Would you turn back to Luke chapter
three? I've entitled this message. Fruits. Worthy of repentance. Fruits worthy of repentance. I hope the Lord will give us
the grace to. block out any thought that would
hinder us in hearing this message. In verse seven, John the Baptist
says to the multitudes that came forth to be baptized of him.
Oh, generation of vipers. Who has warned you to flee from
the wrath to come? Now, John was no diplomat. He
was a prophet, wasn't he? God's prophet. And he warned
these people who came to be baptized, and he saw something in them
that troubled him. And he warned them about fleeing
from the wrath to come. Now, listen real carefully, everybody
in here, young people, listen. There is a coming wrath. There is. There is a coming wrath. There is a coming day of judgment
when God is going to judge the world. You and I will one day
stand before God in judgment. Now, there two types of people
in this world. They're the people the Bible
calls the righteous. And there are the people the
Bible calls the wicked. Now, what does righteousness
mean when God speaks of the righteous? Righteousness means that you
stand before the Ten Commandments without guilt. If you're righteous,
that means you stand before God without sin. Perfect. Now, that's what righteousness
means. There are the righteous. They are the people who will
stand before God in judgment and be accepted and be brought
into heaven. The righteous. And then there
is the wicked, those who stand as sinners before God. Now, the
righteous. will spend eternity in the bliss
of heaven. Now, what all that means, I can't
really describe. I know that the righteous will
be perfectly conformed to the image of Christ. They'll be in
his presence and heaven is seeing his face and the righteous will
spend eternity in heaven and the wicked will be punished eternally
under the wrath of God in a place called hell. Now, God is just. God is absolutely just. And if
someone goes to hell, it's because that's exactly what they deserve. With God, the punishment always
fits the crime. There is a day of judgment coming.
God is going to judge everybody. The righteous will be in heaven.
And the wicked will be in hell, suffering the wrath of God against
their sins. Now, hell is a place of fire. It's a place of darkness. It's
a place of suffering. It's a place of memory. It's a place of isolation. And everybody outside of Christ
will spend eternity in hell. Now, somebody may be thinking,
Well, how can I be righteous then? What is it that makes somebody
righteous? Because if I'm going to be honest
at all, I haven't kept God's law. I've lied, I've cheated,
I've misrepresented in every single way. I've broken God's
law. So how is it that somebody can
be righteous? I'd love to be able to answer
that question. Here's the way a sinner can be righteous. Christ
Jesus, the Lord, died on Calvary Street. He died on the cross
and he never sinned. Now, why did he die if he never
sinned? Because the sins of those who
believe were placed upon him and he became guilty of those
sins. God only punishes where there's
guilt. My sin became his sin and God
punished him and his perfect obedience, his righteousness,
his law keeping, is given to me, and thus I am righteous before
God." This is the heritage of every believer. They're righteous
before God. Now, John says to these people,
O generation of vipers who have warned you to flee from the wrath
to come. And let me say this. I'm warning
you now to flee from the wrath to come. Flee to the Lord Jesus
Christ. You come to Him. He'll receive
you. There's never been anybody who came to him for mercy that
he turned away. You come for mercy and you will
be received. Now, look what he says in verse
eight to this group of people. He says, bring forth, therefore,
fruits worthy of repentance. I look back up in verse three,
he came preaching this message, verse three, and he came into
all the country round about Jordan preaching the baptism of repentance
for the remission of sins. Now, what's that mean? Repentance
for the remission of sins. The remission of sins is the
forgiveness of sins. Are you interested in having
God forgive your sins and for God to make it so you won't be
held accountable for your sins? That they'll be forgiven, that
they'll be blotted out, that they'll be remitted. Repentance
for or repentance concerning the remission, the remitting,
the forgiveness of sins. Now, here's what everybody by
nature believes. If I do the right things. If I believe the right things.
