The hardest thing in the world
to do is rest. It's impossible, apart from the
grace of God, but what a blessed thing it is when the Lord enables
us to rest. Rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn back to Luke chapter three,
if you would please. I'd like to read these first
six verses. Now in the 15th year of the reign
of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being the governor of Judea,
and Herod being Tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip, Tetrarch
of Aeturea, and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias, the
Tetrarch of Abilene, Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests. This was what all was going on
politically at that time. The word of God came into John,
the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. And he came into
all the country round 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. 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." I've entitled this message, Repentance
for the Remission of Sins. repentance for the remission
of sins. Now, in those first two verses,
the seven men that are mentioned make up a who's who in the hall
of shame. These were men who were known
for extreme corruption and wickedness. And the fact that there were
two priests, where in the Bible do you find that there are two
high priests? There's only one high priest. This lets us know
that everything had become purely political. A man was set up in
this position for political reasons. The world had never known darker
times politically or spiritually. Kind of sounds like today, doesn't
it? In the midst of this darkness,
the Word of God came to John in the wilderness. John was the
one who prepared the way for the Lord Jesus Christ. He was
the last Old Testament prophet, and he was the first New Testament
preacher. When he was just over 30 years
of age, the Word of God came to him. Now, listen to the language.
The word of God came to him. He didn't put himself into this
office. The word of God came to him, not the word of man,
not the words of men, but the word of God, not man's opinion,
not man's thought, but the word of God. Aren't you thankful that
there is such a thing as the word of God? Not just a man's
opinion, not just the preacher's thoughts, but there is something
called the word of God. That's what I want to hear, don't
you? The word of God. Now, if God's word comes to a
man and here it is, the spoken word, there are two things that
will characterize that man. Boldness. And meekness. Now, if the word of God comes
to man, these two things will characterize that man boldness. This is where the authority comes
from. This is God's word. I'm not giving my opinion or
my thought or my slant on something if I'm preaching the word of
God. And this is where the authority of the boldness comes from. This
is God's word. But also. With meekness, you
can't have the word of God come to you and not walk in meekness
and humility. Now, wherever you have boldness
without meekness, you have arrogance. Wherever you have meekness without
boldness, you have weakness. That's part of the 21st century,
I guess. The word of God came to John
in the wilderness, not In the tent, I like this, the word of
God came to John in the wilderness, not in the temple or in the synagogue,
not in the hallowed halls of academia or in a seminary, but
in the wilderness. A lot of significance to that. Look in Luke 1, verse 80, speaking
of John the Baptist, and the child grew and waxed strong in
spirit. and was in the desert to the
day of his showing unto Israel. Now, this man, John the Baptist,
clothed in a leather girder, eating wild locusts and honey,
he spent 30 years being taught of God in the desert. I guess
he didn't live with his mom and dad. He was in the desert. And
at 30 years of age, the word of God came to him that he was
to proclaim in a public way. And what was that word that came
to him? Verse 3 of Luke chapter 3. And
he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism
of repentance for the remission of sins. Now, I'd first like to give some
definition of terms. Baptism. He came preaching or
declaring baptism. The word baptism means immersion,
submersion, and emergence. That's baptism. It represents the death, the
burial, and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Baptism
is the way a believer confesses the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's
my hope of salvation. When he lived, he lived for me.
When he died, I was in him. My sins were paid for. When he
was raised, I was raised. Baptism. Immersion, submersion,
and emergence. It pictures the death, burial,
and resurrection of Christ. You don't sprinkle dirt on a
dead person, do you? No. They go all the way under. They come back up. This is what
baptism represents. The next word is repentance. What does repentance mean? It
means literally a change of mind. A change of mind. When you repent, you change your
mind. You used to believe something
and you don't believe it anymore. You've changed your mind. You've
repented regarding that thing. And then we have the term, the
remission of sin. Remission means the dismissal,
the release, the forgiveness of sins. And that's something
I'm awfully interested in, me being released from my sins,
my sins being dismissed, my sins being forgiven. Now, in this
change of mind for the remission of sins, that word for look in
verse three, And it came into all the country about Jordan,
preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. That
word is quite often translated concerning. Concerning. So think of it this way, he preached
the baptism of repentance, a change of mind concerning the remission
of sins. Now, this was the word of God.
