The next time that you see a cartoon with a bearded, long-haired, scruffy prophet with a sandwich sign on it saying, repent, the end is near, you are seeing a modern memory of the ancient man whose ministry we are presently studying. If you turn in your Bible to Luke 3, This morning we once again resume our consideration of the ministry of John the Baptist. John indeed must have been a very impressive character. Not only because of his unusual dress, but because of his unique message. A message that he no doubt preached with unnerving zeal and intensity. Jesus says of him, I say to you, among those born of women, there is no one greater than John. Yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he." Luke 7, 28. We might well surmise from these words that had not Jesus, the Son of God, followed immediately upon the heels of the ministry of John the Baptist, that John would have emerged as the greatest prophet of the Old Covenant. When Jesus arrives, John immediately says, I must decrease and He must increase. Yes, the profile of Jesus far surpasses that of John and that is as it should be. But we can see even by our cartoon memory that this man made an indelible impression upon not only those of his own generation, but succeeding generations as well. Indeed, John the Baptist stands on the hinge of the ages, the point at which the Old Covenant is fulfilled and surpassed by the New Covenant. John arrives on the scene profiled as an Old Covenant prophet, but he serves a New Covenant purpose as the herald of the now arriving Messiah. John's message is itself the rite of baptism in verse 3 of Luke 3. And he came into all the district around the Jordan preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Matthew tells us that Jerusalem was going out to him and all Judea and all the district surrounding the Jordan. and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins. As the people heard and responded to John's message, they submitted to baptism as a testimony of distancing themselves from their sins in order that they might prepare themselves for the arrival of the Messiah. But John was not a Baptist in the modern sense of the word, at least not in the modern sense as a Baptist who runs as many through the baptismal tank as possible, regardless of what their spiritual condition is. Before you were baptized by John, he demanded that you make evidence of fruit in your life. Luke summarizes John's preaching ministry in verse 7-9. He therefore began saying to the multitudes who were going out to be baptized by him, you brood of vipers, Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore, bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, We have Abraham for our father. For I say to you that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. And also, the axe is already laid at the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. John didn't baptize you because of your daddy, whether you claim to be the son of Abraham. He didn't baptize you because of your ethnic or national identity. He didn't baptize as an empty ritual, a formality without any relevance to the life that you're actually living day by day. He baptized those who repented. He baptized those who professed confidence and trust in the Messiah that He would come and bring forgiveness of sins. He baptized those who evidenced humility and faith. And baptism then delineated that remnant within the nation of Israel, that believing remnant that drawn out people from Old Covenant Israel itself who responded to the voice of the prophets and prepared for the Messiah. What John did in his ministry was he brought people into a crisis. He brought people into a crisis because he preached against the backdrop of an immediate impending judgment of God. And people had to make a choice. There was no neutrality for John's message. And not to choose was choosing not to choose. God's Christ is about to arrive. And the time, therefore, is short. There is urgency. There is immediacy. Man cannot delay in responding to John's ministry. From John's perspective, the end has come. Judgment is at hand. And the time to respond to his message is now, today, immediately. As we look at Luke's summary of John's preaching in v. 7-9, We need to see the arrangement before we delve this morning into verse 9. In verse 7, there is an emphasis upon the wrath to come. Fire is what is the image drawn upon. Remember, we saw that it could very well be that John drawing upon the desert imagery of the wilderness where he's preaching is referring to the activity of vipers who come out from the rocks when a desert fire comes through, when a brush fire comes through. The animals come out from their hiding places and the desert's coming out. Who's told you to flee? Is there a fire started? Judgment is here. In verse 8, He requires them to bear fruit of repentance, the necessity of that fruit. And in the second part of the verse, he gives them their first warning. Do not claim that your institution is going to save you. Don't tell me that you'll be saved because you belong to some organization or because you belong to some ethnic group or because you belong to a family line. That's not the salvation of which God works. God works a salvation that brings life from the dead. And He's able to make stones into suns. And then in verse 9, He gives a second warning. The axe is already laid at the root of the tree. The judgment has already begun. And once again, the image of wrath