Okay, children, I want to ask you if over this holiday time you've done anything wrong. Anything at all? Oh, you are wonderfully honest. That's great. Do you want to tell us what it was? No, you don't have to do that. But I want to ask you this. How did your mum and dad feel when you did something wrong? Did they know about it? Oh, well, perhaps I can have a word with them later, can I? I want to tell you something I did wrong years ago. When I was at school, I used to go on a school bus. And there were many school buses at our school, and at the end of the school day, we had to line up in lines. Skipton bus, Sherwood bus, other buses that went to different areas. And there was always a teacher supervising our bus lines. And this particular night, there was a man who was a fearsome teacher. He was tall, had big thick glasses, big black bushy eyebrows, and he had a big wobbly Adam's apple. His name was Mr. Walsh, but you know what we called him? We called him Snooks. And everybody was a bit afraid of him. Well, I don't know what happened, But I think I spoke during that time or said something to somebody next to me and he came over and he shook his big long finger at me and he said, boy, come and see me tomorrow. Well, I don't think I got much sleep that night. And the next morning, I knew that at the morning tea break, he'd be walking across the field to go to the tea room. And when he did so, I went up to him and said, sir, you told me to come and see you today. Oh, he said, oh, oh, that's all right, he said, just forget about it. You know, when we do things that we know are wrong, a little voice inside us tells us about that, doesn't it? A little voice that's called conscience. And it can make us very unhappy. And, you know, when we do something wrong, not just against a school teacher or mom and dad, but when we do something against God too, His voice in our hearts convicts us that we've done something wrong. But you know what, the Bible tells us that when we go to God, we don't need to walk across a field at morning tea break. We can go to God anytime and we can say, God, I am sorry for what I've done. Will you forgive me? And he will say, just like that teacher of old, it's all right. It's all right. I forgive you. I wash you of your sins. Tonight, we're gonna hear about John the Baptist. Have you heard of John the Baptist before? Have you heard mom and dad tell you about John the Baptist? John the Baptist was quite a character. If I was John the Baptist tonight, I'd probably have a big shaggy beard. I would hold out my hand and say to you, look, this was my dinner that I'll have after the service tonight. There'll be locusts here. Would you like to eat locusts? Ah, no, I wouldn't like to eat locusts also. And I'd be wearing, not a shirt like this, but I'd be wearing a rough shirt of camel's hair. John the Baptist, a wonderful character. But he had a very, very special place. God had a special work for him to do. And I want you to listen closely tonight and remember also the story I've told you about the teacher who was kind to forgive me for what I'd done wrong. Okay, you do that? Let's pray together, shall we? Father, we know that every one of us, even these little children, do have sinful hearts and often we sin against you. And we thank you for your amazing mercy and love that, through Jesus, has provided a way for our sins to be taken away and buried, as it were, in the depths of the sea. So tonight, help us to see how we need to walk humbly with you, day by day, receiving your grace and forgiveness. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's turn again, shall we, to the word of God, this time to the gospel according to Luke. Luke's gospel, chapter three, where we pick up Luke's account of the ministry of John the Baptist. All four gospel writers do refer to the ministry of John the Baptist, each in a slightly different and rather unique way. And here we read in Luke chapter three, verses one to six, Luke's beginning of his record of John's ministry. Luke chapter three and verses one to six. Hear the word of God. In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Echuria and Trachonitis, and Licinius tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah in the wilderness, And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. So far we read God's word, let's again just pray for His special help. Lord, send the light, of your countenance, the illumination of your blessed Holy Spirit to us tonight, that we may see and hear, that we may believe and be saved, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, in these words, the writer Luke begins an account of the ministry of Jesus. Up until this time, he's told about the announcement of his birth, He's told us about the birth of John, he's told us about the naming of John, and he's told us also about the prayer of John's father, a wonderfully prophetic and insight prayer in the power of the Holy Spirit. But here, he begins to tell us of John's ministry. And as he does so, we might say he's wearing three hats. The first hat he wears is that of an historian. Luke wants us to know when John the Baptist began his ministry. But instead of saying 26 or 27 AD, rather he locates the ministry of John with the reign and rule of Roman officials, of local territorial leaders, and also of the religious leaders of his day. That, in fact, is what the prophets used to do as well. They would say, Isaiah, who ministered in the days of such and such, such