I deeply appreciate those words
that Richard had to say about the singing here. You know, I know that we get
some kind of idea about we don't want to praise men or
Many times I'll be standing at the door and somebody can come
by and say, well, I was going to tell you I enjoyed the message,
but I know you don't want to hear that. I do want to hear
it. That's right. You labor and work and pray and
prepare a message and preach it. And somebody says, you fed
me well. I appreciate that. And these
folks playing the instruments, I'm so grateful for them. Every helper in this congregation,
we had in our Sunday school lesson this morning, Phi Lehman was
called by Paul his fellow helper. Brethren, there is no such thing
as a one-man ministry. It's the ministry of our Lord,
and we're all in it together. And I thank God for each of you.
And I love to hear that. I love to hear somebody say,
I was blessed. I was helped. I was encouraged.
I was strengthened. Thank God for you. Thank God
for you. Thank God for you. I mean that. Well, turn, if you will, to Luke
1, 17. Luke 1, 17. And I want to thank God for these
men who take care of things when the pastor's traveling, when
I'm away in meetings. Everything goes so well. And the messages are so good. Those who fill the pulpit, those
who preside, those who bring the special music, I'm so grateful. And you who are faithful and
you who give, I thank God for you. I think that says it all.
Now, John the Baptist, I want you to listen to me tonight.
I'm going to try to be as plain as I can. Really, the title of
this message could be either of two, John the Baptist comes
to town, a man sent from God with a different message, a different
message from the message they had been hearing, or else I could
entitle the message, A People Prepared for God, A People Prepared
for the Lord. You know, John the Baptist was
a man with a mission. In Malachi 3.1, don't turn to
these, you read them this morning, he's called the Lord's messenger.
The Lord's messenger who shall come as the forerunner of Christ,
declaring that the Lord Jehovah is coming to his temple. And
then John called him a man sent from God to bear witness of the
light. Mark calls him the voice of one
crying in the wilderness, prepare you the way of the Lord. But
I want you to look at Luke 1.17 and see what Luke has to say
about him. Luke says, and he shall go before
him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of
the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom
of the just. to make ready a people prepared
for the Lord." To make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Now that phrase arrested my attention. A people, to make ready a people
prepared for the Lord. Here is a man sent from God in
the power of the Holy Spirit, in the power of the prophets
of old. a messenger sent from God, and
his mission is to prepare a people for the Lord. Now, that may seem
like a strange expression to you, preparing a people for the
Lord. And we may be tempted to cast
it aside, for all of us are sure that no preparation is needed
for a sinner to come to Christ. No preparation is needed for
a sinner to come to Christ. We know that. Do we know that?
Charlotte Elliott wrote that great hymn, Just As I Am, without
one plea. But that thy blood was shed for
me, and that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come,
just as I am, waiting not, to rid my soul of one dark blot,
to thee whose blood can cleanse each spot, O Lamb of God, I come
to thee, just as I am. poor, wretched, blind, sight,
riches, healing of the mind, all of these in thee I find,
Lamb of God, I come. Did not the great hymn writer
write these words? Let not conscience make you linger,
nor of fitness fondly dream. All the fitness God requireth
is to feel your need of him, and yet here it is in the Scripture. to make ready a people prepared,
prepared for the Lord. Here it is in the Scripture,
and believe it or not, it's not just here one time, it's in the
Scripture several times. He came to prepare a people for
the Lord. Now then, may I suggest that
the most difficult preparation of all is to convince men that
to come to Christ for salvation is to come without preparation. Is that not right? We say we know these things,
but did you know the most difficult thing in the world, the most
difficult thing in the world that a preacher of the gospel
has to do is to convince a man that to come to Christ he must
come without works, without merit, without righteousness, without
strength, without anything. And that preparation is the preparation
that's talking about right here. This is the work of God's preacher
in the spirit and power of Elijah, to prepare people to receive
grace, to prepare people to receive mercy. Salvation is not difficult
to sell. It's awful hard to give away.
Did you know that? Salvation is not hard to sell.
