Well, I would encourage you to have your Bibles open to Luke chapter 3, and for those of you who are visiting this afternoon, we're working our way through this Gospel of Luke, and this afternoon we are here in chapter 3, where the ministry of John the Baptist gets underway, and the verses that we read together earlier will serve as our text for this afternoon's service. And so, beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ and dear parents, just having brought your son to be baptized. Whenever people are coming over, and we know beforehand, then we usually get ready for them, don't we? Maybe we prepare a snack or a meal, or maybe we clean up the house a little bit, or if they are coming to stay overnight, we might get a guest room ready, clean sheets and some towels on the bed and some water bottles and just making it all nice and ready for company. Or Reece and Kim, thinking of you receiving a new baby, your firstborn, you had to get ready for him, you had to do some things around the house, you had to get a bedroom ready, find a crib, buy some clothes, get some diapers, all of that. We understand, don't we, when someone is coming into our home, whether as a visitor or more permanently as a member of the family, in one way or another we get ready, we prepare. But now think of the Lord Jesus as He's about to undertake His ministry. Before that happens, someone goes before Him. The Lord makes sure of that. Before His Son inaugurates His official public proclamation of the gospel, a forerunner precedes Him. Someone to get things ready. Someone to prepare the way. And of course all our children know, and every one of us knows, that someone is John. Now back in chapter 1, we learned about the birth of John. Here in chapter 3, time has passed, and John is now a grown man, and he begins his work. And Luke tells us all about it. First, Luke sets for us the historical context. We read about who was emperor, Tiberius Caesar, and we read about various governors in various places, and then in verse 2, who were the high priests, and by the way, all of these men were Bad men. The land was led by dark leaders, and so in part was also a very dark land. Not only the leaders, of course, but they didn't help. But Luke tells us these things to anchor John's appearing in real time and place history. What Luke writes about truly happened. This is not simply a nice story. This is a record of history. It happened. Well, what happened? Verse 2, the Word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. The Word of God came to John. What an interesting way to put it. You know, John didn't decide on his own to pursue, to prepare the Lord's way. John didn't choose of himself to become a herald of Christ. It wasn't John's idea. God conscripted him. God commissioned him. God sent his word to John. And so it was in John's heart and soul like a burning fire so that he could not keep quiet. Is that not the mark also of every gospel preacher? And in some way it should be true of every Christian to some degree. Knowing what we know, how can we ever keep quiet? Whether to witness or to confront or to encourage, the Word of God ought to burn within our hearts, all of us. But especially preachers, they cannot ultimately keep quiet. They must speak. They find themselves compelled to preach. Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. And so John, verse 3, went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. John was a preacher. He was also a baptizer. But the preaching and the baptizing came together in his message of repentance. And at this point in the text, Luke quotes from Isaiah 40, and he does so to make an Old Testament connection, because this moment and John's ministry is nothing else but the fulfillment of what God had said long before, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. So that's what John begins to do. He cries out in the wilderness, he doesn't go to the cities, he's in the wilderness, the people come to him. And they come to Him and His message is, prepare for the Lord. Let the pathway be straight for Him and to Him. Let every valley be filled. Let every mountain be brought low. Let all the crooked places be made straight and the rough places smooth. The Lord is coming. Let the way be level and clear for Him and to Him. Because you know John will bring out, He is coming, the Lord is coming to save His people. All flesh shall see the salvation of our God. He is bringing forgiveness, and so the way needs to be made ready for Him to appear. And John says that will happen through the people doing what? Repenting. So, Jesus' way. Jesus' way is prepared by John's preaching repentance. That's our theme for this message from this text. Jesus' way is prepared by John's preaching repentance. And notice first from the text the problem that John addresses. The problem that John addresses. Because we read about the multitudes coming out to be baptized by John and in some sense he's not very nice to them. How does he greet them? What does he say to them? Verse 7, you can see it there, you brood of vipers, he says. You brood of vipers. Vipers are deadly snakes. And that's what the people are, John is saying. Now Matthew's gospel, Matthew highlights that it was especially the Pharisees and the Sadducees that John had in view, but Luke here tells us that it was all the people really Sure the leaders led the way in hypocrisy and wickedness, but the people followed them, and they are a brood," John says, they're a generation of deadly snakes. Now that's not very nice to say. John's saying these people aren't very good people. Imagine if I came to your door, I called you up and said, I'm coming for a pastoral visit, and I came to your door, I rang the doorbell, you opened the door, and I said, you're all a bunch of snakes. You'd say, how is that for