Amen. If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Luke chapter 3. Luke chapter 3. Today we're going to be taking a look at verses 7 to 18. Now, you don't have to look very far to see that we are in a special season in our culture. Now, the Reformed Church is not known for sticking very closely to the so-called Christian calendar. And yet, at the same time, I think it's appropriate to consider what's happening in the broader culture and bring the Word of God to that. If that's the case, then you might realize that next week, of course, is a special day, Christmas. And the weeks preceding Christmas are traditionally known as the season of Advent. If you know anything about Advent, Advent is a season of preparation. The Lord will soon be on the scene, and we need to be ready for His arrival. This morning, we consider the message of John the Baptist. As you know, he was the forerunner of Christ's first coming, and he prepared the people for the arrival of the king. So I encourage you to use this text this morning as a means of preparing yourself for the real meaning of the season. Luke chapter 3, beginning with verse 7. This is the word of the Lord. And he, that is John the Baptist, said, therefore, to the crowd that came out to be baptized by him, you brutal vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father, for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now, the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. And the crowds asked him, what then shall we do? And he answered them, whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none. And whoever has food is to do likewise. Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, teacher, what shall we do? And he said to them, collect no more than you are authorized to do. Soldiers also asked him, and we, what shall we do? And he said to them, do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be content with your wages. And as the people were in expectation and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John whether he might be the Christ, John answered them all, saying, I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie, and he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His windwing fork is in his hand to clear the threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. And so, with many other exhortations, he preached the good news to the people. Amen. Thus far, the reading of God's word, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our Lord stands forever. Let's pray, shall we? Holy Spirit, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We pray that you would shine the light of heaven into our hearts, that we might live by these words and bring greater glory to Christ our Savior, in whose name we pray. Amen. Amen. The story's told of a couple of boys who were fishing at their special pond off the beaten track, when all of a sudden, the game warden jumped out of the bushes. And immediately, one of the boys threw his fishing pole down and started running through the woods. And of course, the warden was hot on his heels. And after a couple hundred yards, the boy stopped to catch his breath, and the game warden, he caught up to him and was kind of gasping and called out to the boy and said, all right, well, young man, let's see your fishing license. The young boy then reached into his wallet and pulled out a valid fishing license and handed it over. And the warden was kind of surprised by that. And he was like, well, son, you must be about as dumb as a box of rocks. You don't have to run from me if you have a valid fishing license. And the boy said, yeah, I know that, sir. But my friend back there, see, he don't have one. Well, pretty clever. You see, those boys, they had a plan. They knew what they were doing. You see, they knew. They had to be ready. in case they were called to answer to authority. And in a sense, that's what we have here in our text this morning. You see, John the Baptist has begun his ministry in the wilderness, and his essential message is that there is a judgment coming. You see, you need to be ready, because soon you might have to answer to authority. You see, John's basic message here is that God is coming to deal with all the wickedness and sin in this fallen world, and your only chance to escape his punishment is to turn from your sin, to turn and trust in this new messenger who will soon be on the scene shortly. And so that brings us to our proposition statement for the sermon. Chaplain Carter, what is the sermon about? In a nutshell, here it is. Get ready, because the Lord is coming. I mean, that's what this passage of scripture is really all about. All right then, with that said, let's get into it, shall we? The first thing I'd like you to take away from this passage is how John the Baptist describes genuine religion. I want you to look at verses 7 to 14 again, and I want you to consider the emphasis that he places, not on feelings, not on intentions, but action. You see, to John the Baptist, the only thing that matters is what you do, because what you do reveals who you truly are. Look at verses 7 to 14 again. He said, therefore, to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, you brutal vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come, bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father, for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees and every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. The crowds asked him, what then shall we do? And he answered them, whoever has two tunics should share with he who has none. Whoever has food should do likewise. Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, teacher, what shall we do? And he said to them, collect no more than you are authorized to do. Soldiers asked him, what shall we do? And he said to them, do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation and be content with your wages. So here, we see John the Baptist put his finger on the big idea. You say, what is the Christian faith really all about? What difference does your religion make if all your religion is consisting of is warm feelings in your heart? And that warm feeling doesn't display itself in actual outward action. You see, verse eight says it all, doesn't it? Look at verse eight. He says, bear fruit in keeping with your repentance. You see, as the great, I should say, the last great Old Covenant era prophet, John the Baptist's message was very much like his predecessors, wasn't it? Essentially, hey, God is not going to turn a blind eye to your sin forever. There's a judgment coming. Wrath is imminent. But as you know, there's so much more to being a prophet than merely warning people of the wrath of God, you have to tell them what to do. What's the remedy? What kind of change do you want to see in their lifestyle? You see, the remedy is always the same, isn't it? It doesn't matter who the prophet is. The remedy is always the same. Repent. That is, turn away from the evil that you've been doing. turn to God, start living right, obeying God's Word. And so John is preaching righteousness here in the wilderness and he's baptizing and the word gets out among all Judea and Samaria and Galilee that there is this strange new prophet out in the wilderness preaching about the kingdom of God. And naturally there's a certain amount of curiosity about this character. Who is this new guy? Let's go check him out. And so the crowds come. And what they're hearing is a message that's very much unlike what they've been getting in the synagogues. You see, John is calling them back to the true service of the Lord. He's talking about another, an even greater prophet who will soon follow him. And he's baptizing all who respond to his message. And that baptism is indicative of forgiveness by God and cleansing from sin. But you see, John the Baptist knew that many who were coming out to him in the wilderness were insincere. People who thought that John was merely offering them another feather in their cap, you know, something else to do, to add to their list of good deeds that God would reward them for. Look at how John describes them in verse 7. He says, you brood of vipers. My goodness, he told it like it was, didn't he? He was not interested in tickling people's ears and making them feel better. he was speaking the truth. You see, many in the crowd had been poisoned by the false teaching and the works righteousness of the scribes and the chief priests and the Pharisees. And having been poisoned, they were now poisonous to others, just like snakes were considered ritually unclean animals. You know, the snakes, they defiled everything that they touched. So these hypocrites defiled others through their rank idolatry and wickedness. And now, after hearing John's message of righteousness, they came forward to be baptized. But John insists that a profession of faith alone isn't enough. They need to repent. Not just say that they want to repent, but actually, as it says there in verse 8, bear fruit in keeping with their repentance. It means to walk the walk, and not merely talk the talk. And John strips them of their excuses, too. Look at the latter half of verse 8. Once again, probably their biggest excuse of all. And do not begin to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father, for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. You see, please understand, at this time, many people believe that just because they were physically descended from Abraham, that that meant that they were automatically guaranteed entrance to the kingdom of God. I mean, after all, they're the Jews, right? They're people of God. They've got their card punched. Everything's good for them. Please realize that was nothing less than racism. It was a selfish pride that just because they were Jews, they were better than others. That God would have favor on them just because of their racial identity. That God was going to favor them over the Gentiles because of their ancestry. That just because they were religious people, that they'd undergone a certain religious ritual, okay? Think of circumcision, right? that that meant that they were safe. As you can see, John bursts that bubble real quick, doesn't he? Basically, he says, don't take so much pride in your racial makeup. God can make children of Abraham from these rocks right here on the ground. What matters is whether or not you are bearing good fruit. Look at verse nine. Because if you're not, the axe of God's judgment is going to fall, and it will cut you to the ground, and God will throw you in the fire, and it doesn't matter who you are. You see, your race isn't good enough, and your religion isn't good enough. What God requires is righteousness. Look at verse 10. People heard John's message, and it pricked them to the heart. What then should we do? And so John begins to spell out exactly what this righteousness should look like. You see, like all good preachers, he doesn't just give them a religious talk and then leave them hanging with a bunch of religious language, but he actually spells out for them what this repentance should look like. He tells them that when God requires righteousness, that God is expecting a change in behavior, and this is the kind of change in behavior that I have in mind. Stop thinking of yourself. Share your stuff. Feed the hungry. Look at those verses there. You see right there in verse 11. You get the point. And then to the despised tax collectors, he says, stop cheating people out of their money. Basically, be honest in all of your business dealings. You see, in those days, tax collectors were notorious for being crooks and scoundrels. John's basically telling them to be upright in all their dealings with people. Then notice the words that he has for the soldiers as well. Stop shaking people down for their money. Stop falsely accusing people. Tell the truth. Be content with your pay. You see, in those days it was common for soldiers to accept bribes in order to look the other way when something illegal was going on. And if they weren't offered bribes, they would often solicit them. Sort of like, you know, pay me some money