Welcome back to Wilderness Institute Studio. This is week two of a four-part podcast series I'm doing entitled Behold the Lamb of God. In this second week, we're gonna really just continue on what we introduced last week from Isaiah chapter 40, and we'll move everything over to the New Testament. The New Testament being the place where the Gospels use Isaiah's prophecy of this one who's going to come announcing the Messiah, the coming of the Christ. And so we'll look specifically at Luke chapter 3 verses 4 through 6 which reads, as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, the voice of one calling in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every ravine will be filled and every mountain will be filled and hill will be lowered. the crooked will become straight, and the rough roads smooth, and all flesh will see the salvation of God." That's Luke chapter 3, 4 through 6. It's John the Baptist's role in this critical moment in world history of the coming of the Messiah is to announce and make everything ready and prepared for the coming of the Lord. So he's got a lot, he's got a work cut out for him. But the good news is, is that the work that he's doing is a work that God's given him. So I've entitled this episode, Preparing the Way. Now, yes, John has work to do. But the detail of the work is God's. The time of the work is God's. The voice of the work is God's. And what God has done is He's fit a usable vessel to be the one who will come and announce the coming of the Messiah. It's Matthew Henry who urges the examination of this message from John the Baptist, which is largely, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. John's preaching all through the region this same gospel message. Repent and believe. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So when John does this, Matthew Henry's arguing that it's not just the saying that one repents. It is a change of heart. But ultimately here, there has to be evidence that the heart's been changed. Words don't give the evidence. Words are necessary and words are part of that. But the evidence of a changed heart that has repented is that there will be a fruit of repentance. And we'll look at that this week. What are the fruit or what is the fruit of repentance? Well, in this Advent season, all of our emphasis is rightly upon the Messiah. What the Messiah has done here is he's come to forgive the sins of the elect. And in doing so, he calls them to repent. And then there will be evidence of that repentance, and that evidence will be the fruit of repentance. So stop and think for just a minute about trees and fruit. You might even think about this with those in your household together. Think of the kinds of fruit comes off of certain fruit trees Certain vegetables come off of certain vegetable plants The this would be the same in the spirit world whenever the Spirit of God in acts a work in the heart of man There'd be a natural product, a natural evidence. Oh yeah, this is an apple tree, this is an apricot tree, this is a peach tree, this is a grape, this is a cucumber, on and on and on. This is a Christian. He bears the fruit of repentance. So maybe stop and think about that a little bit this evening or as the day comes to a close Now what would be the evidence? What would what would the fruit of repentance? Look like what would it look like on you? What would it look like on your household? What would it look like on a church? What would the fruit of repentance look like on a nation? Well, I'm looking forward to seeing you. Lord willing, we'll see you on the Lord's Day at 1030. Make sure you're doing all the things that we've previously talked about. You remember, John came announcing from the wilderness, he's preparing the way. And so what we're doing is we're preparing our hearts. We're doing everything to make sure that our hearts don't get attracted or distracted to something lesser. Well, I look forward to seeing you. We gather on Sunday mornings at 1030 at Eastside Baptist Church. If you're in the Twin Falls area and you don't have a church that you belong to, consider coming and be my guest this Sunday. We're worshiping the Lord Jesus every Sunday. And during this particular Christmas season, or what many people call Advent, We'll be even more looking at that announcement of John the Baptist as he's preparing the way. He's talking about filling up the ravines and making the rough places smooth. This is the work of the gospel. This is the work, and this will be some of the things that will bear the evidences of the fruit of repentance. We'll talk more about that on Sunday morning. I look forward to seeing you. May the Lord bless you. May the Lord bless your household. May the Lord bless His church with the pouring forth of the gospel in the day. May the Lord bless you.