Different denominations sell it at different prices. But it's
hard to give away. Eternal life is easy to exchange
for works, for obedience, for morality, for service. But eternal life is impossible
to bestow as a gift except on that person who has laid down
everything and needs it. That's right. The vessel must
be emptied, totally emptied. That's preparation, isn't it,
before grace fills it? The fig leaf apron must come
off. It must come off. before the
righteousness of God will clothe the naked sinner, is that not
preparation? Hands full of fleshly gifts must
lay them down in order for God to fill us with his mercies. Old religious idols and traditions
and customs must be broken in pieces before we turn to the
living God. Is it not said, Our ways are
not his ways, so let the sinner forsake his ways? Is that not
preparation? Does it not say in the scripture,
Our thoughts are not his thoughts, so how can we come to him with
our thoughts? We can only come if we forsake
our thoughts. Our wisdom is not his wisdom.
Our wisdom is foolishness. Is it not preparation for us
to come to realize that our wisdom is foolishness? Naaman will be
glad to exchange lavish gifts for God's healing, but Naaman's
got to come stripped. The rich young ruler will be
glad to do some great thing. Tell me some great thing. What
shall I do? What shall I do? Tell me something
to do and I'll do it. The Pharisee will fast. and pray
and give alms, but only the sinner will receive Christ. So brethren,
what I'm saying is this, when this scripture says that John
the Baptist came, and he came to a world much like ours, he
came to a world of superstition and religion, he came to a world
of holy days and customs, he came to a world of tradition
He didn't come to a world where everybody was denying the existence
of God. He came to a world of religious
people. And he came in the midst of all
this superstition, idolatry, and religious darkness to prepare
a people for the Lord. And that preparation of a people
for the Lord is to convince them that they come to him without
preparation, without works, without merit, without righteousness.
Now, if you'll turn to Matthew 3, I read that scripture a moment
ago for a purpose. Here you have in Matthew 3 this
message of John the Baptist, the message which prepared a
people for the Lord. And I'm going to apply it to
this congregation tonight, to the ones whom God hath been pleased
to bring together in this place in order to prepare a people
for the Lord. First of all, in Matthew 3, verses
5 and 6, listen to it, "...then went out to him Jerusalem, Judea,
and all the region round about Jordan, and they were baptized
of John in Jordan, confessing their sins." Brethren, number
one, we prepare a people for the Lord of grace and mercy when
those people are made under the preaching of the gospel, by the
power of the Spirit, to realize and confess their sins. Now,
I'll tell you this, a sinner is hard to find. I'm talking
about a sinner. A sinner is hard to find. One
old hymn writer put it this way, a sinner is a sacred thing. A sinner is a sacred thing. A
sinner is an object of mercy. A sinner is an object of God's
grace. Christ came to save sinners.
God loved sinners. God committed his love toward
us while we were yet sinners. Christ died for sinners. A sinner
is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost hath made himself.
But do you know a sinner is hard to find? Oh, I know a lot of
people who are not perfect. They'll tell you that. I don't
claim to be no saint. I don't claim to be perfect.
But they're not sinners. They don't claim to be sinners
either. I know a lot of people who used to be sinners. I hear
them sitting around the stove talking about all the hell they
used to raise. Don't you? Oh, they talk about
what they used to do when they were young. What a rounder, that's
one of their favorite terms. I was a rounder, whatever a rounder
is, I don't know. But they used to be sinners,
but they're not now. I don't hear many people talking
about how worthless and wretched and sinful and guilty and unworthy
they are. I hear them talking about how
worthless they were. Is that not right? I know a lot
of folks who used to be centered. I know a lot of folks who are
backslidden. They'll never say I'm a sinner, they'll say I'm
backslidden. Somehow it's a little easier. It's not quite as bad. I got a letter this week, bless
her heart, from some dear television listener. These things I don't
understand. I know her heart. I know how
brokenhearted she is. I know how she feels. She wrote
and she said, well, said, my son's in the penitentiary, my
son's in the penitentiary, and I want you to pray for us. She
said, of course, he's saved. He was saved when he was a teenager,
and you know preacher once saved, always saved. Yeah, I know that.
