ
did on Calvary Street. Now, when God saves you, you
find out you've been forgiven. You don't do something in order
to be forgiven. You find out you've been forgiven
by virtue of what the Lord did for you, taking your place. Now, where there is repentance,
this true, genuine repentance. There will be fruit worthy of
repentance. Now repentance is a change of
mind, no doubt. But where there's this change
of mind, it's because there's been a change of masters. And
there's a change of motives, and there's a change of manners. And he says, bring forth fruit
worthy of repentance. And look what he says in verse
9. He says, and now also is the ax lathened to the root of the
trees, every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit.
This fruit of repentance is hewn down and cast into the fire. Now, question, what is the fruit
that is worthy of repentance? There is bad fruit. These people
who came to John to be baptized, he says, generation of vipers,
who has warned you to flee from the wrath that come? You bring
forth fruit worthy of repentance. Now, let me give a couple of
examples of fruit that proves repentance is not genuine. When
repentance is genuine, there will be fruit worthy of repentance. Let's say someone hears the gospel
of God's grace and they say, I repent of my old views of God. I repent of the way I used to
believe in salvation by works free will and so on. I now believe
that God is sovereign, and I don't believe in free will, I believe
in free grace. I repent of that old way of thinking,
but yet that person still attends a religious institution, a so-called
church, where that is denied. You know what that means? That means they changed doctrines,
but they never changed masters. There's no fruit of repentance
in that kind of thinking. You know, what if I made friends
with people who said wrong things about my wife, and those were
my friends? What would that say about what
I really think about my wife? You see, if I can go to a church
that denies, that does not preach the gospel of God's sovereign
grace, and yet I say I believe sovereign grace, that's not fruit
of repentance. That says the repentance is not
genuine. Here's another example. Let's
say somebody is in an adulterous affair and they get caught and
they get exposed. And they don't want their marriage
broken up. They don't want their home broken up. Oh, they're sorry
over all the trouble that this is bringing them. And they say,
I repent. I repent of this. I don't want this to happen to
my home. I don't want this to happen to my marriage. And yet
they go back to that person they were having the affair with.
Was that repentance genuine? No, it was not genuine. In both of those cases, there
would be renouncing a church that didn't believe the gospel
of God's grace as far as you attending it, or there would
be a renouncing of that relationship, that adulterous relationship.
You couldn't go back, and if you did, the repentance was not
genuine. Now, in this passage of Scripture,
where John speaks of fruit worthy of repentance, he gives us six
things that are fruits worthy of repentance. And these six
things will characterize true repentance. Now, I'm sure that
there are other things that we could speak of that would characterize
true repentance, but this is what John calls fruit worthy
of repentance. Now, I want to read verse 8,
once again, John says, Bring forth therefore fruits worthy
of repentance, a true change of mind, the gift of God's grace,
genuine repentance. And the first thing he says is,
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. Now here's the first fruit of
true and genuine repentance. It's the rejection and the renouncing
of false works religion. Now these people thought because
of our association with Abraham, that's got to count something
with God. Because we're Jews, because we're Hebrews, because
Abraham is our father, surely that counts for something. And
John the Baptist says, no, it doesn't. God is able of these
stones to raise up children unto Abraham. Now, the first genuine
fruit of repentance is the renunciation of your former religion. This
is what the writers of the Hebrews calls repentance from dead works. That's mentioned twice in the
book of Hebrews. repentance from dead works. Now what are dead
works? Dead works are anything done
by a man who is dead in sins. It may be you keep the Ten Commandments,
therefore you'll be saved. It may be an act of your will
where you accept what God did and now all of a sudden you're
saved and born again. It may be it's something you
do that causes God to save you. That is a dead work. Now, in
this day in which we live, the message is God loves everybody,
Christ died for everybody, God wants to save everybody, God
loves everybody, but it's up to you. to do something to make
what he did work for you. Here's what I'm saying. Let's
take Judas and Peter. Peter saved. Judas is not saved. Now, the religion of this day
says, well, God loves Peter and Judas equally. Christ died for
Judas and Peter equally. God wants the salvation of Judas. God wants the salvation of Peter.