If I straighten up and if I do what's right. If I believe, if
I repent, then I will have the forgiveness of sins. I will have
the remission of sins if I do all the right things. If I believe,
if I repent, if I turn my life around, I'll be given the remission
of sins. Did you know that there's not
a bit of truth to that? That's a lie. A preacher that
preaches that way is preaching a lie. He's preaching a false
gospel. He's a false prophet. Now, here's
the truth. Salvation. does not end with
the forgiveness of sins. Salvation begins with the full,
free forgiveness of sins. There's nothing you do to get
it. It's something God gives you. That's where salvation begins. Salvation doesn't end in righteousness. If I do this, this, this and
this, that will make me righteous enough to make me saved. Salvation
begins with righteousness. God makes you righteous. Now, repentance means a change
of mind. I used to believe that if I do
this, this, and this, and if I stop doing this, this, and
that, and if I turn things around, then God will give me the forgiveness
of sins. I don't believe that a bit anymore.
I've plumb changed my mind. God's changed my mind. I know
salvation begins with the forgiveness of sins. Now, let me give you
two words. Two words. You listen real carefully. Works
religion. False religion can be summarized
by the word do. Do. This is what you need to do.
The gospel can be summarized by this word. It's done. It's done. It's finished. There's nothing for me to do. Christ did it all. Now you lay hold of those two
words. Works religion. False religion
is do. It sets you on doing. You need
to do something. The gospel is this message. It's done. There is absolutely
nothing for you to do to gain the forgiveness of sins, to gain
righteousness. Christ accomplished it. That's
the gospel. And there is a change of mind
regarding the forgiveness of sins. Now, Where there is this
repentance regarding the remission of sins, where that's real, there
will be fruits worthy of repentance. I love what Brother Mahan said.
He said repentance, first of all, is a change of mind. And
indeed it is. That change of mind comes about
because there's been a change of masters. And where there's a change of
masters, There's a change of motives. You don't do what you
do in order to be saved. You do what you do because you've
been saved, because of what God has done for you. And where there's
a change of mind, where there's a change of masters, where there's
a change of motives, there's a change of manners. It will
affect your conduct. And if it doesn't affect your
conduct, It's not true and genuine repentance. And he says to these
people, bring forth fruit worthy of repentance and true change. Verse eight, bring forth, therefore,
fruits worthy of repentance. And begin not to say within yourselves,
we have Abraham to our father. We must be saved. We're children
of Abraham. He's the father of the faithful.
Since we're connected with him, God must be pleased in some measure
within us. John says, shut that stuff up.
Don't think that way. 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 it is cast into the fire. Where this fruit, fruit
worthy of repentance, is not found, God's wrath will be. He will say, Cut them down and
throw them into the fire. Now, question, what is this fruit? that's worthy of repentance.
John looks at these people who came to him to be baptized and
says, you brood of snakes, you bring forth fruit worthy of repentance. What is fruit worthy of repentance? There is a fruit that demonstrates
that repentance is not real. I think that's what John saw
in these people, that there is a fruit that demonstrates that
repentance is not genuine. Now, what do I mean by that?
Well, let's say somebody says, well, I don't believe salvation
by works anymore. I've listened to that all my
life, and I don't believe that anymore. I believe in salvation
by grace. I believe in the sovereignty
of God, that God is absolutely sovereign and in control. And
I reject this notion of man's free will being the cause of
salvation. I believe salvation is of the Lord. I believe that.
I believe that doctrine. And that individual continues
going to a church where that doctrine is not preached. Now,
what that tells me is that man's changed doctrines, that he's
never changed masters. He's not bringing forth fruit
worthy of repentance. What if I wanted to hang out
with somebody who told lies about Lynn and that's the person I
wanted to listen to them speak? What would that say about my
love to Lynn? He would say it's absent. If I love Lynn, I'm not
going to listen to that which is contrary to her and which
trashes her. Bring forth fruit worthy of repentance. Here's another example. Let's
say there's a married couple and somebody is unfaithful to
their spouse. And they're very upset when they're
caught and they say, I repent, please forgive me, I don't want
this to mess up my life. And they say, I repent, I've
changed, forgive me. But they continue going back
to that same person. And are unfaithful, was their
repentance genuine? No, no, bring forth fruit worthy
of repentance. Now, in both of these instances,
fruit meat for repentance would have been to stop going to that
church where the gospel is not preached and go to a place where
the gospel is preached or stop having that affair. Bring forth
the fruit that shows the genuineness of repentance. Now, in this passage
of scripture, John gives us six things. That are fruits worthy
of repentance, I believe there probably are other things that
are I know there are other things that are fruits worthy of repentance,
but these are the six things that John gives us that are called
fruits worthy of repentance. Now, the first one is found in
verse eight of Luke, chapter three. Bring forth, therefore,
fruits worthy of repentance, a true change of mind regarding
the remission of sins, and fruits that prove you really believe
that way and is genuine, 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 repentance. Listen real carefully. It's the
rejection. Of false religion. Now, these
people that were coming to John to be baptized, they said, well,
we have Abraham for our father. That's got to count for something.