This is the gospel message. It's the baptism of a change
of mind concerning the remission, the forgiveness, the putting
away of sins. Now, you know, the Lord does
something for you. The one reason that sins are
remitted is because of what baptism signifies. The life, the death,
the burial and the resurrection of Christ. You know that. You
believe that. You rest in that. The one reason
sin is forgiven. The one reason sin is put away
is because of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, here is why sins
are forgiven. And I sure am interested in having
my sins forgiven, aren't you? I want the Lord Himself, oh,
I desire so greatly for all my sins to be forgiven, to be remitted,
to be removed, to be put away. Now, here is how sin is remitted. The Lord Jesus Christ lived a
perfect life. He's the only man to never sin. Yet, he died. He never sinned. He's the God
man. Yet he died. Now, why did he
die? Well, what is the only reason
for death? The scripture says the wages
of sin is death. When the Lord Jesus Christ died,
there's only one reason for his death. The only reason there's
ever for death, sin. The sins of God's elect became
his sins. God imputed the sins of his people
to the Lord Jesus Christ so that he actually became guilty of
those sins, those horrible sins that I've committed, that I'm
so ashamed of. They became his. He became guilty
of them. He bare our sins in His own body
on the tree. And with God, the punishment
always fits the crime. God poured His wrath out upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. God the Father smoked and killed
God the Son as an act of His justice. He was raised from the dead.
He died. He was raised from the dead. Why was he raised from the dead?
Because when he died, complete satisfaction was made for sin. That sin that became his sin
was actually paid for. That's why his body never saw
corruption. That's why he never went into
the process of decay the way you and I will when we die, because
he rendered complete satisfaction for sin. Sin was actually put
away, and he was raised from the dead, and everybody he died
for was justified. Turn to Romans chapter 4. Hold
your finger there in Luke chapter 3. Turn to Romans chapter 4. Verse 25, speaking of the Lord
Jesus Christ, He was delivered to God's justice, to the cross,
to the wrath of God for our offenses and was raised again for our
justification. When He was raised from the dead,
all of the elect were justified. Does John mean when he speaks
of a change of mind concerning the remission of sins? Now, I've never met anybody in
my experience who didn't believe they had sin. I commit sins. I never will forget one time
when I was in college, there was a group called the Maranatha
Fellowship House and Charismatics and I was 19 years old, I think,
at the time. I can remember this. And I remember
I was really intimidated by these guys because they seemed so holy.
And, you know, the way they talked and all, just all. I remember
this one guy came up to me. I'll never forget this. And the
guy looked like Charles Manson. I mean, he really did look like
Charles Manson. He had these real piercing eyes and a big
beard. And he said, God gave me a revelation about you. And
I said, what? He said, there's sin in your
life. I thought, he knows. How did
he know? Everybody I've ever known knows
something about, I'm not perfect. I sin, I commit sins. And most
people, matter of fact, I've not met anybody that believes
this way, God doesn't forgive sin. Most people believe that
God will forgive sin. If I repent of my sins, and if
I believe Then I will be given the forgiveness of sins. The message most people believe
and hear is God loves you. Christ died for you. So your
sins could be forgiven and he wants to forgive your sins. That's
why he gave his son. He wants to forgive your sins,
but he can't forgive you unless you accept it. Here's not about
how ridiculous that is. I mean, that's ridiculous, that's
foolishness, and I'm not saying that mean that's foolishness. You see, here's where most people
are with regard to this thing of the forgiveness of sins. Salvation
ends with the forgiveness of sins. If you repent, if you straighten
up, If you stop committing those sins you're repenting of, if
you believe, if you do this, if you do that, there's a formula
that you do. If you do this, what you'll have
at the end is the forgiveness of sins. Now, my dear friend,
if that's what you believe, you believe in salvation by works. You do not believe the gospel. There is no gospel in that message. Now, understand that if I believe
that the forgiveness of sins comes to me because I. I've missed the gospel. The gospel
of the scripture does not end with the forgiveness of sins,
the gospel of scripture begins with the full free, frank forgiveness
of sins. It's an announcement of the forgiveness
of sins, not you will be forgiven if when you're forgiven, you
find out you've been forgiven. That is the message of the gospel. When were you forgiven? When
God forgave me, whenever that was. That's when I was forgiven. You see, the forgiveness of sins,
the remission of sins is not God's response to you. It's not His response to your
sorrow. It's not His response to anything
you do. He forgives sins for Christ's
sake. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 32
says, Be ye kind, tender hearted. forgiving one another, even as
God for Christ's sake had forgiven you. When were you forgiven? Well, the scripture says in Revelation
chapter 13, verse 8, that Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Before time began, Christ was
the Lamb slain. Now, once again, What is the
reason for somebody to die? Sin. Even then, the sins of God's
elect were charged to Him as the Lamb slain before the foundation
of the world. This is spoken outside of the
realm of time. God's elect have always been
viewed in the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
There's never a time when they haven't been. When were you forgiven? When He said, Father, Forgive
them. That's why I was forgiven. You think the father said no,
do he? Did the father say, wait, no. As soon as he said, Father,
forgive them, everybody he prayed for was forgiven. That wasn't
some kind of generic prayer. I was forgiven when he said,
Father, forgive them. When were you forgiven? When
he said it is finished, my salvation was put away or my sin was put
away and my salvation was accomplished. Now. I found out I was forgiven
when I found out I was forgiven. I don't know how to say that.