ends the note upon which the summary is made. The tree that does not bear the fruit is thrown into the fire. And so wrath bookends John's preaching ministry. Who told you to flee from the wrath? And there's a fire that's coming. And that bookend is the backdrop against which John preaches his ministry of baptism, summoning sinners to repentance and faith in the coming Messiah. Because of this impending judgment, the people were brought to a current crisis. And in that crisis, John emphasizes to them the necessity of bearing the fruit of repentance. This morning, we look at verse 9. And consider with me, first of all, the current crisis. And also, the ax is already laid at the root of the trees. In the original language, the word already, or now, is placed right at the beginning of the sentence so as to make emphasis. You could translate the words, and also already, or, but even now. John's emphasis in verse 9 is to bring the urgency of the moment to the forefront of his ministry. There is a present and current situation in which John is preaching. And the message of John is not for a future generation. The message of John is for those who gathered with him at the wilderness. It is a present message, a message relevant to all who hear this message, even us today, now. Because the end is now. The end is at hand. The coming of the end is already transpiring. Also, even, even now, already, right at this very present time. Now imagine how this emphasis and these words must have incited the flame of excitement in the hearts of these people who already went out to the wilderness because they had expectations. of the end of the age. They had expectations that God was going to send a second Moses figure and that he would reform and reorganize a true spiritual Israel in the wilderness and lead them back into the land. How these people must have had their eschatological expectations fired into an intense frenzy, as John said, it's happening now. It's already begun. And John speaks to us as well with the words, even now, today, already, right now, the axe is laid. Notice the tense of the verb. It's a perfect verb, which means it's an activity that has happened in the past, but has a present effect. has already been laid and it is now presently positioned where it is at. Notice the verb is passive. The axe is being laid by somebody who is laying it, by someone who is wielding it. The axe is laid. It is resting against the root of the tree and it is there waiting to be wielded, waiting to be used. And the axe is an instrument that clears away anything that is unfruitful. And it's lying, its edge is positioned right against the tree. Who is the actor in this verb? Is it John? No. The implied actor who wields this axe is none other than God Himself. The One who brings judgment. Notice that the axe is at the root of the trees. The root is the very source of the tree. And the axe is already pressing upon that root. Notice it's not one tree. It's many trees. Plural. The tree, as we'll see, is an image of the nation of Israel. But it is also an image of the individual and one's individual life. John is saying, God is dealing with you as individuals. Don't tell me your institution is going to save you. I'm talking to you, Herod. It is impermissible for you to have her as your wife. He's talking to individuals. And the ax is laid at the very root of our lives. Not at a branch. Not at the extension of our life. But the very root of it. Radical. Radical dealings. And the word radical means at the root of something. It is God who is wielding the axe. It's prophetic language of warning and threat. The axe of God's judgment is poised, not simply to prune the tree, but to destroy it and to cut it down at its very root. It's the language of crisis. You're brought to ask, well, what will God do? And John says He's going to do one of two things, my friends. He's doing one of two things right here this morning. He's either raising stones into suns or he's cutting trees down to destroy them. He's either raising stones into suns or he's cutting trees down to destroy them. And the crisis also brings us to ask the question, well, what are you going to do? What am I going to do? Well, I'm either going to bear fruit or I'm going to be destroyed. And that is the nature of the crisis. It's a current crisis. It's already the present situation. Secondly, consider with me this morning the necessity of fruit. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Notice again, every tree. The Greek could be translated each tree, individually. And the tree here is a metaphor for our life. It's a metaphor for what we are, what we're rooted in, and what we grow to become, and what we produce through the course of our lives. Every tree, therefore, Therefore is a word of purpose. The axe is poised for a purpose. It's not simply resting against the tree while the lumberjack has gone off to have a break. It's resting against the tree because the blade is pressed at the root and the handle of the axe is seen, as it were, in the hand of the lumberjack who has the axe against the root and he's looking at the tree to examine whether or not he's going to cut it down. That's the picture. God has come, and He has an axe in His hand, and it's positioned at the very root, the very source of our lives. And He's examining our lives, and He's asking Himself a question as He looks over the fruit of our lives. Is this tree worth keeping? Or am I just going to cut it