and I'll make sure you stay out of trouble. And if you refuse to pay, then that's when you were accused of some false crime. Who said that crooked cops were an invention of modern times, huh? And they did these things because they were discontent with their pay. Military men, discontent with their pay? I might know a little bit about that since I've been on active duty in the Navy and Marine Corps for the last 15 years. Something never changes. Some things never change, do they? But you see, John here charges them to turn their lives around. Start treating people with dignity and respect. Start being truthful and honest. You see, this is what it looks like to bear fruit in keeping with repentance. You see, just coming forward at some kind of altar call is insufficient. Signing a pledge card or crying your eyes out in church or talking a bunch of religious talk, it's all insufficient. You see, you need to prove that your repentance is genuine by radically changing your behavior. Have you ever heard the term trash talking? Usually you hear that when it's in connection with some kind of sporting event, when one side is taunting the other with some kind of outrageous boast. Now, when it comes to trash talking, there was nobody like the original king of trash talking, and that was, of course, Muhammad Ali. I mean, how many times did he brag? He was the greatest, right? The greatest. Now, it's one thing to say that you're the greatest. And it's another to back that claim up in the ring. And what made him so remarkable was that often he would get in the ring and he would make good on his claims. And people would agree with him. This guy is indeed the greatest. Because in his prime, nobody could match him inside the ring. You see, Muhammad Ali is the epitome of trash talk. You see, with his constant taunting of opponents, claiming he could float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. You guys remember Muhammad Ali, quite a character. What's so amazing is he actually made a habit of predicting the round in which he was going to knock out his opponent. And more often than not, he was correct. Unbelievable. You've got to admit, that takes a certain amount of gusto. But what makes him so remarkable is not just that he talked the talk, but that he walked the walk. He made good on his claims. Likewise, it's not enough to simply talk about your Christian piety. God's not interested in your talk. He's more interested in your walk, your behavior, your lifestyle, because what you do is far more indicative of who you are than merely what you say. You see, that's what John's getting at here when he talks about bearing fruit in keeping with your repentance. You see, in John's crowds, there was no shortage of people who would profess to serve the Lord, but John wanted to see some proof that their repentance was genuine. So how about you today? Do you realize that the Lord expects repentance from you as well? That this repentance is not optional. As Jesus says, unless you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Now, sure, we can all go around and talk about how much we love the Lord and all that, but I mean, how many of you realize that actions speak louder than words? And if that's true, then what are your actions saying about you this morning? Are they saying that you love God and are called according to His purpose? Or perhaps your actions are saying something else. So the message this morning is try harder to be good. Right? I hope you can get some people shaking their heads. No, that's not it. That's not the Christian faith. Now listen carefully because here's the law and the gospel, right? The sorry fact is that our actions have already spoken for us loud and clear. And unfortunately, what our actions have said doesn't bode too well for us. I want to read to you a few verses on the subject. Now, here's the bad news, folks. Ecclesiastes chapter seven, verse 20, for there's not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins. Psalm 143 in verse two, don't bring your servant into judgment, O Lord, for no one living is righteous before you. Isaiah 53 in verse six, all we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned each one to his own way. Romans 3.23, we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. 1 John 1.8, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. Of course, you know, there's many more verses in scripture that are just like that. You see, if God were to keep a record of sins, not a single one of us could stand before him. And that's why we need a savior. You see, that all of our record of wrongdoing could be placed upon Him, that His righteousness could be imputed to us on the basis of faith, that our sins could be washed away, never to be counted against us ever again. You see, and that's what the message of Christ is all about. Can I dare say that's what Christmas is really all about? That's what the Incarnation was all about. That's why Christ came, that our sins could be done away with. That's what makes this whole redemption story so incredible, that the Son of God became man took away our sins by taking those sins upon himself and paying that for them in order to reconcile us to God and we receive all of these benefits on the basis of faith alone as God's Holy Spirit grants to us every saving grace you see and one of the graces that God grants to us in salvation is the grace of repentance repentance you see repentance is is itself a sovereign gift of God and God bestows it upon hardened sinners as He wills, right? Isn't this what Paul has to say in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 25? Repentance is a sovereign gift of God's grace. Now here's the Reformation formula. Repentance is the necessary consequence of saving faith. Did I just say that repentance is necessary for salvation? Absolutely. But it is the consequence of your saving faith. It's not the cause of your salvation. You see, we're not saved by it, but we won't be saved without it either. So the question becomes, how then shall we live in the light of God's marvelous