That's tragic. He's not a sinner. He's backslidden. That's what they say. See, even
in the penitentiary you can't find a sinner. You can't find
a center. Centers are hard to find. I know
a lot of folks who are backslidden. I know a lot of folks who need
to get right with God. That's what they'll say to you.
Oh, I need to get right with God. But they're not centers. In 35 years of preaching, I've
been preaching 35 years the gospel of God's grace, I haven't met
many bona fide, genuine, self-confessed, defiled, unadulterated, genuine
lost sinners. You know that? Not many, honestly,
not many, not many. I'll tell you this, when I do
meet one, I've got some glorious good news for him. God loves you, and Christ died
for you. And I'm not going to say that
to another son of Adam in this world unless he's a sinner. My
Lord said he came to seek and to save the lost. The Republican
in the temple was a sinner. He was a sinner, a genuine, he
said he was THE sinner. He used a definite article, he
said, God be, he wouldn't even come down front. He stood back
in the back a far off. He wouldn't even lift his eyes
to heaven, much less his hands like these religious folks do
today, waving their hands, you know. He wouldn't even lift his
eyes. He smote upon his breast. Here's
where the trouble was in hearing. He knew where the trouble was.
He beat upon his breast. He wouldn't even lift his eyes.
He was so embarrassed and ashamed before God. And he cried, Oh
God, Oh God, Oh God. If we get somebody down front,
we have to tell them what to say. Now repeat the sinner's
prayer. You don't know the sinner's prayer?
No, that's because you're not a sinner. Mothers know the mother's prayer.
Fathers know the father's prayer. Kathy, you know the mother's
prayer? Sure you do. You pray for your children. That's the
mother's prayer. I want to tell you what to say.
You're a mama. You love those two children. You love them.
You're a mother. You know the mother's prayer.
David, you know the Father's prayer. You pray for your wife,
pray God will give you strength, earn a living, support your family,
worship God. And if you're a sinner, you know
the sinner's prayer, too. And the very fact that you don't
know it indicates you are not a sinner. The publican had never
been to a prayer meeting, but somehow, Charlie, he knew what
to pray. He said, Oh God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And
you know something? God heard him. And that man not
only received mercy, he received grace and life and justification
and salvation. The thief on the cross wasn't
a preacher. Nobody had to teach him what
to say. He said, I'm getting what I deserve. I never have
heard that either in 35 years of preaching. I'm getting what
I deserve. This man hadn't done anything
wrong. He looked over at Christ and he said, you're not going
to stay dead because you're a king. You're a king. You're coming
into a kingdom. You're the Lord. I know who you are. The Holy
Ghost taught him who that was, taught him who he was. And he
just said, I'm asking you to remember me when you come into
that kingdom. He got mercy. You see, grace
is for the guilty, no one else. Mercy is for the miserable. no
one else. Pardon is for the penitent, no
one else. And we prepare a people for the
Lord when we are able, under the power of the Spirit, to convince
them of their sins. These people came to John confessing
their sins, confessing their sins. They didn't come denying
them. They didn't come alibiing. They
came confessing. Listen to David in Psalm 51.
I love this psalm. I tell you, I just make it my
own. I love this psalm. He says in
Psalm 51, have mercy upon me, O God. O God, according to your
lovingkindness, according to the multitude of your tendermercy,
blot out my transgression. Wash me thoroughly, not just
thoroughly, throughly, through and through. thoroughly, for
mine iniquity cleansed me." Don't be afraid of those words. Those
words are what we are. Iniquities, transgressions, sins. That's what we are. Don't be
afraid. Don't call them mistakes. To err is human. We like those
little tender words. They're a little better than
iniquities. They sound a little softer than sins. washed me thoroughly with my
iniquity, I acknowledge my transgression, my sin is ever before me. And
I tell you, it's against thee that I've sinned, against thee
only. And I've done this evil." We
don't use that word except with the devil, evil. In a crossword puzzle, when it
talks about something evil, the answer is devil. It's a three-letter
word, M-A-N, that's what it is. Evil, evil, and it's evil in
God's sight. And God's just when he speaks
and clear when he judges. All right, so much for that.
