Luke chapter 3. Luke chapter 3, we're going to read the first six verses, is the passage of scripture that the Lord has set in my heart and pray that we might be able to share something with you that would be of help to you in your walk with the Lord if you know Him. would be of help to you if you don't know Him to spur you towards seeking Him and finding Him for yourself. We've looked at the first two chapters and we want to begin now chapter 3 of the Gospel of Luke. Luke writes, 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 Etchuria and Trachonitis, and Lysanias 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 it went to 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 paths 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." I feel it important to continue to remind us as we make our way through this book of Luke, and truly I don't know if we'll go all the way through the book or not. We want to leave that with the Lord, but As we make our way through it, and as far as we might make our way through it, I feel it important to always remind us of Luke's intended purpose in writing. And you know this, we've talked about it many times now, but his intention was so that Theophilus might be certain. He states that openly in the beginning. So everything that you read in the Gospel of Luke is within the context of Luke talking to Theophilus, in writing to him, and of course by extension to us, as God has preserved this Gospel of Luke down to us today and has been deemed, and rightly so, inspired by the Holy Spirit. And Luke, in writing though, he says, Theophilus, my desire is that you would be certain, that you would know, I think that's important to say and important to remind us, because in much of Christianity it can, and maybe we might say has become the idea, there is this idea within the broader context of Christianity that our religion is one about which one can't be certain. That faith is something that is nebulous, that is something we can't really grab onto. But Luke writes differently here, and he says, Theophilus, I'm writing this so that you can be certain. The Hebrew writer tells us that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen in chapter 11, verse 1. So you see, there is a reality to the Christian faith that has at its core a certainty. a certainhood, a confidence. And many today, I think, are living in a Christian culture that has certainly been attacked in many ways. Science has been proclaimed to be at odds with the teaching of the Bible. I don't accept that premise and we don't have time to get into it today. But we have this idea that there is that that we can be certain about in the material world. And somehow over the years, because this has not always been true, but over the years it has become the idea that the spiritual world is something that we can't be certain about. But that's not at all the idea and the mindset of Luke. He says, Theopolis, I'm writing these things so that you can be certain. And so we start out again from that same foundation today in our thought. And if we had a title today, it would be The Prepared Way of the Lord. The Prepared Way of the Lord. And it is a way about which we can be certain. And Luke, in writing here again, notice he spends time referencing, he references the secular rulers of the day. He says to Theophilus, he's going to now tell us about John the Baptist. He's going to begin to write to Theophilus and tell him about him and about the message that he brought, which was the prepared way of the Lord. But Luke begins and says, Theophilus, it's when Caesar was in his 15th year. You remember, it's when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea. Herod, the son of Herod the Great, is tetrarch of Galilee. His stepbrother, Philip, is tetrarch of the region of Etruria and Trachonitis. And Lysanias, tetrarch of Abilene. By the way, all three of those areas ruled at one time by Herod's father, Herod the Great, the one who would put all the babies two years old and younger that were mailed to death. Well, he's passed away, and now these three, his sons, are in charge of the area that he was in charge of. And so Luke writes and says, these are the secular rulers that were in position of power when John the Baptist came, proclaiming the gospel of the Son of God. And he ties them to that, and he brings in that historical record. But not only the secular rulers, Luke references the high priests. And these are things, again, that can be coordinated back, and study can be done, and we can find out when this happened. And some have wondered, about this high priesthood, how can there be two, Annas and Caiaphas? And I don't know that I've got it all straightened out in my mind, but Annas was the high priest and Caiaphas was his son-in-law. Annas is still alive. Caiaphas holds the official office of high priest, but it's much like, one example we might say here is, it's much like when one of our presidents of the United States leaves office, we still call him Mr. President. He still holds that title in a sense. And Annas is not the high priest, but he's in a position of great authority and power still. He's not officially in the role of high priest. Caiaphas is, but Caiaphas is Annas' son-in-law, and if anybody's ever read anything about how that might be construed, Annas is probably really the guy in charge, but Caiaphas is holding the office. And so Luke is telling Theopolis This is the time that John the Baptist came and proclaimed the gospel of the Son of God. Now, why did he do this? Why is this significant? I think there's an