But I found out I was forgiven. There was a time when I didn't
know I was forgiven. There was a time when all I felt was the
wrath of God pressing upon me. There was a time when I was scared
to death God was going to send me to hell and I deserved it
and I knew it. But when I found out I was forgiven
for Christ's sake, that is when I found out I was forgiven in
my experience. You don't do something to be
forgiven. You repent of that kind of thinking.
And let me show you this. Turn to Isaiah chapter 40. And
this is actually what Luke quotes. Every valley shall be filled
and every mountain shall be exalted. But turn to Isaiah chapter 40
and look at the language. Verse one. Comfort ye. Comfort ye my people,
sayeth your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Now, my marginal reading says,
speak to the heart of Jerusalem. Now, the gospel message is a
message directed to the heart. That means it's directed to the
intellect. I'm giving you, if I'm preaching
the truth, what God's Word actually says. But it's also directed
to the emotions. This is an emotional message.
This is a moving message. And it's also directed to the
will. I'm persuading you. What I'm doing right now is I'm
persuading you to believe what I'm saying. I want you to believe.
I want you to rejoice in this. He says, speak to the heart of
Jerusalem and cry unto her so she'll hear that her warfare
is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. Now, notice the
absence of the word if. It does not say her warfare will
be accomplished if, nor does it say that her iniquity will
be pardoned if, but her warfare is accomplished. Her iniquity
is pardoned. That's the announcement of the
gospel, isn't it? 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." This is what Luke
quotes. So let's go back to Luke chapter
3. And John came from the Wilders. The Word of God came to him in
the Wilders. He came unto all the country about Jordan, preaching,
declaring the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Has
your mind ever been changed regarding the remission of sins? Have you
ever seen? Have you ever believed? Have
you ever rejoiced in? Have you ever laid hold of the
fact That salvation does not end with the forgiveness of sins
because of what you do, if you plug in the right things, the
right formula. But it begins with the declaration of your
complete salvation in Christ. Has your mind been changed regarding
the remission of sins? And baptism tells us how sins
are remitted by the life, the death, the burial, the resurrection
of Christ. Now, he says in verse four, of
Luke, chapter three, as it's written in the words of Isaiah,
the prophet, aren't you thankful for the as it's written and it's
written because you know what I'm preaching. It's written. Actually, it's written, I'm not
giving my opinion about how things are remitted. I'm not giving
my opinion about this. This is what the word of God
declares. Tell her, speak comfortably to
her. Her iniquity is pardoned. This
is true with regard to everyone who believes. Now, somebody says,
does that mean my iniquity is pardoned even if I don't believe,
even if I don't repent? No, it doesn't mean that. It
doesn't mean that at all. If you don't believe, if you
don't repent, if you don't bow the knee to Christ, you'll go
to hell. Now, you can just mark that down. You will perish under
the wrath of God if you don't do that. There is such a thing
as the wrath of God. There is a place called hell.