We're part of God's national Israel, God's chosen people.
That's got to count for something. No, it doesn't. It counts for
absolutely nothing. John lets these people know that
this is not fruit meat for repentance. The first fruit of genuine repentance
is the rejection. It's the renunciation. It's renouncing
works, false religion. That's the first fruit of repentance. It's what the writer to the Hebrews
calls repentance from dead works. Now. The gospel you believe. Is the
gospel you believe you were saved by. And that's the gospel you
really believe. If you believe you were saved
when you believe free will works, that means that's the gospel
you really believe. The gospel you believe is the
gospel you believe you were saved by. Now, if I believe that I
was saved when I did not believe sovereign grace, if I believe
I was saved in a church where the gospel of God's grace was
not preached, I do not have fruits worthy of repentance. I don't. It's not real. It's just a bunch
of changed doctrines. No more than that. God's really
never done a work of grace in my heart. You see, when you repent,
You altogether reject that which is contrary. You renounce your
former religion. That's what you do when you're
baptized. When you're baptized, you confess that all of your
salvation, all of it, the whole of it, is in the life, the death,
the burial, and the resurrection of Christ. And you renounce any
other hope but Him. That's my confession in baptism. And until that's done, the repentance
is not genuine. Repentance of any work that has
any connection with the flesh, you repent of that. You have
nothing to do with it. You renounce it. You really believe
that the death of Christ really is your hope. Now, what do I
mean by that? Here's what I mean. Here's what
the Bible means. When Christ bowed his head and
said, it is finished. and guide, my salvation was secured. And obviously, I didn't have
any works. I wasn't even born yet. But my salvation was secured
by his dead. When he was raised from the dead,
I was raised from the dead. And any hope that isn't that
only is a false hope. Now you bring forth fruits worthy
of repentance and don't begin to say, we have Abraham for our
father, that counts for something. No, it counts for nothing. Now, look in verse 10. After he had made this statement
and the people asked him saying, what shall we do then? I mean,
you tell us we need to bring Fruit, meat for repentance? Well,
tell us what to do. Here we are. We're waiting to
hear what you've got to say. 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, you
can look at this from several different angles. First, this
is actually fully realized in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the
one who had these coats that he gave to those who had none.
The coat of his righteousness. This is fully realized in the
Lord Jesus Christ. He gave that person who had no
coat, a coat. I'm one of those people shivering
with no coat and no way to provide myself with a coat. And he gave
me a coat, the coat of his salvation, the coat of his righteousness.
He gave me that coat. This is also saying if the Lord
has done something for you. You're going to love me. And
you're going to seek to be helpful to them. There's never been anybody
that God saved that was not concerned about the salvation and the well-being
of others. That's always true. If you have two coats, give to
that person that doesn't have any. Now, understand, that person
that doesn't have any can't demand, you need to give me a coat because
you have two. That's just socialism. That's
not what the scripture teaches. It's not, if by way of entitlement,
you need to give me that coat. You need to give me food. No,
but that person who has two coats, he's to give to that person who
only has one. That person who has plenty of
food, he's to give to that person who has none. If God has saved
you, he's made you somebody who actually loves the souls of men
and seeks their well-being. And if that hadn't happened,
has God really done anything for me? If I don't care about
people? No, not at all. Now, the Lord
is the good Samaritan. We know that, isn't he? The Lord
is the good Samaritan. But we're called upon to be good
Samaritans, too. If you have two coats, give to
that person who doesn't have any. That's a fruit worthy of
repentance. Verse 12. Then came also the publicans
to be baptized and said unto him, Master, what shall we do?
Now, who were the publicans? They were Jews who were employed
by the Roman government to collect taxes for the Roman government.