God desires these things, but It's true that even though God
loves you and Christ died for you and God the Holy Spirit calls
you and God wants to save you, you'll be damned if you don't
do your part to make what He did work for you. Now, what that
is is dead works. That's all that is. That means
there's something you do that enables God to save you. You
see, if God loves Judas and Peter the same, what's the love of
God have to do with salvation if Judas is saved And Judas is
lost and Peter is saved. What's the love of God have to
do with that? Absolutely nothing. It's what Peter did that Judas
didn't do. If Christ died for Judas' sins
and if he died for Peter's sins and Peter saved and Judas is
not, what does the blood of Christ have to do with salvation? Nothing.
It's what Peter did that Judas didn't do. This is dead works. And when God saves someone, they
repent of their dead works. When you repent, you altogether
reject that which is contrary. You renounce your former religion. And until that is done, the repentance
is not genuine. Repentance of any work that has
any connection with the flesh. Repentance of dead works. Now,
he said, don't say we have Abraham for our father. Don't look to
some fleshly reason, some fleshly work as to why you think you're
saved. Now, if there's not a renunciation of that, if there's not a repentance
from that, The repentance is not genuine. That's not a fruit
worthy of repentance. Now let's look at what he says
next. He says in verse 10, and the people asked him, they heard
him speak of fruits worthy of repentance. And the people asked
him saying, well, what should we do then? Tell us what to do. Tell us what is a work worthy
of repentance. What is fruit worthy of repentance? Verse 11, 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. Now wherever there is true repentance
toward God, there is a genuine compassion towards men that gives. You have two coats, he doesn't
have any, you give him one. a true compassion. Now this is
answered truly in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one who had
two coats. His original righteousness. The
righteousness that He worked out. And He gives His people
who had no coat, His righteousness, so they now have a coat. I love
thinking of that being realized in the Lord Jesus Christ. But
it's still true, when God saves someone, they have a compassionate
toward their fellow men. Now, this person who doesn't
have a coat does not have the right to demand of the person
who has two coats, give me your coat, that's what you ought to
do. That's socialism. But the one who has two ought
to give to the one who has none. Freely you've received, freely
give. Now, if God has been gracious
to you, you want to be gracious to others. That's always the
case. There is a love and a care for
men. And if that's not there, the
repentance is not genuine. You cannot be saved and not desire
the salvation of others. You see, faith without works
is dead, being alone. Where there's true repentance,
there is a true care for men. That person who has two coats
gives to him that has none. My repentance doesn't produce
that in my life. It's not that repentance that's
the gift of God, the gift of His grace. Now let's go on reading. Verse 12, then came also publicans
to be baptized. Now remember who they were? They
were the tax collectors employed by the Roman government, and
they made a living through dishonesty. They would take what the Romans
required for taxes, and they'd add on to that Christ to enrich
themselves, and they were very wealthy people. But they were
hearing John the Baptist preach, and they came to be baptized
with him, and they said unto him, Master, what shall we do?
What are the fruits that are worthy of our repentance? And
he said unto them, exact no more than that which is appointed
to you. Now these people made a living
by dishonesty. And he said, you've got to be
honest. You can exact no more than that which is appointed
to you. Honesty is a fruit worthy of
repentance. Honesty. Now I realize that all
men by nature are liars. We don't become liars when we
lie. We lie because that's our nature. We're liars. All men are liars. That's why we lie. They're not
honest before God, and they're not honest with themselves. And
it's amazing the great lengths men will go to to lie to themselves
and justify themselves. It's just not honesty before
God. But when God saves somebody,
He makes them honest. You see, honest people don't
go to hell. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, they're honest
before God. They don't claim to be what they're
really not. They come before Him as they
really are, as nothing but sinners. Coming to God any other way is
dishonest. That's all you can call it. And
these people are honest with themselves. They see that they're
nothing but sinners before God. And they're honest before men.