important thought here for us to consider. Why did Luke and, by the way, so many other writers of Scripture, why did they take the time to tie their message to a specific set of historical facts in times and places? Why did they name specific people? Why did they name specific times and places? Was it merely to give us a historical record? No, I don't believe that's why. In fact, I would say this, history is tricky and it's written by the way and recorded by all kinds of different people, but I believe, again, under the heading and the context of remembering why Luke is writing, To give Theophilus certainty, or at least so that he might have an opportunity to be certain, I believe these facts and figures, these dates and times and places and people and rulers, both religious and secular, it was to encourage Theophilus to know he can be certain. Go back and reference it, he might say. Again, we've spoken about this before, but here's the thought that underlies this in my mind that I want to present to you today. I believe there is more involved here than merely providing a historical record. Though it's helpful, and though it does allow us to go back and retrace the steps of the New Testament, the reason that these things are there, I believe, is for a greater reason. You see, the way of the Lord, which is a prepared way, the way of the Lord is about more than just a set of ideas and practices. Let me try to connect that, if I can. You see, if Christianity, the way of the Lord, we might call those two things the same. In fact, at one point it was called the way, Christianity. But if Christianity was merely about ideas and principles, if that's all it was about, if Christianity was only about bringing to light the best way for people to live, the best ideas upon which to base a life, then my proposal to you today, my thought for you and for me today is that if that's all Christianity is, then this focus on the historical record in my mind would be largely, if not entirely, unnecessary. And stick with me in this thought. I'm going to struggle getting it across, I feel, but we ask perhaps that the Lord might help us to do the job that's called upon here. Many religions, this is my point here, many religions in the world have ideas and practices. Many do. In fact, probably all of them do, of course. I don't know how you can have a religion without ideas and practices that underlie that religion. But many, if not all, frankly, of those religions outside of Christianity do not depend or reference really even a specific time or a specific person. Their ideas and practices are either all they have or are considered of far greater value than any historical person or place or time. But here's the point, Christianity the way of the Lord, which is a prepared way. We are told in Scripture that at the exact time that God intended for Jesus to come, at that exact point in history, Christ was sent. You see, Christianity is about the person of Jesus Christ, the resurrected Son of God, who is at the right hand of God at this very moment. Jesus gave us in the scripture many ideas and a number of practices, but he was clear in telling us that the point of all of those ideas and practices was him. Him. He is the point of Christianity. Christianity is not a mere moral set of standards. It's not merely an ethical standard, though it certainly contains elements of both. Christianity is about Christ. And yes, it is about the ideas that He presented, but it's only about those ideas because they're ideas He presented. and that He is the end and the point of it all. For 4,000 years, God had given the ability for man to see that there must be a sacrifice in order for sins and offenses against God to be forgiven. You see that all the way back in the Garden of Eden. You certainly see it in the entire law of Moses and the law of the sacrificial system and the feast. It all pointed forward to Christ. But those types and those sacrifices of the Old Testament the Passover, the sin offerings, and all that followed the Law of Moses, they all looked forward, and without Christ, they would be without substance, they would be without meaning, and they would be without point. And today, we look back to that same time when Jesus Himself truly died for man's sin on the cross of Calvary. It's all about Him. It isn't about the ideas merely. It's about Him. Again, Jesus does provide many ideas, but He is the point of them all, and He makes this very clear to us. And I believe that there's a connection here. Luke writing to Theophilus, and again, by extension, you and me, and he says, these historical facts were in play. This is a certain time, and he's pointing us to the idea that we are looking. He's talking to us here about John the Baptist, who himself was looking to the Lamb of God and looking for Him. Jesus Himself makes this clear that Christianity, if you are to follow Jesus, and here's my point as I begin today, if you are to follow Jesus, it is Him you must follow, not merely a subset of His ideas. There's a difference. John, over and over we have these I am statements of Christ. I want to read them for you today. Jesus said in John 6, verse 35, I am the bread of life. I am the bread of life. He doesn't merely provide the bread of life. He is the bread of life. He's not merely a kind of manna, He is the manna. It is by Him that we live and move and have our being. It is Him, He says, Jesus does, I am the bread of life. Not merely the ideas that I espouse for you, but I myself am the bread of life. In chapter 8, verse 12 of John, Jesus says this, I am the light