a greeting? You'd say, pardon me, and you'd probably, well, we might have a conversation. Maybe you'd give me a chance to explain, but you might be inclined to kick me out. Why does John say this? How can they be wise on his part? The people are coming to him. They are submitting to him. You'd think John would be so excited about all the attention and encouraged by all the enthusiasm. What a happy day for John. The ministry is being blessed. The streams of people are coming out of the cities. Multitudes are wanting to hear Him, to be baptized by Him. And you say to them, John, you brood of vipers? What a turnoff. How will this help John prepare the way for Jesus? Who wants to listen to preaching like this? But you see, John knows something about these people. John has grown up with these people. At least in the vicinity, he spent a long time in the wilderness, but he's approximately 30 years old. He's got some experience, and he's got the light of the Spirit in him, and he knows that these people that are coming to him, they've got a big problem in their thinking and in their living. They don't mind to be religious. They like to hear his preaching. They'll even agree to be baptized by him, and yet they are not interested. In any case, they're not doing it. They're not repenting. On the one hand, they sure need to. John says in verse 8, bear fruits worthy of repentance. He knew they needed to change. Their lives were a mess, many of them. They were living in sin and evil. They were wicked and ungodly. They didn't keep the commandments of the Lord. They didn't love the living God. They didn't care for their neighbor. They lived instead with hatred in their hearts and they expressed it over and over again, doing their own thing and going their own way. and serving themselves. That is what sinners do, after all. And these people were no different, even if they were religious people, and they were religious people, but they were religious sinners. They were sinners and sinning and sinful, and somehow they didn't see it. They stood in line to get baptized, but they didn't understand the extent to which they needed to change, that John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. Why change, they'd say. What for? We're not so bad, are we? They didn't see the truth about themselves. They didn't see how fallen they were. They didn't get how great their sins and miseries were. They didn't see it. And how often that can be a problem still. Do you know how great your sins and miseries are? Do you think about that? Have you learned that in your life or begun to at least? Who can know it all? But something of it, the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. That's not just a text in the Bible. That's a description of man. You can say even we're all snakes by nature. part of Satan's family, the seed of the serpent. That's our lineage. That's our life left to ourselves. And because of that, wrath is coming to this world. And wrath is coming for sinners. And if we never change, if we die still a viper, still a snake, the people in John's day didn't see. Not initially. How many valleys of sin there were in their lives. How many mountains of pride and self-righteousness. And how many places their path was horribly crooked. They had gone far astray and their road was rough with ungodliness. How could the Lord ever come and live with such a people? And so John presses them, and he challenges them, and he searches them, and he says to them, bear fruits worthy of repentance. Don't simply be religious. You know, get baptized, join the church, do the religious thing. No, that's not enough. That's not even what matters ultimately. Instead, there needs to be a change in your life, real change, heartfelt change, evident lasting change, bare fruits worthy of repentance. The people then needed to hear that. Maybe we do too. How often we do need to hear that. But there was more to the problem and John He brings that out as well in verse 8. What's that mean? Do not begin to say to ourselves, we have Abraham as our father. Well, what John is calling out here is the people's tendency to rest in their covenant heritage. It's like they thought that because they are children of Abraham, they are Jews, they are God's chosen people, after all, all must be well. All will be well. Never mind how they live. So they live like the world. It doesn't matter. We have Abraham as our father. God has made us his chosen people and nothing can change that reality. We are safe. It's like they went around singing that little song I learned as a kid in the school I attended. Father Abraham had many sons. Many sons had Father Abraham. And I am one of them, and so are you. And so let us all praise the Lord." Well, there might be a right way to sing that, I don't know. But if meanwhile there is no real change of heart or change of life, you are not a true son of Abraham. You can't be. We should never think that simply because we are born into the covenant born into the church, because we go to a Christian school, because we've learned the catechism and even confessed faith in the church, in the congregation, and have our name on the roll, never think that that by itself saves us. If there is no repentance, then we are in danger. We are in great danger. Notice how John highlights that in verse 9. Words that should send a tremor through our mind and heart, even now. axe is laid at the root of the trees." The axe. That is a symbol of judgment. John is saying God will cut sinners down. And this axe is not just going to be used someday, maybe, maybe, no. The axe is laid at the root. It's as if already now it's in God's hands and it's resting on the root of our lives as it were. So that all he's got to do is raise his arm and bring it flying down and that will be it. That's what John sees. That's