and such, such and such. And Luke does this in order that, number one, we may have pretty precise dating of when this took place. But secondly, Luke acts as an historian to tell us that the things he's going to talk about actually took place in concrete, real history. In other words, they are not fables, they're not dreams, they're not a story that made up. This is history, and Luke wants us to know that. We learn from the very first chapter of Luke's gospel that Luke, whom we understand to have been in fact a medical doctor, was a very precise man. He gave careful search and examination of the various eyewitness accounts and documents that have been written concerning the birth and ministry of Jesus. And so here he reflects that. He does a similar thing at the time of the announcement of John's birth, the announcement of Jesus. But here, quite specifically, He tells us about Caesar, he tells us about the regional rulers, and he tells us about the religious authorities. So much for Luke as an historian. If we jump down a couple of verses, we also see that Luke is acting as a biblical theologian. Biblical theologians focus upon the way in which the unfolding story of God's saving activity takes place in history and in the different parts of the Bible. Biblical theologians are concerned that we understand the events at any particular time belong to a great overarching single united story. And here Luke is telling us that John the Baptist's ministry was the fulfillment of what Isaiah prophesied concerning the coming of God to his people, a coming that indeed takes place in the Lord Jesus. So Luke's an historian, Luke's a biblical theologian, but Luke is also an evangelist and a gospel writer. And he reflects that in that he tells us of the nature of John's ministry. And you see that in verse three in particular, he went into all the region around Jordan proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Now, while it would perhaps be of some scholarly interest to learn a little bit more about these various characters that are mentioned in the opening verses, and perhaps to dip further into Isaiah's prophecy, tonight I want us to focus our attention particularly on Luke's brief description of John's ministry. And you see that he condenses the broader ministry of John into a ministry of a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And that's the thought I want us to look at tonight. I want us to look particularly at John's baptism. And to do so in two ways, to look firstly at its distinctiveness, and then secondly, its significance. So that's the two headings that I want us to explore this under. Firstly, the distinctiveness of John's baptism. It's important to see this. Sometimes in our minds, we think of baptism and we think of it only in terms of it may be covenant baptism, believer's baptism, or essentially Christian baptism. But here we are thinking about John's baptism. And some people ask the question, what is the relationship between John's baptism and Jesus' baptism? Well, I think that these words give us a key to that or some way of seeing into that. Let's pick up again back in verse 2 where Luke tells us that during the ministerial reigns of these people that he's nominated, the word of the Lord, where have we got, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. Now let's just ponder that for a moment before we look at the particular character of his baptism. The Word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. There are definite echoes of the Old Testament call of prophets in these words. In the Old Testament, again and again, we hear these words repeated, and the Word of the Lord came to so-and-so, came to Isaiah, came to Jeremiah, came to Ezekiel. It belonged to the very essence of a prophetic ministry that men, ordinary human men and beings like us, received a word from God, be it through visions, be it through an audible voice even, or whatever way, we're not sure. But nevertheless, the prophets were conscious that they stood in the counsel of God and that God was revealing something of His mind, heart, purpose, and will that he wanted communicated to his people. And we're told that this is what happened to John. It's significant that he was in the wilderness when this occurred. If you were to go back to chapter 1 and verse 80, you would learn there that John, after his birth, grew and became strong in spirit and was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel. He wasn't just one wandering on one particular day in the wilderness, going as it were on a hike in that desolate region, probably in the southern part of the region of Jordan, near the Dead Sea. It is a wild, desolate place. It is below sea level, piping hot. John probably lived there for a period of time, a considerable period of time. If his parents were aged when he was born, one can imagine that they perhaps died when he was still quite a young man. And perhaps from that time on, he went to dwell in the wilderness. We do know this, that when he made his appearance, he didn't make the appearance of a man who had gone with a pack for a hike in the desert. He appeared as somebody who was an ascetic, a hermit. He had a cloak of, a garment of camel hair, a leather belt, and as we've already mentioned to the children, he had a diet of locusts and wild honey. The desert for John was a place away from the hustle and bustle of ordinary life. Those of you that have watched any episodes of The Chosen, have seen an