And let's say you owe $100. What that fellow would do is
say you owe $200. And he'd keep a hundred for himself,
and he'd give the Roman government a hundred. And they were the
most despised, despicable people in all of the land because of
the way they ripped people off. And there's nothing anybody could
do about it. They couldn't prove they only owed a hundred. They
said, you know, and the Roman government let them do that.
They were men who were dishonest to the core. Publicans. That was the lowest thing you
can call somebody. Now they come up and say, What
should we do? And look what he says, verse
13, and he said unto them, exact no more than that which is appointed
you. Now. You can't. Make a living that way anymore.
You must be honest. You must be honest. Honesty. is a fruit worthy of
repentance. Honesty. Now, all men by nature
are liars. Why do men lie? Because they're
liars already. They don't become liars when
they lie. No, they lie because they're
already liars. This is the state of all men
by nature, and I just know that so. I know it so with regard
to myself. I know it's true with regard
to you. By nature, we're all liars, dishonest people. Now, men are not honest before
God. They pretend to be what they're
not. They're not honest with themselves. I think it's amazing
the lengths men will go through to justify themselves and what
they're doing. And the reason I know something
about it is because I've done it. I can always find a way to justify
myself. I had a reason for doing it.
Men are dishonest with themselves. They're dishonest with others.
They put on this phony religious piety and try to make people
think they're better than they are. It's dishonesty. Now, Rothbard,
the old preacher, used to say, Honest people don't go to hell. Now, if you're honest before
God. And the only honesty before God that you can have is to confess
that before him you are nothing but sin. That's you. Sin's your name. Sin's your nature. That is you. Now, that is honesty
before God. Anything else is dishonest. You're
honest with yourself. You see that in and of yourself
dwells in you no good thing. And you don't put on this phony
religious piety before people. You're honest. Now, that honest
person is the person who believes the gospel. You see, God made
you that way. You wouldn't have been that way
unless God made you that way. If He makes you honest before
Him, it's because He's caused you to be. He's given you a new
nature, a nature that's honest before Him. David said, Blessed
is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin, and
in whose spirit there is no guile. There's no deceitfulness. They're honest before God. Now, if you go on in this way
of the public and this dishonesty, that's not fruit meat for repentance. Not at all. OK, what next? Verse 14. And the soldiers, and these are
the fellows that were employed by Rome, these were Gentile Roman
soldiers that were occupying that place at that time. And
the soldiers likewise demanded of him saying they came out to
hear John the Baptist preach and they said, what should we
do? And he says to these soldiers, three things. Due violence to no man. He says
that to a soldier. Due violence to no man. Neither
accuse any falsely and be content, be satisfied with your wages. Now he says this to soldiers.
Now this is the way of the world. Now this thing of do violence
to no man. He didn't say, that did not mean
that you can no longer participate in war. You have to become a
conscientious objector and never fight again. That's not what
that means. What that means is put no man in fear Don't intimidate
anybody. Don't try to get what you want
through intimidation. Isn't that the way of the world?
Try to intimidate people. And he says, you can't do that
anymore. You see, that kind of thinking is the opposite of trust. It's a form of manipulation.
I'm trying to get what I want through manipulation and intimidating
you and getting you to respond to what I want you to do. Where's
their faith in that? That's absolutely contrary to
faith. We trust the Lord to give us what we need. You reckon the
Lord Jesus Christ ever tried to manipulate a situation? You
reckon he ever tried to intimidate anybody? Man, religious people
intimidate people all the time. They try to intimidate people
with their piety and their religiosity and their supposed holiness.
But the Lord Jesus Christ, the scripture says the publicans
and the sinners felt comfortable with him. They ain't with him. They ate with him, they didn't
feel threatened by him, they didn't feel intimidated by him.
You see, that is the opposite of the spirit of grace, simply
trusting the Lord to give you what you need. And you don't
try to manipulate, you don't try to intimidate. Now, that's
the way the world lived, the way of the soldiers, putting
people in fear, trying to manipulate and intimidate them. But you
can't do that anymore. If that's if that's your mode
of operation, that's no fruit worthy of repentance. That's
not true repentance before God. And next, he says, neither accuse
any falsely. Now, this was another big deal
with the soldiers, they would accuse people falsely. The Roman
soldiers were terrible about this, these false accusations
they would make in order to incarcerate them to get what they wanted.