That's preparing the people for the Lord. When a man is convinced,
completely convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he's a sinner,
stripped of all the veneer, and his heart broken, crushed,
the load of his guilt, not alibiing or excusing himself, and using
scriptural words, iniquity, sin, transgressions, evil, in God's
sight. Now, just don't come. Just don't bother to come to
Christ unless you can come that way. I'm telling you. God doesn't
save mammas, he saves sinners. God doesn't save, he doesn't
save good people, he saves sinners. That's right. Here's the second
one now, verse 7 and 8. But when he saw many of the Pharisees
and the Sadducees come to his baptism, he said to them, he
said to them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to
flee from the wrath to come. Secondly, we prepare a people
for the Lord Jesus Christ when they are made to see through
our preaching that their religious works and offices are but rubbish
before God. Now brethren, I know that's hard,
but these men to whom John was speaking here, they were prominent
men. They were law-abiding men. They
were religious leaders. They were men who had on the
gowns and robes of religion. They had their miters and they
had all of their different colors that indicated their degrees. And John looked out there and
saw them. They had their broad phylacteries, broad phylacteries
which showed that they were adherents, keepers of the law. They had
all of these distinguishing characteristics. They had their degrees and credentials
and their uniforms. and their position. And you know
John just stood up there, this maverick, stood up there and
pointed at these prominent religious men who had spent their lives
in religion, who had spent their lives in colleges of theology,
who had spent their lives in the church and in the tabernacle
and temple, who had spent their lives writing and transcribing
and teaching and preaching. And he called them a generation
of snakes. a generation of slaves. I'm telling
you this, and I'm saying it as kindly but as forcefully as I
can, being a preacher or a deacon or a Sunday school teacher or
praying prayers or giving tithes or studying doctrine will not
put away sin. And I'm telling you, we've got
so many religious refuges that need to be destroyed. You hear
people say, well, I was raised in a Christian home. Well, that's
sure better than being raised in the home of a drunk. But it
won't save your soul. It won't do it. And God Almighty
is not going to take notice of how you were raised. Well, I
was sprinkled as an infant. We bring a little baby down here
and we go through all these ceremonies with a godfather and a godmother
and dressed in linen and lace and mama gets all dressed up
and wears a corsage and daddy comes and all the grandparents,
everybody's assembled around and they bring that little baby
down here in front of the church and the photographers are there
and the preachers are there and he's got on a robe and he says
some pretty words and he takes water and sprinkles it. I don't
want to be uncouth. and to want to be vulgar or rude.
But ever better, that's an abomination in the eyes of God Almighty. You've got nothing in the world
but a bunch of worms trying to sanctify another worm that's
a little worm. That's right now, that's hard,
but that's right. And God, it's not, it counts
for nothing, it counts for zero. In fact, it'll not only count
for zero, it'll put you back behind zero, because you've got
to get rid of all that to come up to zero. And I'm telling you
the truth. Well, I made a profession of
faith. I was baptized. I joined the church. Rubbish.
Rubbish. And I'll tell you something,
Eric, you men in these lodges, running around with your funny-looking
outfits on. It's not just these religious Catholics and Episcopalians
and all running around in fun-looking outfits. You men that wear these
silly hats and silly aprons and go through silly ordinances and
call it of God, you're pagans, what you are. You're heathen. You've got nothing on the hottentots
of Africa. You'd better dance naked around
a fire. That's exactly right. And God will take no notice of
it whatsoever. I'm telling you the truth. We've
got to come to this place where in the flesh, by birth we don't
receive anything but sin from our parents, and by our preparations
in religion and our laces and our uniforms and our sprinkling
of water and saying of fancy words and making of silly crosses
and doing all this sort of thing, is an abomination in the eyes
of a holy God and his judgments on it. And that's the reason
John the Baptist looked at all those uniformed clergymen and
theologians and Pharisees and self-righteous hypocrites, and
he said, you're a bunch of snakes, that's what you are. You're a
bunch of snakes. You're a bunch of whited sepulchers.