attempt to recreate what life was like in the days of Jesus. And you can't help but notice that in cities like Jerusalem, there's hustle and bustle and noise and there's donkeys and animals and smells and all the rest. The wilderness is a place apart from all of those things. It is a place particularly attuned for people to meet with God. Jesus, we know more than once, went into lonely places, up into mountains. He went away from people to be with God. And I think it's not wrong to assume that John, this man who was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother's womb, when he went into the wilderness area, met with God, was led by the Spirit of God, and became very intimate with God. And his heart was deeply attuned to the heart of God at that particular time. But the wilderness also has another significance in Israel's life. It was into the wilderness that God led his people after bringing them out of Egypt. You remember there was a straighter and more direct route up to the promised land of Canaan than the one they took, but God led them through the wilderness to Mount Sinai, where he covenanted with his people. The wilderness was a place of covenant, a place where God married, as it were, his people to himself. It was also a place of testing subsequently to see if they would trust him and follow him. The wilderness, a strategic place. Even Jesus, when he went to teach his disciples and he went into a barren, desolate place and 5,000 people came to him, and he fed them in the wilderness. The wilderness was, we might also say, a place instinctively of the renewal of covenant, the renewal of bond between God and his people. So here's John. He's in the wilderness. When the word of God comes to him, We don't know what God said to him, but we do know what happened as a result, and we can perhaps infer from that what God said to him. Look again at the words of our text. Word tells us that he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. He went about proclaiming a baptism, we're told. The word proclaim is the same word for a herald, a preacher of the gospel. John went about proclaiming a baptism of repentance for forgiveness. Now, baptisms in Israel were not completely unknown. We understand from history, from historical accounts and so on, that there was what was known as a proselyte baptism. This is sometimes contested, but it was understood that when a Gentile wanted to become a Jew, if they were a male, they were circumcised, but they were also baptized, symbolic of cleansing, the cleansing from all the uncleanness of Gentile life in order to become appropriately a Jew. But then there's even a more broad sense in which the term baptism was used. You find it in Mark 7, verse 4, where Jesus and his disciples are being challenged by Pharisees for not washing their hands when they come in from the marketplace. And Mark tells us that there was a tradition amongst the Jews for cleansing, ceremonial cleansing and washings. And he uses the term baptisms. He speaks about the washing of couches and of various implements and articles and so on. Baptism is a term Mark uses for ceremonial cleansing. What is distinct about John's baptism, however, is that it was a baptism which is being issued and proclaimed for Jews. By nature and instinct, Jews thought that as the covenant people of God, they didn't need cleansing. But John says, no, no, that's not correct. There is a call, a summons from God for you to be washed, for you to be cleansed. Now, it is here called particularly a baptism of repentance. And that's very significant. It's a baptism that was connected with them, commanding them, calling them to repent. to turn from their sins, to turn from their unbelief, to turn from their outward practices of formalistic religion, and for their hearts to turn back to God. It was one of the things that the angel Gabriel spoke about John. He said when he prayed, he spoke to Zechariah, his father, he will turn the hearts of many in Israel to the Lord their God. And that's what John was doing. He went out and called the people of Israel back to God, to a baptism of repentance. And it was a baptism of repentance specifically for the forgiveness of sins. It wasn't that the baptism itself effected that cleansing and forgiveness. It was a baptism that required repentance. And throughout the Old Testament scriptures, we find again and again, God's readiness to pardon and forgive those who will sit down and reason together with him and who will turn from their wicked ways. So John was calling the nation back to God, calling them to repentance, and administering a baptism, the very washing action of which signified the forgiveness and cleansing of sin. Now in that regard, if I can pause just for a moment, it's helpful for us to consider the distinction between John's baptism and that which Jesus commanded his apostles, his disciples to administer and that we administer in the church today. John's baptism was essentially a preparatory baptism, a baptism that was preparing a people who were humble and penitent and lowly to receive the Messiah King. The baptism that Jesus commanded was a baptism not of preparation, but a baptism of fulfillment. The same in significance in many respects, but nevertheless distinct. And one of the ways in which we see a distinction, it's not a totally different necessarily baptism. I'm not sure whether it's correct to say that, but there are similarities, there are continuities, but there is a