the way he sees these people. The axe is laid at the root of the trees. Do you know how precarious your life is left to yourself? And so every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Unrepentant, presumptive, covenant people are in great danger. It was a problem in John's day and can it still be a problem in our day? Even in a church like ours, which by its very history and part of our identity has been always to make sure we're not presumptive. Don't we have to watch out? Are we convicted of our sin and sinfulness? Do we hate every known sin and seek to turn from it all? Well, what does that mean? What does that look like? With those questions, let's go to our second point. Jesus' way preached by, or yeah, Jesus' way prepared by John's preaching repentance. The problem, and now secondly, the precision John calls for, the precision. Because what made John's preaching so powerful was how pointed he got. For as the multitude listened to him, conviction began to set in, and we can be thankful for that. But meanwhile, the people didn't know what to do. Okay, they should repent. They got that point, but how? What do we do? Verse 10, so the people asked him, saying, what shall we do then? Notice how precise John becomes, how particular and specific. Verse 11, he answered and said to them, he who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none. And he who has food, let him do likewise. Now just to be clear, a tunic was a kind of shirt. Today we might say a t-shirt. It was your first layer, something to help keep you warm, comfortable. And so John says, if you have two, let him give to him who has none. John, what do you mean? Are you saying we can't ever have more than one shirt? One shirt each? That's all, give the rest away. Whoever has need, is that the point? But it's not quite that simple. It's not only about tunics or shirts. John also mentions food. The point is about who are you living for? And are you living just for yourself? Or are you living to serve others? Is the point of your life to accumulate as much for yourself as you can, never mind anyone else? Is your main concern, if not your only concern, just you and your welfare and your well-being and making sure you have whatever you have need and whatever you want without any care for anyone else? You can have two shirts and three, four, five, six, as many shirts even as you want while others have none. And you say, well, that's too bad, but it's not my problem. These are my shirts. Or this is my food. I've earned it, I've bought it, I've prepared it. It's for me. Other people can take care of themselves. If that's our spirit, what an utterly self-absorbed life. And it's that kind of life that John is calling out. And what he's calling for is a very precise kind of change. So if you have two shirts and someone you know has none, can't you give him one? In other words, repentance means very precisely learning to think about others and to care for others and to share with others. And don't misunderstand John, he's not preaching socialism here, he's not saying you can never have more or that we all have to have the same and no one needs to work for it even. John's not saying any of that. But what he is saying is that repentance is about learning to love your neighbor as yourself. And you can't just say that you do. You need to show that you do. even if it means giving away some of your own things. Now, as you know, more people ask John for directions. In the text, verse 12, then tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, teacher, what shall we do? And verse 13, he said to them, collect no more than what is appointed for you. And this too was a precise word for the tax collectors. You know, many of them were professional thieves. They made their living collecting taxes. Well, they made their living collecting more than the tax. They found ways to charge people more than was right, and they found ways really to cheat people out of their money. And so these men, they made themselves rich through lying and stealing, and they were taking terrible advantage of their position and power. But now they hear about repentance and the urgency of it, and they wonder what's that mean. And John tells them very precisely, collect no more than what is appointed. You can be a tax collector, but you need to be an honest tax collector. Well, we're not tax collectors here, any of us, but we're taxpayers. Yes, even in tax paying, we need to be upright. But don't think only in terms of taxes. We can think here in terms of anything to do with money and business. And the point here is that in all of those matters, whether individually or with a company, how we manage our money, how we treat people, what we say in all of our buying and selling, the point is to be people of absolute integrity, honest and fair. And if we haven't been, repentance means owning that, confessing that, turning from that, changing our ways. But then we read about soldiers in verse 14, and they said to John, and what shall we do? And notice John didn't say to them, quit your job. Don't be a soldier. If you're a Christian, you won't be a soldier. We're pacifists. John doesn't say that. For some people, including some Christian people, to be a soldier may be God's will for their life. Not an easy calling, especially in our time and place. But John's point is, be a good soldier. Be a righteous soldier. Verse 14, do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely. How easy it might be in a uniform, when you wear a uniform, when everything about you conveys authority and power, how easy it can be to take advantage of that and take advantage of others and to flex your influence, not for righteousness sake but for evil. No, says John, don't ever do that. We can apply that in so many ways, whether you're a soldier or