down? Now, in this image, the only trees that have to worry about this are the ones without good fruit. Those are the only trees that have to be concerned are the ones without good fruit, who are unrepentant, who are unchanged by the message of the gospel. And John says, every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. This is a description of final judgment. But notice something. All of the verbs are in the present tense. Notice that? John does not say every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and will be thrown into the fire. He says, every tree that does not, that's present, bear good fruit, is cut down, that's present, and thrown into the fire, that's present. You see how this language would intensify the listeners. They weren't falling asleep on John. They were electrified. They were electrified. This man was the voice. that was preceding the activity of God's axe. And the axe is about to fall. Ever hear that saying? This man has had an impact upon us. The axe is about to fall. And people are being sent to hell right now because their lives in the sight of God are fruitless. Useless. unproductive and only worth throwing out. The metaphor is evident. It should be evident to every child sitting here today. It's evident. It's obvious. The lesson is simple. When your life is examined by God, if He finds no good fruit on it, you will be eternally destroyed. in the wrath of hell's fire. That's John's message. Now, John isn't the only one to use this metaphor of a tree being destroyed in fire, and fire as a metaphor of the judgment of God. There are other biblical uses of this metaphor of judgment. The Old Testament prophets often used this kind of language as they spoke to an agricultural people, warning them of the judgment of God in the language of fire and the necessity of bearing fruit. And in your notes, I've listed several passages of the Old Testament prophets from Jeremiah and Isaiah and Ezekiel and Nahum and Zephaniah in which you can look up those passages to see that this is a very commonly used metaphor in the mouth of the prophets. But remember that John is particularly a prophet prophesied by Malachi. In Malachi chapter 4, we have, in fact, reference to John the Baptist's ministry in verse 5, where later Jesus will explain to us that he is indeed Elijah the prophet who has come before the great and terrible day of the Lord. See, John surfs the wave of judgment, you see. Before the wave hits, John rides it right in. With John's arrival comes the judgment. This is John's ministry. This is how he understands himself. This is how he was prophesied. Notice in Malachi 4 and verse 1, how this coming day is described, nor branch." See, John's ministry is anchored in Malachi's prophecy as well as Isaiah's prophecy. And he's drawing from these Old Testament metaphors. The day of the Lord is coming like a burning furnace. It reminds us of what Abraham saw when he looked over the valley of Jordan. and saw Sodom and Gomorrah burning in the morning after God had visited it in judgment, Genesis tells us, it looked to him like a furnace. And it will be a furnace, says Malachi, that will leave neither root nor branch. It burns down the tree. Now, John gathers these and other Old Testament texts into his prophetic vision and ministry. and he sees the arrival of what the prophets have foretold. And John declares that the judgment that was prophesied in the Old Testament, that voice of prophecy that at his day was now silenced for some 400 years, that voice now again is being heard in the wilderness, and the voice is coming to say all that was told before is now happening. It's happening now. It's already happening. The end has come. and God has come and the day of the burning of God's wrath has arrived. In the New Testament, we find this same language urged upon us to bear fruit in view of the impending judgment of God. Jesus will teach us in Luke 6, verses 43-45, that there are good trees and there are bad trees. And you know them by their fruit. That a bad tree doesn't produce good fruit. And a good tree doesn't produce bad fruit. He'll give us the parable of the fig tree, even as we read this morning. The parable of the fig tree in Luke chapter 13, verses 6-9, in which that tree bore no fruit. And yet, it was given another season, another opportunity to produce the fruit. And if the Master came back that time next year and there was no fruit, the tree would be cut down. And there the tree is a national metaphor for the nation of Israel, for a covenant people. Notice Jesus teaching particularly in John 15. John 15, reading from verse 1 to 6, I am the true vine. and My Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you." Or pruned would be another way of saying that. Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine. You are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up. And they gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned." Here Jesus describes the language of God's judgment and the necessity of fruit in the same way as John the Baptist. And He teaches the lesson. You will not bear fruit unless you abide in Christ. So you say, well, how do you do that? Verse 10 answers the question. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. If you live by grace, through faith, a living faith that evidences itself in active obedience, you'll abide in Christ. You'll bear fruit. You will not be destroyed in the fire of hell. One of the most frequently used metaphors to describe hell in the Bible is the language of fire. And no one spoke of hell more than Jesus Christ. If anyone has a problem with the doctrine of hell, they have a controversy with Jesus in particular, because the doctrine of hell is particularly Jesus' doctrine. He is the one more than any other in the Bible who teaches on the subject of hell. And He uses the metaphor of fire to describe it more often than not. But the Bible uses the image of the tree being pruned as a metaphor to describe God's dealings with His people throughout the ages. As a redemptive, historical metaphor of history. Paul picks up on this in Romans chapter 11. Here, Paul picks up on Jesus' enacted parable of the nation of Israel, where in Matthew 21, Jesus approaches the fig tree and finds no fruit on it, remember? And so He curses it and the tree withers. Now, Paul picks up on that enacted or visualized parable and shows that in this image, God is dealing with His old and new covenant people. So in Romans chapter 11, we read from verse 16, And if the first piece of dough be holy, the lump is also. And if the root be holy, the branches are too. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. But if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in. Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief. But you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will He spare you. Behold, then, the kindness and severity of God to those who fell severity, but to you, God's kindness, if you continue in His kindness, otherwise, you also will be cut off." Paul is dealing here with some very challenging things. And this is not an easy passage to exegete in the context of Romans 9, 10, And 11, Paul is teaching about redemptive history. He's teaching about the movement of God's saving grace through the old covenant on into the new covenant, and God's taking to Himself a people from the nation of Israel and now gathering to that remnant, gathering to that redeemed people, people from the Gentiles, taking His elect from both the nation of Israel and from the Gentiles. But the point that Paul makes should be evident to us on the surface of the passage. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaffed, will be cut off, will be removed in an act of God's judgment. And the point is obvious. If our lives are not fruitful, they will be destroyed by God in judgment. And John the Baptist comes and says already, Right now, the axe is laid at the tree. Already, the judgment has begun. And He invokes and provokes us to a crisis. You might ask yourself the question, well, the necessity of fruit. Well, what is He talking about? What is the nature of the fruit that I must bring forth in my life? Good question. Come next Sunday and we'll answer it. In verses 10-14, John deals with the nature of the fruit that must be born, the fruit of repentance. As we look back to Luke chapter 3, verses 7 through 9, we conclude this morning our summary, Luke's summary of John's ministry. At the end of verse 9, Luke has John's finishing where he started, sounding the note of wrath and judgment. And he makes us to understand, brethren, that those who fail to discern the redemptive times in which we presently live will not repent. And if they do not repent, they will not be saved. Daryl Bach comments, the point is that John called for personal decisions that would determine one's fate. How one decided about the source of John's preaching and about John's view of being rightly related to God through repentance was a personal eschatological decision of the greatest importance. With the ministries of John and Jesus came the critical time of decision. The ultimate die is cast with regard to God by how one relates to the message about forgiveness of sins in the context of repentance." You see, John and Jesus forced people to make a decision. And they force you to make a decision. And the decision that you make in regard to these things will determine your eternal destiny. Don't you hate it when that kind of thing happens? You mean I have to decide? Yes? You mean I can't just let somebody else do this for me? I have? Yes. When? Now. Now. Eternity lies in the future. But that matter is settled right now. It's settled in the decision that you make as to whether or not your life is going to bear the fruit through repentance and faith, or whether you're going to fail to hear the urgency of this message and think to yourself that you've got all the time in the world. The message is now. The axe is already at the root and the judgment, dear friends, has already begun. And that's my first line of application. The judgment has already begun. There is already an experience of judgment that has come into the realm of common grace, has come into the realm of general life in this created order. You live in a world that is judged. Do you know that? You live in a world that is already judged. You live in a world that is already judged. The sentence of death has already been executed upon the world in which you live, round and about you. This is a life that decays, returns to dust. That's judgment. And it saturates everything that you live in and everything you experience. Every time you stub your toe. That's a reminder. You live in a world with pain in it. That's judgment. It shouldn't be that way. God didn't make it that way. And it's a reminder of your impending death. Stubbing your toe is a preliminary to what you are subject to under the sentence of