distinctness. And I think that that's brought out in the 19th chapter that Pastor Ejima referred to this morning. We learn in Acts 19 that the apostle Paul, on his third missionary journey, stopped in Ephesus where he encountered some believers. And we're told, he asked the question, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And they said, no, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit. And he said, into what then were you baptized? And they said, into John's baptism. And Paul said, John baptized with the baptism of repentance. telling people to believe in the one who was to come. You see, it was preparatory, a baptism of repentance, telling them to get ready for the one who was to come after him, that is Jesus. On hearing this, we're told they were baptized in, or more correctly, into the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. John, when he was speaking of his own baptism, said, I baptize you with water, but the one coming after me is greater than me, and he's going to baptize with the Holy Spirit. And this is what the baptism of Jesus signifies. It's important and helpful for us to see that the baptism that Jesus commanded is not simply a baptism of repentance to prepare for the coming of the Messiah. It is rather a baptism into the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. A baptism which signifies union with Christ and through Christ with Father and Son, and in that union, all the blessings of the covenant that are in Jesus. Yes, forgiveness of sins. Christian baptism does reflect washing of sins, but more than that, it is a baptism into association, into union with. It's a baptism in which the name of the triune God is put upon us, and we become his, and we are brought into a living union with Jesus through faith. And part of that living union through faith involves the gift of the Holy Spirit. And that's why when these people were baptized in or into the name of Jesus, and Paul laid his hands upon them, they received the Spirit, because that's what John had predicted. He, Jesus, would baptize with the Spirit. Sure, there was water connected with the baptism into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but it was not a baptism of repentance to prepare for the coming of the Savior. It was a baptism of fulfillment. in which all the blessings that we have in Christ, in the triune God, are signified as becoming ours. So that's the distinctiveness of John's baptism. Let's ponder just a little more its significance. Its significance lies in the fact that it was a baptism to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord. Those verses we read in Isaiah 40 are magnificent because they do speak of God coming to his people. Not his people coming to God, but God coming through a road in the desert and the highway to be with his people. And the voice that cries in the wilderness says, prepare this road, prepare this way for the Lord. That's what John the Baptist's ministry was about. Every valley shall be filled. Every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways. I was reminded as I read and pondered this again of my recent journey to the South Island and back of two particular places. One of them, and many of you will know this, just south of Turangi, as you go into the desert road, you go through a series of ups and downs where streams have cut into the volcanic ash layers, and there are twists and turns, 35Ks or you're allowed to travel up and down. On my way back in particular, there was a congestion of cars and we traveled terribly slowly up and over this terrible windy part. Contrast that with what I experienced down on the South Island as I drove from Geraldine to Ashburton. I love the inland route, the scenic route there. It takes you on two roads, one briefly out to a major road that leads through Karoo and various other places. And for kilometers, you've got straight roads with no cars, just magnificent to travel on. You'd say boring, perhaps. Canterbury Plains, boring. Well, After driving in Auckland, it's a blessing. Now, those two, those two kinds of roads are reflected in what John's saying here. He's saying, Israel, people of God, so-called, because of your sloth, because of your iniquity, because of your formalism, because you draw near to God only in your lips and not in your hearts, Your lives are really like, if God were to come to you in this connection, he would have to travel through a terribly winding up and down, because that's what you are. That's to come amongst you and live amongst you, he would be coming to a very winding, the road would be terribly winding up and down. Rather, make it straight, make it straight. Now, Here the imagery of a literal path or roads being used, but we know from the nature of John's ministry that really what God's talking about is not physical road building, not road works with 30K signs on them. Rather, he's talking about moral and spiritual renewal and reformation in the lives of God's people. And that's what repentance is. He is calling people back to God. I'm sure that John, as he preached, was a fiery prophet. And in fact, next week, You will hear God willing as Kalu picks this up and looks at specific challenges that God gives to Pharisees and Sadducees who come in their pride, but in their impenitence, John refused to baptize them. And he gives the impression of being a fiery prophet. In fact, we're told again from the angel Gabriel, he would come in the spirit of Elijah. And Elijah was