anyone with authority today, bosses or judges or teachers or husbands or parents or elders or pastors or whatever it might be. Do not intimidate or accuse falsely. That's wrong. That's sin. You see, John is precise because repentance is precise. And God's call is to repent, not just generally, oh, I turn from my sin. No, to repent precisely. To turn from every particular sin. So can you think of anything in this moment? Can you think of anything in your life? Is there something that comes to your mind this afternoon? some habit, some practice that you know is wrong, or some secret sin that you have been indulging. Maybe for you it's pride, or selfishness, or maybe you have been stealing from someone in your family, or from your friends, or from your workplace, or maybe you've just been lazy, or living lustfully, or rebelliously. or living in sinful anger, or forever gossiping, or simply seeking to please yourself. Maybe you don't even see it, you're so used to it. Your life has just been one big revolution around yourself, bowing down to you. What comes to your mind right now? Whatever it might be, is it not the Holy Spirit telling you? You need to repent from that. You need to repent from all of that. It's time to change. This is what John preached. And notice, not just in this moment in the text, it was the mark of his preaching everywhere. Verse 18, with many other exhortations he preached to the people, even to Herod, even to King Herod. However that went, John knew the way Herod was living, especially the adultery in which he was living, having taken his sister-in-law to be his wife. And that was very bad, that was terrible in the sight of the Lord, and nor was that all, there were in Herod's life evils, plural, the text says. And somehow John stood before Herod, or maybe John said it in the wilderness and it got back to Herod. But whatever it was, John called for Herod to repent precisely. It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. He said that. John said that. And sometimes it's costly to be precise. John will die for that word. But he didn't back down. He couldn't back down. Precise repentance was the mark of John's ministry, at least one of the marks. And just pausing there for a moment and reflecting, this had to be preached. Because how else can a people be ready for the Lord? How can He ever come to them if they won't turn to Him and be open to Him? How will they ever see His salvation if they don't see that they need it? How can there ever be forgiveness if there is no repentance? No, not that our repentance ever earns our forgiveness. We know better than that. But repentance is the God-ordained way to forgiveness. Repentance is the evidence that we truly turn to the Savior and trust in Him. We don't simply turn to Jesus, but we turn to Jesus from our sin. And we turn from our sin to Jesus. And so there needs to be repentance. Repentance and faith go hand in hand. Repentance is the proof of faith. Even as faith is in a way a proof of repentance. You cannot receive Christ if you will not let your sin go. And so John preached repentance. Precise repentance. And that's still what's required. It's not just John's ministry. It's a biblical theme. The prophets called for repentance. Turn, turn, said Ezekiel. And Jesus himself will take up John's theme. Repent, Jesus will say. And the apostles will only repeat it over and over again. Indeed, Paul, in Athens, where he was preaching there, he said, God has commanded that repentance be preached to all men. And every time the point is precise repentance, repentance of specific sin, turning from every sin, not letting any sin anymore in our life. However you need to hear that this afternoon, hear it and heed it. But how can there ever be forgiveness of sins? The people wondered if John could do it, or they wondered at least if he was the Christ. They didn't understand all that that meant, but verse 15, they were thinking, they were reflecting, and they said, is John the Christ? What does John say about that? Here we come to our last point, the promise John proclaims. And the promise is simply that someone else is coming. Someone greater. Someone far more glorious than ever John could be. And we know, of course, that that's Jesus. John is going before Him. John is preparing His way. But notice how John describes Him in verse 16. John answered, saying to all, I indeed baptize you with water, but one mightier than I. Notice how he says that, mightier than I is coming. And he's so mighty, John says, and he's so great even, so glorious that John does not think he himself is worthy to untie his shoes. That is what really lowly servants did for their masters. When you were a servant, you started at the bottom and the bottom was you untied your master's shoes. You could only go up from there. But John says, I'm not even worthy to be that to Jesus. And there's not so much a comment about John as it is about Jesus. He is beyond great. He is beyond glorious. And here's why, says John, end of verse 16, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Now what a statement that is on the part of John. What insight He has given, and with what clarity and glory He speaks, Jesus, the coming One who is mightier than I, will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." Well, you say, what does that mean? How did that happen? Well, think of what Jesus came to do. Was it not to obtain for sinners like us the Holy Spirit, so that God the Spirit might come to us and live in us? and cleanse us and purify us. The Spirit of the Father and the Son even making their home in us. What we forfeited in the garden through our sin and rebellion, God seeks to restore in the person of His Son and through His saving work. And what did that mean for Jesus? What did He have to do to obtain the Spirit of God? Well, He