grace? Well, how about by bearing fruit in keeping with our repentance, that our Christian faith would be more than mere talk. Amen. Let's move on. The next thing I want you to glean from this passage is the fact that since there's this great judgment coming, you need to look to Christ for salvation because He alone is God's appointed remedy for our sin. So take a look at verses 15 to 18, and I want you to see here how John the Baptist points people away from himself and toward Christ as the only hope for souls, beginning here at verse 15. As the people were in expectation and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John whether he might be the Christ, John answered them all, saying, I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie, and he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. And his winnowing fork is in his hand to clear the threshing floor and to gather the wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. And so with many other exhortations, he preached the good news to the people. So here, we see how John the Baptist prepared the people for the soon arrival of Christ. Basically, he told them, listen, I'm not the one that you need to be looking to. You see, there's somebody else who's coming who's gonna take away your sin. Don't look to me, look to him for your salvation. I want you to consider a parallel passage in the Gospel of John. Flip over, if you will, to John chapter one. John chapter one. And there, we'll take a look at verses 19 and following. This fills in the blanks a little bit more about John the Baptist's ministry. John chapter 1, beginning with verse 19. And this is the testimony of John. When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you? He confessed and did not deny, but confessed, I am not the Christ. And they asked him, what then? Are you Elijah? He said, I am not. Are you the prophet? He answered, no. So they said to him, who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself? And he said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as the prophet Isaiah said. Now they had been sent from the Pharisees, and they asked him, then why are you baptizing if you are neither Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet? John answered them, I baptize with water, but among you stands one whom you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie. These things took place in Bethany, across the Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, after me comes a man who ranks before me because he was before me. I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water that he might be revealed to Israel. And John bore witness. I saw the spirit descend from heaven like a dove and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, he on whom you see the spirit descend and remain This is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit, and I have seen the boar witness that this is the Son of God." The ministry of John the Baptist. So, John faithfully fulfills his commission from God. He's preaching righteousness in the kingdom of God. He has the people in the state of expectation. And they're beginning to take seriously the promises in Scripture that in due time God will send the Messiah. We go back to our text in Luke chapter 3. You see how verse 15 describes the people. They were expectant. They were waiting. They were wondering. Perhaps John himself is the great prophet that was to be the prophet like unto Moses of Deuteronomy 18. Even the religious establishment is abuzz with wonder at the person of John. So they send a delegation to put the question to him directly. Are you the Christ? And, faithful to his calling, he says, no. And he directs them to look for someone greater. Then he says there in verse 16, Someone more powerful than I will come whereas I'm merely baptizing with water. He will baptize with the Holy Spirit Now, please understand this idea of a spirit baptism It's simply referring to a passage in Ezekiel chapter 36 where God says I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols and I will give you a new heart to put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and to keep my laws." You see, this spirit baptism is simply a reference to salvation. It's a description of the Christian life. To be baptized with the Spirit is to be born again, to have that old stony heart taken away and have a new heart, a new life granted to you from above. You see, it's to have the Holy Spirit, take up residence within your life to guide you, to direct you, to diligently strive to obey God's Word. This is what Paul's getting at in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 13, where Paul, describing all Christians, says, for we were all baptized by one spirit into one body. So if you're a Christian, you are the temple of the living God. The Holy Spirit dwells within you. So what's John telling us here? How do I get this Holy Spirit? We see that Jesus imparts him as a gift to those that he's calling to salvation. But you see, John makes it clear here that this Messiah is not merely coming to impart a blessing, but he's also coming to be our judge. Look at verse 17. Now remember, this is an agrarian society, and so John uses some agricultural imagery here to illustrate his point. Let's just talk about a winnowing fork in his hand. He's referring to this large fork-shaped shovel that a farmer would use to toss the grain up into the air. And as he did that, the heavy grain would fall to the floor, and that would be gathered and prepared for use. But the outer shell, that they called the chaff, would fly off in the breeze and would later be swept up and burned because it was useless. You see, this process of winnowing is often used in the Bible as a picture of the Last Judgment. You see, John came with this message of repentance and the gift of the Holy Spirit to those who obeyed. But you see, John also had a message for those who would reject his call to repentance. Just like that chaff would be gathered up and burned, so would the wicked be discarded and burned in the judgment