I mean, whatever they wanted, they'd make a false accusation
to get that person in trouble, to get them to give them what
they wanted and do what they wanted. The end justifies the
means. It's very similar to the other
thing, false accusations to get what you want. That's so contrary
to faith. You don't do that when you believe
the gospel. You don't try to intimidate. You don't try to
use the unjustified, make false accusations. And so he said,
you can't do that anymore. Bring forth fruit worthy of repentance. And I like what he says next
in verse 14. And be content. Be content. Be satisfied with your wages. Now, fruit worthy of repentance
is contentment. Contentment. I am content with being saved
by Christ. Are you? Now that doesn't mean
that you don't desire to honoring more, that doesn't mean you don't
desire to be done with sin. You feel frustrated and you don't
feel content with yourself. You shouldn't feel content with
yourself. I'm not satisfied with myself and neither was David.
David said, I'll be satisfied when I awaken thy likeness and
not before then. As long as we're in these sinful
bodies, there be parts of us that are not content because
of the way we are. But this thing of contentment,
what is it? Turn to Hebrews chapter 13. Now, before I look at this passage
of scripture, I want to ask you a couple of questions. Are you content? To be saved
God's way. Are you satisfied to be saved
altogether by his grace? Are you content? To have the
righteousness of Christ as the only righteousness you have. Are you content with that? Are
you content with his providence, knowing that all things work
together for your good? The Bible says that. Are you
content with what he does, what he says? Now, Hebrews chapter
13. Verse 5, let your conversation, your conduct, your life be without covetousness. What is covetousness? It's desiring
what you don't have. It's desiring What God hadn't
given you. How do you line up there? You know, covetousness is something
that everybody who has a shred of honesty knows they're filled
with. Always desiring something else,
a little bit more, a little bit different situation. Yet, The
writer says, let your conversation be without covetousness. Now, how in the world can I be
without covetousness? The only way I can be without
covetousness is if there is nothing for me to covet and I have everything
and there's absolutely nothing for me. The only way, anything
that I don't have, I'm going to covet. I know that. And the
only way I can be without covetousness is for me to have everything. So look what he says next. He
says, let your conversation be without covetousness and be content
with such things as you have. And what do you have? What do
you have? Well, I have the forgiveness
of sins. You know, I can remember times in my life where I thought
if I just had the forgiveness of sins, I wouldn't care about
anything else. I wouldn't care if I was poor,
if I had to live in a cave, if I didn't have enough to eat.
I wouldn't care as long as I had the forgiveness of sins. If I
had that, everything's fine. What do you have? You have the
righteousness of Christ. You can't get any more righteous
than you are. What do you have? You have Christ. Christ is all. You could say, I am my beloved
and he is mine. What more could you want? What
do you have? Redemption. What do you have?
Justification, a perfect standing before God's holy law. What do
you have? The promise of Romans 8, 28,
that everything is working together for your good and his glory.
What do you have? Is there anything you lack? All that God requires, you have. You lack nothing. You are complete in Christ. Now,
what is there to covet? Nothing. What about where you're
at right now? What about your place in life
right now? What about that? God put you there. It's good,
isn't it? You're right where he would have
you be. That's a good place to be. Let your conversation be
without covetousness and be content, be satisfied with such things
as you have, for he has said. Now, here's here's why we can
be content. He has said he's made this promise. He's made this promise to me.
It's a promise that he won't go back on. He won't kick me
out. He's promised, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. I can think of all kinds of reasons
why I would and myself, but he's promised I'm never going to leave
you. Therefore, I can be content with
such things as I have. It's a satisfaction with Christ. Many times. I've talked to people
and I've talked about grace. I've talked about the gospel.
And the response is, well, there's got to be something more than
that. No. You don't get it. You haven't heard. Content with
beholding his face, my all to his pleasure resign. No changes
of season and place could make any change in my mind. When blessed
with the sense of His love, a palace of toy would appear, and prisons
would palaces prove, if Jesus would dwell with me there. Now,
these are fruits worthy of repentance. Renouncing human religion. Compassion, giving your coat
to him who has none. Honesty. Not being manipulative
and intimidating. Not that in justifies the means
mentality, but contentment, satisfaction with the Lord Jesus Christ, and
indeed we are thankful for him, aren't we? What thankfulness
we have in simply being found in him. Let's pray.