You're a bunch of whited sepulchers. Paul saw that. Turn to Philippians
3. Let me show you something. Philippians
chapter 3. Listen to this. I'll tell you,
we're preparing a people for the Lord. And the preparation that must
be made is to get rid of all preparation, all fleshly, carnal,
natural, religious preparation. No works, no merit, no nothing. Empty in my hands, no price I
bring. Naked, stripped of my fig leaf
righteousness. Dead without the ability to wiggle
a finger. having no hope without God, without
help, without Christ in this world, I come to thee. Lift me out of the dunghill,
set me among the princes." Paul said in Philippians 3, verse
4, you've got something to brag about? Something in the flesh? Though I might have confidence
in the flesh, if any man thinks he has worth, he might trust
in the flesh, I circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel,
of the tribe of Benjamin, the beloved. I was a Hebrew of Hebrews
as touching the law. I was a Pharisee. Do you know
what those people believed back then? If two men went to heaven,
just two, out of all the millions in the world, one ought to be
a Pharisee and one a Sadducee. Do you know that? That's what
they believed. That's what they believed. He said, you talk about zeal,
you talk about persecuting the church, you talk about the righteousness
within the law, I was blameless, but those things that were game
to me, what's game to you? In your relationship with God,
what's game? Well, preacher, I'll tell you
this morning, the wife and I sat down, and we decided between
us that we were going to give a large sum of money to your
church, and I brought it and gave it. Think God will take
notice? Don't think so. You can't buy God. God's not
for sale. Well, I've been going to church. I've been faithful
in my church all my life. I never miss a service. I'm there
every Sunday. Think God will take notice? Don't
think so. I don't think so. And you name
all these things. But I'm in the civic club, the
heart drive, the cancer fund, the cripple's children, the multiple
sclerosis, all these things. Don't you think God will take
notice? I don't think so. I don't think so. I think one
thing God will take notice of, and that's a sinner hid in the
refuge of Christ Jesus. That's a sinner resting in the
blood of Christ Jesus. That's an empty-handed sinner
coming to Him for mercy through Christ Jesus. That's a sinner
looking for Christ to show mercy. God will take notice. I really
believe that. I count these things but loss.
He went on and called them rubbish, rubbish. That's preparing the
people for the Lord. And I know that's the reason
I said John the Baptist came to town. He lost his head, too.
He cut his head off. Because it's hard to preach an
offensive gospel without offending. And John was preparing the people
for the Lord. And to prepare people for the
Lord, they've got to see their sins, and secondly, they've got
to see that anything they've done are doing or will do, anything
they've given or are giving or will give, any organization,
denomination, tradition, custom, ordinance, or anything that we
have done, fulfilled, given our agreement with, is of no use
for justification. It's in Christ. It's not what
you do, it's what he did. Thirdly, I've got to move quickly.
Look at verse 9, Matthew 3. Matthew 3, verse 9, preparing
a people for the Lord. And he said to them, Think not
now to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father.
For I say unto you, God is able of these stones to raise up children
to Abraham. Now we prepare a people for the
Lord thirdly when we are able by the Spirit of God and through
the Word of God to absolutely destroy to absolutely destroy
all confidence, all confidence in their flesh or anybody else's
flesh. As soon as John the Baptist started
talking about these things, they began to cry, ìWe have Abraham
to our father, we have Abraham to our father, we have heritage.î
John the Baptist said, ìAbraham canít help You can't live on
the faith and experience of another. I read one time, you know a lot
of folks boast of their ancestors, they boast of their old former
pastors, they boast of their old time church meetings they
used to have, you know, they boast of their mother and father
who are long dead. They boast of all these different
things about their ancestors. Baptists boast about John Bunyan
and John Gill, and the Methodists boast of Charles Wesley and John
Wesley, and the Lutherans boast of Martin Luther, and the Presbyterians
boast of John Calvin, and the Salvation Army boasts of Mr.
Booth, and all these different ones. Somebody said this. Folks
who boast of their ancestors and those who are dead are like
potato vines, the best parts in the ground. What have I got to do? I've got
to stand out in the searchlight of God's holiness alone. No confidence
in anybody, no confidence in the preacher who led me to Christ.
as we say, no confidence in mother who taught and prayed for me,
no confidence in dad who took me to church and encouraged me
and sat beside me and prayed for me, no confidence in the
flesh. Now this is hard, I realize this,
but do you know how important Abraham was to these people?