of God. You see, this is what John is referring to here as a baptism of fire in verse 16. Of course, in Scripture, It often characterizes fire as cleansing and purifying, but scripture also uses fire to be representative of the wrath of God, and I think that's how it's being used here. You see, the Messiah is coming, and he's bringing gifts. The Holy Spirit for the repentant, and fire for the unrepentant. So I guess the question becomes, how do I get the good gift and not the bad gift, right? Well, repent, and look to Christ for salvation. It's kind of like a person who's deep in over his head in credit card bills. I mean, nowadays, it's a common sight to see people pulling out plastic to pay for everything from gasoline to groceries to movie rentals, whatever. All it takes is a quick swipe of that card through this little electronic box and a signature, and you're good. Or when you try to swipe it, they say you've got to insert. You use a chip, right? Or when you insert for the chip, they say, no, you've got to swipe. Regardless, it's just a little piece of plastic. You swipe it, you're good to go. But the convenience of using credit cards can lead to the false feeling of financial security, because I can really go and buy whatever I want, until the bill comes in the mail. Now it's another story altogether. What's amazing, I pulled these statistics off the internet, but what's amazing is that recently, for the first time ever, credit card purchases totaled worldwide more than one trillion dollars annually. Other statistics are equally staggering. For instance, the average family has a credit card balance of over $7,000 and pays over $1,000 a year in interest alone to the banks. Again, according to RAM research, you can find these stats online. The average family has a little over 14.7 credit cards, including bank credit cards, gasoline cards, store cards, debit cards, ATM cards, and the like. Now, what happens when somebody's spending is out of control and they start racking up huge balances on credit? Of course, I know nobody here knows anything about that. We're talking hypothetically, right? Well, at first it's no problem. I mean all you gotta do is make that minimum payment of one and a half percent and everything's good. But before long even that minimum payment becomes a burden and when that happens now you're in deep trouble because if you keep on charging up your credit cards when you can barely make your minimum payments now, your finances are a disaster waiting to happen. It's like there's a train wreck coming. It might not happen today. It might not happen tomorrow. But eventually this locomotive is going to derail, because you just can't keep on going on like that. And in a sense, that's what we have going on here in our text today. See, John the Baptist is warning the people, listen, there's a train wreck coming, folks. It's called the Day of Judgment. And you can't just carry on oblivious to the situation. There's going to be a reckoning. And if that judgment were to happen today, things probably wouldn't go very well for you. That's why you need to look outside yourself. Look away from yourself to God's appointed Redeemer. Essentially, John the Baptist is telling us, hey, don't look at me. I can't help you. But I know someone who can. Look to him for salvation. He's your only hope for diverting disaster. But of course, this is no mere history lesson that we're hearing this morning. The same word of God that went out to John's audience goes out to you this morning. Do you realize that left to yourself You're lost in sin, you're hopeless before God with no chance of bailing yourself out or fixing your situation. You see, that's what Christ is all about. That God looked down from heaven and saw our pitiful condition apart from His grace and so He sent His Son in the fullness of time to be born of a woman in order to deliver us from our sin. That by His sinless life, by His sacrificial death, by His glorious resurrection, Jesus Christ would redeem all those who would simply trust in Him to save. Now that's great news, folks. But sadly, many people today don't look to Christ and Him alone for salvation. Can you think of some other things that people put their trust in today to better their lives? Something, other things that people put their hope in that's gonna give them some credibility before God on the last day? Perhaps my moral lifestyle is going to bail me out. Yeah, that's it. I lived a good life. I'm a good person. That means I'm good with God, right? Not so fast. Or maybe I'll just surround myself with teachers who will tell me what I want to hear and justify my sin for me. Yeah, that sounds good. Good idea. That way I can remain in my sin without having to have my conscience troubled. Good idea. Maybe I'll just surround myself with teachers who will tell me what I want to hear. Maybe I'll take refuge in the comfortable myth that God doesn't exist. That way I don't have to think about these things. I hope you don't play these kinds of games with God today. God sees through all our attempts to cover our sin. Just like Adam and Eve covered their nakedness to hide their shame, how often do we try to cover our sin and pretend like everything's okay? But you see, the good news of the gospel is that Jesus Christ did not come to help you cover your sin. He came to pay for your sin, that it would be entirely taken away, that there would be absolutely nothing to hinder your relationship with God. Truly, for those of you who trust in Christ's name, I can say without equivocation, by the authority of God's Word, that God is not mad at you anymore. You see, your Savior has taken your sin away. So believe that good news and live in God's peace. But for those of you who haven't turned away from your sin, for those who haven't looked to Christ and Him alone to save, please realize I have no good news for you this morning, only the warning of verse 17. that there is a certain judgment coming. So look to Christ and Him alone to save. May God give you the grace to prepare for His soon appearance. Amen.