of the world. I am. Not merely what I say, but I am. I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life, because Jesus would say, I am the light. In chapter 10, verse 9, Jesus says, I am the door. I'm the door. I don't merely point you to the door. I don't merely tell you that there is a door. I don't merely show you the door. I don't merely bring you to the door. I'm the door, Jesus says. I am the door. Heaven, the doorway to heaven, is only as wide as Jesus, because He is the door. He is the way. He is how we get from here to there. From here, fallen, sinful man on this side of eternity, to there, heaven with God and His people. It's Jesus. John 10, just two or three verses later, in verse 11, Jesus says, I am the Good Shepherd. I am. Not merely the way of life that I give to you, but I am the good shepherd. I am the one who lays down his life for the sheep. Me. Jesus says. And Luke, writing to Theophilus, we do connect these two ideas and these thoughts in my own mind. They came together. Why is he so meticulous? And why aren't so many other writers meticulous about writing the history? It's because it all grounds the reality of the truth is in this person, Jesus Christ. Because you see, if it weren't about that, you wouldn't need historical detail. If it were merely about a set of ideas and ethics and morals, you simply would espouse those ethics and morals. But here, Luke is saying, no, I'm talking to you about John the Baptist here in chapter 3, who himself is pointing not to merely ideas, but to the Son of God, Jesus Christ. And there's more at play here. I think then we could fully understand it without much more time to discuss it, but let's move on. John 11, verse 25, Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. Me again. I am the resurrection and the life there in John 11, 25. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. Believes in what? Him. Believes in Him. Believes in that Person, the Son of God, who was all man and all God in the incarnation, come to the earth to be the sacrifice for sin. And He says to us, I am the resurrection and the life. And if He could, has not been plain to this point in John 14, verse 6, He clears away all confusion, and I believe any argument contrary to what I'm trying to present to you today, when in John 14, 6, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am. Luke is writing and giving these names. He's talking about Annas and Caiaphas. He's giving you 15th year of Caesar's reign, and Pilate was there, and Philip, and Lysanias. He's giving these names because it roots it to the reality of the man Jesus of Nazareth. born of a virgin. At 12 years old, we've already read about that experience. Just shocking the teachers of the day with his knowledge. And he's about ready to come on the scene. But Luke is presenting this and talking about the prepared way of the Lord. And we'll get to that in a moment. It is a prepared way, but he's rooting it in reality. He's rooting it to a person. He's not anchoring it merely to a set of ideas and principles. You can grab a hold of the ideas and principles and never grab hold of the person of Jesus Christ. It's possible. Lastly, in John chapter 15, verse 1, he says, I am the true vine. I am. Now look, it is true that Jesus taught many ideas and values. Don't misunderstand me. Ideas matter, words matter. That's why the preacher ought to strive to speak words to be understood, to present the ideas that Christ himself presented, because indeed, that's what we've been told to do, is to go and to teach all the things Jesus taught. And what Jesus taught, you want to sum it up, it's more than just words and ideas. He said, meet You teach them about Me. You tell them, I am the way. Not merely a set of ideas, and though He gave them to us, and we ought to value them, and learn them, and understand the ideas He gave, and the practices, by the way, He gave us to observe. We ought to, and here in one week we're going to observe one of those practices. If the Lord delays His coming, we'll be here next Sunday to observe the Lord's Supper, and that's a practice He gave us to observe. But that practice and those ideas that He said and that He taught were to present Himself to us. You know, let's think about this together for a minute. You can possess a number of the values and ideas of Christianity and not be Christian. Look, you can be an honest person and not be Christian. You can be a generous person and not be Christian. You can be a person of integrity and not be Christian. You can be a kind person and not be Christian. You can be, in many ways, aligned with the ideas and principles of Christianity and miss Christianity because it's about Jesus and knowing Him and following Him. And we could say the same things about a number of practices. You can be baptized, a practice we've been given that Jesus himself submitted himself to. You can be baptized and not be Christian because it's about the practice and not the person. Maybe it's about the idea and not the person. Maybe it's about this or that. You can attend church, a practice we've been encouraged to do. Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is. We're not to forsake this, this practice of assembling together to worship the Lord and to hear from Him. But that practice is to bring us to the person. And if we stop at the practice, we've missed the person and thus missed the point. Jesus taught us these things. You know, you can read your Bible, which is a practice we've been taught, and the Scriptures encourage us to do. You can do that and not be Christian. I just want to make that point as we begin here, as we move forward, and we'll move forward quickly. Luke writing to Theophilus and bringing in these historical facts, he only brings them in to establish the veracity of his report because he's going to talk and present to us Christ himself. He's not going to just leave Theophilus with a bunch of moral virtues to try to live his life by. It's not what he's going to do. If that's all he was doing, would he have needed any historical fact? He says, no, Theopolis, you should be an honest person. He could have taught him that without talking at all about Herod, about Caesar, about Annas. Theopolis, you should be honest. You should be a man of integrity. You should be one that people can depend on. He could have done all of that. He wouldn't have needed to bring in any historical context, I don't believe. And that is a thought that I want to present to you today. Now I want to talk to you about this prepared way of the Lord. And I would ask you, as I frequently do, to examine your own heart, not before me. It is not going to be me that one day, sooner or later, you will stand before. So don't examine your heart before me, but examine it before the Lord, and maybe even we might say it this way, before yourself, and be honest. Because this way of the Lord is a prepared way, it was a prepared way both in its bringing initially with John the Baptist, and I believe, spiritually understanding it, the way of the Lord is prepared in our own hearts as well. Luke quoting from Isaiah chapter 40 verse 3 through 5 in the last half of verse 4 through verse 6, and we want to read what Isaiah said. Isaiah chapter 40 verses 3 through 5, a voice cries, In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord. make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill will be made low. The uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." If one was sent like John the Baptist, or as John the Baptist, we should say, if one was sent as John the Baptist to prepare the way of the Lord, then it stands to reason, does it not, that a preparation was needed, something needed to be done to prepare the way of the Lord. And I would say to you today that in your heart and in mine, same or a similar activity follows. There is a preparation that is needed And the first, as we see, the message that John the Baptist came proclaiming, let's read it together in verse 3 of our scripture lesson. John, he went into all the region around Jordan proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. That is the message that John the Baptist came to prepare the way for the Lord, a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. There has been unending debate around that Hebrew word, baptismo or baptistos. The idea, though, seems clear to me. that the idea behind that word baptism, baptisma, baptistos, is an immersion. It is the idea of being completely covered by something. It is to be entirely engulfed, it's to be consumed, it's to be totally overwhelmed with something. And so when you have that word and have that understanding, it's the idea of complete and not partial immersion into something. And then he says this baptism into repentance, and repentance has been defined in a number of ways. I want to read to you. A couple of definitions from Greek language helps, one you're very familiar with, strongs, and then launida, Greek lexicon. Strongs defines the word repentance in the Greek this way, a change of mind, and many have stopped the definition there. A change of mind. But that is not where the definition stops. And this is where the rubber meets the road. Repentance is not just a change of mind. It is a change of mind that results in a change of life. Laonita says this about this word, Repentance is to change one's way of life as a result of a complete change of thought and attitude with regard to sin and righteousness. That's a lot more than just merely changing your mind. That's, my life has changed. Your mind was changed, yes, but the evidence and the demonstration of that change of mind is shown in a change of life. And I'm not talking works, salvation, but I'm talking this, it changes you. This baptism of repentance. So let's put these thoughts together When taken together then, we can read this as an immersion into repentance for the purpose of finding forgiveness. And so then, beyond that, to be or to become a Christian, one must be immersed into a change of mind and heart, we would add, that leads to a change of thought, because I don't believe you can have a change of life without a change of heart as well, that change inwardly, That change of mind that leads to a change of thought, attitude, and way of life as a result of finding forgiveness for our sins. That's what John the Baptist was preaching. That's what he presented to prepare the way of the Lord. And it's what every preacher, through time, has done. If they've done their job well at all, it's the same. It's to prepare the way in the hearts of those that would hear, and to prepare them with that idea. We're looking for repentance, for the forgiveness of sins. which is made possible only through the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross. In fact, in Acts 20, verse 21, We read this, Paul says to the Ephesians, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who paid our penalty and offers us forgiveness, the person of Jesus Christ. Listen, an idea can never forgive you. a moral principle can never wash away your sins. A mere ethic worldview cannot die and shed blood to pay the penalty of sin established by God himself. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. and an idea and a principle and a Christian mindset, even Christian upbringing, these things, if they miss Christ Himself, miss the entire thing. And I will say this as well about that. You and I, we haven't offended an idea. We haven't broken an idea's commandment, a moral commandment. We've not broken a commandment of that merely. We have broken and offended the person of God. And it is through the person of Jesus Christ that we can find forgiveness for the breaking of his law. But try as you might all your days long, you try to live by Christian virtues alone without finding Christ and knowing Him. You've missed it. I say this as we come toward our close today in preparing the way of the Lord. So many beautiful pictures here in the scripture, both certainly in Isaiah when it was originally written and Luke as he quotes it. He says, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight, every valley shall be filled. What is he saying there? Every valley is going to be brought up. No matter how sinful, no matter how destitute, or no matter how hopeless one might feel, the message of the gospel fills every valley and brings it up. so that the Lord's way might be prepared. I don't care how far you might think you've gone and you think you're too far and too sinful and too destitute and too wicked and too evil. I would say to you that you're not far from the kingdom if you recognize that about yourself. It is those who we're going to talk about next that I fear are even a further distance from you, though you may not feel that way. It's those that are proud on the mountaintop. If you've been low in the valley and you realize you're destitute and that you're hopeless, then the gospel, the prepared way of the Lord, will bring the valley that you're in and fill it in and lift it up to where the gospel message can be prepared in even your heart. Every valley is going to be brought up, He says. It shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low. Now listen, the prepared way of the Lord to those who might be successful and proud and admired by others in this life. And no matter how successful you might be or become in this life, the message of the Gospel reveals to us our sin and humbles us to a point where we can find what He said, forgiveness of sin through immersion into repentance and faith. Every mountain, every proud person is going to be brought low. Listen, I'm going to leave you with this. I don't know exactly. I spent some time trying to figure out how to unravel this idea. It's been in my mind for some time. You kind of have two choices. You're not going to end up proud. You're going to be humbled or you're going to be humiliated. There's no end for the human being for pride. It's going to be destroyed. It's going to be ripped right out from underneath you when the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords comes again. That's our choice. The mountain's gonna be brought low, the valley's gonna be filled in, and now what do we have? We have those so low and destitute and brought up to the point that they can see that Christ died for them, the proud have been humbled, and guess what? Both of those people now are on a level playing field, are they not? This is what the prepared way of the Lord does. It brings those high, low, and those low, high, and brings them together. The crooked, we're told, the crooked shall become straight. The word crooked in the Hebrew, the way it was said there in the Old Testament and in the Greek, it's winding. These winding paths. There are many crooked paths in life. There are. You can take them. Maybe you have. Paths that weave and change. Again, likely many, if not all of us, have followed one or more of these winding paths that the enemy would set before us, but the prepared way of the Lord gets rid of the winding path and makes it straight. The message of the Gospel provides for us a straight path, one that is certain, and one that is a path by the way straight to heaven. And this is the path that we go to. And so we live our lives in this way, the prepared way of the Lord, when it's been prepared in our own hearts, we realize that we're headed to heaven. And that path is from point A to point B. And there are all kinds of crooked ways that we can get involved in in life that wind around. And by the way, they wind and they go this way and that way. And there's some new thing that some new star or some new starlet, some new idea, some new social media platform, some new thing that winds you around and winds you around. And after a while, if you live long enough, you're going to find yourself in the exact same place you were when you started. No better off. No further down the road. But the child of God who has had the prepared way of the Lord made in their heart, they're making a path to heaven. and the works that they do in this life. They lay up treasures in heaven. The things as they get sidetracked on the winding path, they're going to be that wood, hay, and stubble that Paul wrote about. They're going to disappear. And those treasures that we have down here, by the way, and we should remember, we're going to enjoy our treasures in heaven where the path ends, not merely here. It's like this almost. I thought about this as I was driving yesterday. It's like, either yesterday or even driving down the week before, I don't remember, this idea came. These heavenly treasures that we seek in our life, it's like God wraps them up, packages them, puts an address on them, and sends them to our