had to pay for sin. He had to pay for sin on the cross. He had to suffer and die what we snakes deserve for our rebellion and corruption. The Lord Jesus Himself had to suffer and die. That's how He could baptize with the Spirit. It cost Him His life. That was the price that had to be paid, what the Father demanded, what divine justice required. And so Jesus died a painful, shameful, cursed death. He had to be crucified. You can think of it like this, the ax in God's hand came down upon His life. and cut him down and the fire of God's judgment came around him and consumed him. And so Jesus paid the price of our deliverance, of our redemption, of our salvation for the Holy Spirit to be able to come back into our life. And Jesus, He paid that price in full and He paid it effectively and we know that because on the third day, He rose from the dead. He ascended to heaven. Remember how ten days later on the day of Pentecost, He received from the Father the Spirit? That's how Peter says it in Acts 2. He received the Spirit from the Father and He in turn poured out the Spirit on the New Testament church. And remember when that Spirit came, He came with the symbol of fire, tongues of fire on the heads of the apostles. That was Jesus beginning to baptize with the Spirit and with fire. And ever since, ever since Christ has been at work through His Spirit to save His people throughout the world, throughout time and throughout place, He's been at work through His Spirit and Word bringing sinners to repentance. You know, more so than John could ever do. Jesus, through His Spirit, is able to do. Bring a sinner from out of darkness into light. Awaken a sinner out of his death and bring him to life. Turn one who is so steeped in his sin to become someone who confesses his sin and loves the Lord Jesus Christ as his Redeemer and Savior and Lord. It's all through Jesus baptizing us with the Holy Spirit. We don't turn on our own. We turn by the grace, power, and Spirit of God. He gives us what we cannot do. He gives repentance to His people. And when we repent, then we receive the Spirit into our hearts and lives. What a gift. Peter will say on the day of Pentecost, repent and confess your sin and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And among other things, that Spirit when He comes into us, He's like a fire. And He's a fire to shine in us. Fires give light. And He's a fire to refine us. Fires purify. And that's what happens in every Christian. The Lord Jesus Christ, He's doing that even now. And so He will do to the very end. And what's all important is that He does so in us, in you, and in me, even now, even today. Because notice how John applies all this to the people in front of Him. He wants them to think about these things, and He wants them to think about themselves in view of the end. So in verse 17, He changes the image, and He speaks now about a winnowing fan in Christ's hand, and how He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor. It's a picture, it's an image that people would understand, because when they harvested the stalks of grain, they threw them on the threshing floor, and then they had oxen and they had an implement that they would pull over the stocks of grain and they would thresh those stocks of grain to loosen the kernels from all the stocks. But when it was threshed, it was all very messy still. There was lots of chaff mixed in with the wheat. Chaff is like pieces of shell and stock and soil and whatever else. I suppose you could go through on your hands and knees and sort it all out like you maybe sort out Lego, but that would take a long, long time. And so what they would do is they would winnow it. And on a windy afternoon, they would take a large fork and they would lift up piles of wheat and chaff into the air. And the heavier kernels of wheat would fall to the earth and the wind would blow all the chaff away. And the point is very simple. When Christ comes through His work, there will be a great separation. On the one hand, He will gather His wheat into His barn, which means every sinner saved by grace through faith as confirmed also, evidenced in a life of repenting, seeking to fill in the valleys, as it were, and to level the mountains and to make the crooked straight and the rough ways smooth. When you're a Christian, you want nothing in your life to prevent communion with God. And every one of whom that's true, through the Lord's mercy and with the help of His Spirit, every single one, He will gather into His barn. Now you might think, what's that? Who wants to live in a barn? But it's a metaphor. It's a picture of the blessing of everlasting salvation. It's God bringing Bringing the sheaves of his wheat home to glory. Someday to enjoy the new heaven and earth. You see what reason to take John's preaching so very seriously. Because so much is to be gained. So much is to be received and reveled in. And yet at the same time, something else. John mentions the chaff. In fact, he ends with that. The chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. Did you see the pictures coming out of Los Angeles County? I'm sure you have. What a fire. For a few days this past week, it was 0% contained. It was burning out of control everywhere. Lives were lost. Thousands of homes have been destroyed. For a time, it was an unquenchable fire. It's been a terrifying week. Our hearts go out to the people there, we should pray for them. How many have lost everything to that unquenchable fire? Now eventually, though, that fire will burn out. But someday there will be a truly unquenchable fire. And maybe, again, maybe it's metaphor, but the reality will not be less than the metaphor. The reality will never be less. For all those who will not turn to the Lord. who will not believe in Christ and repent of their sin. For all those is coming