They said, we have Abraham to our father, Abraham is our father,
and John the Baptist said, don't boast of Abraham. God's able
of these stones to raise up children able. We've got to stand out
and bow down and lay hold of God's mercy in Christ all alone. I'm telling you, Stand in his
strength alone. The arm of flesh, that your flesh,
my flesh, or dead flesh, or anybody's flesh, will fail you. You dare
not trust your own. And we're not coming to Christ
together. We're not coming to Christ as a group. We're not
coming to Christ as a church. We're not coming to Christ as
a nation. My dear friend, you're coming to Christ alone. That,
I'm telling you the truth. coming along. I know how much
you love that dear wife. You've been together a long time.
But God doesn't save couples, he saves individuals. A man is
going to repent alone, a woman is going to. I know how much
you love that husband. Now, you ladies, listen to me.
Listen to me. And this is one of the dangers
of being a female. I know that women are not supposed
to teach men in a church. There's a woman down in the Caribbean
islands. I'll cover that up. She might.
But anyway, there's a lady down there that's quite famous, travels
all over the world. And her husband goes to Danny
Shank's church. And she's a woman preacher. She
came to hear me when I preached down there. But she asked Danny,
she said, what do you think of women preachers? And Danny said,
well, I agree with what the Bible says about them. She said, I
thought that's what you'd say. Women are not supposed to teach,
nor use of authority, nor preach. God says that in the Word. They've
been subjected to their husbands. And a lot of times, if a woman's
not careful, she'll be so identified with that husband He does the
leading in the family and the praying in the family and does
the discussing of the doctrines and all these things. She's not
careful. I'm warning you here. She'll
become so identified with him and associated with him and interested
in what he's saying, she may neglect her soul. That's right. She may neglect her soul. She
may take for granted that because he's in Christ, she's in Christ.
Because he knows these things, she knows these things. Because
he is a part of this, she's a part of this. It's not so. Remember
Lot's wife? You spoke on that one time. She was married to
an outstanding believer. She even went part of the way
with him, but she perished. So ladies, let me tell you, don't
neglect the Word. Don't leave it in the hands of
your husband where your soul is concerned, because You dear
ladies need salvation as much as these men do. And you need
to get hold of this thing yourself now, alone. I'm talking about,
and you respect your husband, speak respectfully to him and
of him. And strengthen and have confidence
in his security and leadership. But don't have any confidence
in a proxy salvation. He can't help you. He may be
lost. Don't be lost because he is.
Isn't that right? He may not know God. The heart's
deceitful and desperately wicked. So don't put your eggs in any
human basket. Rest in Christ. That's what I'm
saying. And that's what John the Baptist
is saying to these people. He's saying, don't trust Abraham,
don't talk about Abraham, or look back to Abraham, or find
any confidence or security in Abraham. It's not there. You
need Christ. Now, this is important, isn't
it, Cecil? It's very important. You boys and girls now, I've
got sons and daughters raised in this church. They've been
sitting here for 30 some odd years. But, Paul, you've got
to know Christ. Your daddy may be a preacher.
Now, Becky, you've got to know Christ. And he just won't do. He'll say, well, my daddy's a
preacher. Or my daddy's a deacon. Well, daddy may not know Christ.
And he may know Christ, but either way, There's nothing for you
there except that you know Christ. Please remember that. And this
is preparing the people for the Lord. It's showing them their
sinnerhood. It's showing them the rubbish
of religion, carnal, natural religion. And it's showing them
that there's no confidence to be placed in any way in this
flesh, mine or yours or anybody else's. Stand out there before
God alone. Say, Lord, I need help. I love
my husband, bring him along, but I'm the one that needs help.
It ain't the preacher nor the deacon, it's me, oh Lord, standing
in a need of prayer. I like that old spiritual. All
right, fourthly, Matthew 3.10. Now here's something preparing
a people for the Lord. He said, And now the axe is laid
to the root of the tree. Therefore every tree that bringeth
not forth good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire. Fourthly,
we prepare a people for the Lord when by the power of the Spirit,
the acts of the Word of God has been successfully laid to the
heart. That's where the root is, in
the heart. In the heart. My friends, when the fruit of
the tree is bad, what are you going to do? If you've got a
bad orange tree, bad fruit, what are you going to do? You're not
going to dress it. You're not going to spray it.