And everybody who doesn't rejoice and have this repentance regarding
the remission of sins, Will not be in heaven. This is not saying
faith is unnecessary or repentance is unnecessary, but this is what
faith believes. When you repent, this is what
you repent of. This wrong idea regarding the
forgiveness, the remission of sins. And look what he says,
as it's 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 us pass straight. And that's what
John the Baptist did coming with this message. Now look in verse
five. Every valley, every low place shall be filled. Are you a valley? Are you a low
place? Are you at the bottom? Every valley, every low place
is going to be filled. Now, what that means is Every
sinner will be saved. That's exactly what that means.
Every sinner will be saved if you are a sinner. And what that means is all you
are in and of yourself is sin. That's it. No other description
would fit you with the exception of this. You're a sinner. That's
all you are in and of yourself. All you do, all you can be. You can't keep from being. You're
a sinner. Now, does that describe you? Somebody says, well, I'm not
that bad. Well, then I can't give you any
hope. Not at all. Not at all. You will not be.
If you continue that way, you will not be saved. I can assure
you of that. But every valley Every low place shall be filled. Shall be filled
to the full. If you're a low place, if you're
a low place, you know what? God's filled you up with Christ.
You have fullness of wisdom, you have fullness of righteousness,
you have fullness of sanctification, and you have fullness of redemption.
You see, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, didn't
he? That's who he came to save. He came to save sinners, of whom
I am, Paul said, the chief. Every valley, every valley is
going to be filled to the full in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead in a body and you are complete. You are filled
to the full. Same word in him. Look what it says next. Every mountain. And he'll. Every high place. Is going to
be brought low. is going to be abased, is going
to be leveled, is going to be humbled. Now, there's a big difference
between humbling yourself and being humbled. Big difference. I want to humble myself. But
that high place, that self-exalting place, It's going to be abased. I got your question. How much
room is there for self-righteousness and creature ability in God's
salvation? Absolutely none. Absolutely none. Every high thing will be abased. Shot down. Knocked down. I'd like you to turn to 2 Corinthians
chapter 10 for just a moment. Verse 4. Remember, every high
thing, every mountain is going to be, every hill is going to
be a base. Now look what it says in verse
4. Paul says, for the weapons of our warfare. are not carnal,
fleshly, derived from human ability, but mighty through God to the
pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, reasonings
and every high thing, the mountains and the hills that exalts itself
against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every
thought to the obedience of Christ. Now, when God brings somebody
down, every thought is brought in line to the obedience of Christ. His obedience is my obedience
before God. His obedience is my justification
before God. The obedience of his life, and
he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
And His obedience, every thought is brought into line with the
obedience of Christ. Here's my motive for service,
His obedience. Here's my motive for giving myself
lock, stock and barrel to Him to be His and His only, His obedience. Every thought is brought in line. to bow down to the obedience
of Christ. Now, for many years, I read that,
well, every thought brought into obedience to Christ. And I thought,
well, if that's the case, I'm in trouble because I got so many
thoughts that are so contrary to Christ. But that's really
not what it's saying. I want every thought to be brought
into obedience to Christ. I want to never sin again. I
want to be perfectly obedient. But every thought is to be brought
in line to the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every high
thing. brought down, pulled down. Back to Luke chapter three. It says in verse five. And the
crooked. Shall be made straight. The crooked means. The morally
perverse. The morally perverse. Now, when
I speak of. Our works having absolutely nothing
to do with the forgiveness of sins. It's completely the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ and our works don't enter into this
equation. That's true. That's true. But does that mean my life is
not changed? No, it doesn't mean that at all. The crooked shall be made straight. And what that's a reference to
is the new birth. That's talking about God in power
by His Spirit coming into the heart of a man, coming into a
simple man and putting a new nature there that was not there
before. A holy nature. A holy nature
that does not sin. Now, the old nature is still
there, and it would be foolish for someone to try to deny that.