death. Your life is like a tree. Ever have an affectionate relationship to a tree? What is that poem? Something that I shall never see, something as beautiful as a tree, something like that? I had a marvelous tree in my boyhood. on Bradgate Avenue, the street behind where I grew up. I don't know what kind of tree it was. It didn't matter. I just loved this tree. The neighborhood, we all loved this tree. It was huge. It had these huge root systems coming out of it that formed little cubicles that we could sit and put our arms on the roots and sit in hot summer days and just talk to one another. And the lower branches of the tree were, I'm not kidding, as wide as this pulpit. And we could run across the lower branches and the branches interconnected in such a way we would play tag on this tree. And we got to know this tree and had all kinds of of traffic patterns that could take you up one side and down the other and around the other. Whenever you got to any part of the tree, we knew how to get up, down, around, and we used to play tag on it, running across the branch. We loved this tree. We would just spend summer afternoons just lying and hanging on this tree and having our time. I've gone back to Cleveland where I grew up since. The tree is gone. I want to tell you, I felt The pain of the loss of that tree. I drove by the part of the neighborhood where that big old tree was. It's gone and they put up a couple of houses in the lot where it used to be. And I felt a sentimental pain at the loss of that big tree. What will be the experience of looking at a man's life? The roots of his life have gone down into the things that he has lived for. The things from which he's drawn his nourishment and meaning and significance. And from the branches of his life, he has his relationship to his wife. He has his relationship to his children. He has the kind of worker that he is. He has his relationship to the world round about him. He has the evidence of his character and he has produced fruit in his life. What will be the sense of loss to see the acts of God strike a man's life at its very root and take away everything the man ever lived for? What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul? It is such a foreboding and frightening thought to realize, dear people, we can live for absolutely nothing. And our lives can mean absolutely nothing. and we can die without having any significance. The judgment of God is already taking people away. See, that's what judgment does, is it separates. It removes the good from the bad. It sifts, and you can see it already. You can see it already, and you've experienced it already. Judgment is already known in this life. Judgment and wrath are already evident in our society by the increasing and pervasive sin to which our culture is giving itself. In Romans 1.18, Paul says, for the wrath of God is revealed, already revealed, from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Men serve idols and wrath is evident as God abandons men to heterosexual sin, to homosexual sin, and to depravity of mind. We live in a day where wrath is increasingly obvious as God stands back from our culture because, my friends, sexual sin is rampant in our society. It is rampant. And I would not be so naive as not to say it's not even rampant in here. And God stands back. And that's judgment. That's judgment. God withdrawing because men suppress truth and unrighteousness in pursuit of their lust. Judgment is already evident not only in the culture around about us, But it's evident also in redemptive grace. It's evident, if you will, in the sphere of the church in relation to issues of the Gospel amongst those who identify themselves as Christians. Again, Bach says, John's ministry, like Jesus, forces choices and creates divisions among people. Judgment separates. Judgment divides. Judgment distinguishes. Judgment differentiates. Judgment makes discernments. And that already transpires in the lives of those who profess to have a relationship with God. Remember, when we read and studied Luke 2, verses 34 and 35, what Simeon had to say? Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and the rise of many in Israel. and for a sign to be opposed, and a sword will pierce even your own soul to the end that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." In Israel, amongst the people of God, so to speak, amongst the religious ones, amongst those who identify themselves with the God of Israel, do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies will be members of his own household. God comes with His Gospel and He separates people. The time for judgment. For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God, 1 Peter 4.17. And if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the Gospel of God? I agonize over the divisions among professing Christians. I desire to foster a Catholic spirit to accept all who Christ accepts. But the reality is judgment begins amongst the religious people. It begins amongst those who outwardly identify with Christ. Church discipline is an execution of that judgment. And even separation from other professing Christians for matters of conscientious differences are all part of the judgment. There also must be factions among you in order that those who are approved may have become evident among you, writes Paul in 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 19. And we see religious people today dividing over whether or not homosexuals ought to