You're not going to dung it, you're not going to prune it,
if one thing to do, lay the axe to the roof, cut her down, cut
her down, and plant a new tree. And I'm telling you this, too
much religion today is surface work. We got bad fruit, and what
are we doing? We're pampering it, and we're
pruning it, and we're dressing it, and we're dunging it. The
old nature's rotten, the heart of it's rotten, and God's going
to have to plant a brand new tree. and lay the axe to the
very root. I mean harshly and roughly and
severely cut her down, cut her down, cut her down, absolutely
cut her down. Turn to Matthew 15, let me show
you something, the way he addressed these Pharisees on this issue,
Matthew 15. This is a hard work. Surface religion is He's trying
to get people to quit bad habits and do this, that, and the other,
and join the church, and decide for Jesus, and all this outward
show. They'll praise the Lord a little while, hallelujah a
little while, walk a while, dance a little while, sing a little
while, and then quit. And the church keeps turning
over, you know. Some come and some go, but everybody's in the
process of coming or going. Like the little boy, he asked
his mother one day, he said, where'd people come from? She
said, from dust. came from dust. He said, where
do people go when they die? She said, back to the dust. He
said, if you go look under my bed, somebody's coming or going.
So they're always coming or going, you know, very few stay. Because
that serpent, let me tell you this, when God lays the axe to
the root and destroys the old tree and the old foundation and
the old way and the old ambitions and the old objectives and the
old friends and the old family, and the oldest sat in the earth,
and God plants a new tree by the water of life, it stays there. And that's where the work has
to be done. Acts of the Word laid to the roof. You can't make
a believer mad preaching like I'm preaching tonight. They're
not going to quit. You can't run them away. You
can't run them away. You cannot do it. You can't preach
too strongly for a man who's seen himself and seen God. He'll
say amen to his own death warrant. He will. He'll say amen to anything
you read in this book. But our Lord said in Matthew
15, listen, verse 10, He called a multitude and He said, Hear
and understand. It's not that which goeth into
the mouth that defileth a man, meat and drink and food and so
forth. It's that which comes out of
the mouth. That's where the sap comes from, the heart, the root.
That's what makes the fruit bad, the root. This is what defiles
a man. His disciples came to him and
said, Don't you know that the Pharisees were offended and they
heard you say that? Well, he said, Every plant which
my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. So if we
don't root them up, God's going to root them up at the judgment.
If we don't lay the axe here, if we spare men's feelings, If
we preach to please men and to get along with men and to keep
them coming and keep them giving and keep them supporting and
keep them this, that, and the other, and they go on bearing
that old rotten fruit because the root's rotten, if we don't,
by the power of God's Spirit and the Word of God, for the
glory of Christ, lay the axe to the root and perform an operation
and destroy that old tree, God's not going to plant a new one.
He'll root it up at the judgment. All right, fifthly, turning back
to Matthew 3, it's root work, heart work, heart work. Now, Matthew 3, verse 11, I indeed
baptize you with water. There are means of grace. Fifthly, we prepare people for
the Lord when we shut them up to the regenerating work of the
Holy Spirit and the cleansing power of the blood of Christ.
That's when you shut them up to Christ. I can't do anything
for you. Now, let me say briefly, they're
means of grace. The means God uses is the Holy
Spirit, the agent, the Word of God, the seed, the preacher,
the gospel, the sower. Baptism is an ordinance, identification,
confession. The Lord's table is a memorial.
All these things are means of grace. And John said, I baptize
you with water. But the one you want to look
to and believe in and trust is the one who baptizes you with
fire. And that's what I'm saying to you. We prepare a people for
the Lord when we can just, by the Spirit of God, the Word of
God, just take their heads. And the human, we want to look
to meet Him, we want to look to something, someone, something,
give me something. And their heads will make them
look to Christ.