You know it. If you have two natures, you sure enough know
you still have an old nature. And it's just as bad and just
as sinful as it ever was. And someone that denies that,
they're just not being honest. That's all you can say about
it. They're just not being honest. You know you have a sinful, evil
nature that's as bad as the devil. You know that right now. But
you also have a holy nature that loves God, that loves obedience. And greater is he that's in you
than he that's in the world. If a man says, I believe in the
forgiveness of sins through Christ, and he always, just like he was,
stays crooked, it's just talk. The crooked shall be made straight
by the grace of God. This is the new nature. Yes,
Christ's righteousness. is imputed to me, so it becomes
mine. But the scripture also says,
well, partakers of the divine nature, a new nature, a holy
nature, the crooked are made straight. And look what it says
next in verse five in John's preaching. And the rough ways. The rocky paths that you walk
along shall be made smooth. The rocks are removed. Now what
do you mean by that? I'm going to remove all the rocks
right now in my thinking and your thinking. I hope God the
Holy Spirit removes all the rocks in my thinking and your thinking.
The Philippian jailer said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? What a question. And I'm asking
that right now. What must I do to be saved? And Paul answered, Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. All the rocks
were removed. You believe on Christ, you rely
on him. As your salvation before God,
you rest in him, believe on him. You're saved. Our Lord said in
John chapter 6 verse 29, and this is the work of him that
sent me. What must we do to work the works
of God? This is the work of God. That
you believe on him whom he hath sent. You believe on Christ. You rely on him as your salvation,
beloved. You're saved. That's what saved
people do. They rely upon the Lord Jesus
Christ only. That's the removal of the rocks.
What must I do to be saved? Believe. Rely upon the Lord Jesus
Christ right now. And that's what God commands
you to do. You say, I can't do that. Well,
you can if he commands you to, can't you? I know you can't by
nature, but if he commands you to believe, that's what you'll
do. You believe. Rocks removed, believe on Christ and thou shalt
be saved. And then he says in verse six.
And all flesh shall see. The salvation of God, the salvation
of God, what salvation of God, Christ. Remember what Simeon
said, mine eyes have seen thy salvation. All of God's salvation
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. Oh, what a Savior. He is salvation. And John says
all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Now what do you mean
by all flesh? Well, same thing the Lord meant when He said in
John chapter 17, verse 2, Thou hast given Him power over all
flesh. Does that mean everybody? Yes, that means everybody. Does
that mean everybody to ever live? Yes, that means everybody to
ever live. He has power over all flesh. Everybody's in His
hand. Thou hast given Him power over
all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou
hast given Him. Now all flesh is going to see
the salvation of God. Safe flesh is going to see it. Lost flesh is going to see it.
All flesh is going to see the salvation of God. The voice said,
cry. And I said, what shall I cry?
All flesh is grass. And all the goodliness of man
is the flower of the grass. The grass withers. The flower
falls away. But the word of the Lord endures
forever. That's all flesh. All flesh is going to see. And
that's talking about God's elect. Yes, every believer is going
to. We're just like Simeon. Let me depart in peace. My eyes
have seen your salvation. I'm ready. Good to go. In Christ,
I have all I need. Matter of fact, I have everything
in Christ. The unbeliever. Now, I want to
say this tenderly. I want to see you say this with
a broken heart. But understand this. If you reject
God's way of salvation right now. If you say with regard to
what I said, I just don't believe that I won't have it. And if you die that way. You
will spend eternity under the wrath of God. And you're going
to see real clearly that Christ is salvation. You can understand
that. You're going to know that even
in the all flesh is going to see it. I hope I'm not describing anybody
in here. I really hope I'm not. I hope
everybody in here is somebody who repents. Concerning this
thing of the remission of sins, and you really believe that Christ
is everything in the remission of sins. And you hang all your
hope upon Him. Now, if that would be you, you're going to spend eternity
seeing God's salvation and how He's your salvation. Not just
that He is salvation, but that He's your salvation. I can say this to every believer.
You see, don't you? You see that Christ is salvation.
He's the whole of it. He's the whole of it. You see
that? Every believer does. And this is the message of the
gospel. John the Baptist, this baptism
of repentance for the remission, concerning the remission of sins.
May God grant us this baptism of repentance for the remission
of sins. And if you believe this, you know what you ought to be?
You know what God commands you to do? He commands you to be
baptized, to confess Christ in believer's baptism. This is the
believer's public confession that all my salvation is in Him
and I've repented and I renounce anything contrary to Him being
everything in salvation and salvation beginning with the forgiveness
of sins by what He did without reference to what I've ever done.
May God grant us that true repentance. Let's pray together.