be brought into the ministry. Large denominations in our day, right now, are going through some of the biggest turmoil in their denominational history. dividing over questions of whether or not homosexuals should be in the ministry. Christians dividing over the question of whether or not women should be in the ministry. These issues are the grandchildren of the divisions that preceded us. Where in days past, Christians divided over whether or not the Bible is the Word of God. whether or not Jesus was truly divine, whether or not the atonement was really accomplished in the shed blood of Christ. Why all these divisions? Because judgment has already come. The time has already come for the judgment to begin in the household of God, and God is sifting through. even those who profess to be his own. Sifting, purging, and cleansing, and the pruning goes on, and the judgment has come. The judgment is especially evident when the world comes to the place where it turns around and persecutes Christians. Therefore, we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure. This is a plain indication of God's righteous judgment so that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which indeed you are suffering." 2 Thessalonians 1, 4, and 5. The persecution of the church, Paul says, is what? A plain indication of God's righteous judgment. Why? Because those who are persecuting the church are perverting the judgment of God. They are judging the church wrongly and they execute punishment against the church as an act of injustice. And that perversion of God's justice is an indicator that God is actually judging those who judge you. And God will afflict those who afflict you. And God will condemn those who condemn you. And the judgment with which you are being judged and executed will fall back upon their own heads when Christ returns in a day of judgment. How is your life judged? Paul writes in 1 Timothy 5, verse 24 and 25, The sins of some men are quite evident, going before them to judgment. For others, their sins follow after. Likewise also, deeds that are good are quite evident. And those which are otherwise cannot be concealed. Not all sin is seen, but it will become evident. And not all that is good is seen. but it will become evident. Your life is bearing fruit. And it's either bearing good fruit or it's bearing bad fruit. And the day will make it evident. And you need to ask yourself the question with all seriousness and with all urgency, am I bearing fruit? The judgment has already begun. In John 3, reading from verse 18. You say, John 3. Oh, I know a verse in John 3. Verse 16. That's right. And isn't verse 17 encouraging? God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world. but that the world should be saved through Him. But, my friends, with the arrival of the Messiah, the judgment has begun. You think John the Baptist is kidding? You think he's telling a lie? You think he doesn't know what he's talking about? You think he's a true prophet and his words are a mistake? He's telling you the judgment is already here. Jesus didn't come. The judge, he came to save. But salvation is always salvation from judgment. And the manifestation of salvation is always set in the context of the revelation of judgment. So, John continues, verse 18, he who believes in him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world. And men love the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light. that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God." You want to know how God judges you? Answer the question. Do you believe in Jesus, the only begotten Son of God? Answer the question. Do you gravitate toward the light of His Word and His people and His worship? and evidence that your deeds are the result of His grace in your life? Or are you a son of vipers? Do you slither off into the darkness? Has your life got dark corners in it? Secret places into which you climb and cover yourself in secrets? Tempting to hide in the darkness of your deception. Heart scared. Lest the lid come off and you be exposed. The judgment is already here. It's already begun. It's already started in the theater of your conscience, right now. Right now, your conscience is an instrument in a divine lumberjack's hand. If the cutting edge of your conscience tinching the root of your life? Is God saying to you, you're not living for the right purpose? Something's radically wrong at the root. John says, repent. Trust in Christ and turn in a radical, radical way. From your commitment to self and sin and the darkness, come to the light. Come to the light. If John the Baptist were here today, would he baptize you? Would you be able to walk into the waters of the Jordan River with John and walk through his preaching? As he addressed the multitude, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Is your conscience so committed to Christ? Are you so determined? to identify with Christ and to distance yourself from sin, that you are able, by God's grace, to walk through the words of the thundering prophet and say, Lord, save me. I identify with Christ. I separate myself from my sins. And by the grace of God, from the root of my being, my life is going to bear fruit to the glory and to the praise of God's grace. May God give us grace. May we hear these warnings. And may we each have an intensified sense of urgency. Dear brethren, the judgment has already begun, and people are already being thrown into the fire. Repent today. Amen.