forwarding address in heaven. And I'm going to get to unpack them there, but I may not get to unpack them here. Just pack them up and send them to my forwarding address because my forwarding address, my permanent, my residing place isn't here. And so I don't want my treasures here. I want them there. The path has been made straight. The message of the gospel provides us a straight path, one that is certain, which rings true to Luke's intention to provide for Theophilus things that can help him to be certain. Scripture goes on to say, the rough places shall become level. There's all kinds of things, not only are there winding paths in our life that lead us away from God, there's paths that have things on them that would trip us up and cause us to stumble. Rough places, hard to walk in. I'll say this, you try to hold on to the world, I'll say this even to those of us who know the Lord. If you know the Lord and you try to live in this world, you're going to be walking a very rough path and there's going to be things that you're going to stumble on again and again and again. The prepared way of the Lord is one that is not like that, but it makes it, as he says, level. It's the difference between a path that you're having to watch every step and get tripped up seemingly every other step to a path with certain footing. Solid ground. The steps are certain. The prepared way of the Lord is also one where blindness to God is ultimately overcome. The message of the gospel, we are told here in verse 6, proclaims to all, all shall see the salvation of God and they shall. They may not be partakers of it, that's not what it says, is it? It says they shall see it. You'll see the salvation of the Lord. The difference is going to be there will be some separated the right hand of Christ who partook in that salvation and who became saved and those who will see it and judged and condemned by it for all of eternity. The prepared way of the Lord is one where the blindness to God is ultimately overcome to the point that they see Him and acknowledge Him. The message of God is proclaimed to all wherever you may be. at whatever point in time it might be, whether you're in the deep valley of sin, or on the mountaintop of pride, or you're lost on a winding and crooked path that leads nowhere, or you're walking through life continually stumbling on the rough terrain of a fallen world, or previously blinded to God, the prepared way of the Lord will make all of that straight and smooth and clear. But it must be prepared in your heart. You won't see it with these eyes. You'll see evidences that your eyes can observe, but it's your heart that understands. all of this to ultimately see the salvation of God. Further scriptural proof or support of Luke here is found in Titus 2, verse 11, where we read, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people. It's for everyone. Luke is saying to Theophilus, this is not just for the Jew. It's for all, because all one day will see. Do you see today, as we close, the significance of Luke's words in the prepared way of the Lord? In your own heart, Christianity is about the person of Christ. It's about Him. John the Baptist was sent to the nation of Israel to prepare the people for the Lord. John brought a message of repentance Immersion, baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. That's what he brought. That's what it was about. That's what Luke is writing to Theopolis and says, hey, I want you to be certain. Here's what happened. This John the Baptist came, and this was his message, a prepared way And John was going to prepare it. And I pray today by the Holy Spirit of God somehow, if it never has been before, that it is prepared in your heart, even yet today, perhaps for the first time, you've been perhaps on a mountain and God has brought you low to see the truth of the way of salvation. or you've been in destitute despair. Somebody may be holding something over you your whole life long, saying you're not good enough or that you're not following the path the right way, and God reaches down to you with the Holy Spirit and He convicts you of sin, but He offers you in that conviction of sin a hope to finally escape the destitution that you feel without Him. And He brings in, He fills in the valley, and you stand on level footing before God. I pray that's happened today. It's been prepared in your hearts. John brought a message, as we said, of that immersion of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. How can we make it so trivial in our preaching and teaching? When John the Baptist came with such a weighty message, look, this repentance is going to change your life because you're going to find forgiveness from God. You're not merely going to be aligned with a set of ideas. You're going to be in fellowship with a person, the person of God in Jesus Christ. This message is available to all of us, to you and to me. And by the way, I would say this as well, it's available to that person who's crossing your mind right now. It's available to them. It's available. God sent John the Baptist to prepare Israel and prepare a people for the Lord when he came. And we've already preached a sermon from this same Gospel of Luke, John's calling and ours, to announce the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and to share the prepared way of the Lord. I pray that your heart and your life has been, you've found this prepared way. This way that leads to repentance and faith and forgiveness. Through forgiveness is what will set you free. And an idea can never forgive you. Only Jesus can do that.