They don't try to impress Him with their pious talk and the
religiosity, honest in their dealings with men. Now, the good
ground here was given a good and honest heart, honest before
God. You see, if you're honest before
God, you see that you're nothing but sin. And when you see that
you're nothing but sin, how easy it is to trust Christ as your
only righteousness before God. Honesty, now this is the working
of God's grace in a heart. But where there's true repentance,
fruit worthy of repentance, there's honesty before God. I think of
that scripture, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will
not imbue sin, and in whose spirit there is no guile, no deceit,
they're honest before God. Now let's go on reading verse
14. The soldiers had been listening to John the Baptist preach and
they heard him say, bring forth fruit worthy of repentance. And
the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, and what shall
we do? Give us the fruit that's truly worthy of repentance. What
is it that we're supposed to do? And he said unto them three
things. First, do violence to no man. Now, these were soldiers. And
he says, do violence to no man, literally put no man in fear. He wasn't talking about conscientious
objection how you're not allowed to serve in the military if you're
a Christian, that doesn't have anything to do with what he's
saying. He's saying don't intimidate people, and that's exactly what
these people live by, intimidation. You can't do that anymore. Now,
when someone is working on the premise of intimidation and manipulation,
it appears that they've never really repented before God. What
do I mean by that? Well, if I try to get what I
want, whether people being impressed with me or material things or
people liking me, if I try to get what I want through intimidation,
through manipulation, all it proves is that I don't trust
the Lord to take care of me. I don't look to Him. I'm trying
to get things on my own. And that's what these soldiers
did. They tried to intimidate. And
he says, you can't do that. If I'm doing that, I'm not trusting
the Lord. So first of all, the soldiers
say, what should we do to bring forth fruit worthy of repentance? Don't intimidate. Don't manipulate. And next he says in verse 14,
neither accuse any falsely. Now, the natural man is full
of false accusations. False accusations against God.
saying it's wrong for God to save some and not save others,
or why does God let this happen and why does God let that happen?
How can a loving God do this? All these accusations against
God. They make false accusations regarding themselves, taking
credit where credit really is not due, giving themselves the
glory. They make false accusations toward others, saying so-and-so
is a believer when he's not, or maybe someone's a true believer
and they say he's not. All these false accusations.
And whenever there's true repentance before God, these false accusations
cease. Don't make these false accusations.
And thirdly, he says in verse 14, and be content, be satisfied
with your wages. Now, whenever someone truly repents
before God, The fruit that's worthy of repentance that they
bring with that is true contentment. Content with being saved by Christ. Having food and raiment, let
us be there with content. Now, what is contentment? Contentment
is satisfaction with what one has. The writer to the Hebrews
said, let your conversation be without covetousness, and be
content with what you have. Now what do I have? If the Lord
saved me, I have Christ. I have His righteousness. I have
the peace of God which passes understanding. I have the promise
of His grace. I have His own promise that He'll
never leave me nor forsake me. I have the promise that when
I stand before God in judgment, I'll be perfectly justified because
I'm perfectly justified right now. I have the promise of Romans
8, 28, that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are called according to His purpose. I'm content. There's nothing else I need.
As John Newton said, content with beholding His face, my all
to His pleasure resigned. No changes of seasons or place
would make any change in my mind. When blessed with a sense of
His love, a palace, a toy would appear. And prisons would palaces
prove if Jesus would dwell with me there. Where there is genuine
repentance, there is a contentment with the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm
satisfied. I'm not looking for anything
else. I'm satisfied to be saved wholly by him. I've seen people
respond to the gospel. They say, well, there's got to
be something more than that. You haven't heard that. Because if
you heard, you know there's nothing more, and you're content to be
saved by Him. Now where there is genuine repentance,
there will be fruit worthy of repentance. Renouncing, renouncing
human religion, compassion, honesty, not intimidating and manipulating,
no false accusations, and contentment with what one has in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And we'd like to invite you to
services at Todd's Road Grace Church. We begin this morning,
Bible study at 9.40, morning worship at 10.30, and the evening
worship at 6 o'clock. We'd love to have you come out
and visit with us. We have your message on cassette
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