indeed a courageous, reforming prophet. John the Baptist was like that. And I'm sure that that's the character of his ministry here. So John, as he called upon people to be baptized and to repent, he was calling upon them to get their hearts right with God. And that's really what the idea of repentance is. Repentance is, and it's being defined often as a change of mind. It's more than just a change in our thinking, it's a change in the way we live as a result of having a change in our minds. It's variously defined. It's defined in a very lengthy and full way in the Westminster Confession of Faith. I did write it in my notes, but I won't read it to you because it's so compressed. It's wonderful. I encourage you to look at and study, particularly the second article on that. But rather than do that, I want to draw your attention just for a second to one of the clearest Old Testament pictures in my mind of what repentance involves, and that's connected with the dedication of the temple that Solomon built. In 2 Chronicles chapter 6, and many of you will know these words, particularly in chapter 7, in 2 Chronicles chapter 6, we learn of the temple being completed and of Solomon issuing a mighty, a wonderful prayer to God. And he said, look, I know the heaven of the heavens can't contain you. Much less can this house that I built contain you, our God. But nevertheless, may it please you that when we, your people, meet in this place and call upon your name, that you would hear us. And he goes through a number of situations where somebody has sinned against their neighbor. when blight or disease affects the land, when the heavens are shut up and become brass, when armies come against them that seem to be overpowering and overwhelming, and he says, look, when we meet in this place and call upon, hear, O Lord, and when you hear, forgive. and when you forgive, bless and deliver us. So Solomon makes this glorious prayer. It's again worth reading and meditating on. And in chapter seven, we have God's response. And he says this, when I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain or command the locusts to devour the land or send pestilence among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins, and heal their land. Well-known verses, often quoted in connection with revival, but they're best seen in their connection, especially with chapter six, and seen as God's faithfulness to his covenant with his people. But I want you to notice the three things that God says are foundational to Him hearing and healing. They're well worthwhile just pondering for a second because I think they lead us into the heart of what repentance is about. If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, that's the first thing. Repentance always involves a humbling of oneself. Now, when we talk about humbling, we think of lowering. We think of being brought down to a lower place, getting off our high horse, getting off and being prepared to acknowledge perhaps we haven't got it all right. In Romans 3, we learn that the law of God ultimately is to sit every man's mouth silent, to shut our mouths from self-justification, self-defense, and to humble ourselves. James 4, verse 6 in the Older Translation says, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. The first step is to recognize the authority of God, the truth of his law and of his word. And instead of going our way and justifying ourselves, to come beneath the mighty hand of God and acknowledge his truth, his word, his law. That's where repentance begins in humbling ourselves. There's a beautiful Psalm 138, verse six, which says, though the Lord is on high, he is near the lowly, but he knows the haughty from afar off. I love those words. He's near to the lowly, to those who take a lower place and humbly submit to him. But he knows the haughty, but he knows them only from afar off. He's not close to them. He's not near them. He doesn't have fellowship with them. So that's the first thing. If my people, who are called by my name, humble themselves and then pray and seek my face, here's the second thing. When we pray, we turn to God. We talk to God. We address God. We call upon the name of the Lord. When we are walking in ways that are not the Lord's, typically our backs are towards God. Typically we are not prayerful people. And one of the evidences of repentance is that people convicted of their sins begin to turn to God. They call upon Him and notice this, they seek His face. I love that. You know, in the Old Testament, again, it's sometimes said that God hides his face from his people in their disobedience and in their sinfulness. And what that means is that God hides himself and keeps himself away from the intimacy. We talk about face to face. Today, we can communicate with people by email, by telephone, by varying other ways, WhatsApp, et cetera. And yet we say, there's a difference between that and face-to-face. In face-to-face, we actually look at each other. We're present with each other. Our eyes are open to each other. And this is what God says, when my people humble themselves and pray and seek my face, that is they seek immediate encounter, personal engagement with me, And then the third thing he says, if they leave their wicked ways, if they resolve to leave behind what they've been doing that's wrong and make a clean break with the sin, then God says, I will hear, I will forgive, I will heal. That's beautiful. And you know, it hasn't changed. It hasn't changed