in infinite misery and woe and everlasting burning far worse than anything we have ever seen with our eyes or on the screen. The Lord's axe will cut them down and they will be thrown into the fire and they will burn forever and the Lord will do it. Paul says elsewhere in One of his letters, Jesus is coming in flaming fire to take vengeance on those who do not know God and who do not obey the gospel of Christ. And John here is preaching and he's telling us that this one is coming. Christ is coming. He proclaims it. Later John will see him and John will say, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Because yes, Jesus did come. He came. And truly so much has happened since. So that now what are we waiting for? His coming again. And then when He comes, everything John says here will be fulfilled in an ultimate way. Christ will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor. You have a barn floor that's dirty? You go in and you sweep it clean so there's not a shred of straw or hay or wheat left. When Christ comes, not a single human being will escape His notice. Everyone will appear before Him, all who have ever lived, and the outcome will be one or the other, gathered into the barn for glory or burned with unquenchable fire. All this to say, congregation, how serious these things are, how wonderful for those who hear and believe and repent, but for those who will not, how fearful. How do you respond to the preaching of John this afternoon? His faithful gospel preaching, as we may hear it from long ago, but as we may hear it now in the light, in the full gospel light of Christ, how do you respond? It's a question for all of us. It's also a point to teach our kids. Yes, you too, Reese and Kim, teach your little boy. Be like John to Theo, preparing the way of the Lord, telling Theo his need. and pointing him to the one who alone can meet his need, urging him to repent and believe in Christ Jesus alone through whom he may be forgiven and someday gathered up into that eternal glorious sheaf of wheat that inhabits the new heaven and new earth. Oh, and tell him something else. Tell him he was baptized. And in that moment, God said thereby that this promise is real and true. When we turn to Him and when we trust in Him, He will never put us to shame. He will gather us into His barn. Let that encourage all of us and drive us to look to Christ and live. Amen. Let us pray. What a day that must have been, Lord God, so long ago when that man dressed in camel's hair and eating locusts and wild honey raised his voice and began to say, prepare the way of the Lord. And so many came to Him and multitudes even were baptized by Him and He urged them to repent, to bear fruit worthy of repentance and not to presume. And Lord, we need to hear that same message. We can so easily presume and we can so easily be unrepentant by nature. By nature, we too are a brood of vipers. And we pray, Lord, as we consider these things, we may humble ourselves before You, and by Your grace and Spirit also hear this call. And even as it is repeated throughout the Scriptures, in turn, every one of us to turn from our sin, every sin, every single sin in our life. Help us to hear the urgency of John. The axe is laid to the roots of the trees. If we will not bear good fruit, we will be cut down and destroyed. We thank you that John didn't just preach this, but he preached also the coming one, the one mightier than him, the one whose sandals none of us is worthy to untie, who came to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. who purchased the Spirit by His own suffering death on the cross, enduring the judgment that we deserve, overcoming sin and death with His resurrection, and pouring out the Spirit at Pentecost. We pray for that work of the Spirit even now among us, for those, Lord, who up till now have not repented. Oh, work in their lives to bring them to conviction and to conversion. For those who have repented but have strayed, have slid in back, are caught in some sin or another. And Lord, we can so easily be caught in some sin or more even. And we pray, help us to break free of it, to turn from it. Save us from our sins. And we pray, bring us into that day when you might gather us into your barn. Yes, that none of us here be chaffed. None of us here someday be cast into that unquenchable fire. Even as we pray about this, Lord, we think of those who have grown up in this church, who have been baptized and who have been taught, maybe even have confessed the faith and yet have left, left us for this present world. Lord, our hearts break for them. We pray for them even now that you might be mindful of them, merciful to them, and make them to think about the things they have been taught and bring them still to repentance while it is yet the day of grace. Finally, we pray for the people of Los Angeles County once more. Even as the fires continue to rage and the destruction continues in so many ways unabated, Lord, how terrifying to see and to hear about these things. We pray for mercy, for relief, and for the people of that place and beyond, that even this calamity, through this judgment, you might work to bring them to yourself. Help your church in that place, your people there. who may be doing all they can to bring the gospel in the midst of that destruction. Thank you for this service. Watch over us as we go from here. Bless our fellowship and be with us as we return to our homes. Strengthen us for all that's to come in this new week. And we pray this all in Jesus' name and in the forgiveness of our sin, even for all who turn to Him and trust in Him. Amen. Our closing psalter number will be 140 and 141. We'll sing from both selections, 1 in 3 of 140 and 1 of 141, and we'll use the tune of 140. And then our doxology will be 228 verse 3. But now I invite you to stand.