from the Old Testament to the New Testament. The doorway into the kingdom of God, as Christ proclaimed it, is still repent. Mark 1 15 tells us that in those days, Jesus appeared to the people and said, look, the time is fulfilled. And he spoke about the kingdom of heaven being at hand, and then his next words were repent and believe the gospel. You turn to the last book of the New Testament. the book of Revelation, and in those opening chapters where Jesus addresses the seven churches of Asia, how many times does he say, repent, repent? That's addressed to even believers. There's still a place in Christian life. Certainly we enter the kingdom through repentance. There is a repentance unto life. whereby as sinners away from God, we turn to Him and embrace His mercy in Jesus, and we have repentance unto life. But there is also a repentance that involves the continuance and enjoyment of life. And so Jesus says, repent or I'll come and fight against you with the sword that comes out of my mouth. Repent, repent. Repentance is to be part of our daily lives. Repentance is the way of preserving life with God. Nobody says that clearer than John in his first letter. He says, look, if we claim to fellowship with God, to be intimate with God, and yet we walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But he says, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of his Son cleanses us from all unrighteousness. There we are. Same thing, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us. Friends, this spirit of lowliness, of humility before God, is something that belongs to the very essence of us as His creatures, living and walking with Him. God hates arrogance. He hates the ahorti, the proud, an abomination to the Lord our God. He calls us to live and walk humbly with Him. Perhaps I can finish just by drawing attention to some wonderful words in perhaps the little-known prophet Micah. Some of you all know these words. Chapter six and verse eight of Micah, he says this. He has told you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and what? To walk humbly with your God. That's what we're called to do, to walk humbly with our God. And then as he closes this wonderful prophecy, Micah has these words to say, who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression? Friends, this is astonishing and we won't be able to comprehend it until we see the majesty and purity and holiness of God. He is light and in Him is no darkness at all. And yet he has made and found a way for those of us who are soiled by sin to be acceptable to him, to become his loved children and to live in his presence. It is amazing. It is truly amazing. Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgressions for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. Hallelujah. What a wonderful, wonderful God. John the Baptist came proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The scriptures throughout tell us that our God is a God who delights in steadfast love, who delights to pardon iniquity, who casts the sins of his people in the depths of the sea. If only they come, confess him, and look to him in Jesus Christ. Friends, I wonder tonight if you and if I, as we begin this year, do know the shining face of God looking upon us. It's been one of my experiences in the South. Again, I don't say this with arrogance, with pride or anything. But just how quick people are to talk about the affairs of daily life and even of church life, but how few people freely and willingly share their life with God. Now, perhaps they say that's private, it's intimate, it's personal. I cannot help but wonder if often our problem is it is empty. I remember as a university student, there was one of our fellow Christian students who was a very devout, pious young man. I've never known anybody to this day like him. And every time I went to visit him, I used to tremble and think, wow, besides this giant, I have got nothing in me. Perhaps you're feeling a wee bit like that as well. Friends, Jesus came to give us an abundance of life, not just forgiveness, not just life in the future, but life now abundant. He also promised that when the Holy Spirit came, the Spirit would enter into us and out of us would flow rivers and streams of living water. That's the calling we have. But it comes to us, remember this again, only as we live lives by the grace of God and only possible through the enabling strength of God and Christ by His Spirit. But as we live lives that are lowly and humble, devout and holy. So I commend to you this year. God waits. God is abundantly ready to forgive and pardon. He is slow to anger, the scriptures say. But he does wait for us to confess our sins, to acknowledge our failures, and he will forgive us and cleanse us. So as we go into this year, may it be with humble hearts, loving justice, doing mercy, but walking humbly with our God. Let's pray together, shall we? Her father, John the Baptist, life and ministry still speaks to us today. And that there should be such a thing as the forgiveness of sins is a marvel. And tonight we celebrate that. We wonder at it and bless and thank you for it. Lord, keep us from walking with our backs turned to you. cause us to seek your face earnestly and to delight in it shining upon us. Forgive us our transgressions and give us a thirst for holy living that enjoys the presence of God, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the life of Jesus in us and through us. We pray in his name. Amen.